Organic Light Pan

In wrapping up the year many photographers try to pick their best photos from the year.  I am not sure what makes a ‘Best Photo’.  Is it the photo that was the most technically challenging?  Is it the the photo that is artistic in either its composition or color or lack of color?  Is it the photo that sold well or was the most popular with an audience?  Some photographers ask other photographers to pick for them.  Some photographers ask their audience to pick for them.

For me, its about what the photograph means, why I made the photo, how it makes me and others who look at it feel.  Did the photo bring a sense of wonder, or awe or delight?  Did it make me think or my audience think?  Did it help me to form a bond with Mother Earth or with those that are dear to me?  Those are the photos that would qualify as best.  So what follows are my favorites from the past year and why.

At the start of the year the full moon was rising over Half Dome in Yosemite and the high country was still accessible due to a lack of snow fall.  The crew and I made the trek and it was a moving experience for all.  Its the experience that makes a photo what it is sometimes and this one carries a lot with it.

Another Day In The Park

Later in the year, in early autumn, the crew and I ventured out to the coast at a low negative tide and discovered what lives under the water.  We spent the afternoon gathering sea stars and made this fabulous arrangement.  the interactions that occurred that afternoon and on the evening ride home showed me something that I knew was inside of my crew but hardly had the chance to make an appearance.  I saw stars, real stars and it was in the making of this photo that brought them out to shine.

Seaing Stars

I also struggled this year with photography.  Trendy photos, trendy ways of displaying them and trendy marketing all designed to persuade the viewing public to think mediocrity is something special.  It was troubling me greatly and then by a strange twist of fate I found myself standing over a raging torrent of water at a location that attracts many tourists.  Those who stop marvel at the water but I was looking in the opposite direction.  What impressed upon me was that standing firm on what has a real foundation is the only thing that lasts.  When all the madness has passed, what has remained is morality, character and tradition.  That is what my photography rests on and hopefully others will see that as well.

Standing Firm

The heavens in 2012 were also produced events of amazement and wonder.  Most memorable was the annular eclipse of the sun.  I planned a trip, determined a location prepared all the equipment both for the trip and the photography only to it all vaporize and morph into something entirely different. On the one hand it seemed like the endeavor was all in vain, but what resulted were some photographs that were as unique as the event itself.  Many photographers produced interesting renditions, but I saw nothing like what I was given.

Broken Light

It was amazing to see the moon and sun married in the sky together like that for several minutes.  Intellectually I know that the moon passes in between the Earth and Sun each month. I know this because each month I am out trying to find and photograph the new crescent moon once it has passed conjunction and starts to reflect the faintest amount light back to the Earth.  But seeing conjunction happen during a solar ecplipse brings seeing the new moon to a whole new level.  A day later, after ‘Broken Light’ was made, it was the moon’s stage and the moon’s alone.  I ventured out again to capture this elegant crescent that was only 26.3 hours old from the moment I saw it pass in front of the sun.  Needless to say it was quite awe inspiring.

Rajab 1433

The moons last year did not disappoint.  However the debates that revolved around the most certainly did.  The Islamic calendar is a pure lunar calendar.  It is based on sighting the new crescent moon each and every month.  In our modern world this seems to have become an inconvenience.  It is unfortunate because it is a most cherished tradition.  It is a tradition that helps us ground ourselves in reality rather than further immersing ourselves deeper into abstractions. The unadulterated mind sees things as they are not as they are conceived. Marking time by physically seeing an event occur is real, while marking time by a contrivance of the mind is not.  The moon is real and when one looks to the sky and sees nothing one moment and then suddenly in the next moment sees the moon appears it has to leave that person’s heart in awe of the creative power that brought all of the universe into existence.  At least it does for me.  And so, these moons are a affirmation of the existence of a Creator and the photos of these thin ribbons of light hold great weight with me.

Shabaan1433

Guarding Mercy

Hearing The Call

There was one other heavenly event that was of worthy note, the transit of Venus. A transit of a heavenly body is when that body passes between the Earth and Sun.  The transit of the moon could completely eclipse the sun due to its size and distance from the Earth.  Venus on the other hand, is so much further away from the Earth and when it passes in front of the Sun it looks like a small dot. Nonetheless, the transit of Venus only occurs once every 105 years.  Due to this rarity, the 2012 transit of Venus was an event that most of us alive on Earth today will never see again.  Making sure I photographed it was imperative and was a pleasure to witness.

Second Contact

As summer waned my thoughts started to focus on autumn.  I made it a point to make a trip to the Eastern Sierra imperative.  As October rolled around I dusted off the camping equipment and gathered up the crew and headed off.  We spent three days exploring and photographing that awe inspiring landscape.  At the time I was feeling somewhat flummoxed about how my photography was perceived. Among the questions the raced in my mind was one that continues to bother me. Do people understand my photography, do they see what I see, does my photography move people the way it moves me?  Then one morning while standing at the foot of the youngest mountains in North America, ‘Among The Dead’ was made as that very thought came to mind.  I wondered if me heart was dead and I was among the dead, or if the hearts of others were dead and I was among them.  Either I could not express my message, or it was not being received due to dead hearts.

Among The Dead

Later that same morning as the sun started to hit the Sierra Nevada range, they acted like giant reflectors bouncing this warm light onto the pumice field I was standing on and the burned sage started to take on an incredible appearance. These burned twisted sangs were all that remained giving the feeling that I was looking at relics from an ancient time.  When light, subject, color, and texture all come together as they did when ‘Relic’ was made, it is hard to come away with anything but a winner.

