Back to Work...

First day of work, after somehow a long vacation. No news yet of any crisis coming this way yet, but I'm sure so much had been happening during my absence! I feel like I'm missing something, but what, that's what I don't know. For a beginning, I've missed bringing my headphone with me to work, so no music for today.

Recently, I've changed the folders of my images in Photobucket, those that I've processed recently, and hence there must be some change in the previous posts, i.e. broken links. I will try to fix it later and put the right link again. I thought maybe I should put sub-folders inside the main folder of the processed images and make each one bear around 30 images in total.
I'm still processing and although I didn't post much here, but there had been around 17 processed images, and some of them were panoramas. Some panoramas really got me into a headache mood with the errors that I couldn't fix. One of these panoramas is the lounge, which previous, I was planning to make into a spherical panorama with a QTVR. Unfortunately, many errors existed that I just couldn't fix them with PTGui, and after stitching they were even harder to fix using Photoshop. Beside the usual broken lines in this panorama, there were areas of haze or blur. You'd see such areas usually when a bright slide is blended with a darker slide (yes, even in HDR mode), and this causes abnormalities in color blending and sudden change in sharpness from one slide to another (specially if you have one continuous line running from one slide to another). The nadir (or bottom slide) is another problem as well; well, it always is a problem, but here it was extra. The ground was a carpet with a design and it is hard to clone the tripod and the VR-head out of the picture. Right now, I'm thinking of limiting this room to a 360 panorama instead of a spherical one. Notice that some people use the term 360 panorama interchangeably with a spherical panorama, but here I mean by 360 panorama as a horizontal sequence, only.

The lounge of Thornbrook House. A single image, not part of the panorama.

The image above is one side of the lounge and where the heavy load of errors occur. As a single image like this one above, there is no problem at all; simple tone-mapping, manual of by Photomatix and you can get the required results, but in a panorama where other slides come on the sides of this single image, you can get into troubles because of the harsh contrast between each slide and the other.

However, beside working with panoramas there were some other single images on the go as well. At this moment in fact, I've been saving some of them after tone-mapping in TIFF16 format but I did not clean the noise and did not work on other things until now, because I had to stop to stitch one of the panoramas, for a section of Hore Abbey.

The Scriber.

One of the images that really puzzled me is what I called "The Scriber." Speaking linguistically, the term is not accurate, I know. I think there is nothing in English as "Scriber." However, let's say I'm the one who coined it for the time being and get on with it, for the sake of simplicity.

Why this image puzzled me? Well, in the beginning, I took this image and I've seen a man in it when I was there in real location; in the graveyard of Cashel Rock just at the back of the chapel (ardeaglais). The engraving appears on a pillar on a shrine or mausoleum, and I was not sure what this man was doing. Later on however, and while working on the photo, I realized the man was maybe a monk or friary of some sort, who copies manuscripts or writing something and kneeling in front of a desk. On the left (in front of the kneeling man) you can see shelves of books as well. There is also some writing above this engraving but I couldn't read it. Makes me wonder now who is this man buried in this mausoleum? A monk for real?

Not all my work so far had been in HDR Tone-mapping category, but there had been some other ventures. Well, only one image in fact, which I needed to use the Exposure Fusion method.

The image above is for one of the glassware that I've been mangling with in the lounge of the Thornbrook House. This image was mainly composed of 8 slides combined together by Exposure Fusion. The reason for this is that each image was actually a single one, and not bracketed (with another 2). The setting was made on the octagonal table in the lounge, and I had to change the flash head direction manually in each shot and put it on one corner of the table. This way, I was able to get sparks from every possible direction. The flash head was controlled by the wireless function of course. I had to eliminate the background and keep the table since it was so disturbing for the composition and the flash body was obvious in view even though the EF function did some job on erasing the moving body a bit. Regular work then followed; contrast and saturation increments. I realized that taking pictures of glassware is one of the hardest tasks and you really need to control your background the very first thing. I believe the darker (and plain), the better.

Well, there are other options of course to deal with my images, like the black and white and processing single RAW files, but so far, I will work on HDR images and in fact I can produce many versions of a single scene by manipulating the HDR image in different ways. One idea is to transform a panorama already stitched for the St Dominic Abbey, into something a bit abnormal...

St Dominic Abbey. Flat Panorama. There is also a Little Planet (LP) for this one was nice and weird looking indeed, 

to see it you can click here. Some people said it looks just like some biological organism!

Now I'm back to work, everything is fine so far, with my co-worker being absent today for some reason. I need some time to grease up and go ahead with the pace as I used to, supposedly I was! I already got a list of tasks that are waiting for me but no pressure so far on doing them. The main pressure now is on keeping with my own projects. Currently, I'm reading my manuscripts book that my friend gracefully got for me for my birthday. I'm planning to finish as much as possible of it here at work.

Beside that, I have to think about my Ayvarith plans and writing some poems. These two alone bring me stress more than my work itself; well, beside driving in the streets of Kuwait of course.

I type down these words now and still thinking of my next year. Can I make out a vacation, again? I will be having some expenditures the coming year because I'm planning to get a new car, and this time no leasing. But one car that I own. Not sure what will I get, as it all depends on prices, and the shapes of course. After all, there must be some bump down on my budget the next year, and a vacation out of Kuwait might not be an option.

The Ardeaglais...

Been a day or two not being able to work properly on my photos because of some sickness. I shouldn't have eaten that fatty dish. I had a hard time breathing and had to take some laxatives just to get some relief to my stomach. Because of that, my plans for Failaka were delayed even more, and probably, I won't be able to go there now. I don't like to take off at 9:00 AM in the morning and get back by 4:00 PM or so, and this is how it is or even later than this time in the coming few days, until the end of October.
Been struck somehow with some mis-calculations that I've made previously for my vacation. Not that much of a difference but however, I'm losing one day here. Instead of going back to work by November 1st, I would have to be there on 31st of October. I'm still slow and need some grease to be in mood of my work place again, but looking on the bright side, I got some books that I can read. In fact, I must. It is the only time I can read freely in. The question remains then, when shall I work with my other projects? The Ayvarith webpage, and what about writing some new poems? Writing is now sort of an important part of my life and I don't want to neglect it out of sudden, even if there is no concrete inspiration leading to it.

