Black-Out…

It's been some tiresome 2 weeks, so this is just going to be a quick wrap. I'm still enrolled in some workshops which I'm trying to get over with. Unfortunately, for some reasons related to the lecturer (the founder of our group), things got to be delayed a bit. Anyhow, my Abstract Photography workshop is over, yet no concrete results yet. I tried my best trying to make up some ideas but to no avail. I usually shoot abstract which already exists, but this workshop was about "creating" abstract and play with ideas; and let's not talk about how hard it was to make up an idea from scratch! In fact, I've never made up an idea; I was solely playing with techniques. Afterwards, there is an ongoing workshop about the philosophy of colors, which also required some assignment to do. Anyway, things on hold now for some private matters.

One of the abstract shots of marbles.
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/7.1, 400^-1sec, ISO200.

Meanwhile, I've abandoned my idea for shooting a bursting bubble. It seems to be a pure team work needed with this one, and for someone like me, it is hard to be get it at that. Add to that, I cannot yet get the right mix or tools to have good bubbles production. Thus, I want to invest my time doing something else for the time being, beside the assignments for my workshops. Also, I do have some specific projects in my mind. All that will be done with the help of flashguns.

Probably the best single bubble shot I've made so far.
Used Dark Field technique: white background, black sides.
Sigma 70-300mm @70mm, f/16, 4000^-1, ISO400.
Used three flashes on HSS mode against the background:
2x 580EX II + 1 x 430EX II

I'm having some weird issues with my flashguns and cables; specifically, the 10m (~33ft) long cable, and my newest 580EX II flashgun in particular. Researching the issue a bit, it seems that 580EX II does indeed have some glitches and that's why it was hard to find (and it's discontinued already). Anyway, I can always rely on making it a slave after all. It is just a matter of time before converting completely to radio systems though (which is more expensive). Till the utmost need urges so, I'm not going to get into the radio systems for the time being. However, I'm gonna have some hard time because of that long cable.

Source: Amazon

On the other hand, I finally got my new "toys" but I still could not try my new lens for real. I don't have the time, yet! I also got a new book, which I'm not sure how to start reading, but for the time being I've read 2 pages or 3 in bed along with some other (thick) book which I'm supposed to read since last year!! Yes, such a stuffed schedule, and mind. The book is about the so-called Visual Design. Something I think I do need indeed in the current time specially that I want to work on converting ideas into photographs and kick in some creative work. I'm not sure if it is just a temporary black-out for my brain or it is indeed a basic problem with my own imagination trend, but I feel paralyzed and unable to achieve something unique with my camera away from the panorama trend and landscapes. Well, not portraiture as I completely have lost interest in that field specifically. In addition to this book, I've also ordered a stack of 3D (anaglyph) glasses (100 pieces) which I'm planning to put to some good use when circumstances allows it!

Now, I think it is time to add a bit more to my forgotten website, and check out more for chances to add artwork to stock sites as well. I think I can call this as a real work since I'm not doing any real work (or gaining real respect) in my own workplace. If only I can have my enough of sleep…

10K...

Thank you all regular visitors and passer-by's for 10K views for this blog, and also my Flickr!

Here we go with another hectic week. Despite the fact that I've finished my Techniques (2) workshop, I've been struggling still with its last attachments. A homework and an image for a contest. Since the last week there had been a load of images that I've been working with from various experiments and trying to do some homework, and lately been to some ice hockey training session with the group on some training for panning and motion freeze; the sort of stuff you see sports photographers do. Not my thing, but I did it anyway and tried to have some nice time.


Before going to all these details and images, I might as well mention that I've been almost wrecked with my last order from B&H and Amazon. Since last Thursday, my package has been in my US mailbox, and I couldn't pay for its release for some credit card rejection. Finally, and only on next Sunday, I was able to pay and after contacting my bank. Turned out (seemingly) that they locked my credit card for suspicions, as I placed an order in B&H that's worth around KD160! Pay attention please that I've been dealing with this store in the past 3 years, and I've placed orders as high as KD700 before, and NOW they are suspicious for KD160!!!

Anyway, these are the new toys I'm waiting for and I'm really, really, urging to see them between my hands...

Source: B&H

The first item that I'm dying to see is this babe. Perhaps I do have 50mm covered in the range of some of my lenses but here the case is different. This lens works in USM and with max aperture of 1.4 which makes it perfect for isolation and bokeh effect. I'm not into portraiture as you know by now, but this one could push me on trying, and not necessarily with people; I could even use it for some street photography on the go! That's why I want to have it urgently before my travel on October 10^th. I was hesitated in the beginning as I was wishing for Voigtländer 80mm f/2, but keeping in mind that my camera is a APS-C type, then 50mm is better than 80mm in the matter of field of view (wider) and we have the f/1.4 case of course!

Source: B&H

The other item from B&H is the ExpoImage Rogue Master Lighting Kit. A special kit to aid with speedlites usage as it includes gel filters and flags (to block the light against certain areas) or snoots and other stuff. I'm not sure though I would take such kit with me when I travel, as I try to make my pack as light as possible, but in all conditions I'll be taking at least one speedlites just in case I would need it for some scenery, and my Vello cord for off-camera speedlite usage. ND filters are a must of course.
Currently, I'm putting all the speedlites kit along with the filters kit in one case (my old 350D camera bag) but I might have to change this soon as well. A new headache on the way!

