Frame My Brain...

Well well! What do you know! I'm typing this and amazed to see that Amazon Gadget is back beside the typing space here in this blog! (of course you won't see it). But something is weird about it still!
Anyway, I'm not in need for it right now. I've been busy working on my own projects, and I don't even read much. Even the previously-available time for reading (bed time) is taken with my exhaustion by the end of the day.
Right now, I've taken pictures for some frames' samples taken from the frames shop. They are, however, totally different than the ones I've used already for framing my prints for the expo, but some of them were really nice. They are 27 sample in total, but some of them seem to be repeated or so. For sure I won't include all of them in the catalog or the website, so I will try to make a choice later on.

One of my favorite frames

Taking the shots for the frames was another story. It was a time to recall the flash unit (580EX II). My setup was simple generally, specially that I've abandoned the hand-made softbox and also I didn't feel like using those desk lamps. My room is in such a mess that I don't feel like moving anything.
After testing some shots, and saving some images with various settings for the on-camera flash and the dedicated flash (580EX II mounted on a bracket above the camera level), seems that the best way was to bounce the flash from the ceiling. However, as I was trying somehow a high-key feel to the images, I had to increase the exposure to one stop, and sometimes two, and there is a sign of some green cast on the images (because of the side walls).

Shooting Configuration

This is the round disk I've used before for making object-panorama some time ago, and using the translucent paper (maps paper, tracing paper) to cover for the hard edge of the disk at the back. Same configuration used in my hand-made softbox, but this time without any side constraints and things are hanging freely. Of course, everything was settled on the rotating base of the VR-head which was dispatched solely to fit the white disk on. By the way, that's the shadow of the tripod on the background and not a camera shake or a ghost!
Now, I'm trying to sort out the frames and maybe give them a code of some sort (probably I won't use this code after all), but the dimensions of each frame (the depth or thickness and the height) must be included, so the customers can make a picture of their final framed picture. I had to borrow a vernier scale from work to do this task as a ruler proved hard to be used with such measurements (because of the curves in the frames). However, I will try to pick some of them for the catalog and the website and not all of them will be included. I'm thinking of a number of 10 or lesser. I wonder now if this is like opening a gate for me to try my hands on products photography (commercial photography). Who knows!

I'm not doing much of photography now, but lot of ideas occupying this skull. There is a panorama that I didn't work with before, and now a new idea for another panorama came along as well, but I don't like to tell much of the details of my future plans. However, the first panorama which I was trying to do requires some physical effort and help, and that's why I couldn't do it yet, while the second panorama which I'm thinking of now, involves the flash, and a proper place to depict the idea and the look I'm trying to achieve. Above all of that, there is also the trial to go to Failaka and spend one night there. I've tried to go during the long holiday (for the national day) but I've failed (and good thing I didn't go because there were news about some entrapment for the visitors). No time now to think of Geltani, or Ayvarith.

TJ Prints...

Been one busy week. I could hardly touch or even think of the camera. In between my work and my projects, and the exhausted body and turbulent sleeping, my inspirations for new photos was lost amid this atmosphere.
However, not everything was gone in a thin air. I've been trying my best to represent my photos already and I've managed to build a website and register my own domain, as well as working on a catalog (which is not over yet).

I've got some up and down comments about the prices that I've settled already for my pieces, but I wouldn't know the public's opinion until I try to show them myself. Everything will be evident by the time when the expo comes. So far, I'm not sure how good they are still. I'm not sure how I'm going to cope psychologically, because I'm sure there will be much stress, either I sell something or not, the stress is there.
My daily schedule for the time being is, go to work, come back home, and work on something; no exercises as I was planning, and sometimes I can't even stay awake in the afternoons because of the exhaustion, with the return of the traffic jam into the streets of Kuwait (with school return) and the erratic behavior of drivers on road and the stress coming with that. Sometimes I don't even feel like having my lunch and all what I look for is my bed. To keep it even busier, some car issues and meetings pampered me this week.

