Alexander 6, V90.

A feeling of numbness occupies my mind and body. I couldn't even do much about my proof-reading, simply because I didn't feel like it at all. Not only that, but I've even left home without wearing my usual rings in my right hand, the two things that I would feel lost if I left the house without them, because I simply I didn't feel it!

Words come and go in my mind and I can't write anything. I hardly put one sentence on the paper just for the sake of not forgetting this line later on... I wanna get back home, and never leave...

All I wanna do for now is just listen to music, again and again...



__________
2137. the wind moved carrying Alexander and his Cadid
2138. it was so fast and Alexander feared to fall down
2139. while his Cadid did not understand much of the events
2140. beautiful scenes they have seen from above
2141. the waters of the Great River, and its greenish banks
2142. while flock of birds were flying beside them all the way
2143. and the Cadid trying to catch them all the time
2144. while there in the sky, Alexander wondered about the sun
2145. and still he could not understand how this world works
2146. then he asked himself "who is this Hermit?"
2147. and he thought it is the same Hermit he saw in Daynur
2148. and while Alexander was swimming in his infinite thoughts
2149. he noticed the lands become darker, huge and close to him
2150. the looks were fierce and he did not know what land is this
2151. he could almost touch the land with his feet or hands
2152. although he was flying so high above the lands
2153. then he heard the soothing voice of Aramramátáníth
2154. "do not be afraid O hero of Caqobia, it is just a mountain,
2155. this is Ramramátallánútá, the Great Mountain, or Avvátallán,
2156. this is the father of all the mountains you have on Daynur,
2157. this is the root of all the hills you have on Daynur,
2158. here, where all the people in Uhir Daynur are buried,
2159. and where the Shanír lies within before the Judgment day"
2160. but Alexander got paralyzed for the view as if he heard nothing

Alexander 6, V89.

It's here! Woho! My visa to visit Ireland was issued, in like 2 weeks! I remember it took more than one month last year. I remember as well that last year, when the visa was issued for me, it was issued for a certain number of days that matched exactly the time period of my stay, but now, I've been given 3 months in advance, from September 12th until December 11th. I don't remember such a thing happened that way last year!

I'm passing through a time of quietness if I should say, camera-wise. I've finished the panoramas that I was working on for some time before and after getting my VR head, so, I decided to go on shooting randomly outside and I picked the cat in the house as my target. This time, no HDR shoot or anything, but simply me, myself, and the camera and the flash head which I didn't use in a long time!
I can't say they are great as I couldn't really master the lighting conditions yet nor I can say I did master the flash adjustments and probing, however, I'm not planning to give out these to any stock site, since I know they are full of such pictures!

Some images for his highness, Tiger.

I like specifically his "snowy" look and his hair that's not too short nor long. He's a loner as well. The shots here were all done in tungsten white-balance by mistake, but luckily all was in RAW format so I've adjusted this error later and the picture turned as you can see here after being filled with a blue hue. Still, the real atmosphere was actually at the end of the day and before the final sunset with relatively enough light, but with a flash striking the object (without using the diffuser in the flash head itself) made the light concentrated on the object and turned the atmosphere into almost a night time.

After finishing from this I got inside and took some shots for my niece inside the house, and all were blue as well, but those I didn't work with so far. Hopefully doing to do this today.

On the list also there is one task I'm planning to do. I'm going to try my luck with the images refused from Canstockphoto website, and put them in Bigstockphoto. I didn't put anything there for a long time now and actually I'm not so optimistic that they would be accepted, but I won't lose anything (except of some time duh). For some time, Bigstockphoto website was my favorite location for panoramas, as it accepts apparently single files larger than 15MB, as far as I remember. Of course, I've completely dropped Fotolia from my list here...

I've been reading, or flipping should I say, through Harald Woeste's book about panoramic photography and trying to take mental notes as much as possible about the work flow and the tools used, and specially those related to the final product output. Would be nice if you can handle the panorama on a large print-out instead of staring at it on the monitor all the time! I have a weakness when it comes to the press and the printed media, as I'm completely lost in the technicality and the requirements of such field.

 

I've been notified now that the monopod had been shipped already to my US mailbox. I wished for a combined shipment with the books but unfortunately, seems I have to go and pick my stuff from the DHL twice! Anyway, it is good enough to try it out now, although I was not in a hurry originally, but now I am!

finally, the proof-reading of Alexander 6 is going smoothly and it is about to finish. I've reached like #2257 so far, and won't be days until I reach #3000, the end. Reading is so easy, but writing it down and typing it was a really tideous job. Maybe after finishing this, I would have some time to look upon designing a website for Ayvarith in a more serious manner! Hope so.

__________

2113. then with a smooth voice the Guardian asked
2114. "continue O hero, any more questions?"
2115. but the hero felt embarrassed and said to her
2116. "yes, one more question from me is left,
2117. where to go now? and what I am doing in this land?"
2118. Aramramátáníth said: your destiny is not in my hand,
2119. but to the Hermit, I believe, you must go from here,
2120. my wind shall carry you there easily, O hero,
2121. and under your command it shall move,
2122. the Hermit has all the answers you need,
2123. this is what I am ordered to do for now
2124. then Alexander agreed and decided to move
2125. and he greeted Kaliván and hugged each other
2126. despite the small size of the small creature
2127. but he carried him by the palm of his hand
2128. then Alexander desired to let his Cadid with Kaliván
2129. to help him with the lands of the valley and the trees
2130. but the Cadid refused to go except with his master
2131. and the wind started to gather under the feet of Alexander
2132. and slowly in the air he was raised with his Cadid
2133. then Aramramátáníth announced the beginning
2134. and the invisible wind moved Alexander and his Cadid
2135. to the east they were going now where the Hermit is
2136. where the hopes of Alexander lied for an end

Alexander 6, V88.

I would say it is fair enough to say, it was an awesome weekend. Not for any gift or present or any good events happening in it, but merely because I slept for 12 hours! Yes! Twelve hours! I rarely do such a thing but it is true and it is indeed there! I could do it!