Although I've been working partially on the panorama taken for the Lounge room, but I've stopped working on this one for some time and decided to move on to a different one completely, and in fact, one of the earliest panoramas taken when I visited Cashel; The Ardeaglais (Chapel) of Cashel Rock.

The main yard of the chapel.

Just a little explanation of the word Ardeaglais, which I use solely and specifically for this chapel. Ardeaglais is just the Gaelic for "Chapel" and it is made of mainly 2 words: ard (high, great) + eaglais (church). I learned this word when I visited Cashel Rock, and since then I've been calling this place Ardeaglais.

This panorama was taken with a wave of tourists roaming around the place. Fortunately, when combining the slides into HDR images, there is an option within Photomatix to compensate for movement in the background or foreground, and hence, lot of these movements were eliminated and only few artifacts remained, which were cleaned by simple cloning (beside the nadir of course). 

I believe the main beauty of the place is in the geometry, and that made me expand my view for such a location. I've always believed that the Little Planet projection (also called Stereo projection) is more suitable for outside panoramas rather than for panoramas taken in the inside. I did that though already for panoramas taken for the main hall at my home (and that was long time ago before I get my Manfrotto VR-head), and also once for one of our labs at work, but I can't really say I'm quite satisfied about those.

Little Planet projection for our main hall at home. The black hole is unfixed nadir point.

Gamma Spectrometry Lab in CRER, my work place.

But I have to say now, that the most amazing thing about such projection is to amaze people and keep them asking questions on how did I take such an angle. It was not until I made the Little Planet for Ardeaglais, that I've discovered that for a place with a unique geometry can produce such a beautiful pattern, pleasing for the eyes, that details are not even important anymore. At least to me I have to say.

Little Planet projection for the Ardeaglais.

Of course, beside every spherical (full) panoramas, there must be a QTVR to end my work with. The QTVR here is made on 3 versions of the original. One was done with a full size panorama (original size) which was 50MP in resolution. The file was around 23MB in size and good looking, but of course not practical when it comes to the web of course. The other 2 versions were 25% of the real size with around 2MB, and 12.5% which was around 300kb in size. Of course the latest was ideal for web purposes, which I'm putting here. I've been using lesser JPG quality to reduce the file size significantly.

I finished these over night, and literally speaking, the little planet panorama took more than 6 hours to be stitched. I noticed that Little Planet panoramas tend to take longer times than regular spherical-flat ones. I don't know what is my next stop now, but I think I will move on in order with respect to the dates of the shots. While working now and then, I think from time to time if there is a possibility to achieve some black and white images, but maybe I will use this option when I exhaust myself with colors. I didn't do much single images so far though, but that's fair enough, bearing in mind that I just got back from Ireland 6 days ago. I feel so damn dizzy right now that I'm just picturing my bed in front of me on the monitor!

On the other hand so far, I've been waiting for some delivery. I've ordered a colorimeter, which I can use to calibrate my monitor. I've read somewhere, or maybe just misread that, that I can upgrade this hardware piece into a spectrophotometer, or in other words, into something which I can use to make profiles for my own prints from my own printer. If this is true then I did get a good bargain here; Two actions into one purchase. Just waiting for the usual delay in DHL for now...

Kuwait, again...

Here I am, back to Kuwait. My sleeping time and habit now is a mess and trying to enjoy as much as I can (with my photos from Ireland) before the beginning of work by November.
I was planning to go to Failaka today, but my sleeping habit isn't helping for now. Today was the perfect time supposedly, as the ferry sets off at 8:00 in the morning, while other days coming after will always be later than this time. The earlier, the merrier. My aim in Failaka is to take a panorama for the inner structure of the bulleted house that I've been visiting every time I go there. I don't know if I can do this before November now, but I need to work more on my sleeping schedule. In fact, I get more excited about my photos and work that I simply forget all about sleeping and stay until the morning, when I sleep usually.

Been working on few images and some panoramas, but the work on one panorama takes such a long time, and almost feels like one day is spent for one specific panorama, so far. One of the first panoramas I started working with for now is the Thornbrook House garden panorama. I'm planning to email the images to my host, Mrs Mary Kennedy.

I did have some hard time working with panorama, as usual, because of unexpected stitching errors. Small in size, but with close inspection they were obvious. Despite the fact that I've used a VR-head here for my camera, but seems there was some shake in the tripod or some rotation in the tripod's plate itself while rotating the VR-head itself, and hence such errors were produced.

The Thornbrook House (B&B) in Cashel town. Spherical Panorama.

The sky was colored with Photo Filter layer in Photoshop. It was grayish and to give it a bit of life, I decided to go and put some bluish hue in it and the scene turned somehow like it is an early morning scene in winter, although the panorama was taken around noon or afternoon of that day.

I've made several sizes of the same panorama for different purposes that might come later. Also, I stitched the panorama all over again, and had so much trouble with memory, this time changing the projection style into my favorite little planet style...

Thornbrook House (B&B). Little Planet projection.

The nadir (bottom) point was not a problem in this panorama, mainly because I picked my location carefully to do this. I picked up a grass land so that mimicking and cloning in Photoshop would be relatively easier and more gradient into the already existing background. Another type of problems occured for me while doing this panorama however, and that is because the PTGui stitcher, was in fact connecting and stitching irrelevant images in the low row of images taken at -45 degrees. This happened because part of the VR-head was apparent in the lens view and at that time I was thinking "not a big deal since we have grass and I can clone it out easily," but the problem proved to be more than that. PTGui started to assign control points from one image to another thinking they are points in the scene itself while the fact it was just my VR-head rotating around itself! The next time I do this, I think I will have to gauge the elevation and limit it to around 30 degrees top and bottom. At the moment though, I don't think this is a good solution. Despite this problem, I did in fact stitch the panorama at the end without doing an optimization for my control points, because every time I do it I get results as "Bad" or "Very Bad" and hence, I decided without optimization, the panorama looks good for the first glance.

Of course that was not enough for me. Still something is missing. QTVR of course! I made two of them, one sizing 4MB in moderately large image and another one sizing around 300kb only with a smaller version, for web purposes.

