Standing Firm

Spring seemed to come early this year, especially after an almost non-existent winter.  This seems to be the pattern in the past few years, the seasons seems confused, not unlike many of us with all that has been going on in the world.  We have all endured some very trying times in the last few years.  From loss of income and jobs to health issues and housing problems and mounting debt and wars, these tribulations have tired and tested all of us.  I could go on about the hardships that have befallen me and Organic Light Photography, but what good can come out of self-pity?  The important thing is that we are all still here, standing firm in the face of the onslaught, unwavering and resolute.  Doing what we are supposed to do, fulfilling our destiny and meeting our fate with patience and contentment.  I applaud all of you who have stood firm and weathered the storm.

Small Tree Standing Firm Against Onslaught of Water

Standing Firm

This was the sentiment I felt when I saw and photographed this photo titled ‘Standing Firm’.  The torrent of water rushing at this small delicate tree from all sides and its almost deafening roar would be enough to rattle any resolve. However, it has taken root in firm, unyielding, solid granite and with that as its foundation, finds the wherewithal to continue in its growth not bothered in the least by the madness rushing past it.

I do not find images to make photographs of; they find me.  They do so at exactly the right time when I need to see them and capture them that I may benefit from the message they are conveying and in turn pass it forward to all of you.  It is strange in that I have passed by this location more times than I can count and never once stopped to photograph.  However as it turned out this time, I was not passing by.  I decided on traveling up the Merced River canyon on a tip that wildflowers were blooming along the river.  Therefore, I made a day trip of it and discovered nothing of the sort in the way of flowers.  So, I continued up the canyon not intending going into Yosemite National Park at all, only to find myself at the park entrance.  It was still early in the season so I did not expect to see much in the Valley and again had no intention on going down into it.  Nevertheless, I drove in, pulled over at Cataract Falls, and walked around a bit.

The water flow was pretty heavy and I started to wonder where this water was coming from.  It then occurred to me that this water was probably the run off from Cascade and Tamarack Creeks that intersect Big Oak Flat Rd. that leads into the park from the North.  So, I decided to go up and take a look.  It was that wondering that brought me to make the Cascade Creek bridge over crossing a destination rather than just a place that I passed going into and out of the park.  It was not particularly crowded although many people were there stopping, looking and taking snapshots with everything from SLR cameras to iPads and phones.  No one bothered once to look down over the bridge while I was there making ‘Standing Firm’.

I was very excited about this photo and made it with both the large format camera on film as well as with the digital camera.  The version posted here, as well as other places on the web, is the digital version.  Once the film version arrives, I will post that one as well in the hopes of having more detail and texture throughout. The photo has potential as it has already been selected as the Editor’s Weekly Pick on NaturePhotographers.net, the premier nature photography site on the internet.

So with that, enjoy what remains of spring, get out there, and find some inspiration for your self.

Peace

 

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In The Blink of an Eye

Totem Drop

Totem Drop

About two years ago I became interested in filming things using a high speed camera.  This type of a video camera takes video at very high frame rates, 300 fps and above.  At about that same time Casio introduced a consumer level camera the EX-F1 that had the capabilities of taking high speed video at 300, 600 and 1200 fps!  In addition to that, it can take full 6MP frames at 60 fps with a unique buffer system that captures the first 0.5 seconds before the shutter is tripped and the 0.5 seconds after the shutter is tripped allowing the decisive moment to be captured, almost guaranteed.  I made many short experimental videos using that camera of things to fast for our eyes to normally see.  And while it was interesting I became preoccupied by other things and set that work aside.

Coronet

Coronet

In the last few months the interest has had a resurgence.  I saw a short video segment of a Discovery Channel show titled Time Warp where they filmed water drops falling into a shallow pool of water.  It was incredibly fascinating and piqued my interest to go back and do more high speed photography.  I also have been very fascinated with the nature of water for several years and so the two desires met and I embarked on trying to photograph water drops in the midst of the interaction between the water drop and water pool.  I tried many different techniques using natural light but none were successful, forcing me to succumb to using strobe lighting in the studio.

Suspended

Suspended

Now I have nothing against using strobes, so don’t get me wrong.  Studio work is fun, but its studio work.  The added variable of changing light is gone and so is the magic, for the most part, when some great light appears illuminating the subject for that brief few moments and forcing you to work fast to capture it. Those moments bring a great sense of satisfaction.  Unlike that, studio work is more predictable and once the test photos are done and the lighting is set, its just shutter work from there on out, well almost.

Don't Blink

Don't Blink

Enter in a new variable – time, or should I say timing.  Trying to capture a water drop in the midst of its interaction with a pool of water is to say the least an activity that requires great patience and perseverance.  Once I managed to set up a working light arrangement, I spend the better part of a day watching water drops fall over and over and over and over, tripping the shutter again and again and again.  One image after another comes up missed and I would delete and delete and delete…oh wait that one is good.  In my most recent attempt I made over 500 exposures and only 20 frames captured some form of interesting interaction.

Collision

Collision

The most interesting by far is when one drop of water is rebounding as a jet or totem and a second drop collides with it.  In 500 frames I only managed to capture 4  frames with a collision.  The drip rate of the water has to be timed perfectly and only two drops can be allowed to fall otherwise the water surface become much to turbulent and chaotic.  Its definitely a challenge and one that I will keep tackling until I get something spectacular.  The quest goes on.

