What is "Sleep"?

I can't believe it! I'm seriously typing this blog now not because I have to, but just to pass the time and leave work in around one hour from now. Not much was going on except that I've been going around images, old images, and can't find anything new or any idea to start on with with my camera! Besides, I'm having sleeping problems galore. Mostly, as I think, because I can't keep myself awake after getting back to work. It is something that I needed to master in many months of hard work and, of course, coffee drinking. Now? Because of fasting, I can barely walk when I get back home. I tried so hard to keep myself awake by playing games and working on some photos, but the problem is not in being tired at all, as for the thirst or hunger, I've seen worse days in the past when I used to fast in mid-summer with a long period of working hours more than it is now in Ramadhan. The main thing is psychological. Working or playing, I just need something to release my stress with, and that is usually a drink, or some snacks.

On my games list now I have now a queue waiting, as well as on the books that I've downloaded, I can barely read something. I noticed that I do read PDF magazines better, maybe mainly because of the design and the layout (and the many ads!), and mainly, if there is some topic I'm not interested in, I just skip it and that's it. On the games side, I'm currently playing "Delaware St. John, Seacliff tragedy, volume 3". An adventure game, which unfortunately I didn't play it from its beginnings, but apparently it is about someone with some psychic ability and keeps seeing visions. Seems there is a side-line story about his life and history and where did he come from, but all, I guess, would be present in the previous volumes that I didn't play.

Generally, the game looks nice with a spooky theme, but I believe the controls are somewhat weak. Sometimes it is a hard task to find an object in some scene, and hence I've been using the walkthrough a lot. The graphics are moderate I would say, still, it is nice and not too lousy. I'd give 4 out of 5. Other games now on the list are the Dark Fall 2, or which was renamed "Lights out". One of the creations of Jonathan Boakes. Despite the fact it is relatively and old game (made before the amazing Lost Crown), but I didn't get the chance to play it still. I've downloaded it for now, and kept it on the queue to play with it after Delaware St. John, or, I might take a break with some hidden object game, like "The Haunted Hotel - The Lonely Dream".

As for my work with images, specially those taken from Ireland last year of course, I've noticed that now, I'm less dependant on the HDR capabilities in forming my images. I still use it though, but not as frequent as before. This perspective was also pushed forward with strange erratic behavior from photomatix and photoshop, which produced some weird noise over the windows that I could barely see the images displayed or the controls and sliders, but in Photoshop it was there, but less problematic because it all concentrated on the upper side of the window. Now, the problem had gone suddenly without doing a reboot, and I remember I've turned off something from the "processes list". Yet, I can't remember exactly what it was.
However, I'm trying to find those shaky images and, since I've taken triplets most of the time, I try to take the most stable version of those and work on it hard with the RAW converter to make a suitable one. If all fails (or sometimes without it being a failure), I just flip to black and white and enhance the contrast then.
One of the images that I've re-worked and unfortunately, was not accepted for the second time now, is the arched wall of Cong's Abbey, which the chromatic aberrations took the best out of it. On the way of Jonathan Boakes here, I've tried to make a vivid image out of it by converting it to black and white, yet, it was not accepted still in stock sites I know, but some people liked it, and I guess mainly because, as I think, they could see the minimized version only which almost hides those noises.

Cong's Abbey Arch (vertical panorama, originally in HDR)

Other than this image, there had been lot of photos that I've been working with. Some of them I've even discarded without saving the file, and some were only uploaded to my Photobucket. One of the images however, that frankly, I didn't expect stock sites to accept it, is an image I've called "Valhalla". Valhalla in Norse mythology is the court of gods or the place where gods live. Something like mount Olympus for the Greeks. I don't know why I thought of this paganic name (because I do hate to use such terms), but the clouds were so gorgeous here.

Valhalla

The scene was taken afternoons. It was not a storm, nor it was rainy or anything, but simply clouds passing by in various colors over Lough Corrib. I expected this image to be refused for many reasons, but well, I think I was lucky! This image was composed already by HDR, but I tried my best to show the details of the clouds and not make them plain, while in the same time trying to keep a somehow natural look. The tree and the far-side shore made a problem with the noise level in these areas when the RAW file was edited alone which made me think of making it a silhouette scene. Yet, with HDR the problem was almost solved, but with some minimizing to hide the artifacts! HDR itself produced me a problem when some banding in the blue color in the topmost portion of the image persisted. I had to choose that portion and go with gaussian blur as minimum as possible to hide this banding. Isn't it gorgeous? I remember myself literally raising my hands up feeling like I'm touching the clouds with my bare hands. I do miss Ireland already...

Another image, single RAW this time and not HDR, was the mushrooms beside the oak tree in Brigit's gardens. I took a triplet of those, but they were mostly shaky with one being stable somehow. I needed excessive sharpening to get it, somehow, into normal.

Yet, I didn't feel quite satisfied, so I went along and converted it to the typical mysterious black and white version. Gives me an impression of witchcraft on the go...

Both of the images above were submitted to stock sites. I've noticed recently though that I'm just too lazy to add a watermark on my images. I wonder if this is... right? or wrong? I don't know. But it is there on the mushrooms anyway. Some people said to me directly and openly that they are downloading my images after viewing them in Photobucket, but anyway, I don't mind since most of them are watermarked.

Well, time for me to pack things up and leave this place at once. I need a real shower today!!!

New Watches!!!

So tired, and sleepless. I barely spent 3 hours in bed before coming to work but I didn't sleep at all in those. Frequent awakening, and I can swear I've heard voices in or near my head, I just don't know. I heard a child. I'm pretty sure it is not something normal at a time like 4:00 a.m. or even earlier than that. Now at work, I can't even have a nap even though I'm extremely exhausted. Something is messing with my mind and not putting it on ease. I'm trying to revive myself a bit with some classical music. These overtures do really have a blood-bumping effect at times!

I was, and still, so upset about this damn watch which is not to be fixed at all. After getting it back from the shop by Monday at 10:30 a.m., the next morning, Tuesday at 6:45 a.m., the dial fell down in my hand again, simply like that, in less than one day! I got so upset which made me go to the nearest shop and buy me 2 watches from some money I got from my sister as a gift.
My aim was really for one watch, which costed around 40KD, but I liked another one, which was cheap. I liked it simply because of its simplicity! It has a luster indeed. I've decided to take the two then, and keep one (the cheap) for regular use, and the expensive one for going out at nights only.

Back home, I reckoned that this might be a good opportunity to try out some "product photogaphy" with myself. But I have to admit things were done in a haste specially that I was planning to go to bed earlier (which didn't happen), and with problems in plug points to help me settle the lights around my home-made softbox. I made a real fuss! Anyway, it went along, and I shall explain things below.

Version one. RAW processing.

Well first of all, what I like about this watch is the convex lens and the simple design that makes everything clear like a crystal. Before catching this one, I already had made several trials with my telephoto and then my normal lens and so on until I got into a reasonable distance with my camera. Many settings for the light was fixed around the softbox (mainly 3 desk lamps with tornado-like energy saving bulbs, cool daylight). Finally, the settings that I thought was appropriate the most is this one here in Version one. Two lamps on the sides and the larger third one was sit on the edge of the softbox directly hitting the face of the watch. In the beginning there was a reflection of the bulb on the watch face, and hence I decided to use the camera's built-in flash to increase the luminance and overcome the reflection of the lamp. One thing here was missing though. The luster of the outside frame. In fact my desire for this luster or sparkle was the #1 reason to choose a small aperture (f22), but because I didn't pay much attention for the reflection and concentrating mainly on the watch face, I've completely forgot about it.

