Reminders

Today, I’m thankful for reminders.

I’m thankful for general reminders, of the sort captured by an iPhone app of the same name. I’m prone to forgetting and in need of gentle nudges to action.

I’m thankful for more metaphysical reminders, reminders of my great fortune and health, reminders of my humanity, my frailty, my incapacity, my lack. Truly, all have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God, and truly, Allah alone is perfect and without error. All praise and thanks be to Him.

I’m especially thankful of reminders of Allah, Himself, of His power, His majesty, His mercy, His guidance, His plan. And I’m grateful for His constant reminders to all of us, whether we notice and take heed or not, as we are human, imperfect, and in need of gentle nudges to action. Indeed, we are in constant need of Him. La ilaha il Allah!

Ramadan Kareem!

As of about 8:30pm CST here in DFW, the blessed guest has arrived. All praise and thanks be to God!

Ramadan is such a blessing: the devils are chained, so we can’t blame any of our sins on them; the doors of forgiveness have been thrown wide open, and so there’s no excuse for us not to earn His mercy; for thirty full days, we don’t have to worry about eating or drinking during the day and can focus more on remembering Allah.

Alhamdulillah! Continue reading “Ramadan Kareem!”

#Neopantastic! (Battle of the 35mm Nikkors)

This is my first time shooting Fuji’s excellent Neopan Acros 100. Given the cost of it, especially relative to, say FP4+, I might never have tried it if not for the #Neopantastic! event on Twitter…  In order to give it a proper test, I decided to pit the fully automatic $2 Nikon One Touch 100, with it’s sharp-as-anything 35mm f/3.5, against the much newer FM3a, perhaps finest small 35mm camera Nikon ever made, with the well-enough regarded Nikkor 35mm f/2 D attached to the front.

Just for fun, I also used two different developers: D76 1 + 1 for the One Touch; Rodinal 1 + 50 for the FM3a.

Who won, do you think? Any bets? Continue reading “#Neopantastic! (Battle of the 35mm Nikkors)”