I didn’t expect to see any pollination going on today… after all, this neighborhood is very new, and I’ve not seen anything in the way of bees around.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this little guy happily munching on this onion flower.
Did you have any idea that wasps are competent pollinators?
Who knew?
And did you know onions put out these crazy flowers?
SubhanaAllah! Alhamdulillah! Allahu Akbar!
I intended to capture something of ayat 57 of Surat Ghafir, and in some ways I did, but I have some misgivings about this picture:
That said, in some sense, this picture can be seen as a success: after all, could a digital camera capture the power and majesty of Allah Azza wa jall’s creation? And if it could, could a hack photographer like myself wield the tool appropriately? Allahu Alim.
La hawla wa la quatta illa billah.
InshaAllah, I’ll try again. There’s a specific spot on the drive to work that I want to try to capture, and that might work a bit better for this theme, even if the subject and method seems a bit hackneyed. Continue reading “Not quite.”
It would be time for tea, but I’m fasting. Alhamdulillah!
Heading downstairs for the first Suhoor of this blessed month.
Ramadan Mubarak!
Continue reading “Suhoor Time!”
I shot a tiny bit of video during the project… I shared one of these already, but maybe you’d like to see the others.
I’d like to find a way to hold the phone steady and keep the button mashed down, while using both my hands to do something else… That would require a second person, methinks.
I enlisted Hana to act as the grip, and she did a fabulous job. I’m just have a few control issues when it comes to art-making.
With just less than a week until Ramadan, Allah enabled me to finish with the doors.
As in episode v, I started by lightly sanding, then wiping down the doors, before adding a third and final coat of varnish.
From a distance, they look good. Alhamdulillah.
But don’t look too close… I left some drips in there in a few spots…
And let’s wrap this up with a mention of a few of things I used: Spar Urethane (and enough leftover to varnish the doors once a year for 8-10 years…); a nice dark stain; some natural mineral spirits; a handy-dandy step ladder; some shop towels; a couple of high quality brushes; some empty paint cans (one for stripper, pictured in an earlier episode; another for mineral spirits/cleaning brushes); sandpaper (in 60, 80, 120, 180, and 220 grit—suck it up and use actual paper and sweat… the sandpaper sponge things look like they’d work ok, but in practice they’re not great, and for a door like this, a mechanical sander is not really practical); and everybody’s favorite blue painter’s tape.
And one more thing: clean your brushes. Tap out as much mineral spirits as possible, then wring into a towel you don’t care much about. Then coat with dishwashing soap and massage under hot water. Wring into a clean towel and hang to try.
Warning(s): stripper, mineral spirits, stain, and urethane varnish are volatile and not good to breath in. Use with proper ventilation and keep children away as much as possible. Also, with your oil-soaked rags: hang them to dry thoroughly, don’t leave them in a pile in the corner, or all folded up somewhere—they can purportedly combust spontaneously.
Thanks for tuning in!
And last, but not least, a couple of comments on the Foxy/Robusta combo I used throughout this project.
It’s one of my favorites: pleasant border, interesting tones, good color. But I just noticed something: there are hairs, or threads or something in the lens or film filter… you can see them clearly in many of the door shots. I noticed them when preparing these posts, and thought there was something in the iPhone lens for a bit. So watch out for these, should you use this combo.
Tea Time (2). Testing the new “Intensity Control(tm)” slider in Cinamatic. This is the Bennet filter at 8 (of 9). Filters appear to start out at level 7, so you can push them up a bit if you want (and as I’ve done here).
The intensity slider is part of a new update (v. 1.1) that adds some fun ‘pro’ features that I’ll try out soon enough, InshaAllah. The Pro upgrade/add-on (free for current users; available for 99¢ to new users) includes saturation, brightness, and contrast sliders; the ability to add sound from your music library; and the ability to rearrange clips and to knit clips together to create videos longer than 15 seconds. You can also now import video; I’m not sure if this is part of v. 1.1 or part of the pro upgrade.
All in all, fun times.