Relic

It was not long on the first autumn trip for my heart to find its winds and soar to great heights of  joy with the glowing colors of the Aspens.  As I was wandering I came upon this stand of young Aspens in the warm afternoon light.  They seemed to be dancing, in fact with the subtle breeze coming and going, the leaves would begin to shiver and almost twinkle in the sun.  I wanted to dance in the light with them.  I could not pass up the scene, and ‘Dancing In Light’ was made.  One of my all time favorite autumn images I think I ever made.

Dancing In Light

Autumn has to be my favorite season of the year and there is no place that I like in autumn better than in Yosemite Valley.  I make the trek there every year and this year I made it alone.  The crew, despite their pleading were left them behind.  I love having them along, but the dynamic of making photos with them and without them is like night and day.  Being alone allows me to wander and take my time without interruption.  I can focus on the light and how it plays with the trees, the grass, water and rocks.  My first morning in Yosemite Valley was strange.  I needed to wander for sometime allowing my heart to unfetter itself from the virtual reality of the manufactured world with all its worries and demands to the true reality of the natural world with all it awe and wonder.  Once that happened I came upon this stoic Ponderosa Pine and I came away with ‘Anchored’, probably my favorite photo of the year.

Anchored

I spent three days in Yosemite this past autumn and it was quite productive.  I exposed 60 sheets of film.  Of those 60 about a third made to the scanner and were developed for print.  Of course ‘Anchored’ has already been printed as well as ‘Among The Dead’ and ‘Dancing In Light’.  This next photo was also made on the first morning of my Yosemite trip.  It was a photo that I have always wanted to do, and have always suggested to workshop clients, but for some reason it never was made.  Well this year I did.  I walked into this small grove of Black Oaks in El Capitan Meadow known as the Cathedral Oaks and looked up.  The light was perfect as the sun had just crested the tops of the peaks that surround the Valley and lit the tops of these trees.  It was as if I was standing in a great cathedral looking through a stained glass window, only this cathedral was made, not by the hands of men for the sake of the glory of the Shaper of Beauty, but made by Shaper of Beauty so that our eyes may see and marvel at its glory.

In The Cathedral

On the last night of my trip the campground I was staying in was empty.  It was a Sunday night and I guess everyone that was there for the weekend had left.  It was dark, somewhat cold and very lonely.  As I was making my way back to camp earlier that evening, I decided I would try another photo that I had in mind for years.  I always wanted to photograph star trails while looking up through trees. When I returned to camp it was already dark.  By head light I started my campfire and then set up my camera pointed straight up again.  It is difficult working with film in the dark as the exposure times needed usually run into the time frame of hours and film starts to lose its ability to record light faithfully after about a few minutes of exposure.  This is called reciprocity failure.  But I wanted to try it out.  I focused as best as I could in the dark, removed the dark slide and opened the shutter.  I let the camera sit there for three hours as I burned off the remaining wood I had while I ate my dinner and read a book.  Around midnight the fire started to die.  I closed the shutter on the lens and called it a night.  Of all the photos I made in 2012, it was ‘Star Fire’ that I was most anxious to see when my films returned.  The light from the campfire produced an eerie glow among all the trees in my camp, and the long shutter worked well capturing the streaking stars in the sky.  A photo that I am very happy with and one that I will try again in spite of reciprocity failure.

Star Fire

The very last photo I made on my Yosemite trip was also the last photo I made for 2012.  I photograph this stretch of the Merced River almost every time I am in the Valley, and it is a location that I visit each time without fail.  I call this spot Happy Place. Everything that I love about the forest is found there along this small stretch of the the river.  In the past the photos that I have made there concentrated more closely on either one or two trees and with or without the water of the Merced.  This year I decided to try to capture the whole thing in one epic photo.  This photo, ‘To Be Happy’, was made from two separate sheets of 4×5 film and stitched together in software and then developed.  The resulting image has so much detail and resolution that a 40 x 90 inch photograph could be printed without any loss in quality.  It has captured both the stoic grandeur of the pines and cedars that line the river as well as the delicate qualities of the dogwoods and maples that give Yosemite its autumn blush in some very soft and flattering light.  I wish I could show you all the fine detail in this image online, but alas if you wold like to see that detail, it must be done in person.  ‘To Be Happy’ will certainly have a spot in my exhibit shortly.  Stay tuned for more information about that.

To Be Happy

Well, there they are.  My favorite photos of 2012. I would love to hear your thoughts about these photos and leaving me a comment here on the web journal would be most appreciated.

I hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous year in 2013, and maybe our paths will cross.

Til next time, Peace.

Last July, that would be in 2011, I came home from a long day of teaching a summer camp in the midst of heat wave in the San Francisco Bay Area to find my intrepid 4 photo assistants flailed about the home studio sweltering in the heat.  It was still hours before sunset and so I suggested a trip to the coast for a little heat relief and possibly for some photography.  With that intent we headed out.  The result of that outing, if you are a regular reader here, you might recall was narrated in The Gathering. That photo turned out to be one of the most popular photos at my exhibit in the last year and a half.  It prompted me to think up of other similarly gathered items from locales that I photograph.

One year after ‘The Gathering’ was made, I found myself with my 4 assistants again trampling around on Pescadero beach on a day that not only had a low tide, but a substantial negative tide.  I stood on portions of the beach that I have never been on, seen creatures in tide pools that you normally could not see, and touched rocks that for most of the year remained constantly under water.  About an hour before sunset, I started noticing the number of starfish that were clinging to the exposed rocks.  Too close to the surf for me to set up and operate the large format camera without getting completely soaked and ruining the camera my mind suddenly flashed to the ‘The Gathering’ once more. I rallied my assistants and instructed them that we were going to make another collaborative photo but this time the subject was to be sea stars!  They were gung-ho and off they went.