Along with this panorama, which is the first to achieve so far, I did some simple single images. I might post them at a later time. This time my travel consists of so many panoramas, more than I did take last year in Oughterard, Co. Galway. This means more hard work for now. One of the single images I've processed today was a scene taken from St John The Baptist church, which I visited in my second day in Cashel. The image, although I've saved it and uploaded it that way, is still not what I wanted to achieve by the HDR. I'm reluctant to upload it to stock sites even because I'm almost sure, it will be rejected.

St John The Baptist Catholic Church - Side. Cashel, Co. Tipperary.

Maybe what I like about this image is the crisps that I made in my trial to make it more sharp. Other processes involved here is a fisheye distortion fix, since the image was taken with a fisheye lens, rotation, and chromatic aberrations fix (which was not a perfect fix anyway).

Although I'm still in a vacation, I do feel like something is missing from my life yet. I don't know if this is just an effect of my holiday in Ireland, or it is simply a psychological effect for now repulsing my work start by November, or it means indeed that I'm missing something! I have some books to read still and I have to think of what to do next in my Ayvarith and the project of building a webpage for it. In the same time, I will keep working on my panoramas and images most of my time at home I guess...

Dublin, again... Goodbye Ireland.

Here I am, in Dublin again, getting ready to get back home by the morrow. I'm in the usual hotel, the Travelodge in Ballymun. Today the connection has been awful, or should I say my laptop had been awful. So I better wrap this as quick as possible.

I couldn't post yesterday because I was in Cahir House Hotel, and the connection is only available in the lobby and not in the rooms. However, I had sort of a busy day yesterday in Cahir. Once arrived I didn't spare a minute and went on directly to take out my stuff from the luggage again and the backpack. The camera, tripod and the VR-head. I was planning mainly for 2 panoramas only but then I found myself taking 3 panoramas and more single images. Some little panoramas were added later on even, when I got out of the castle.

The stairs inside the castle were about to suffocate me. Despite the fact that I went there in this chilly weather, I decided not to wear my jacket just to make my movements a bit easier inside the tunnels there and on the narrow stairs. Well, this did work a little, but never the less, walking around with a backpack and a tripod and VR-head was not easy either, adding my camera bag of course. On the top of the castle I took a 360 panorama (not spherical, only horizontal line) for a general view of the town from there. Although I raised the pole of the tripod to the max, the edge of the wall was still obvious in the view. I think I will have to accept it that way and then cut it out when I stitch the panorama together, hopefully.

I'm so concerned about the extra weight of my luggage and I'm thinking of reducing the weight significantly, but unfortunately, seems this is not possible. I'm afraid also to remove the gifts (that weigh maybe 1 kg in total) to my backpack and make some problems for myself before boarding. I was thinking of getting a new case to divide my stuff in between the two, but anyway, no shops for such things near by so I have to get a cab or a bus and I'm totally exhausted now. All I want to do is close my eyes and wake up at morning and be ready to take off. Seems no escape from paying extra for the extra weight.

Coat of arms, on the walls of Cahir Castle.

Goodbye Ireland. Hope this won't be my last time here. I will take off tomorrow, by 11:20 Irish time, that is 1:20 noon in Kuwait. And will arrive technically, after 12 hours! Tiresome day is awaiting... . Bye!

Relax...

This is a day of being idle completely. It is my last day in the Thornbrook House and by tomorrow morning I have to leave. I'm going to leave to Cahir and hopefully there I will start taking few panoramas and images I have in my mind so far. I'm going to spend one night in Cahir House Hotel and the next thing in the morning, I'm going to take the railway to Dublin.
Well, I think I won't be logging in here when I'm Cahir since the wireless service is only in the lobby and usually I don't feel likle leaving my room. I will try to just take the panoramas I'm planning for inside the castle and upload them into my laptop. By morning, I should raise before 8 to get ready and get the ticket. Well, it is someway to drag my luggage across to the railway station! Just like how I did it the first time I arrived into Cahir.

Well, no images for today and no small adventures of my own, except a walk taken around Cashel with no camera or any heavy backpack. Simply me, and my eyes, enjoying the last glimpses of Cashel...

Going back home...

St. Dominic Abbey

With my leaving day approaching, on the 14th, I finally got inside te abbey ruins that was around the town center. The abbey's name is St. Dominic's Abbey and lies in a street of the same name. Well, not exactly the same name. Sráid Ministreach; The Abbey's Street.
It was indeed a beautiful morning, with shiny sun and not much winds except of a breeze, but it was cold as well. I went out today without wearing my jacket. I realized later on I would get sweaty and hot with the jacket and actually it adds to my burden when I work and walk, as in everyday so far. It was chilly and my thumb specially got almost frozen, but with time and some walking in the sun, got me almost to normal.
I reached the abbey after some 15 minutes of walking or so. I went around the abbey trying to find some sign or some way to get in. I did that for like, 5 times or so. My host actually told me that there was a sign as a guide on how or where to get the key to get inside the abbey. Finally, one lady came out from the next door house and asked me if I want to go inside, and I said yes! She handed me the key then after going inside her home to get it and told me to put it in some box when I finish.

In my roaming around the abbey, I did take some separate shots for different angles of the abbey, and also a shot through the bars of the gate for the inside. I did a little vertical panorama for one of the walls which was topped with a little tower or some kind of observatory. I was so close to the wall that I couldn't make up for one shot for this view, and I really loved this angle of view. I have to do it back home when I have the chance as my laptop is not equipped at all. I almost feel naked when I work with it.

However, in the inside of the abbey there were 2 main halls or yards. One which was in the front and can be viewed through the main gate of the abbey, and full of graves (but not much standing gravestones), and the other one was somehoew viewable from te main gate in the front but it was inside and you would need to get over some steps to get to it. I made a panorama for each hall of those and then wandered around shooting some random single images.

Some flowers on the top of a high wall of the abbey.

One of the most interesting features I've noticed in this abbey actually is, some paganic-like symbols or statues. Being not Christian myself, I did ask a friend who is a Christian and they said it does look like some paganic like symbol of fertility, although I always thought such symbol should be a feminine one and not a masculine like this one;

 Idol?