After this trial (and some others), I've decided to go as well for an HDR version in the same position. My idea was to reduce the light reflection a bit from the face if possible to make it more reasonable, or in other words, controlling the light and luminnance more if I can. Alas, my Photoshop and Photomatix gave me hard time with some weird erratic shapes showing on the display that made my mission uneasy at all and I had to resort to other methods, but finally, the tone-mapping was done in an uneasy way in Photomatix.

Version two. HDR tone-mapping.

I had a go with my fisheye lens as well but it was not that good at all specially for use wit a softbox. Mainly because of spacial problems in the place and I would need to get closer than what I used to be with my 18-55mm lens. However, I don't consider it a big deal since my first aim originally for buying a fisheye lens is to achieve suitable panoramas. Well, with a full-frame camera it would be awesome and I can get a panorama done in simply a flick of a finger!

Now I've finished with this watch, it's time for the real baby. This time, I didn't waste time and I went directly with HDR shooting (and probably I will consider single RAW files processing). This time, it was HDR shooting on 3 phrases. This is mainly because in such a close distance, it was hard to catch the full depth of the scene, and I planned to go on with focus stacking. With my problems in Photomatix now and these erratic shapes blocking my view, I created 3 HDR files in OpenEXR format in a batch process altogether.

After checking each EXR file, I've stacked them together but the blend option didn't work and simply gave an error (not a RAMs error this time but something in the software itself!). For this reason I had to go on and save each file as a PSD in 32bit format in hope that the stack blending would work, and it did indeed!

Second watch (final).

I faced some problems in the beginning with some weird noise showing up when blended together, and also manual tone-mapping was not a good option and I didn't want to resort back to photomatix again because its useless with the current problem. Also, I realized that the bluish hue caused by the lights generally and specifically by the WB settings (fluorescent) was not a good choice for this time of watch which has a golden hue in it. It's better to show the golden bands as more golden I presume, isn't it?

Finally, to overcome all, I've planned my own tone-mapping myself with adjustment layers and adjusting the exposure in specific areas, the sort of like dodging and burning in regular workflows. Then I added an adjustment layer to change the general hue into something "goldish" looking and more reflexive I believe to the real colors of the watch. However, after the final image was saved, I've added just tiny bit of cooling effect, just because I was afraid of "color bleeds" within the golden range. Color bleeds are when you have a specific color going so saturated and would look abnormal in an image. This cooling effect also helped with clearing the glass of the watch little bit instead of the heavy yellow hue that it had already.

I don't think I will be able to submit these images to any stock sites even if I removed the brand names anyway. As far as I know, the shape and the design of such products are also registered. Well, it was a good trial I believe and I might give it a try again tonight and this time I'll try my best to pay more attention to details.

Idleness...

Not much is going on here. A slow beginning for my 3rd decade! Most importantly now is that I got my watch back after being in repair for 2 weeks!!!

I'm idle most of the time here and now I wish if I can just spend this time at home playing a game or doing something or thinking of some photography to do. The situation here is simply null. I can't even force myself on reading this eBook on PDF. Maybe because it is not a hard copy it seems I can't tolerate reading it for long time. All I do is surf the net and listen to music most of the time, and to fill my time, I go out checking on stuff I need here and there. I had plans to work on my website and to do many things, but alas, with me fasting I can't tolerate doing anything. Not because I'm tired or hungry or even thirsty, but merely because when I work, I need something to put my stress on; pepsi, chips, anything!

Well, my birthday was on August 17th, Tuesday, but the family brought a cake for the gathering with my name on it (along with my sister's and my nephew). I can't call it a real birthday party, but it was merely for the kids to have fun. No candles or anything. I ended up taking photos for others and no one taking photos of me!
Well, I had fun catching my niece anyway in several positions!

Not angry, but trying karaoke.

It was awesome though. I was trying 2 lenses, changing from one to another. The image above was taken with 55-200mm f/5.6 Canon @~200mm. I had to keep both lens in my pockets and sitting in one place one time and changing then. All of that done in a haste and without my Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash. I find it that after all, the RAW format will do its job, of course unless you ask for more speed control with higher shutter speeds, then yes I might have considered using the mounted flash to give me more possibilities and more still images. My shutter speed ranged from 80 to 160, and in fact still I had some shaky images. Some images were sort of weird but got a nice effect with my subject (my niece) being stable, but her hands are shaky!

Yeeeeeeees?

After all, I used the built-in flash, which is usually not unique, but it did the job here with some increment in the ISO (almost all shots were in ISO800 level). NeatImage is cool enough to remove those spots, specially when you have an EXIF embedded.

On the other hand I've been working on printing out some images on some new glossy papers I've got last week, and unfortunately the new ink is out of blue now, which is a disaster! It is a very consuming process. But I figured out some aspects now, specially when working on a non-HP glossy paper; it is always better to saturate and and brighten the colors little bit before printing, to make sure you get the vivid colors. ProPhoto color space is, I believe, I used to get such beautiful vivid colors in one image, but with my printing capabilities it becomes dull. After all, sharpening of course, despite the fact that it might look hideous on screen, but with printing the story is different and depending on the paper type, sometimes an excessive sharpening becomes a must, to bring the photo almost alive!

I've made some prints (A4 size) and kept them in a file along with previously printed panoramas, and I've spent a good deal of ink on experimenting with those and printing the same image over and over again and comparing. I think the best deal we can reach here is by manually fixing the saturation and brightness and then do a print out to stay on the same side without changing the options in the print dialog box after all.

I don't know when I'm going to post next, but I'll put anything new with my images here, if any! I leave you now with something that always moves the blood in me...

Alexander 6, V125.

Well, here we go finally, this is the last verse of Alexander 6, and the whole story of 6 parts is over by now. This makes me now somehow free not to post on a daily basis somehow!

It is a beautiful day today, not because it was my birthday yesterday, but it is indeed! The humidity is gone now and some clouds and the heat is a bit down, and I just had a nice time driving to my work place with some music, except for one spot where a police car was parking and observing!
If you read this like everyday (which I doubt!), you might have noticed that I didn't post anything yesterday, which was my birthday. Anyway, I had one day off for myself and I just remained home. Nothing so special about my birthday really except that I slept as much as I could. Hence, and because staying at home most of the time, I didn't post anything yesterday. However, later in the day, I was experimenting again with my dumbells and voila! I did it in such an easy way that I can't imagine myself that I never thought about it at all! The solution was simple: use a tripod! Yes.
Since I have a monopod, I used this instead for my camera, and the tripod which has a small flat rigid surface was used instead fo settle the dumbells on top. The rigid surface helped me actually with its friction to stabilize the dumbells set, but before all of that can be done, I changed the background to green by using some cardboard. The problem then was adding suitable lighting to the scene to make the rings' surface shiny and lusterous. Unfortunately, with the tools I have already, I can't control the light as much as I can. Now thinking about it, I might had to lower down the tripod a bit with the background, and put some power-saving lights on the ground to light it like the last time, but because of the bluish-ness hue of such bulbs, that might effect the green background, which is specifically put there for easy separation later on.
Another problem I faced was the unstability of the monopod, mainly because of its position when I snapped the image which made it vibrating little bit with its mini-tripod legs extended. I really should think of something to stabilize the monopod more than this. I think it can solve and saves many troubles, if only I can get it to be stabilized more. With this problem, many images I took for the settings were shaky a little and can be obvious somehow when zoomed to 100%, beside some parts being sort of out of focus. Some "heavy" sharpening was due however and minimization took place to enhance the look a bit (but I doubt stocks will accept it easily like that).