And then we have the books. I'm going insane at work for not reading any book. I've tried to read some of the old books but I couldn't even concentrate further (because I get bored easily) and I do have a concentration problem already! I've decided to add two more books to the stack and probably take one of them with me when I travel abroad to pass the time.
With this order I've put some pressure on my budget (and credit card) a bit. However, in my work place they have some weird system when it comes to salaries and leaves; they would give the salary for more than a month ahead of time - I couldn't understand this system even though I've been working here for 7 years now. Anyway, hopefully with the next pay, I'll be reducing some hunch from my credit debt hopefully and would be better prepared for the travel. Let's just hope my bank won't decide to lock the Visa card again!

Splash Splash Splash!

It was about time to try out my 2 speedlites for some high-speed photography, but this time without any sound trigger. In fact, I might as well try it out with sound trigger and see if 580EX II can work as a master even off the camera and connected with the trigger. However, before reaching there, the beginning of the whole story is not a trial for high-speed, but a homework I had to do for my Techniques (2) workshop.

Refreshen
Canon EF 100mm Macro, f/22,
38min, ISO 100

As I've mentioned in the previous post, our teacher assigned to us to take a picture of a glass in any one technique of what we've learned in this workshop. After thinking a bit, I've decided to do 2 main ideas: thawing ice, and dropping water.
As for thawing the ice, it was relatively easy to set-up. I was hesitated to light a candle under the set-up (in a specific setting of course) to fasten the thawing a bit, but then I've realized that the blue floodlight setting on top of the glass and somehow close is producing some heat and might work in fastening the process. With the help of 6 stops and a dark room, I've managed to make Refreshen as you can see. In the beginning, I've tried 20 minutes, but I was not happy with the results so I've increased the time further to 38 minutes and changing the aperture accordingly to yield the same exposure.

Lust of Hell
Tamron 70-300mm @161mm, f/36, 30min, ISO 100

The second idea was to have a long exposure of dropping water. The idea was somehow hard to do because I need tools I don't have; some stuff to hang a bottle or something to drop water slowly into the glass. However, this was somehow solved later with some innovation if I should say, with the help of a pierced plastic bag!

Setting for Lust of Hell
Hope you don't mind the lousy shoot!

Later on though, the plastic bag was out of water in a time of 15 minutes approximately, so the rest of the long exposure ran almost static. At the end, and with some contrast enhancement, the glass retained the red color and yet looked as if it was empty, except for the droplets on the outside. I was hoping to record more movements on the surface of the glass. One of the things that still annoy me is the flare on the edge of the glass because of the floodlight. I couldn't use any polarizer here because of the space and the heat from the floodlight (and I don't have a frame to hang the polarizer).
At that point, the idea sprung up to do some high-speed photography - with the help of an eyedropper. It took me around an hour or even more just to settle down with the positions of the speedlites, and I would say that 3 are even better than 2 in such experiments!

Tröpfchen

Kollision

Aufruhr

Hängend

From the hundreds of trials I guess I got those 4 as the best. In particular, Hängend and Tröpfchen were closer to my first aim in the beginning; to have hanging droplet in the air. However, the droplets were caught closer to the water surface rather than being hung in the air in front of the black background. I've used green gels to change the color with the help of Custom WB and biasing the WB to green (i.e. giving a green tint).
One of the hardest aspects in this shot is to decide on a proper f-number and a focus point. After trial and error, I've decided to focus on the front edge of the glass, and then increase the f-number for one stop (to f/5.6), and try to drop the droplets closer to this edge to ensure they stay in the focus range. It is quite a tiresome trial and error process, specially when done by one man alone. This said, there is a lot to be hoping for: C-stands or something similar, umbrellas, a third speedlite - but I'll keep my dreams for now, and I don't even have the space for all of that!

Architectura

Friday is the family gathering day in my house, and for me, it is a nightmare that I just wait for it to be over all day and night. Last Friday however, I've ran away for lunch in the Marina Mall and keeping my camera bag with me. I didn't take any tripod with me as I was planning for fast session for anything I might see; it is just nice to feel free for once with no heavy tripod dangling over the shoulders!
After lunch however, I didn't know what to snap as taking photos from inside the mall or its surroundings is prohibited (I guess the whole thing is just a private location?). Thus, after lunch I've just started my engine again and went out of the mall, and there on the other side towards the seaside, I've discovered what I call now a secret spot.

Architectural Oasis
Rokinon 8mm, f/11, 250^-1sec, ISO 200.
Corrected with DxO

This secret spot is in fact just a tiny portion of a beach with a diameter of around 5 meters only while the surroundings of this spot is majorly made of rocks. It would be dangerous to get down that slope of rocks to reach that spot but it is tempting and I'm planning ahead for some panorama there if possible. Not far away from that spot, with little walk, I reached a place which seems to be a public rest place and a fountain. The design was intriguing so I had a walk around with my fisheye alone and snapped pictures like Architectural Oasis. Even though all my shoots in that location were bracketed, as usual, but only one image after all was picked for processing.

Über
Rokinon 8mm, f/11, 200^-1sec, ISO 200.

The place itself is also intriguing for some panorama under the dome in Über. The problem is, in Über I was standing at the edge of the fountain's well (the fountain is not working when I was there), making it a thought-processing task for how to set up the tools over this well, or keep it on the edge of the fountain - and also at what time I would shoot this panorama? Lot of questions and so little time...

