Eating my words, and some good food too

A couple of weeks ago, regarding Muslims in the West, I wrote:

If I can stress one thing, let me be clear: there is no plot. There are 1.5 million Muslims, or so, in the world; there are several hundred thousand in DFW. If we all got together, we could do some great things, but the same could be said for amateur and hack photographers, people with blogs, people who like grilled cheese sandwiches. If all the VW Golf drivers got together, we could ___________. But ain’t none of us going to get together on anything. My neighbors, the 50 or so houses, can’t even throw a block party, and we walk to the mosque for prayer together 5 times a day.

I wonder if some of the neighbors read that, maybe, and decided to prove me wrong, because last Sunday morning, we threw exactly that (a block party), with barely a week of planning. It was fun. And yum. And it the generosity my neighbors displayed with one another illustrates nicely my last reminder. Alhamdulillah, and may Allah reward them in this life and the next, ameen.
Continue reading “Eating my words, and some good food too”

Nate Matos’s “Serif & Silver Compendium”

Serif & Silver was a quarterly journal Nate Matos  wrote and published between June 2015 and March 2016. I was completely unaware of it at the time—as I’m largely unaware of many things—and I would’ve remained unaware, if not for The Shoot with Matt Day (iTunes). The interview with Matos inspired me quite a bit and got me wanting to print and do some physical things with this hobby, so I went to check out the journal only to find that the last issue came out 6 months ago…

Not to worry, though:  Matos released the Serif & Silver Compendium as a sort of book-end to the project and I was lucky enough to pick up one of the limited Pryme Editions…

The Pryme Edition came in a nice box, in a fancy white cover (the Blurb edition comes in black), with prints from each issue. I have #10 of 10, and at time of writing, it looks like there are copies still available, so jump on it quick if you’re interested. (The normal Compendium is an open edition, printed on demand from Blurb, so order it up at your leisure.)

Continue reading “Nate Matos’s “Serif & Silver Compendium””

Good Advice

A reminder to myself first:

As narrated by Abu Huraira, radiallahu anhu, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said

‏ مَنْ كَانَ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَلْيُكْرِمْ ضَيْفَهُ، وَمَنْ كَانَ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَلْيَصِلْ رَحِمَهُ، وَمَنْ كَانَ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَلْيَقُلْ خَيْرًا أَوْ لِيَصْمُتْ

Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should serve his guest generously; and whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should unite the bond of kinship (i.e. keep good relation with his kith and kin); and whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should talk what is good or keep quiet.

Good advice for us all, for sure, but especially for me, an introvert that tends to get wrapped up in digital stuff and neglect the physical stuff. By the grace of God alone, and because I don’t like to talk much anyway, I tend to keep my mouth shut, so that’s something. But I need to be better, in so very many ways.

Sunny 16, ft. the LC-A and Polypan F 50

If you’re unaware, the Sunny 16 rule is an old principle of photography that gives us a simple way to calculate exposure without a meter: simply set your shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO and f/16 should give more or less accurate exposure in full sunlight.

Polypan F 50 is a 50 ISO film. The LC-A has a fixed shutter speed of 1/60th in Aperture-Preferred mode. Sounds perfect… Continue reading “Sunny 16, ft. the LC-A and Polypan F 50”

Dua of Jonah

We’re all sinners, we’re all in the wrong, we’re all in need of forgiveness, and the first step on the path to earning that forgiveness is to acknowledge errors. For that, the prophet Jonah’s prayer from inside the fish is a good place to start…

لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ

There is nothing worthy of worship but You, Glorified be You! Truly, I have been of the wrongdoers.

Anbya, 87

Continue reading “Dua of Jonah”

Unknown M42–>Nikon Infinity Focus adapter review

I wish I’d kept better records about where I got this thing and what I paid for it… Alas. This one looks like it, but I think I might’ve paid a bit more than that… or maybe not. My copy has the same markings on it, that is, all it says is “M42 –> Nikon” with no indication of manufacturer.

Short answer: whatever it was, it was too much, if I was after the best possible image quality.

Long answer… well, it’s complicated. Continue reading “Unknown M42–>Nikon Infinity Focus adapter review”