The Walnut…

Here i am with another post, and I was going to take another break for a moment, then I realized that I should talk about the walnut high-speed experiment. I'm typing this just days before my birthday (and it will be posted after my birthday), so Happy Birthday to Me!
Anyway, this might be rather a short post actually, as I gathered the shots in a video which I will be posting below. Unfortunately, i didn't manage to take a shot of the settings, but maybe a drawing would do?

Before I heed, I'd like to announce that most of the images from this experiment are available already on my Canstockphoto. They were rejected mostly from other stocks I deal with (maybe accepting 1 or 2 only) but the majority (if not all) are available on Canstockphoto.

The Walnut

Well, first let me post the schematics or chart, or plan, whatever you like to call it, and sorry for the lousy drawing here; I'm not the best artist out there you know…

The working area: (1) Silver small car shade, (2) 430EXII with globe diffuser, (3) The working area, (4) A group of speedlites; 2x 580EXII and 1x 430EXII, (5) Camera with controlling 580EXII speedlite.

Impact's oval diffuser
which was fitted
on 430EXII

Worth noting that the shooting here was done with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens. Also, the car shade (1) was placed there in the beginning to reflect off the light coming from the speedlites at (4) but I realized it's not enough. The speedlites at (4) in the drawing are placed on the table but in reality they were beside the working table on stands. Anyway, since the reflection was weak, I've decided to place (2), a 430EXII speedlite with globe or oval diffuser on top, and I've made several test shots to gauge the power of the speedlite here; All work was done in HSS mode (or high-speed mode) of course.

Canon EF 100mm
f/2.8 USM Macro

The lens in use here was just about right for the perspective that I was aiming for. However, working with this lens in particular in LiveView mode is quite challenging for the change in the exposure in each test shot despite the fact that the powers of the speedlites were not changed. Finally, I've fitted a blocker on the eyepiece and it seemed to work fine but still some shots were off (probably this time related to the power of the flashes this time). Not sure why, but this problem doesn't happen often with other lenses when I work with them in LiveView; only this lens!

Initially, I started with f/16 for the aperture, but eventually raised it to f/22 (maximum for this lens). Strangely though, there was some apparent shallow depth (out of focus areas and sharp in-focus areas) in some shots despite this high f-number! It seems to me now that high-speed and macro are a No-No combination. All in all, there was of course a tweak in ISO and other things, and even the shutter speed was eventually raised to the maximum; 8000⁻¹s

Cokin's special
effect filter

Also, related to the lens in use, I've decided to place a special effect filter which I purchased from a friend (actually they belonged to his brother). These Cokin filters are apparently old and I don't have the needed adapter to fit them on the lens, but still I could hold them in front of the lens with the help of some paper clips. Before this time, I've never used these special effect filters in a shooting except for testing. You'll notice the flare in the image of the filter on the left here, and I made it that way intentionally to the show the texture of the surface, as they won't show in direct shot upfront. The filter added some touch to the images but not quite dramatic as I hoped actually.

 

The Sinking Walnut

Now coming to the actual experiment and work with the walnut shells. The main idea was to capture the impact of a water droplet on the water surface or just above the walnut shell. However, this proved to be challenging. First of all, I don't have the proper Gate gear to trigger the speedlites or the camera for that moment of impact, so I had to do all the work manually as usual, relying merely on my senses and coordination between eyes and fingers on the shutter release (using the cable remote here).
Another hurdle was the shells themselves, as I thought  they would sustain some water, and they did for some time, but eventually, started to sink, as it can be seen in The Sinking Walnut which was a test shot but I kept it just for that sparkle in the droplet (thanks to Cokin's filter here!). Apparently the walnut shells are porous naturally. Trying to keep some luster and reflection off water, I've exchanged the bowl of water with some can, put it upside down, and rely on the shallow edge to keep some water. I've also placed play clay (or whatever they call it) to stabilize the shells which proved a bit annoying in the editing phase later on, but it was a must.

Anyway, I will keep it short here and let the video do the talk. You can click the button to view it on a larger size. The whole process ended up with about 220 shots (mostly test shots of course and failed attempts) and sieved down to about 34 shots and finally, probably around 11 shots that were properly edited. Actually of the images is a composite of other shots that I deemed unusable; Not going to tell which!
I've realized during the work that I don't really have to shoot water (was using a head-less syringe for that), but at some point I've started to blow air from the syringe into the shell that had been filled with water just to make a turbulence and it worked just fine! So, a lesson to keep in mind when working in the future that the goal can be reached in more than one way, and some might sound a bit unconventional… I leave you with the video now.

In addition to these, I've created some extra pieces, just some artistic composition from one of the shots. Not sure why but I just felt like it really, but these pieces are not uploaded to the stocks like the rest. The two were saved as PNG to preserve the transparent background; So, even they are rendered as squares, but in reality they form a "X".