Am Zentrum
Rokinon 8mm, f/11, 320^-1sec, ISO 200

Unlike Über which was corrected in DxO and the color rendering was fixed to Fuji Velvia, Am Zentrum was fixed for other issues but maybe the colors turned dull as I didn't fix the rendering to Velvia as well. However, I like the composition and the shadows play. Tried to fix the distortion in DxO for more intriguing looks but I didn't get the effect that I was aiming for, so I've decided to keep this one.

Puck Me!

Just as I was waiting for it, the day had come to watch one of the hockey teams we have training on the skating ring, as it was promised by our teacher. My teacher is an expert and an official photographer for the Asian League - and his expertise in such field is superb.
Now, action and sport photography are not my field nor I do have the appetite for such type of photography, but it was something to do after all. It was somehow a relief when my teacher said that in sport photography, it is allowed and accepted to raise the ISO level to some crazy levels!, and flashes were not allowed.

A Trial With Panning
Tamron 70-300mm @148mm, f/5,
60^-1sec, ISO 2000

The main aim of training there was to gauge our levels for panning and freezing the motion. It is cool to talk about it or see it in other photos, but to do it, that was one heck of a struggle, specially with the lighting conditions in the arena. I was changing between Tv and Manual modes, and changing the lenses between Tamron and Canon's 100mm macro, but I've settled finally with Manual mode and Tamron 70-300mm.
The key features or the guideline to stick to during such session is to use AI SERVO focusing mode, and High-Speed drive mode. Meanwhile, the ISO is to be fixed accordingly whether you would be using Tv or Manual mode. One of the first advices from our teacher is if you are going manual, meter the shirt of the player and start fixing your options from there. This is mainly because of the way that reflective metering in the camera works, and how white spaces trick such meters into pulling the whole scene into the shades.

Ice Hockey Field
Rokinon 8mm, f/8, 1sec, ISO 500

Frankly, I didn't even know we have a hockey team in the first place, but anyway as I was going there for the first time in my life ever, I've decided to take most of the gear, specially the VR-head in case I would be doing a panorama there. The location, however, as you can see from the image above was not much suitable for such panorama. As I told my teacher, the most proper place for a panorama in this place would be in the middle of the field! Which is unthinkable of course. Anyway, I had to rejoice myself with some fisheye shots like the one done above and I've slowed the shutter down to 1 second to record some movement in the field and make it plain white. These movements however were more apparent when I started to fix the contrast by Curves in Photoshop and the field, originally, was blown out.

Hockey or Fresbie?
Tamron 70-300mm, @168mm,
f/4.5, 1600^-1sec,
ISO 6400

Maybe one of the hardest aspects of working here is to hold the camera in portrait and try to do some panning or freezing the motion as well. Needless to say of course it is even hard to expect in which corner the action would be! In a regular game play, you would know that the action is where the play-item is (.e.g ball or puck), but in a training like this, the players were moving randomly to my eyes (not necessarily random to their own order).
Now after all of this, I've came back home with more than 800 images and I have to sort through them, as, of course, not all of them would be good to be published. These images with high ISO are always good to look at when small in size, but I would not think or imagine of one of those images to be in a large print at all!
The astonishing part in this experience, however, was the ability of my Tamron to focus relatively fast under AI SERVO mode. I've always put my Tamron lens behind and I would call it only when desperately needed and usually I'd work with manual focusing (even in this event I did do that for some time). However, when I turned it on Auto-focusing (as I was using Servo), I was expecting the typical delay in response and in focusing, but that didn't happen. The lens coped well in following the players' movements and adjusting the focus accordingly with relative ease. Anyway, I don't completely neglect the "luck" factor, or maybe the focusing distances are close together that the lens had no problem changing between the focal planes.

Thoughts

Some time ago, specifically in last Ramadhan if I remember correctly, I was invited to attend a seminar by a photographer who works for National Geographic. He was Iranian and I beg your pardon because I don't remember his name right now, but his first name was Reza (or Ridha, both transliterations are valid [رضا]). He talked about his experience all over the years and how he went through all of these war zones, like the Soviet-Afghan war, Balkan war and so on, and he did variety of other types of photography. You can check out more about him in his website: www.rezaphotography.org; if you do get an error, please refresh and hopefully you will be there.Now, during the seminar, one of the audience asked about the methodology, or how does he work with his camera and does he try to append to the common rules of art and photography (e.g. law of thirds). His reply sparked something. Reza said (not word to word):

"... we think about these rules as the only way to do art because we studied and brought these concepts from the West. Thus, we tend to think this is the only way to do it. Actually, it is found out that we as orientals, we tend to see things around us in terms of loops and not thirds as artists in the west always suggest. However, I just tend to capture the moment and make an image and I don't think about the rules - it is like second nature..."

These words opened my eyes to two things: First, most of the books I've been reading are from authors in the west, which makes their styles and aesthetics under an oriental perspective, questionable. Not something about right or wrong at all, but about effect and look and am I not supposed to do things differently? Secondly, what are the loops he was talking about, and how come loops can be a guide for composition!?
After questioning my teacher about it, and digging out some information myself, I've introduced myself to the new concept (to me) of the golden spiral. Well, for artists, I believe, this concept is nothing new. To me it is and I was wondering how it works. In fact, checking back on some of my images, probably I've been using this rule unconsciously!

Golden Spiral

So, I've decided to check further of my possibilities with this rule. You see above a typical golden spiral. When composing an artist is supposed to put the point of interest in the center of loop or the spiral. By the way, without going into much details and mathematics, this type of spiral is also connected to the Fibonacci series (for further information check out wikipedia here).
Since the spiral can start from any corner then we do have 4 distinctive positions (just like it is with the law of thirds).

