Stroll VII, VIII…

Well, back again with my struggles with the fatigue and guess what? I think my strolling days are over already. Since the last time I've posted here where I thought I would be doing more strolls, the weather here continued to be nothing but miserable. From dust storms and waves and increasing heat (and turbulent sleep); all that just left me no choice at the moment. It seems to be a time for my usual roll back to the oldies and re-editing some photos. And as it seems it's not only the strolls that I'm breaking off with, but with my promises to myself to post at least one Arabic post in my other blog!

You might be wondering about the title and why I'm merging 2 strolls into a single post here. The reason is that the 7ᵗʰ stroll was quite a short one and quite not interesting that I thought it wouldn't fit for a single post on its own. It was a stroll done using my pinhole lens and actually the images taken are not that interesting that I didn't process any of them till weeks have passed already! So, just to keep the track, I thought maybe I should include the few shots in the blog here.

Stroll VII

So, as I said, this stroll was done using my regular Canon 7D camera and the pinhole cap which I didn't use in such a long time on April 8ᵗʰ. Using calculations, I've discovered that there are many problems with this pinhole since a long time ago, and in fact I've considered getting one of these new Thingify pinhole lenses which have some flexibility but I've neglected the idea. Nonetheless, shooting with such a weird apparatus or tool (and an ancient one) is somewhat fun at times. However, my stroll here was a quick one for some factors, and of course done without a tripod and hence I had to use a high ISO to shoot handheld. The images in general are not impressive and I had to end the stroll quickly because of the flies!

Hills and Dunes of Decemania

It is a general belief from my side that pinhole images do look better in B&W. It is not the first time I do shoot with this pinhole lens but it is the first time I do it handheld. Thus, I was expecting much here. Remarkably though, the images might look better when seen from a distance (or at a smaller size) and some details start to appear better to the naked eye rather than at close up where everything is blurry (unless of course the blur is a motion blur, which I prefer in such images).
Still though the story is not ended here and the rest is left to the post-processing to "enhance" the image a bit and extract some textures and details out of it despite the fuzzy view. The issue was somewhat even more sensitive in Hills and Dunes of Decemania because there is a large area of black (originally black even in the colored version) with all these heaps of sand and tar or asphalt. 

Дом и Дверь
(a house and a door)

As I said already, I didn't quite take interesting images in this short stroll and in fact I still check the images now and then in hope that I get inspired by something. One of the ideas I have already (but didn't work on yet) is combining several pinhole images or maybe a pinhole image and a regular one in some way. Anyway, A House and A Door is a later comer to the collection here and I remember that I liked this house and its green door (ironically, forgot where it was located exactly) and I kind of shot it at hip level at this point. Anyway, as with all pinhole images that I take, I had to convert the image into B&W and discard the green (which I like). 

There are few images (maybe 2 more) that I've processed already from this stroll but I don't think they are worth posting still. Composition and contrast are probably the two most important factors (if not the only) when it comes to pinhole photography; This is my own opinion though and I'm not stating this as a fact. But this is how it feels to me. I'm thinking even further of enhancing this pinhole lens in some way, after doing some calculations and realizing that the "stated" pinhole diameter is quite small. So, maybe if I just make it bigger a tiny bit, I would be able to enhance the sharpness in some way. I'm thinking of passing a needle into the aperture to see if I can enlarge it a bit as I think, but let's hope it doesn't get ruined!

Stroll VIII

Days passed since that pinhole stroll on April 8th, and I was literally out of ideas, up until I remember the old trick that I was fascinated by in early 2010s when I worked largely with my then-new lens, Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. Since the lens is completely manual, I was mainly fascinated with the idea to let it work with various filters, firstly ND filters, then at a later time, infrared gel filter. Thus, I've decided to revive this old fascination and go out in a stroll (two in fact) and fix an infrared gel filter at the back of the lens, on April 23ʳᵈ.

Turmoil

This stroll, with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens and a Kodak gel filter (of threshold of about 820nm) was dedicated to the Eastern zone from home (and honestly, I see more chances of me taking shots there rather than in the Western side). Anyway, a western stroll was done later. As a starter, and as usual (in some way of a ritual form by now) I took test shots just outside home pointing to the sky. Such test shots are somewhat important to get my camera into the initial settings (which I try hard not to change them as I go on). For my surprise, the test shot was also a "nice" shot where the clouds in infrared showed up (but not to the naked eyes).