Vortex Pac-Man

Gluttonite

Finale

Now that I'm done with the walnut experiment post, I'm not sure what would my next post be about, but we'll see. For this reason I might even take a little vacation off from blogging until I do something significant with my camera, or maybe to put a little announcement here for some new photos uploaded to the stocks. Meanwhile, it seems that I'm already breaking with the resolution of making an Arabic post for my other blog once a month, as it is already August, and I literally don't have any idea what to post about there. About this same topic of this post? Maybe. Even though I wouldn't know how to render it up because that blog is dedicated mainly to beginners, so a lot of instructions and explanatory must be involved; Tedious, and might be overwhelming for a beginner. I've done such a post about high-speed photography before though, so this is another thing which makes me think what is the use of a new post about the same technique (almost).
Artistically speaking, I do a lot of editing for old photos but I'm not sure if i want to post them here since they don't have any specific category or theme, or belong to some project I'm working on. But I'll keep them on the side just in case…

Eagerness for traveling is back at me again even though I know that it is even harder than before with all the crazy world around me and me being the weight of Retinitis Pigmentosa. Those travels I used to do were the only reminder for me that I can survive and live alone, doing my own business, and above all, with some peace of mind. But that's something farfetched for the time being. I think no escape from facing these mood swings and coping with an environment that feels so strange to me as if I wasn't born and raised here.
Meanwhile, I've been thinking about placing some orders online, and among the things I wish to have is some soundproof panels or anything like that to give me some peace and quiet atmosphere in this house. But because of the bad postal services, I have to think it over, as ordering is not as easy as before when I used to order my camera gear all from stores in the US. Things had changed for me. For this reason, I'm planning to check if such panels are available locally here and again, I might need someone to pick me up to and from. Sounds pretty much like begging… and just to think that some people envied me for retiring early…

Pine-O-Rama

Here we are. Finally, the last week of Ramadhan (and writing this 2 or 3 days before its end). Not to say that it was a heavy burden, but people and life in general are so during this month. Fasting was not a problem for me (or let's say a minor one) back in regular days when I used to fast before Ramadhan, but the time shifts that occur during this month, and the sluggishness of people aided with my not-enough-sleep syndrome, all of that, can make up for one month long of defocus.
As a consequence of this turbulent time, I couldn't post anything last week. I didn't prepare any material; Not with Geltani, nor with my camera, for the lack of ideas and will. Even though I did some "brainstorming," if I can call it so, but that didn't help, specially that I don't have what it takes to do some of those ideas.
Mom's situation remains the same and I can't see a glance of hope of, at least, reducing the dialysis times per week. I guess I have to live it that way. Isn't it amazing when you have such a large family? Meanwhile, she almost got me into a heart attack last week when her blood pressure refused to "calm" down and at the end I had to give her one full pill to reduce the blood pressure (and she used to take only half a pill when needed only). Knowing Mom, I'm almost pretty sure that her pressure raised up because of someone and/or something that she either saw or heard. The typical worrisome heart of a mother.

Still

Out of despair, I've picked my stuff downstairs into the guest room where there is a plenty of space to move around and do some "acrobat" and tried to shoot something. Anything. The first thing that my eyes fell upon is my can of marbles (which I've used before for some trigger testing).
I didn't know what I wanted to do with the marbles but as an initial thought, I wanted to make a still life image with some water droplets on the surface of one of the marbles. However, that didn't work because of, I presume, the surface tension which doesn't hold perfectly. I heard that photographers who are into flowers and macro do make use sometimes of glycerine to mimic the water drops or dews on leaves. I guess I needed that here, and one more thing on the list to try to get!

Planeta Marble
Canon EF 100mm macro + extension tubes, f/22, 320^-1sec, ISO400.

After realizing how water drops failed, I've decided to just work and test my speedlites and just make it another ordinary experiment to familiarize myself more with my speedlites. I've realized also that working with 50mm and extension tubes is far easier than working with 100mm macro lens AND extension tubes (and also I was working with Tamron 70-300mm tele- and macro lens with extension tubes).
Even though I've brought several reflectors and been trying to create some interesting light pattern over the marble but I've found out that probably the easiest way is to roof the marble with the big reflector-diffuser which was connected to the 580EXII speedlite.

Position of reflector-diffuser over the marble.

Of course this is not a substitute for a good light tent to photograph such objects but it was a quick quirk. The result of this can be seen on Planeta Marble above where the tissue of the diffuser is reflected on the surface of the marble (a light tent is not supposed to give such a reflection). Anyway, since the surface is a sphere, I didn't really mind that. Also, to create the rim light from behind, I've placed my 430EXII with a yellow gel at the back of the marble (not shown above) with a snoot.
As I was going in and out from my room I've noticed another object that I could be working with: my pine cones, which I've brought from Ireland in 2009. The awesome texture of the pine cone surface is perfect for abstract shots and it can push the inspirational attitude forward I would say. It just needs meditation...