Originally, the image had a green color cast (i.e. everything looks greenish), but that was not a big deal for me since I was aiming at black and white in the first place. They say black and white works best with images that convey and idea, to letthe viewers concentrate on the abstract meaning and not the color compositions, and this what I want. Besides, the color noise was not nice to me here after all! My hand in the image was pictures in the same manner and placed on the tripod flat surface while setting the camera on a timer. The separation was easy, relatively, because of the green background, and then the two images were combined together. I do have a question though about the light quality and whether the light and shadow of this image is consistent or not, but to me, it is hard to judge for my lack of experience in tracing elements of light in a scene. To my eyes, so far, everything seems fine with light coming like from the left and casting a shadow to the right.

I got myself today from a stationary shop near my working place some glossy paper again, and this time they are labeled for 260gsm. 20 gsm lesser than the HP panorama photo paper. Unfortunately, as it is cheap, and that's why I'm looking for substitutes for the HP in the first place, the company name is not known not even on the net! It's called New Century and according to the information table at the back, they do have other products of paper that got lesser qualities and for various purposes, and the one I got, marked as premium glossy, is on the top of the list with 260 gsm. I'm not optimistic about it though that it would accept printing with a normal glossy mode from my printer, but well, worths a try and I can compare my results later on.
Is it time to build myself a portfolio of prints? Maybe...

No that I'm officially 30, some words are passing through my mind to write something about that specifically yet I'm gathering my power to do so. The hit just doesn't come. I really can't tell how do I feel about it now. I don't know how people think about it usually either, but to me, it is just something came along and now its into thin air. I can't say that I will see the world differently now that I'm 30, but I will try to resist my pessimistic attempts... however I can.

__________

2977. Alexander hugged Agdalán tightly with tears in the eyes
2978. and he moved out with his Cadid back to Juvvál the farmer
2979. after careful landing from the top of the mountain to the base
2980. he saw Juvvál with his old friend, Birbuár, waiting with a smile
2981. and Alexander knew that the mercy of God was around
2982. in every step and every event, and in every battle he fought
2983. and the three went on and made up a farm land for Alexander
2984. while Agdalán covered himself with sands to the neck
2985. it was but moments when he gave up his soul to Heaven
2986. his heart was satisfied after the view of his great son, Alexander
2987. and days passed in the lands of Uhir Daynur, good and bad
2988. until it was the day when Alexander felt his end is near
2989. thus he gathered his children and grand children around him
2990. he gave his final words to them and advised them
2991. and made a will for them, and asked them to be buried in Daynur
2992. for with the time passage he knew how to get back there
2993. but he never did, because all his beloved are now in Uhir Daynur
2994. thus, Alexander gave up his soul soon after his final words
2995. and his grand children took his body within a tomb to Daynur
2996. and there, some where, on the mounts of Dragon's Backbone
2997. far away, out of Caqubdarius, that was in ruins by that time
2998. they buried him and put pillars around his grave with no name
2999. and these are the lines and the story of Alexander, the hero of Caqobia
3000. as told and written by, Mituharnun bir Agdalán bir Alexander, the hero

Alexander 6, V124.

The stuation is sarcastic. 11:00 p.m. and suddenly you get a trip and the AC won't work in such humid weather, and yet you can't check the fuse on the roof because it's dark already and so damn humid. This is what you get after 4 nights of continuous nightmares.
Not much can be said for today except some work I've done on one image only, and I've tried hard to make some way to let the heavy dumbells hang freely (to the door) and snap it, but no use. I'm out of ideas now and I'm afraid to rely on so many threads or ropes for fear of sliding down and smashing the porcelain tiles. Beside working with the dumbell, I did spend some time with my printer and "glossy" papers that I got for a cheap price. I put the term glossy in quotations here because when I print using a glossy setting in the printing dialogue, the ink would be smudged easily on the surface. On the other hand, when I tried printing on these papers in Matte settings and even in normal print out settings, the print was perfect on these papers!

The image used for prints: The Forest Cove.

The prints were darker than what the image appears to be on screen, but after some time, the ink dries eventually and the image stands out a bit more, but still not as bright as the monitor itself. I was changing the settings of the color management and other rendering options in the print dialog box trying to make the print as bright as the monitor. Now, I think the only way is to compensate for this by brightening the image itself already before the print. My brother, an expert designer and deals with the press a lot, told me that the glossy papers tend to darken the colors eventually, and that's why I think changing the management or the rendering is not a solution. There were some variations of course between each print but they are merely visible to the untrained eye. Mainly they were tiny variations in saturation and contrast.

This said now, I'm trying to understand more the relation between the weight and the quality, but anyway seems there is no relation since the weight (which is usually designated by "gsm" for gram per square meter), does not significantly mean the coating is good. I've noticed though that HP gloss papers that I've used before for my panoramas were 280 gsm, while the papers I'm using now are of 165 gsm. With simple search, I've noticed that many types of HP glossy papers were in the range of 200-300 gsm, which makes sense that a good coating will add to the weight of the paper, although logically speaking there might be no direct relation between them. By coincidence, I've discovered that my printer, HP PhotoSmart C4783 Wireless All-in-One Printer, supports a maximum of 280 gsm, which was exactly the weight (or index) of the panorama glossy papers. More than that, the glossy paper might harm your printer instead!

 

At work, although I have one book on PDF (and a really large one; 400+ pages), but still I don't feel like reading at all. I think I'm used to my daily coffee while reading or must drink something while reading it. Also I got words floating on my head to be written down but still I'm so scattered that I don't know what I'm doing with my life itself.
Posting for Alexander's story is almost finish now, and tomorrow is supposed to be the last verse. Afterwards, I think I will not post on a daily basis, merely whenever I have the material and time, or maybe simply for fun!
Since tomorrow is my birthday, I'm thinking of taking one day off just like that, or maybe what they call it a "duvet day". Nothing special to do though. Just sleep as much as I can despite the nightmares and the bad weather. I knew my birthday could not pass easily just like that...

Sunrise over Lough Corrib

__________

2953. Alexander took the stones with some tears in the eyes
2954. he felt the passion of the father that he missed long ago
2955. then he said: it is verily hard for me to give up those stones,
2956. but I shall keep them with me until the day I am not here anymore,
2957. and if I was to live as a nomad, this is how my life had been now,
2958. no burdens in the heart and no worries for tomorrow
2959. then Alexander put the bluish stones in his small pouch
2960. Agdalán then let go of a deep sigh from his lungs
2961. he then moved to the chest again and took out a garment
2962. it was bright and shiny garment made of the finest threads
2963. as if it was woven by gold and the sun light and mixed with silver
2964. he gave the garment to Alexander and this he said to him
2965. "take of these old garments now and wear this one O son,
2966. you are better having a better look among the people,
2967. for you are a son of nobles, and you are my great son"
2968. Alexander then changed his garments and washed his hands
2969. and Agdalán then helped him wash his head and hair
2970. then Alexander felt strong back again and ready
2971. he felt that he can face the whole world alone by now
2972. then Agdalán said to him: go down, dear, for now,
2973. and get back to the farmers and Juvvál, my assistant,
2974. let him teach you how to plant the lands and live,
2975. and now it is the time for me to give up my life I guess
2976. Alexander did not get surprised by all of this anyhow

Alexander 6, V123.