Back to my projects. As I've mentioned before, the projects with Geltani and Ayvarith recordings are on hold for now. I've made a model catalog but not being able to print it yet because I'm waiting for the next week to get some framing samples to photograph and put in the catalog as well (so customers can choose what framing they would like to have for their prints).
In the beginning I had to design a sample page, and thanks to my Bulgarian friend (you can tell she's a multi-talented) who worked with me to put the final touches to the overall look:

Sample catalog page. Click to enlarge (large image). And please don't be shocked for the price!

Ten pages of that kind were designed for old and new images, six of them are from Ireland and four of them are from Kuwait. There will be a cover page and some introduction page just before the beginning of the catalog itself.

The cover page. Seems final even though I'm not sure that it is to my satisfaction.

As for the website, I've been working the whole week (along side with the catalog), but the work seems far from finished with it, but the basic layout is there. I've registered the domain for a year so far, which was relatively cheap in fact and in hope that it will be so for some long time to come.

TJ Prints

I've included the catalog in the website already, but I had to turn off the Portfolio section after some technical problems. Typical with me. Nothing goes right easily. However, the work is still on.

The whole thing with the sales and selling my prints, makes me think of reducing my contribution to the stock photography websites like Mostphotos and Canstockphoto, as well as Bigstockphoto. I might keep my work uploaded in these websites, until revoked.

I can't wait until the national day here comes in and I might have some time to relax and sleep as much as I want (and stay awake as much as I want). Maybe new opportunities to use my camera are to come soon...

Here We Go...

They are here finally. Signed, sealed and... framed. Soon to be delivered hopefully. It did cost me a fortune somehow but I have some hopes on selling those and gain some profit to cover up for my losses in February so far (specially after paying up the bills for electricity and water).

Signed, sealed, framed.

However, the experience here in taking this picture was something I wanted to do long time ago. Funny though that I had to fix my camera with the flash unit attached to it, by my spiderpod (or gorilla pod as some call it I think) and all is wrapped on a toy car. The flash was pointed upward to bounce of the ceiling even though the ceiling is not close so much, but the illumination was fair I'd say. For an experiment like this I didn't think of doing HDR out of the situation. Too bad I didn't think of taking a picture of the set!
The experience is new to me but the idea is old in fact. I always wanted to do such a panorama where the image can be kept flat instead of being wrapped, and that implies that I can't use the VR-head and rotate the camera on location, but I have to move the camera in a straight line as much as possible in order to keep the perspective, and the blend should be then some sort of a collage for all the images.

In Photoshop there is definitely a "collage" blend, but of course the Photoshop era was long gone. I had to sort things out with a baby called PTGui. However, using PTGui with complete manual control, means there are things to be done, unlike the totally automatic and relatively easy processing in Photoshop.

On another note, I've dug up some old photos that I didn't touch or process before. Or should I say panoramas that I didn't stitch before.
Because of my search for some material to add on the list and prepare a catalog for some prints-to-be, I've began sweeping through some of the old pictures and folders, and of course I had to stop by 2010's Ireland's collection. There, I've discovered one small panorama that I didn't touch and post before, but I've prepared the HDR slides already!

Once Upon A Gothic

Maybe one of the reasons that made me look away from this image is the fact that there are some people in the image and usually stock sites don't like images in that way (or let's say they ask you to put on a model release for each person in the image sometimes!). Anyway, things have changed as it seems. Looking back at this image and looking at my workflow now it is amazing how many things have changed about my considerations and techniques.
The HDR slides for this small panorama were taken on tripod without VR-head. Generally, a small panorama like this (4 slides) might not cause much of a headache in stitching. However, the bracketing for HDR was done in -3,0,+3 sequence, and THAT proved to be a problem. Back then, I thought such EV level is something good to include extremes of highlights and shades, but judging from my position now, I think -2,0,+2 is enough (and even this might cause some problems at certain atmospheres). I think now it is the time to use metering from the camera to decide on a proper range of EVs, specially before working with a full panorama.
In case you are wondering about the title, this is because I think the architectural style here is Gothic; elongated windows and sharp tops. They say the medieval architecture in Ireland was greatly influenced with this Gothic style and some argue as well that it was brought to the island from southern France in that specific era.