Four spirals combined

Now, what if we combined the points of interests together with the law of thirds and check for a comparison, to see what are the main differences in spaces between the two?

Points of interest in the spiral system (in red dots) against the points of interest of the thirds system (green squares).

It can be a bit of philosophy in work here. As to why both cultures do see things differently, this is something hard to answer. We begin our studies and our comprehension of the space around us in terms of the Cartesian coordinates (i.e. the XYZ system), and boy didn't we have horrific days in physics because of this! Then we upgrade our view of the world around us gradually as we encounter more shapes and more situations when the XYZ doesn't work or doesn't make things simple; thus we came out with ideas for other systems, like the cylindrical and, the more general, spherical coordinates. At least this is what we have learned in schools here and this is how we started to measure the volume and the mass, starting from XYZ up to spheres.
But now imagine, there is a system that gets you directly to a curvatic world without passing through the hassle of the XYZ or the Cartesian coordinates (or rectangular coordinates as it is called sometimes). Can we say that the orients did indeed understand the complexity of life forms in earlier stages before the West did? I'm not sure, but it is worthy to stand still and think about it.
Notice, how the points of interest in the spiral system (red dots) are pushed closer to the corners of the frame. Does that signify a look to life? Spatial freedom? Is it possible that such mental attitude to the arrangement of the surroundings is a direct consequence for the type of living conditions? Europeans usually were packed in cities while in the orient people were more rural even when they lived in cities and in proximity to each other. Or was the whole thing related to the elements available in each culture in the surroundings and nature?
Personally, I've noticed myself being more inclined to nudge things to the corners further thinking of applying the law of thirds, while the law of thirds stays in the vicinity of the center point (i.e. closer to that point). I generally don't see an effect on the arrangement or the composition alone, but also in the shape or the general move in the image. There are certain images when applying the law of thirds is more applicable, probably because the scene is generally arranged in a rectangular way, or rectangular layers, or rectangular shapes. In other instances, the spiral rule might be more applicable mainly because of the pose of the model for example, or the shape of the subject (imagine an image of a rose!). Anyway, I will try hard to enjoy my photos without thinking much about these rules; they got a time of their own in the future, I hope!

Finale

Now, in the coming weeks I'm supposed to prepare for my travel - of course that means buying stuff, and printing stuff and, plan some stuff. It is common for workshops within my photography group to be finalized with some contest for the best photo taken with one of the techniques taught in the workshop.

Untitled
Tamron 70-300mm @300mm
f/36, 90sec, ISO 100

Unfortunately, I was not prepared properly for this contest so I had to work fast the day before sending the image to the group's organizer. Of course my pick of technique for this was the long exposure since I'm already in love with it. I had many ideas but unfortunately most of them require working at night time, and by then it would be too late (and exhaustive). Thus, I've decided to work in the afternoon that day, in the secret spot that I've talked about before. I did some trials for 5 minutes but unfortunately the noise and the water movement made the images taken inappropriate, thus I had to take the least effort and do something about it at least - thus I've zoomed into some rocks in the corner of the spot and recorded an exposure for 90 seconds, with the help of 6 stops (2xND8 filters). Typically, the filters gave out a tint, and it was fixed when RAW editing later. I think I should think of calm water instead of raging one if I want a cotton-candy effect!
I've sent the image already to the organizer and no news so far.

Now, after all the fuss, I'm hoping for a period of tranquility. As my travel time comes near, I'm becoming wary of it. The stupidity in the world doesn't stop to astonish me with new events. Makes me wonder, why do we respect all, but none respect us?
At home, I'm becoming more and more isolated. Sometimes talking to myself is the only break from isolation I could get, beside daydreaming. I've realized keeping your sorrows to yourself is far better than letting them out and get a face-turn - because then you will be shocked to the fact, the none did care...

Force x Force

Exhaustive week. Not a single day passes without having to go out of work and back to my work again, and sometimes doing this twice or thrice, beside the work-related work, like preparing the samples and changing the samples for measurements. I've even napped in the office by the end of one day which made me leave late that day! There is a time crisis.

Source: B&H

However, I've finally got my shipment from B&H and still trying out my new 5" LCD portable monitor, and yet I have to try out the polarizing gel. The monitor alone was a problem and I think it will get somehow a bad review from my side, as the plastic is shaky and the cable was hard to get (and I lost 10 K.D for getting the wrong cable), while the hotshoe mount can be attached to the monitor, but not to the hotshoe!

All week I was trying to force myself to record more vocalization for Alexander's story. I'm close to the end, yet I do feel so down and so tired that I've skipped some days without recording anything. Anyway, there had been a large gap since the last time: from 2016 to 2736. With this now, I think only 10 verses are left. With a pace of 6 verses a day, this should be finished in two days!!!

By Force:

An interesting article by one of my favorite photographers, George Barr, did describe a lot of the mental process that I (and maybe most of the photographers) indulge in when I go out trying to shoot something. By coincidence on that very day as well, I was out in such a bad dusty weather trying to catch something... anything. I was just pushing to do anything with my camera, and it was indeed like some sort of a puzzle or a hunt - and processing the image itself was a puzzle itself too.

Dusty Zen
Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro. 1/5000, ISO500.

