The Twins…

The weather is getting colder and colder (and makes me happy that way despite other things in my personal life)! It is time to prepare for some morning walks if possible, so we'll see to that.
In this quick post, I'm keeping up with the trend of macro shots, but this time, I'm going "extreme" macro, as at this point, I've tried to shoot at 5X, but this time, indoors. I hope the bougainvillea in the yard forgives me picking up one of her blooms!

Twins

Well, for this post, I will start with the "second" experiment and then go to the "first" because the second experiment gives a general outlook at what has been shot in the first experiment; Does that make sense? Hope so.
The story here began with picking another flower from one of the bougainvillea we have in the yard (hope they forgive me for that!) and started to shoot it indoors. This time, though, and unlike the flower in the previous post, the little white blooms of the bougainvillea were wide open, so I thought it is a good target. Since I need stability, I had to pick it and do my work inside.

雙胞胎
(the twins)

As I said, I will show those shot in the second trial before the first. Here, The Twins was shot using extension tubes (36mm) along with 50mm lens (typical). The image here was made soft on purpose (using the Clarity in ACR) and more softness was added later in the post-processing phase in Photoshop. Shooting at slightly different displacements made it also possible to create a 3D anaglyph!

The Twins (3D)

You might notice a horizontal flipping here between the normal and the 3D versions. Well, the 3D version is the original orientation. For some reason, I've felt that flipping the normal one was proper and going smoothly from right-to-left (maybe because this is how I read even though I'm reading English text more than I do with Arabic actually). Anyway, it just felt more normal that way for some reason!

So, at this point, this little experiment finished, but as i said, this is the second one and I will go through the first experiment now. I've actually made some artistic version(s) of this shot but I don't think I'll bother much about them for now.

Extreme

The first experiment, and the one for which I've actually picked this (poor) flower, is to do an extreme macro shoot, using focus stacking methods, to go deep into the flowers. Anyway, I have to say this now, I'm quite disappointed for the final results after all, but since it is a work that I've done and spent quite some time with, I guess it is worth of posting here. 

BouganBloom

Artistically, I don't think it is much to consider. Challenge-wise? Too much to bear with! Despite my initial plans to go at 5X, but I've pulled it back (for details sake and to have it slow this time) and shot the whole thing at 3.2X, and stacking about 211 shots (yes, two hundred and eleven). Despite this, there was still some gaps or artifacts when the stack was merged. I've actually tried many methods for stacking using other programs (e.g. EnfuseGUI) but all my trials failed in having a proper stacking blend. Maybe the best I could do in some of these programs is to align the images. The problem with Photoshop here is the consumption of memory in the process (same thing with panorama stitching). It made me doubt the process of shooting the stack and actually I've decided to get a new rail, which turned out later it's not the best option, but this is a story for another time for now (and I might do a review post and a comparison to my old rail), as I got that rail after all of the fuss done here. So, in a nutshell, I had to go back to the ol' Photoshop to do the stacking and the blending for this stack and you might notice that BouganBloom is cropped out of the 3:2 ratio, as I had to do it that way to keep artifacts or points that didn't blend properly out of the image but the blend is still not quite that good in general. Many of the details in BouganBloom were kind of "extracted" by excessive sharpening. Maybe new editions of Photoshop did fix all of these issues? Maybe it consumes lesser memory than my older version here? I'm really not sure about it, since I've never used one. 

Anyway, at this level, my work was done with this poor bloom, which actually had to be done quickly since the whole bloom withered and "melted" down few hours later and wasn't suitable to be shot further. I'm still planning to shoot some stacking in the future (specially at 5X which was supposed to be done here) but I'm still on the look for some good target to do so. The new rail kind of disappointed me but anyway it was comparatively cheaper and maybe it has other uses; Not all wasted I guess.

Finale

In the past few days I've spent a considerable time preparing for a special post about the Arabic Language day (December 18ᵗʰ), and actually ended up 9 of them so far, but I don't think I will be posting them here. They are, however, available on Instagram. The link leads to the English post, but it is available in other languages as well (Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Irish, Turkish, Farsi, and Greek), and I've tried my best to get over the randomness or faulty translations provided by Google Translate. Anyway, maybe I didn't succeed much with that, but I've tried!
The thing is that, in creating this post, I've thought quickly about doing light painting in some dark room (which I could barely make or use in the house). This actually made me think seriously about doing more light painting in the future. I had some humble trials in the past but never took it seriously. On another note, my phone does have a "light painting" mode which various options (using AI) which I've used before and it can create some interesting images indeed, but it lacks the flexibility in other things (mainly focusing and shooting in RAW for this purpose), yet it can come in handy at some point too, but my focus for now is using the DSLR to do the work. Not sure where I'm going with this though and I don't have quite have a specific target but we'll see if creativity kicks in (or something kicks me in).

On the mental plane, every day seems to be an occasion to hit a new low. In the past few days I've come into almost complete isolation (even online). I had the urge to talk, but there was none to talk to, literally. Gone are the days of those chatting programs that offer random people to chat with. I miss these old days, they definitely filled such a gap in my social life (which barely exists). Having a random chat like now on social media would sound more like stalking.  Nevertheless, I have to keep this isolation for the time being because I need to sustain some mental peace and health away from the family. They say to surround yourself with good vibes and positive people, and I just can't stop wondering how this is possible at all? I can't find it, I can't reach it, and I don't even know where it lies. All I know is that I just wish I had my own place, somewhere far, far away…

Sisters…

I'm posting this late, I know. But things were forced upon me actually. I've tried to finish it for Thursday but I was struck with some ailment (stomach bug probably) that kept me awry and exhausted (more than before) most of the time. Luckily though it all happened after I've already finished my post for my Arabic blog (phew!). Anyway, as I've mentioned in the previous posts, I've been working on some macro trials lately and I've already posted some pictures previously, so this one is actually a continuation of this trend.