The question is, what does such a shape or statue do in such an abbey? The abbey dates back to the 1200s when it was first built. It had been reconstrcuted several times though, but definitely this thing is so so old from the way it looks, and feels. The other significant thing here as well is that, in this abbey and in Hore Abbey which I visited yesterday, there were many graves for people died in the 1800s and specifically around the 30s of that era or maybe 50s I'm not sure because the old gravestones are hard to read big time. I think most of these graves from that era belong to victims of the great Irish famine back in the 1800s although I'm not sure of the years of the famine but it happened back then in the 1800s. 

Beside that little (relatively) statue there was another statue or idol of some sort in a shape of a head as it seems but its features were completely, almost, abandoned...

 It is such weird to see these shapes inside such an abbey. The structure of the abbey is actually fascinating and there are some traces that you can see there were for arcs inside the abbey but eventually with all that time since the 1200s and re-building again and again, lot of these features are lost. All you can see is some lines as traces of some structures or broken columns. My panorama should tell better, hopefully. 

As for now, my plans for tomorrow, my last day in the Thornbrook house, is to take a walk without my camera and all the heavy loads and then simply get back home and start sorting things out and putting my stuff in the suitcase. By the day after tomorrow, I shall be in Cahir and probably I won't log in online from there, but I do have a little thing to do with the interior of the castle, hoping that tourists are not condensed there to make my work even harder.

Gotchya Buddy!

It was a foggy morning. So foggy that you can literally see the fog as a mass hovering over the ground wherever you go. But it is also a morning when I finally got the culprit and my #1 nemesis! The Magpie! YES!
Of course the images were taken with high ISO and hence, got lot of noise in them but I kept on shooting in a mood of a triumphant that I didn't want to stop whatsoever!

Two of the many shots I took for this big bird.

This bird's size is around that of a hen in fact, but of course it is slim and more elegant. It is closely related to the raven or the crow and the beak is almost the same in both going up with the shape of the head, but its colors are significant. The raven is also beautiful when the sunlight gives it a bit of dark blue streak on the side.

However, after the breakfast I went on roaming the garden and taking some simple pictures of some weird stuff (mainly spider webs!), then my host thankfully dropped me by the place that I always wanted to see myself, in close. The ruins that I kept looking at from afar from the graveyard at the back of the castle at Cashel Rock. 

The ruins on the far left.

It turned out that the name of these ruins is Hore Abbey. I don't know much about its history but I think I would be able to find it easily by googling anyway. My host drove me down to the abbey entrance and it lied in the middle of some field. Just like that, forgotten. The weather was foggy as I said in the morning, but eventually, everything became OK and the sun started to shine through and the sky turned blue again just when I started to take my panoramas.

Hore Abbey amid the fog.

The place is almost completely forgotten, and the good point is tourists do not know much about the place I would say. I didn't see any there and could work for almost 2 hours with my panoramas with no distractions. The place is connected to the path I've encountered yesterday, where the sign said "Tipperary Heritage Path." The abbey itself actually was located over the "Bóthar na Marbh", road of the dead. The name refers to the path it was taken to move the dead people for burial, presumably, here, in this spot, in the abbey and around the abbey. I do think that the grounds and this wide field around the abbey is indeed occupied with some unseen friends.

However, I went inside, and on the way to the main yard inside the abbey there were some tourists who were going out themselves, and so I was so HAPPY about it. It was a really busy day with panoramas and for the first time ever, I had to change my memory card from the 16GB CF card to the 8GB one (which I used before for my 350D always). Generally there were 4 panoramas; 3 spherical and one vertical. The vertical panorama here is the first I do with my VR-head, which I believe is better, but also takes a longer time to settle. When I take a vertical panorama, I usually set the camera directly on the tripod without the VR-head because I need the camera, with the fisheye lens, to take a large horizontal field of view. With a vertical stance, the fisheye would take large vertical field of view. Anyway, I was thinking of how to use the VR-head but putting my camera in landscape orientation but seems it is impossible to do, and to compensate for this, I went on taking 3 images from left to right on every elevation. I did a mistake here, I have to confess and I'm worried about the results when I get back home. In this vertical panorama, which was taken from a side walk in the abbey overlooking some graves, I went on elevating the camera up from -30, 0, 30, 60, 90, 60, 30, 0, and -30 to the other side of the scene. Now, my worries is that the sky, do not have much significant features that it might prove insignificant for the view in general. Maybe I should have included the ground I was standing on better. However, this was one vertical panorama, and there is not much harm in it, but my main concern now is the changing conditions of the weather while I was involved and indulged in my work in the panoramas, the major ones. The change from the foggy to sunny day, might prove very problematic in the final composition.

After finishing the major panoramas I wandered about taking pictures here and there from around the abbey, and the view of the castle from there was fantastic as well, just like the view of the abbey itself from the castle!

The castle as viewed from Hore Abbey.

And that was not enough for me as well. After finishing from the inside of the abbey I went around it. It was so hard walking on that wet grass and also some mud and dung were all over the place. However, I did catch some snaps from the sides and the back of the abbey. The structure in general is beautiful and I do really like the inside. I wonder how it was before it became like this. I'm pretty sure the design was amazing. I've captured some coat of arms from the inside and some logos on the walls, while some other features were unknown to me.

 The back of the abbey, with many holes that I presume they were holding 

supprting beams of some kind. Notice the 2nd arch from 

the right. It has been almost closed but not completely. I wonder why?!

I left the place after all, carrying my heavy load of images, which are carried on 2 CF memory cards this time, and started to walk down the bóthar na marbh heading back home. Before I go out I had to settle down my stuff and pack them up, and while doing this, I've lost the back cover of my 18-55mm lens. It is the cap that covers the back of the lens which attaches to the camera. I think it is not a big deal for the time being. I might use an aluminum foil to cover it in the future or might even consider buying a completely new lens. I don't want to bother myself with a cap story right now.

Tomorrow hopefully, I will be heading to the other abbey which lies almost in the center of the town. It was an abbey that I couldn't get into all these days and it lies on the way to the castle. My host tells me that I can find te key some where to the gate to get inside if I like, and she said she will check after it. I really didn't notice any signs of any kind in the previous times. If this proves true, and I can indeed get inside, I need to get prepred for another panorama, or should I say, a set of panoramas maybe!

