Turtlosis...

A slow paced week. Didn't touch my camera much but I did miss a chance for an amazing picture, which is something I won't forgive myself for. Well, I might spend some nights on the roof just to catch it again if I can. More to come later about this.
For the time being, I'm trying to register my own logo and might as well start doing business cards for myself. The process which I've been told will take one day to do, is already taking 3 days because of some technical issues and because of me not knowing what kind of procedures I should follow. However, it didn't occur to me before to use the logo itself as a watermark over my images to be displayed on the internet. I might consider this too.

I. Process:

Since I didn't do much with my camera this week, I thought I should check out some of the pictures taken previously from Failaka. The panorama taken from inside Ikaros hotel was a curse. A demonic structure. After one month from my visit I still cannot regulate and stitch the panorama regularly even after reducing the amount of images involved. I'm so tired of it. Maybe I should move on.
On the other hand, I'm considering updating some programs but I might leave that till I upgrade the whole system? I'm not sure till now. There is a sudden rush of financial load that I can feel heavily laying on my back, for all the changes that I (need) to do, yet I can't right now. I hate cars. My car problems caused all of this chaos. Damn you cars...

Back to processing. One of the images that some people surprisingly said it is out of the ordinary expected from me, was the one I've posted before, Against The Wind...

Against The Wind

After the comments and the Likes that I've received for this image, I might as well consider it to be added to my website for printing. The thing about this image is that, it seems to me that the focus point is not correct! The stem that reclines to the right seems sharper than the main body of the blossom on the left. I think I would not know how good and effective this image is, until I print it out on canvas myself, and it is a good chance to look for and try out some varnishes types too (to make the canvas like a glossy print and also for protection). More to do, more to dig into.

Another image I'm considering for addition is a slide taken from a panorama, I did back in January from the beach area (which I've named Urban Romance I, II). The idea was to concentrate on the lunar side of the image, since in the panorama things (or should I say, details) tend to spread over and the eye would tend more to catch the general shape and geometry instead of a single frame or aspect.

Meditator

Of course, the image was edited (and not tone-mapped from HDR slide). Simple RAW editing to enhance the colors and the contrast, and also to cover up a little for the shadows cast on the water (caused by me and my tools). The image was noisy of course (ISO800, 25 seconds), and I had to do a heavy cleaning, and try not to eliminate the stars in the sky as well. However, after the latest expo I've been in and after looking at some prints, I think I need to change my view about the grains (or noise) and their effects and looks. What's on screen is not reflected as it is when printed on paper. This leaves me with the question of how to estimate or make sense of what the noise level and visibility would be when printed. The paper, is not a digital media, hence the perspective is different. All of this related now to the process of profiling my media, which is something out of my hand right now...

Out of fun, I've been experimenting with some images that I didn't have a specific aim for doing them, but merely for the fun of it!

Straßenkrieg
(Street War)

This image was tone-mapped from HDR slide, and it was taken from different angles, but I liked this view point better, since some angles showed harsh sun rays. In this image I tried to mimic a long focal length effect (not a Bokeh) so I merely blurred the background at some level. It was not an easy task and probably I didn't do it rightly enough. The halo on the car's top is disturbing as well. Surely not something to add to my website!
And yet another funny and aimless shot...

Road Runner

These aimless shots are somehow good for practicing freely. The image above was taken with ISO400, and I had to apply some adjustment layer to emphasize the contrast between the bird and its background, and not the conventional contrast addition (even though it was done by the RAW editor already).

My love for abstracts turned on again, when I passed through one image that I've forgotten about for some time. Even though I've studied some Geology in college, but still some geological features do amaze me in shapes (one of the reasons that I studied Geology is the love of nature itself).

Πόδια (Pódia)
Paws

Processed from a RAW file even though it was taken in a bracketed sequence. A little bit of color and contrast, and a little bit of cropping and here you go. Not totally satisfied myself though; I still find the image a bit dull. My original name for it was Bear's Claws. Taken from the beach behind the old resorts place on the island.
Another abstract-like shot I've dug out from the island as well, was something that I don't really know why did I take, but oh well, it was something nice to play with after all.

Patriotic Art

With some cropping on the left and right I've centralized the wall. Technically, it was shot from my car as I was having the last drive in the island before taking off. I wanted to crop more on the right top corner but that will consume the rightmost poster as well.

II. Failed Attempt:

I've said earlier that there is a chance that I've missed and I will never forgive myself for it. I was told by a brother to shoot the moon because it was bright and nice looking. I went to the roof and while settling my tools still, a clear airplane passed by the moon's disk but I couldn't snap the shot because I was occupied, and the plane was so fast...

Mund

I've taken several shots for the moon at that instance with various degrees of luminance, using my Tamron 70-300mm and my Vivitar x2 teleconverter, at full length. After shooting I've realized that I've forgot to change the WB (which was set to Flash) and thus the image was too yellow, but I've reduced the effect in the RAW editor to reflect the color of the moon as close as possible (and it was yellowish at that night).

This said now, I'm not sure what are my plans for the next few days. The only thing occupying my mind right now is to finish the logo registration completely. Maybe it's too early to talk about expanding the business little bit here and there or try to let wider range of people know about it for the time being. However, I need a lot of learning and education, and some experience from others. Beside the financial burden, education is a burden by itself. I think we need a big quake in the printing protocols in this place...

