Lingua Arabica…

Another post that I'm kind of struggling to keep up with, and this time because of my gum infection that had been paralyzing my right side of the face. I'm taking a course of antibiotics at the time of writing this so I'm hoping these would work, if not, then I'd be forced to check with a dentist for some drilling course (pun intended).
Anyway, I've figured at this point that I've reached the activities and shots that I've made in December 2022. Since there had been a various shots (mainly by the phone) and a little work with my DSLR, I've decided to make this post about my DSLR activity, and mainly about a single project that I've mentioned before in previous posts, and that is the Arabic Language Day which takes place on December 18ᵗʰ of every year. I might make a random post later for all these shots taken with the mobile, we'll see. 

Arabic Day

The beginning was quite a struggle with the idea (as usual) then it came to me maybe I can do something quickly (because I was running out of time) with light painting techniques. Again, though, another problem prevailed: Where? For such a job, I'd need a completely dark room with some... room! Even though I was planning ahead on using my Sigma 12-24mm lens for flexibility and not to have much distortion, but it was almost impossible to find one room in the house that would be fitting. Finally, I've settled on my mother's room despite the not-so-cozy setting, but I thought "I don't have to move my body, but merely my hand and hopefully the zoom would fix the perspective."

Scrambled ع

As expected, my first trials were troublesome, and this is normal as I don't know much about the technique itself and the place itself is not that adequate. At some test shots, some parts of the furniture were lit as I was moving the LED light in the air trying to write the Arabic letter "ع". Some of these test shots, though not perfect, but do have something about them, like Scrambled ع, where a tiny trace of my hand showed. It goes without saying that I had to wear a black outfit to avoid unwanted reflected light coming out in the image.

Shining ع

One of the problems in the room as well, beside the furniture (which can be seen in Shining ع) is the opening under the door which let in some light from the outside. Ironically, I managed to use this line of light (seen in Scrambled ع) as a reference to fix the tilt of the image (spent considerable time trying to fix the tilt on-camera yet it never works that way for me).

عَـرَبِـيْ
(Arabic)

After doing some trials with the letter, I've tried to do few trials writing a full word, like (عربي) — "Arabic". It was challenging specifically because the LED light (or torch) which I was using didn't have a simple ON/OFF switch, but it changes modes of lighting with every press and then turns off. Thus, I had to use both hands here to move the light, and cover it with the other when I need to stop "writing"; Just how it goes with the Arabic script! The trials were mediocre as in the one shown on the side, but finally I've managed to create some good ones, and finally put all my trials in one picture, specifically to be posted on Instagram (back on that day).

The Arabic Day

In the collection image, it can be seen some flare in some of these images (specifically the word عربي at the bottom) and this is because I've remembered to use one of those flare filters on the lens. I got these filters from a friend and they don't quite fit the lens so I have to improvise something to fit them on the lens every time I need to use them!
The original The Arabic Day was bluish actually (that's the original color of the LED light) but then tinted the image with golden color (#FFD700). This was the basic one but then it occurred to me: Why not make different ones for different languages? And so it was! I've created 9 more images, each with different colors reflecting the flags of the countries/languages. Thanks to Google Translate for providing the translation here even though it did screw up few stuff already!

Now this is a simple experiment with light painting and I had some thought about it. It looks pretty interesting to do though hard when doing it alone. However, two main hardships lie awaiting here: Location, and Lights. As for the location, I've explained some aspects about it above. As for the lights, the issue here is about having a number of choices (shapes and sizes) and colors to be creative. For this reason, I believe working with light painting should be planned properly with a clear vision ahead of what the final result would "approximately" be like. At the moment, all I have in my arsenal of lights is merely those for use when the power goes off! However, I do have candles as well and I'm wondering if I can do something with them, though they wouldn't provide necessarily a creative variety in shapes or colors!

Finale

I think I should consider myself lucky to finish this blog post in time. The pain caused by the gum infection and the tired body (still) was so much to bear with. It's like I don't ever get enough sleep.
Meanwhile, and before I get struck by the infection, I did two strolls outside for random shooting; the best I can do in winter I guess. I did this in the past few years (starting from around 2020 with the lock down back then). Typically, I would be shooting with some filter, but this time I've decided to go "normal" and I've strolled twice using the Sigma 12-24mm lens, which proved to be hard somehow (hard in terms of getting inspiration along the way). Anyway, that's a talk for another day.

Amid all this fuss with my camera and whatever I'm trying to do, my life seems to be a complete mess. I'm looking back at these stuff that I was indeed planning to do or promised myself to do after retirement, and I've realized almost nothing was done. House problems and the relation with the mother have been dwindling, like an adult forcing itself on a swing so hard, and all I can do to keep it from going worse is to keep myself alone in my room. I guess now I know how it feels to raise a teenager, without me being a father still. I don't know where am I heading but I like to entertain myself with those things they call "positive vibes" even though deep inside I stopped believing in them. They say destiny is or should be my own making and when I look around me, I just don't know what to do and what those people (who proclaimed themselves as "life coaches") are saying. I'm just here, receiving the bad mood and the attitude of others and just to keep things from going worse, I have to be silent for most of the time. I say "most of the time" because there had been some lashing out, and even those, I'm trying to not repeat. If I complain about it, I know I will get the blame, so I'm sparing myself the useless talk with anyone, and just go to bed to sleep, in hope it may be my last…