My clothes are so wet after walking here and there and I'm trying to dry them out with the hair dryer provided for me in the room. Well, it did some job. Few days are left for me here and I need probably to set things straight and prepare the luggage before I head to Cahir. I was planning for a panorama in the main yard of the castle but I think I will leave that to the time when I get there to spend one night before heading to Dublin on the 15th.

Cliff Hanger!

It's the 10-10-10 day. Well, should be either a bad or good omen, I don't know. To me, it was 50-50 deal. I had a walk to the castle again but this time I went to climb up the hill and be beside the walls of the castle itself, and that was a big deal with a backpack and a camera bag full of tools. The weather is not rainy but foggy a bit with clouds covering the place, but the wind was calm. Anyway, just in any case I put my cap on and the back of my hair was out of order. I think I did look like more of a... gypsy beggar!
I did take the walk as usual by the short cut to the town and I was thinking of going in between the alleys to shorten the way, but gracefully, 3 little dogs in one alley were fighting together so I decided to stop and turn back from where I come from and go back to my old way and path!
I turned to my old way, and found myself being panting like I never did before. The town was quiet even though it was already 10 in the morning. Well, no wonder. It's Sunday. However, the castle side was a bit busy with tourism as usual. Asians mixed with Americans and some Europeans as usual.
Beside the castle, I climbed up beside the castle. This is my second time in fact, as for the first time I couldn't go on further because there was a couple, having some "nice" time together. Anyway, this time, I've been climbing up and resting on some rocks and once I did that, a whole punch of tourists started to follow me and take pictures for themselves upon the rock, while I was sitting and panting trying to rest, and waiting for them to leave the place.
From up there, I took a regular (not-so-fascinating) image for the town of Cashel, and also I ran a handheld panorama for the town of Cashel from up there, almost 90 degrees wide. Just a simple one. The thing is the weather was foggy ad whitish, and I wonder if the HDR will make some interesting venture from these images. I took after that the path to the side of the castle on these slippery soft rocks and wet grass, and I reached a point that I couldn't get past through. This is because a weird structure!

The weird structure.

Seems this structure was put there for a purpose originally as an obstacle to block the way of attackers. To pass this structure you have to jump over it, which in my case was not a good option to do with all my bags and the hevy weight, adding to that, the cliff was directly under this structure. One slip, and you're down.

After this point, I decided to get back from where I came. Eventually, I sat down on one of the benches trying to take some rest and preparing myself for the long way back to my place, but something kind of weird (natural, but weird to me) happened.

Just at the bench, and while getting my camera cleaned a bit and putting back the lenses while I was taking a rest, I've noticed 2 ladies coming from some pathway at my back. I looked back to see that, the gate that I always thought to be closed and locked, was actually open and there is a path that leads to some where. I didn't notice before that this pathway was open and people could go there. So, here we go.

The newly discovered path!

The magnificent thing about this path really is that you can view the castle from the side in a more pleasant view, and away from the presence of the tourists all around the place. So, I didn't miss the chance, and I took some shots for the side and for the back of the castle with my fisheye. 

Cashel Rock Castle (once owned by Brian Ború himself!).

The picture is a bit dark, because it was one slide from the HDR auto-bracketed sequence and I tried to enhance it as much as possible but the DPP that comes with Canon utilities is not that much of a good tool like the Adobe RAW Converter, or ACR for short.

I've continued on the path and I've noticed some fields on the other side of the fence and the hills in the far horizon, and finally, at the end of the sloping down path, there was a locked gate. I don't know how people did cross this gate because I saw already some people come in and out of this path! Anyway, across the gate I've noticed a sign saying "Tipperary Heritage Path" and pointing to some direction. Now I began to wonder, what's hidden in this little town now? I thought I've seen everything so far! Tomorrow, I was planning for going out to Cahir and take a panorama for the main yard inside the castle (although I'm still reluctant about it), but now, I think I have some work to do and chase after this heritage path. Who knows, it might lead me to the ruins I've seen from the graveyard up in the castle.

Back now to my place, processing some images and keeping some for later and organizing some other, I've noticed that actually after settling down my bed after the hot shower, I still feel like the bed is moving and like I'm about to fall! In fact this is the second time this happens, and in the previous time I was also climbing the hill near the castle. I'm wondering now if this is something like the sea-sickness, or land-sickness. Yes, there is land-sickness, and it affects sailors mainly who spend so long time in the sea that when they touch the stable ground, everything seems to be moving for them. The thing lasted few minutes for me though, and I'm fine right now. Thinking about it now, I think I'll be heading to Failaka island at the nearest chance after getting back to Kuwait. I would still be in vacation, until November.

Time for me now to think of how to catch the damn magpie, after failing twice today. This bird really has the actions of a thief!

Roaming Aimlessly...

My bag is out of plans. Yesterday I didn't type much here because it was a day mostly out of activity, well, except of sitting in the lounge and capturing some of the glassware there. I can't wait to get back home to work with the photos and this laptop is giving me a real headache.

Some glass work taken yesterday.

Today, I took a walk to the east of my place (I think, if my sense of directions is right) and I kept walking and crossed a bridge. All the time I was aiming at birds and kept my camera ready on Tv mode with ISO set to "H" (highest) and a shutter speed of 1000-2000. It is a risk taking indeed. I really don't know if my software packs would be able to clean such images, but for such images of flying birds this is almost a must. I also took some HDR trials on the way with such settings, and found out that the high ISO combined with Tv mode makes a different in the light level for the images taken if I did auto-backeting. This gives a chance for some good HDR images maybe providing that I can clean the noise in a proper manner.

Some of the birds I caught today was doubtlessly, the crow or raven. Although there is one shot that I doubt it would be for a crow and it could be for the wagtail or the magpie, but I'm not sure.

The Suspect!

Pied Wagtail

Crow (or Raven)

Judging from the shape of the head and the beak of our "suspect", I think the bird in question here is actually a raven with white streaks. Beside the big birds there were little ones, flying in a flock and collecting stuff from the ground, but I think it was hard to distinguish them even after I loaded the images. The image is extremely noisy however...

I don't know what they call it yet!

There on the bridge, my eyes fell upon a beautiful corn field, which I presume it belongs to some family and not a factory of a company. So, I snapped that with my fisheye, to take as much of the horizon as possible.

 

The Corn Field.

