Organic Light Pan

Blood From A Stone (Artistic Rendition)

I don’t like complaining.  It never really brings about any change and it only tends to bring negativity to all involved.  However, sometimes things need to be said to wake everyone up.  I don’t think what I am saying is new, as we are all feeling the effects of the current state of the economy.  Everyone is spending less, and overall I think that is a prudent course.  Spending irresponsibly is partly to blame for our current state.  Being frugal is always prudent.

At the same time, we do not want to become stingy, Continue Reading »

I just realized that it has been a year and 12 days since I started this web journal – aka Blog.  Where did the time go?  So let me look at some of the statistics.  IN that time, I have made 41 posts and received 44 comments, not so great.  I was spammed 5247 times, thanks Akisment for catching all those.  The journal as 58 subscribers – cool! and has been visited over 4500 times.  I had a nice counter plugin/widget that was working that suddenly gave up last week for whatever reason, so I have a new stats plugin, Counterize II, working but it does not have a nice sidebar widget to report it. Those 44 posts have been categorized 16 times as Announcements, 9 times as Images, 8 times as Inspirations, 4 times as Moonsighting, 23 times as Reflections and 2 times as Workshops.  Now of course if add all those up its more than 44 posts, so obviously some were marked under multiple categories.

So all in all, as seen from the post stats, the journal has lived up to its subtitle – “The Journal of Insights Through Reflections on Nature”, – for the most part anyway.  Have I “panned” across all that is photographic, probably not, but give me some time.  In my first “Real Post”, Calm Down, I wondered if the time I spent writing and updating the journal with new content was going to be worth it.  For the most part I feel that it has been a worthwhile endeavor.  I was hoping to see more feedback and discussion take place, but the feedback that I did receive has been positive and hopefully the articles I have written have been of benefit.  I guess the real proof has to come from the readers.

So I want to hear back from all the readers of this journal, have the posts I have made been of benefit?  Is there anything that you would want me to write on that I have not?  What about the journal itself:  Is it easy to read?  Do you like the format? Are the links to other blogs and websites relevant?  Do you have a blog or website that you would consider having a reciprocal link to?  Would you like to seem me change the journal and in which ways?

So lets hear it.  I hope the next year will be as good as what has past, but I really hope it will be much better.

Peace.

Reflections abound in our world. No matter where we look we see reflections. The light that that reaches our eyes is merely a reflection, in and of itself, of objects that exist in the world. In fact light, pure light, is invisible to our eyes. There is light streaming between you and the monitor right now as you read this that you cannot see. Light only becomes visible to our eyes after it has interacted with creation. In pure light we are blind and in the absence of light we are blind as well. That reflected light is really nothing more than shade – a mixture of pure light and darkness, and it is only in the shade that we can see. It is in these reflections that we can see all the various shades of color and luminosity. It is in the shade that we can start to understand the world we live in.

Reflections on Pebble Beach

The sage Muhammad Ibn Al-Habib in his Diwan (a litany of poems sung to melodies) has a couplet in one of the poems that has a meaning translated as “Truly created things are meanings established as images.  Whoever understands this is among the people of discernment.”   For years I struggled with understanding why I would train my camera on a certain scene, why I found a particular arrangement of objects appealing, why sometimes things looked better than normal.  After coming across this couplet, I froze.  I finally understood that the images I captured had meaning in them, and I now had to reflect on those very ‘reflections’ to find out what they meant to me, and possibly what they might mean to anyone else who looked at them.  And while I am not sure yet as to what the photograph that graces this post means yet, I do know that the moments that occurred that evening when this photograph was made followed  a downpour that followed a clap of thunder that followed a brisk cold wind on a gray and dreary day.  And afterwards it was as calm as can be.  I have more reflecting to do.

Peace.

Four nights ago we entered into a special month, the month of Ramadan.  For close to 1/4 of the world’s population, this is a month of worship, a month of struggle and a month of reflection.  Prayer and devotional recitation of the Quran increase throughout the day but especially at night, and sometimes well into the wee hours of darkness while the world sleeps.  For the entire month, Muslims abstain from eating any food or drinking anything as well as abstaining from any marital relations with spouses during daylight hours, – these being the outward acts of fasting.