Anyway, back to business. Despite this 12 hours of sleep kind of wasted my time that I've planned to spend in front of my PC working on some issues, but anyway it was a nice venture. During this weekend I worked on the 2 panoramas that left for me; the office, and the gamma lab.
The first to be mangled with was the office panorama. The main challenge here was that I've shot myself in several positions (with the help of the timer in the camera of course), and my aim was to make a QTVR out of it. Unfortunately, I had to give up this dream for many issues that I've encountered while stitching and I've discovered that I made many mistakes in the location itself!

Me, Myself and I

The mistakes I've done here were sort of many, but in brief, I was not careful when I moved in the scene and caused some chairs to move here and there, which later on proved fatal for the stitching process. Also, I discovered that in my middle picture on the sofa, the original shot did not include my right feet on the ground! Hence it was impossible to recover this at all, and I was not in mood for Photoshop tricks really. For this and that, I've decided to put down the idea of a spherical panorama with this trial, for the time being. I don't know if there will be a second time. The theme and colors of the tone-mapped image here is to give some drama or action to the boring lighting conditions in the office. Some people told me it looks nice, so I hope.

The second panorama to deal with then was the Gamma Lab. In fact it was already finished with some days ago but I didn't work on fixing the image an removing the unwanted bottom (tripod legs) till yesterday. There are some noisy part of the image which were not related to the noise of the camera itself, but because these slides were dark, and I think it was a mistake from my side, when I was not careful to track down the exposure reading. Finally, I fixed it and made into a QTVR, which I hope it makes everyone happy to look at!

The Gamma Lab, at CRER, Kuniv.

However, the resolution of the QTVR was put down to 80% to reduce the size as usual. They usually say 80% quality is good enough, specially for such a small window.

Now after all this work with several panoramas, it is time to take a look a bit at what I got earlier that day (after shooting these panoramas). They were several single shots that I need to examine closely and decide whether to upload them into stock sites or not. The snaps are taken from the front space of my working place, for some pile of bricks that they dumped there (and causing some annoyances for me when I park my car!).

Good news arrived today. The DHL called and told me that my passport had arrived. It is due delivery at 3 p.m., but I know these guys will deliver it earlier when I'm not at home, as usual. I've just forgot what's my application number so I can check online about the status of my visa request. I just hope it got accepted and everything is right.

I've decided today to place an order as well. This time an order on Amazon. I thought it is better to get everything at once instead of placing everything separately. This time I had to some research of my own about what kind of monopod do I need. I just figured that a monopod is more practical than a tripod, but the real challenge is, is it possible to do a panorama with it?
After many look-ups and checking, I've decided that I might need this specific one:

 

Benro MA-96M8

There were many good monopods out there, with several specifications that can fit any purpose almost. But I picked this one specifically for several reasons:

1. It has suppostive legs to turn it into a mini-tripod.
2. The maximum height is around 173 cm, around mine.
3. The maximum load it can take is around 20kg, and this is exactly what I need. Why? Because I'm planning to try it out with my VR head.
4. Relatively, cheaper.

There were even some monopods made by Manfrotto, same brand as my VR head, but they were sometimes almost double the price of this one. Now, I'm quite sure that I will have problems when I decide to try this out with my VR head (weighs 2kg), but I'm up to it and will see if I can overcome this problem by some trick. The problem here is that, no real reviews for this monopod were available, not in Amazon nor in BH websites. Thus, I had to rely heavily on reviews made by customers for another, somehow similar, tripod.

Benro MA-91M8

This tripod is almost the same, but different in weight, and height and the maximum load it can take (18kg). The height is 163 cm and that's shorter than my built, so I preferred to go to the longest one. I was hesitant first because when it is folded, it might not fit in my backpack whenever I want to move here or there, but anyway, it is an easy stick to carry on. The real challenge is to make it work with the VR head. The reviewers, however, decided that it is a great tool, but with shaky base when it comes to a tripod, and here you go with your expected problems!

The work with VR head and a monopod would be awesome indeed. I had many hard time erasing and fixing the images with Photoshop after taking my panoramas with a tripod. The three legs and the panning handle gave me a great deal of hard work in Photoshop to remove, and not completely in a good way. A monopod would ease the problems, considerably!

Finally, I do need a tripod for easy snapping without the need for my usual heavy tripod wherever I go!

Along with the tripod I placed as well 2 books in the same order, and decided to let the other books wait for the time being now!

 

Now, it had been some days that I didn't write anything in my notes, and it makes me a bit annoyed. I don't want to stop writing ever. I must get myself busy, either behind the camera, or on a piece of paper, or of course gaming around! I've changed my working time starting from today, for I found out it is really useless to stay here till 2:30 p.m.. That's way too much for such a place I would say. Thus, my time has changed from 7:30 to 2:30, to 7:00 up to 2:00. That's why I have to plan to write my blog earlier than I used to before, maybe. I'm sort of used to blog while at work more than at home!

Now, it's time to wait for the events to come along...

__________

2089. Alexander sat down on the grass and was tired
2090. and asked Aramramátáníth: am I allowed to ask?
2091. Aramramátáníth replied: go ahead O warrior of goodness
2092. and Alexander asked his first question
2093. "who are you?"
2094. and the mother of nature replied: I am Aramramátáníth,
2095. I am whom God made to guard the health of the land,
2096. I am the guardian of farms and valleys, meadows and hills
2097. then Alexander asked his second question
2098. "what are you?"
2099. and she replied: I am the Light beyond the sight,
2100. I am the voice of conscious inside everyone's heart,
2101. I am the breeze, I am the wind, I am the storm
2102. then Alexander asked his third question
2103. "what is Mikanazzar?"
2104. and she replied: my fierce enemy on Uhir Daynur,
2105. the bringer of sickness where it goes and comes,
2106. he is the damned one, who seeks not the Mercy
2107. then Alexander asked his fourth question
2108. "why you did not heal the tree yourself?"
2109. and she replied: I was not commanded to do so,
2110. and to heal it, we needed a brave heart,
2111. and to fight Mikanazzar in it, that is dangerous,
2112. thus we were ordered to wait for you, and teach Kaliván

Alexander 6, V87.

