An tSiúlóid…

As I'm typing this, there were some trials (and errors of course) on some little project which really consumed my time at home recently. Anyway, I'm still working on this and let's hope that I get something useful out of it! Frankly, I'm not sure what I'm doing or have done already, but we'll see. I'll explain things later when it is time to talk about this little idea in future posts, hopefully. Meanwhile, I'm actually living from one weekend to another and now waiting for the New Year's holiday here (which will be only one day). Not just to sleep more as much as I can, but to ease my mind a bit (specially about driving the damn car to and from work). Anyway, who's not sick of driving cars right now in this place with traffic jams taking up the roads for more than 12 hours a day?

Budgie

Since I was not doing much with my camera and as I was trying to kick myself a bit to move and do something, I've found some new target for me here: Our parakeet (a.k.a Budgie). We had this bird for a while and I truly hate to see birds in cages but, well, as usual, I don't have a say in this in this home of mine. I have to say though, he kind of have a weird character. I can feel it.

Nostralia

So, what I did, I just placed the cage on a table (as usual) and placed a speedlite beside it on another table and started to shoot a bit randomly; Why randomly? Well, it is an animal and I can't control its pulses, specially being inside a cage! Thus, my mind was set to do a lot of cropping work later on when examine the shots. To overcome the bars or the cage, I've used my 100mm macro lens (at f/8) in hope that the bars would not be too obvious; However, they helped me at some point as we will see! And for some reason, I've used my converted Canon EOS 7D here without any filters (no IR, nor Hot Mirror), and guess what? I was able to retain the original colors back with the adjustment of the white balance while processing the photos quite easily. Just as a remark: The main source of lighting here is the speedlite and not the ambient light, which means there is an abundant amount of infrared issued through, but without using any filtration system, I was good to go and I got the colors back (well, to be honest, I was hoping I would get something vivid or strange in terms of colors).

3D-Keet

Parastrakt

Taking many pictures on burst (successive) mode did help me as well to inspect the shots for some chances to make anaglyphs. They were not many in fact and apparently f/8 was not enough with this macro endeavor (the shallow depth changed as the bird moved and I was trying to follow him up!). Anyway, my main aim was to create abstracts actually and not anaglyphs, and this is why I was thinking of the crops from the very beginning of this random shooting, as you might have seen already up with Nostralia. I didn't name the pictures even prior to this post; I'm just putting the names now for easy reading and pointing!
Looking at some of these images, I've remembered some of the photos I've seen from some photographers here where they did use telephoto lenses with close objects like birds and horses and that really gives me an idea that I might try one day with my Sigma 70-300mm lens one day with this bird, as apparently this macro lens didn't block out much spaces, as can be seen in Parastrakt in the lower right corner (this image was flipped and rotated to be in that form by the way). The irony is, the first image I've shot in this series, was the latest to be processed and yet, probably so far, the most beloved to me! Behind Bars.

Behind Bars

Behind Bars was one of the first shots I've made in this series but for some reason, I didn't check it out till later after processing few images. I loved the lines formed by the ribs of the cage, with some of them being in focus and some blurred. Originally, I tried to work in color but then I realized that this image is more dramatic and more eye-catching in B&W and probably the emotions do show better in that way. I can see fear in his face (what about you?) probably because of what was happening around him with flash pulses striking his face. What I really like about this image, too, is the way that blurred lines of the ribs blend on the head of the bird like bands of inverse colors; This is definitely a trick I need to think of using in some of my future shots if possible. So far, there had been few images I need to check, and some I need to re-check in this series to see if there is any potential left in them.

The Stroll

With the "somewhat" lack of activities, and after watching some photography videos on Youtube, I got some passionate kindle going on inside of me to do some shooting outside (specially with the winter season right now). I do miss going out at night but anyway this is not the case here. I'm starting simple: A stroll around my workplace.
The thing was like a challenge and I used to do some challenges of that sort often and specifically around my workplace, where I would pick my camera with one lens only and go around my workplace trying to shoot something and come out with something unique. This time, though, I packed a camera with a lens (50mm), plus few items (2 mini-tripods which I didn't use anyway and intervalometer, beside a pinhole cap). As I started to work, an idea sparked inside of me to do some Anaglyph-dedicated shooting, which I did (despite the annoying flies!).

The strolling kit packed in a little camcorder bag.

