Happy new year, and I hope you had a nice one. To be honest, I wanted to take another week off from typing my blog here but I thought maybe I shouldn't and thought it would be a good idea to stress myself more beside all the things happening in my life right now on the home front. So, here we go.
As a side note, while typing these words, I've already been out in a random shoot in the morning like I would do every winter; around the neighborhood. This time, I've picked my Sigma 12-24mm lens (which is challenging really) but anyway it was a simple stroll around and I'm still "trying" to work on the photos I've shot back then. Hopefully I will talk about them in time but this post is supposed to be following the chronological order so I'm going to take off from where I stopped in the previous post (well, the previous previous post). However, before I proceed, I'd like to give just a liiiiittle announcement.

Little Announcement

I've recently uploaded a full set of images which was a project initiated in 2021 but didn't get to finish it (let's speak procrastination here) except in 2022. Long story short, after sending emails to the major stocks i deal with, I've uploaded this set to Canstockphoto and Dreamstime. However, to my surprise (and for some reasons beyond my humble understanding), Dreamstime did accept some images (about half of the set) and refused the rest and it seems for reasons related to quality; despite the fact that all images are the same with only one element that had changed.
This said, I've tried to delete what had been already accepted in my profile on Dreamstime (i.e. what had been accepted from this set of images, 39 of them) but I could only delete few. When I inquired about it, I got the response that I have to wait for 6 months until I can delete these files (Why? Just because…). Digging through the website further it turned out that it got itself wrapped up in political views that i think are not supposed to be there in such a website that offers art in the first place.

For these reasons, and despite having a profile there (and I can't withdraw anything from there), I've decided to stop uploading to Dreamstime completely. It's a loss for sure as it provides exclusive rights to images and I do have some exclusive images there, but such terms and also getting into the political issues for no reason, such issues are a red flag to me. Thus, I will stop uploading my work there completely but my profile will be active still. Who knows, might be deleted one day.

Meanwhile, the set of 39 images, which I've called Arabic Eye, is available on Canstockphoto.

Dewy

So, now, to the bulk of today's post! Now, before the main thing, I did take some shots and even edited some shots from the past but it's not the topic of this post. Some of the shots taken were simply for embracing my (new) window which I just like to gaze at in the morning when the light comes in, specially in winter time. Anyway, away with that.

This "experiment" (if I can call it so) was somewhat a "two birds taken down with one stone"; if that's clear anyway! I wanted to do some macro experiment (away from bougainvillea and picking the flowers of the poor bush), and in the same time I was looking for ideas for my Arabic blog as I didn't post anything for a while, and my thoughts led me to make an article about Super-Resolution (SR) images and how to do them in Photoshop. So, the two ideas combined into some macro job in Super-Resolution; What was missing though is a proper target. Chasing my tail again looking for ideas, I arrived (again) at my beloved colored feathers, which I didn't use for a while (maybe since 2020 or 2021) for any photo-shoot.

نَـدِيْ
(dewy)

I'd say, initially, it was a success. For creating a SR image, one wouldn't need a lot of images like in the focus-stacking technique. In Dewy, around 13 shots were taken. The problem here though, because I've sprinkled water (plain water, no glycerine added), the droplets on the feather wouldn't stay in place completely but some (just some) of them did move a bit. Originally, in fact, I wanted a simple one droplet to be stable on the tip but (surprise surprise) that nearly impossible, so I sprinkled the whole feather with water. Anyway, the movement in the water droplets between shots (even though they were taken quickly, relatively) - all was fixed in the process of merging and also some extra job was done with Photoshop magic (cloning, and stuff, you know). The dimensions with this technique ramped up from the typical 5184X3456 pixels for Canon EOS 7D (my camera) up to 10386X6929 pixels; So that's like double the original resolution. Of course, things had to be taken down, like cropping and other cleaning stuff and sharpening. Increasing the resolution in that technique is "somewhat" good, but not "absolutely" good. 

نَـدِيْ 2
(dewy 2)

Of course, I wouldn't let things go without playing around with the colors, like in infrared. I went on to do some color inverse and I think the color cast is still impressive. However, I must mention here that this is just one of the things that I've experimented with in this image. The main issue here is that I've tried to put my vision as a person who reads from right-to-left (normally, I guess); Thus, to me, the image seemed more "normal" to my eyes if I just flipped it horizontally and let the lines going from the bottom right to upper left corner. I kept the original orientation as it will be seen with Dewy 3.