That was amazingly fast. Just when I've submitted some images for approval on Canstockphotos, 30 minutes later you'd see them in your portfolio! I was reluctant about those images though, well, mainly the house, because some times you are asked to get some "property release", which is like impossible in my case here!

It was not a completely idle weekend, yet it was not so active as well. At least, I've tried some stuff with my camera. Unfortunately I didn't upload the image on the net to be used here for now, but if it is accepted you can see it easily in my portfolio on Canstockphoto (and it was also submitted to Bigstock).
The whole story began when I found out that I was simply... idle. The idea sparked when I discovered that I still have a RAMs chip in my backpack (when I was looking for some papers). This chip was taken from my sister's laptop when I changed it for her in some workshop, upgrading her laptop from 500MB RAM up to 2GB RAM. I kept the chip since then and when I found it, I've put it aside to give it to my elder brother. He knows what to do with such stuff. However, after looking at my camera and tools, I realized it might be a chance for one techno-shot. Something I rarely do. I shot that thing with the help of my humble soft box, but I didn't fix any lights around it, except of the room's light. It was merely just to provide a white background. I used my 18-55mm lens, since I don't have a macro lens. This lens is my choice for close-up shots. I think I've fixed it on 55mm (max) and made the shot. I've made the chip standing up with a piece of toy clay, which was then removed from the image by cloning. Not a good solution though, I should've thought of something else. However, a macro lens, I believe, would have delivered a greater result, specially I'm using a shallow depth of field to give some sense of greatness or length to the chip, but well, this sense might come better with a macro lens as well.
I've made several shot under ISO200 and ISO100, but found out that ISO200 are better because the background was brighter and the chip stands out more. All you have to do then is just clean the noise with NeatImage, which I've calibrated to my camera long time ago. The thing I was aiming at (which was not a good option but worth a trial), I was trying to make a focus stack of 2 images, to sharpen the front and the middle areas of the chip and leave the tail blurred. Then comparing the results from focus stacking and the normal frontal image, I thought a single shot was enough to make the effect better, and no need for focus stacking. I was concerned for focus stacking mainly to show some details of the chips in the middle. Yet, turned out not so important I believe.

Beside this simple experiment, I kept on playing around with pictures from Ireland, and been changing some of them into Black and White or Sepia and see if any effects or mood changes occur. It was not until that moment, I realize the beauty of that one house I snapped from the motor boat on my way to Inchagoil island on Lough Corrib. It was something about its simple design that makes you feel peaceful. I don't know what is this house, is it just a resident or some B&B! But its view was simply fascinating! I want a home like that one day...

House on Corrib

The image to this house was added before to my collection but here we have mainly 2 different features about this image: a) it's a close up (and hence I didn't realize the beauty of the house before), b) it is made directly from the RAW file without any HDR enhancement, but only RAW file editing; in other words, no more than one exposure snap.
Realizing how beautiful this house looks, I tried to change its colors and I was surprised by the mood change that it gives me. Well, not really mood, but let's say an "inspiration" or "thought" solely by the change of tones in the image. The first thing was to do is to change this into Black and White with the help of adjustment layers (and not converting to greyscale mode).

House on Corrib (B&W under High contrast red filter)

I tend to use the "black and white" adjustment layer instead of converting into Greyscape mainly because of the options available here, which I can do manually originally from the RAW file itself, but I wouldn't be able to master this yet. Plus, my workflow forces me to use such adjustment layers because in most instances, I do need to save the colored version as well for some purpose before working in B&W. Here, I used the High Contrast Red Filter from the ready-made schemes in the adjustment layer itself. This image gives me a feeling of mystery rather than old or antique. Maybe the high contrast in black and white enforces mystery rather than antiquity. We could be on some theory here! Maybe also that this mood is highly influenced by Jonathan Boakes photography and games! Thinking about that now, this black and white with such house design do really reflect the nature of ghosts and hanuted houses. Maybe I would try to add a bit of bluish hue to the image and see how does it go as well.

The next thing to do, normally, is to add  tone to this image, naturally the sepia tone, which was simply added by Photo Filter adjustment layer.

House on Corrib (Sepia).

Now this image does indeed make me feel it is old, and I think the design of the house helps out with it. Sounds something Victorian. Add some white edges and burn some corners and do some tearing on the sides, and voila! you got an antique! It's hard to say any other thing about the sepia tone except that it turns things old. I rarely felt something different about it. Well, maybe it adds a bit of hot hue in some scenes and give an impression of some hot weather.

In the current time there is another little project I want to do with my camera and my dumbells set, but I'm thinking of the settings that I need to fix before the experiment and how to make the dumbells look like flying into the air. I need some help from another person, which unfortunately, is not something easy to do, not even among my family members in the house I live in. But there must be a trick to do everything by myself, as usual. The final product should be something in Black and White as well, and probably with silverish hue added or maybe bluish, depends on the lighting with the flash, since I'm still not mastering that yet!

Now, to some jokes around this place. One week and my watch is still not fixed. C'mon for God's sake!!!

__________

2929. it was then some moments later after the meal is over
2930. Alexander noticed that the old man was in deep thought
2931. thus he said: what is wrong O great grandfather?
2932. your mind seems quite busy as it seems, is not it?
2933. and Agdalán replied: yes, my dear, it is indeed busy,
2934. I am thinking of your ways after you leave this place,
2935. and I think the time has come to give you something
2936. and Alexander asked: and what is that O father?
2937. Agdalán raised up and went to some old wooden chest
2938. and he opened the chest with some large old key
2939. the sound of the metals in the chest were out loud
2940. testifying for the age of this old chest and its history
2941. Agdalán picked something from the chest and closed it
2942. he approached Alexander and opened his palm in his face
2943. the palm of the old man had some weird metals in it
2944. small pieces were they but shiny like the diamonds
2945. Alexander looked with surprise and said: what is it?
2946. Agdalán replied: these are what we call Kalfúd Sámith,
2947. it is the remains of an old stone that came down from Heaven,
2948. they are more precious than gold itself or silver,
2949. this is the inheritance of my fathers, it is for you now,
2950. take it and make a living by them for now for you need them,
2951. since you have no source of living in this world by now,
2952. and I do not want to see you wander as a nomad

Alexander 6, V122.

TGIT. That's all I have to say for today I guess. My appetit had dropped down so much. I didn't have anything before bed time except of some dates and milk. The hunger is there, but no appetit. The nightmares paid me a nice visit last night as well and I had 4 hours of discontinuous sleep. It is a time of great confusion here, I can't focus on anything. Well, I'm still playing a game at home and it helps me a bit on concentrating on something; just anything. This mood is flipping over all what I've planned before for getting ready and make up some webpage for my Ayvarith. I can't even think of something to put there!!!