But fasting has an internal aspect as well, one that requires a person to reflect on one’s own condition.  Reflection and introspection are an important part for anyone who is on a path of self-improvement.  We suffer greatly as a species when we fail to reflect upon our actions as a whole.  If we stop and just realize what it is we are doing day to day I think we would be shocked.  If we are not making head way to higher states of existence then we are falling back.  There is no standing still.  For most people, they never act in any manner that is higher than any other animal that populates the Earth.  We wake, defecate, urinate, ingest food, copulate and fall asleep again.  Now that seems harsh on my part to say such a thing of my fellow humans, but in essence I do just the same, in fact we all – animals included – all fall back to this very basic common thread of existence.  However I don’t think that that is all life has to offer us.  I don’ think that this is all we are supposed to do in this life.  It most definitely is not the state that I want to exist at. Continue Reading »

Another month has gone by.  The new moon this time around met with the sun and blocked her out, completely for nearly 6 minutes all across Asia.  The longest total solar eclipse that the Earth will see for the next 123 years!  If you missed it, like I did, oh well, I guess we will have to figure out how to live another 123 years.

However, every month, the possibility for either a solar or lunar eclipse is there.  At each new moon, the Moon comes in between the the Sun and the Earth, that is why we lose sight of the Moon for a couple of days as it passes in front of the Sun.  At each full moon, there is a possibility of a lunar eclipse as the Earth comes in between the Sun and the Moon.  The reason we do not have two eclipses each month is that the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is not in the same plane as the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.  The graphic below should help in clarifying that.

Only when all three bodies line up perfectly on the ecliptic will an eclipse occur.  They are not hard to predict, but they also do not occur all that frequently.  However when an eclipse does occur, it is a big deal and many cultures have placed significance in its occurrence.  But what goes almost un-noticed month after month is the emergence of a new moon a day or so after conjunction.  The beauty and subtlety of the new moon is something that words fail to convey.  It needs to be experienced to really be appreciated.  What is wonderful is that we see twelve new moons every year, so your chances of seeing one are much better than that of an eclipse, and given the conditions, the display is just as impressive.

Sha'baan 1, 1430

A few days ago, a day after the big solar eclipse actually, the new crescent moon made its appearance once more.  Surely its significance was “eclipsed” by the Solar eclipse itself, but it ushered in the Islamic month Sha’baan, known as the Month of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.  It is the month that proceeds the month of mandatory fasting for the Muslims, the month of Ramadan, and it is a month preparations – both physical and spiritual.

Great anticipation builds in the Muslim world once the moon of Sha’baan is sighted, for in 30 days worldly pleasures take a back seat for an entire month. Eating, drinking and marital relations come to a screeching halt during daylight hours and at night, the hours are spent in spiritual endeavors from reciting the melodic verses of the Quran in Arabic as in the first chapter Al-Faitha ~ The Opening to standing in prayer, sometimes for up to three or more hours!  All with the intention of establishing a connection and closeness to the Creator and Lord of our world.  So as this month is whittled away by time and we approach the next new moon it will have immense significance to 1.6 Billion people around the world.  And although the heavens will not put on a show as grand as a total solar eclipse, it ushers in a month long exercise that eclipses most others.

Peace to you all.

~ Youssef

The world is full of light.  Blink and you might just miss it.  It is all around us. It interacts with us.  It shows us the way and brings us information and messages which we decipher into understandings.  Its source – innumerable physically.  Some so far away we don’t know if they still exist.  Some so close, the Sun, that what arrives here left only 8 minutes ago.  When we see its light, it is the past.   For at the very instant that a message of light appears to our eyes, the Sun has already moved to a new spot in the sky.

What we see in the sky is the past.  The sun on the horizon is not really there, as it has already set 8 minutes ago.  The world is full of Light, blink and you just might miss it – I did say that right?

Photography is an amazing medium to work in.  It takes planning.  Choosing a location is always a gamble.  Conditions change every moment.  The light, the very thing that is worked with, is a living thing that interacts with everything it touches, and yet you can’t touch it, hear it, smell it or taste it and for that matter you can’t see it either until it interacts with something.  I enjoy the light.  I chase after it as often as I can.  Using a big camera, like the 4×5, takes a considerable amount of work.  It’s fairly heavy and schlepping it around can be a job.  It is a slow camera to use.  It takes time to set it up, compose with it, focus it and even photographing with it as shutter times are usually on the slow end requiring a tripod.  Once it is setup, you have an investment in time involved that you want to capitalize on so you sit there and wait for the event you came to capture and hope it was all worth it.  It is very different than a digital camera or even a smaller format film camera.

