New Desk in a New Wing

A couple of years ago, the company I work for moved our office, from a faceless office park down the street to a comparatively fancier X-shaped building in North Dallas. Everyone was thrilled.* The new office occupies one whole wing of the X, and half of another, and it’s up high too, with a nice view down a major street where I took a whole bunch of streaking taillight pictures.

Well now, they’re moving us again, but this time just around the corner, literally, from the half-a-wing of the X we were in, to the full wing. Good times. Continue reading “New Desk in a New Wing”

Let’s get this party started right…

Today marks the start of post week for the December 2017 #FP4Party!.

I shot so much during shoot week (3 rolls of 35mm and 4 sheets of 4×5), so if you don’t like FP4 in Rodinal (1:50, 12 minutes), maybe wait till next week sometime before you pop back by, cause it’s going to be all FP4+ this week, InshaAllah. Continue reading “Let’s get this party started right…”

do not despair

If you’re anything like me, you’ve committed a few sins… today… since breakfast. We humans sin all the time: it’s just how Allah azza wa jall chose to make us. The important thing is repent and try. Try to be better, try to recognize your sins and things that trigger sinning. Pick one little thing to do to try to avoid the sin the next time. But don’t despair: in Surah Az Zumar, Allah tells us

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah . Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”

Continue reading “do not despair”

dua for forgiveness

Leaving this here in hopes that I’ll remember and try to put this one into regular rotation: I’m in deep need of it, for sure…

Abu Musa reported that the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to pray

‏اللهم اغفر لي خطيئتي وجهلي، وإسرافي في أمري، وما أنت أعلم به مني، اللهم اغفر لي جدي وهزلي، وخطئي وعمدي، وكل ذلك عندي، اللهم اغفر لي ما قدمت وما أخرت، وما أسررت وما أعلنت، وما أنت أعلم به مني، أنت المقدم، وأنت المؤخر، وأنت على كل شيء قدير

O Allah! Forgive my errors, ignorance and immoderation in my affairs. You are better aware of my faults than myself. O Allah! Forgive my faults which I committed in seriousness or in fun deliberately or inadvertently. O Allah! Grant me pardon for those sins which I committed in the past and I may commit in future, which I committed in privacy or in public and all those sins of which You are better aware than me. You Alone can send whomever You will to Jannah, and You Alone can send whomever You will to Hell-fire and You are Omnipotent.

Continue reading “dua for forgiveness”

Barnaby Nutt, ed – ‘No Constructive Conclusions’

‘No Constructive Conclusions’ collects work shot around Katowice, Poland, and the Silesian Metropolis by Wojtek Mszyca, Pavel Pětroš, and Ian Barnaby Nutt. After meeting on Flickr, Wojtek invited the others to visit him in Poland  and shoot around his hometown. Pavel and Barnaby went at different times, and later, the three put their photographs together and exhibited the project at venues in Poland and the Czech Republic in 2017. Barnaby produced this limited zine to advertise the exhibition, and as a keepsake, and I was lucky enough to wind up with a copy. Win!

Continue reading “Barnaby Nutt, ed – ‘No Constructive Conclusions’”

Brian David Stevens – ‘Beachy Head’

Beachy Head is a beautiful collection of photographs, made over a 12 month period by Brian David Stevens at Beachy Head,

the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 162 meters (531 ft) above sea level. The peak allows views of the south east coast from Dungeness in the east, to Selsey Bill in the west. It’s height has also made it one of the most notorious suicide spots in the world.

With that sort of intro, these beautiful landscape photographs take on an ominous, haunted feel. Together, they feel like a sort of elegy.

Continue reading “Brian David Stevens – ‘Beachy Head’”

who do you trust?

Many years ago, I was talking to my friend the DJ. He told me some about a mission trip he took to Africa, and said something to the effect that over there, where people live closer to the land and the natural environment, you more clearly see the hand of God in the world, but here in America, there was a filter over everything that distracted us from Him and masked His presence in the world.

So how do we get around this filter? Well, Allah azza wa jall told us

وَاصْبِرْ نَفْسَكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُم بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُ ۖ وَلَا تَعْدُ عَيْنَاكَ عَنْهُمْ تُرِيدُ زِينَةَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَلَا تُطِعْ مَنْ أَغْفَلْنَا قَلْبَهُ عَن ذِكْرِنَا وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ وَكَانَ أَمْرُهُ فُرُطًا

And keep yourself patient [by being] with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His countenance. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring adornments of the worldly life, and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire and whose affair is ever [in] neglect.

Allahu Akbar! Continue reading “who do you trust?”