Well, I'm officially stuck in a rut. All I'm doing right now or thinking about right now is taking selfies, and putting other projects behind my back (well, beside doing a post for my Arabic blog). Megalomania? Not really, but it all initiated with the Schizophrenia project which I talked about last post, this is beside doing a project for this month, February, as it being the Awareness Month for Retinitis Pigmentosa and I'm used to do a shot every year for this occasion. I even designed an icon with a purpose, but nothing official about it but only some ideas. Let's talk about these a bit shall we?
Iconography
This is actually an old idea that I had in my mind, as I used to ask myself: What if we, people with Retinitis Pigmentosa, do have a special sign to make people aware of our condition as we go around, either walking (or even driving though it's dangerous)? I know though that where I live, people are close to savagery and probably won't care much about such a sign as they didn't care before for traffic signs and related stuff. But would people in other (normal) places would consider such a sign? Care for it? Considered something official? Such thoughts came back to me as I was tickling my mind to think of a substitute for my ideas for shooting something for RP (since I couldn't find a blind-cane in the WHOLE country). Thus, it was time to work!
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| RP Icon/Sign |
The idea of the icon is simple: An eye (inside a frame) with two vertical bars cutting through the body of the eye signifying the limited sideways vision or peripheral vision. However, RP has various levels of course and some patients might be legally blind; so, I'm not sure if this icon would really be adequate to represent them. I've used blue-yellow combination here depending on contrast relationship between the two colors on the color wheel. Thinking about it now, I might as well upload it as a vector to some stock websites but I would need to fix some stuff. The two vertical lines should have probably been thicker and somewhat equal in thickness to the outline of the eye. We'll see about that later. I think the outer border as well should be considered in terms of thickness to match the eye. Would I live to see this sticker hanging on someone or stuck to some car? Maybe…
RP Blend
As you already know probably, and as I've mentioned before already, I had to cancel my main idea for this project about Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) Awareness Month, because I couldn't find a blind-cane or stick with any major provider for medical supplies. NOTHING, in the whole country. Of course, I could have ordered it online, there are a plenty out there. However, this will take a long time relatively for the delivery, besides costing so much in shipping for such a simple item like this! Thus, I had to go around this problem and create something new. Well, not exactly new, but let's say an old idea with a different scope…
Road of Hurdles
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| Peripheral Damage |
I'm posting the image from my Instagram page so it would be easier to view and check the B&W version instead of posting them both here. Anyway, as I said, the idea is old but the "vision" is new let's say. The idea is similar to last year's Peripheral Damage somehow when I photographed my eye from inside a snoot. The idea is about the limited peripheral vision which RP patients like me have (and some patients do go blind completely as time goes on). For this shot I've used my chess board (no, not a chess fan and I don't like it and I don't play it and I would never ever think of playing it) - It is a set that I've purchased a year or two ago specifically for that purpose. In fact, a friend of mine has more elaborate set with pawns or pieces (or whatever) made of metal and are closer to the human figure. However, I got this set so I would stop borrowing stuff from other people!
The process of shooting was problematic and I had to do a lot of trial and error and it was not possible to shoot it alone. After some help from my brother and my sister, Ive finally managed to pin the focus and the composition. The final composition, though, had to use some crop to remove my forehead which I could not hide whatsoever! And truth be said, all trials had my eye dim somehow and lacking that luster. That thing had to be fixed in processing the RAW files and then in Photoshop. The thing I'm worried about so much is the noise level which seems so robust to be removed with my typical approach in noise reduction plugins. Right after finishing this little quickie project, a new idea struck my head and I started working on it right away. This idea was in fact inspired by a previous project, Schizophrenia, which I've talked about in my last post.
The Walk of RP
Despite its simplicity, though, I did have a struggle with The Walk of RP and I had to shoot it on 2 occasions (on 2 days). Going around with the speedlite, I've found out that fitting the speedlite with a globe diffuser on the camera did provide the unique, spooky and mysterious look I need. I tried to pin down the focus the first time (as I was using Voigtländer 20mm lens which is a semi-automatic lens) by estimating the distance to my face. However, on the first day, all shots were actually blurred! It was so upsetting (however, I used some of those for 3D anaglyphs later on). On the next day (I remember that I've overslept after fixing my alarm on the wrong time, so I skipped work and used that time with my camera), I tried again but this time I was forced to use the external monitor to check the focus more precisely.
Werewolf
Eventually out of these shots, later on, I've extracted few stuff. I was aiming at creating a 3D Anaglyph at first but then I thought, why not doing this thing as a regular image on its own. Thus, I've created Werewolf and in both, colors and B&W. I've done various things as well with those infrared images (specifically the Schizophrenia project) but let's skip that for the moment, as it is only a change in colors and looks. Maybe later. But let's see one 3D example…
And I've made a handful of those anaglyphs, and still aiming to do more in the future. After emailing some stock websites it seems some of them do accept such art, so I thought I might put this forward and try to do more 3D anaglyphs to upload. I just need the good subject though.
Behind The Scenes
one of the blurry shots taken on the first day merged into an anaglyph!
Finale
Well, seems things will be getting busy the next few days, but there is no trace of hope for my Scopa project. I've gone through a a "sorting meeting" with the group which was to sort and pick images for the upcoming contest, Austria's International Photography Contest, or commonly known as the Trierenberg Circuit. I was kind of disappointed to see one of my panoramas which I'm proud of beside a single shot to be just dropped down and for somewhat absurd reasons not related to composition or quality. Thus, I might consider uploading them separately on my own. This is not because I do encourage or like contests, but this panorama and that single image have so much in it; something cultural and a heritage, thus I want to show it to all.
On the other hand, I've been somewhat disappointed by some behavior on Instagram, as I see many of my so-called "friends" and members of the group do give Likes and comments generously to others but not to me, the one who posts daily. Most (not all) of my Likes are actually given by strangers who probably searched using a specific hashtag or maybe visitors from Explore? If my images made it there anyway (not sure how an image would be displayed there). I think I need to adjust my behavior online, and I'm starting that off by giving Likes for Likes only.
Some poetry are sparking a little in my head but I didn't get the chance to pin down the words. Mainly, I got moved by Werewolf which I've posted above but unfortunately, my mind was so much in a mess to just write anything down. As I'm reading and exploring the world of INFPs (after doing the MBTI lately), there is some emphasis on writing, so I might need to push that further. I do write some thoughts on a daily basis though (and translate them into Irish as a way to practice the language a bit) but that wouldn't be much of a writing, would it? We need poetry there.
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