Blooming Pine
Canon EF 100mm + Extension tubes,
f/32, 320^-1sec, ISO400.

Touch of Pine
Canon EF 100mm, Extension tubes,
f/22, 250^-1sec, ISO400.

Even though when shooting for the pine cone I've used both speedlites (580EXII and 430EXII) but the major light source in shaping the final image came from the 430EXII which was handheld with a reflector and a yellow gel, and controlled by wireless. I've taken several shots while changing the position of the 430EXII speedlite by hand and checking the results. If I'm asked about which one I like the most, that would be Touch of Pine because it bears some mysterious sense within the touch of light on the tip of its wooden shards.I wouldn't say it would be suitable for other purposes though as I'm sure that for contests it has no meaning, and for stock agencies it, possible, has no meaning as well nor any potential customers. Probably someone would like to see it as a background or printed?
The same thing applies as well for the marble shot, which I do consider somehow as a minimalistic approach (and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't attract many people). I have to say that the original marble was dark green and almost opaque but with the change in the color temperature while processing the RAW image, the surface turned blue, which goes along well with the yellow rim light.

Source: B&H

Reflections: With this work, with the marble and the pine

Source: B&H

cone, I've really started to think again about having some kind of ring-flash or a beauty dish. I'm not sure I do need the high-end tech stuff like the Canon's Ring Lite or Canon's Twin Lite flashes, and for this reason I'm planning to look for some "remedies," if I can call it so; Stuff under the DIY category. The beauty-dish would be a start as it is easily constructed but the problem is, it cannot be held by the lens to light the object from the front in macro situations, and here comes the part where we need ring flashes. The two items displayed on the right are expensive and yet not into my budget range (specially after buying my new PC). I need some time to recollect my finances and be firm again before buying such luxurious devices. Also, before getting such devices, I have to develop my sense for still life shots and products photography (or I should say, tabletop photography in general). My mind is still hanging in the arena of landscapes and architectural venue.

Pine-O-Rama

The observations mentioned above about the pine cones dragged me to do another experiment directly after finishing with the macro shots. Peeling.
This time, I didn't use the typical flash from the top of the object like I used to do before, but I depended directly on the available light in the room beside increasing the exposure time a bit more to create a high-key-like image. Anyway, however I would try to place my object in the middle of the rotation plate, it seems to slide to the sides after some angles. Probably because the body itself is tilted!

Notice how the right and left margins change as the pine cone rotates as if it is dragged to the right during the rotation. Anyway, after many trials to stitch the shot images I've came about a compromise which needed lot of work to be done to clone out the stitching errors; Some of them, but not all. I'm lucky now that I do have such a fast PC to stitch larger panoramas and in less than 10 minutes. The fortune that I've spent on this PC instead of the car's cooling compressor paid off I would say!

Pine Roll

In my trials, I've stitched the peels in various ways but I think the best way was to use the spherical projection as that enabled me to correct the fan-shape of the original stitch by changing the "virtual" pitch of the image. In other words, I had to drag the final result upward over the canvas and PTGui would do the job to stretch and stitched image. However, it was not perfect of course and some work had to be done in Photoshop to do some cropping and some perspective corrections, and the bulk of cloning out irregularities. By this method, the stitched image lies in a sea of "black" or empty background, thus to preserve the original resolution of the stitch, I had to stitch with maximum dimensions that sometimes exceeded 65K pixels wide (and the file had to be saved on PSB, or Large Document Format, and not on TIF). The resulting size was in the range of 1 to 16GB!! Of course that was reduced radically after cropping and correcting perspectives to something around 650MB (not something weird for a panorama on 16-bit).
To reduce the load of work I had to do some sacrifices with some details, or maybe some of these stitching errors were beyond fixing as well! However, I've noticed that the largest portion of stitching errors and smudges were concentrated on the upper part of the image (middle point and above). Thinking about it in the terms of the laws of rotational motion, I think it is because the upper part formed a wider circle while rotating more than the base would do.

C = θxR,

where C is the curve of the rotation (or portion of the circumference), θ is the angle of rotation, and R is the radius from the center of the rotation to the surface at a specific height. Well, it doesn't need any brains of course, unless you really suck in maths like I do! However, because of this, the virtual change in the features of the pine (or any object that is) as it rotates for every 5^o would be greater when C is greater. The question raises then of how to make this value as minimum as possible and would it have been better if the pine was up straight (providing that the center of rotation is exact)? The pine cone can be resembled with a cylinder, but what about other irregular objects? I can't have any thoughts about this until I try more and more of irregularities. 