نَـدِيْ 3
(dewy 3)

As for Dewy 3, it was actually a direct edit for one of the shots that made up the original SR-image (which was cropped later to make Dewy 1 and 2). Here, you can see the original orientation of the image as it was shot. Worth noting that the shot was done with 50mm lens and 36mm extension tube, and at f/22; So, nothing fancy here and no focus-stacking (that was not the aim to begin with). If I would go for focus-stacking I'd probably use more zoom power via lens reversing technique. These images gained some nice momenta on YouPic (specially Dewy 1). Nice to see such a simple experiment go wild like that. I still need to work on more though.
After this I've done some little shy shots with a leaf from one of the basil plants in the yard (didn't want to upset the bougainvillea again!) and I'm not sure if I'm going to post about them here as they were just simple shots with various zooms (exceeding the 1X limit). They got some nice details to them though. We'll see…

PSAChina

Here, I just wanted to put a little announcement about the results that I've got from participating in PSA China contest. The contest had its deadline in December, and the results were announced on January 3ʳᵈ. I have to say, for the majority of my entries, the results were disappointing. Yet, just by the last category, Architecture, I've had a surprising swift turn of luck!

Results report card

Out of the 4 entries for the Architecture category, I won 1 gold medal and 2 honorable mentions. Even though the last image is not awarded anything but it gained enough points to be "accepted" and exhibited. In fact, I've received another email asking me to upload the bigger files for all these images, beside a personal photo and some text about these images. It seems that the judges at PSA China contest do appreciate panoramas pretty much unlike other contests I've been into before (specially the Trierenberg Circuit which was ended in 2021 or 2022 already). This makes me happy, as well as sad, because it reminds me of the fact that I didn't do much panoramas for a long time now (for reasons beyond my reach already). Just to finalize this, here are the images that were accepted (and awarded):

 One thing I'm hoping for here, and that is to receive my gold medal, unlike the one that I've never received from Trierenberg Circuit back in 2018 (which was my first gold medal ever in any such contest, and this one now is my second).

Finale

I was hesitant to type this post and was afraid that I wouldn't finish it in time, but here I am. Things on the home front had been very disturbed; No maid to help with the housework and tend to Mom, and a challenging Mom on various levels with health issues, a household that doesn't feel like home, and coping with mood swings and depression, trying to think hardly about the camera to find some kind of salvation through it. I've honestly lost a lot of appetite for everything (beside food, and the camera work). Spending my day just thinking if this is going to end at all at some point, and whether it was all my fault to be here in this position and place. It's a blame game with myself, and trying hard to convince myself that I've done my best whenever I could.
Traveling is quite essential at such a time but with the world going crazy and with my eyes condition (which apparently is going down even though not as bad as my other siblings) - such conditions are just not quite encouraging. Sure, I can travel to well-known destination and sure I can just travel to get some breath away from this house, but I always feel it is a money wasted if such a travel wasn't for a solid purpose (like a religious pilgrimage for example) or without my camera. I didn't shoot any panoramas in ages and my current results from PSA China contest were quite encouraging to do something, but where and how, this is way beyond my thinking at the moment. It does feel as if my life is getting isolated more and more by every passing day, and soon, my life would be no life at all. I wonder where is that light at the end of the tunnel that everyone is talking about…

Huaweific II…

Well, I was almost not going to type this post for this week and keep it for the next week, but I think I will just do a quick wrap here.
I'm still ongoing with my trials to hunt ideas and photos for my entries to Huawei's context which will end by the end of this month, and things are up and down really. I do have some ideas but I do need some help (modeling) which I don't get quite easily here of course, as well as sketching some images at the back of my head but I'm not sure how they are to be done in reality, with a smartphone.