This crop of images was just the first round and I plan on making many more.  I am not sure what I will do with these, or if people like this kind of stuff, but it is most certainly fascinating and something that I can do almost any time I have nothing else to do, day or night, sunny or rainy.  I am still interested in making these photos using only natural light so if any of you have any ideas on how I might be able to do that, I would love to hear them.  In the mean time enjoy these and I will keep you posted.

Peace.

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Something Beautiful

We live in a world that moves so fast.  Everything is measured in mili.. no, microseconds, and nothing is ever fast enough.  Its nice to slow down, really slow down and just live at the speed of time.  It is amazing when we can slow down long enough to take a walk on a beach, watch the sun sink slowly on the western horizon, listening to the crashing waves and breathing the fresh salty air.

I did just that today.  With my kids in tow, we headed to the beach today.  It was beautiful.  I sat there doing nothing as my kids played in the surf taunting the waves and then running up-beach as the waves came crashing at them.  My youngest son stood on a small bluff of sand on the beach, partially silhouetted by the sun, and appeared to be a conductor of a symphony, and it looked like he was commanding the waves to do his bidding raising his hands as wave after wave came in.   All the while the others jumped and stomped in the foamy water as it approached and when a real big wave came in they ran for dear life!  It was simply amazing.

Photos you ask?  I thought about as I sat in the sand higher up and away from the water, but it was as if my bottom had been glued to the sand.  Everything was to perfect to spoil with the mechanized memory device known as a camera.  It came with us, but I just left it behind in the car.

In retrospect I think it would have  been nice to have captured the glee and momentary horror on children’s faces as they played, but at the time all I could muster myself to do was to say “Thank You God”.

Do something beautiful in the near future.

Something Beautiful

Something Beautiful

P.S. This above photo was taken exactly one month ago on a different beach.  I did not know it at the time, but it was taken for today’s post.  Funny how things fall in place.

Peace.

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Mercy: Day 3 – Water

Its 4 AM again and we all stumble into the kitchen to prepare our morning meal only to find that the water purifier reservoir is empty!  What do we do without water for the day?  I quickly fill the purification tank and allow the filter to do its job while we prepare our food.  By the end of our meal, there is enough water for us to drink for the day and we begin our fast.

Every living thing in the world is made of water.  Life cannot exist without the presence of water.  We search the planets in our solar system for signs of water in the hope that someday we might be able to inhabit that planet.  We ourselves are made mostly of water, about 70% of our bodies are and consist of water, the remaining 30% sold matter.  Is it a coincidence that the Earth is made up of the same ratio of water to dry land?  The Earth is after all out mother and when we meet our end in this life, we return to the earth decomposed into dust.

What is hard to fathom is that all 6 billion plus humans on this planet survive not on that 70% of water, for most of it is salty and brackish, but on only 1% of the total water on Earth, 1 percent.  Only 3% of the water in our world is palatable and most of it is not usable as it is either locked up as ground water or as glaciers or ice caps. only 1% of all the water on the Earth is actually usable.   Of all the resources in the world it is water that is vital for our existence and it is what will ultimately limit our population.

Many think that it is space or food that limits the unencumbered growth of humanity, but its water.  For example,we can take all 6 billion plus inhabitants of the Earth and we can put all of them in the state of Texas and each person would have about 1000 square feet of space, that is the size of a small house or a large apartment.  Don’t believe it here’s the math – the area of Texas is 268,820 square miles or 7,494,271,488,000 square feet.  The world population at 04:32 UTC  Aug 15, 2010 was 6,862,438,430 people.  Now divide the area of Texas by the population and we get 1,092 square feet!

Some more math will show how long we could survive on the currently available water.  The total volume of water on the planet, is about 333 million cubic miles (See Here).  Of that over 96% of it is saline and cannot be used by us.  Of the total fresh water available, 68% is locked up in glaciers and ice caps.  And another 30% is ground water leaving about 0.007% of the total water (about 22,300 cubic miles) in lakes and rivers which the majority of the population relies on.  Lets see how many glasses of water that gives each person on earth.  A glass of water is 8 oz.  In a cubic mile there are 140,942,994,870,000 ounces.  In that, by dividing by 8, we can get the number of  “glasses” of water – 17,617,874,358,750.  That’s over 17 trillion glasses of water.  Now divide that by the population and we find that each person gets 2,567 glasses of water.  If each person drank 8 glasses a day, the recommended amount, that person would have enough water for 320 days, about 1 month shy of a year, and this does not account for the other uses like cooking and cleaning.

I suppose it is a good thing that water keeps cycling from salty to fresh.  For that amount of fresh water is what is available at any given time.  If our water cycle was to cease, we would have about 1 year of life left on earth; a sobering thought indeed.

But through the Mercy of the Sustainer, the water cycle continues to bring us fresh water continuously.  And it is through rain that fresh water makes it way back on to dry land and into our lakes and rivers.  The rain is in essence the Mercy of God.

When the Prophet of God, Muhammad (peace and blessings of God upon him) prayed for rain, he said:O God! Provide water for Your servants and Your cattle, display Your mercy and give life to Your dead land”.

Rippled Reflection

Rippled Reflection

Water, use it wisely and do not squander the Mercy that falls down upon us.

Till tomorrow, Peace

P.S. Just another interesting tidbit – the salinity of ocean water is the same as that of our blood.  I find that interesting.

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