 TGIT. WOHO! But unfortunately, I'm not going out tonight. But at least I will have a break from the humdrum of this work place and some time for myself to stay all night as much as I like!
I've left home this morning leaving my PTGui doing  stitch for me. The trials with Autodesk Stitcher did not work as well yesterday. The process was chaotic really. I tried this morning to stitch triplets or singles together but that didn't work as well or maybe I just didn't find the proper controls. The thing is, Autodesk Stitcher is completely automatic, with a sort of a powerful algorithm.

By coincidence I discovered a tiny mistake in Harald's book, in Page 42, where 2 captions and 2 images are flipped.

The only hope for me now is PTGui as it seems and this time I have to work the hard way. The way that I hated the most before. When I left home this morning I left PTGui stitching my office images in storing them as separate layers (with their correspondant layer mask). Later on, I will have to stock these in Photoshop and fix them manually to hide and show what I like, as I like. The name Photoshop brings the shiver to my PC's memory. I;m frustrated more about Autodesk Stitcher by the way, and I'm determined to find some use for this software by any cost!!!

I'm thinking of seriously ordering some new books about Photography and other things, but afraid to do so because I won't have the time to read them. These books were stored in my Wishlist long time ago. The main ones I'm planning to get are:

 

... and there might be others as well. As you can see not all the books are from Rookynook this time. The last book is something I've added recently. WIth my love to Archaeology, I do love manuscripts so much, and wish if I can touch one with my own hands one day! Isn't it amazing how much theories and mysteries lie ahead just by studying a single manuscript?

For the time being, I do need to work a bit just when I get back home, and then fall asleep to have a lonely fiesta of my own...

__________
2065. Alexander did not know what was happening
2066. until he heard the voice that he heard before
2067. and the voice spoke to him: O hero of Caqobia,
2068. you have proved your nobility in the tasks given to you,
2069. thus I shall do what was written in destiny for you,
2070. the air I shall command to be with you,
2071. and the thunder I shall leave by your hands,
2072. the air shall make you walk like a Shágí,
2073. and the thunder shall make your wrath like Khaznútím,
2074. but all of that is yours if you grant me one thing O hero
2075. and Alexander raised his head and asked: what is it?
2076. Aramramátáníth said: they are only used for goodness,
2077. do not use them for personal attitudes or in moments of rage,
2078. I shall be very disappointed if you do so O Alexander,
2079. now Alexander, come near the tree of the valley,
2080. and repeat after me this ritual of healing,
2081. and you shall transfer portions of this brave heart,
2082. to the heart of this tree, that is its Jawsamályá,
2083. after that we can have answers to whatever you have
2084. and Alexander knelt beside the tree
2085. and started to say the ritual after Aramramátáníth
2086. then he felt his spirit being hung in the air
2087. and the tree grew greenish and very alive again
2088. while the heart beats of Alexander increased

Alexander 6, V86.

 My hand is killing me with the pain in the wrist area. Luckily, it's my right hand and not the left, as I'm a lefty. I don't feel like going to some clinic to check for this, as the pain has been there for 3 weeks now. I decided instead to make something at home, some oils and stuff and wrap it up, but unfortunately I've forgot to do so! To decide for something is something, and to do that thing is something else!

I'm still working on the (new) gamma lab panorama, and unfortunately met some difficulty, starting from the weird pinkish plots on the image (and I still don't know where do they come from), and ending with a memory crisis, as usual.

 

I was trying my best yesterday with the Autodesk stitcher to stitch my office panorama, but as usual, I couldn't find any use out of it. First of all, when loading the HDR images it gave an error message saying that only images of the same size (compared to the first image on the list) will be loaded. Hence, not all images are loaded. Why? Well, when I do a batch-process and convert all the exposure-bracketed images into HDR images, there is an option I'm supposed to tick in the Photomatix machine, that is "Don't crop". The crop here is to eliminate some tiny pixels on the edges of the final image after combining into a HDR, because sometimes the camera vibrates, moves, shakes..etc and Photomatix aligns images either according to common features, or according to regular shifts in the vertical or horizontal planes. After merging into HDR, and if your sequence is moving a bit, Photomatix crops the excess of pixels on the sides to make the image look neat. For this reason, you would rather have some problems loading your images into Autodesk stitcher, but never with PTGui.

I love the pain, so, I batch-processed the whole thing again and this time with no cropping. Loaded the images into Stitcher, but alas, controlling was hard to do, and I was not able to raise the exposure value for the HDR images up, because they were dark a bit and wanted to see the features clearly. Stitching was so time consuming and loading as well.

As a final trial, I've tone-mapped the whole new set of HDR images and put them down to TIFF-16bit format. The process might have been a bit faster but alas, the stitching was hideous and a mess. So, why I'm even trying with this software in the first place? Here you go.

According to Harald Woeste, in his book "Master Digital Panoramic Photography", he used this software in many stitches for his panoramas. Mainly, there is one option that looks very interesting in this software, and that is the Stencil tool.

 

This stencil tool works like the layer mask in Photoshop layers; It allows you to remove or recover some features in the stitch by adjusting what part to be blended or masked and what to show up. This feature specifically was used by Harald in one of his panoramas, as mentioned in his book, in a case similar to what I'm trying to do here; showing a person in several locations in the same panorama. The moving object in panoramas is not a favorable topic and a hideous one too, but when you desire this effect for a purpose, you need a grip on the topic. Autodesk sounded a good choice with the stencil tool, but in my case the stitch was almost a mess that I couldn't retrieve the main features of the panorama at all to even begin with the stencil tool. It is unfortunate that PTGui does not have such a feature, although it can save the panorama completely into separate layers with their own layer masks in order to be fixed in Photoshop, but we should talk here about memory issues... specially for a poor guy like me! :(

Yet still, I will try to understand Autodesk Stitcher as much as possible. I think I have to re-visit Harald's book and look again into that project explanation to see what I'm missing. The main point is, Autodesk Stitcher itself is hard to control and to understand, simply as that! While PTGui can be almost self-explanatory, even for a beginner.