Sisters

After trying to shoot some macro outside in the open, and without a speedlite even, I've decided to take a step further and actually do it indoors. One of the reasons that I don't like doing macro indoors, specifically with plants, is that I would most likely need to chop or pick something to work with indoors. These pots are quite heavy and dirty so picking them inside is not an option at all! However, for art's sake, I've decided to break "some" of my principles this time…

粉红手指
(the pink finger)

So, for starters, the first question to answer was: How am I going to let he flower stand. The bougainvillea flower is quite small and the inner parts are, of course, even smaller. The solution came about in the end with (drums): … a can of PRINGLES! Yes.
Unfortunately, I didn't shoot the setting as i would do usually (with phone) as i work in a hurry a bit because with such flowers, I guess things would go pale quickly and I have to do whatever I can, racing time. I've just pierced a hole into the plastic cover of the can and let the stem of the flower go through it and that's it! 

Details Oriented

In this trial, as far as i remember, my trials to shoot at 5X ratio (or 5:1), using reversed Voitgländer 20mm lens and some extension tubes, all failed. Naturally, since I wasn't using a rail yet at this point. So, the rest of the shoot proceeded with extension tubes and my trusted Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. Since the shooting is indoors (which actually is still slightly shaky because of the AC breeze!) but I was a bit free to shoot in HDR, without a speedlite of course. Both, The Pink Finger and Details Oriented are shot in HDR, but each has a different story, since each was shot in a different extension tube. Shooting objects or scenes in HDR gives a wide variety of choices for creativity that might follow up at a later time even. Here, The Pink Finger was shot using 36mm extension tube and when tone-mapped from HDR, I've tried to make it as normal as possible with a catch of rim light. Meanwhile, Details Oriented was actually a test shot and I didn't quite intend to put it up because it was shot with 20mm extension tube and contained a lot of background elements that were distracting. Later on (weeks after the fact) I've decided to do the HDR for this shot, and crop it tight, and work on suppressing the background as much as possible. I was able to make it pitch black but then I've realized that it might not quite normal that way so I've put down the opacity a bit. When tone-mapped, I've tried to add details via tone-mapping as much as possible (hence the title). Sharpening in the post-processing phase added even more structure to the whole image here. I'm still considering visiting these images now and then and see if I can do more HDR tone-mapping work differently to have different results.

三姐妹 (一)
(three sisters 1)

Then comes the part where I stopped using HDR bracketing and started to work with the speedlite to have more of a dramatic look. At this level I've returned back to using the 36mm extension tube and tried to get around the flower to find a special angle of some sort. The result was a series of 3 shots, of the same scene, but with change in the light directions. I've called it the Three Sisters after the three stems (or stamens) at the center.

三姐妹 (二)
(three sisters 2)

三姐妹 (三)
(three sisters 3)

Interestingly, out of these three, the first and the last had greater number of likes (specially the first) than the second. I'm guessing because there is some element of darkness and contrast in them more than the bright second version in the series. Worth noting here also that shots were taken at f/22 (maximum) and yet the petal in at the center in the background is slightly out of focus (as I've set the focus on the front stamen mainly). In the macro world, this is normal, and this is why focus stacking is used even with large f-numbers such as f/11 or f/16. These two values are advisable usually rather than using the max of f/22 because most lenses got their "sweet spot" for the sharpest image and least diffraction or chromatic aberration around these values, and as it can be seen, the depth of field is considerably shallow even at f/22. At this point, I didn't care about these elements at the back but my main interest was the stamen at the front, but if I was to take everything into focus, then I'd definitely need to do focus stacking (which I've tried later but that's for another post to come, hopefully).

At this point, I've finished the "experiment" but there had been other trials with this set, like shooting at 3.2X or even 5X but I'd call them a fail really, so no need to post them now. On the other hand, I think I will still check this folder to re-check the images (specially test shots) to see if they have some potential, and also to re-work the HDR brackets I've shot already and tone-map them in different ways, if possible.

Finale

At this level, I'm trying hard to push my creative juices forward a bit. Ironically, though I want to focus on using my DSLR, I often find myself switching to my phone because it is in my hand most of the time right now (starting with this habit around the time of doing my retirement procedures). I've also remembered a project or two that I was supposed to do and finish in 2021 and totally forgot about them. Let's see if I can just put my mind (and mood) into these things and finish them for good! Meanwhile, I also need to think of something to do for the Arabic Language Day on December 18ᵗʰ.

My physical health is recovering a bit right now after rounds of bloating and diarrhea, topping that with a tearing mental stress caused mainly by the people in this house. I think it is time for me to give up hope in fixing things here and talk about things are go wrong in this house; It's fruitless, and putting more stress on my back and unnecessarily causing more mental ailments, more than what I do have to deal with already. I guess this calls for more isolation in my room and to learn how to not give a damn, even when this house collapses altogether. Not sure where I'm heading to, but I do need a long rest, for sure… and a "home".