We managed to gather about 10 sea stars and arranged them further up on the beach away from the surf and made a photo.  We felt that the number of sea stars seemed sparse and we needed more but unfortunately the sun was setting, the surf was rising and we needed to call it a day.  After putting the sea stars back on the rocks at the water line, we headed back to the car and I consulted a phone application I have on my phone called Tide Graph and found that 10 days later another negative low tide would occur that was even lower than what we had just experienced. So we set the date and made a plan to return.

On our second trip I gave clear instructions to my assistants that we had one goal – gather as many sea stars as we could possibly find.  We gave ourselves three hours of gathering time and I further instructed them that they should stay as dry as they could, it was after all mid September and the Pacific Ocean along the Northern California coast is not exactly heated to a comfortable swimming temperature, and I let them loose. I set up my camera further up on the beach away from the water and started to look for sea stars myself.  I found a few but my team started to bring even more.  With each new batch my assistants returned with more and more of their bodies soaked in seawater.  I reminded them about staying dry but the response was that they needed to reach the starfish!

At one point I looked around the beach and did not see the team anywhere.  Suddenly a small head pops up out of the water followed by two others!  Mind you they are fully dressed wearing waterproof rain jackets that are now water soaked.  Moments later I had three assistants running up to me completely soaked from head to toe, each toting several sea stars. The youngest of my assistants offers up the excuse that the pool she was in did not seem so deep, but then slipped and fell face first into water and it was so FUN!  My youngest son, rushes up and says with emphatic curiosity “Baba, Baba, it does not hurt when you open your eyes under the ocean! Why?!”  I explain to him that the salinity of the ocean is the same as that of our blood and our tears and so it is as if you opened your eyes in a big ocean of tears.  He continues, “its amazing down there, you can see so many different plants and animals all over the place on the rocks, it is the coolest thing I have ever done!” I then ask him “are you not cold?”  He replies “Yes I am but its so fun swimming in the ocean and I can hardly feel my giblets anymore.  They feel like ball-cicles!” and off he went back to the water and searching for more sea stars.  At one point a couple walking along the beach saw my intrepid team neck deep in a large tide pool and also asked them if they were cold.  My team replies gleefully “it used to be, but now we we can’t feel it anymore”.

Soon the number of sea stars became significant and the arrangement started to look very full.  My oldest son comes up the beach with his small pouch filled with not only sea stars but two live purple shore crabs and suggested we include them as well.  His reasoning was that they too were exposed by this low tide and that is what this photo is really about.  He had a great idea.  So we placed them in the arrangement and remarkably they did not run off, at least not right away.  His suggestion about what was found at low tide was exactly what this photo needed to make it interesting.  So as the team continued with finding sea stars I started to comb the beach for detritus either washed up or left behind by the receding surf.  I collected interesting stones like those in the ‘The Gathering’, muscle shells, other shore crab shells, some complete and some partial, black turban sea snails, Dungeness crab claws, and I even found one complete half of a Dungeness crab shell with a claw and four legs.  When they all finally came up the beach with their last haul of sea stars they noticed all the other items and were both shocked and impressed.  To finish it off they insisted on including a feather, a single feather that they found rolling around on the beach pushed by the breeze.  We debated its inclusion for a bit, but in the end, as it was found on the beach below the normal tide line and we included it.

The whole day had been overcast so the light was flat, perfect for this kind of photo.  However it was also somewhat bland as well.  Then about 20 minutes before sunset, the fog above us started to glow with a faint reddish-pink tone that warmed the arrangement just perfectly.  It was then that I made the photo.  We then began taking the sea stars back to the water line and placed them back on the rocks and in the surf where they could reattach themselves and continue on with their patient existence.

We walked back to the car exhilarated with the experience.  Suddenly I realized that my car seats were about to become as soaked as my assistants.  They were all shivering now, with sea water dripping from their chins and fingertips, feet covered up to their ankles in sand.  My car was about to become an extension of the beach.  They climbed in as I started the car and tuned on the heater to help warm them up.  The windows quickly fogged up and so I started to alternate between the heater and the air conditioner to defrost the windshield so that I could see where I was driving.

Normally the return drive from the beach with my assistants usually devolved into an argument about who is going to shower first when we arrived at home.  On this occasion however, something magical happened.  Because the experience they had of ‘swimming’ in the ocean was so powerful, all they could do was recount their intrepidness to each other.  Each trying to out do the others’ stories.  I heard things from them like I had never heard before.  Snippets about how they all would charge into the water to save their youngest compatriot when they saw the her fall down, how they would sit at the edge of a pool and reach out to grab a star only to get washed over by a wave, and then giving up to the water and just going headlong into it.  Recounts of how the water was so cold that they could not feel fingers and toes; but that it was so fun they were certainly not going to come out.  My oldest daughter summarized it best; “this was the most fun I have ever had in my entire life!”

Once we came upon the town of Davenport, I pulled over and decided to stop at the Davenport Roadhouse to surprise my team with some hot chocolates to help them warm up.  I had them stay in the heated car as I went into the restaurant; all the while they had no idea why I had stopped.  What I had seen from them and what I would continue to see on the remainder of our return home were the stars that they are when they can get beyond themselves and their self-interests.  When I walked back with the hot chocolates, I heard a cheer from the car.  Now with warm fluids flowing through them, my oldest son finally exclaims “I can finally feel my middle toe again!”  The rest of the ride home they worked out who would shower first when they got home, started ranking themselves with titles for the various actions they took at the beach; things like most wet, most coldest, biggest splash falling, most sea stars collected, most sand in pockets, coldest toes, and so on.  It was the most enjoyable ride home that I can ever remember.

