Alexander 4, V4.

It sounds that however and how much ever sleeping I get, it is always hard to get up for some reason! I slept almost 10:30 p.m. yesterday and this is considered an early time for me, but yet, it was hard to get up this morning. Anyway, it was not so late to stuff around the house before I leave.
Still working on my experiment for working in the darkness and taking pictures of my censer (or scenter as I called it before). Still not so-good results. For this reason I went over the manual again and I think I would need some extra tools that I have to put them on my wishlist for the coming months to be purchased, and these are some tools to trigger the flash remotely (wireless or by cord). I went to check Canon store near by, and unfortunately for me, I think I came earlier than usual (as usual) and the store was closed. Anyway, I think they wouldn't have such tools, and if they do, it would be triple the original price. As for the time being I would continue to use the mounted flash as it seems.
Pointing my flash to the roof was not a bad idea, but yet, it did not give the results I'm seeking. More to that, the flames inside the censer just vanish as if the censer is turned off and no candle is burning inside. Here and there, I've summed many images taken yesterday into HDR, and the usual hard noise appeared;

Tone-mapped image of the censer made by several shutter speeds (~5 shots)

The image looks neat (somehow) when it is small, but in reality it is like my face; full of moles and pimples! The colors look smooth and nice and you wouldn't guess it was taken in a dark room (a completely dark room except of a LCD monitor in the far corner). Yet, unfortunately, the noise covered the whole area. It would be nice if I have the knowledge on how to trigger the flash as desired and when desired, and I'm still working on it, but the thing is, Auto-bracketing for exposure is not available when you connect the flash (or even when using the camera's flash itself). I think I read some where that I can separate the functioning (from Fn functions in the flash itself), so I will have to try again today and see for myself if this will allow me to use auto-bracketing.

On the other hand, there are some nice images taken with a single shot without the necessity of combining into HDR (although HDR is supposedly to have wide range of EVs), but there is always a problem with such shot, specially with my flash mounted on the camera and not placed in some angle;

The Censer taken in a single shot with flash

As you can see, it is somehow OK, but it's lacking lot of aspects that I want to put in this image. The flames inside, as a beginning, are not so bright and pale somehow. The shadows on the right hide some details and do not reveal a unique shape for the censer (as a whole). Finally, there is the annoying reflection of the flash from the lusterous body of the censer. My camera was in portrait position and for this reason, the flash would shoot on the side of the censer and drop a shadow to the right. However, even fixing the camera into landscape position, that would give off a reflection on the main body. The colors and shadows are somehow enhanced with RAW editor of Photoshop, yet, the reflection of the flash is annoying and hard to be cloned out (if not impossible).

I sound a bit lazy now for trying all these experiments and forgetting to continue the work on my collection from Ireland. Anyway, I think 3 photos to be added to the collection and get it ready is a matter that can be done in a matter of 30 minutes to one hour. Thus, I'm postponing this for the time being.

I let go of my imagination about today and wrote another poem and named it after my "beloved" image that I snapped some weeks ago, "The King of Chairs". This picture reminds me (and intended to be so) of the situation that we live here almost everyday and all the paper work that one has to do to even pick his nose off. No offence, but I started to hate administrative people by every passing day. However, posting the poem in some forums here and there seems indeed a hard task (specially if you want to link it to some image!). All these codes started to bug my heads and I had to work on 2,534,599 tabs in my Firefox.

__________

73. with some courage did the men stand up
74. and waiting for what they will be facing
75. and the march into the black heaven started
76. and Alexander viewed strange strings over the trees
77. some of them were tied and some of them were loose
78. and some of them were long and others were short
79.  some of them were made of animal hair
80. while some of them were made of plants
81. and the black birds stood on the branches
82. watching the men of valour going to their fates
83. while the silence was heavier than metals
84. a shout appeared out of no where
85. while one man went missing
86. and the screams of agony hammered
87. and men went missing one by one
88. then one villager shouted with a full mouth
89. "Dogs and Cats! Attacking our backs!"
90. the army turned to the back in a surprise
91. and found out it was in a circe of doom
92. made out by hoards of mutants
93. some of them were like cats and dogs
94. and some of them were like pigs or boars
95. and the shock paralyzed everyone
96. while Chidhwárthí mumbled "I knew it!"