This said now, I need to "waste" more of my time with Autodesk Stitcher in order to understand the work here. Sounds a bit awkward now that it might be my only hope in this situation!

__________
2041. the two collected branches from the forest from other trees
2042. they picked the most greenish branches from the trees
2043. Alexander asked for certain number of branches
2044. then Alexander started to make cuts into the bark
2045. and he planted a branch in each cut inside the tree
2046. then he brought the ropes he had before and tied them all
2047. Kaliván then asked: how this is going to heal the tree?
2048. and Alexander replied: think about it O Kaliván,
2049. the tree bear fruit with its branches like the hands,
2050. thus the first thing would be is to give her hands,
2051. and soon the roots of the branches will connect with it,
2052. and then be part of the mother tree who is young again now
2053. then Kaliván asked: and you think this will fix Jawsamályá?
2054. Alexander replied: I am not sure about it since I never experienced it,
2055. your world, O Kaliván, got things I never saw before,
2056. I can barely accept the idea that there is no sun here!
2057. Kaliván raised an eyebrow and said: sun? what is sun?
2058. but Alexander replied rapidly: nothing, forget it for now,
2059. we have more important matters to think of right now,
2060. how to get Jawsamályá back to its balance as before?
2061. and just when Alexander finished his sentence
2062. some weird breeze started coming out from no where
2063. and Kaliván knelt down and said: kneel Alexander!
2064. and Alexander knelt down and looked up

Alexander 6, V85.

 It's here! I can't believe it! The lab(s) that intimidated me for very long time are finally here stitched like a piece of cake! HAHA!

Well, for the time being only one is ready and the work is still going on on the other. The one made ready for today is the Anti-Compton lab. This lab is a small narrow space with one big device occupying one of the walls and closets occupying the other walls. I tell you, while shooting this, I had a hard time rotating my body with the camera.

Now the main work was to clear the bottom edge of the panorama itself, or the nadir area. The Nadir was a hard task to do and finally I decided not to add it. I'm trying at the current time to learn now to add simply a white space with the title of the image and my name at the bottom. It sounds easy really but still, I can't figure it out. Rather, I've duplicated the panorama layer and simply flipped it vertically and pulled it down to be in the place of the current nadir. It gave out some wonderful shapes though!




Now it's the time to attack the 2 remaining panoramas; the gamma lab and the office. Anyway, the first one is finished with only some color adjusting is needed, almost, while the other one needs a heavy work which I just don't know how to start with, mainly because it contains a moving object, added for a purpose. Me.

Now with a VR head, I get even more possibilities to snap places that I thought would never be possible to catch at all! Specially those nasty narrow places and/or those with checkered pattern, like the anti-compton above or the gamma lab. I think I'm lucky that my fisheye lens doesn't require much adjustments for its rotation axis on the VR head, because the default, initial, conditions for setting up the VR head are valid from the beginning. Just make the front of your lens meet up the base of the VR head (above it) and here you go. I need to work more to get my hands used to it. Doing things fast is always something I seek. It's bad, but in a country like this, where everyone with a camera is considered a paparazzi and not allowed to go into many places, I have to learn how to snap quick and accurate as much as possible, even if it was a shoot for HDR. Things might not be different with panoramic shooting. I've already worked on fast-rhymed panoramas specially when I went to Ireland, when I snapped some places and I was afraid that I was bugging other tourists who were waiting for me to get the hell out of the place, or me being afraid that they would come in and ruin what I was doing! In a fast-rhymed panorama, I used to work with my simple tripod alone with no VR head and all the fuss, or in many times, simply using my head and rotating my body with the camera. Back in Ireland I had some control over my camera and I kind of gained some stability with my body, but coming back to Kuwait ruined all of that!
__________
2017. Alexander remained for three days in bed
2018. he could barely move inside the small house
2019. and he felt well after that and got out of the house
2020. then he paid a visit with Kaliván to the tree
2021. and he asked Kaliván: why this tree is so important?
2022. we could have cut her down from the beginning!
2023. and Kaliván answered: this tree bears the holy seeds,
2024. it is what keeps this valley alive as it is now,
2025. and if it dies out, then no green you shall see here
2026. then Alexander asked: but now it is without branches,
2027. how it will give the holy seeds without branches?
2028. then Kaliván answered: here comes your part O hero,
2029. Aramramátáníth said you will heal the Jawsamályá again,
2030. and it will give fruit just like before and be always green
2031. then Alexander wondered: why me? Aram... couldn't heal it?
2032. Kaliván answered with eyes to the sky: you cannot say it yet?
2033. she ordered me to tell you that, but I do not know why,
2034. although I am sure she has the power to heal the tree,
2035. but yet she told me to ask you to try your luck with it!
2036. Alexander wondered about this argument
2037. and then started to think how to balance Jawsamályá
2038. the tree looked poor and pale without any branches
2039. thus Alexander thought of restoring its branches back
2040. so he ordered Kaliván and his Cadid to collect branches

Alexander 6, V84.

 I've determined to break the spell of Mondays this Monday, but I'm not sure I'm succeeding with this or not! So far, not much annoyances!
I've finally signed for my leave, for 33 days (including holidays and weekends, which will be added back to my leave's account later on). It shall start from September 26th till October 28th. I will be back to Kuwait, hopefully after spending the vacation in Ireland then, by the 16th, and hence I would have 12 free days to spend around here before starting to work by November. Just like the last year. It was a real mess to ask for this leave because of the stupidity hovering over this place; some people do it by paper and some people (like me) must do it electronically in this damned system. Last year, when I signed for such leave from work, they dropped down the salaries of 3 months in advance into my account, and that made me some troubles in some aspects. All the fuss was to make sure that I get my salary regularly as it should be. I really don't know who makes such stupid laws!!! Be sure if I knew him or her, I'm going to assassin them.