Anyway, I've been taking my mini-tripod with me to work in some days in hope that I will find some idea and shoot (but alas  I got swept by chores most of the time). Then I got this idea: What would happen if I do light painting in a not-so-dark office like mine? Huawei's camera has a special mode for light painting and when picked it shows 4 more options for recording a light painting of cars for example or doing water movement and such. It's quite impressive I have to say! More impressive than shooting even with my own DSLR camera. I think Huawei's phone here is very dependent on AI for merging the images or exposures and form one image at the end with such motion blur as you can see in Ghost Writer. And this is not the end of the story actually, as each mode of these four, do give out a different look and atmosphere than the others! Which calls for some testing and observation... hmm...

Ghost Writer

Meanwhile, I was trying hard to find new ideas after doing that Ghost Writer shot, and despite having some ideas indeed, but lot of them are just imprisoned inside my head with no chance of going out. Beside trying out the Light Painting mode on my Huawei, I've been also trying the panorama facilities in it. There is, in fact, two panorama modes: 3D Panorama and regular Panorama. 3D Panorama mode is what we (or I) typically call the Object Panorama, where the camera revolves around the object while shooting to give a whole view for the object (usually a product). However, Huawei's 3D Panorama is limited in terms of the angle span, and by the end it provides a "motion" image; An image that moves when you view it on the phone as you move the phone in your hand in various directions.

Garage Art

Anyway, skipping this mode of 3D Panorama, and using the regular Panorama instead, which I'm familiar with. Of course it is a limited mode with its angle span (even less than 360 degrees), but I'm trying to create something surreal here combining it with portraiture. Anyway, I couldn't resist shooting Garage Art, which was shot indeed in a garage under some mall (waiting for the print shop to open and having fun with my Huawei). In fact, I like this location despite the heat underground. The atmosphere was kind of still, thrilling, and reminded me of adventure games I used to play! I'm really thinking of going back and shoot a full panorama with my DSLR. As for this panorama, Garage Art, which I've shot with my Huawei, I'm still hesitant to consider it for the upload into the context. I've tried to even edit it in Pixlr but apparently the highlights are a big problem in this panorama. I had to crop portions from the left and right to keep the sculpture in the middle. Panorama-wise, there is so much needed when it comes to smartphones but well, I think it is natural to be limited in this field when it comes to smartphones.

Finale

Well, this is for now! I've made some shots after the Garage Art shot but I didn't want to talk about it here just yet, as I'm still trying to get hold of some of the shots I've made already (or maybe I would shoot them again), in addition to the ideas that I'm already trying to implement with my lack of time; Duolingo is really, REALLY, a time monster! I think I will need to change my routine in learning the languages on my list, and probably dedicate each day in the week for a specific language only instead of doing exercises on all four languages. We'll see about that later. There are other tasks in my bucket beside Duolingo in fact but more like home-related stuff. Speaking of Duolingo, I'm in fact somehow enjoying helping people who are learning Arabic via its forum for the Arabic language (they just added it and it is in Beta phase still). I'm even thinking of doing videos seriously for that purpose... maybe? Not sure. Now, all I need is to just hunt one or two more photos for Huawei's contest, upload them, and a really big deal of load is off my back for good! It is really occupying my mind most of the time and I don't know what I'm going to do about it. Such a nightmare... out of something that is supposed to be fun... *sigh*

Huaweific…

Coping with this weather, still. And yet, people don't call me a superman or anything. Ah well. On the other hand, I'm kind of running out of ideas with my camera; Well, I do have ideas, but no time or power to do them still. Specially after adding more languages to my Duolingo and taking my time in doing the exercises daily. I'm somewhat taking it seriously here, and if I have the power I would have added more languages as well. Well, who knows; I might, one day.
However, away from the bulky camera and such, I've found a vent (or maybe you want to call it a breach) in that photo-shooting activity by sorting things out with my phone. Don't get me wrong though, I still love my camera; Yes, the very bulky camera. However, there are times when we have to do things that we are usually not into just to get what we want to! (Did I say that right?)