Stroll V (2022)…

Well well, Ramadhan is about to end, and I'll be back to my coffee routines, and my sleep... will keep being disturbed as usual. Nothing new. I have some plans already that I'm delaying for after Ramadhan; Nothing serious, but few errands to purchase some items for home and the thing is, the opening and closure times in Ramadhan are changed and with my sleeping pattern it's a total mess. And yes, I'll be driving (and maybe through some rush).
Meanwhile, the weather of April hasn't been harsh as I thought, except for some dust waves (and rains!) but up to the moment of typing this, the weather has been nice, specially in the morning, which allowed for some strolling, though limited because of my "lack of ideas" mode or simply, my mood (which I've been fighting with ferociously lately).

Stroll V

So, after doing a stroll with my 50mm lens and UV-pass filter, I've decided it's time to go back to the old stuff, and do a stroll with my Hα filter (which is not an infrared filter but I like to call it a "weak IR filter" figuratively) and 50mm lens. In fact, I think this filter is my favorite from my collection when it comes to infrared and UV, even though it is not a real infrared filter, and it is even designed for deep sky astrophotography! Yet, the colors and looks it provides are just surreal, and I've even made a post in my Arabic blog about this filter specifically. The closest an infrared filter from my collection that comes closer to the looks created by Hα is the B+W 092, which has a threshold of about 680nm (Hα's is about 656nm); Thus, images taken with B+W 092 can be a bit desaturated and needs some boost.

Traces

The stroll took place on March 21ˢᵗ, and I remember it was a nice morning with a nice breeze, and the sun wasn't high up (or it was even an overcast), and for this stroll I've headed East from where I live. Because Hα is light in terms of opacity and not like how a true infrared filter would be, the exposures could will be quite fast (and in fact I've raised the ISO a little bit here), thus I've switched the drive mode to burst (or fast continuous), which proved beneficial when shooting the first thing I've seen in front of me: Traces. Actually it was merely some test shots from various angles trying to make sense of what to expect from this filter and shutter speed, and because I was holding the camera and shooting without looking much into the LCD (and at f/1.4) I've shot various images of the same scene with a shift in the focal point. I used a number of these images then to create Traces as a focus stack. In fact, on inspection later on, I wished I've shot this at least at f/2, but nevertheless, I'm happy with the results. 

Спрятанный
(hidden)

Heading east, for me, was like getting into some uncharted territory. Heading there in my previous stroll with UV-pass filter was my first time and now with Hα it is my second time. I've passed here, just across the street after shooting Traces, to the same house where I shot ΟΔΟ in my previous post (if you like to check it out). This time though, there was a different mess outside this particular house; Some palm leaves and other trash items (thought was like: Treasure!). In the midst of all this mess, I've found out this star which I don't really know what it should be used as, but probably as a glow-in-the-dark item or something (I think I've seen something similar in the family). Anyway, it was hiding there and I couldn't resist the sense of abstract. In my style of shooting, in such instances of abstracts and sudden moments of findings, I don't like to move any object and shoot the scene as is, as much as possible. Anyway, I've shot the star from various angles and tried to include as much as possible of it. Ironically though, I've cropped the image in post-processing to remove some remnants of the pavements and some strings from these palm leaves. As I was experimenting with the colors, the image popped at me when I swapped the Red and Blue channels, as if it was screaming Soviet! Hence the Russian name for this image. Well, I'm frequently naming some of my images in Russian nowadays as I've been learning Russian for more than a year on Duolingo (in fact I think since 2019, long before being a retiree) so naming images in Russian helps me to push my vocabulary forward a bit.

Out of Dimensions

On the same path, in the same neighborhood, I've faced a tractor and I've quickly started taking shots for it as it passed through. I was actually afraid that the guy driving it would make an issue but all went well. I was hoping though that I would make a 3D anaglyph out of it but unfortunately, the motion direction didn't help. So, I've combined the series and merged them by channels (each layer has a separate color). It strikes me though how much Hα filter retains most of the original colors with striking differences when it comes to vegetation and few other things. To be honest though, this shot is probably one of my least favorite shots in this stroll (if not in general). I think it's completely aimless!

The Army

After the path I came about to some open space, like the one I have near home on the western side, but this one is bigger and not used to heap dust and tar like the one on the western side. All I found there is a bunch of different machinery vehicles set there made ready to work for asphalt fixing (we have a major road/pipes renovations in my area). Out of fun, I've shot several shots for this row of vehicles and combined them later in post-processing like a panorama (had to do this in fact instead of picking one to have more cropping freedom). The surprise came out though when this image specifically (and for some reasons beyond my understanding) was picked as an "Inspiration" on YouPic!
What I particularly like about this shot (or shots) is the depth of field for such a wide view (the wide view is made up by the panorama and cropping later of course). I had ideas of doing something somewhat similar to that but here I've done it without thinking about it. However, probably the depth in The Army is not quite popping out as "shallow depth of field" even though it was shot at f/1.4, mainly because of the distances between the objects and me (and the background). Anyway, it is something I'm wishing to try one day with better conditions (and distances), and the challenge here is to do everything handheld and with locked focus.
The fact that this image had been marked as "Inspirational" on YouPic, I think, is a proof that however you calculate and think ahead about your upcoming shot, you can never predict the outcome and how people would receive it. Of course, I'm not talking here about the "contest" atmosphere where judges are involved; These environments have their own field of study (and I'm saying this as an ex-member in a photography group that used to chase after medals in such international contests). Contests are somewhat a subject of study to get through or at least to have a good estimation and probability of winning something, but my talk here about the occasional artist or photographer who shoots out of exercise, out of spirit, and out of sensuality, rather than out of calculations.

Palm and Minaret

Seeing the vehicles, I decided to head and take a closer look in order to hunt for some abstracts. However, before heading (and it was a relatively long walk actually), I mused myself in shooting a mosque on the right with its palm tree; This is the same mosque that I've shot the bougainvillea branch from, in UV, in the previous post. I will be visiting the same branch after a while (and in future posts hopefully). I think it is a good target to get innovative as much as possible.