In my work with such peels, I've started to attack the problem without much calculations sometimes and depending solely on changing the number of pixels for the crop factor (from which PTGui would read the control points). It doesn't work all the time and often I find myself tracked back to do the regular degrees-pixels calculations, but done in various of ways in hope that a better stitch would result (with minimum of errors). 

Finale

I'm exhausted. That says it all. I wish if I can find a word that expresses me better than this. Thursday is an official holiday (either for the last day of Ramadhan or for Eid), yet I'm not going to see any resting point soon, as I still have to pick up Mom to do her dialysis. Talk about having a family without being a family. God knows what dwells in the heart, but I shall try not to complain anymore.

Goodbye for now Ramadhan, I've got to prepare myself to the usual munching-engine mode again. Probably I can do more in the near future if I just have the right amount of strength. I need to play more games for now...

Scopa!

Ramadhan is here and, even though I've been fasting for a month before, it always seems like it caught me off-guard. I'm not sure really where do things go wrong in my life during Ramadhan, but exhaustion and the lack of time is always hindering me in Ramadhan. Even though I do fast in a month or two before Ramadhan (in the past 3 years) and in conditions harder than in-Ramadhan conditions, yet, it is always in Ramadhan that I do suffer sleeping hardships and the lack of time to do whatever I want. Probably it has to do with the rest of the population around me and their timing as well! Not sure...

Meanwhile, after fixing the AC in the car, the honk went off and fixed a fuse or so for that thing, and the backward sensor is now off. I didn't care much about it but the honk is important to get it fixed! But now, I've decided to drop some amount of money out of my pocket for some good cause: a new PC.

Financially, it is a burden now to have such a PC. The costs were in fact higher than fixing my car's compressor at the agency itself! But well, thinking ahead, in the month of Ramadhan I have to deduct an amount of my total sum for something called Khums (Arabic: fifth), which is due in the middle of Ramadhan. After giving that due amount I don't think I will be in for much spending afterward, thus it is better to finish this plan now at once.
The specifications are put to the extreme somehow (hence the price) and I would need time to settle down with it when I receive it. I'm trying to do a slow move from the old PC to the new one. I'm looking forward to this move, as with the specifications in the new PC I would be able to stitch bigger panoramas and doing HDR panoramas would be just a piece of cake! All what would be left is, inspiration and photography!

Scopa!

Last week, as I was working on the peeling effect with my mug, I had an idea that had been cooking in my mind since then. A shot of myself with Scopa cards; One of my favorite cards games. Too bad I don't play it now as, simply put, I have no one to play with. The first headache to be dealing with is, as always, setting up the configuration. I didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted to do really but one idea in my mind: cards, and me.

Source: B&H

Typically, the headache that got the best out of my time is using the Vello 33' cable. Even though it worked fine when I used to work with the peeling effect with my mug last week, it decided to, simply, not work this time!
Anyway, it seems that somehow I've began to realize the problem (or so I think!). At the end the cable did work and I was able to control the speedlite from the camera. The speedite was situated above my head just like I positioned it before in the peeling experiment. At this moment, I'm thinking that probably the hotshoe of the cable has a tiny alignment problems making the pins of the speedlite not touching the hotshoe properly to be connected, and only when I place the speedlite horizontally (with a lateral arm), the weight of the speedlite would help on nudging the pins in their proper places inside the hotshoe. This is what I think for the time being but I'm not sure yet. Just speculating!

Scopa!
Canon EF 50mm, f/14, 200^-1sec, ISO100.

Now, to some commentary about the images taken. Lot of shots were taken with changing distance and direction of the hair light. Hair light here, of course, points to the speedlite above my head which was fixed with a reflector and a diffuser. It was hard to decide what I really wanted (and now as I write these words, it seems to me that it was better to have a portrait orientation with half face). Anyway, Scopa! above is one image from the set that I liked because of the element of mystery in it. Careful here if you are using some old laptop (with gamma level other than 1.8) that the shadows might be lighter than they really are!

Scopa!!
Canon EF 50mm, f/11, 200^-1sec, ISO100.

There were some shots when I turned my other speedlite (430EXII) on and placed it in various positions in front of my face but probably I didn't like the results as much as I liked Scopa! shot, but Scopa!! probably was the best taken with the addition of 430EXII speedlite. Mental note: more lights, do not mean necessarily a pleasant image. Scopa!! by the way is not taken in portrait, but it became like it after the crop!

There had been an idea of a panorama still cooking but I'm not sure when I shall start with that. It is a panorama indoors, and for this I need to wait for a proper time when I can get the place clear. Also, the problems with my current PC makes me awry about stitching a panorama for the time being, but I might as well use my relatively-new laptop to do this. We shall see about this matter!