 

Alexander 4, V3.

Quiet day relatively, despite the fact that it is Monday! Well, not quite quiet, since I had to pick up back my sister's laptop from the damn workshop. The filthy technician requested extra 5 K.D. for installing the "right" Windows XP, which he did not do in the beginning. He installed an Arabic version and yet, a non-genuine one and I could not do an update. He was acting like beggar really. He made me angry again after I made a decision to calm myself down, but he is a rude one indeed.

Back to work, I had to prepare some samples of tuna and sardines to put them in the freeze dryer;



Believe me guys, with all due respect, the guy who invented sardines is an idiot! What's wrong with flexible cans? My can opener did not work and I made such a mess (and a horrible smell) all over the lab just to get these samples out into some plastic bag. Sardines ARE rocket science guys!


I spent the last night on doing an experiment in a dark environment with only my censer lit (can burn aromatic oils and candles). Well, it was a chance as well to try my filters out and try some long exposures, however, generally speaking the experiment did not go very well (specially with lot of noise in long exposured images). I tried to take images of the lit censer as well in several shutter speeds and I also got my flash involved (and that was an awkward move). The flash's problem is, I can't work with it solely without being connected to the camera (I can, but the control is cumbersome since it is not designed to work that way). This matter is a problem for me now since I want to give some instant light to the objects I want to take a picture of, but from a different angle other than the camera's direction (specially the sides). I will think about it and see if there are some cables or so. My camera is old and do not have the wireless control over the flash, thus, it must be done by a cable of some sort. Combining the images later on was awkward as well, in Photoshop and in Photomatix. Lot of noise and doubled or tripled EV values. All of this, as I believe, is for the lack of my understanding for EV concept. Anyway, I'm looking forward to make out something from these images already.

For the time being, I've finished reading my HDRI handbook, the one written by Christian Bloch (he is apparently a nice guy please visit his page, and, don't forget the credit as well!).

It is a magnificent book, specially for beginners. Before reading this book, I used to tone-map my HDR images down and I thought this is the core of the event, but now the whole concept had changed in my mind and there are lot of things that I could have fixed in old images that I made (specially those from Ireland) if I was to read this book before this time! However, there is no solution for any blured images!
As for now, and beside working on the translation work for Alexander VI story, I'm starting to read the books that I've already got from Ireland (from a souvenirs shop!). They had been in the dark corner for long now, and I think this is the right time. But, I will still think of some photography books to purchase, specifically from "rocky nook" series. As for the time being, I picked a little book entitled "Irish Ghosts" by John J. Dunne.

 

The cover is different, but the title and the author's name are the same, so I would say they are the same book. By the way, I might be fascinated by ghost stories, but I didn't say I like to meet one, ok?

I've forgot already how many books I've purchased from J.P. Keogh & Sons shop, but I remember I've purchased something about the Irish dancing and something about Irish music with music sheets (or notes) in it.

This one here is a small book, I shouldn't take much time to finish it all! I hope! But the most important thing for me now is, to burn my writing skills back as I did stop for a long time now in favor for photography and experimenting with my camera.

Words got beauty in my heart.

__________

49. and by arriving there the villagers shouted
50. "Alexander O Master, let us get back
51. the lands is not ours and shall not be!"
52. thus Alexander was surprised and wondered
53. "what is that you are saying O good people?"
54. then a villager named Chidhwárthí advanced
55. and with a weak voice full of fear he did say
56. "O Master of the good, you never heard of Zimúrá,
57. the land of mischief and the heaven of mutants?
58. the forefathers were sinners and so they were after them
59. like animals they live and hunt, and mercy left them out
60. cannot you see how black is their place?
61. cannot you smell how it is full of bad scents?
62. cannot you feel how gloomy this place is?
63. come on O Master, let us not waste the lives
64. there are so much good can be spread elsewhere"
65. then in a humble voice did the hero say
66. "O good man, I was not ordered to retreat,
67. did you not follow me asking for glory
68. did you not forsake the justice to be all over
69. what is the value of your lives amid the fear
70. and what is the value of your deeds for no good
71. who is afraid to come let him be back to his wife
72. and I am not leaving this, until God commands me!"