Although I'm going to have a sort of busy day today (tonight), but I will try to do one more trial with the useless glossy paper I bought. This time, I'm going to print one image over one complete sheet. Also, I will try to increase the resolution from 300dpi (the usual) to something like 600dpi. I'm not sure though if this will work anyway, since feeling the touch of the glossy paper from HP and this one makes a real difference; you can almost tell which one is REALLY smooth. I will also try to print with Normal or Fast quality, to save the ink and also to avoid any further smudges in the printout like before when printed with Best quality. I might have to resize the image manually instead of choosing "scale to document size" in the print dialogue box. That way I will sharpen the image before the final print more precisely. Left with the color vibrancy on this glossy paper, which doesn't look like the HP glossy paper at all, however I change the settings. All of that must be checked tonight... sounds more like a dream really... it's weekend however, so I hope do have the power to stay awake all night then to do all of this!

__________

2905. the two had a meal with the Cadid to their side
2906. and talked about history and matters of the past
2907. after the pass of time Agdalán looked into the sky
2908. and this he said: O dear Alexander, you better rest now,
2909. the morning shall tear the sky so soon and you did not rest,
2910. have a nap, as well as your Cadid, and we shall talk later
2911. it was but a hard night for Alexander with dreams
2912. memories, the good and the bad, were chasing after him
2913. until he opened his eyes with a glimpse of light into the eyes
2914. and he stared hardly from a distance, and saw his Cadid
2915. his Cadid was helping the old man pick up some herbs
2916. he raised up and reached the old man and said
2917. "what are you doing O good Agdalán?"
2918. Agdalán replied: my daily work dear, gathering herbs,
2919. this is my food, and your food with your Cadid as well
2920. Alexander smiled and said: you do not have to take it all,
2921. I shall be leaving this cave and go down to the plains
2922. Agdalán said: yes, you will... but until then you are my guest
2923. Alexander went on collecting the herbs with them
2924. while Agdalán instructed him to get the good herbs
2925. just like how father would teach his own son
2926. and the two prepared the food together after a long day
2927. while the Cadid tried to catch some of the little birds
2928. then all sat together to have their daily meal of herbs

Alexander 6, V121.

Well, here comes, the first day of Ramadhan according to the state, and yet, not OUR first day of fasting, but most of us are fasting as a volunteering act. Sort of normal, everything is quiet, except the fact that the Liquid Nitrogen unit do not answer the phone, and it's Wednesday. Would be good to fill in some nitrogen at this time before the weekend.
Because work here ends by 1 O'Clock, I have to type this blog earlier than the usual. Well, not that I have much to say really except of posting the regular verses from Alexander 6, which is about to finish. With no books to read and not being able to think of something to do with my webpage design, I've decided to backup some book on PDF file and read it here in this slow piece of junk, namely my laptop.

I was sort of surprised when my last image got refused for some artifacts. Well, I think they are there, but it was so hard to remove the chromatic aberrations in the image.
Beside this photo, I've discovered that the glossy paper I got is not really a good one for my printer and the prints looked smudged. I wonder if it would do the same with laser printers or not, but anyway it seems there is no option except of getting HP glossy paper for my printer to print my photographs perfectly. Why I'm printing them anyway? Well, this is just a beginning, who knows what I might be printing later.

Back to fasting now, I need some time to grease my engine and get along perfectly with the conditions and the HUMID weather that just doesn't change at all!! I think I'll be fine by tomorrow; no headaches and more things to do, or being able to do let's say. The thing I'm worried about mainly is my timings during this month.

__________

2881. Agdalán then made a meal for the Cadid and Alexander
2882. and Alexander said: should I call you grandfather now?
2883. Agdalán replied with a happy smile: I like this name,
2884. but, you are better to call me with my name, Agdalán,
2885. this is how people went calling me, for long time now,
2886. but tell me O hero of Caqobia, what shall you do now?
2887. Alexander sighed and had a deep breath and then said
2888. "I am quite disappointed for all the trust I had in those,
2889. they were verily not a place to put my trust at all,
2890. and even the peaceful land of Hoshea was not spared,
2891. thus, I decided to make myself start a new life in here,
2892. far away from all the deceit and hypocrisy in Daynur
2893. Agdalán asked then: but what will you be doing here?
2894. Alexander said: I've seen various people in here,
2895. the craftsman, the farmer, the good and the bad,
2896. it might not be so hard to learn something and do,
2897. this world of Uhir Daynur still amazes me a lot,
2898. and I think I have to go on to explore it more,
2899. thus, my life shall be that of a rover on the lands
2900. Agdalán then said: it is a hard life that you chose,
2901. although you can be a farmer in some land below
2902. Alexander then sighed and said: it is a hard one indeed,
2903. but what is harder O my dear grandfather, Agdalán,
2904. living like this, or see your trust being crushed?

Alexander 6, V120.

Feeling numb again. So numb that I can't do anything except of being idle in my best suit. Now I wish I did pack up some electronic books about photography into my flash memory and brought it with me here to read after finishing several books now, but thinking about a bit, even that wouldn't work for me today. I was out of work for like 3 hours for my car service and also checking my watch for repair. I needed to finish everything just before Ramadhan begins because it's going to be somehow a sluggish time to do the many things I need to do. With this weather, fasting in Ramadhan is indeed a big challenge, and even though I've used to fast alone for around 2 months in the past few months but Ramadhan and the change of times for almost everything (work, shops ...etc), makes it a big deal to go through it all. The feel of hunger or thirst is nothing really; not to me. People are the big problem in Ramadhan, and specially if they are smokers and out of their nerves.

Been working yesterday again with my beach panorama and, thanks to my absent mind, I've lost the file that I've already created when I saved a small version of the file over the same name. Hence, I had to do the job all over again with the original HDR file which didn't go exactly the same, specially with the cropped portion.

First Version

Second Version

Well, after all I believe the second version is better than the first. The cropping is more organized in the second and also I tried my best not to oversaturate the blues and yet keep them interesting as much as possible. After all is done wuth the hue and saturation layers and fixing the blues and the reds (and/or magenta as well), I worked on dodging the sky little bit to make it smoother and going well together. As you can see from the first version which was to be worked upon again, the sky has dark areas in the middle caused by difference of lights as I was doing the panorama, and the sun rising high faster than my pace. The dodging, though, should not be simply smooth so much, or as I think, it's going to be dull and not so interesting. That's why there are thin dark lines in between that I didn't work on removing them even though I can; to add more motion to it.

It's humid now AGAIN which gets on my nerves, but I've noticed that in the early morning, the sky is having a weird composition; clear sky, no clouds at all, except where the sun is where you can the sun light pass through the clouds. Like if the sun was a magnet for clouds. Interesting view that I've been observing for 2 days now, but I wish I can settle my mind on some location to shoot that view. With my work pace and time, it's hard to be done almost any where, except in the busy streets (which are empty a bit busy at the time I go to work). I don't want any more troubles with cops just now. I have my own load.

I received some positive reviews (well, not completely positive of course) for my poem (or lyrics) 1945. I'm happy that I got my feelings through it, even though I didn't live that era. Being idle today made me think of writing something indeed, but my strength was leaking like water through mesh because of the heat outside and all that time I spent outside. There was no time to concentrate on my feelings, but rather I spent the rest of the time thinking how can I get myself cooler!
And now it feels like no one understands...