Spent my day yesterday downloading the pictures of the panoramas taken from the labs and my office. Also, I took several free images from the outside of my building which is now like a battle field with all the reconstruction work going on and all the bricks been thrown away and made into piles and hills in front of my work place! The total number of images exceeded 300!
Coming to measure it:

• Each row needs 12 angular shots.
• Usually, 3 vertical angles needed.
• Not always but count it in, one zenith and one nadir shot, total 2 (and can be 4).
• We have here 3 rooms.
• Going to shoot into HDR, means we need exposure bracketing, and that means 3 shots in each angle.
• Total: 12x3x3(HDR) + (2x3) = 114 shots. For one room. All 3 rooms then are 114 x 3 = 342 shots.

Adding also those tiny shots I took from the outside which I can't remember how many, then I would say it easily exceeded 350 shots. All in RAW format (to allow me for more manipulations before merging into HDR, specially when it comes to the White Balance factor). Because of this, a 8GB CF memory card is essential!

The process of stitching was fair and went smoothly, even for the narrow lab or what we call here the "anti-compton" lab, after a device of this time. The main work now is to enhance the zenith and the nadir, which are naturally, almost always hard to stitch. In fact in the 2 labs panoramas, I've taken the nadir but I decided not to put it on the stitching process. The best thing to do probably is to clean the nadir BEFORE the stitch. I find cleaning AFTER the stitching process is over is a bit hard to do because of the wide are and the stretching that occurs naturally for the bottom of the image (because of the spherical projection of course). Usually what you see in QTVRs is that the artists put or fix some sort of a label including the name of the artist and the location and/or the date of creation. Maybe I should do this and spare myself the headache, even though I don't know how, still.
So far though, I got 2 tiny problems. The first was that in shots taken at a lower angle (pointing the camera downward that is), parts of the tripod shown up and hence, we have to do some cleaning and cloning job here. The second one is some weird artifacts occured in the Gamma Lab panorama, and they looked very much like parallax errors, but some inspection into that revealed to me that for some reason (and maybe it is even my own mistake when the shoot was on), some slices of the panorama were having a lower range of exposure (i.e. darker) from the other slices surrounding it, thus when the computer blends in together all the slices and trying to find a suitable blend, you get smudges that would look like more like breaks or like some ink plots. To fix this problem I opened those slices individually, and opened some adjacent slices for comparison, I then raised the exposure value for these dark slices to match the adjacent slice, as much as possible. The process was "fine" but issued some noise that I need to smooth out later on, after tone-mapping.
There were also some weird noise not related to the problem above, appeared as some pink spots on some various areas. This problem occured mainly after tone-mapping, but hopefully it is easy to eliminate.

Can't wait to leave this office and get back to work on these panoramas. The real challenge now is the office panorama, in which I included myself in. A moving object in a panorama shoot is not a sweet topic, at all!
__________
1993. Alexander felt a headache and looked around hime
1994. he recognized that he is in a small house made of wood
1995. then he looked at Kaliván and said: where am I?
1996. Kaliván replied: in my humble house O hero!
1997. then Alexander asked: what happened?
1998. Kaliván then went on telling the story
1999. "you made the Mikanazzar fly away from the tree,
2000. and when it got angry it attacked you with rage,
2001. thus it passed through your heart and body,
2002. and took some of your power and made you weak,
2003. and you fell down and fainted with no power to move,
2004. thus Aramramátáníth chased after Mikanazzar,
2005. and she banished him out of the valley for now,
2006. then she endowed you with some power to heal,
2007. you will need some time to rest for now,
2008. she ordered me to take you home and care for you,
2009. until you become sound again, she shall talk to you,
2010. Oh! what a great honor is that to have her talk to you!
2011. you must be someone special O good king!"
2012. with a little headache Alexander asked Kaliván
2013. "you brought me to your home? how that is possible?"
2014. and Kaliván answered him with a laughter
2015. "thank your Cadid, he is a loyal servant for you,
2016. I released his chains and he helped me"

Alexander 6, V83.

Finally, I've came to put my new VR head under the test. It works just like magic! Luckily for me, my fisheye lens seem to be working just fine with the default settings; that is, putting all the plates of the VR head on their centers and make the front of the lens rotate around the tripod axis. At least this is what my eyes told me when I went on calibrating and checking for any possible parallaxes.
My first trial was to shoot the Guest Room again...

The Guest Room

Maybe the most amazing part of it all is that the tiled floor came together as if by magic. However, there were tiny problem here, relative to the previous problems I had before.
One of the problems is that the zenith was completely plain and had no features, thus attaching it to the rest of the panorama at the end was a bit tricky. The second problem was the nadir and the head of the tripod that had to be erased. Strangely, the first stitch for whole thing proved unique with no stitching error at all, and the optimization in PTGui kept on showing a "good" to "very good" results. However, after stitching the nadir, I realized that it is hard to clear the bottom of the image simply like that, and hence I decided to go back to the original shot and work from there on erasing the head and fixing the tiled floor. Only when I did this, some stitching errors appeared, but, they were relatively easy to handle, sort of, while the rest of the image and the floor blended nicely. The next step of course, was to make up a QTVR out of it, otherwise my efforts have no meaning!



Beside the stitching errors, there was a tiny problem as well that might be a result of unclean sensor, but all was easily removed after tone-mapping with a "healing brush".
This said, today I decided to pick my tools and head to work to catch those labs that made a fuss out of my day before. I captured the two labs, the gamma and the anti-compton lab, and also I'm thinking catching a panorama of my own office! It's a real mess, just like any single guy's room. My PC will complain a lot in the few coming days!
Working with the VR head is not only about rotating the camera around a specific access to avoid the stitching errors, but it also organize your shooting in such a way that makes your computer understands the angles easily. Also, it enables you to avoid unnecessary shots of repetitive angles. Many times when I was shooting with  regular tripod, I realized that sometimes I was going into one full circle plus 1/6th, or more or less. Now with a clicking VR head you would simply avoid this matter and reducing the amount of photos that you have to take, and if you have a full-frame camera and such a fisheye lens, you'd need 4 to 6 horizontal angles, and one shot in 90 degrees up, with one down. For my camera, which has a smaller sensor (of crop factor 1.622), I need at least 30 degrees between shots, adding up to 12 (normal) shots, and beside the zenith and nadir, I would need an angle of 30 or 45 up and down. The idea of having a full frame camera is nice, but it would be a waste of lenses really.