Russian Ridge

With that big camera, you wait for the light to come to you rather than you trying to capture the light as it elusively slips by.  Smaller cameras on the other hand allow mobility and spontaneity.  They allow one to capture that decisive moment before it slips away.  And I think that is what has made small camera photography so popular and special, it allows us to capture that “Kodak Moment”.  Even though some of the best photographs made by some of the best photographers in the world were done with a 4×5, there is no denying the versatility and popularity of the small camera.

As I waited that evening for the new crescent moon to appear, I was glad to have a digital camera with me as well.  It not only allowed me to capture and share the new moon in the previous post the same night, but also allowed me to capture the subtleties of light that played in the fog mixing into the coastal mountains.

Softly Spoken

Yes large format photography is wonderful and becoming more unique.  It still allows the most stunning prints to be made.  It slows the photographer down in the whole process and, by necessity, forces the photographer to become part of the scene before it is captured.  But with both formats on hand, while waiting for the moment to trip the 4×5 shutter, the smaller format allows me to capture everything that is going on around me.  Do the smaller images compare in quality delivered from the 4×5?  No.  But none the less, words spoken softly can still have more impact than saying nothing at all.  And when what you say is said with light, you’d better have a way to say it.

These days I make my living as an Artist and Teacher, which is strange given that all my training has been in science culminating in a doctorate degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.  It was during that time as a doctoral student that I became enamored with photography.  I have always loved the outdoors, and quickly discovered the natural and wild areas of the San Francisco Bay Area when I arrived.  My jaunts into the Santa Cruz Mountains were very threraputic in combating the stress associated with graduate study and work.  One day though I picked up a camera out of the necessity to defend my good word against claims that I could not have possibly seen the new crescent moon when it first becomes visible.  The camera was at first a scientific tool that I used to record natural phenomena, much like any other scientific instrument used in an experiment.  However what happened after that was pivotal in my life.

The light was transforming.  It was alive and changed its mood constantly and it brought me along for the ride with it.

Lagunitas Sunset

I don’t have many photos from those early days any more but the above sunset was one that was hard to just toss away.  It had a quality of light that was just mesmerizing.  Light became my drug and I needed to chase after it often and capture it for my own edification.  For six years as a graduate student I pursued the light.  Capturing it as often as I could, wherever I happened to be.  I was an observer, I was a learner, I was a scientist with a tool in my hand that captured light.  Nearing the end of graduate school I met my future wife, who was an Artist and taught art at a local private elementary school.  It was exciting being around her when she worked.  She put her soul into her paintings and it came through in her work, it was her.  In six years of trying to share the excitement I found while out photographing the landscape, no one I knew shared my excitement until I met her.  She actually pushed me to achieve better results and was genuinely interested in the light I was capturing.

Fast forward to a time after graduate shcool, we are married now and things are different.  My photos were now obstacles that my wife needed out of the way.  Thousands of them, stored in boxes, were in her way as she moved through the house.  She brought an ultimatum – “toss out all these boxes collecting dust or do some thing with them”!  And that was the pivot that changed me from being a scientist concerned with observation into a artist concerned with expression.  For nearly eight years I had been in observation mode internalizing the natural world.  Capturing moments in time that caused my heart to flutter or that stole my breath away.  For eight years Mother Earth was the balm of my aching soul.  Now it was time to express to others what was arguably overflowing in my heart.

I have read many definitions of art.  None seem to hit the very core of what art is or what an artist does.  To me an artist is someone who expresses to others what is contained in his or her heart and art is that expression.  It can be beautiful or ugly, joyous or sad, and constantly changing.  By default the artist is a scientist because simply put a scientist is some one very skilled at observation.  The scientist internalizes observations and formulates theories based on those observations.  For the most part the scientist’s job stops there.  The artist on the other hand is also a skilled observer and internalizes experiences as well.  However the artist is also a skilled communicator and expresses what he or she has internalized through some medium, be it visual or otherwise.  And while formal science is fairly young in the scope of time, the skills of observation and expression used by an artist is as old as humanity itself.