Белый
(white)

From the point of leaving the house and up to the neighborhoods of the Eastern zone (the next block to me), I've been taking some shots here and there and some of them are not processed yet at the time of typing this. However, I'm not going to post them all but I'm going to jump right to the ones that I think are "keys", like White.
I did like the original scene because of some details in the sky and the branches but I've found myself drawn more to crop it anyway to add focus at some point in the image (which I didn't plan really, it was a shot in the dark!). This won't be the only one to be cropped. Anyway, even though it might be such a waste of pixels to take such an extremely wide angle shot and then crop it, but the main target here is the field curvature that such lenses provide and the distortion in the perspective as well; So, it's not all to waste!
I've spent quite some time with White trying to darken the image to a reasonable amount to hide unwanted details (specially in the wall at the background) and focusing more on the flower (and in fact it was just a bunch of leaves and not a flower!). In a nutshell, I was trying to create something out of nothing, sort of. Worth noting here that I've shot many images for this scene at slightly different angles and at some angle there showed some nice flare but unfortunately none of the pots did show as well so I had to neglect this shot (but I still keep it just in case!).

Рост
(growth)

Not far from White I've then encountered a lonely growing plant against the wall of some house. Knowing that in infrared such green leaves would turn white, I thought that this is a good contrast to be documented! So, I've approached the plant and shot it as various distances and even almost got myself lying on the ground. Still though, in the final image, I had to crop a big portion of the image to remove the edges of the house and the sky; Actually, I wouldn't mind the sky if not for the edges of the wall which disturbed the harmony. I think I wished that I would shoot this at 50mm at that moment, but oh well, it's like an adventure after all and one has to manage and "improvise".
Composition-wise, I was trying to fit the plant on the left side of the image but because of the structure of the wall I was forced to let it be on the right side. It's probably not much of a critical factor but probably for people who are used to read from left to right, the position might look a bit "awkward" but for people (like me) who read from right to left, the image might look going well to the eye direction. Anyway, in the process and after converting to B&W, some strange white spots or "zones" in the image appeared and I can't quite tell what are those. Maybe some marks on the wall that appear on infrared only? Because I'm positive that there was nothing on the wall when I was there. There is a faint plant on the left of the main subject but I'm talking here about the general halo-like look, and that I don't understand yet!

تَـنْـويـرْ
(enlightenment)

Circling around and in between the houses after shooting Growth, I've came about to the main space or "square" where one can go to various directions at this point (and where I shot some images months ago, like The Army using H-alpha filter). Actually, the image Enlightenment is a late comer and it wasn't processed till a day or two before typing this blog post and not right after it was shot. I shot several images at this location and I was wondering if I can make anything interesting out of them. The most interesting thing here was the flare in some images (I think 2 of them), so decided to merge them and had some crop to remove the bright spot of the sun. It seems fares are just pretty fun and easy to create with this lens! The subject of Enlightenment though is not quite popping I guess, and the main body of the image seems to be the flare itself and in some way the flare do act as a guiding line here leading to the mosque. I have to add here that that mosque is also a favorite destination right now!

Down Under

Now, the bougainvillea branch dangling out of the fence of that mosque has been an attraction to me and I've shot many images here (that I'm still visiting till now and still processing some of them). I've also created some 3D anaglyphs but anyway I guess I will keep it short and post only those important or impressive shots (to me at least). 

Tilt

However, one of the fun images I've worked with lately with this series of shots from the fence, is Tilt (which is saved as a PNG to keep the transparency of the background). As can be seen, the image was indeed tilted to straighten the column, and instead of cropping the image here as I would usually do under normal conditions, I've just tilted the image and kept the transparent background.
There was actually a time when I was interested in creating such images with unconventional dimensions to break down the monotony of the rectangular limitation, and typically such images have to be saved as PNGs to keep the transparent background. However, not many websites would welcome such transparency and would fill the space with black or white upon upload.