More than 100 lines were checked today in Alexander 6, but still the path is long to the end! I've just reached line #721! I figured that I might finish in 30 days if I get used to read this amount daily, but alas! I can't do this in weekends!
I didn't write anything lately but instead I'm keeping whatever comes to my mind in a note, in hope that I would gather my thoughts altogether one day and pin it down in one piece (or more!).
Time now for some biscuits and ice tea, with some peaceful reading till the time to go off from this camp...

__________

1969. after some moments of fast thinking
1970. Alexander decided to do something with Kaliván
1971. thus he asked Kaliván to gather the cut branches
1972. and they put them around the tree away for some distance
1973. then Alexander asked Kaliván to make fire with him
1974. so the two of them started to rub the wood altogether
1975. and so they made a spark and then into a fire
1976. then with their clothes they started to smoke the tree
1977. and the moaning started to get louder and louder
1978. when suddenly a black air came from the top
1979. with fierce shouts that none did understand
1980. Alexander felt that the danger is hovering around
1981. thus he got his hands ready on his Charnagút
1982. and as he expected the black smoke attacked
1983. but nothing he could do because it was but air
1984. thus the air passed through Alexander
1985. and Alexander could not feel his power anymore
1986. thus he knelt down and planted his Charnagút
1987. and he started to breathe heavily and looked at Kaliván
1988. but everything turned black and he fainted
1989. Alexander then opened his eyes to see Kaliván
1990. Kaliván was sitting on the chest of the hero
1991. and Alexander gazed around but he did not know the place
1992. while Kaliván said with a happy tone: we did it O hero!

Alexander 6, V82.

Supposed to be a calm day without the annoyances! By the early morning a sudden pain stroke my feet and ankle and I've started to limp since then! This said, now it is Thursday and seems no going out for tonight, well, because of the World Cup. You know, sometimes I try to push myself to watch or like sports like other people do, but really, no use at all. I can't stand it, and I can't even stop thinking about it as... silly. As simple as that.
Made some lab work, and checked the damned admins to see how to request a leave without my salaries being paid in advance, and as usual, no satisfying answer. But I'm working on it still.

Since I'm not going out tonight, I might give it a real test this time with my VR head that I didn't use it still for real. My target might be the Guest Room again. The decoration or should I say, the composition, had changed in that room now so it won't be like the same composition as before. It is also a chance to check the parameters that I have to note down for my fisheye lens concerning the calibration factors.

Had some plenty of time in my hands in the office today after finishing the work with the samples, so I decided to go on with my note and pen(cil) and I wrote a piece that I called Over There. It is, somehow, about someone who immigrated away from home, but it also fits from my perspective, for someone who lives like a stranger in his own home. And by home, I mean homeland.

I hate to end it like that with no images at all, so here you go...

__________

1945. Alexander picked one of those ball-like fruit
1946. and throw it on the ground until it reached the tree
1947. the tree banished the piece of fruit rapidly
1948. then Alexander said to Kaliván: quick, help me,
1949. let's put this pile at once beside the tree,
1950. I shall make the tree busy hitting those,
1951. while you help me cut out the branches
1952. Kaliván hesitated in the beginning
1953. because he did not want to hurt the tree
1954. but with the confidence of Alexander he went on
1955. so the two threw the pile on the tree all at once
1956. and the tree became like crazy hitting the fruit
1957. while Alexander worked with his sword on the back
1958. and Kaliván helped him to break small branches
1959. few moments passed and the tree was like naked
1960. no branches the tree had but only a top with leaves
1961. while some noises came from inside the tree like moans
1962. as if the tree was indeed shouting for the pain it had
1963. and the branches lied around and turned black
1964. then Kaliván said to Alexander: something inside it,
1965. there must be something inside this damned tree,
1966. never heard of a tree that cries out loud from pain
1967. thus Alexander said: we should cut it then
1968. but Kaliván replied: we would only kill the tree then

Alexander 6, V81.

You know who are these folks?

They are my future babies! If any... that is.

I just found out this one amazing site for morphing stuff together (www.morphthing.com). It is a game I used to play before with one of the softwares I had. The element here though is that, they give you a baby face and not merely just morphing 2 faces together! This is one area of arts (digital art that is) that I need to read more about for now. I might find plugins for Photoshop that would aid me with it and make it more like professional. I always wished and looked for a software to make people look younger or older. Always wished to see my face when I get older. Rather, most of what I found was tricks in Photoshop and illusions that merge 2 images together, but not much was done on let's say, an algorithmic way. I'm sure there is a mathematical logic behind the weathering of the face by age.

I stopped fasting today and I feel sort of refreshed; no napping in the office, no dehydration. And I'm planning to keep on like this the rest of the day without a nap in the afternoons as usual!

My visa is on the way to the embassy in Riyadh. It costed me 55KD not including the fees of the visa itself which the DHL will pay for later. 55KD is around 188 dollars. Just too much for a punch of papers that do not reach the weight of 1 kg (2.2 lb) even.

The day is going smoothly for now. I got me a new mouse instead of the damned pen mouse I have right now. This time, I got Logitech, which is said to be of high quality and that's why their prices are sort of rocketing! It is a wireless mouse, to reduce the fuss of the wires on my desk.

 

Now, in Amazon you'd see the price as approximately $9. If you think this is so much for this mouse, then please re-think. I got it for 7KD, that is something around $24. One day, we are going to order all of our stuff from the outside and leave the local market for the beggars.

Just before leaving the supermarket, I've noticed a book that I couldn't resist the urge to buy it. A book, that I was indeed in need of it when I was back then, a student with minor in Geology.

 

The book I have is different 

cover but the author here is the same.

One of the things that made me go into Geology, despite the bad management in this department in college, was that, I like nature, history and simply the beauty of planet Earth. I'm sure this book contains lot of information and pictures that would inspire my future shots later on. The thing about photography, is that you capture beauty (not all times of course), and for this reason I like it as well. So far, I can't say I'm good at portrait shoots, and maybe will never be because of some of conditions and laws that govern such images in the market, but I simply like the landscapes and the strange places (strange in a good way that is). Now you know why I like Ireland.