Mechanical Circle

And then I've arrived at my first abstract catch with Mechanical Circle, which was taken from the side of one of these vehicles with big cylinders (I suppose to flatten the surface of the new tar or asphalt). Again, with burst mode on, I've taken several shots here and combined them together. I was shooting at a low level and almost didn't see the LCD, so this was a safety procedure to ensure I get one shot right but then I've decided to combine the shots as in a focus stack. Anyway, despite its relative simplicity, I did have some dilemma cropping this image (as I like to crop keeping the aspect ratio usually). However, probably the thing I regret here is not turning the image into B&W before uploading it online (mainly onto YouPic). I think turning it into B&W would strengthen the focus on the geometrical shapes rather than the colors (even though the colors here are somewhat faint). I was so focused in having a proper crop and forgot about other aspects of the image! Well, I guess it will be revisited some time in the future (hopefully near future!).

مَـصْـفـوفَـة
(matrix)

Not far from Mechanical Circle, and just beside that vehicle, there was another vehicle with many front wheels (I guess it is probably to flatten the tar in some way, not sure), and I got attracted to the continuous row of these circles. Again, the shoot here was at a low level and I had to do it without looking much into the LCD. Anyway, unlike Mechanical Circle, I've picked a single shot here with the focus I wanted (on the front element). Ironically though, the image wasn't converted to B&W, yet it looks like one (almost)! It all depends on the dominant elements in this shot I guess where everything is gray/dark gray, and literally that was it; No more colors except for the ground maybe (which I hated actually but I couldn't remove it or crop it properly). I did crop the image but to eliminate other elements, mainly in the lower right corner.

Стробоскоп
(strobe)

Then again with the vehicles still, some strobe or flash bulb caught my eye. It was standing out separated from the rest of the vehicle (visually) as if it was seeking and begging to shoot it. I know, nothing special about such strobe or light (or whatever) but being isolated and with shallow depth of field, all sounded hyper to me. I've actually shot this from various angles which allowed me to experiment with 3D anaglyph making again and I think it did give some good result but in the same time it made me think that probably images with very shallow depth of field as this one (at f/1.4) might not be as good as images with greater depth of field because of the lack in details in the background which would contribute more to the depth.

Стробоскоп (3D)

Nevertheless, I still think that the 3D anaglyph here is good enough. As for the original shot though, the process was naturally different, as well as the crop. I think I've cropped Strobe into 16:9 (wide screen format) and processed it with much blue tones to give out that cinematic look as much as possible. I didn't follow this path of processing for some time by now, but the Hα filter kind of imposes the blue tones by nature. I could've swapped the channels here and give it a golden/yellowish tint, but that didn't sound (look) right to my eyes, so I kept it as it is and added to it in terms of contrast and tones. 

مَـدْخَـلْ
(entrance)

Away from the vehicles, I've passed through some neighborhoods here and there trying to find some targets, and I've arrived at one of my favorite subjects: A Door!
There are fancy doors around m area where I live, old and new, but I'm always scared to shoot any, mainly to keep myself away from problems with the owners. I have some bad experiences in the past with various sects of people so I really don't want to repeat that experience in the early hours of the morning here. But as I was walking, I've shot this door quickly in burst mode and combined the images to have some freedom to crop (and correct the image). Correcting the image actually was a bit time-consuming as I was doing it manually and didn't think of doing it in DxO which has a proper tool to rectify things. The neat thing about 50mm lens is that it doesn't impose too much distortion on the image and it is "almost" identical to the sight of the human eye.
Now, in the process, I've swapped the channels to make the door more golden in color as I think it adds more "magic" to its design (and in fact this was the actual color somewhat). Yet though, the effect was faint and even with the addition of vibrance to boost the saturation, thus I ended up applying a Solid Color layer with gold tint (#FFD700). Of course with applying some additional steps to make it a tint.

طَـلَـلْ
(remains)

Not far off, in fact just before I walk away from shooting that door, I spotted an old house that was shouting "HAUNTED" to me. It was straight ahead and I kept staring at these windows and that curtain dangling outside. Reminded me of some escaping scenes from one of these movies; A jail, a sanitarium, something of that sort. The style of the house is 1960s/1970s and in ruins. Made me wonder why did people abandon this house? What's the story behind it? I'm sure it looked one fine house and quite spacious as well. Ah well… something nostalgic and sad kicks in every time I look and remember that house.
Anyway, I was on the ground and the windows were high up and there was no way I could raise myself up to the level of those windows of course so I just shot some images from the ground and in fact I've intended for them to be a memorabilia only. However, the story changed when I got back home and started to examine the images.
For the record, I had to crop big chunks of the image to remove all that is not needed, so relatively, the image became quite small in size after all. The next part was to try and adjust the distortion or perspective to let the image appear as if taken face-front. It took me ages to fix the perspective and yet I'm not that happy because of these car shades in the lower right corner which I couldn't crop them out unfortunately. I wasn't using a fisheye lens here so I couldn't just stand in front of the house and shoot  to exclude the shades (and even if I did that, I think the perspective would be beyond repair). I've shot many shots with slight difference in view in order to combine them together because I knew that if I'm going to work with this image and find anything good about it after adjusting the colors, I'm surely going to need to crop big chunks, which I did. The image wasn't converted to B&W but it just happened to be in such tones (there are bits of color in those tiny flags hanging in the shades). Probably it wouldn't be something I would print for an expo or participate with in a contest, yet I feel satisfied (and sad) when I take a look at it.