Definitely the shoot was for HDR (3 bracketed EVs), but I'm not sure it will be quite the interesting view here, until I try my Photomatix on it. The question now is about whether to fix, or not fix, the distortion of the fisheye lens. Sometimes it adds a catch on the image and sometimes you'd like simply a straight image. In the image above, I was trying hopelessly to get down as much as possible to make the horizon interesting, but I was not able to do that since I was on a bridge, and for my own convenience let's say, I didn't want to go down to that farmland!

And beside the birds and the fields, I met some other type of friends...

Now, it was not the only one there, there were many. In fact, this one was a pony rather than an adult horse. Walking alone that straight road with that hard wind blowing off my mind as well as my jacket, There were some flowers left like memories of the past summer; I snapped some of those. But the view that I liked the most was of a maple laying on the grass and it has some strange hue indeed.

Winter's Maple

I'm pretty sure this image with a ProPhoto space would amazing, and also it was taken for an HDR composition, so hopefully there is so much possibilities awaiting to be played with. It sounds to me though that I'm taking images without feeling them for real. Like I do compose my images depending on my own feelings about them. Even the maple picture, was taken for the sole purpose of color composition and the attractive reddish hue in the leaf.

I don't know what are my plans for tomorrow, but it's going to be Sunday. I'm not sure if the cabs will be having the time to pick me up anywhere (there was no problem last Sunday). Anyway, in my mind now I have two locations: Cahir (yes, again), and Kilkenny. As for Cahir, I realized there is a great potential for a panorama inside the castle and unfortunately, I didn't do anything the last time I got into the castle. While for Kilkenny, I don't know how far it is from my place but I hope it is a town like Cashel and not a city of some sort. In fact, I don't know anything about Kilkenny and the historical places in it. All I remember about it is, it is mentioned in the famous Irish folk song "Carrickfergus":

And now in Kilkenny,
it is reported,
They've got marble stones there,
as black as ink.
With gold and silver,
I'd support her,
But I'll sing no more now,
till I get a drink.

I'm drunk today,
but then I'm sober,
A handsome rover,
from town to town.
Oh! but I'm sick now,
my days are over,
come O ye young lads,
and lay me down.

I might have to dig around a bit more about Kilkenny. If not much is there, I might give up for Cahir again. I think I've done shopping for gifts now, all I have to do is sort them out. But now, it is time to concentrate on much needed scenery. The fact that Cashel is a little town and my place is in fact part of the town, that thing do not give me much options about taking pictures of the landscape around me. Yet, with hope, I'll be out hunting for more, if only the winds calm down now. New ideas pop in my head as I type these words...

Hunting Day!

Hunt, hunt, hunt. This is all what I was doing today. Not necessarily for images, but for various stuff. In the beginning, it was the hunt of food. I woke up with a really squeaky tummy. On breakfast, I've pulled out my camera and made it settle on the chair next to mine. I had in mind that I must catch that magpie and eventually, and maybe because it was not a sunny morning (although the rest of the day was wonderful), the magpie didn't show up, just in the beginning.
While I was talking to my host about some stupidity with cars back there in Kuwait, the magpie cut off the conversation and landed on the grass and followed by another. My host told me that there is actually some old song about the magpie (with some variations and versions) that says:

One for a bad luck and two for a good luck...

I don't know the origin of the story, but seemingly this means I'm having a good luck. Anyway, I was not that lucky with catching him with my camera and my simple 55-200mm lens, but, I do have hopes for the future in the few days left for me here.

The magpie fleeding as it appeared from the dining room window.

My host went out in a hurry after that and went to the lounge where the window there overlooks the other side of the garden and called me to check. I went there and the magpie was jumping in a hurry and hid behind some bushes. After that, I really gave up looking after it. I was moving in between the windows in the lounge with the camera hanging around my neck and waiting for a suitable chance to snap that thief! Anyway, no luck at all so I decided to get ready for the cab to pick me up to Cahir.

In Cahir, I've paid a visit again to the castle, and I was surprised at the amount of things that I didn't see in the first time I was there some days ago, when I was about to visit the Swiss Cottage. Many things to be seen and many stands to take and just watch that beautiful part of nature. An, in case you are blind, it is enough for you to step there and listen to the running river, the river Súir, going on and on. In fact there, I decided to be a bad boy. Yes, a bad boy. How? Simply, by using a high ISO value with a fast shutter speed. High ISO is not something you want to use in your photos, unless you are really capable of eliminating the noise coming out of the sensor. Anyway it was a trial, and when I get back home, we'll see if I can do some decent job out of these photos. While I was walking on a path beside the castle walls, the path drove me to some source of "noise" if I should say. Some really loud sound coming from the river. Finally, I reached the point when the water was gushing from no where virtually and crashing on some rocks. On tht spot, I've worked on my camera with various settings really, but all I remember was putting the camera on Tv mode (time value priority) and sitting the speed something between 1000 and 2000 (that is 1/x) and the ISO on 1000 and higher (and even used the highest value available, the 12800, which by the way is denoted by "H").

Water crashing on the water.

I got many shots in these settings and the water was, for the naked eye, beautifully frozen! I tried this as well with other objects, specially birds, but it was harder to make something of them. Anyway, there was some nice chances out there. But maybe one of the weirdest thing in the catch today was, that "memorabilia"...

 Couldn't agree further!

Now, into the castle. In the beginning, I didn't know that that gate which was half closed with some construction sign falling on its side beside it was really the gate to get into the castle and see it from the inside, well, after getting the ticket of course! I thought the location was closed when I saw the castle the first time I came to Cahir and spent one night in it.

I got inside, got the ticket and got into different halls and different chambers and rooms, and the stairs were so so so small. It was so hard climbing up on those stairs with a backpack and my camera bag on the side. In some cases, I was literally going down the stairs backwards because the space was so small to turn around and get down the normal way. After jumping here and there from one corner of the castle to another, I noticed in the main yard of the castle, some stairway tht goes down into the ground. I went down to find myself in a place that I think it would be suitable for a garrison. Of course, everything was made by solid rocks. The stairs were going downstairs and ending to some black gate with bars, exactly like in jails, but in the middle of this stairway, there was a relatively new stair going up and connecting to another side which, as it seems, was connected to this stair I was standing upon but fell down by time.

