Organic Light Pan

Last week I saw a bumper sticker that read “Trees Are The Answer”. I honestly found that to be a very profound statement. It struck me odd, as that I thought I was the only one who thought that the answer to many of our glaring problems are the trees. We find that we faced today with so many challenges and problems globally that if we think about them we get overwhelmed, at least I do.

Much has been written about trees – essays, poems, songs – so I don’t think I can add much. But I don’t think I have ever run across anything that highlights the relationship that we actually have with trees. Trees actually breath, that is they absorb carbon dioxide and release, as a waste product, oxygen. Funny – we breath in oxygen and release carbon dioxide as a waste. We need their waste and they ours. The only trouble is that we seem to be drowning in carbon dioxide and killing off the trees at the same time via chainsaw.

In my last post, I wrote of balance; that Divine balance that was put in place by our Creator. Maybe that balance goes beyond mere economics. Maybe it has a farther reaching implication. Maybe it means that everything has a balance point and if we tip it too far we will destroy ourselves.

There is an interesting tradtion of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, that says “If the Last Day comes upon you and you are planting a tree, continue planting it“. That is don’t let anything sway you from doing whatever good thing that you are doing irrespective of the tribulation at hand. But what I find so intriuging is that the Prophet, peace be upon him, used the act of planting a tree, which indicates to me that trees will be important to us even up to the very last day.

Maybe its to simple an answer to our global problems, but then again…

The month of Ramadan is just about over. In less than 24 hours, the search for the new crescent moon will begin for those who follow the tradition set more than 1400 years ago in marking the beginnings of the months. The day the follows the end of Ramadan is known as Eid Al-Fitr, the festival of fast breaking, and is celebrated the world round by observant Muslims. It is a joyous day that marks not only the end of a month-long devotion to our Creator but also that as Muslims we were able to stay away from and curb our desires during daylight hours. It is a month where those who observe it hope to gain the self-control and discipline to tame our egos, grow more conscience of the Divine, and foster love, mercy and compassion to all of humanity.

And so it is with this as a backdrop that the current events unfolding leave me somewhat introspective on our future. Continue Reading »

I am not a political analyst. Nor do I enjoy politics all that much. However recent events have brought on a new interest in what goes on with the governance of the land in which I live. When we elect people to run the country we would hope that they have some scruples. Unfortunately, most politicians are liars, they lie about what they will do for us once in office, they lie about what they do while in office as well. It used to be that leaders were the best among the people that they led. They were the wisest, the smartest, the strongest, the highest in good character, the most educated, the most God conscious, humble, courageous, steadfast, cool tempered, truthful, caring, generous, and merciful.

On the contrary, our leaders of today are the antithesis of these qualities – foolish, weak, foul in character, ignorant, heedless, arrogant, cowardly, capricious, hot headed, liars, selfish, miserly and wrathful. Where can such a ‘leader’ lead us except into ruin? It brings me to a level of indignation and frustration that I have not known before. It boggles my mind why we as a nation continue to put up with such mockery – can we not see that we are being played for fools? Do we not have a government in this country that is for the people by the people? Where are the people? Can we really choose this for ourselves, is this what we really want?

We are standing on the precipice of what is inarguably the largest financial breakdown the world has ever seen. As more and more information makes its way to the surface, it becomes clear that the driving force behind it all is Greed, or in other words, the love of material wealth. As the great Moroccan scholar of the thirteenth century, ‘Abdul-Wahid Ibn ‘Ashir said, the source of all wrong action is the love of material wealth. In fact he used the Arabic word ‘Ajilah, which literally means that which goes away quickly, as a descriptor in place of the words ‘material wealth’.

When one loves money, there is nothing that he or she will not do to acquire more of it. And its not that the person actually needs any of it, for we can get by with very little physical wealth, but it burns into the heart in such a way that it literally consumes the person. They love it for its own sake. They just want more and more, regardless if they actually need it or even use it for anything, they just want to have it and revel in the fact that they have it. The sad part is that we can’t take it with us. We will all die, and we find three things will accompany us to our graves – our family and friends, our wealth and our actions. Two of them return and one stays with us – family and friends leave us behind to squabble and consume our wealth that leaves with them and we are only left with our actions.

And here we are faced with the financial destruction of an entire nation because of a leadership that encouraged greed, fostered its growth and now wishes to reward those who brought all this upon us by bailing them out at our expense. The numbers they speak of are absolutely staggering! I don’t think we can even fathom the amount they speak of; it’s just not something we can get our minds around. And yet, the very people who propose the solution to this crisis are the very ones who not only allowed it to happen, but also fostered it and are diseased by that very sickness, greed, themselves. It leaves me to wonder if what motivates the solution is not the very thing that brought on the problem to begin with.