Back to Geltani

The progress on the Geltani front is going on but slowly. Specially after a hectic week like this (with some health issues) that mad me dedicate more time to my camera rather than sitting down and think about aspects of Geltani (or any other conlang). The main issue remains here about fixing the syllables and sounds yet I can say that I've developed a temporary transliteration system just to record the major outline, away from concerns about the sounds. The transliteration system would be simply in the form of: X^Y, where "Y" is the driving add-on or sound for "X". Some values for these syllables had been fixed already, for example LX is pronounced Liŋ (and originally the two are derived from a specific arrangement in between Arabic and Latin letters). However, this combination just for the time being might be written as L^x. I guess it is some of the remains of my mathematical mind from old college days still persisting on involving math in matters of conlangs and con-scripts.

Another matter had been going around is the change in the possessive articles which I've developed earlier (a month or two ago?). The articles were completely different than the regular pronouns, but then after some long thought about it I've decided to pull it back and stick to a coherent grammatical structure.
In the beginning of creating this conlang, I had a vent for some Turkic characteristic to put in this conlang; mainly the arrangements of prepositions. In most Turkic languages, prepositions come after the word (and combined with it). Example (from modern Turkish):

Ev ("the" home)

Evde (at "the" home)

Another property I'm borrowing from Turkic languages is the absence of a definitive article (like The in English or like Al in Arabic) and the introduction of an indefinite article. Example (also from modern Turkish):

Ev ("the" home)
Bir Ev (a/one home)

Anyway, back to the preposition which hold the key to the change I had in mind about the possessive articles (my, your...etc). Probably forgot to the mention that also in Turkic languages in general, the possessive articles come at the end of the words as well (in Arabic as well), thus I've decided to go along that line but simplifying the matter meant lengthening the process a bit.

The new idea of possession involves the preposition W', which stands for "for" or "to". The preposition W' (where the " ' " is a simple schwa) is attached to the pronoun after the word to make a possession statement. Better illustrated in some example:

Book: Š^CA^B

I: A^ya

My Book: Š^CA^B A^yaw'

The literal translation of the statement in Geltni for My Book would be [Book I-for]. Notice that in the transliteration process I've combined A^ya and w' as one word, but in logograms, they are not merged together.

The funny part begins actually when I change the position of the preposition. With changing word placement, the (comprehensive) meaning is changed:

Š^CA^B A^yaw' = My Book

A^ya Š^CA^Bw' = I'm for (the) Book  
(well, can be meaningless for the time being but it's not!)

A^yaw' Š^CA^B = For me, (a) book
 (here, a comma is not used in the original Geltani but I suppose it should be understood as such!).

I guess it is somehow ironic how such a small preposition can change the whole meaning of a sentence by placing it in different places. I'm not deeply into Turkic languages, but I wonder if this is the case too for them. After working for some time with Ayvarith (the original conlang for which this blog was created!), I've discovered that some words I've made up did indeed exist with exact or close meaning (and some with completely different meaning), like the word ša, which is an interrogative question beginning in Ayvarith (equal to the Arabic: Hal [هل]), but in Akkadian this word means a conjunctive "who".

Finale

Source: Amazon

I'm on the verge of finishing the last book in my queue. Still, it keeps inspiring me in the field of humanities. What I like about this book is the directionality and practicality. The fields of humanities was somehow frowned upon from my side in college days but probably this is due the educational system we have, but it is welcome when it comes in the form of such book like the The Handbook for Classical Research by David M. Schaps. I have to say I'm skipping the sources section at the end of each chapter because I'm not going deeply into the matter of such studies, but the arguments and the discussions in various fields that Schaps makes in this book provides a journey for the mind into the current world we live in through the gate of his knowledge in Greek and Roman cultures. We differ, in the east, a lot in many aspects from these two cultures but it makes someone like me realize why the west is so different, and/or why what's accepted from one side is not so on the other side. Some things got roots deep into antiquity.
With the end of this book, I'd be in, let's say, hot water. A dilemma. I have no further books to read and I'm not going to order any more soon because of the heavy purchases I've made this month; from which I need some time to recover. Probably I'm going to turn back to my very old language books and try to refresh my memory about some stuff, or maybe I'm going to spend my time at work in front of Wikipedia and amuse myself with various topics. The bad thing here is, playing with Wikipedia is completely random; Start with one topic and you might end up with a completely different field without knowing. I prefer books.
It feels like if my health is deteriorating at the current time. Bleeding nose has been a nocturnal routine in my life now. I'm not sure if this is caused by the high blood pressure or simply some injury inside that caused it all. One thing for sure though: it is giving me more stress. With the coming of Ramadhan and Mom's dialysis schedule, I wonder if I will have the time to look after myself and just go to the clinic to check. I had plans to check for my sight in general and see forward if there are any signs for retinitis pigmentosa but so far, none of these plans is achieved. Talk about living single and lonely, surrounded by people...