Huaweifying

Well, away from all the fuss about Huawei and the crappy politics (and lies), I have to say that I do like my phone. I would also like to try their upcoming operating system but probably since I have a working phone here I would have to wait a bit to see how things develop in the near future.
Anyway, I'm here about art. I've discovered that Huawei do have a photography contest which is on the run for some years now. Luckily, the deadline for this one will be by the end of July (and I thought it was by the end of June actually) which gives me some time to try stuff. Of course, as you may have guessed already, the first and utmost important condition is that the photos must be taken with a Huawei phone. And that is part of the challenge for me, in fact.
I was reluctant to participate first, and with the nearing end of June, I thought "Ah well, I have no ideas to shoot anything and maybe I should pass this," but then Ta Da! I've realized it's the end of July not June! So, my engines got to work again and I'm really trying to shoot with my phone, even though I kind of never liked this process (used to the more versatile options of a DSLR) but it proved to be a fun-activity, and the main key-point that may push me to shoot further, or at least try to, is the light-weight and the easy movement with the phone. But there are limitations of course which I will try to brief out after a while below.

Macro Feather

Being creative and having a variety of options with phone-photography would somewhat require some special sets of lenses (to gain broader aspects and view, as well creativity potential). However, I've always believed in innovation. One of the most common tricks to do macro photography with your phone is to use a water drop on the lens (after covering the lens with some transparent protection like tape for example), and this is what I did here with Macro Feather shot. I've saved this feather to shoot with my DSLR in fact, but since we are at it, I've decided to work now with my Huawei. Of course it is a normal shot and not very special and I'm not expecting it to be that "attention seeker" in the contest, but after all it is a good engine grease; My engine greasing that is.

The first trial

In Macro Feather, I had a problem with my choice of crop because there was some black space all around the shot. In the beginning I've left the shot in its original orientation (portrait orientation), and cropped all black spaces leaving just vertical lines standing there, but then I thought maybe I should leave a cue or a hint about the object instead of being just completely abstract, so I re-edited the shot again and cropped some black space and left some, beside tilting the image 90^o to the right. This is just to give a hint of the edge here. However, seeing how (somewhat) the camera app on my phone is limited and looking for some more editing capabilities, specially with RAW images which my Huawei can shoot, I've looked for some alternatives and so I've found and picked Pixlr, which can get some work done, and in fact, Macro Feather also underwent Pixlr for some sharpening and contrast (and I think some Hue and Saturation fixes). But there are other options in this app that got me interested a bit further, like the "double exposure" option.

Eye On Coffee

To be honest, I didn't think of using the "Double Exposure" option in Pixlr until my attempts to shoot reflections off a mirror covered in coffee did fail drastically (and I don't have cooperative family members to help out with the work). Thus, I thought "why not shoot separate images and combine them and see what we can do then?" And do I did! It took me a bit to figure out how to use this option in the app, but the delicacy of the work is not a match for the typical mouse and Photoshop work with layers on PC or laptop. But I think it is somewhat an acceptable degree here. There were some filters (outside the app if I remember) that I did use to enhance the looks as well, and of course there was the cropping all things related to that. The thing is, I'm not sure if this is considered legal for Huawei's contest or not! They did mention that the image MUST be taken with a Huawei phone, and it is fine to use a third party app on the phone to edit the photo, but no mention about merging photos and montage or collage! There is only one way to know, and that's to upload it!
This is it for now with my Huawei photo-shoots, and I'm still trying to do more ideas in that venture as I'm typing these words, but I got swept away with many things so I didn't have enough time to try many things yet.