III. Links:

This week I've encountered mainly two websites that I deem useful for readers, if they like to check:
1. John Paul Caponigro's website: http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/
This website has enormous information about many aspects. I'm still discovering the website myself. John also has a Facebook page and other connecting media. I like his tips about dealing with noise and printing aspects.

2. Mike Pope's page for birds in Kuwait: http://10000birds.com/welcome-wednesday-birding-kuwait.htm, and he has a blog also: http://kuwaitbirding.blogspot.com/

I'm not a wildlife photographer but I think I can learn a lot from Mike's photos. It's too early to talk about having a good tele-lens for now!
I stumbled upon the websites as I was trying to look for an aid in identifying some bird I've photographed in Failaka just before I leave the island. Turned out that bird's name is Oenanthe Chrysopygia, and in locally it is known as Al-Mdaggy. Might post the photo next week if it turned out good!

Have a nice weekend for now, and Αντιο!

Ορίζων (Orízun)
Horizon

Roaming Aimlessly...

My bag is out of plans. Yesterday I didn't type much here because it was a day mostly out of activity, well, except of sitting in the lounge and capturing some of the glassware there. I can't wait to get back home to work with the photos and this laptop is giving me a real headache.

Some glass work taken yesterday.

Today, I took a walk to the east of my place (I think, if my sense of directions is right) and I kept walking and crossed a bridge. All the time I was aiming at birds and kept my camera ready on Tv mode with ISO set to "H" (highest) and a shutter speed of 1000-2000. It is a risk taking indeed. I really don't know if my software packs would be able to clean such images, but for such images of flying birds this is almost a must. I also took some HDR trials on the way with such settings, and found out that the high ISO combined with Tv mode makes a different in the light level for the images taken if I did auto-backeting. This gives a chance for some good HDR images maybe providing that I can clean the noise in a proper manner.

Some of the birds I caught today was doubtlessly, the crow or raven. Although there is one shot that I doubt it would be for a crow and it could be for the wagtail or the magpie, but I'm not sure.

The Suspect!

Pied Wagtail

Crow (or Raven)

Judging from the shape of the head and the beak of our "suspect", I think the bird in question here is actually a raven with white streaks. Beside the big birds there were little ones, flying in a flock and collecting stuff from the ground, but I think it was hard to distinguish them even after I loaded the images. The image is extremely noisy however...

I don't know what they call it yet!

There on the bridge, my eyes fell upon a beautiful corn field, which I presume it belongs to some family and not a factory of a company. So, I snapped that with my fisheye, to take as much of the horizon as possible.

 

The Corn Field.

Definitely the shoot was for HDR (3 bracketed EVs), but I'm not sure it will be quite the interesting view here, until I try my Photomatix on it. The question now is about whether to fix, or not fix, the distortion of the fisheye lens. Sometimes it adds a catch on the image and sometimes you'd like simply a straight image. In the image above, I was trying hopelessly to get down as much as possible to make the horizon interesting, but I was not able to do that since I was on a bridge, and for my own convenience let's say, I didn't want to go down to that farmland!

And beside the birds and the fields, I met some other type of friends...

Now, it was not the only one there, there were many. In fact, this one was a pony rather than an adult horse. Walking alone that straight road with that hard wind blowing off my mind as well as my jacket, There were some flowers left like memories of the past summer; I snapped some of those. But the view that I liked the most was of a maple laying on the grass and it has some strange hue indeed.

Winter's Maple

I'm pretty sure this image with a ProPhoto space would amazing, and also it was taken for an HDR composition, so hopefully there is so much possibilities awaiting to be played with. It sounds to me though that I'm taking images without feeling them for real. Like I do compose my images depending on my own feelings about them. Even the maple picture, was taken for the sole purpose of color composition and the attractive reddish hue in the leaf.

I don't know what are my plans for tomorrow, but it's going to be Sunday. I'm not sure if the cabs will be having the time to pick me up anywhere (there was no problem last Sunday). Anyway, in my mind now I have two locations: Cahir (yes, again), and Kilkenny. As for Cahir, I realized there is a great potential for a panorama inside the castle and unfortunately, I didn't do anything the last time I got into the castle. While for Kilkenny, I don't know how far it is from my place but I hope it is a town like Cashel and not a city of some sort. In fact, I don't know anything about Kilkenny and the historical places in it. All I remember about it is, it is mentioned in the famous Irish folk song "Carrickfergus":

And now in Kilkenny,
it is reported,
They've got marble stones there,
as black as ink.
With gold and silver,
I'd support her,
But I'll sing no more now,
till I get a drink.

I'm drunk today,
but then I'm sober,
A handsome rover,
from town to town.
Oh! but I'm sick now,
my days are over,
come O ye young lads,
and lay me down.

I might have to dig around a bit more about Kilkenny. If not much is there, I might give up for Cahir again. I think I've done shopping for gifts now, all I have to do is sort them out. But now, it is time to concentrate on much needed scenery. The fact that Cashel is a little town and my place is in fact part of the town, that thing do not give me much options about taking pictures of the landscape around me. Yet, with hope, I'll be out hunting for more, if only the winds calm down now. New ideas pop in my head as I type these words...