Şaşırmış...

I can't help but say, it is one weird week that has just passed me by. Despite the fact that I've stopped my fasting, in hope to continue by the beginning of the month of Sha`ban, yet I did feel tired excessively with some weak body and dryness most of time - talk about acting as a sponge.
On the other hand I was able to work with my camera just a little bit. I've made up ideas already from brainstorming my mind with the help of some of the websites I've mentioned in the previous blog post, but not all of these ideas are technically available for the time being, or maybe too much time consuming with my hectic schedule in the meantime. Mom is still taking much of my week, and despite some previous talk from the doctors that the dialysis time might be reduced in the near future, I can't see any of that happening soon. With this load, some problems from home are added. They usually call them Domestic Problems but in my case I'd rather call them a Jungle Survival game by keeping my dignity in this house. I've already started picking Mom to and from the dialysis center (before that I used to pick her from there only) because Mom is not happy to go with my sister in the morning in the traffic jam rush. Thus, she decided to go with me from now on in very early hours in the morning to avoid the high blood pressure that my sister causes her on the way to there.

Die geltanische Sprache

I hope you don't mind the German subtitle for this topic here. I'm not a German speaker myself but probably this is how I would write the adjective geltanische if I was German!
However, during this week I didn't put much thoughts on paper with Geltani, but mostly it was some work of thoughts in the mind and having mental notes about some drawings of the characters. In the meantime I'm having problems assigning phonic values for some of the characters. I didn't go through the syllabary system all over again as I've promised myself I would do this week. The major change in the syllabary system is about some characters' drawings and not the phonic values given already.
The language do sound, at the current time, a mix of an Arabic base with an English flavor in terms of general aspects; mainly when it comes to the feminine and masculine cases. However, I do have to work on the phonic values for lot of the combination of characters together and the situation is even more critical when it comes to diphthongs, that is the combinations of 2 vowels, or we might even face cases of more than two!
I'm trying to systemize the combinations of phonetics but I'm not sure yet that this would work. The only thing that would prove the usefulness of such approach is the excessive trial and error, with a pen and paper!

Silhouette

In the past few weeks I was trying hard to take a silhouette shot of my brothers depicting the evening life in a typical weekend here. Yet, despite its simplicity, I had to abandon the idea mainly for the cooperative attitude from the family members (and please note the sarcasm here) and then the unavailability of some suitable background or backdrop to represent the idea of an evening gathering. Majorly, I was trying to use some features in the guests room but this was a bad idea because it did cast a shadow and that complicates the matter further raising the necessity of using two speedlites (or even more) rather than one as I was planning. With more speedlites, then you'd need more light modifiers, and in my case, I don't have plenty of those.

Silhouetted Mother I
Canon EF 50mm, f/11, 250^-1sec, ISO200.

Thus, just to keep up with the idea, I've decided to use Mom as a model! Yes, she's more flexible and the idea is simple enough and doesn't need much acting like I had in my mind when I was planning the silhouette shots with my brothers. It is just a profile or an outline of the head. To do this, I've simply placed Mom in front of a green curtain that's already there, and of course I had to use a green gel on my 580EX II speedlite, otherwise the color would get messed up; adding to that a reflector on the speedlite to spread the light to a larger area with a soft approach.

Silhouetted Mother II
Canon EF 50mm, f/18, 250^-1sec, ISO200.

I've taken here two shots (close up and further away) just in case (and I was thinking somehow in a marketing venue as such images can fit into the stock sites for specific topics). Communicating with my speedlite, however, had to be done remotely without a cable, which means I'm stuck with the sync speed (250^-1

sec). The speed was fine however as the lights in the room were not too strong and not so demanding to be killed out. The only change between the several shots was the aperture and this is how I controlled the intensity of the speedlite reflecting off the curtain. I don't quite remember why I've fixed the ISO to 200, but probably I've forgot it like that from the previous session! The noise level after all is not quite dramatic and was easy to smooth out, specially with such style of images not having so many colors.

Freeze Me!

Few days later after doing the silhouette shots of Mom, I headed to do another shot that I've been thinking of for some time and trust me if I say, I had to force myself and my mood to do so! The sole subject of this experiment was a glass vase brought to me as part of a bouquet by the group when Mom was still in the hospital back in March.

Pouring Down
Tamron 70-300mm @92mm,
f/16, 5000^-1sec,
ISO1000.