I'm in a rush now to do many things before the time of the expo comes; a catalog, and even a website. For this rush, my recordings for Alexander's story - 6th chapter, and also working on my Geltani project, all are on hold for the time being. All what I'm hoping for is to cover up for some of the expenditures I had to bear this month, by selling some of these prints for real. I've wiped out all my salary already and no way to save anything now...

Canvases...

Exhaustive week! I'm trying to prepare myself for an expo by next month, and I'm trying to get things ready before and also, trying to learn more about what to do and what I can do, and most importantly, pricing. As some experts (or so I think) are saying on some websites as I surfed about the topic, they advise not to sell myself short (i.e. selling cheap). I believe this is true since I did already suffer for taking these images in the first place (from here and from Ireland, singular shots and panoramas). Yet to come, framing them in proper frames.

I. Canvases Around:

I made the prints in two batches (i.e. two days) and even though I wanted to print more panoramas and I had some ambitions about making a very large print (2m x 2m; ~ 6ft x 6ft) yet for the time being and for such an experience like this, I think it is too early to do so (specially on canvas papers).

The shots, and just for fun, were shot with flash using my new flash gels to balance the color of the tungsten lighting in the rooms. The sizes of the major panoramas here were fixed with dimensions around 50cm X 50cm (maybe around 1.5ft x 1.5ft). One of them in fact had few centimeters in height more than its width but I can't remember which! The rest of images were printed around the ISO size of A2 (in fact smaller since there is a margin and a crop).
Now, I've picked my images to the framing shop and chose some different frames, and it did cost a fortune. I think selling those for a range of 100KD to 300KD would be fair (~$360 to $1080) and it won't be something I'm exaggerating with. What brings my budget down even more, is the fact that I've paid the bills of electricity and water for the house (without telling anyone), as I'm supposed to be the man of the house at the moment. The consequences of that are around one third of my salary is gone. Another third have gone with preparations for the expo, and some of the last third of my salary is gone on daily expenditures. I'm waiting for the end of this month, and I don't know how I will manage till then. We have a celebration coming along for the national day of Kuwait on the 25th and 26th of February which will fall on Saturday and Sunday, and I'm not sure an extra day would be given here (for Saturday, since it is part of the weekend). I need more sleep here.

II. Back to Ayvarith:

Now, because of the busy week I had here, and because I'm getting myself busier with my new books, I didn't get the time to work more on Geltani script and language, but I managed to snap some time to record the 5th chapter of Alexander's story. You can read the Ayvarith version and listen to it in here, or you can read the English version of the story here.
Now it is the time to record chapter 6, which is something impossible to be done in one day like I did with the previous chapters already. Thus, chapter 6 will be done on several days, if not weeks, or months! I just know my lazy nature already and how much I give myself some excuses just to delay things. I have to banish these habits, but I don't know how...

For the time being, I'm so sick of driving my car and the damn peace of gear which was supposed to be ordered since the end of the December, is not here yet and no one called me to pick the car to the garage. I hate cars and their problems more than I hate Satan himself. I'm starting just to hate the idea of going out of home because I know the suffering in advance. This said, maybe it is time now to rely a bit more on my credit card and stop paying things in cash or by direct deduction (by ATM card). I have enough, but I hate to believe, that this month I'm not saving a single penny...

Rain Rain Rain...

