I didn’t expect to see any pollination going on today… after all, this neighborhood is very new, and I’ve not seen anything in the way of bees around.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this little guy happily munching on this onion flower.

Did you have any idea that wasps are competent pollinators?

Who knew?

And did you know onions put out these crazy flowers?

SubhanaAllah! Alhamdulillah! Allahu Akbar!

Continue reading “Wasps are in the what now?”

I intended to capture something of ayat 57 of Surat Ghafir, and in some ways I did, but I have some misgivings about this picture:

1. The very idea of this picture, maybe not this picture, but the idea behind it, the way I decided to try and capture it, is contrived, overdone, unoriginal. Do we need another picture to remind us that Allah’s creation is much more beautiful, more powerful than anything we could ever come up with?
2. The Petzval, while a fine lens, is not quite the lens to use for this, at least not at this aperture. Maybe something like f/8 would’ve been better. Also, the framing could’ve been wider (but not with this lens at this position), with more street at the bottom and less sky at the top. It’s also a bit dark.

That said, in some sense, this picture can be seen as a success: after all, could a digital camera capture the power and majesty of Allah Azza wa jall’s creation? And if it could, could a hack photographer like myself wield the tool appropriately? Allahu Alim.

La hawla wa la quatta illa billah.

InshaAllah, I’ll try again. There’s a specific spot on the drive to work that I want to try to capture, and that might work a bit better for this theme, even if the subject and method seems a bit hackneyed.  Continue reading “Not quite.”