九重葛的白色
(the white of bougainvillea)

Finally, I've reached the "promised" bougainvillea branch which I've shot with UV in my previous stroll, and still shot it in the coming strolls afterward. In case you are wondering why I named the image in Chinese, well, it simply gave me the impression of Asian art icons which I typically see on china and other such items. Since the shutter speed is high right now with this Hα filter, I gave myself the freedom to shoot this branch in burst mode (I guess you can tell I'm happy about it). Because of that I got the chance to make one or two anaglyphs.
Back to The White of Bougainvillea, here the shot needed some delicate "doctoring", if I can say so.
To begin with, I was really hesitant about the position or the orientation of the image as a whole and it took me a while to decide. The image was originally in landscape but I've rotated it and made it in portrait orientation. Then, it was time to crop and eliminate things and my trials to keep the aspect ratio failed and I had to crop freely here. In addition to that many areas of the image were actually just "blank" with not much details and just white space so I had to fill those and also to mimic the shallow depth of field to the best I can. So, yeah, it is "doctored" as you can see now. I've actually made another version for it specifically for Instagram with 4:5 aspect ratio (cropped the top) and swapped the channels.

金葉
(golden leaves)

As I've mentioned earlier, I did take various shots for this branch at that moment and gave myself freedom to play around with some of them, like Golden Leaves which was originally blue and was going to leave it blue as a friend suggested but then thought I might as well turn it golden in color with Solid Color adjustment layer in Photoshop again like Entrance. Swapping the channels was not "gold-ish" enough actually so I had to do it that way. Big chunks are cropped here to focus on this "framed" part of the image with the intermingled branches. I'm thinking and considering this one (along with others) to be uploaded to the stocks. I didn't upload for quite some time now.

So, this branch was the end of my strolling journey across the "Eastern Realm" from home. I did probably take few shots here and there on my way back home but I don't think they're worth mentioning here anyway. I have to say I liked that zone more than the western one but still surprises might occur at any place between the two, and there are more strolls coming on the way and I'd probably make one specifically to post about in my Arabic blog. I'm hoping to do that in May, but the stroll itself should be done any time now, in the last days of April!

 

Finale

Thus, this was the end of this stroll with one of my favorite filters by now (for artistic usage) and I have to say, April had been nice to me. I still remember some years back when April wasn't that "breezy" like now. It can also be related to the fact that it is Ramadhan and the working hours and traffic jams are delayed so that makes for some quiet time in the early morning between 6-8 a.m. and some nice breeze with no much smog. But I have to say, smells still there. I had to cope with some to get some shots done! There also had been some days with dust hanging in the air which wasn't encouraging to go out and shoot, and some days with fatigue that kept me bedridden.
The question remains though: Would I be able to do more or do something creative or anything that would fill my life after Ramadhan? It's hard to answer that (specially with the weather surely will be getting warmer). I'm keeping my hopes up though, not for anything but to try and switch off my anxiety off a bit and putting my mind into working elsewhere other than pessimism. Traveling is dearly needed right now, but it's hard, if not for my eye condition (which I don't think is that catastrophic anyway) then for the global issues in general. It feels like standing in the midst of an endless desert right now; No direction, no aim, but staring at a blazing sun…

Kika X…

How silly was it for me to make a post without an introduction the last time! I guess I was in a bit of a hurry to finish whatever I can in time. Anyway, I don't think there is any important stuff to spill out in the introduction, but I really wanted to make another little announcement. But well, I guess I don't need a special section for this little one, so here we go.
I've lately uploaded my bubbles collection to my Canstockphoto (which you find by clicking the signature at the end of the post) and now I've posted "some" of these images (and some few more outside the series) into my 123RF profile. I say "some" here because some images from this series were not accepted for one reason or another. Thus, the full series is actually available (so far) ONLY on Canstockphoto. I don't know much about the pricing of each website but just in case you want to compare, go ahead. Some people have one account in one and not the other anyway. As for Dreamstime, I never received any email concerning this type of upload or series or any single response, thus I have not uploaded there at all. 

 

Kika X

And up with the 10^th week of Kika's photo-challenge. At this time, I got occupied pretty much with many things, specially helping my brother with his studied. Thus, my mind was not "that" free for much inspirational work. Mind was all over the place. This,in fact, would be the situation till the end of the series of Kika's photo-challenge.
The theme for Week 10 was "light." As usual, since I didn't have the proper time to take new photos, I've searched my arsenal and I couldn't find any better than one particular shot that had a special kind of light…

Boihéamach
(bohemian)

I love this selfie because of the light in use here. It was lit with a single candle (and posted about it back in 2019 and started a project then to portraits with one candle only). Beside the quality of the light here, it was shot in infrared (hence the blue tint and eye). I was lucky here to pinpoint the focus on the eye on my own; It was a lengthy process of trial and error! However, just so I won't be re-posting a photo just like that without any edit or any effort for the theme, I've decided to do a minor adjustment. So minor but with a huge impact: Contrast.

Boihéamach (2)

The difference is drastic and made me wonder: Why didn't I do this in the first place when I first processed this image? Probably, then, I was way too dependent on the histogram and feared going out of the gamut. The contrast here was fixed simply by using the black dropper in the Curve adjustment layer box and using it to set the black point of the image as a whole from a spot near the face (or the eye's pupil).
The image became more dramatic and more drastic and I'd say more Rambrandt-ish after this fix of the contrast, with apparently uplifting the blue tint from the whole image.
I think I really need to detach myself from perfection with histogram. A lesson to be learned in my future work; If my memory and habits serve me right. So, this far is my only contribution for Kika's Week 10 challenge: Light. 