I have to say that the vase is really seductive for many experiment, but the preparations to do such experiments is really exhaustive to myself, specially when preparing the props. The fact that my older sister wanted this vase too, made me do something, anything, just before the vase is taken away!
I've placed the vase on a table which has a glass surface in the center and placed my 430EXII speedlite below the glass. In typical situation I would actually place the speedlite light on the sides but I just wanted to do this experiment here, specially with the hardships involved because light is refracted through the glass table before reaching the subject. I've placed a white screen as a backdrop and in the beginning I've placed 2 black boards on the side (to emphasize the edges of the glass in a bright scene), but then however I've realized they are not necessary.
If you see the info in Pouring Down, you can see that I've used a telephoto lens (Tamron) while the shutter speed is 5000^-1sec; quite faster than the sync speed. Thus, a cable is required to control the speedlite but with a telephoto lens, I need some distance away from the vase. In this case, I've used the Vello cable I have (which extends only 2 meters, hardly) and connected it to the 580EXII to control the 430EXII and enable me to use high shutter speeds above the sync speed. This is in case you were wondering why I did use 430EXII under the table in the first place and not the 580EXII. In the beginning, the master speedlite (580EXII) was turned off and it was set to control the 430EXII only, but then I've decided to turn it out and help me with the front little bit. It did make a little enhancement though and probably not a big deal, but I've kept it on.

There were many shots to test the light first and settle down with a certain type of lighting. I've made some light patterns because of the refraction that would look nice otherwise, except that I needed a plain background in this situation. After all is set, I added some dishes soap inside (you would think it's beer!) and set up the motion trigger. This is my first time to use the motion trigger. I have to say here that it is bulky and not quite the easy-to-handle thing. The motion sensor (with a long cable from the trigger body to the vase) was not easy to be placed to track the motion of water that I was going to pour down. How ironic it was when it triggers my body movement when I was going to the vase, but as I move my hand to pour down the water into the vase the trigger, sometimes, wouldn't respond. After some trial and error, I've finally made something right.

One of the failed trials at 1000^-1sec.
Notice the movement blur.
Click to enlarge.

You might think about the high ISO here? Well, as I was trying to pour water down I did capture some amazing water texture and movement, but unfortunately, most of them were blurry. I've realized then that 1000^-1sec shutter speed was not enough, and/or the depth of field is not deep enough. For this reason, I've poured down the water out of the vase (which was full after some trials) and filled it again with soap, and then worked again on fixing the light and this time with 2500^-1sec shutter speed, but I've changed my mind quickly and made it 5000^-1sec to ensure the freeze in motion. If I have more speedlites, I might as well have gone further than that speed! However, because of this change in aperture and shutter speed, I've realized that I must raise the ISO as well. The subject is here is not complicated and I thought that cleaning the noise in post-processing won't be such a hard task to do (specially that the experiment took a place in a cold environment and excessive chromatic sensor noise is unlikely).

Thoughts

After my experiment with the glass vase in Pouring Down, I think I've realized why I used to run away from using flashes or studio equipments in general and loved the free life of an architecture photographer, along side with doing abstracts and landscapes. Setting up a specific set, be it a tabletop or some studio is really an exhaustive process for me and by the time I sit behind the camera I think most of my power is gone already. More over, the fact that in architecture or landscape I deal usually with a light that is already there and all I have to do is control how it looks to my camera - this is quite easily done compared to the completely controlled environments of tabletop photography or studios in general where you have to imagine everything almost and do a lot of test shots before doing the actual work.
There is probably another problem that I have to put up with, but this time it is all inside my mind. This problem revolves around the processes in my mind and how my mind works in general when it comes to space orientation and organization. I'm not sure if this is a serious problem or not, or if it is somehow linked to a psychological problems as well or not, but I do have hard time setting up some configuration from scratch without having any clue about where to begin. Suppose you provide me with an empty room and some pieces of furniture and just ask me to arrange it for you freely - this is something that would be so hard to do from my side because I, simply, can't recognize what freely means in this context. I have to start up with something to build on my hypothesis of the space and how it should be arranged; say for example, how the sun rays get into the room from the window, if there is any, and how I would imagine some furniture pieces against such rays and then try to imagine a specific purpose or relation between the sun rays and the furniture pieces, and then and only then, my mind would start to arrange the objects.
Now, I reflect on such thoughts and how my processing goes with my photography projects and workflow. It seems it is pretty much the same, specially when it comes to tabletop and studio environments. I just can't make up my mind out of a free point in the space. Working with architecture is much easier when all I have to do is frame a previously configured set rather than do the whole thing by myself!