The Hunt

Humans have been expressing their experiences through some moving means for a very long time.  Whether it is through pictures on a wall, or through the words of a story teller or author, or through rhythm and tones, the artist relates what is in his or her heart to others in moving ways.  In some respects art is what completes us as human beings.  It brings us together peacefully.  It lightens our circumstances and allows us to escape, even if for only a short while, the rigors of life itself.  It allows us to relate with our feelings and emotions – it makes us human.

In the world of today, where terror, oppression, tyranny, injustice, and greed dominate the public sphere it is even more important that we double, or even triple our efforts to include art in our lives.  I am afraid for the generations that follow me that are devoid of art.  How cold and lacking of compassion will they be?  Disconnected from their emotions like soulless robots running on automatic or worse yet with the intent on set to kill!  Art is not taught in schools anymore due to budget cuts.  It is seen as extracurricular and placed on the wayside.  If a young student has a special talent for expression it is not fostered in a meaningful way such that he or she might make an honest living at it.  It is truly a sad state of affairs.

In times of financial turmoil it is art that gets amputated and left to rot first – it being seen as not necessary in life.  However it is through art that we find respite from the worries and anxiety that comes from tribulations in life.  Is it any wonder that hospitals and medical clinics are chock full of art on the walls?  Illness brings our mortality center stage and nothing is more stressful and un-nerving than that.  And yet through the art on those walls, a climate of peace and serenity can pervade the heart.  Look at any piece of art you have in your own home, and observe how it makes you feel.  No, art is not only crucial now more than ever before – it is Necessary.

Strange that it has taken me nearly all spring to bring out a photo of the last sunset of winter.  Although not entirely true, as I posted a version of this sunset in The Last of Winter.  It is amazing to me how different a few minutes can make in a photograph not to mention the few months that have transpired since I made this photo. 

Winter's Last

Time has a way of sneaking past you very quickly.  From week to week as I moved from show to show, filling orders made for photos of moments long since past, I had little time to work on new material.  When I do get the chance and inspiration to sit down and seriously work on new material, It is like I am looking at the scene for the first time all over again.  And although I can remember all the feeleings of elation and joy that coursed through me at the time I made the photo, seeing it again and now intimately working with it for hours to bring out those feelings I once had makes me realize how important photography is.  Not only is it a record of time, but for the photographer it is also a record of the experience.  So here it is, a recount of my thoughts as they come back to me as I look at this last sunset of the winter of 2009.

Wow, everything is really green this year.  The hills are looking good, wildflowers might be aboundant here this year – its to early now, maybe in a month or so.  I’ll need to come back.  Let me go over to my butterfly hill and see if the wild cucumber is blooming.  Nothing yet, but the hills sure are green.  What about down in the hollow down there, I can check if I see any poppy plants waiting to bloom.  None yet, Hmm.  Lets go back up and around to the trillium patch, wow I need to hike more, I’m getting winded to easily.  Hey what’s that – that tree is just glowing.  That back lighting is unbelieveable!  I only have a few minutes.  I don’t know if I can pull this one off.  Ok quick unload.  Let’s see.  Maybe the 300, yeah the 300 will do fine.  Let me check quickly with the digital, yeah about 100 mm I think the 300 will do fine.  I’ll need the ND – work fast.  Take care, don’t drop anything, but got to work fast.  Ok spin it around, get the dark cloth, Ooh that is nice.  I need the loupe, focus, tilting won’t help so check how much depth will I need, where’s that card….. f32 should do.  Wait let me get this sunset on the digital and zoom in on the sun.  OK got it.  Meter quick, the light is going fast, aaah… the lower right for the foreground, now the the sky, wait hit memory, now the sky – keep it plus one, there, its five stops brighter, no six – five and half, ok one stop up I need 4 stops of ND, good.  That 2 stop filter is bad all scratched up I need to get a new one – like I have $100 right now anyway.  Get the 3 in there, the 1 stop, adjust, oh this is going to be hard to see and adjust that tree is too high in the frame – ….let me see.  To dark, open the apeture, its still hard to see, hurry up the light is going ok there, that is good I hope, I wish it was as easy as it was with 35mm argh.  Ok f32 on foreground gives 1 sec.  Set it, close shutter, test it – good.  Uh! film, hurry…. holder, put film in, load in camera, wait, make sure everything is tight, back, tripod head, swings, good, put film in, pull the slide, cock the shutter, ok go.  Got it! quick, one more, get the film in – careful don’t move the camera, pull slide, shutter, and go.  Got it.  What a day.  That sunset is just awesome.  Let me get this tree on digital.  Get this big guy off, Ok, meter darn the light is gone, its totally different now.  Get it any way.  wow look at those hills , this is really going to be a great photo, that mist is pinking up real nice, zoom in and get that.  Wow its so nice out here.  Amazing tomorrow is the equinox, this was the last sunset of winter.  Its so quiet, so calm.  I hope the 4×5’s come out.  Well keep one behind in case exposeure was off.  It nice out here, alright lets load up.