__________

2857. Alexander fell on his knees to the ground with no power
2858. the melancholy attacked him severely for the deeds of his men
2859. Agdalán passed his hand over his head like a father does
2860. and this he said to Alexander: raise up O dear, you did it
2861. Alexander looked up to Agdalán with heavy eyes and said
2862. "all what I did is mischief across the lands and wars,
2863. I wandered this world to let people know God,
2864. but then I found out that my loyals did not know Him"
2865. Agdalán smiled and said: but you did the commands already,
2866. you should be proud for you happen to do what none done,
2867. if people are to be judged for the mistakes of other people,
2868. or if the son should be judged for the sin of his father,
2869. and the daughter would be stoned for a sin from her mother,
2870. if all of that was to hold true and a law for life,
2871. then who shall be living on Daynur, or Uhir Daynur?
2872. Alexander then stood up again with hard movement
2873. he felt no power in his body to do anything he desires
2874. then Agdalán said: go and take care of your Cadid,
2875. we will talk about some of the matters later on dear
2876. thus Alexander went to check his Cadid who got better
2877. he passed his hand over the head of the horned Cadid
2878. and while doing so, he sang a song he learned from his mother
2879. then this he said: now my friend, no one is out there,
2880. but a tired man like me, and a loyal Cadid like you

Alexander 6, V119.

Well, finished almost all the books at hand now, and nothing to pass my day with except of surfing, music and thinking of something to do with my webpage. I thought of adding one my photos into the webpage design but changed my mind. There is a logo already for Ayvarith and I will put it as a background. The thing that stops me from proceeding now is my ambition to include voice clips in between the webpages to let people hear how Ayvarith sounds, but in the same time I want the design to be plain and simple. This is why I wanted to avoid doing it by Flash in the first place. Flash is a time-consuming venture for someone like me who needs to read tutorials just to go through and experiment several times to do exactly what is needed.

My trials now to print some photos on the newly-purchased glossy papers had sort of failed, because the ink in my printer was over, and the prints I've made (4 photos on 2 pages) sounded more like smudged. I have a spare ink cartridges, but I'm afraid that this smudge effect was not because of the ink level being low, but mainly because of the paper quality itself. I'm not so sure how to solve this problem, but the least I can do so far is just to replace the cartridges and try my luck out. The images were large as well, with 2 images being in one A4 paper, thus I think I will shrink them to fit in 4 images in just one page. I think this is more reasonable that way.

Been working a little with the panorama I took back last Friday again and trying to figure out a way to over come the many glitches in it. Finally, I came up with some solution that sort of solved a major problem concerning the light difference on the scene caused by the sun raising so fast while my workflow was so slow.

The Beach Silhouette (Unfinished)

As you can see it is another silhouette image, and I tried hard to make it that way. Because the trees and branches made really no interesting colors or ventures in the image itself. The main problem was in the sands; some of it were dark (to the left) and the rest was light (to the right), and despite my effort to neglect the HDR approach and stitch several single brackets together of difference exposures just to balance the scene, but all was to fail. Also, I tried to manipulate the HDR file by using Exposure adjustment layer and darkening the light part of the scene on the right, but it was hard to be done and time-consuming as well (and sight consuming too!) because of the many delicate corners. Finally, I've figured out that since the image is almost in a square shape (not perfectly square anyway) maybe it is better to crop the lower part (and sacrificing the base of the shed on the right) to remove a big portion of that light sand. Also, that got me rid of the trash and stones that were under and around the shed. There is some difference in luminance in the sky, but I'm reluctant to fix this and make it all under one exposure (with dodge tool) or just keep it like that as a matter of color play. I can't decide yet. 

Despite the fact that it was an HDR image, I really didn't feel the need to "tone-map" it within the typical way. The file was simply manipulated by adjustment layers in 32-bit status and then converted to 16-bit with minimum manual tone-mapping as possible (some exposure and gamma manipulation without using the adaptive approach). I saved a version of this image as TIFF-16bit for later work of course, since it is not finished yet and needs some cleaning and some sharpening, and to remove some unwanted objects still. Here, I think it is important to know what we want from an image. In many occasions in fact, I would just open this image up in photomatix and go on playing with my sliders until I have to kind of impressive effect. But here the situation was different. I wanted a silhouette effect with a colorful sunrise sky, and that's it. This approach only, saved me time on tone-mapping like endlessly arriving to some satisfaction.

Speaking again now about TIFF 16-bit format, and after reading Alain Briot's book Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style, it seems that I've been doing something wrong all that time. Alain opened my eyes to the fact that I must "document" or keep and archive of my images. That is, finalized images after processing.

The story stems from my typical workflow; load RAW files, combine HDRs, convert to 16bit with tone-mapping, add little adjustments then convert to 8bit and save as JPGs (large and small if necessary). I think this flow is wrong. I should keep a single TIFF 16-bit file and FROM that file, I should be producing many versions in many formats (usually lower 8bit JPEGs) as I wish. Because TIFF 16-bit are the higher in resolution and color quality (naturally!), thus, they must be the base. Before this time I used to (frequently) clean my harddisk of the TIFF files that I've used in the middle of my workflow. This was mainly because of my aim to produce JPEGs rather than TIFFs with higher resolution, to upload into stock sites for sale. They don't accept TIFFs and some of them accept other 16-bit formats (such as PNG or PSD) but for vector images only. HDR and OpenEXR files I do delete from time to time but not as frequent. Sometimes I just keep them specially if they were part of a panorama. The question now is, what shall I do with JPEG files? Shall I keep them like that to take space, or delete them after uploading (which doesn't sound good either)? I can't decide yet. Most probably, I'm going to keep all.

I leave you now with one song, and I just like it so...

__________

2833. Alexander stared at the mirror curiously and carefully
2834. then Agdalán touched the mirror gently with his fingers
2835. and the image on the mirror changed slowly and faded
2836. then new images started to come over the mirror slowly
2837. fierce, violence, blood, all was fast in the eyes of Alexander
2838. he raised his voice and asked Agdalán: what is that?!
2839. Agdalán remained silent and did not answer directly
2840. the images continued to show up and massacres appeared
2841. old people, children, women, all are the same under the sword
2842. Alexander then yelled: AGDALÁN! what is going on?!
2843. Agdalán answered slowly: what you see is Daynur now,
2844. this is what has been happening since you left them,
2845. one hundred years of scattering and painful memories,
2846. your generals divided the lands among themselves,
2847. then fought against each other to take up more and more,
2848. and no one to take care of these people now as you see,
2849. you can see that the human greed has no limitations
2850. Alexander then shouted: and Hoshea? what about it?!
2851. Agdalán touched the mirror again and the image changed
2852. it shows now the image of Hoshea after he left his men there
2853. destruction, massacres, and the great wall is knocked down
2854. all are done by the hands of his one hundred loyal followers
2855. thus Alexander struck his forehead so hard with his palm
2856. and this he said: woe to you, O mischievous Alexander!

Alexander 6, V118.