Pardon the high ISO, as it shouldn't be there in fact. I've simply forgotten that from my last session (which I've totally forgotten what was it!). The above shot was a test shot in the beginning, but then I've realized it is the one to be adjusted. The conditions were sort of harsh on the beach when the image was taken: staggering wind, dust in the air, and my intestines didn't stop giving me hard time.
The puzzle in the process is yet to come, when we try to turn a "boring" image in terms of color, into something interesting, beside some interesting framing. Just for a comparison, you can check the following before-after image:

The framing (cropping) after all was a problem since I didn't know how to give nice edges to the cropped image. However, when I shot this image my concentration was on the sand on the top of the rock (which settled down despite the harsh wind on the beach!). The major adjustments were done by means of a "trick" that I call the LAB method. It is an old method that I've used before, but not so often, specifically for a picture from Failaka island when, suddenly, the dust occupied the island despite the good weather in the morning as we set sail on the ferry from the main land.

It was a great time and great waves striking the rocks back then! However, what is the LAB trick?

• First the image would be in RGB mode (regardless of the color space or the depth).
• The image is then converted into LAB mode.
• In the channels of the LAB, channel A is picked and the EYE icon is turned on for the main (first) channel to see the effects of our adjustments.
• While channel A is picked, increase the contrast and/or the brightest to whatever level needed (and it can be done in various ways).
• Same procedure is done to channel B.
• Channel L can be adjusted in same way, and it can be used to sharpen the image, or reduce the noise as well.
• When all is finished, convert back again into RGB mode.

Now, some people argue that this conversion from and into RGB will cause some loss in data (and I believe this is natural anyway in any conversion or any transfer of data) but I'm not sure how this loss occurs or what does it affect. Yet, the results can be promising for reviving an image!

After shooting this image, I've changed the lens (yes, in that weather, and it's dangerous) and tried to set and pose in some way to shoot another image of the rocks, however, the situation then proved to be a disaster. The shoot ran for HDR, but at home, even the HDR technique did not rescue the image and the blown highlights coming from the sun beams.

Ansin (there)

After the many problems in this image (tilted horizon, blown highlights, framing...etc) I've decided to crop with no respect to the original aspect ratio. The result is a small image after all, and not applicable for submission.
Because the lens was my 18-55mm, with minimum f/4, the desired shallow depth was not perfect for me. For this reason, I've resorted to the Lens Blur effect and blending down with a layer mask. Sharpening was done by NIK, and again with Noise Ninja. Some cloning was a must, when I've discovered some trash in between the rocks!

Books:

I have now some list of books to finish; a fresh delivery from Amazon.  I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish them but I hope all is over by August already. I do have plans to run after by September but I'm keeping it all to myself right now. I've started out with the Exposure book for now, as I think it is an important topic even though I do have a not-so-bad idea about all the exposure measurements, and so far, the book looks interesting indeed (with lot of fancy images too). Another book awaits about using Speedlites, and another which I try to read before going to bed concerning some psychology topics. I think I do need that a lot for now.

So much is going on in my mind. More than what's happening in my own life right now but nevertheless, it is a headache on all levels. I can't wait to have a vacation. Just slowly, my mind is retaining some of its ability to collect words and phrases, and I ended up writing Teal Eyes. Why or what made me write this piece, this is something I'd like to keep to myself for the time being. But it was a real hard work to squeeze my brain. Something went wrong inside this mind; maybe it is the too much business of thoughts that made it dull. I do miss writing poetry... it feels like being left out...

 

Disappointment...

A sluggish week passed on. My vacation is over by now without doing something useful with my camera (or other projects). I was concentrating more on my camera work in fact.
I wanted to spend a night on Failaka island but the schedules with the ferry were screwed up and it was jammed in the middle of the week! I've never knew that people would go on it in the middle of the week that much; I was wrong with my calculations or it's just my luck, as usual. So, pictures from there was a far-reaching idea now.
On the other hand as well, I've tried to go inside the Aquarium, in the Scientific Center, to take pictures again like I did back in April, but I was disappointed and slammed out. I live in such a melancholic world indeed. Makes me urge myself to start some new vacation ASAP just to get away from all the restrictions here.

I've worked on plenty of images before going to Hajj, but it was a fast paced work to fill in my Ninth album from Ireland. Not much to be mentioned really. One panorama which was done before was done again but with time with change of the WB, which transformed the whole thing into some sort of a night scene. It was good enough for a QTVR but I was lazy to do a small one, only a large one (50MB in size) was done and kept for my own reference.

Living Night in Dominican Graveyard

Well, it's Thursday now and who knows what will happen. Nothing so special about this Thursday since I didn't start work yet (by next week), but maybe there is hope to do something with my camera? I hope...
In the meantime, I got two new books to read (or see). The first is How to Draw and Paint Fantasy Architecture, by Rob Alexander; the one I have has a different cover design than the one in Amazon, but the title and the author are the same!
The second book is The World Encyclopedia of Swords and Sabres by Harvey J. S. Withers. The one on Amazon is a bit different in title and cover colors, but the cover design is the same as mine. Ugh, the damn Amazon gadget in my blog window doesn't work to put the pictures of the books more easily!
I didn't start the second book yet. Hopefully, I can enrich my imagination and my sense of art by reading and viewing such books. I don't know how it would help me in photography but it might as well push me to do my own sketches, though I testify for myself that I've been bad with sketches, forever.