Alexander 4, V2.

Waking up late is, a very bad idea. And it is a very bad day after all. I realy don't know if this is the beginning of my week or the middle of it or just a day not counted in my life.
After bringing back my sister's laptop yesterday from the damn workshop, we discovered that the Windows is not original AND it is an Arabic version, after telling the damn guy 3 times that I want an English one. Thus, I had to pick it back again today.
Waiting there as usual for 15 to 20 minutes just for the store to open up (in Kuwait people respect the time indeed... NOT). He argued that I have to pay another 35KD for the Windows and for his kindness he settled that down to installing an original Windows without paying. So generous. Out of the damn place I just had the heck out of the cars who seem to be driving like they've just been awakened at 10 O'clock, A.M. Because of this and that, I do feel just so down that I can't concentrate on anything. Beside waking up late and having to go out just go get me breakfast (and cat food). Cats are far more better than human beings. As for now, I'm wishing to close my eyes and wake up to see the weekend in front of me.
Amid the harsh flow of feelings and the confused mind, I couldn't resist my Notepad and started hitting some non-sense keystrokes all over the keyboad to finally give up with Singing Wind. It had been some long time since I've made a poem or wrote something. I hope this event is the initial spark for a continuous work on that side. I hate to leave the field just like that. I need to work again on my story "Blackened Image" as well, but how to collect my thoughts, this is another story.
And just when I thought my day (or whatever left of it) will pass easily, the devices in the lab did not work properly, and yet, the quantities of the samples are not enough already. Bravo. I survived the day at least!

__________
25. three days passed and Alexander was waiting
26. he organized the bulughmans into an army
27. now they can defend themselves by themselves
28. after the passage of three days, Heavens got ready
29. and sent the signals to him by the skies
30. where every cloud pointed like an arrow above
31. here, Alexander shouted to his men with amazement
32. "O men of valour, North shall we be heading,
33. I knew it before and I am sure of it now. So here we go."
34. and the horsemen and foot soldiers gathered
35. behind their leader and started to march
36. to the North where they never been before
37. amid the rumble of the dissatisfied men
38. while some of them are tired of the journeys
39. and the weight of metals broke their backs
40. and on the way they encountered villagers
41. some joined them and some sought their help
42. while some abandoned their villages with fear
43. thus Alexander had more men for his army
44. but some of them were not trained or weak
45. but they were happy to seek for glory
46. with a just man like Alexander, the hero
47. and fifteen days passed between the valleys
48. until they arrived to a thick black forest

Alexander 4, V1.

Still struggling. I seem can't fill the interior circle for my new work of "Caisleán Achadh na nIubhar - Little planet". The projection makes a hole in the middle which will be filled with white in case I saved as a JPG, unfortunately. I'm trying to work around this problem for a week now! And as always, my RAMs are always a pain.

Early Friday, that is, after midnight and the beginning of Friday, I went on a little semi-adventure after dropping my friend back home, alive. While driving here and there that night I noticed that beautiful building that I insisted on snapping it, and since my friend was a chicken I had to drop him back home and then get to work. I wonder if he was afraid of ghosts at that time or just afraid of cops. However, I went on roaming around that building here and there trying to catch a good spot to snap it, and in the same, an isolated one somehow. I went into some weird alleys, full of dust and bumps and my car almost turned into a bicycle, but the angle there was not so good. After all, I roamed around again and found out a nice spot although it was not so isolated but yet it was somehow a quiet place; the parking lot in front of the Khalijiya complex, where the DHL facility lies. There far away in the parking lot, I used my telephoto lens in a speedy manner in that cold weather that I didn't check even some settings for mirror-lock-up before shooting, and snapped the image;

The images were hard to compose though into HDR. I took 6 images (2 series of 3 shots, with focus changing from f5.6 to f16). The problem is, the wind played a role and shook the tripod a bit. Photomatix played a nice role in aligning the displacement somehow but Photoshop did not. The technique of aligning images is described in the HDR book made by Christian bloch, and seems the Photomatix algorithm is more complex than its counterpart in Photoshop. However, some work was needed later on to cool down the colors (the original image was yellowish) and to crop the image to remove the objects at the bottom that were blocking the way of my lens. I'm not completely satisfied about it but at least, I tried. The moon at the top is a later addition, beside, there was a crane on the top of the building that I had to clone-out.