I climbed up that stair. It was so so narrow even though it was relatively new and made of metal. After that "bridge" to the other side, the stairs became even harder to climb and literally, I had to bend my back in like 90 degrees to go through. Finally, at the end, I was up on one of the towers, as if by magic! You go down and you end up being up!

The view from the tower was simply amazing. With even little waterfalls viewable, some flock of birds were also there and made a nice chance for some hunting again!

General view for Cahir from the top of the tower.

The main thing that captured my eyes is a crane (or a heron). It was so big even though it was so far away from me, but I was greatly disappointed with me lens that I wished I had a larger one with a nicer zooming to make it even bigger in the viewfinder.

 The crane on the edge of the small waterfall.

My 55-200mm was on its max when I shot this but still the crane was not that clear, and with the high ISO and high shutter speed things aren't any better. Anyway, I'm still hoping that when I get back home I will do a better pic out of those.

Beside the crane there were other guests. Swans and ducks. While I was shooting them continuously, the camera needed some time to process the images and hence there were stops in the sequences of images, which made it look like 2 different groups of images. However, this is not a big deal to me. I'm not making a story here!

After finishing from the castle I got into a gift shop and tried my best to pick up something for the family. Most of my shopping was to bring gifts for females rather than males actually. I asked the shop owner about the antiques shop on the other side of the street and he confirmed what I doubted about, and the shop was closed. He said that they have some branch in Dublin, but it is less likely I'm going to check it when I get back there before my final leave. 

Well, I'm still thinking and planning for what to do tomorrow. I'm still not sure. I think I've seen the majority of scenes in Cashel and Cahir, and despite the fact that my fisheye betrayed me today and some images appeared out of focus a little, I don't think I will re-take these images anyway. I guess I will sit down and watch for the magpie!

The Garden Hunt!

As planned yesterday, today I've decided to take a rest in my place; since there is no more room left for another muscle in my legs! Anyway, that doesn't mean I'm not using my camera. In fact, with the breakfast, my mind was at work planning on what should I catch for today.
My first idea was to roam the garden for some birds hunt, and specially, the Irish magpie, which made me felt like I've been accompanied by a guest all this time...

TheMagpie

Source: TvTropes.

This bird was an everyday visitor almost. Every day, at the time of breakfast, you would see him jumping in the garden catching something, most probably small insects that I couldn't see. I loved its colors and patterns. I thought him a raven or a crow in the beginning but his white streaks were destinctive indeed, and when I asked my host about its name, she told me The Magpie. The way he jumps on the grass sort of reminds me of penguins as well.

Now ravens are also nice looking birds despite the bad reputation and the awful sound they produce, and they had been a target as well. But unfortunately, no luck so far. The closest I could get to a bird, any bird, so far does not give the quality I'm seeking...

Something like a magpie, but I don't think it is a magpie, on electric pole.

A raven, picking up something from the field or yard next house.

But nevertheless, it is a nice atmosphere, and really puts me to sleep again. Cold wind, yet I like it. I wonder how is the weather back there in Kuwait. I'm not optimistic about it, but I do expect the temperature to be down to around 36C. After all, my catch wasn't that bad for today. I got a close up of this tiny little creature...

On the other hand, I tried to try my flash head today and tried to make some sparkles on the glassware, but my trials were not successful. I think I do need a darker room or a softbox. In fact, I was conducting the experiment without removing the glassware from the cabinet, and using my 55-200mm lens from a distance of nearly 2 meters or more a bit. I think the circumstances did not help on making some sparkles on the glass edges. The light coming from the window was also fine, hence no great change in light on objects. I think I shall leave it to another day. I didn't really want to remove or touch any glassware like I did last time. I didn't know how to compose my image after all.

In the mean time, I think I will be going to Cahir again by tomorrow. I'm going to check the antiques shop again. I might have done a mistake thinking it was sold or something. But the real reason is to check the gifts shop there actually, and also check the castle there for the last time. The way on cab took me around €25, and the way back to Cashel was for €20! A week passed so far, but I still feel the need to do more photography than this...

The Castle, Again...

A new day of walking downtown with muscles growing out of my tongue instead of my legs. Why? Simply because there is no place left in there!
Anyway, started the journey with taking the short cut that I've been told about recently. It doesn't make the road shorter really but it is quieter and cars seldom pass in that way, and it is narrow and ordered by green cover and fields. It has nice views. Actually this is my second time on this short cut and I've decided to take my camera with me along the way today to take some scenes. Eventually, there were some unexpected guests that kept staring at me...

My New Friend!

There are other stuff I took a snap at along the way of course, but didn't prepare any so far. I think I've touched something on this way that makes my hand itchy, or maybe some insect did it for me. The back of my left hand is itchy and got some red spots as I'm typing this.

Anyway, the first thing to do as I got to the town center was to get the batteries that I need for my flash head. Hopefully, I'll be working again in the lounge and also the dinining room (for a panorama), probably tomorrow, as I am in no mood to walk!

I headed then to the castle. I've been told there is a gifts shop there. There was in fact. I didn't find many stuff in it. The gifts shop in Galway in Oughterard town was full of many stuff to buy. If I remember correctly it was a property of Keogh family there. Peter Keogh, if memory serves me well. However, I got some silver rings of claddagh and some with celtic knots, and a blouse. I really need to organize my stuff and decide what gifts goes to whom. I don't think I've settled down with gifts for all my close people, yet. After the gifts however, I headed back again to the castle, got the ticket and hurled in directly to the graveyard at the back of the castle.

In the graveyard, where mixed graves lie; old and new relatively, I've seen graves of old people, and young people, and even infants and babies. Made me really think how lucky I am that God let me reach my 30. I don't know what happened or how it happened, but I did feel a gush of tears coming, and if it was not for the tourists that don't cease to come and pass by, I would have probably teared down, and the reason is unknown. Maybe simply, it was just sad to see 18 years old people lie there, covered.

Typical Celtic Cross as a grvestone.

Now to the technical side of the story. I've been preparing "some" images only with my so-called "cheap" HDR substitution, as you can see above with the celtic cross. Tomorrow, hopefully, with my flash in new batteries, I will try to make the crystals in the ceiling and the wall reflect some light beams and give some interesting shining patterns, if possible. The process is not easy at all because there is a great play of angles in role here. For now, I think I'm done with the castle for now. I don't think I will be back to it again for more pictures. I think I will try to read the tourists guide to see if there are other places to go to other than Cahir. I've checked some information about Clonmel, but eventually, there was not much about it and seems not much is there to be seen! I will check again later. For now, I need to rest my legs...