Things are going frantic here. Thursday (today) is the election day for parliament members and we have also one day off (mainly for the occasion of the birth of prophet Mohammed, not the elections). The week was sluggish but nice one with some rains here and there (typing this as the rain is pouring outside). Rains here are a bless despite all the fuss and the mud you might have to step on, like in my work place!
Not much progress, in this week, with my various projects or photography, but only with one inventive perspective (well, not so inventive) done to some old panorama, and might enable me to manipulate older panoramas as well in the same manner:

Circulorum

The "perspective" in use here was Transverse Mercator; one of the rarely used perspectives (or projections). Supposedly, the Transverse term is a note that this projection is suitable for vertical panoramas or a panorama taken in landscape orientation I'd say. However, my panorama here is not vertical of course, but it yielded some result that I didn't think of before, and with the scattered rocks it helped me create a view similar to that of the classical magnetic field experiment with iron filings. I think such perspective is not suitable to just any scene, but only few like this one, which would be helped out by such projection style to add order to chaos.

For the time being I'm trying to figure out my options as I might join some expo with my sister. Not an easy decision, nor an easy work to be done. I despise the paperwork and this project is heavily loaded with it. I might as well create a logo and make it my official logo for future uses. There are many details that have been discussed, and I get a headache almost instantly.
On the other hand, I have 3 thick books waiting to be finished with. I'm reading 2 books and trying to divide the time equally between them but I think I failed so far, as the book concerned with flash photography is taking my interest the most.

Well, maybe it will be hard to take shots at night the few coming days, so I might as well just sit calmly and organize my camera backpack and my tools. There might be a travel waiting for me in June to Chicago, but I'm not optimistic about it. It is just a training course related to work, and most probably I won't be given the grant that's necessary for my training (by my work place). Not that I care much about it, but I think I do need some vacation somehow.

I'm going now, as the water seeped through my window with this heavy rain... wishing for a better week coming in advance...

Dipping...

What a chilly week! Now it feels like a REAL winter here. Our winter is not like it is in other countries where the temperature goes below zero (talking in Celsius) but anyway, in this week some areas were reported to be under zero by the night or mornings.
Now the challenge was to try and take some shots at night from the beach area, where the weather is severer. Went fine, but I had to bear with joint pains a bit until I got into a warmer place.

I was lucky with some timing for the low tide and like the previous time, I had to bear later on with increasing water level on the beach in this cold weather. Sometimes, only some times, you do like it when you suffer so much to create one image. My image, however, was a panoramic and essentially required such suffering!

Urban Romance I

I was lucky with the atmosphere somehow and the timing as well. I didn't know there is a crescent in the horizon (though I regret now that after I finished, I didn't take a single shot for the crescent). This allowed me to do two perspectives of the same panoramic scene (flat, that is) just by changing the perspective of the moon itself or the rocky beach.

Urban Romance II

Maybe the water in this location didn't cause me so much of a hard time, but to walk on all that soft sand from the parking lot to this piece of land and carrying my stuff was enough to give me some muscles stretching.
Of course there are other projections and styles, as usual, but maybe the one I liked the most (with some loss in details) is what I called the Sky Hugger.

Sky Hugger

It is in fact some form of the Wide-View angle that I used to apply for lot of panoramas lately, specially those from Ireland, but the concentration here was more on forming a unique curve in the shape of "U," with equal distances from the sides (from top). I don't believe this projection style is suitable to any panorama anyway. There was also a little planet projection, but maybe I did some sort of a mistake here for not cropping the outside portion to enlarge the planet itself:

Planeta Petris

The reason for not cropping the outside portion (or the space around the planet) is that in the original size I wanted to show some stars. However, and because of the high ISO (800) that took over the whole process, I had to resort to some tricks (mainly the median trick) to eliminate lot of the grain noise. With that, lot of stars got eliminated and we are left with blue space only. There are some tiny stars still left (and I tried manually to control the median effect by layer mask) but anyway it was a tedious work.
The title Planeta Petris (Rocky Planet) and also for the images done before like Planeta Ignis (Fire Planet), they gave me an idea of creating a series of "planets" if I should say, and each one of them will point to some element: Fire, Water, Air, Earth. Seems, for the time being, we have already two at hands; the fire element and the earth. How on earth I'm going to do a water and air planets, this is something I need to boost my imagination about (and certainly, daydreaming).