Well, time to post this and see what home chores I have to do (beside sleeping and eating). Until next Thursday, I hope more chances present themselves to me. It's really sluggish to have a camera without using it or being able to use it. Just out of boredom, I've decided to do something out of the context a little bit...

eĞalíŧ eĄiramramán yi adam liYifąal, hú liYadaą húta yisfal baYáħavah.

And don't ask for a translation please...

Alexander 6, V111.

A bee is busy picking on roses and flower around, but TJ is busy picking stuff from one lab to the other. Today, I've finished my work with the rice samples, virtually, and all is left is to put on the data into a spread sheet. The hilarious thing is, I've found out some mistake I did when writing down the production and expiration dates. I've found in the sheet that a sample was made in 2012, and will expire in 2016! I lost some time looking for that sample again just to write down the correct dates then. Because of this busy time, I hardly had time to read at all. But, on the other hand, I will be able to read as much as possible from now on, every morning (till) noon since I have nothing to do from the early morning! Virtually let's say!

I received a weird phone call from the "Social Insurance,"  governmental agency that usually deducts some money from our budgets every month to feed the retired people (and also steal some :) ). They asked for my bank account number or some paper to give including that information, to give out some money. I was like "government? give us money? how?" Technically, I'm not used to such thing, because all I know is that we work and get salaries from the government, to give it back to the government, specially with the upcoming ideas hovering around about issuing a law for the "income taxes" like if people don't have enough debts themselves already. However, it turned out, after a long talk with my brother, that the money is like a compensation about my brother's handicap after he had been enrolled into this category and now the SI agency is going to give that amount of money in form of salaries into my late father's account. It is a complicated law, but this is how it is. In fact, I don't feel it is my own money really, and I had a debate with my brother that I should transfer that money to him when I get it. My argument is, if my late father was alive now, wouldn't he give this money to his handicapped son? I guess he would.

Away from this fuss, I've worked yesterday on another image, and this time in HDR. This image specifically was part of a mini-panorama which I didn't really touch before because I thought it was not good enough. However, I picked this slice of the panorama and worked on it. It had been some time since I worked on HDR images, that is, enhancing an HDR image before tone-mapping.

I called it "The Mysterious Window"

This view was taken from a balcony inside the Aughnanure Castle and it was shot handheld. The edge of the balcony itself was apparent in all the slides forming the proposed panorama, and because of this I decided it is not a good panorama. However, I've found out another use for it now. As Christian Bloch describes working with HDR images "painting with light", this is exactly what I was trying to do, converting the bright scene into some dark, mysterious scene, and also helping convering the edge of the balcony! I've discovered now that there are many things I didn't touch still, and there are many panoramas taken that are not essentially to be a panorama after all! A single slide of them would be fine I guess to build up some nice image. That option now expands my stack of images from Ireland taken last year into a bigger pile even, but not necessarily all of them would look nice anyway!

Amazon asked me to write a review for the book that I'm still reading now. Although I can do it write away, but I just prefer to finish the book completely and then write a review, so that I can build up my opinion about it in a more concrete manner. The book after all is a MUST if I should say to any photographer, whether a landscape or any other type of photography is involved.

 

Well. Time now to pack everything and leave this place. I leave you now with a song I do really love and like, and reminds of many things in my life...

__________
2641. Alexander started to eat some herbs in front of him
2642. but their taste was more delicious than meat and fruit
2643. and Alexander felt satisfied and no more hunger he had
2644. thus he asked the Hermit: what are those herbs O good man?
2645. in my whole life I never tasted something like that!
2646. the old man then smiled gently and said to Alexander
2647. "this is the food of the humble and worshipers,
2648. the more you forget yourself and remember the One,
2649. the more He shall feed you and satisfy you dear"
2650. Alexander soon became satisfied and not hungry anymore
2651. then this he said: tell me O Hermit all what you know,
2652. why am I here and what I am supposed to know?
2653. I have been told that you have all the answers!
2654. the Hermit then smiled calmly and this he said
2655. "verily I know what others do not, O dear,
2656. but tell me first, do you know who you are?"
2657. Alexander stared in a strange way for this question
2658. and this he said: yes! of course I do know!
2659. but the old man replied: tell me your name then
2660. Alexander said: weird of you to ask me this!
2661. did you not say you know everything?
2662. who is seeking the help of the other now?
2663. the Hermit smiled back and this he said to Alexander
2664. "the infinite problem of mankind, impatience"

Alexander 6, V26.

After working on typing the whole thing yesterday, now, and thanks for the auto-save option in Blogger, I've lost everything by a wrong keystroke that deleted my whole post. All of that was to set on an Amazon Associates account. My aim is not to get money via Amazon really, as I barely find people to read this blog anyway, but it would be helpful to have the search bar on the right and just put the image directly into the blog editor instead of opening a new window for this task. Well, I can use images of lens as well!
Here I go writing up what was deleted, or some of it as much as I can remember.

I brought the camera to my work place yesterday as I wanted to take some pictures of a device, to put it up with the text I'm writing for a friend about radiation measuring devices and such, but by almost the end of the day and before 30 minutes of going out from the work place, I felt the urge to snap some images for the building I work in, again. But this time, I was to use the 15mm Fisheye lens, and it proved very helpful, or should I say extremely helpful!

The old panorama that I made for this building was, well, awkward if I should say in many aspect, but yet lot of people liked it and it was given to the German Ambassador as a gift! Yet, I've found out some stitching mistakes that I didn't notice before at all in that old panorama, and people barely notice that before of the relatively small size of the image.