In order to quicken my work a bit and also to get as much as possible out of the scene in order to be merged as an anaglyph later on, I put the camera on burst mode. It was partially cloudy day, but nevertheless, I could work in the range of 1/1000s of a second for the shutter's speed, and that made my work easier as all I had to do is just press the button and move gently to get a set of images with slightly different perspective. Working with 50mm lens here did not give me the choice to get closer (I didn't bring with me any extension tubes for macro jobs), and there were some instances where I wished I did bring those with me. However, the killing mistake was to use a very shallow depth of field (f/1.4, the lowest f-number for this lens). This aperture proved to be so sensitive to the movement that two successive shots can be so different in terms of the depth of field (and the location of the depth or the sharpness of the image). Anyway, I did escape with some useful images after all and some of them were good to be merged anyway!
 Some shots, I think, are better off to be in B&W as well because of the drastic and quite eye-attraction they cause away from their normal colored looks. I've discovered this by chance as I was trying to remove the color distraction from some images before converting them into anaglyphs. Sometimes, and for some images, the original colors can be quite an obstacle for a proper 3D Anaglyph viewing.

The Negative Bloom
Despite being like a negative or invert in colors, it is a direction conversion into B&W with a play in the tones.
One of my favorites.

But anyway, back to the main purpose of the stroll, which is regular shots, with some abstracts if possible. Escaping from the flies outside, I came back in into my office and started figuring out a way to use the pinhole cap this time (0.22mm) and shoot something towards the window. Actually, the idea for this shot was the reason I thought of bringing my camera to my work, because when the lights are switched off, the window becomes the main source of light; A majestic scene in winter time and the cold weather! Maybe because of the warmth that it provides? Seriously, I'm in this job for about 13 years now and I don't feel this, with such sun rays coming through the window, but only in winter alone. Well, it might have to do with the direction of the sun as well and how the rays enter the room, who knows?! In anyway, it was something to think of for a shoot!

My Dreams Window

The challenge, though, was how to I'm going to shoot this without a tripod? Even though the sun rays were strong enough to shorten the exposure, yet the exposure was in terms of seconds (ranged from 4 to 30 seconds depending on the angle). I almost gave up on that actually, but then I thought while use this relatively-long exposure to my advantage and create the abstract by moving the camera vertically in a line (as much as possible). Which I did, but then I did also add some motion blur when editing the photo later on. I wonder if such images are welcome in stock websites!

Doppel

Even though I was aiming to do a long exposure originally with this pinhole cap and through the window for the people who would usually walk outside, but the circumstances were unlike it. Not many people out there, and no tripod. Thus, I had to satisfy myself with this for now. However, I thought of one last exposure to make with the help of the whiteboard which is hanging in my office. So, I just stuck the camera by hand onto the whiteboard (pressing not too hard for stabilization) and took the exposure like that pointing to the same window, and hence we can see the reflection of the window in Doppel. To tell the truth, I was really thinking that I shot the two windows in my office for a moment! But then I remembered that the second window is covered in curtains still. Dementia at its best.
This was the end of the stroll and in fact up till this moment of typing this, I'm still checking and processing of these images. There is a plan to do it again and that time would be with my Voigtländer 20mm lens. This would be challenging somewhat because it is a wide angle and so many elements might be involved. The good part about this lens is that closest focusing distance is about 20cm which allows for some intimate moments with objects! This said, I'm already planning to upload some of these photos into my accounts on stocks websites and writing the info and keywording is surely a time-consuming task that must be done anyway, and pretty soon.

Finale

Well, because of the scrambled mind here I was not so fortunate to write down a new poem. I really wished to post one here to be my last poem for this year, but alas, my core couldn't stand it with imagination. I'm, though, mainly focusing on pinning down my thoughts about life and recording them for future reflections on my thoughts. It is all recorded in this open document, which I might produce another similar version of it for the year 2019 specifically.
I've been feeling some rage inside of me lately. It's not weird to be enraged, but this time it is a bit weird in a way I can't explain. I mean, a rage to the limit of despising the very thing about the human nature or let's say of those around me. Arrogance? I don't quite think so. Probably just tired. So tired. I'm missing the time when I would just sleep any time I want without worrying about anything. Anyway, let me hit this post button for now and go ahead and work with those images… in hope that I get something ready for the next post in 2 weeks. I leave you now with one of my favorite Muwashshahat by one of my favorite tenors, Sabah Fakhri...