 

Back-on-Villea

So at this time, of March still, I went back to the yard trying to catch some more "extreme" macro shots, and this time for the Bougainvillea. Or should I say, Bougainvillea's blooms. This plant really proved to be hard to work with because of its stiff branch (and thorns!) and a lot of the things that I wanted to try before did fail because of the breeze, wind, or the hard-to-reach pose. 

Hyperstigma

The stigma or central part of the bougainvillea bloom is quite interesting with its cinquefoil-like shape. However, unfortunately, the magnification I was using (4.2X) was way greater than what it should be and there was no time to change and experiment (again!) so I went on and tried to shoot whatever I could. Hyperstigmata here was shot from the top and directly onto the stigma but generally speaking, it is not quite clear and blurry. Probably good for a small size representation but definitely not a large size one. Seems even with a speedlite at hand and at 1/250 of a second, motion blur outside is yet to be conquered.

Stigma Profile

Stigma Profile II

Ironically, despite not being able to shoot the stigma right on, I was able to shoot a "profile" from the side (or behind). In Stigma Profile I and II, the effect of the direction of the light is obvious. It helped on creating an isolation of the foreground without much effort; Just by tilting the speedlite at hand just a little bit!

Stamen Head

Pinkoid

Same thing goes on with the stamen part of the flower, where changing the direction of the light did change the looks drastically (and the feel as well). I kind of find it comical that the masculine part of the flower comes out in such dominant pink, in Pinkoid; A color usually assigned to the feminine nature. Anyway, the bloom itself is pinkish/magenta in color, with all its inner parts. I was amazed to know that there are indeed bougainvillea varieties with white (and probably blue?) flowers! Would be nice to have them side by side with these pink/magenta ones. The plant though is quite random and needs special treatment to let it grow in some organized manner. Needless to say, we plant them in small pots right now, so, they wouldn't grow much like the one we planted long ago when we first settled in this then-new home. Nevertheless, the branches and the blooms do just fine as they are. 

Stigma Furnace

Back to the stigma and with changing lighting conditions again, seems I got something acceptable in Stigma Furnace. However, this result was not possible without editing; A heavy one as well. This said, there are still a number of images that I didn't touch or check thoroughly. A quick look at some of these didn't yield much impression on me but probably another visit to those again, with some cropping and "surreal" editing techniques, I might get out with something out of them.

 

Finale

As I'm typing this blog post, and specially the introduction up there, I've realized that there are a number of promises that I've made and which seems like that I've "ditched". Like the one time that I wanted to do more of the old panoramas in a new suit and upload them to Mostphotos. However, lately, my psyche had a great toll on me. Maybe some, who would read these lines, would consider it such an exaggeration to talk about the mental status in the finale of every post, but all I can say is, I really don't wish to see you in such a place, in your minds. The exhaustion of fighting off such mental issues is quite physical. Sprinkle that with back pains, and you would get such a lovely combination of stalemate.
I am in a phase of life at the moment that I really don't know what I want, where to go, or where am I going. Yes, I have few wishes, but under the current circumstances they are kind of far fetched. In fact, even those wishes I'm wishing and hoping for, probably won't make me any more dedicated or goal-oriented, nor grant me happiness. Something within is very tired.

Kika VIII…

Here we go again! I was busy typing my post for my Arabic blog so I didn't have the time to post here. Typing an Arabic blog is not quite as easy because I type it outside the blog website (on LibreOffice's Writer) and post it there because I do have more control over specific formatting issues there. Also, putting images there and typing captions, and sometimes getting stuck in translating into Arabic some English terminologies; All that really require patience and some time. Now, I'm back to the usual (hopefully), so let's get back to Kika and her photo-challenges!
Just before I go on with the post, I'm not sure I did announce this already or not, but just in case I didn't here you go: In case you'd like to check the bubbles set of images which I've created lately, it has been uploaded to Canstockphoto. You can visit my profile by clicking the signature at the end of this post.

Kika VIII

Well, I remember at this level with Kika's photo-challenges, things at home started to get busier and busier on many fronts. So, from this challenge and on, I would say not many new stuff had been created really, since I was in a race with time.
So, the theme for Week 8 was "Multiply." A theme which I can relate a LOT to since I used to work with stroboscopic flash as well as collage and stitching images manually (object panorama sort of thing).

Schizophrenia

The one image that popped in my mind when the theme was announced was Schizophrenia, for apparent reasons! Shot this in 2018 and posted it many times (and enrolled it in some contests as well). Ironically, I didn't upload it to the stocks! I think I need to do that soon (to Mostphotos). As I've mentioned already and for many times, I was quite busy but as soon as I got the chance to work on something, I went on with it, regardless of my vision about it and my assumptions about its success or failure…

تَفَضَّلْ، كُلّي آذانٌ صاغِيَة
(go ahead, I'm all ears)

The funny thing about I'm All Ears above, is that when I did it was aiming to the idea of "multiply" which was Kika's theme for week8, but then realized that it works well as a theme for Retinitis Pigmentosa! However, it was done in March, whereas February is the month named as Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month.
The thing about this shot is, I just did it. Without thinking, without preparations, without any much thought except for the core of the idea itself; Something I usually lack (and it hinders me big time but I can't help it!). I picked my camera and my Sigma 12-24mm lens outside (with a tripod of course) and sat there in front of the table and shot 3 to 4 images, then went back to my room and started to work on the collage - Just like that!
Even though my initial aim when the theme started was to use stroboscopic flash because it was the best candidate for "multiplication", I was actually out of ideas for stroboscopic flashes. Anyway, the idea of having ears instead of eyes sounded funny to me (can't remember if I was inspired by something) and it does include the idea of multiplication here!
Since my Sigma 12-24mm lens does not have much of a shallow depth of field to form a bokeh or that sort of thing, I had to do things manually in Photoshop. In addition to that, I worked on emphasizing the sharpness, contrast, and saturation of the body to stand out more against the foreground and the background. You can already tell the haste of the work by the unshaven face I guess!