When it came to naming the photo, I only had to think back to that ride home and the four stars that I saw shining in that car.  ‘Seaing Stars’, the photo below was, once more, the result of a collaborative effort of five souls whose love for the natural world brought them to that beach and through their individual and unique efforts gathered all these amazing creatures that are normally hidden from view.

Go out and find some magic for yourselves and your loved ones.  The natural world has much to offer and the stories you come back with will be priceless.

Seaing Stars

Peace

“There is a morsel of flesh in the body that if it is sound the whole body will be sound and if it is corrupt the whole body will be corrupt and it is the heart” ~ Prophet Muhammad

I interact with many people on a regular basis, whether it is through teaching or at my photo exhibits.  At times it seems to me that what I try to communicate to others, either through my photographs or through the lessons I teach or with what I write, goes unnoticed or not cared about at all.  Grant it, I am not a person of great influence, but I think my insights are unique and the knowledge that I have and am willing to pass on does have value.

I am at times perplexed why what I have to offer is not sought after.  It has forced me to become quite introspective about the state of my own heart.  Years ago, when I was a graduate student, I was asked by the community of Muslim students on campus to give the sermon at the Friday congregational prayer.  I gave the talk hesitantly as it was at the time a daunting task.  But I spoke from the heart and it went fine.  Afterwards another graduate student who was studying at the law school on campus, who by the way was already a practicing judge in Egypt, came up to me and thanked me for my talk and said he could tell that what I was saying came from my heart.  He continued to say to me that when the heart speaks the ears do not hear it, but it goes straight to the heart of the listener.

Communication is formed of three distinct parts.  The first is the communicator, second the receiver, and third the message communicated.  If any are eliminated then communication fails.  The message communicated is incidental and it could be anything.  Crucial to communication are the communicator and the receiver.   Both must be present, the communicator willing to broadcast and the receiver open to reception.  To begin, a channel needs to be opened that both the communicator and receiver can mutually access.   It seems to me that the most direct channel would be heart to heart, as this would eliminate any possible barriers to delivering the message delivered.

I was left wondering where the breakdown was happening for me.  Was I failing as a communicator?  Was I not broadcasting on the right channel?  Were the intended receivers not there or possibly not listening or listening with the wrong receptor?

Then I found myself wandering the Eastern Sierra landscape in early October bedazzled by the rich autumn color and enlivened by the crispness of the chilled air.  I was open to whatever I found and I listened carefully to what my eyes saw and what my heart echoed in return.  One morning I came upon a most unusual and almost lurid landscape at the foot of the youngest mountain range of North America, the Mono Craters.  There, on the pumice fields, was an expanse of sage that had been burned to the point where all that remained were the twisted charred skeletons of the main branches of each individual plant.  Most were burned completely to ash, while others still had the substance to stand, yet frozen forever in time and waiting only for erosion to eat away at what was left.  It was as if I had walked upon a holocaust and what remained were only the dead.

As I stood there among the dead I pondered was my stumbling upon this graveyard of sage an indication that I was one among them? Was my heart was so engulfed with material worries and wants that its ability to communicate had been prevented?  Or was I wandering among the dead hearts of my intended receivers of my broadcasts unable to hear what I am saying?  This question still burns inside of me and I do not know the answer.

What I do know is that the heart is the most important channel of communication. Protecting it and keeping it sound so that it can hear the lessons taught by Mother Earth, so that I can hear the calls of my fellow brothers and sisters when they need help, so that I can respond in kind is always on my mind.  What I also know is that I am listening and I am doing my best to keep the channel to and from my heart open.  I hope yours is open too.  Can you hear me?  Are you among the dead?

Among The Dead

Sometimes I think that if it was not for the moon and its cyclic nature keeping me engaged in photography that I might drop off the photographic map.  Photography has grown to be something of a second nature to me.  Its not something that I do anymore as much as it is something that almost defines who I am.

When I leave the house on any venture the first thought that comes to mind is whether or not the camera needs to be with me.  Early on, a serious sense of insecurity would wash over me if I left anywhere without my camera.  I was afraid to come upon a scene and not have the means to capture it.  I could not fathom what I would do coming back without being able to share what I had seen.  What I failed to understand back then was that the camera was not the only way to convey what was experienced out ‘in the field’.  Today, using the large format camera capturing those fleeting moments that you happen upon slip by so quickly that I would not be able to capture them before they slip away while setting up the camera.  So by virtue of the camera I use today, it has forced me to relax and just take things as they come.

If I happen to out specifically to photograph with the large format camera, then things tend to be more serious and I work with seriousness in mind.  If I go out now not specifically looking to photograph then I tend to relax and enjoy the scenery without the worry of missing anything, because I can still enjoy the scene myself.  Save for the monthly moon photos, it  would seem to you, my readers, that I have not shown anything but that.  The reality is that I have been regularly engaged in photographing in Reality.  Further the realities of life have reared there ugly head as well consuming my time as try to sustain myself and family.  So while I have continued to engage in what has become second nature to me those of you who only interact with me through this virtual world might think I have dropped off the map, but in reality I have just been missing in action.  There are only so many hours in a day and unfortunately after everyone and everything is done taking its time from me, you my virtual friends receive the short end, or in some cases no end, of the stick.