The old panorama for my work place. Check the larger version by clicking on the image and notice the first pillar from the left (top part) and the first square on the roof on the right side of the building (from the left). These were stitching errors. Also The front of the building is taken off a bit, and the vertical lines are not supposedly, vertical, and that made removing the building on the far right a difficult task. The image itself is also somehow, too much elongated I presume.

In this old panorama, which I assembled by my EF-S 18-55mm lens. Almost, as far as I remember, I needed 20 angles or more to take up for the whole building in 2 rows, and that was in portrait position as well. 

EF-S 18-55mm

 Now with my Fisheye everything had changed, and even in the stitching process. It took only 5 angles in portrait position to take up for the whole building, and in stitching process there was a bit more creativity and guess what? The optimization in PTGui itself was more friendly to my necessities and showed "Very Good" sign even!

By the stitching process, I worked out 2 versions for the new panorama. The first one was keeping a straight look to the building and giving a sense of spaceous surrounding, while the truth is, actually, I barely had a stand in front of the building because of all the junk behind me. Not only that, but also, any slight movement or change in position was to block my view, and hence, the camera as well.

Rectangular and straight new panorama.

 There had been a problem in stitching as well but they were not as serious as the previous one. It is the same square on the roof that keep on breaking... I wonder if he has something against me or so!
Anyway, the good part is that the vertical lines are kept vertical and still, and the building part on the far right was removed. The bad story here is that, and because of the stretching to make the panorama straight, the 2 green pillars on the far left were stretched as well, giving unpleasant look, but maybe in a small size they do well? The reason for this is that, as I think, because I was not standing exactly in the middle point of the building but rather in front of the door (which is not exactly in the middle) and that makes these pillars far away and hence more curved originally (vanishing point concept?), which makes them stretch in a hard way when straightened. This is one point to bear in mind next time - Always try to take a middle point in such cases.
The sun glare was also stretched along with the image here, making bigger than the original spots. But that I think is left for the viewer, maybe some of them think the glare is nice while others like the image to be glare-less. 


The second case or version of the same panorama and the same collection of images of course, was to keep the fisheye look as the old one but this time, we have a more elegant look, and compact space with vertical lines being vertical indeed and removing the bits of that annoying building on the right;

Fisheye look panorama.

The fisheye look is my favorite for wide buildings if I should say, and specially when the horizontal lines are curved, but the vertical lines are kept straight.
Personally, I underetimated the importance of keeping the vertical lines as vertical when taking photos of buildings. This was one of the tips that I've learned in Adrian Schulz's book, "Architecture Photography".

 

I did wonder all the time what is the importance of keeping the vertical lines as vertical, and why shouldn't we have more like, fanciful looks for the buildings in photographs or so, but seems elegance has its own ways. I do now prefer to try hard to keep my vertical lines vertical indeed, whenever possible.

The new panoramas were all prepared in HDR and then tone-mapped in Photomatix (seriously, I don't the time to play around with manual tone-mapping now). The looks on the web is not really what I did see on my monitor when I was preparing these images, because I was using the ProPhoto color space (gamut). For people who do not know, it might be useful to read the Wikipedia article here. It is a color space founded by Kodak. You can think of the "color space" or "gamut" as to be, "how much colors I'm allowed to use in here?". The original panoramas had this turquoise look and splashes of green and blue intermixed, but I think it all goes back to sRGB color space (standard RGB) when the pictures are uploaded. I don't have much experience on what is allowed where when it comes to color spaces, but a ProPhoto color space is something huge and I think it gives more freedom when it comes to color picking and creative venturing. In fact, many stock sites advise the uploaders to make sure that their images are in sRGB format, because it is the most common, but I do hope a change comes on the way, because such colors are amazing. We would end up having the same problems of preparing and adjusting the colors from RGB to CMYK just before the final print comes out. It is a non-pleasant experience according to what I've done so far.

By coincidence, and as I was roaming the net looking for stuff to fill my junk yard with, I came across a software that seems it would fit my needs when it comes to viewing HDR files (Radiance and OpenEXR). It's called Panorado, and although the name looks it is specific for panoramic purposes, but in the description it mentions that it can view the HDR and EXR files, and this is my main aim. It has nice features mentioned as well, like viewing a panorama in 360 degrees, but of course I didn't try it so far, so I cannot tell. However, my main purpose would be to view HDR files (Radiance or OpenEXR) without the need of opening up Photoshop to do so. It costs $29.95. I think it is fair enough with multi-tasker of a program!

Now all what you've read so far was actually the product that I wrote mostly yesterday to be posted today, so now imagine I'm re-typing all of that now. When I had the time to do that? Well, after coming from the garage. I really discovered there is a new meaning for the word "Garage" actually by this visit to that place. "Garage" can also mean "torture". Supposedly the weather is still spring and I felt my brain cooked in the sun waiting in that queue line for more than one hour, just to get my brakes in merely 10 minutes. Very nice.

Recently, I've been feeling a bit sorry after reading the latest entry in Jonathan Boakes' Blog, about selling a cottage. This cottage was part of one of the most brilliant games I've ever played, which was designed mainly by Jonathan himself of course - The Lost Crown: A Ghosthunting Adventure.

 The cottage in the game itself gives a calm atmosphere (in daytime scenes!), and when I see it now in real in photographs, I still keep on that opinion about it. The situation reminded me somehow of Failaka island and how it became such a deserted place by now, although it has some potential of being a resort or anything, along with the other islands like Miskan (which is said to have still a lighthouse built by the British soldiers back in 1918).