It all comes screaming back.  Photography – memories & life on a piece of celluloid – amazing.

Enjoy Summer!  Peace.

It was that time of the month again – searching for the new moon.  The conjunction took place on Sunday May 24th and on that evening, even though it was cloudy and overcast in my area, the moon was too small to be seen with the naked eyes.  With Sunday being the 29th day since the last time the moon was seen, the descision of when the next new month, Jamad Ath-Thaani, would start was by default on Tuesday, completing the previous month as a 30 day month.  This made searching for it on Monday not as critical.  But that never stopped me.

This time around I was very excited to try and photograph the new moon using the large format 4×5 camera.  Two weeks ago I found a Nikon 500mm f/11 Telephoto lens.  A lens that I have been trying to find for almost three years.  Nikon of course discontinued making that lens years ago and it rarely turns up on the used market, but two weeks ago chance would have it that I was searching for it and found one in near mint condition, for nearly 50% of what it goes for new!  So I had always wanted this lens to allow me to include the moon, especially the new moon, in my landscape photos.  So this new moon was going to be that lens’ maiden voyage in moon photography.

I decided I would spend the day out with my four kids, aka photo assistants, bumping around the coast giving their mother the day off.  Destination – Point Lobos State Reserve on the Big Sur Coast.  The day was clear and sunny until we reached Monterey and then the skies became overcast and gloomy.  Upon our arrival, I realized that I had forgotten to bring along my photo vest.  No big deal right?  Wrong.  For in it was my light meter, color meter, ND filters, and focusing loupe.  Oops – No large format photography today.  How was I to photograph the moon later?  So I took a deep breath and decided that today was a day off, no serious photography.  Yeah right.

With a small DSLR in hand the kids and I explored Point Lobos.  It is a very intricate piece of the coast.  The rocks are contorted in places, stratified in others, and conglomerate everywhere else.  It is a very difficult place to capture in a photo.  The light needs to be just right, and I still have not been there when it was just right.  To add insult to injury the reserve is in full bloom right now.  California Poppies, Coast Paintbrush, Dudleas, and Seaside Daisies to name just a few.

Point Lobos in Bloom

 It takes time to get a feel for Point Lobos.  It is a slow moving place.  The sea does not churn with great waves rather slow moving turbulent waters sloshing in and out of the rocky cliffs.  Capturing this water action is another matter altogether.  Timing is everything with these conditions.  Clearly a digital camera makes this endeavor less painful to the pocket and much more enjoyable knowing you got the action at its peak. 

Water Action at Point Lobos

At the same time however, when working with the big camera and film, there is a certain connection that is made between you and the ocean.  You spend more time studying the water.  You watch the waves, not one or two, but tens of waves until you start seeing the attributes in the wave that are needed to create the perfect water action.  Such was the case when Controlled Chaos, Rush Hour and Mist-erious Seas were made.  But this time, it was kind of nice having the digital camera to see the results right away.  It allowed me to capture something nice and still keep my attention on my four intrepid explorers.

Rough Runners

Theodore Roosevelt, known as the “Rough Rider”, was once quoted as saying “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat“.  Well I think my kids are taking that to heart in a very serious way.  Its as if they don’t know that there are limits to how daring one can be.  Put a camera in their hands and they stop at almost nothing to capture what they see.

On The Edge

 And if I had let her, my three year old would have have followed them out onto that rock.  In time.  Her ambition preceeds her sure footedness for now, and even though she is gung-ho to follow her siblings, she readily accepts a fatherly hand or a ride on the shoulders to get to where she wants.  But once there, she gets into the thick of it in a serious way.  I think that is what makes the magic of childhood so grand.  They don’t know their own limits and so they are willing to try everything.  Sometimes however, it is to their own demise and detrement, especially if the wisdom of the parents is not there to keep their foolhardiness in check, inspite of the dissenting voices insisting that they can do it.  But caution aside, and they find the most amazing places.