Well well well. Finally, finished the book list at hand and now it's time to move to others, or maybe just chill and work with someone else? Anyhow, I think I will edit my review about Alain Briot's book to add more details, if possible. The last time I wrote my review, the reading was not over yet.
Calm day work-wise. Ramadhan is coming soon though, and more hard time is on the way I think. I've had the chance to leave work today and look after some glossy paper A4 size, and I found some brand (not HP) and it was cheaper than HP however. I picked this one specifically because it says "Made in England" rather than the other one which was Chinese made and, reputation-wise, might make me problems! Anyway, I'm still not sure if what I got now will work perfectly, I need to try it. Beside this, I dropped my watch for repair for the second time. Although I had the urge to buy a new one but I'm trying to control my impulses here and decided to go for a repair instead. This is the second time that the dial knob falls down!

On another note, I've been working on a little panorama in the past few days with no apparent success in blending the layers correctly. Not because of parallax errors this time, but mainly because of my bulky movements. I went to the beach on Friday morning with a monopod and a tripod as a spare in the car, and I've fixed the VR-head on the monopod. With the sand there (and the short neck of the monopod) the work was somehow manageable, but my movements were bulky and slow, so much that caused variations in light level caused by the fast rising sun. Spent the past few days combining into HDR and manipulating as much as possible, but no use. Photomatix got me a headache as well because of its malfunctioning and its weird noise on the whole window making me unable to read or see anything. It has gone erratic! I think now, the last remedy is to crop around 1/3 of the image just to unify the light conditions as much as possible, but for now I do still have some plans out of my sleeves to do with this, but it's going to take some time. I'm getting busy trying out my new glossy papers as well.

Nightmares now have been frequent visitors. I don't know why, but one thing for sure. I can't sleep properly, in a life style that made me sleepless already in the first place...

__________

2809. Alexander walked around the place slowly and gazed
2810. he saw many pillars of books and papers in every corner
2811. and with the smell of history in his nose, he remembered the time
2812. thus he asked: tell me O good old man, if you know everything,
2813. how long then I have been in this world since I left Daynur?
2814. Agdalán answered: verily I know how long did it take until now,
2815. for you it was a matter of some days to go around this world,
2816. but now over the lands of Daynur, one hundred winters passed
2817. the bones of Alexander were shaken for such time passing
2818. even though his shape did not change and did not get old
2819. but he asked Agdalán: how come?! this is impossible to be!
2820. Agdalán calmed down Alexander and said: yes, it is possible,
2821. do not count the time you go by on Daynur as it is here dear,
2822. your time belongs to you and here we have our own time,
2823. life goes so slow in this world my son, not as fast as you have up there
2824. then Alexander was saddened for this fact and knelt down
2825. and with a flash of memory into his mind he remembered all
2826. he remembered the old days and the wars and the glory
2827. then Agdalán torn off the silence and said: come my son and see
2828. Alexander approached Agdalán slowly to see something
2829. and there was this mirror that stood in the darkness
2830. its luster catches the eye amid the darkness of the books
2831. and Agdalán said: you will see now how life evolves,
2832. thus, be brave my son and do not be desperate for now

Alexander 6, V117.

Well well! What do you know! It's Thursday! TGIT!
I won't waste much time here writing, since I'm going out of here so soon, but just few updates follow.
I've finished reading one of the books just now. That book about geological matters and fossils. It's an amazing journey really. Also, I'm about to finish reading the other book, Alain Briot's book. The discussion at the end of this book is so fierce with so many marketing and financial issues. In the meantime, I try my best to understand how the print works and quality issues, after printing several panoramas now with my simple HP Photosmart inkjet. Small panoramas, nothing serious really. Yet, some ideas and visions visited me while reading about marketing issues in this book. Mowahaha. Ahem...

However, finishing some books doesn't mean I'm totally free. I got another list of books at hand however. Anyway, their time will come.
Not much photography or photos to be processed as for yesterday, but seems people are more in love with the black and white images. One of those was in fact a slide in a panorama, but I had to take it out separately since the panorama to be processed was not good (due to some shaky images).

The Path to Aughnanure (or to Oughterard)

A slide from a panorama

Doing things in black and white gives you a sense of documentation really. Something very important being documented. This is what I feel.
Bigstock refused some images, well, it was not a surprise at all, but anyway their reasoning was acceptable at least (unlike other websites). Some of the images could use some adjustment and re-submitted even, while some others are not of interest (to them). That's fair enough for me.

Had some time to write something new, in a haste, after some imaginary story that I've made in my mind. Well, it is imaginary for me, but who knows, it might be true for others who lived in such situations; losing someone by force...
I called it 1945, signifying the end of WWII. No need to link it I guess, unless you would like to check the rest of my profile which I guess won't interest you anyway! Thus, here go the words...

1945

Was it, or was it not,
a rainy day, when I met you?
Everything was so fast, so quick,
so much I didn't notice, but you.
And then, you held my hand, Martha,
a hug then I felt, no end was for it.
You passed your hand on my cheek, Martha,
and Aufwiedersehen Geliebt you said.

Oh, the Nazis are gone,
so well the Soviets.
No Normandy now or then,
no explosives.
The two are one, Einigkeit in the sky.
The banners are here, all fly so high.
Been ages now, since that time,
Do you hear my rhyme?
Oh Martha.

Then you slipped into that train,
to somewhere, far away from Dresden.
"Wohin Geliebt?" I said so in vain,
and the utter came on with "Zu Leben".
"Freiheit" they're singing now, O Martha,
and not many of them know you.
But I'm here always and you know, Martha,
and an Ave I'll always sing for you.

Oh, the Nazis are gone,
so well the Soviets.
No Normandy now or then,
no explosives.
The two are one, Einigkeit in the sky.
The banners are here, all fly so high.
Been ages now, since that time,
Do you hear my rhyme?
Oh Martha.

Sure we'll wander high,
O Martha.
In between the clouds,
O Martha.
Just wait not so long,
I'll follow you along,
O Martha.

__________

2785. he saw huge collections of books and papers
2786. time forgot about such objects long ago
2787. and the dust filled the air with the smell of history
2788. Alexander with a surprise said: what are all of those?
2789. Agdalán answered: these are records of history,
2790. history that expands for thousands of years before you,
2791. everything people made and everything they invented,
2792. every move they made and every battle was made, all here
2793. Alexander said with a surprised tone: should I read it all?!
2794. Agdalán giggled a bit and said: no my dear, this is to see,
2795. your Charnagút was the key to all of this history,
2796. a history that will one day be spread again on Daynur,
2797. when the people and the the tribes are ready for it,
2798. your sword is the key to this history, assigned by the fathers,
2799. the sword had been moving from hand to hand,
2800. father to son, from son to a grand son, until you come,
2801. your time was a time when Ayvars got mixed with others,
2802. and thus you became a Caqobian, but with an Ayvar blood,
2803. you are the answer for the prayers of my fathers and myself,
2804. that one man from our lineage will unite Daynur again and do good,
2805. thus, God answered the prayers and now you are here to see,
2806. your own history and why you are here my dear,
2807. and for your own goodness, these secrets are for you now,
2808. you can do whatever you like to do with them now

alexander 6, V116.

Well, I'm lucky to type this down here as the internet service in my work place is beginning to become more like a trash now. I should end up this fast before I get stuck! I know my luck just the right way. Mentioning luck, I was happy to wash my car today (in a weird car wash station), but yet, it got dirty again from water on the road the moment I drove out of the station. Yes. My luck.

Not much was done today, except that I bought 3 CDs after having a break from work to wash my car, then off to some mall here to get those CDs. I've been away for some long time now from buying such stuff and always listening to the same old on Youtube or on CDs I already have.