Thoughts and Finale

I've mentioned earlier that I had my own thoughts about this trend of phone photography. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages here, but probably the cons overwhelm the pros for my case here. Nevertheless, it is a source of juicing ideas out of my brain somehow. Probably the biggest and sole advantage of phone photography is the mobility and the relative ease in which one can handle it. Probably, to me, this is the sole and the only advantage that I can see in using the smartphone to take photos (on an artistic level and not merely documenting).
Now, to the disadvantages, there are a number of them on my list, and probably I've always argued about the size of the sensor relative to the number of pixels and how that affects the clarity of the image and the print size in production later on (if there is need to be for printing), but I won't go to that right now as I'm speaking here solely about the "operation" of photo shooting by the phone.
Probably the prime disadvantage for me here, is the cumbersome controls and options. Like, the resolution would change by changing the mode of shooting in the camera (Max is 20MP, but it comes down to 12MP for maximum in some modes). Shooting in RAW is, also, a matter of mode changing (only allowed in the PRO mode). Ironically as well, the PRO mode does have a shutter speed control, ISO control, EV control... etc, but NOT aperture control. To control the aperture alone, one must use the Aperture mode which controls only the aperture without any other controls. It's a mess of options and I'm not sure if this is only in my Huawei phone or in other phones and models as well.
Another thing that makes it such a cumbersome operation is the flash control. One might be able to control the flash in the phone itself but usually in a "higher" level of photography we tend to move the light source away from the camera to add depth to the image. I know that there are probably some innovative lighting solutions that can be controlled with smartphones but of course I won't be venturing into that yet. Not now, not in the near future. For this reason, I've been using some external light sources (LED torches) when shooting, as in the case of Macro Feather and Eye On Coffee.
There are a number of stuff that I still didn't get a hang of them yet, like how long exposure works (there is a special mode for Light Painting) and a number of other options (and panoramas as well) but I'm sure they are not as "trendy" as a real DSLR or camera in general would be. There is also no remote control, so the timer is my only choice to take selfies if need raises. There is no "time fixing" to do long exposures, but probably there are other apps that are specialized in this process, and I do believe that most options are controlled via AI and simulations rather than real "light painting" or "long exposure" effects and looks.
Still though, I'm still trying to have fun and try as much as I can with this phone. Currently, I've been working on a pinhole made out of cardboard fixed on the lens. I didn't take any serious shot yet (otherwise I would have posted it here already), and still, I'm trying to watch videos and surfing Pinterest to get inspired, if possible!
All in all, I won''t be optimistic here at all of course. It is my first try to enter a contest based solely on phone photography (a.k.a. Phonography) and I'm trying to have fun as much as possible. There are of course those add-ons that can be added to the lens to extend its capabilities but I'll keep my approach simple and more into DIY. I would be wasting money on that ONLY if I'm taking it seriously, and that won't happen in the near future. Let's see what to shoot next now…

Brain Mess…

Things are starting to get on my nerves a bit. Everything seems to be on hold for some unknown time and I can't move on. It's been weeks now without touching my camera for a serious work on any of my projects; Either those I've set up to myself for the future, or those that are supposed ongoing. Which makes me think seriously of abandoning some of these, namely the "Scopa" project because of the lack of cooperation around me. Of course, some would advise me to get some models of some sort but this is out of question. I won't be paying some models to come home and do a photo shoot for 5 minutes only; Needless to say, the money talk involved in this is not something low and easy. Weeks pass and I'm still stuck in the same square without doing anything advanced. I hope some hopes though with my on-the-way shipment, and specifically the Hot Mirror filter that I've ordered. I can't wait to try it out with my B+W ultraviolet pass filter (under the sun). In preparation to further experimenting, I'm trying to somehow mimic or produce the effects of blacklight indoors but so far, all is failing. Those tricks I see on Youtube about converting the phone LED light into a blacklight seem all in vain so far but I still have something to try out and see for myself.

One of the videos about this trick

Meanwhile, I'm also thinking of getting some cheap flash unit (speedlite that is) of any brand (but I would prefer a Canon) and work on converting it to a source of UV light by removing the front Fresnel lens, which acts also as a protection and a blocker for UV light emitted by the flash tube inside the unit. I've watched some videos as well about this process which involve dismantling the unit piece by piece and removing that glass piece and then putting everything back together, but honestly, I don't think I do have the patience for such a process. I might use brute force with some tools that my brother acquired lately! But first, I need to check if I can find the schematics for such flash units just to avoid destroying the flash tube inside the unit.

Glas ar Ghlas (remake)

Meanwhile, all I'm getting busy with is digging my old files, from Ireland and Malta mainly, and trying to re-do some of them (or do new ones that I've totally not touched before) with the aim of creating a somewhat attractive looks by editing those images in LAB; An old technique that I used to use back when all my work was in sRGB (because I didn't know what color space is) in order to pump up the colors and make the image more vivid. Probably this is now kind of fixed with simply assigning the color space to ProPhoto, but still, the LAB technique has its own magic yet. The only problem here is that the artifacts produced with such a technique that sometimes gives me extra headache to fix the image further. But anyway, that would be some other tale to tell. 