I know I have said before that I would try to be more regular in posting and releasing new work, and while that still is the decision I would love to take, my and is sometimes forced otherwise.  None the less, I do have much to share with you in the next few weeks as 2012 comes to a close.  I will be updating both the web journal as well as the website with my ‘best of 2012’ images.  So please stay tuned.  For now, enjoy this photo titled ‘Indecision’ that was made along the Big Sur coastline along the central California coast.

Indecision

Peace.

Thousands of years ago the Patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim in the Arabic), upon the commandment of our Creator, traveled with his family, wife Hajar and son Ismail, south out of Palestine and into the deserts of Arabia to a barren valley known at that time as Becca (today’s modern Mecca).  He left his wife and infant son there and turned around and started to walk away.  Despite the pleas of his wife he did not answer her until she asked him, “is this what your Lord commanded?”.  On that question he answered in the affirmative and continued to walk.  Hajar then replied, “then we shall persevere”.

A few days later their provisions ran out.  Her milk stopped.  The baby started to cry.  Hajar runs to the top of a near by hill, now called Mount Safa, and calls out for anyone to hear her.  She then runs down and to another hill about 1/4 of a mile away now known as Mount Marwah.  She calls out from there as well.  She runs between the two hills seven times calling out for help at each hill.  Her baby, down in the valley is crying and kicking.  Upon the completion of her seventh circuit between the two hills, she suddenly sees down by the feet of her son a spring of water had erupted and water was gushing forth.  This miraculous spring is known as Zamzam, and except for a short time when the ancient Meccans had buried it, it has flowed for thousands of years to this day providing travelers and pilgrims life sustaining water.

With the flow of water in that barren valley, birds began to fly there.  Caravans following the birds also soon arrived.  The great city of Mecca is built at that site.  About nine years go by and Ibrahim returns to visit his family and see the good fortune that was promised would come their way.  He finds a small city has grown around where he left his family.  It was at this time that he was commanded to build the first sanctuary for the worship of the One God and he lays down the foundation of that house.  It was also at this time that he was commanded to sacrifice his son Ismail.  It was this miraculous event where as he was about to draw the blade across his son’s throat, with his eyes closed unable to bear the sight of what he was about to do, hears his young son laughing heartily off to the side.  When he opens his eyes, he finds a ram in the place of his son.

He once again leaves his family only to return years later when his son is a young man.  At this time he and his son raise the house of worship, now known as the Ka’ba, a cubic shaped building.  Its corners are loosely aligned with one pair along the East-West line and the other pair along the North-South line.  Once they completed the house, Ibrahim calls out in supplication that the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth accept the effort that they made.  God replies to him by commanding him to make the call to all humanity to come and worship at that house.  Ibrahim then calls out in as loud a voice as he could.  It reverberated through all the canyons and ravines and every deep crack, and still echos to this day.

In response to that call made thousands of years ago,  on this night the faithful respond: “Hear we are in service O Lord Here we are replying to your call.  Here we are in service, there is no associate with You, Here we are!  Truly all praise is to you, all blessing from you, and to you is the dominion over all things.  There is no associate with You!”

And for the next 9 days, approximately 2 million Muslims of the nearly 1.75 billion on earth, begin to congregate on Mecca to perform the largest annual religious spectacle on the planet – The Hajj.

During the Hajj, Muslims sacrifice their livelihood by leaving it behind, leaving their families behind, their homes and trek out into the desert in worship of the One God, repeating the rites that were done by Hajar, Ibrahim and Ismail thousands of years ago.  Of course no human sacrifices are performed, being prohibited in Islam, but other sacrifices are made showing our devotion to God and our lack of care for material wealth.  It culminates in 9 days on the plain of Arafah 13 miles out in the desert and then back to Mecca on the 10th day where the faithful will circumambulate around the Ka’ba for 3 days during the Holiday of Sacrifice in commemoration of Ibrahim and what he did before they return home.  It is the biggest Muslim holiday of the year, being the second of only two holidays.

The start of the Hajj coincides with the beginning of the 12th month of the year Dhul-Hijjah, the month of the pilgrimage.  The month in the Islamic calendar, as always, starts with the sighting of the new crescent moon, which was seen world round this evening.  Here is the view from Campbell California.

Dhul Hijjah Moon, 1433

So to all my Muslims readers, Hajj Mabrur!

Shawwal Crescent 1433

Over 1400 years ago as the Mercy to all of Creation fled persecution from his birthplace in Mecca to his eventual resting place in Medina, he looked up to the sky and saw this heavenly body, the same moon that we see in our sky.  He called out while looking at a crescent in supplication: “Oh God, bring us into this month with this moon, in safety and faith, and in peace and in submission to you“.  Then as he pointed to himself and then to the moon addressing it and said: “My Lord and your Lord is Allah (God)“.

From that day onward, the Muslims have used the new crescent moon to mark the months and years of their calendar, a purely lunar calendar.  It is a unique calendar in the entire world.  Many other cultures rely on the moon for their calendar as well but include the sun with it forming a luni-solar calendar, which has intercalations that add additional months every so often to keep holidays aligned in certain seasons.

The Islamic calendar however is cyclic with respect to the seasons and the tropical year, which is governed by the sun, or more accurately by the orbit of the Earth around the sun.  The months in the Islamic calendar begin traditionally by the sighting of the new crescent moon the same way the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, did during his emigration and establishing this tradition.  The lunar cycle however is not one that is completed in an integral number of days; rather its average length is 29.5 days (varying between 29.2 and 29.8 days).  What this amounts to is that some months the moon will only be seen after 30 days and some after only 29 days, and with the number of months fixed at twelve the Islamic year is only 354 or 355 days long.  This forces the months in the Islamic year to occur 10 to 11 days earlier each tropical year and taking 33 years for the Islamic months to cycle through the Tropical year.