Bougasso

It was a nice weather time back in March. Of course, it is spring season (even before the official start of it) but typically this is not the case here. Thanks to COVID-19, temperatures had gone down a bit. Temperatures here on May would already be reaching 45-50 degrees on occasions (and even before May), but this year (and probably the year before) temperatures are just reaching 40s.
Anyway, away with the weather forecast introduction already. My point here was to give an introduction as to why or how I was shooting photos for the bougainvillea trees or bushes in our yard still, in March. In fact, at the moment of typing this in May, they are still there though lost a big portion of its magenta blooms, some magenta still remains anyway.

Cracking Bougainvillea

For a moment there I really wanted to go crazy, just like in the old days (not that I'm sane nowadays anyway but I mean with my processing attitude). Thus, I've tried to do a collage of slides taken for one of the bougainvillea bushes, shooting these slides in HDR (i.e. bracketed then combined for HDR). From there, I went crazy with my toning. However, I've realized the crazy part was not there yet!
As I was working in Photoshop to align the images, as usual, I would try to see the automated process done by Photoshop (it does some good work sometimes!). So, after aligning, I tried the blending and to my surprise, I got something that I've totally unexpected, as you can see above in Cracking Bougainvillea. It's not something that I would upload to the stocks for sure, but it is beneficial for my brain I guess to get out of the norm and do crazy stuff; Stuff that people "usually" maybe hate and do not consider as photography. Maybe as a reminder that I'm an artist after all and photography is an art. 

Reaching Out

So, after doing Cracking Bougainvillea, I didn't find myself satisfied enough. Mainly here because the shots I've taken there were kind of random in various directions. So, I went back to shoot it again, and this time I've worked on moving the camera vertically only. Worth noting that both shooting were done with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens.
Again, with Reaching Out, I tried to get out of the ordinary and do some art and I did a "trick" here which I didn't do in a long time (I think I've done it back when I had CS3 or CS4 of Photoshop!). Ironically, I've done it also to a picture of bougainvillea, but back then it was a full tree (we had quite a suitable space for planting then). Again, like I've stated in the previous post when I was working with the pastel-like look, it seems that it would have been far better to work with such effect when the shadow was minimal or non-existent altogether, since it is making the isolation process quite troublesome; As well as the looks.

Moon's Delight

Orangina

Beside these 2 shots there were some minor shots for some flowers but I thought it would be just unnecessary to talk about them in detail, since they are simple macro shots with the usual editing process, but I'll just post them here to keep up with the "time-line," since I'm recollecting my photo-shooting memories from months ago!

Finale

It seems that I've been going through some dormant phase lately, as bed seems to be my best friend. Or maybe it is a trial to escape reality. Ramadhan is over now and I'm trying to get back to normal life schedules as before. My work with the camera is low as well and things just feel empty. Or maybe it is me who is empty. I just don't know.
Things seems to be on the way to be back to normal here after more than a year of closure and being off work. To be honest, I kind of used to this life of not going to work every morning, despite the hectic habits and sleeping times which I need to put on check. I feel that I'm still not ready to go back to work whenever they would call me to it. As things go in that direction, I'm also working on getting proper reports for my eyes condition, and who knows, I might as well file for medical retirement. Moving to a new location further away from home, as well as being sort of alone in that workplace which is supposed to be about science (but not much science in it) makes my anxiety ascend further. I just don't know where life is throwing me into, but all I can do is lay my trust in God…

Kika VII…

This is somewhat a sad post. As I'm typing these words, our canary (which I've posted about in the previous post) had died after some weird illness or condition. It's a perplexing feeling really; Part of me is sad and part of me is happy. I'm sad because he is dead, and happy because he finally left the damn cage which I wanted to take him off from but couldn't; Because no one cared, and no one liked the idea. I didn't give him a name (and I don't even know if it is a male indeed), but all I can say is, RIP Canary, I'll miss you…

 On a side note, I've also been under some allergy attack, which is gone by now but a slight cough remains. The cough, though, leaves such an awful taste sometimes; Something metallic or like breathing through some plastic pipe! I just hope I won't be needing Seretide for this. I think I had just about enough for 2 weeks of time of my life!

Little Announcement

Just before proceeding with the main post, I wanted to state that I've finally uploaded ALL the batches of images that were on the queue! And now, it is time for me to work with some NEW images that I've shot recently and prepare some of them to be uploaded the stocks. 

The new uploaded batches

 

Typically, and as usual, the selfies were uploaded to Mostphotos exclusively. The rest are spread across Canstockphoto, Dreamstime and 123RF. However, at the moment of typing this, 123RF uploads are still under review (typical) while the rest had been accepted in the same day (with few rejects). Not only that, but also one of the images (1^st in 4^th row) had been sold already via Dreamstime! I remember in the old days when Dreamstime's reviewing process used to take a considerable time but things had been faster now and even more promising!
There is still one image that I didn't upload and it is ought to be exclusively on Dreamstime and that is Killing Evil (1^st in 2^nd row) which is actually a PNG with a transparent background, and thus considered a vector. I've uploaded it several times but it is not getting through and I need to check back on that later. 