The real deal is that our leadership has failed us terribly. When this happens do we have anyone to blame but ourselves? For did we not put them in the position? When this happens do we have any other choice but to remove those who lead from the position of leadership? I hope we are not too late in acting on this, for if we are, I fear the end of freedom as we know it will be knocking on our doors.

It seems like a strange name, Organic Light Pan for a web journal. Why did I choose that? Well one reason which is kind of silly, but of importance in the branding of my company, Organic Light Photography, are the initials OLP. From Organic Light Photography to Organic Light Press to, hopefully in the future, Organic Light Philanthropy, I wanted the web journal to keep the same three letter moniker of OLP.

This is where the search started in naming this journal. I went to great lenghts of searching words that begin with the letter ‘P’ that would capture the sense of what this journal would serve. My photographic work is in general concerned with nature and the landscape. More specifically I am concerned with our relationship with the Earth as well as our relationship with our Maker.

For one, I find it interesting that the natural world, taken as a whole, is at peace with itself. Everything is in balance and it would stay that way if we did not come along and upset that tenuous equilibrium. Thus I write about that in the reflections that accompany my photographs. I also tend to see that if we open our eyes to how the natural world functions we can learn a great many things in how to live our lives in peace with each other. However to do this, one has to “pan” across all the strata of existent things in the universe to see this. And that is where the name of this journal appeared. I also found it fortutious that in many instances a photographer has to pan the camera while following a subject in the viewfinder.

And so, Organic Light Pan became the title of this journal that aims to extract Insights Through Reflections on Nature. Hopefully these insights will lead us to living in peace with each other on this planet and in peace with the Earth itself, our home and vessel as we are hurled through the universe.

Today was the first day of fasting for the month of Ramadan this year.

Enjoying the afternoon

I lead a trip up to the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve in the northern Santa Cruz mountians on Sunday after noon with about 20 people attending. We spent about two hours along one of the ridge trails in the preserve waiting for the sun to set so that we could start searching. We had a good time while we waited.

It was another perfect day for moonsighting. The sky was clear and visibility was excellent. Although it was clear and sunny we had mild temperatures in the upper 60’s.

As the sun began to set, we all anxiously waited to start searching. Although the sunset was quite impressive with its deep orange color, we had to really stop ourselves from looking to prevent the green spots from appearing in our eyes which would hamper seeing the delicate crescent moon.

Finally the sun had vanished below the horizon. It left us with sublte pastel colored skies.

However, try as we did, we could not see any sign of the new crescent moon. Even though is was a 30 hour old moon, its age determine from the moment it is in conjunction with the sun, it was low on the horizon, only about 3.5 degrees in altitude, and was only in the sky for 20 minutes after the sun set. Most 30 hour old crescents are easy to see in the sky after sunset, but this one was to low ont he horizon and set too soon after sunset.

In the end, no one in North America saw the crescent moon that evening. Making the month of Sha’ban a 30 day month and with Ramadan beginning on Tuesday September 2, 2008.

With one day now complete we look forward to a blessed month ahead of us.

Peace – Youssef

After The Rain was a photograph I made back in 2003 down in Southern California during the wildflower bloom on the Gorman Hills. It was the most extensive wildflower bloom on record there in Gorman. A similar bloom occured in 1992, but not as extensive. The hills run for about 7 miles along Gorman Post Road which parallels Hwy 5. For the entire lenght of Gorman Post Road and from the base of the hills to the top, it was socked in color like that seen in this image.

I decided to drive down from the San Francisco Bay Area on Easter weekend with the notion that on Easter no one would be out and about, as it was a family day and a religious holiday that would be observed. Well I was sorely wrong. However, my actual intention was not Gorman, but the John Gavrillis who had also photographed the extensive bloom at Gorman and had THIS photograph on display as 40″x50″ enlargement. It certainly was quite impressive to see. I asked when he had taken it and he told me Saturday, the day before I was there. I told him I had the same photo – you know how we photogrpahers like to hear that from other photographers – and he chuckled and said ahh huh! I invited him to my booth and pointed at my version and he said wow, that is better than mine. We walked back to his booth and I pointed out where in his composition you could see mine. We both had a good laugh.

After the Rain has been my number 1 runaway best selling image. To me the photo speaks to what gratitude is truly about. These hills are dry and yellow for most of the year. Even in winter and spring they sometimes don’t flush out with color as they depend heavily on ample rain. When it does come, they just burst out in color as if to say Thank You for the life giving rain and in their gratitude, they give off this amazing display of wlid flowers. It has brought some viewers to tears, for reasons they could not explain. It stops almost everyone who passes by my show booth. It is an amazing scene.