Astronomy has reached a level of sophistication that the position of the moon in the sky and its cycle can be calculated with amazing accuracy.  However, the science behind when and where the new crescent moon can be seen is altogether different.  Seeing the new crescent moon depends on many factors.  These factors include, the age of the moon past conjunction, the elongation, the percent illumination, its altitude above the horizon at the time of sunset, and the lag time or how long it will be in the sky after sunset before it sets as well.  Each of these parameters has specific values that must be met in combination in order for the crescent moon to be “seen” in varying degrees.  Those degrees include easily visible with the naked eyes, visible with naked eyes under perfect sky conditions, visible with optical aid, visible with optical aid under perfect sky conditions, and finally the Danjon Limit, under which the moon is impossible to see under any circumstances.

The calculation methods used to determine to what level the moon is visible is not a formulaic theoretical computation like that of the position of the moon in the sky.  Rather it is a regression analysis of data on crescent moon sightings and non-sightings from archival records, originally from the Ottoman Empire and as of late from modern observation data added to the original pool.  The predictions are statistical in nature and although they have a high degree of correlation are still subject to outliers.

However, what these predictions cannot take into account is the weather.  The weather is completely outside of the realm of predictability as sky conditions can change on the hour and hence the crescent sighting predictions can only be that, predictions.  And by weather I do not just mean clouds in the sky.  A cloudless sky does not constitute perfect viewing conditions.  Other parameters like atmospheric pressure, relative humidity of the air, air quality and pollution, haze,  light pollution, altitude of the viewing location and even the geography on the horizon all play a factor in the visibility of the crescent.  In addition to all those factors every person who goes out to look for the moon brings with then their own set of variables that are never even considered, things such as experience, knowledge, eyesight, patience, prudence, etc..  These, of course, cannot be determined from a visibility prediction chart, nor from a very brief conversation one might have with that person in discerning if what he or she actually saw was the moon.

It is because of this and the juristic condition of seeing the moon to start an Islamic month that having someone actually go out and physically see the moon is still an activity that is played out each month among Muslims.  In fact, juristically, it is considered a communal obligation that at least one person from each community be charged with the task of discerning the beginnings of each Islamic month so that when the important months like Ramadan and the month of Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, arrive they are started and ended correctly.  In addition, juristically, looking for the new crescent moon becomes an individual obligation on each Muslim when its appearance brings on individual religious obligations like fasting in the month of Ramadan.  Note that seeing the moon is not the obligation, rather just looking for it is the obligation.

In the last few years, many calculation schemes have been put forward to bring some expediency to the starts of the Islamic months.  Some of them make sense and some do not.  What I find troubling about them is that they all find reason to avoid having to look up in the sky a day or two after conjunction to physically see the new crescent moon.  Establishing a date is not what is at stake here.  If that was the case, then simply determining sun-moon conjunction times, which are exceedingly accurate, plus one or two days added to ensure moon visibility could be used to nail down the beginnings of months with 100% accuracy.

What is at stake here is tradition.   The body of Islamic Jurisprudence on a whole, which covers every aspect of human life, is and always has been a means for ANY Muslim to learn and understand how to perform the religious obligations on their own.  For example it would be considered to much of a hardship if everyone was required to learn how to compute exact conjunction times of the moon and sun in order to establish the times when fasting in Ramadan was to commence and end.  However it is not out of the question to ask individuals to simply go out and look in the western sky after sunset to see if the new moon is visible or not.  In addition to this, following the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in fulfilling religious obligations is also an obligation in itself.  The ‘how’ of many of the religious obligations outlined in the Qur’an, are just that, outlines.  The ‘how’ was left to the Prophet, peace be upon him, to explain to the believers exactly how to perform the obligations.

The traditions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, are second to the Qur’an in understanding the religion and how its obligations are to be performed.  The traditions are so important, in fact, that they have been preserved with the same level of preservation as the Qur’an itself.   Immense volumes of traditions are memorized word by word, including information on who narrated it and the entire chain of narration leading back to the Prophet, peace be upon him, himself, with additional notation on the character of each of the narrators in the chain resulting in various levels of authenticity for each tradition.  In fact, there is no other historical record of what any human being said or did that is more accurate and exact as that of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.  To say the traditions are not important is to deny most of what Islam is.

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was referred to by God in the Qur’an as a Mercy to all of Creation.  An examination of his blessed life gives credence to that.  Everything he did or said brought mercy to those of his time and to those who followed afterwards, and when taken with sincerity and practiced, mercy is what is found in his traditions, and not just to humans, but also to animals and plants as well.  One of the aspects of prophethood is that prophets elucidate what the future holds for people, not in specific, but in general.  The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, left no stone unturned when it came to matters of the end of days.  I won’t delve into those matters as that deserves its own study, but one thing that I will say is that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, did relate that knowledge of Islam and his traditions would slowly vanish over time and one of the last things that would remain before the end of days occurred was prayer.  For one reason or another, much of what came with Islam through the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has already eroded away. Watching his traditions erode away and die off is like watching the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, scrubbed from existence entirely.  However, if we hold onto the traditions it is like keeping him alive, and if we revive one of his traditions that did die it would be as if we had revived him.