Saved!

Today is a day of low activity generally, but nevertheless, I got a huge relief for now from the storage problem I had yesterday. I was able to find an external harddisk on USB for €85.00, from Buffalo (supposedly a good quality), of 320 GB. My images so far take up about 20 to 30 GB. I also shopped for some gifts here and there and still I need to look more for gifts, and seems I need to go again to Cahir. The antiques shop that I do want to see seems closed for sale or something. There was a big sign on the facade window. I think I will check back again tomorrow or so. There is also a gifts shop,  might check it as well to get everything done for the family business! AH well, I hope they like it anyway.
I passed by the food market again and got me noodles this time! It was the last vegetarian noodles, since all of the others included some beef contents in them. I got some supplies now that it is a shame for me to go hungry anymore!

Back to the Thornbrook House, with sore feet now, I've backed up everything I got so far on my new harddisk, but without deleting the originals just in case. However, It was really dull sitting idle like that, so I decided to go and do some extensive work in the lounge again. This time, something more than just a panorama.
This time I started setting up the scene for my own use, after granting the freedom from the owner, Mrs Kennedy! I've been moving the furniture around and working with the glassware a bit (and veeeery carefully). I still develope my images in non-HDR format, but today I made a trial on what I like to call: Cheap HDR. What is that you may ask, well, it is an HDR image made out of JPG files (8-bit format instead of the 16-bit TIFFs), and their size is reduced too low, and in my case my typical size was 800x533.

 I called it, Lust and Sin, or Lust and Crime.

The image above is a tone-mapped HDR image. My Speedlite disappointed me here, or should I say for my stupidity I didn't make a spare battery for it. My idea here was to take some images of the lounge while reflecting the flash from the crystals hanging from the ceiling and help on making rays of light. Unfortunately, the plan failed. Anyway, I continued taking pictures around without the flash. 

I had snaps of the piano with the notes sheet, and settled up the furniture here and there.

The Sofa in the Lounge 

Of course this is just an example after all, and more work is waiting for me back home. Now, I have to post this and decide what to do for tomorrow!

Cahir again...

It was a long day, for the activities, and for the catastrophes that followed. It was one beautiful morning with sun shining over, but the rain came in in afternoon. However, it was not much of a thing since I already finished shooting by the time the rain came in.

In Cahir, I took that long road to the Swiss Cottage. Many stuff and sceneries to be photographed but I tried my best to be precise at what attracts me the most even though everything there was attractive to me, regarding that I came from a land where deserts play the role! In the last third however, almost, there was a groove in the cliff side with some holes in it and one big hole like a little cave entrance. Well, it was not a cave, but only one big hole. The view with the trees growing on the top of the cliff was amazing, so I decided to stop here and make a panorama of the place. I was not in a hurry so I tried my best to work slowly and not miss a thing, but things did go the way I wanted, as usual. In the middle of my work I realized that I didn't format the CF memory card in my camera the night before and hence the images of the panoramas done yesterday were still in and, since they are mixed now with new ones, I can't format the CF as simply as that! I had to go on one by one and deleting some and then taking more pictures for the panorama and deleting some and so on.

Unfortunately, when I reached the Swiss Cottage, which by the way is not a swiss thing at all, I've found out that taking pictures inside is not allowed. Anyway, taking a picture from the outside was fine. This Swiss Cottage reminded me of the Carnnóg in Brigit's Gardens park.

The Swiss Cottage

The Crannóg

The conical roof is almost the same in both. The cottage was in fact a home for Richard and Emily Butler in 1810. The title "Swiss" was given by the locals to the place because it looked like swiss cottages in Switzerland. This is what the information card says anyway!

After leaving the place I headed back on that long way again, walking beside the River Suir, and I've noticed this little amigo staring at me as it seems...

I've twisted my left foot on the way back, but it's not a big deal really. I've soon returned to normal. But there was another crises waiting for me, on this one damn laptop I'm typing my blog with right now!

Trying to upload my pictures, which are taken in RAW format, I was suddenly surprised by the laptop's message "not enough disk space". I do have another partition of the harddisk that is not used much still with a capacity of 30GB for now, but this is still alarming. I've ran over my images again doing and early filtration that is supposed to be done back home and not here. I've deleting many images trying to make space, but alas, the only space I could free here was 2GB. Now I wonder if there is any computer accessories shops in this little town. We'll see... or I'm in a big trouble...

Panorama Day...

Today, and as I decided yesterday, I didn't go out to any place except being here around the Thornbrook House. I decided to work on more panoramas for this beautiful place.
This morning I've slept a little bit over. In fact, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and this is not something weird of course, and then I forced myself again to sleep, and woke up around 7:30 a.m., but didn't get out of bed until it was 8:00 a.m., the time of the breakfast!

Anyway, after breakfast I started to work on my panoramas starting with the lounge. This panorama took me 2 trials because the first run was done with a wrong vertical placement for the camera on the VR-head. After that I took a simple vertical panorama for the corridor where my room lies, and that also done 2 times for some mistakes.
I settled in the lounge for the rest of the day downloading the images but also thinking of new ventures. I finally decided to go out and take a panorama for the garden on the side of the house, and as if I started a curse. Once I put my tripod on, the rain started to hammer! I went inside in a hurry and this time I wanted to make a long exposure trial with the train (without having my Neutral Density filters with me) but when I started to do this, the rain started to become lighters and I didn't think a long exposure would be significant to show rain lines in the image, without blowing off the image that is. Anyway, after some time, the rain stopped almost and I was able to work again, on the side garden and the main garden facing the Thornbrook House.

I took as well single snap shots for the statues in the garden and I really wanted to test the HDR this time with my CS2 on this old laptop, but everything really got bad and I realized I cannot do it here at all. Not even on a small size version.

I don't have plans for tomorrow yet, but I guess all will come by the morning. Who knows. I might head to Cahir again!

Is this Cúchulainn?

The main window of the lounge, trying to focus mainly on the statue's head