Malta fil Orizzont…

My flight date is getting closer. Yet, I'm so tired to even pack. Allergies rounded a severe attack on my body since I got back from Oman. Seems like I had an appointment with bad luck since I got back here. I can't wait to leave on a real vacation for good, and hopefully all this allergic reaction is over with it. I don't recall in my life ever that I did consume such amount of medicines (nutritional ones included). I hate pills, but allergy and cough left me no choice; I do suffocate and lose concentration because of them.

Meanwhile, my progress is slow with the current images from Oman (specially panoramas). This is related to my sickness nowadays. I feel the need to sleep most of the time. I've been preparing some 3D panoramas but they won't be displayed right now for some reason. I'll keep them for another occasion. In addition, most panoramas from Oman had been processed in the regular flat format. Some are interesting in such format and some are yet to be manipulated further in other styles.

In The Court of The Sultan

In reviewing some of these panoramas in a meeting for our group to sort out what is appropriate for exhibitions, those panoramas with a sun halo were not much favored. However, panoramas like In The Court of The Sultan were somewhat saved because the sun disk was not completely obvious from behind the structure, beside other processing tricks which reduced the artifacts in this area. But…

Architectural Journey

Polar projections for the same panorama, Architectural Journey, was much favored that it made other panoramas in the list more or less like a child's play. However, it needs some specific crop to enhance the visual impact, the leader said. There are more projections awaiting to be processed for this panorama specifically, and for the others in general. Doing various projections is a must to extract as much as possible from a single panorama (which keeps me afloat in presenting some work all the time).

Sultan's Eye

One of most beloved panoramas for me right now is the Sultan's Eye. It is the planet projection for the inside of Sultan Qaboos grand mosque. The plan, if printed, is to present it as it is in a circular format. The leader of the group commented that it does need some tilt fix, and this is normal since I was not exactly in the center of the mosque. However, using the guidelines in Photoshop, everything seems to fall in place and it is perfectly symmetrical! This asymmetry would be more obvious in case that parts of the chandelier were obvious in the scene, but those were removed here because of a highlights problem.

Finale

The time is drawing near. Malta is in the horizon with lot of opportunities to photograph. I'm not sure though how easy it is to move around with my stuff, but one thing for sure after my travel to Oman: I need to drop some items down. Malta is full of history and the language in particular is interesting for me. How much I wish to go there and, in some way, never come back. Well, dreams aren't always easy; I know.
I have in this short period of time till the 27^th to invent some way still to fit gel filters comfortably at the back of the Rokinon fisheye lens. Some infrared shots from Oman turned so blurry because of the scratches on the filter. The only method (and not a practical one) I could think of so far is using a duct tape along in my kit.
This would be my last post before heading to Malta, and I'm not sure yet if I will be posting daily from there to document my activities like I used to do in Ireland. But I'll try anyway. I need to pack ASAP with this allergic attack. I just wish I'd come back 2 weeks later and find my reality is just different, just like that…