In the Prophet’s time, there were many battles between the believers and idolaters of Mecca.  In one of the battles, the Battle of Uhud, in what initially looked like a Muslim victory turned into a rout and victory for the idolaters.  In the midst of the rout, as the Muslim ranks were breaking and men were fleeing from the battle, the Prophet and a few of his companions were surrounded.  Among those who were surrounded was a woman, Umm ‘Umara Nusayba bint Ka’b.  She was among those who came to the battle to provide water to the soldiers.  Her husband and two sons were also in this battle and were surrounded in the rout.  One of her sons was injured during the rout and she tended to his wound, only to find herself wielding a shield and sword and in the midst of the battle.  She threw herself in front of the Prophet, peace be upon him and defended him.  Later the Prophet, peace be upon him, commented that in Uhud, no matter where he turned to face in the battle he saw Umm ‘Umara in front of him fighting.  Umm ‘Umara had the courage and the love in her heart to stand up and guard the life of the Prophet, peace be upon him, when even men fled in fear for their life.  In the course of that battle she sustained 13 sword and arrow wounds to her body and among one of the sword wounds was a sever one to her neck which required an entire year to heal. In the midst of that rout, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, supplicated that Umm ‘Umara and her family would be among his companions in Paradise.

In a time when threats to the Prophet’s life were real, the men and women around him were willing to sacrifice their own life to protect his.  Today in a time when threats to life and limb in a civilized world are far and few in between, I find it alarmingly astounding that we can sit by and allow the last vestiges of the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be on upon him, to fall by the wayside because it is not expedient to wait until the moon is seen to mark our days.  Rather, it has become the fashion to know the dates of holidays years in advance that we may plan our perfect little lives around them.  I know that my actions in following the traditions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, will never bring him back to life, but doing so brings me a deep sense of comfort and certainty that he, peace be upon him, is still alive in my heart and that I can expend a little effort to emulate my beloved.  I do not think for a minute that the little that I do in keeping his tradition of sighting the moon each month alive would get me into Paradise.  However, I can find solace that on the day when the debts fall due and I am standing in front of my Lord, I can say with certainty that I did not let the Prophet, His most Beloved, Muhammad, peace be upon him, die in my heart or in my actions.

Festive Moon of Shawwal 1433

I beseech all of my Muslim readers to take up this tradition and keep the spirit of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, alive in their own lives.  Moreover, to those readers, who follow another of God’s Messengers, hold onto their traditions as well.  In our days, it is these traditions that keep our connection to our Lord healthy and strong.  Do not rob yourselves of the deep spiritual connection that can be formed with the Creator as you see the moon emerge in the evening sky from apparent non-existence into the realm of existence right before your very eyes.

Peace to you all.

It has been a trying couple of weeks.  Long days teaching rambunctious inquisitive children  in the midst of abstaining from food and fluids leaves one completely spent by the end of the day. However the day does not end.  There is time for maybe a few minutes for a quick nap before the breakfast meal is prepared.  By the time the meal is over, the evening prayer has arrived and after that additional prayers and recitations of the melodic words of the Quran.

Right now, in the middle of the night, with tiredness pervading, are some of the first quiet moments I have had in these last two weeks.  I have taken the time to reflect and realized the month of Ramadan is already half past.  Days of Mercy behind us as we continue on to through the Days of Forgiveness before culminating in the Days of Freedom from the Fire.  I returned to the memories of the day before it all started and remembered its humble beginning.

Ramadan Sunset

As the sun sank that day I was captured by the grass.  At the time I was not sure what it was about the grass that appealed to me but now I think I understand. Grass covers about 40% of the surface of all land on Mother Earth.  We rarely think much of it and we never seem to care as we trample over it beneath our feet.  It covers the ground.  Of all life on the Earth, it clings to the ground and it never rises more than a few feet.  It holds the soil of the Earth together and prevents it from being washed away.  It provides a home for many a small creature and insects and blankets the ground.

After The Sun

The photos I made that evening two weeks ago depict a vivid atmosphere. However these photos are not of the setting sun or the ocean of fog rising up to engulf where I was standing or even of the stark and colorful sky.  These photos are of the simple, unassuming and humble grass that stands between looking on and quietly fulfilling it role in creation.  Come winter when the rains come, the seeds from the very stalks depicted in these photos will germinate and will bare witness to the re-birth of a “dead” land.    It is then that the greatness of what humility is will be revealed.

Ramadan Blues

For now however, we just need to wait and continue along our path hopefully learning how to be as humble.  What we hope to reap from our humility on the Day when all Debts fall due, will be great.  As the great scholar, Abdul-Qadir Al-Gilani, of days past said in a book he wrote that I read years ago (I paraphrase) “I attempted to enter Paradise from all its gates, charity, prayer, fasting, and so on, only to find them all crowded  until I arrived at the gate of humility and found no one there and so I entered through it.”  That always amazed me.  We all try to rise up and stake our claim to something in this life.  It might be wealth or status or knowledge or any number of things that prove our unrelenting hubris.  And yet, what is asked of us by our Creator is nothing more than humble submission and obedience.  We have such a hard time doing and being something so simple.  Look at those photos again.  Do you see anything anymore besides the grass?  I thought not.

Thank you Grass for reminding me of my place.

Peace to you all.

I was out last night and this evening in search for the new crescent moon that marks the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.  Last night, that would be July 19th, 2012, the moon was not seen.  It was only 12 minutes behind the sun and at the same time we had some fog to contend with.  Similarly, the moon was not positively seen anywhere in the world on the evening of the 19th.

This evening was a different story.  The conditions were perfect and the moon was easily seen.  Not that it made much difference, as the 19th was the 29th day of the previous month and was the critical day in determining when Ramadan would start.  However, it is my “thing” to be out there photographing the new moon, so out I went again this evening.