Some deserted places in Failaka island, which was greatly depopulated during/after the war in 1990.

Although I hope to see some life come to such places, but I also do not wish to see it condensed like a city. I always hold the belief that an island, should remain an island; some isolate place away from the troubles in the city.

__________
601. while the men of Beten Yamta went to Ázúf
602. Alexander remained in his place preparing for his journey
603. and the last memories of Ázilis sparked his mind
604. then he remembered how Ázilis pointed to Charnagút
605. and he was wondering for the reasons of this point
606. but Ázilis did not say anything about Charnagút
607. although he was pointing to it during his speech
608. Alexander knew there is something hidden and some secrets
609. all might be clear when he reaches the appointed lands
610. just before the next full moon of Shaieb
611. then the hero went out of the tribe place to the desert
612. and to the south he traveled away for days
613. all the way he was feeling someone is following him
614. between the dunes and the mounts and hills
615. but he never noticed anyone, and thought its only an imagination
616. for the heat of the desert can make false images to the minds
617. some days the hero spent in the desert passing through ruins
618. and wondering where the promised land could be
619. until he reached the coasts of the Great Lake
620. the largest lake in Daynur and in the middle of lands
621. and Alexander walked along its western coast going south
622. without any rest either in day or night time
623. because the night of the full moon is approaching
624. and he must be in between the two waters

Alexander 3, V1.

Not much of photography for this weekend or experiments, as I'm out of ideas. But rather, I spent some time trying my new flash against the faces of the family just to make some sense on how to use it and how to adjust the light to my needs. In fact, my main interest in the flash is to give enough light when I use high shutter speeds, and I use high shutter speeds to compensate for my shake of hands when I'm on the go without a tripod (or more precisely, not in mood to put up a tripod!).
For the time being I'm checking for shots here and there from Ireland and this time I've reached the folder which I call, the "Damned." The folder contains some panoramas that really made a headache for me in the past and I might as well go again with it. It's entitled (2009-10-04). Two folders prior to that contain some images that I've done before and already inspected, thus I didn't spend much time with them and moved directly to the next folder. But one of the images in the folders before was something that I think I didn't make up before (or I made in some small size);

My window's view in The Waterfront, Co. Galway, Ireland.

Dandelion near Oughterard's Golf Field 

As for now, I'm surfing Amazon to see more books related to some fields of photography and other stuff and tools.  I put them all on my wish list to refer back whenever I want to. I also made an order from Astrodiesnt, for a "psychological astrology profile," and the introduction was interesting enough that it seems almost like 100% accurate, but I have to continue reading it (I stopped reading to write this post first!).

As for now, here you go, with Alexander 3, Verse 1.

__________

1. Alexander camped 7 days and 7 nights
2. he organized the west, spread the goodness
3. he banished the evil from the hearts
4. and the message of Heavens arrived
5. "Alexander, catch the sun from its roots"
6. on the 8th day he got ready with his soldiers
7. and along the long path he should go
8. amid deserts and forests, amid waters and fires
9. people come and go, tribes settle and move
10. wars and victories, along with friendships
11. some joined him by their well and some by force
12. until he reached the line of the day
13. where night falls just after the other side
14. he made a decision to settle with the hordes
15. amid the noise of hatred among the men
16. amid the fear that spread among their hearts
17. but the hero had a heart of a man and man shall be
18. and a gaze to the generals he made and they settled down
19. while he wandered between the two lands
20. he praised God for His wonders in that spot
21. while angels came down greeting him with a smile
22. they told him he will be back here one day
23. to see wonders beyond the wonders
24. in some land they called Ayvar

Mishavshanút...

It is the first day after the Eid's holiday. Despite my promises to myself for working on the translation at home, yet, I didn't do any. I was busy playing games and sleeping most of the time. We had some nice rains been falling for 2 days (2 days ago or 3) and I opened my window most of the time listening to the sound of the rain while falling asleep. And now, I think I have some traces for the beginning of a flu.

This morning is quiet. No janitors arrived since the previous ones got their contracts over, and my colleagues didn't arrive till the writing of this line at 7:18 a.m., and that, is a pleasant atmosphere for me. Despite the fact that I slept only for 3 hours, I'm trying to cope now. I feel some relief though since we start this week work on Tuesday, meaning only 3 days and we are off again for the weekend. Ah well, only this week anyway, but it worths the hope!

Been having some troubles again with some panoramic images as some of them need re-making, while some others got problems with mixing and such. An amazing problem occured to a 360 round image for the field of Aughnanure castle, and that was after converting the HDRs into TIFFs, the images just tilted length-wise by themselves and refused to tilt back to normal position! Never seen such a thing before. However, I managed to rotate them upside down (since photomerge had hard time with length-wise images) and photomerge worked it out. It was funny to see a whole scene upside down. I bet someone from the back would see me and wonder "this guy got a problem with his eyes lenses?."

Been waiting for my order of books from Amazon now for one week almost (or exactly) and thanks to the inspection department in the ministry of communication. Maybe they think it's a bomb or something, or maybe some "unethical" books? Hope this is over soon. I'm getting very sick from everything here.

The word for today is Mishavshanút [Ankh: miSuvQSunwt], which means "Twin." It is masculine and it is derived mainly from two words: msháví (equal) + Shnán (two).