 

 

 

Bought CDs

I've stopped listening to my favorite Phil Collin's Greatest Hits CD and started with the new Boyzone's CD, Brother. So far, the style had changed a lot here. It felt like I'm listening to a rock band rather than that soft Boyzone band that made the strip of memories pass in front of my eyes as usual. I'm not finished listening yet, so I hope there is a song to my style.

As for the two other CDs, I've listened to some songs from them already and they are available (legally) on Youtube. Some of them, not all.

Right now, after reading more and more of Alain Briot's book, things are not hitting the bullseye. The discussion goes on about the audience, choosing, finding, and managing the audience and finding a balance between what people expect and what you really like doing. These lines now made me re-think of my project idea that I had a plan to do one day (soon supposedly). My project was supposed to be about my life; some set of images reflecting the routine of a single guy like me. But then I asked myself "Is it really worthy? Are there people who really want to know?". I can't really answer these questions now, as all I can see now is, busy people. Who would want to see what TJ is doing? Or how important it is to see what he is doing? So far, I think there is no one that would like to do that still...

Now, after printing out some small panoramas on the HP glossy paper, I had the urge to buy another pack today (and they are NOT cheap by the way). I had a problem yesterday when I tried to print out some of those and eventually, I had to sacrifice some sheets. The comedy is to know that my printer is HP, yet this type of paper (the dimensions) was not on the list of the papers provided in the software that manages the HP printer! Thus, I had to define it myself and since I did that myself, things were screwed up with the width and height and the units (inches to/from centimeters) and so forth. Finally, I was able to print 4 small panoramas, and that encouraged me for more. I want to do more panoramas, and print more of them too! There are some stuff that I need to experiment with and see their results, specially when it comes to the color management and the color profile (or space) in use. Long way to begin with...

Something from Ireland, done just for fun...

__________

2761. thus Alexander asked: why some good Ayvars were chosen?
2762. Agdalán replied: to teach the new creation about God,
2763. and some of them followed the Ayvars and some did not,
2764. but they did not involve in fierce battles like the Ayvars,
2765. thus, the descendants of the Ayvars spread again on Daynur,
2766. but this time within the tribes, south and north of Daynur,
2767. and soon they forgot all about their lives and their faith,
2768. and thus the connection was cut between this world and them
2769. Alexander asked then: and where do I come in all of this?
2770. and why my Charnagút is so important for the matter?
2771. Agdalán smiled and said: before I answer this, come with me,
2772. I will show you something you need to see for now
2773. and the two walked side by side until they reached a wall,
2774. it was the end of the large cave they were sitting in
2775. there were some holes in the wall with random sizes
2776. then Agdalán said: come O dear and put the Charnagút,
2777. thus this wall shall open for you with all its contents
2778. Alexander was surprised and he put the Charnagút in
2779. and with some movements he made with his hands
2780. the wall was wide open like a gate made of rock
2781. but the place was dark and Alexander barely saw a thing
2782. thus Agdalán brought a torch and enlightened the place
2783. and soon the fire got into some torches on the wall rapidly
2784. and the eyes of Alexander opened so wide for what he saw

Alexander 6, V115.

Wow! Five years now, officially, I've been in this job. I like the number 5 actually for many reasons in my life, including the fact that I'm the 5th son among 8. As a bless maybe, this is one of the quietest days that I've encountered so far. Notice I've said "one of" just to not make it something very rare in my place.
The concept of dates is funny sometimes. Imagine dating your age in two different systems, and now I just added a third one which is merely job-related. I will be officially 30 years old by the 17th of this month, yet, I will be as well 31 years old on the 6th day after Ramadhan, that is when my birthday in the lunar system falls.

One of the surprises I got today is that my colleague, who is in a vacation right now back home, will get back on the 8th of September, and I thought he will be back in August all that time! Well, that's cool isn't it? Except of one thing; In Ramadhan, I need someone to back me up in case I felt so tired and couldn't get to work. Now I'm all alone here, I do have to take care of things EVEN at the time that I would simply check my attendance (by fingerprint scanning) and simply get back home to have some rest. The place won't run without me now.

As I mentioned yesterday, I bought some glossy paper and turned out to be specifically for panoramas, so I said to myself "So what? Let's do it!" and hence, I had a plan to print some panoramas on those 30x10cm glossy papers and see what to be done with them later on. I have no experience in printing photos by the way, as most of the time, my greatest concern was how these photos look on monitor and not how they are printed instead. I've always thought that printing out these photos needs some special printer or tools, or specifically even laser printers, but with what I see now, this is not necessarily true! Maybe I can do them indeed with the regular inkjet at home. Printing panoramas even is something I like, or more excited about, more than I do for regular photographs. The thing is, as I read and learned so far, that some special care must be taken with sharpness, since images are supposed to be sharpened more than the regular and usual way if the aim was printing them instead of just viewing them on monitors. Well, it is something also related to the type of papers used for printing. Here are some of the panoramas that I'm thinking of working with so far...

... and the list goes on. Maybe the last one in the line is the first to try it out. I like the sky in this panorama. When working with such glossy papers, extra care should be taken, specially that it is printed with inkjet and not laser. It is even written on the back of the package that prints must be left to try for 7 days before being framed! Sounds a bit like an exaggeration to me, but maybe it is better to follow this, until I can handle these matters more easily in the future.

Now, back to the monitor, I've been going around images and trying to find my "feelings" about what I've done so far and what was what I felt when I captured these images, specially those from Ireland. It is funny that I'm trying to apply the advices of Alain Briot on my work AFTER taking it. Well, I didn't read the book till now only, and last year I didn't read a single book about photography in fact. I've been changing some images also into black and white versions even though the colored version sounds nice to some extent, but I felt like doing the black and white version would add some drama and a mysterious venture into the subject.

All of the previous 4 images were submitted to stock sites for now, and waiting for them to be accepted even though, I'm not so optimistic about it. At all. But as I learned now from Alain Briot's book, Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style, this whole thing doesn't matter as long as I do like my images, and I do indeed.

 

__________

2737. Agdalán stopped talking for a moment
2738. and Alexander was gazing and waiting for more
2739. for one moment he thought Agdalán is talking about him
2740. then Agdalán continued his tale for Alexander and said
2741. "Powerful the Ayvar were, and conquered all over Daynur,
2742. but sooner forgot the ways of God and His straight path,
2743. and the just vanished from their lands and their hearts,
2744. while the children of the Ayvar started to tear the lands,
2745. fierce was the fight and barely spared anyone alive,
2746. green lands turned into deserts and mountains into plains,
2747. while the faithful of the Ayvars themselves were hiding,
2748. no place they could find to spare their lives in that madness,
2749. thus, in the middle of the month of Marúc in one year,
2750. all the faithful made a line for prayer to save their souls,
2751. some say it was the in desert of Qafra,
2752. and some say it was in Kakh and Milikakh mounts,
2753. it is then when all started to change by the grace of God,
2754. when the evil was wiped out all over the lands,
2755. and the faithful of the Ayvars moved to Uhir Daynur,
2756. a place within the Earth of Daynur, but not in it,
2757. some where in between the visible and the dream,
2758. and God started the life again over Daynur,
2759. with various tribes and nations, nomads and kingdoms,
2760. and some good Ayvars, He blessed, to be among them"