Playing With Shadows

Leaving the vicinity of the mosque, after loads of images taken there at various angles, I've started to gaze around as I walked back home, trying to find something worthwhile for shooting. I didn't find much though (or I think I did but didn't like the idea of taking pictures of private premises). So as a result, I've found myself playing with my shadow as can be seen in Playing With Shadows. It would have been better though if someone else did take the picture so that I can pose as I want to but anyway it's nothing serious after all. A little bit of fun wouldn't harm I guess!

بَـقـايـا
(remains)

And not far off from that shadow shot, I've reached a pass between two houses made by bushes from both gardens (sometimes one just wishes to live in such homes but alas). Worth noting, again, that the sky here was completely plain to the naked eyes, and all the clouds details in it appeared only when shooting in infrared. I shot this image in portrait and landscape but seeing that the nature of the elements kind of point upward (and using a fisheye lens which would include unneeded objects from the sides), I went on to process the portrait version. It wasn't until the processing phase when I noticed the remains of leaves or branches on the asphalt (I didn't see them when I shot this). I've literally placed the camera on the ground (padded with my hand) and I just didn't see these in front of the camera! However, it was a pleasant addition and surprise; Not complaining here! One thing in Remains that I'm still struggling with somehow is the tilt. I'm sure that I've straightened the image but yet it looks somewhat tilted. Anyway, I don't think I will be focusing more on this image after all. Unless for some heavenly reason it has to be displayed maybe!

يَـقْـدُمْ
(it comes)

The last shot in the series (not really the last but I consider it so) was shot in a narrow corridor (probably less than 2 meters wide, and 2 meters long). At the end of the corridor, there was a car parked there, and gracefully since it was Ramadhan and it's just after 7 in the morning, it was quiet and I thought not many would notice what I'm doing. The car here was blocking the corridor a bit and I had to squeeze myself to get past and return to my block; Not a pleasant feeling!
Anyway, thanks to the fisheye lens, the shot looks spacious and wide. One thing though I don't like is the nonparallel wall lines which broke the symmetry in some unpleasant way really. In processing this shot, I've used tone-splitting techniques which I seldom use with infrared images. But I thought, since infrared filters with such high threshold do yield essentially a monochromatic image after all, maybe I should consider using tone-splitting to add some life to the image. I guess this is a decision that I did NOT regret at all! Many people liked it actually. My typical tones to be used by now are yellow and blue (with mostly emphasized blue). I surely look forward to use tone-splitting with such infrared images in the future (and I did already with few images by now at the time of typing this).

ِAt this point, the stroll was over and I reached home. I did take some shots inside the house just for fun but I don't think they are interesting much. I have to say that the images taken in this stroll are still being scrutinized to get the most of them, specially to see for possibilities to make 3D anaglyph images.

Finale

At this point, and under such weather, it seems that strolling days are behind me now. This post is the first part of using the fisheye lens with Kodak's infrared filter. There is another one, hopefully coming in 2 weeks time from now, where I picked the same combination of lens and filter and strolled westward from home. Probably not much of a scenery as these I've shot in the eastern side.
At the time of typing this, we've been already under dust for 3 days (or even 4). I was thinking of picking one of my lenses and my ND1000 filter (10 stops) to do some long exposures somewhere, but the conditions are changing quite fast and I didn't and couldn't come up with any new ideas to use such a combination (in addition, I would definitely need a tripod and a shutter remote). Looking back, I think I've used this filter only once, back in 2015 in Malta! I need to experiment more with it.
Meanwhile, I will be trying to prepare an article (post) for my Arabic blog, talking about pinhole photography. I do have a bit a problem there with the lack of material but anyway I'll try to circumvent that in some way. I just hope it will be ready for next week though. I'm having a new keyboard here and I think I'm still having issues typing with it and it gives me a considerable headache sometime!

On the other hand, I think things calmed down a bit with my mood swings lately. I just need to figure out a way to overcome the almost continuous fatigue which renders me "almost" useless. I have a plan to try out a number of herbs if possible and see if they are better than coffee in giving me the "zing". Lately, I've been feeling quite sleepy after having a mug of coffee. My daily dose of coffee had been 2 mugs a day, on average, with having one extra sometimes on occasions. Herbs on my list include cinnamon (which I do drink occasionally), lemon balm, and few others with some weird names which I need to re-check and try to find! I just hope one or some of these would help out with my fatigue problem. 

Άγνωστος
(unknown)