Back to Normal…

Seriously, I really don't know how I'm coping with this weather, and these people I see daily in front of me wherever I go. I think I have the right to call myself a superman. Between headaches, migraines and renovations in the kitchen and other parts of the house (which leaves me coffee-less), I'm still trying to survive the summer through. My birthday (August 17^th) will be coming on a Friday, which is a weekend, so I won't be having a real day off work as usual to, simply, enjoy my bed in a regular day. Ah well.
I believe I am in a transition era right now. I'm trying to release the load from over my back so that I might be able to do more photography (and with hope, more conlanging). For this reason, I've ended my membership in the photography group (club) after 6 years (since 2012) of working with them (or maybe for them?) - and that was back in the end of May - and now, lately, I've decided that I must stop using Instagram, as the app is getting ridiculous with its ads, its updates, and useless functions for me (in competition with Snapchat which I don't care about or use). However, I still have one active Instagram account dedicated to Ayvarith (which was the core reason for establishing this blog in the first place! Alas!). I really invested quite a time into this Instagram thing over the years; Preparing posts, thinking of what to post, even thinking of what to shoot for my next post (and this is a positive thing, I admit). However, with the latest updates (and the no-sense involving the chronological order), the place became despicable. Adding to that, the drop in the Likes and comments had been drastic with the latest changes (the friends I relied on do not give Likes already as it is). Apparently, this app is trying to make a business deal out of every user using algorithms to change the way of interactions (or even forcing interactions). That's all too much for me, and I better save my time doing something else for now. So, I'm back to Flickr (despite my disagreement about the new design and layout). At least, not many ads can be seen.

Shellology

As time goes by, and as I've abandoned my activities with the group and Instagram, I've reserved much time to rest and to work on my own pace with my camera. Many ideas come and go but well, not everything is applicable. But I'm having the time right now to document a small collection of shells that I've collected long time ago (some time between 2003-2005) and kept it for no use; Till now. On my pace, I'm trying to shoot one shell per day, and if I was lucky somehow, I'd shoot two a day. The results are quite astonishing and some serious thought is given to re-shoot some of them at different angles and/or at different magnification power.

The series can be long and I don't think I will post it all here but the magnification ranged from 3.2X and down to 1X (point something). It all depends on the shape and size of the shell itself. The general theme of the work is abstract, as in The Shining Shell, but with some sense of documentation as well, as with Shill.

Going extreme with the shell sometimes is triggered by the presence of some fine grooves which can be felt with a fingernail but not by the eye! So, this is another factor (regardless of the size of the shell) which calls for extreme macro (that is, zooming more than 1x in general). One case is MacroSteps with those tiny dirt pieces which I left as some sort of a guideline. Even though I wanted the diagonal trace to be greater, but with the capabilities available and the cumbersome gear I have, I have to satisfy myself with this!

The main struggle though, is to consider or not to consider the addition of oil to the shells prior to the shoot in order to give them some luster. In some cases, the situation was kind of disastrous (and can be fixed at times), as in the case with Bean Farraige. This luster problem is actually an extension of another problem which I used to work with anyway, and that is the lighting with a speedlite. Luckily for this one though, I did find the other half (I guess?) and I shot it without applying baby oil to it, to see the difference in Bean Farraige 2. The difference was huge, though the location of the speedlite did not change drastically.

It took me a while though to think of a way to drop the light on the sample from above, but that doesn't work all the time and I end up, as usual, lighting the shell from one side only. The rest is a process of adding Fill or dodging when processing the final image. The Size of the shell also plays a major role for whether lighting with the speedlite can be a success or not.

In Striptoshella for example, which was a relatively large shell but shot with high magnfiication (3.2x) to focus on the abstract made by the stripes - In this shot, despite dropping the light from above (using Rogue light bender on the speedlite), yet the lower portion was dark and I had to light it a bit digitally during the process. The baby oil here made some nice luster but probably I should have diffused the light even further (as the luster appeared harsher when the final image was sharpened). It was not till later that I decided to use my Bolt LED ringflash or light, which I've left untouched for a long time, when shooting Áilleacht Bhriste just out of mere curiosity.