The moon was easily seen and a thought suddenly occurred to me.  For the longest time as I can recall the moons of Ramadan have appeared in a lack-luster entrance.  Quiet, humble and just there.  Suddenly it all made sense to me.

“Oh you who believe, Fasting has been proscribed upon you as it was proscribed on those who were before you so that you might increase in piety” ~ Quran.

Piety, this month is about piety.  Piety is never flashy.  Its not glamorous or forward or vain.

Its about humility, being patient, reserved, and quiet.  This evening it was quiet out there.  Few people, mild temperatures, slight breeze, very unassuming.  The moons of Ramadan have arrived showing us the very qualities that this month is designed to foster in all of us.  I am in awe.

Ramadan Moon

To all my Muslim Readers – Ramadan Mubarak!  Make use of this month to come out as humble and pious as the moon.

To all Peace.

As a photographer, I am concerned with producing photographs that are more than just pretty pictures.  I want photos that tell a story, photos that touch the soul, and photos that make you reflect about life, about the choices that we make, about where we came from and where we will end up, photos that invoke awe and wonder.  It is difficult when such work is surrounded by an onslaught of technographers with their ubiquitous cameras in every conceivable device broadcasting a visual-cacophony of mediocre imagery.   All the while they flood the world with claims of artistry and self proclamation of greatness while presenting a mish-mash of cookie-cutter formulaic images of iconic locations coupled with two-bit “Jack Handy” styled affirmations which have nothing to do with the photo its coupled with.  I suppose these affirmations are supposed to make you think they are some deep philosophical thinkers that have figured out life and how to live it. God forbid that we should look with a critical eye upon the work of the greatest photographer alive or that we should question the king of nature as the king traipses about in his kingdom.

Never mind the decades of experience behind the lens, the years of study into the life cycles and natural rhythms of creatures, plants and ecosystems, or the nature of light itself and how it interacts with objects to produce the images we see not to mention the eye itself. Never mind the lifetime of experiences spent trying to understand ones own internal psyche through years of spiritual practice so that one would understand the underpinnings of human as well as animal behavior. Those qualities of the artist are not as important in producing art as the tool used in making that art. A tool, the modern camera in this case, so technologically advanced that the “artist” has no real understanding of how that technology actually produces the images that it regurgitates.

If you sense frustration in my words, you would be correct.  Presenting work that is either to subtle to be noticed or to sophisticated to be understood is becoming exceedingly disheartening.  I produce my work with a discerning eye.  I do not travel around the world looking for and presenting the next amazing unseen before image.  I also do not produce thousands upon thousands of photos every year.  My work is much more an internal examination of the state in which find myself physically, mentally as well as spiritually.  Any person could find themselves in these same states and could relate to them personally.  In times of difficulty and confusion, we all yearn for moments when an understanding into the circumstances that surround us is all that are needed to maintain our sanity.  For me, those moments come visually more often than not, and if I happen to have my camera with me, it is captured in the hopes that others might benefit from that ephemeral epiphany as well.

I photograph what I find appealing and I let the photos find me rather that trying to force the photo I see in my head.  Sometimes I do not know why I make a photo or what that image means at the time I capture it.  Sometimes the meaning does not become apparent to me for years and at other times it is understood even before I trip the shutter.  The photos look “real”, they feel “real” and yet they sometimes border on the surreal because whatever happens to be in the photo was never looked at in that specific way or in that flavor of light or from that certain perspective.  If a photo elicits a question in the viewer then I have achieved my goal.   The question could be as simple as “where is this?” or “what is this?”  The point is that the image has made the viewer think.  My photos are not made to be looked at in passing.  The longer they are viewed the more interesting they become as the nuances of light and detail begin to emerge and objects are seen in them that we would not have seen otherwise even if the scene was observed in person.  Since I do not follow the crowd from iconic location to iconic location, my photos are quite unique and usually buck the trends.

Trends come and go quickly.  They appear out of nowhere and vanish almost as quickly.  What is in fashion today will no longer be tomorrow.  And those who are caught up in the rush of the caprice du jour enjoy a temporal euphoria that sweeps them away into oblivion such that no one can tell where they came from and where they had gone and become nothing more than a blip in our collective memory.  At the same time, those that anchor themselves to tradition, integrity, honesty, quality and style, will find themselves apparently losing out in the race.  However, what is not seen is that while everyone else has been washed away they are still standing, as firm as they ever were and still as reliable to others as they ever were.  That is where true value lies, in that which is reliable.  So, even though you might feel surrounded at times by the world racing around you, take solace in lasting traditions and pay no attention to the flotsam whizzing by.

Surrounded

This evening ended the Month of Rajab by the completion of 30 days.  Sighting the moon was not a necessity and yet it is still enjoyable.  Even more so with an afternoon like the one we had today.  Absolutely perfectly clear skies, moderate temperatures up on top of the Santa Cruz Mountains overlooking a fog covered coast and the San Francisco Bay.  The conditions were perfect for sighting the new crescent moon.

Sunset was at 8:31 pm PDT and by 8:41 pm I saw the first glimpses of the moon. Incredibly faint, it faded in and out of my sight for a few moments until it became stable.  By 2o minutes in, it was a vivid white streak and an ever increasing colorful sky.

Sha'baan 1433

This moon marks the beginning of the month of Sha’baan 1433 AH.  It is an important month that precedes Ramadan and is a month of preparation mentally, physically and spiritually.  To all my Muslims readers, Sha’baan Mubarak!

Peace to you All.