The night after this, I headed again to the beach and it was a REAL low tide. That is the minimum level of water and I worked in relatively a close portion of the beach, away from the water. This time it was just an experiment with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens and long exposure. The main aim was to record star trails, but I think I miss chose my location.

Fluorescent Shades

As you can see from the image above, the shadow of the tripod is apparent. It was not a good picture after all but experimenting is made for learning after all. In this spot, Burger King was at my back and its lights, even though being pitched darkness almost, did affect the location and cast a shadow of the tripod on such a long exposure (10 minutes). The scenery wasn't specifically attractive to me and I believe I should have done it in the previous location the night before, but now I remembered that I moved from that location in the first place because there were some unexpected visitors (at 4 a.m.) and I didn't like to be asked what I'm doing by curious people (and harmful ones at times). The trail was not long enough though, and I think I would need more like 15 to 20 minutes to create long enough (impressive) lines in the sky.
Despite the icy weather, I took off from the location with some pain in the joints (knuckles specially) and dragged myself to my car then took off to buy some goods.
In that location specifically, which I took a shot for before in some long time ago, I did try my Rokinon lens again and I had to do it fast after I finished shopping. Working fast was for two reasons mainly: a) security people, b) to finish before any glimpse of sunrise. The ISO, however, proved to be problematic. I've set ISO to 400 just to speed up the shuttering time, but that proved to be a great mistake and was unable to fix the weird noise, but finally I had satisfy myself with one of the 3-bracketed shots.

Forest of Lights

Forest of Lights (old)
Canon 350D, ISO800 f/18
Small panorama.

That said and done for now, I've finally received my shipment from the DHL (arrived by Saturday and got them finally on Tuesday). Three books are now added to the queue line and I'm squandering my time between 2 books (one of them is purchased some time ago, about swords!). Among other things I've got now is a set of gel filters (which I have to make some time for and cut some pieces of it). These gel filters are supposed to be used with my Canon 15mm fisheye lens. I've some pieces already from the three types (1-, 2-, 3-stops) and tried them out and they are fine so far. The only problem is with storing them properly since they all come together in one plastic bag and they are not separated according to their values in separate packs.
There are flash gels (to color the flash shots) which I tried briefly so far, and they seem not bad except for the velcro stickers that keep on dispatching every time I want to remove the gel from the flashgun. I'm not sure how I will be using these for the time being but it's good to keep them on hand just in case. They are good for light painting, definitely. Storing them and re-using them is a problem though.

All of this is on one hand, and my other projects, like the Geltani conlang is on hold for now. Not really on hold, but the progress is slow and I'm still doing some tests here and there about it. As for the new recording for the Ayvarith project, I didn't record yet my 5th part yet. Let's hope, this coming week? Maybe! If only I can get rid of my emotions...

Laboriosus

Something went wrong this week. I don't know what is it exactly but all I know is that I've been idle and unable to perform well, with my mind or my camera. Well, at least I did something last week (after my last post) with my camera, otherwise, the week was vague. I'm trying to push myself to do some work out, even simple ones, just to activate my body somehow but even that was a fail. Anyway, in the "good news" department we have a new recording available, this time for chapter 4 of Alexander's story. You can check the English version (text only) here, and the Ayvarith version with sound clips here.
Now, let's hope I don't lag behind with chapter five.

I. More Geltani:

The progress with the new conlang and conscript is slow, yet I'm trying to work around it as much as I can. I'm settling my mind here and there about some aspects of syllables and seems I will be deriving a syllabic system out of the original Geltani script which will be dedicated for writing foreign names in Geltani. Ironically, I'm not sure how to write down "Geltan" in the Geltani script! Most probably I would make a name completely different in pronunciation.
One of the real problems that face me right now is some of the ambiguities encountered because of the abjadic nature of the Arabic orthography and script. Abjadic systems (like Arabic and Hebrew) tend to record the consonants alone and add only signs for vowels (in Arabic case, short vowels only are represented with signs and long ones with letters). Just an example from Arabic to elaborate this idea, the possibilities branching from the letters MLK.