Still in the process of proof-reading, and it's going slowly so far. I've corrected many mistakes yesterday and today. My time is a bit messy now and I can't decide when to do this or that, but I do like to relax a bit now, specially after finishing the BIG burden; the Irish visa. All I have to do now is to wait for their response, hopefully. Meanwhile though, I have to make contacts with the admins in my work place. Famous people for their stupidity. I need to settle down some things concerning my upcoming vacation, and also my working time re-scheduling.

__________
1921. then Kaliván thought of an idea but was dangerous
1922. and he said to Alexander: I am a little man as you can see,
1923. I might be able to approach the tree without being noticed?
1924. Alexander then refused and said: No! This is dangerous!
1925. but Kaliván insisted and said: we will not know, without trying,
1926. just tell me O hero, what to do if I got closer to it?
1927. Alexander went silent for a moment with some meditation
1928. then he realized that it might be indeed the only way
1929. thus he said to Kaliván: if you can go around the tree,
1930. check if there is any abnormal things in its bark,
1931. go now if you like, and I will watch over your steps
1932. thus Kaliván walked slowly and tried to approach
1933. but the tree started to move its branches and pushed him away
1934. the little man got angry as usual and wanted to go back again
1935. but Alexander made him stop and said: no use of that
1936. then he thought and said to himself: how does it know us?
1937. and how it knows we are approaching or going away?
1938. then suddenly the idea sparked in Alexander's head
1939. and suddenly he shouted out loud: the roots!
1940. Kaliván did not know what Alexander meant by that
1941. then Alexander asked Kaliván to collect some of the fruit
1942. and Kaliván went on all over the valley collecting them
1943. until he made a large pile of them beside Alexander
1944. then Alexander started to test his idea against the tree

Alexander 6, V80.

Finally! I got it! I got my passport! An occasion worths a party indeed. Nevertheless, it was a tiresome day indeed. I'm completely dehydrated now and I hate to cut the fast now. I spent two hours roaming the streets in this sun from one location to the other and finally, to get my passport. The traffic jam got me by a surprise... EVERYWHERE.
Now, it's time to settle things with my visa application and keep going! I had a nap in my office for one hour in hope that I would remain awake at home a bit in order to work on the visa application, and tomorrow I would send over my documents over by DHL. I've sent a single book today with a weight less than 1 kg (2.2 lb) only for 45KD! That's around 154 dollars!! Now you know how we get rocketing salaries and still we remain poor people. Sending the documents to the Irish embassy in the near by Riyadh, would cost even 55KD as far as I remember.

Worked for some time after getting back home yesterday with my VR head and trying to fix it over the tripod that I have already. Unfortunately, my idea for wrapping and stuffing some plastic sheet in between the two didn't work out.
On the other hand, I noticed some extra nuts and arms with some of the other tripods that I don't usually use, because they don't fit and also broken. However, one nut, worked out like a converter from small bolt to big bolt!

This nut, from an old tripod, was then fixed into the body of the VR head and it fitted perfectly!

The VR head was then tightened to the tripod...

The set is not completely stable though and needs careful rotation when working with the camera. So far, I've attached the camera on top and it was stable still. There was a tiny problem though later on, that is when I removed the VR head, the nut was hard to remove from the body of the VR head after tightening it, thus I had to use pliers. All is left now is to calibrate the camera with my fisheye lens and take the reading on the scales to refer to them at any time I decide to go on with this head and with the fisheye lens. Of course, I can do the same with the other lenses I have, but now for panoramas, I do use mostly the fisheye lens for the wide angle view. Although I always read about a calibration to find out the nodal point (or no-parallax point) for the lens, in order to avoid stitching errors later on, but I always thought it is a horizontal process, i.e. done for the camera when it's rotating in a horizontal plane. Here, with the manual of the Manfrotto 303SPH, I find out that we need to do a vertical calibration as well.
The whole thing is shaky for the time being but I might be able to test it at least for the time being. Who knows though, I might get myself a new tripod fitting for all the fuss I'm having now...
___________
1897. then Kaliván continued and said: but I wonder!
1898. where are you from O stranger? you do not know all this?
1899. thus Alexander smiled and rested his back on a tree
1900. and he started to tell his story to Kaliván
1901. and Kaliván surprised more and more with every event
1902. then Alexander told him how he got into this world
1903. and what happened before in the village until he arrived here
1904. thus Kaliván said: a man who catches his own Cadid is a hero!
1905. and you are a king, thus you are a doubled hero!
1906. I think I know now why Aramramátáníth chose you,
1907. with your faith, it seems you are the only one to help us
1908. Alexander thought for a moment and said to Kaliván
1909. "the Jawsamályá as you said is responsible for balance, right?"
1910. and Kaliván answered: yes, it is to be so
1911. then Alexander said: but do you not think that it is more than that?
1912. this tree is weirdly acting as if it is alive, and not only sick,
1913. it is as if the core of this tree is inhabited with something
1914. then Kaliván replied: I agree, it should be a sick tree only,
1915. then what do you suggest O hero of Caqobia?
1916. Alexander thought for a moment and said: let me check,
1917. I need to get closer to the tree without being caught,
1918. any way you can think of O my little friend?
1919. Kaliván felt a bit of anger with his new title
1920. but forgot about it rapidly and started to think

Alexander 6, V79.

 Monday with a diet. This is what today is, and my passport is still not ready and I'm worrying about being late to submit the visa that might take more than 8 weeks (2 months that is) in order to get it! Welcome to a new level of stupidity for how things work in this country.
My mind is shut and I can't write anymore right now. Trying to get inspiration like I used to have it last week, but no luck. There are other things that I'm concerned about at work but I'm needing this visa application to be sent and get rid off to settle down a bit with my thinking on other things.