It's not the first time I take a picture of this building by the way, but that night was special. The blue lights in the building were magnificent.

__________

1. thirty days and thirty nights the hero spent
2. in the lands of the bulughmans, the nomads
3. he taught them arts and crafts
4. he taught them how to speak in manners
5. he taught them how to write and read their own words
6. their letters were called the Bogol
7. and their tribes as the bulughmans
8. and then he taught them how to build houses
9. how to plant trees and how to find water
10. then he prayed to God to bless the lands
11. and clean the hearts from envy and mischief
12. as much as He desires so to be for them
13. then the rumbling started among the men
14. some are tired and some want the homelands
15. while some asked for more lands to takeover
16. and now Alexander had half of what he had
17. he stood in the middle of his camp
18. one point from his hand and everyone was silent
19. and after praising God and His favors
20. and after he reminded them about his vow
21. he announced firmly to them
22. that he will not move or get back
23. until the commands of God reveal themselves
24. or until his soul is taken away from his body

Alexander 3, V6. Last.

Spending some time still working on ONE exr file that exhausted my PC completely! I've been working on ths image for 2 or 3 days now. Unfortunately I had to reduce the size into 50% (and that is from ~20,000 pixels to something around 10,000 pixels. Width and Height).
You might think it is still big or something but I was really ambitious for that large file. One major problem now is to cover the hole in the middle with a grass-like pattern. I tried to do that in the HDR status but seems this is unfesable for the time being and I might have to tone-map it down. As for the time being I've been fixing the exposures in certain areas of the image since the castle field image was taken in a sunny day. By the way the "regular" image can be found still in my profile in Canstockphoto. My work with other photos (and scans of some pictures taken back in 1996 from Iran) is almost paralyzed until I finish this one particular photo.

__________
121. Ishkán, Chirán and Keríhom
122. three generals with mighty swords
123. these will surround the Bulughmans
124. and be their defence in war time
125. and so on with the bless they went on
126. workers extracted the ores from the land
127. and a dam was made over the valley
128. and when Jawgá Majawgá felt it
129. they attacked worse than the beasts of the deserts
130. and the men of Alexander suffered severely
131. for the beasts did not spare their bodies
132. and the archers pointed to their eyes
133. for it was the only way to astray them
134. and the men of Galgalom assaulted heavily
135. deep into the valley of Malúnet, the damned
136. they perished but with victory and honour
137. and Galgalom lost limbs until he died
138. and then the dam was ended in a hurry
139. stretching from the two mountain tops
140. blocking the way and harder than rocks
141. all men then retreated behind the dam
142. and dug the graves for their friends and mates
143. and the black banners were raised high
144. for those who had no apparent grave

Alexander 3, v5.

A day marked with sluggish movements. I'm kind of used to sleeplessness by now but today was something different. Wherever I go, I must do something wrong; wrong movement, crushing into something... you name it. Thank God I didn't bring my camera with me today. Although I don't know what I was thinking and I did not have a clear plan on what to snap, but I just felt like taking my camera with me (and that means lot of stuff to carry out with me as well).
Worked on 2 verses so far with my transliteration, and worked in the lab for some time to prepare and can the fish sampled that I've grinded before. I was working under the hood for the first time. This device is amazing guys... you MUST have it. I should keep one in my bathroom really... (just kidding, I'm not an oil tycoon).
I have some ideas for in-home photography and also I left my PC work on stitching again overnight, since I discovered that I saved the previous file as a .HDR format, which tends to be sluggish and literally, my Photoshop stopped responding when I opened the file. I know the file size is big as well, but EXR is better for handling this I would say, and also it supports transperancy, which I need highly.
I've noticed one more purchase for one of my photos in canstockphoto (via fotosearch). A little amount to be added to my balance but anyway, it makes me happy at least that my photo is getting some attention after all. It was an old photo though (most probably taken with my old Sony, I can't remember!). The image is "A Busy Day in My Life".