MLK [ملك]

Mulk [مُلك]: Kingdom/Ownership.

Malik [مَلِك]: King

Malak [مَلَك]: (he) ruled/owned (Also "angel" in some context).

Mulik [مُلِك]: (he) was owned.

All of these versions of simply 3 letters (and the Arabic language is full of such examples) makes it hard for me to think of a way to go around it when forming words in Geltani based on Arabic. The original idea is mimicking the Arabic letters in form of lines in the first place, but I didn't plan for mimicking the vowels and their signs as well. I'm not sure how to go around such a problem yet, but maybe it lies somewhere between inventing new shapes and symbols and/or creating more sounds for them, or maybe exchanging short vowels for long ones to make the original Arabic word more like alphabetic in nature rather than abjadic. I have yet to think about it.

Another problem on the line is the packing of strokes and whether or not to allow one word to be written into 2 diagrams (or characters). Most probably I would try to fit all in one character as much as possible, because for the time being, and adding some grammatical twist to the whole language, I've decided to let preposition articles to be placed after the word in one line (while the sentences are written vertically top to bottom from left to right).

I'm running to simplify the grammar as much as possible (and that might be awkward when expressing some moods and modes). One of such cases is the conditional (if statements) and the habitual (would statements). So far, I've created a special character for regular and passive tenses, plus the conditional "should". Who knows, I might as well add to the already established characters for verbal words.

The initial design for verbal characters and their divisions. The tense is designated by the number of dots (not the placement of the dot).
Studying possible combinations of both divisions, regular and passive, in order to express more moods and modes.

Other variations of the same characters

II. In Slow Motion:

The beach area was a target, again, to my camera. This time though, although close to McDonald's area where I usually shoot, but it is the first time I land on the sand. I have to admit though that I went there in a hurry and didn't completely equip myself properly (specially with flashlights). The wind was strong and chill but I was determined to work with my lenses AND my ND filters as well. The ND filters caused me another problem but this time I had to investigate after this problem and I discovered that it is something reported widely for Cokin's ND filters. More details will come later on.
The clouds were nice. Not scattered much like cotton balls as I wished but they had nice shapes after all. The first thing was to try my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens with some long exposure before the sunrise above the horizon. The timing here is critical since I don't have any filters to fit fisheye lenses, so I have to time my work with darkness. The best I could get was within the range of 2 minutes exposure after all, and more than that proved to be problematic somehow. To add to my problems, as the time was a morning time and the sun would rise abvoe the horizon, then once you calculate the time required for the shutter, you have to expect that you might get blown highlights because of the gradual increase in the light level in the atmosphere.
However, it did work out well with me in the beginning with my 8mm, and made two shots; vertical and horizontal one.

Racing Heaven
~100 seconds

Race of Heavens
~120 seconds

The clouds' race is more obvious in the landscape orientation (naturally since it shows more and wider view of the sky), while the first one probably is good in the contrast between the sky and the sand.
Both images were fixed from distortion by DxO Optics Pro. This software got the option to fix the distortion without cropping (to keep the aspect ratio of width and height) and hence it gives more stretching effect on the sides and I think it is a good thing for long exposures of this kind. Notice in both shots here, the sun didn't rise yet and it was relatively dark on location.
After being done with my fisheye lens, comes here my EF-S 18-55mm lens, which is the widest thing I have right now which I could use filters with. The sun here started to show a bit, or let's say the sun rays, but the darkness was diminishing slowly. For now, although I do use metering by camera to judge how many ND filters I would need, but I got somehow a grab of sense on it. Not firmly, but a bit. I directly used 3xND8 filters (that is 9 stops: 3+3+3). One minute exposure was enough but as time was progressing, it came down to 30 seconds exposure which made the scene that I want. However, I got the same weird problem again, which eventually I've discovered that it has nothing to do with the white balance, but rather it is the make of the ND filter itself.