At home, I've tried to look for something to fit my Manfrotto head on my tripod still, but no luck. Not until, by coincidence and while I was playing a game that the idea jumped to my head! The game is "Art of Murder - The Hunt for The Puppeteer." At some point in the game, the heroin of the whole thing tries to fit the cap of the radiator from one car onto another radiator in another car, but it is bigger. I unconsciously put on a disposable glove from the inventory which I've collected through out the game, and put on the radiator and closed the cap to hold still. I don't know why I did that unconciously and it worked in the game, but I never thought about it in reality for my tripod! I was thinking of other things and even fixing a piece of paper or anything like that, while the solution is simply, a nylon or rubber!

The game is not the sort for fainting hearts by the way. Well, not that violent but lot of things there that might not be suitable for sensitive people anyway.

Hence now with this idea in my mind, I've borrowed some plastic wrapping that are sort of hard (and not the type used for tables, this one is thicker) and I will try to stuff it in between the hole and the bolt and see if it's going to work now. Hopefully. I'm afraid though of the heavy weight of the VR head (around 2 kg). The whole thing might collapse while working with it or something! Headache, headache, headache.

Nothing special for today, only proof-reading the text and fixing the Ayvaric grammar and spelling wherever I manage to remember the right thing! I made a simple sketch for my proposed webpage, but I wonder if this sketch is possible without using Flash this time. I've decided already that I don't want to get back to Flash, and I don't know if this is possible the way I'm thinking about it right now.

I leave you now, with some catches from Ireland...

__________
1849. the two sat down beside one tree, with the Cadid
1850. and Kaliván just noticed the Cadid beside Alexander
1851. and he shouted so out loud: Cadid!!! you have a Cadid!!!
1852. Alexander answered calmly and said: yes, he is my servant
1853. but Kaliván stepped back and shouted: what kind of man are you?!
1854. Alexander replied: calm down O Kaliván, or else!
1855. under this pressure from Alexander, Kaliván got back
1856. and with a calm and humble voice he said: yes O good man,
1857. what are your questions? I hope I will answer all I can,
1858. but later, you should tell me your story as well
1859. Alexander agreed to the terms of the dwarf
1860. and then he asked: what is Jawsamályá?
1861. what is Mikanazzar and what is Aram... ?
1862. the dwarf man then answered calmly but in surprise
1863. "it is indeed a surprise that Aramramátáníth chose you!
1864. but what can I say in front of the will of the Great,
1865. and I wonder how come a man do not know these!
1866. however, I shall answer you as you requested"
1867. Alexander kept a careful eye on Kaliván
1868. and for his answer he was waiting patiently
1869. but the time was traveling so slow in that moment
1870. thus he could not keep it inside his heart
1871. and he had to yell at the little man out loud
1872. "Kaliván! hurry up! we do not have all day!"

Alexander 6, V78.

 Calm day relatively after one fussy week that just passed away. Surprisingly, I didn't notice that I've made a new wave of images from Ireland, or a pack of 30 images, like I usually do. I spent the whole day, yesterday, trying to organize them and send it all over to many recepients as much as possible.
Despite the lessened frustration, but the day didn't pass without annoyances because of the bereaucrats. I was supposed to get my passport back today and her highness, the girl over the counter, said that it will be ready by 11 O'clock (it was 8:30 already). After all what I've suffered just to get a parking place in that hellish place now she asks me to get back at another time. I spent more than 15 minutes roaming in circles like someone lost in a circular labyrinth and at the end I've parked in a no-parking area in front of the police station! Hilarious!

I've finally managed to get my Manfrotto 303SPH from DHL and still trying to get used to it but unfortunately I've been struck with unpleasant fact: it doesn't screw properly on my "old" tripod. But I'm working on it at the moment and will try to see if there is some way to go around that.

Manfrotto 303SPH

My writing mood had been switched off again because of the dizzy things here and there and I barely have the time to write something even when I think of some lines in my head. I don't carry a note with me now wherever I go. Typing down as well is not as good as writing down on paper. The pen and paper got some classical sense on them and somehow, strangely, help on with the flow of words. With me at least.

I've spent some of my day now adjusting and fixing some of the stuff in the Ayvarith dictionary and trying to proof-read the Ayvarith version of Alexander 6. I have to go through the whole document and emphasize on some aspects of the grammar, specially the present tense formulation from 4-letter-root verbs. I know I made a fuss in this category. Meanwhile, there had been some corrections in the manucript as well for some duplicated use of some words but they occured in different ways in Ayvarith. While doing all of this and that, I'm planning and trying to put some primitive idea or design for the general webpage in the near future. To do this, I have to seriously now consider ending my continuous fasting because I will be needing lot of concentration starting from the morning or after that a bit, at work. Most of my stuff about Ayvarith are done at work not at home. At home I'm mostly busy with photography and other things, plus, gaming!

I leave you now with some photos from my last email...

__________
1849. the two sat down beside one tree, with the Cadid
1850. and Kaliván just noticed the Cadid beside Alexander
1851. and he shouted so out loud: Cadid!!! you have a Cadid!!!
1852. Alexander answered calmly and said: yes, he is my servant
1853. but Kaliván stepped back and shouted: what kind of man are you?!
1854. Alexander replied: calm down O Kaliván, or else!
1855. under this pressure from Alexander, Kaliván got back
1856. and with a calm and humble voice he said: yes O good man,
1857. what are your questions? I hope I will answer all I can,
1858. but later, you should tell me your story as well
1859. Alexander agreed to the terms of the dwarf
1860. and then he asked: what is Jawsamályá?
1861. what is Mikanazzar and what is Aram... ?
1862. the dwarf man then answered calmly but in surprise
1863. "it is indeed a surprise that Aramramátáníth chose you!
1864. but what can I say in front of the will of the Great,
1865. and I wonder how come a man do not know these!
1866. however, I shall answer you as you requested"
1867. Alexander kept a careful eye on Kaliván
1868. and for his answer he was waiting patiently
1869. but the time was traveling so slow in that moment
1870. thus he could not keep it inside his heart
1871. and he had to yell at the little man out loud
1872. "Kaliván! hurry up! we do not have all day!"