Bolt VM-110
Macro Ring Light

Now, technically speaking, using this cheap substitute for a ring flash was a failure to some extent, but I still like the good distribution of light it did provide in Áilleacht Bhriste. Here are a number of things that this LED ring flash did not work well for me:

• It does not work well with high f-numbers. In fact, in Áilleacht Bhriste, I used the modeling "light" property in this device and not as a flash. Meaning, it acted as an ambient light rather than a flash, and that required some exposure in the order of half a second (if not for the ISO200 here). Properly if it was an insect, it would be a problem for me to use it that way? Not sure. With a proper speedlite or ringflash, the exposure time would surely be in the order of milliseconds. This fact is related to how the power and duration of the speedlite work in relation to the shutter speed (and the sync speed as well), while Bolt's LED ringflash is merely but an external light source (almost).
• By design, I couldn't attach the ring to the Vello Macrofier which I use to put lenses on reverse to achieve a good magnification AND focusing points easily. In Áilleacht Bhriste, I used extension tubes with 50mm lens just to attach the ring to the front of the 50mm lens. This combination is cumbersome when I work and in fact Áilleacht Bhriste is not made by stacking several shots; The original has its sides out of focus even at f/22, and I couldn't do focus stacking by moving the rail forward to shoot other shots and get one complete sharp image. The final image here was cropped (also to remove the black background). 

Vello Macrofier

Nonetheless, I'm impressed. I'm really thinking of a way to fit this LED ringflash (or light) onto the Macrofier somehow to work together. Even though the exposure time might not be a "quickie" but it is still manageable. I have to say, also, that working with LED would save me loads of energy problems with those speedlites (I had to change the batteries frequently as I worked with these shells!). There must be a way to work with Bolt's ringflash and Vello's macrofier; I just need some time to think about it and I might come up with some DIY solution of some sort! Once this is done, I can work happily with focus stacking again... unless another cumbersome problem occurs again.

Finale

I was going to expand this post further and talk about other experiments I'm working on (specifically the pinhole) but I'll keep that for later maybe as I didn't have much at hand right now. I'm still thinking of a way to fix that problem with Bolt's LED ring light on my Vello's Macrofier, and till I find a solution I might be able to do some ideas I kept at the back of my head for using my pinhole, AND creating some as well! Also by then, a new poem might be ready, if the words and the focusing serve me right. I've tried several times to pin it down but I got seriously distracted and couldn't compose a single line (heck! I didn't even pick a proper rhyming scheme, but I might make up my own here). This poem is supposedly triggered by a shot I made for a shell, and hopefully I will post it next time as well.

Some questions remain unanswered though, or partially unanswered, for the time being after leaving the group and Instagram. What I'm supposed to do next? Well, obviously the first step or answer would be: enjoy photography; Just like in the old days. Enjoy experimenting and invest more time with the camera rather than working on group's stuff or preparing posts for Instagram. Beyond that, I really don't know where I am heading. There might be some local activities (which I've encountered some already but did not participate) but just the thought of "socializing" with people in this circle give me the chills sometimes. Not because I'm an introvert, but because I can't act and put on a fake smile wherever I go, and it is often when my nerves got stepped on in such occasions.

With a weather like this, and a home like this, it is not only people that get on my nerves lately. To some degree, I would say everything; However tiny, however grand. Luckily, I've finally got my new passport after a struggle for months, but the question remains: Will I be able to travel? Traveling to me right now is a need rather than an activity of pleasure to be done after some hard work or relaxing. It is something to keep my sanity in check after spending my entire year (and more than a year for now) in one big asylum like this one. The irony though is, traveling makes me feel home, more than home does.