Mom and I were on our way to lunch one day, and she suddenly wheeled into a gravel parking lot outside what appeared to be a wildly painted storage shed, and said “I’ll give you 15 minutes.”
I had no idea what I was in for… Continue reading “The Golden Pioneer Museum”
Mom has a nice house in a tiny community on top of a mountain on the outskirts of Eureka Springs. Her view is beautiful, Glory be to God, and with the unusually late fall color—trees are usually bare by this time of the year: hooray for climate change, I guess—I got rather snap-happy. Continue reading “Arkansas 2: at Mom’s”
I had some vacation time eating a hole in my timesheet and to maximize it, I took off November 17-23. Thursday-Wednesday may seem like an odd choice, perhaps, but add in the Thanksgiving holiday (November 24 and 25 this year) and I got 11 days for the price of 5… I spent the first 4 days on a road trip to Arkansas to visit Mom and take some pictures, came home, developed most of them, and then she drove down to Wednesday spend Thanksgiving with us, so I got to spend nearly a week with my mom! It was great!
In the first 4 days, shot 9 rolls and 10 sheets of film and over 700 with the X70 and iPhone: entirely too much, really. (More on that later, perhaps.) From the film shots—I haven’t even looked at the digital stuff yet—I selected maybe 80 to share (also entirely too much), and I’ll be dribbling them out over the next hour or so, God willing. Part of my plan, maybe my only plan, was to shoot readily available consumer films to test and see how they handled and what sorts of characteristics they have during and after development and processing.
tl;dr: both performed admirably. I may have further comments as I go.
For now, let’s get this road trip started! Continue reading “Driving to Arkansas”
I’ve wanted one of these for awhile… Alhamdulillah, now I have one!
https://youtu.be/5fMOwcNvcIg
I’m intimately familiar with 100 and 400. My favorite black & white film, at present, is the incredible Polypan F 50. I’ve pushed Kentmere and HP5+ to 1600 and pulled some Digibase 2 stops to 50. But ISO 6? Insanity… Continue reading “ISO 6?”
I’m not much one for social media, but I recently made a concerted effort to take part in Twitter, and, to be honest, it’s quite fun. Granted, Twitter isn’t the most obvious for photo-related stuff, what with the 140 character maximum and relatively recent support for photos, but the community there is vibrant and active, and rather small. Unlike, say, the effbook or Tumblr, people actually interact with each other, and with me! It feels like a real community.
The FP4+ Party is one of the things they—we—have going there, and it’s a good time. We party every month: in week one, we shoot; in week two, develop; in week three, post; and in week four, the organizers announce the ‘winners.’ If you’re on twitter, and you shoot black & white film, buy a few rolls of FP4+ and join in! Continue reading “FP4Party!”
All thanks and praise belong to Allah alone, without any partners. He, who provides us with benefit and harm in measure, to test and strengthen our faith.
It is Allah who created the heavens and the earth and sent down rain from the sky and produced thereby some fruits as provision for you and subjected for you the ships to sail through the sea by His command and subjected for you the rivers.
اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ رِزْقًا لَّكُمْ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ الْفُلْكَ لِتَجْرِيَ فِي الْبَحْرِ بِأَمْرِهِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ الْأَنْهَارَ
And He subjected for you the sun and the moon, continuous [in orbit], and subjected for you the night and the day.
وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ دَائِبَيْنِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ
And He gave you from all you asked of Him. And if you should count the favor of Allah , you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is [generally] most unjust and ungrateful.
وَآتَاكُم مِّن كُلِّ مَا سَأَلْتُمُوهُ ۚ وَإِن تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا ۗ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَظَلُومٌ كَفَّارٌ
As you gather with your families today, if you gather for your families today, remember Allah, who created us and all that we enjoy. Remember Him, that He may remember you. *And may He forgive us for the evil we do to the Earth, other humans, and other parts of the creation, Ameen.