Hidden Beach

We arrive at Hidden Beach.  A small secluded cove beach on the south end of the more popular Weston Beach.  Its a small beach no more than about 50 feet at its widest point and with a narrow opening to the sea.  The beach itself is made up entirely of small rocks and pebbles in a rainbow of colors and hues.  The kids quickly find the most dangerous place on the beach to explore, a small indentation in the rocks on the north side of the beach, a small cave of sorts that they quicky dub “The Cave of Terror”.

The Cave Of Terror

With each large wave a rush of water comes in and encircles the large rock on the north side of the beach and rushes around to fill in the “cave”.  The only refuge from the rushing water is a small rise of rocks in the cave directly up against the wall.  But once trapped in there, the sight of onrushing water is enough to elicit the squeals of doom from children who think the end is upon them!  Then in a sudden rush of panic they dart out of the cave as the water subsides, proud in themselves thinking that they had just escaped a catastrophe of monumental proportions.  Once they gleened all the thrill they could from the cave of terror, the fascination of minutia found on the beach quickly overtook them.  For the next two hours, they combed that small beach for anything that did not resemble a rock or a pebble.  And in some cases what they found was indeed fascinating.  Suddenly a thought occured to me.  I remembered a series of photographs made by Georg Popp and his family during their outings at the seashore.  So I looked around the pebbles for some likely Found object to be the base of an image.  I then called my kids and explained what we were to do.  Bring everything you find, everything.  We’ll pick the best and put them together to make a photogrpah of our day at Point Lobos.  So here over the course of two hours is a succession of photos resulting in “Lost and Found”.

The Base

The base context of the final image was this piece of kelp that had started to dry out.  I positioned the camera directly over it and made this base photo.  Then the first wave of interesting items started to appear.  I widened the view a bit and started to arrange the items.

Initial Items Placed

At this point, I decided to start in the hunt of things as well.  I brought in more than just the shells my kids found as there was more to be found on the beach than just that.  I found blades of sea grass, other bits of kelp, pieces of coral, crab shells and other colorful pebbles and stones.  Pieces of irridescient mother-of-pearl on the insides of broken scraps of abolone shells and animal’s teeth as well.  We would probably still be there now finding stuff had it not been that high tide was threatening our “canvas”.

Filling up the space

With a few more items, like a blade of sea grass, an old sea-bleached crab pincer, a headless crab with legs still attached, a few more shells, and voila.  Lost and Found.

Lost And Found

All these items were once alive.  They lost their lives at sea and tossed and turned in the waves, carried for who knows how long and for how far, they managed to be washed ashore on Hidden Beach.  Lost for countless time, unseen by untold numbers of visitors to this beach.  A veritable cornicopia of visual delights found by four children and their child-hearted father and arranged together to give a picture of what diverse life exists under the sea.  It is one of the most enjoyable photographs I have ever made during one of the most memorable days I have ever had.  You can be sure that Lost and Found will be hanging on one of our walls very shortly.

Oh…and whatever happened with sighting the new moon.  The skies in Big Sur stayed overcast the whole time.  With just over one hour before sunset, we set out on the road in search of a place where the skies were clear.  We dashed north along Highway 1 hoping to see some clear skies.  The skies that were clear just a few short hours ago, were now gray and enshrouding.  I began to think that we might not see it at all.  Even as far north as Santa Cruz, the skies were still overcast.  I figured I would need to be above the marine layer to even have a chance, but time was not on our side.  As we neared the Highway 17 interchange that would lead us up into and over the Santa Cruz mountains, I spotted some color on the horizon just north of Santa Cruz.  So we continued north until we reached Wilder Ranch State Park, and we made our stand there.  There we were able to see clear sky and it remained so for about 20 minutes.  Then no more than ten minutes after sunset, fairly high up in the sky, the fine feathery whisp of a crescent appeared.

Jamad Ath-Thaani, 1430

And so what started out as a day of photography gone bad, turned out to be a day of interesting dichotomies.  Abandon and Wisdom, Life and Death, Lost and Found, and Ending with a Beginning.  But why should that surprise us?  For has not this world been created with everything in it as pairs? From things to events to feelings, everything has its opposite and together they create a balance and harmony that keeps this world and everything in it going. 

Peace to All.