I'm having some busy day by tomorrow with some tasks to do here and there and picking my sister's laptop to some workshop for upgrading... let's hope it all goes well. I hate going into that area where all computer shops scatter around and the streets just STINK big time.
__________

97. in that situation and fear
98. Alexander drew something similar on the ground
99. like the shapes of those beasts
100. and they yelled with fear in one voice
101. Jawgá! Majawgá! Hayhókhaman!
102. just then Alexander remembered the legends
103. legends was told by his late father
104. about sons of the demons and sinners
105. when they met together and gave birth
106. he remembered Jawgá Majawgá
107. children of doom, children of hell
108. then once again the command was revealed
109. from Heavens down to earth for Alexander
110. "Alexander, you are victorious. Go ahead!"
111. it was then when Alexander called the men
112. the courageous generals of all times
113. and he divided them into three divisions
114. Chirán, Tólímí, Shakrashom and Galgalom
115. four generals with thousands of men
116. these will block the way from the valley
117. Érán, Kahrími, Dartalom
118. these with workers from invaded lands
119. shall dig the ground and take the ores
120. and a dam they shall make over the valley

Alexander 3, V4.

Today was a semi-idle day for me. Not so much work done to the transliteration of Alexander's story VI, but yet, I've been moving here and there in work-related issues.
I was out to submit some items for calibration to the RPD (Radiation Protection Department) and I was thinking of going back home just to check my PC which I left it operating last night. I was stitching a 360 panorama view for the castle of Aughnanure and its field (again), and since the operation was so, so, so slow, I decided to leave it like that and eventually slept earlier than regular days. Only 3 images are left to complete the next packet of picutres from Ireland, but yet I'm scattered here and there and barely completed the work on one image yesterday, which actually, I don't belive it is much of a good one!





In my office, despite this idle behavior, I was busy reading and reading about the medieval Middle East in Wikipedia. Specifically about the Abbasid dynasty. So much there to be read that I was so amazed of that time and how much cruelty was involved. The decline was not any better however. As a Shiite Muslim, I can't say I'm so very fond of these dynasties that took the role of guiding the nations before, but mainly, reading such stories and history makes my mind burn with imagination as to the events that took place. There is a movie in the story of every Abbasid Caliph (or even in the revolutionists at the time of any of those caliphs). Sometimes I do ask myself even, "did those people have time to smile even?".

Yesterday was a Monday as you all know. Yes. And you know how much I like Mondays... NOT! Right after arriving at home and before I even complete half of my lunch, I got a phone call to release the poor cat from a pest-glue that got stuck to his legs. After fierce shouts I was able to remove the glue in hardship, as the wild animal was jumping here and there thinking I'm going to hurt him, although I used to serve him food on a daily basis. His beautiful fur now is corrupted with spots of dirts all over since he escaped to the mud and sands in the house after being released from the glue. Poor guy.

__________

73. Carnúg went with his horse racing the winds

74. until he reached a place between the two tops

75. where Dágh, the red, lied over his right side

76. and on his left side lied Daghíl, the white

77. he took a look over the valley of Malúnet

78. you can see from afar he was paralyzed in his place

79. his legs got frozen and his voice got trapped in his throat

80. it was some time until he got his power again

81. then he got back to his camp sweating like a waterfall

82. everyone gathered around him waiting for his tongue

83. but his tongue was stuck like a piece of wood

84. Alexander passed his hand over his head gently

85. and with a smooth voice asked him to go on

86. Carnúg shouted then: Blood! Blood!

87. everyone looked to the other in amazement

88. Carnúg continued: the valley is full of blood,

89. and there are creatures from other lands

90. another lands not similar to us by any way

91. they eat whatever comes their way in any way

92. barbarians with no one like them

93. some as tall as trees in the forest

94. and some as dwarf as rocks of the desert

95. nude never heard of a cover for their bodies

96. and their smell is that of the fresh blood