Finale

Source: Amazon

I'm still on reading my Lens Design book which far way too complicated than I thought and it is probably not so practical if I keep reading this without a practical trials or at least some visual aids to help me understand the mathematical formulations inside the book which describe many aspects about the lens (mainly the errors and aberrations aspects).
In the meantime, I've been active for a while on Instagram with all its hassle, but I'm lurking trying to catch photos of people (ahem, females) to edit. I didn't do such activities in a really long time now. Some people might thing that photoshopping or editing the photos is some kind of cheating, specially when it involves fixes. Well, I deal with art. Not all my edits are fixes in fact. Lot of them are simply artistic retouch and somehow a sway from reality at times. I feel the need to do such edits just because it endows my eyes with some beauty that I've been missing for a long time around me. One of the problems though in editing such images is that most of them are taken with phone camera (naturally) and the nature of the color space and the noise level is very questionable and vary significantly. I've seen great faces and great poses, with great facial features (mainly the eyes, I'm fond of those) but unfortunately, the low quality disturbs most of those, second comes the background or the nature of the light in the scene.
There are some ideas of ordering some new toys, but not sure what they will be exactly, but I'm still consulting my budget about this matter. Probably more details in next week's post, hopefully!

Strangely, I've been lately moved around following some foreign music, from Greek, to Uyghur, to Turkish and it keeps on rolling! I think I'm compensating for my inability to have a vacation and travel by listening to foreign music and dream; daydream, that is. Just like how it was in the old days when I was a kid, when my family used to visit only specific places, while I kept dreaming of the big world and couldn't see some of it until I reached 29 years old.
I'm living day to day, without really knowing what will happen the next day or what are my plans. Pressing hard to work my mind on photography projects yet the efforts are humble so far. Makes me ask myself more often, do people still got portions of their feelings, and does anyone out there who would really feel what burden I carry on my shoulders. Most likely, the answer is well-known and no need to state it. Einsamkeit ist ein Killer. Aber mit jemandem nicht versteht zu sein, das ist ein ewiger Folter.

Tatiana

 

FLASH!!!

Finally! My dedicated-Flash from Canon is here!!!
It was kind of a tiresome day but after all, with this Flash I think I should crown this "Monday" with some success! But, that doesn't mean the day didn't pass with no problems of course...


First thing in the morning, I've noticed that my colleague forgot some device OFF and did not turn it ON since yesterday, and that makes our work lags one day further. I pinned that down in the log book of the device and I wonder if he saw it even.
On the other hand, I'm trying to speed up my pace with the translation of the story of Alexander as I'm reaching the end! I expect that I would finish the story translation before the arrival of this next weekend!


By noon time I was tracking my shipment to see that it got over with the damn inspection so fast (ironically a shipment of books took about 3 days or 4 just to finish the inspection with those damn people). Thus, when I read in the tracking system that the shipment is awaiting for me to pick it up, I hurled down the streets and off to the DHL pickup location. The charges were 16.500KD, and I paid them happily with my visa. Since it is Monday, things shouldn't go as easy as that! No Way Sir! So, after getting back to work I got a call back from the guy behind the desk and told me that he charged me only 8.500KD instead of 16.500KD! So, since I'm a good guy and a sincere one, I had to go back after lunch at home and pay the rest eventually.
And now, the flash is all mine and I have to do a long process on learning how to use it and some tips about using this flash creatively as well (and not just aiming in all directions). This flash is Speedlite 580EX II from Canon. I didn't imagine it would be massive as much as that! The camera feels heavy when I fix it in the flash shoe on the top of it!


Speaking of processes I'm working on more images from Ireland and still on the same folder (folders are categorized according to the date of the shoot). It's been more than one week or two and I'm still working on photos from this folder that belongs to October 1st, 2009. The Second day for my arrival to The Waterfront. I discovered that there are some amount of panoramas that need to be stitched as well and that, eventually, expands my time for this folder. Many pictures had been prepared already and a small version of those were put in my Photobucket to send them later by email, however, Canstockphoto is accepting most of them, and that, makes me happy! You can check the photos that had been submitted lately by checking my profile at Canstockphoto (click the signature at the end of every post). No need to stuff this entry with images just now!
There had been some drawbacks however, since Canstockphoto had asked me to identify two plants that I've snapped from Ireland and I just don't know their names, otherwise, I can't re-submit the photos back.


One of the panoramas that I've stitched lately got a serious problem in size and my memory capabilities, and in the tones that I could produce. Photomatix is not letting me go further with processing the image and finalize it and save it, while Photoshop needs a professional to produce the perfect curve for tone-mapping and get a nice contrast. Chromatic aberrations are another issue in this image. I wonder if I should just forget about it as a whole anyway...


Well, I'm coping hardly to stay awake at this time and I really don't know how I'm typing this, but I'm doing it! Guess I'm going for a cup of coffee, again.
Note to self: do not cut mostache and beard to tiny hair.