The scene directly from RAW file.
30 seconds exposure.

As seen, the scene is reddish and I used to get this many times in my trials with long exposures. They say a good ND filter would NOT give such a result and the colors should remain with no change, at least virtually. However, some mending process did the job to some extend the scene was recovered; but the question is, is that useful every time I take a long exposure with those filters?

Coming

I have to say though, despite the apparent "malfunctioning" of such filters, I do like the reddish look indeed. But maybe not this time.

III. Re-Visited:

The panorama taken 2 weeks ago from a deep point on the beach was something hardly can be done again (although I'm thinking about it seriously). For this reason it was hard for me to satisfy myself with what I've done before about this panorama. I felt there is more to be done.

Nox Salmiyah

Planeta Ignis

In the previous formations done with this panorama particularly, the white balance was not changed when the HDR was made out of the shots. The white balance was Daylight back then. However, with me having RAW files, I have the flexibility to change the white balance significantly.
From previous experiments with the night sky on the roof of my own home, I've realized that Tungsten white balance works better with such atmosphere. It simply adds some magic. But first, I had to recombine the whole set of images into HDR slides and setting the WB to Tungsten. It was then time to work with PTGui again, which was not an easy process (spent around 2 or 3 days trying to fix some images in their places).

Topmost

Personally, I did like it better than the previous two. In this shot however, which looks like a single shot with a fisheye lens, I've used the Mercator projection in PTGui; a projection style that I don't use much and to me, it doesn't differ much from the cylindrical projection except in some stretch in some areas (the height specifically). However, I think the Mercator projection here helped on curving the horizon upward and forming a shape of Earth's surface from outer space.
Hence we conclude, a change in WB can change the mood and feel of the image completely.

IV. Waiting...

Finally, I've placed some orders for some books and simple stuff for my camera. Things I've delayed for long until now and I think it's time to have them. This year will be starting with some heavy debt on my credit card but I need to. My plans for a vacation seem to be delayed for now and I'm not sure I will be traveling this year even. Traveling to me is more than a vacation in fact; it is a time for photography.
One of the most important items I'm waiting for right now, is something that would supposedly can solve the matter of long exposures with my Canon 15mm fisheye lens: Gel Filters.

Source B&H

Supposedly it is a pack that contains four  1-, 2-, and 3-stops filters of each. Frankly, I'm not sure it will fit in the place of the filters at the back of the fisheye lens, or would I have to cut it (as I've been told before) but I'm going to try something new after all. The thing now is to try to use such thing, if possible, with my other Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens.
Another set of gels was ordered but not for lenses this time. They are supposedly to fit my flash head in case I need to change the color cast of the flash head. No plans for using them now, but they would expand my options and might create new ideas in the near future.

Source: B&H

Finally, on the "tools" section, we have a bracket that will help me to place the flash a bit away from the camera or on the side, while still carrying it along with the camera.

Vello CB-500 Dual Shoe Bracket
Source: B&H

Now to the books section. I'm waiting for 3 books, but one of them is not about photography, but about some old passion inside me that is still burning; Archaeology.
I've stopped reading about archaeology for some time, but I felt that I have to get back now and kindle this passion again. Too bad I couldn't study this field in my early days. Anyway, the book is entitled: Forensic Recovery of Human Remains: Archaeological Approaches.


On the other hand, there two photography-related books:
1. The Photographer's Guide to Making Money: 150 Ideas for Cutting Costs and Boosting Profits.
2. Mastering Canon EOS Flash Photography.

As you can see I'm sort of dedicated to understand the flash unit more and how to control the light. Let's hope this field is digested with this little mind of mine, because I did find it difficult before to "paint" an image with light in my mind. Quite an essential capability if you want to deal with portrait photography in the first place.

Well, I've put so much in this post for now. Hope you didn't get a headache going through all of this. It's time for me to put it down, and hit the sack. So much headache involved in doing this blog... gosh!