Kika VII

So, we arrive at Kika's photo-challenge for Week 7, which had somewhat a weird title for it, and in fact it was not possible to put it all in a single hashtag. The challenge was about combining unexpected items or objects. I have to admit I got my head spinning around and I didn't know what to shoot here, thus I referred back to my arsenal of shots and started playing around. I didn't want to skip a single challenge at this point!

Red Escape II

The shot was taken back in March 2020, where I was working with some random ideas of mixing feathers and water, so I thought it is the right mix for this photo challenge. I've shot many in this series of feathers and water, using both high-speed and stroboscopic flash (Red Escape is apparently shot with stroboscopic flash). The problem (kind of) was that, that I did post this photo back then when I've created it. So, just to make things a bit different I've decided to make a little edit and change the jar color to blue, which I thinks adds even more contrast better than the original (where the water was reddish). All these shots in the series are uploaded to my various stock accounts (you can check one of them by clicking the frame at the end of this post).
Things though did not stop at this photo for this challenge, just yet.

Through H-Alpha

Funny thing is that before the announcement of this photo-challenge by Kika, I did some photo-shoot in the yard at home as I was experimenting with some concepts, as well as trying to practice some editing techniques (those related to creating pastel-like images). Along the way and since I was carrying my two cameras (regular and modified) with some filters, I've shot Through H-Alpha using my H-Alpha filter holding it in front of my (beloved) Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens; By hand of course! I think this raises this image of combining unexpected items (a filter and a fisheye lens!) but also combines 2 scenes into one; A normal one and a filtered one. It did require a considerable work with layer masks and levels to correct the colors outside the circle and enhancing those within the circle as an infrared shot should be, somehow. The shot was, of course, taken with my modified camera, thus even the area outside the filter was tinted because of the infrared coming from the sun. The image originally was all shades of red!

Pastel-ization

As I've mentioned already (in this post and probably previous ones), I'm trying to work on some new technique in editing, but so far, I didn't practice much of it. Most probably I would need to work on old shots from my arsenal instead of working on new ones. However, here are some shots that were relatively new in fact and shot specifically for this edit.

عَـطْـفْ (Bending)

The work here is actually inspired by a Portuguese lady artist and photographer which I, unfortunately, can't recall her name; I've seen an article (interview) with her in one of those Google suggested pages on my phone. Anyway, looking at her images and reading swiftly through the interview, I kind of managed to take the main points of such a style:

1. Saturated colors.
2. Somewhat happy colors.
3. Bright colors.

Thus, I was working on these key features. Of course, the heavy work relies on editing rather than in-camera work. However, I guess not all subjects are suitable for this type of style. Nevertheless, one wouldn't know unless one tries!

Bougainvillian Curve

One of the key points in "shooting" the images, as the Portuguese photographer stated, is shooting when the sun is high up (noon time). However, I did shoot when the sun was just rising on the yard at home, and I think I do now understand why did she mention this point specifically; Shadows and dark tones are not good candidates for such a technique! Not only shadows in fact but darker tones in general so it is better to avoid them as much as possible I guess. As can be seen above in Bending and Bougainvillian Curve, the dark black pots of the bougainvilleas are hard to render in such technique and they feel much like being obtrusive. Just to aid the image a bit here I've added a tone or two to the black or the shadows in these images. It's clear  now why the midday sun is the best for such a technique of "editing".
As I've stated, I didn't work with this editing technique much still and maybe I did some photo here and there (one of them was posted for Kika's photo-challenge). I've been swept away with other photo-shooting and, as usual, domestic issues. Hopefully I will attend to this technique further in the future and try to have a grasp on it.

Finale

I consider myself lucky to finish this blog post actually. With all the tired body and the stack of "work" to do (not related to my actual job nor to photography) and I managed to finish this blog post - but I had to start earlier than usual! Ah well…
I'm having an idea of starting a blog post in Arabic for my Arabic blog, which I didn't post in for a long time now. The post would be about my experience in shooting bubbles, which I will post here in time, as I'm trying to go chronologically here in this blog with all the images that I've taken in the past few weeks. The bubbles shoot was a big deal and I've come out with loads of images (some of them even uploaded to stocks already). However, the bulk of them are not yet prepared to be uploaded. I'll keep that talk for another time.
I've been also taken by astrology lately; An old passion and interest that got re-kindled for a while now (even before COVID time) and I've been reading texts here and there and watching videos about topics and all that. But this is a bad habit actually and I know, because there are priorities I need to tend to. This also brings to my mind the passion for Conlangs which I didn't attend to, and specially after the lock-down of my other Instagram account, @Ayvarith. Funny how this blog was first started to talk about the Conlang of Ayvarith but then changed to other topics completely. Despite being taken over by photography, Ayvarith still has a place in my heart, and it might get re-kindled after some time, along with other Conlangs and Conscripts. Who knows?
On a domestic level, my isolation is getting tighter and tighter and I barely leave my room for few minutes (mainly to make me coffee). The mental disconnect is getting quite hard to fix in this house and nothing seems to make sense to me, neither I make sense to anyone else. On a mental level, ghosts from the past keep visit me unexpectedly with the thoughts "Why did it happen that way?" or "How did it happen that way?". Quite useless thoughts and there is nothing I can do about them, but the stress that loads on my mind because of the house keeps recalling these memories. How I wish I could just afford my own place and stay alone… At least if such memories come, they would visit without a stress…