It has placed in many photographic competitions, however this award, even though it was only Runner-Up in the International Conservation Photography Awards is still its greatest accolade to date. The open invitational is put on by famed landscape photographer and convservationist Art Wolfe. The winners of this year’s competiontion will be on display from August 30th to October 12th, 2008 at the Museum of History and Industry located in McCurdy Park at 2700 24th Avenue East, Seattle, WA. If you are in the neighborhood stop by and take a look. Let me know what you think of the image in real life. I am sure it will knock your socks off.

Peace – Youssef

The 2009 From Darkenss To Light wall calendar is now in stock and ready for delivery. For all those that have pre-ordered the calendar, they will ship out in the next 48 hours. Be on the lookout for them in, or I should say near your mailbox.

The printing this year is top notch and the look and feel of the paper used is, well the best way I can put it is luxurious!

To order a copy or more visit The Calendar page on the Organic Light Photography Website TODAY!

From Darkness To Light 2009 Calendar Cover

I spent most of today at the printers – Akido Printing in San Leandro at a press check of the 2009 From Darkness To Light wall calendar. It is a fascinating process to watch. On the older presses, like the Heidelberg Speedmaster it is still a very fly by the seat of your pants operation. Here is how it generally goes. The four aluminum plates go into the press, about 100 sheets are run, and then once the press starts putting out clean sheets, they are checked for proper color registration by using a loupe and the printed cross hairs in the slug area. If an adjustment is needed then the plate has to be loosened and hand adjusted and anouther 100 sheets are printed and checked. Its a tideous process but in the hands of a seasoned pro like Mark, the Press Master at Akido, it does not take long.

Once the registration is locked in, then the color tweaking begins. A little more cyan here, a little less magenta there. The repeatability is near non-existent. Color matching is basically attained by one’s eye with regards to the printed image. At the same time Mark pulls out a Gretag photospectrometer and reads the CMYK color swatches on the slug area of the sheet in the various zones across the sheet to check for the color balance across all the section and makes small adjustments in the color densities which gets electronically sent to the press where it will lay down more or less ink on the plates. Once I sign off on the proof, it is set aside and all other sheets coming off the press for that plate set are checked against my signed proof and colors are managed to the CMYK swatches of the proof.

The odd thing is once one set of plates are used for the run, they are trashed! A next set of plates are mounted and the whole process starts again. There really is no cross checking from plate set to plate set to maintain the same color as the previous run, although I think it could be done. I am going to reasearch this topic and report on it soon.

With the printing all finished, I should have the calendars as early as Thursday of this week! The front and back cover of this year’s calendar is shown in the image above. Visit The Calendar Page on the Organic Light Photography website to order your copy today!

It has been a week of long nights and hectic, and sometimes frustrating, work setting up and modifying this web journal to my liking. Many hours were spent on this endeavor and I can’t help but wonder if it was time well spent. Time is our most precious asest. Once time is spent, it is gone forever. And every moment that is spent brings us closer to our end, becuase unlike money or other property that can be regnerated, once we use our time up, our ‘time’ is up.

Probably not the best of topics to start off this web journal with, but it is one that will hopefully keep me aware of the time I spend on this. As I sit here tapping away on these old weathered keys writing I really have to wonder if my time is worth all of this. I guess only time will tell.

But undoubtedly I am sure the internet has to have taken the moniker of “The Thief of Time” away from the television by now. I have been so wound up working away and amazed at how much time it actually takes. Hopefully the time I have spent will be an investment that brings some good into the world, God knows it won’t give us more time.

Now that I have gotten this journal to about 95% of where I would like it, its now time to calm down and use my time in other ways. To help me reach a calmer state, I returned to the image that I have started this post with in the hopes that it can bring me back to the state of tranquility that I experienced when it was first captured. It is one of six new images released at Organic Light Photography   This photograph was captured several years ago and I recently re-processed it to my liking and is now available.  Take some time and calm down with this tranquil and calm Sierra tarn found in the Dana Meadows shadowed under Mount Dana.  But also take some time to be with those that you love before time runs out. Oh, and if you have some extra time and can spend just a little here, check out the other five images as well.  Enjoy!

1.  In the name of God, the Benevolent, the Merciful

2.  Praise is proper to God, Lord of the universe,

3.  the Benevolent, the Merciful,

4.  Ruler of the Day of Requital.

5.  It is You we serve, to You we turn for help.

6.  Show us the straight path,

7.  the path of those You have favored, not of those who are objects of anger, nor of those who wander astray.