Multi-Hashim

One of the surprises that I've encountered, though, as I was going through old files, was series of multiple shots of a fellow member in the club during our visit to Oman in 2015. I'm not sure why did I take these shots (probably I was light-metering in-camera before doing the panorama?). Anyway, I saw this as a good opportunity to create something surreal and new. It was just a matter of blending several shots (using Darken blend) and then cloning out some unwanted gear thrown all over the place outside. Apparently, the shots were taken with a tripod since the door of the mosque here was quite stable from shot to another and the only moving body was my friend's, which made things quite easier to work with. The shots were also taken with relative speed (1/250s at f/10; apparently the sun was shining hard!). It was a muse to my eyes and I really want to do something similar with old or new images or even think of something to do anew. My camera (Canon EOS 7D) has no Multi-Exposure option like full-frame professional cameras but still, things can be managed in Photoshop. Contest-wise, I'm not sure if this is considered as an edit to the image or a true photographic art, but in any case, I don't care much about this matter for now. There are some tiny details to be attending to though (depending on the image itself), like for example in Multi-Hashim you see here, the green bars or cage is penetrating and surfacing, while I guess it properly should be behind the moving body completely. All that depends on the nature of the image of course and the movements involved.

Speaking of contests, I did already submit my entry to Trierenberg's Circuit, or Austria's International Photo Contest. However, this time, I'm rolling in alone under my name only and not under the group's name. Generally speaking, I'm not expecting any win from this participation (as usual), but one important aspect for me is to show a specific work of art to the public, which is the panorama from AbdulHussain AbdulRidha Theater which I've done last September (after a great effort to get into that theater!).

فخر بلادي  (Pride of my homeland)

This panorama was one of the images that I've submitted to the special sorting meeting of the group for this contest (as it is usually done every year). This image, unfortunately though, was rejected and did not pass under the claim that judges will not understand it or understand its value to us. The claim was kind of strange to me because I've been always told that judges of such contests (i.e. those held in the Western hemisphere) are eager to see new sights, new ideas, and new cultures which are not so common there! With this, I've made up my mind that I must participate under my name as well as under the group name if any of my images makes it through the final sorting process of the group. I got only one image passing, but I got the news late as this image was already uploaded and paid for for my own participation; Thus, I'm saying bye bye to the group's participation this year. As for the photos I've submitted, here is a glimpse:

Some of these images shown here were subjected to further processing before submitting so they are not exactly what they appear here. I hope Flickr's embed works properly with the boundaries of this blog!  Many of those images were actually some "additions" just to complete the theme as I don't feel easy at uploading one image only into the theme or category. Too bad for me, I've also forgot to upload one of the images I've done for Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month (which was one of the images in the sorting meeting and passed the initial sorting process but not the final one); Namely, the Road of Hurdles.

The B&W version of this image, though, was preferred more over the colored version and I'm thinking that both of them were canceled out (since I didn't attend that meeting, I don't know anything about the details of this sorting). But oh well, I might as well keep it for another occasion; An expo, or some minor contest.

Finale

L-Irdum

Feeling overwhelmed with many things to do, and nothing to do in the same time. It's a strange feeling. There are daily chores that I planned and set myself to do every day but in the same time I really want to break away from these chores and do something. Something to my delayed projects, or at least for my delayed long-waited holiday. Meanwhile, I must keep being busy as my nephew gave a new set of products to photograph and I'm trying to do them in some new method, some new way that I didn't do before. For this reason, I've spent like one week thinking and yet I didn't conclude anything for sure, but I'm preparing the set one by one and hopefully to be working with them ASAP. I feel it like a heavy a load over my back and I must get rid of it, though he didn't say he's in a hurry and told me to take my time. It is just how my brain works in organizing priorities. A complete mess.

Mental Stack…

Finishing with February, and now March begins with the typical pressure and stress for the many activities I must get involved in. Now after the ending of the Italian Style contest, I think it is OK to post my work here. Beside that I've been busy with February's project, as well as working with March's project. Adding to that, a Comic Con expo which we got involved in, and submitting images and orchestrating our participation in Austria's International Photography Contest (Trierenberg Circuit). Just reading these titles makes me feel exhausted already.

Settimana Italiana

I've talked previously about this contest related to the Italian Style Week (or simply Italian Week). Every participant is allowed one image into the contest. I've posted one 3D rendering of a shot some weeks ago in this blog (in B&W) but nothing more I think, so I'm going to post more shots from a single place in which I've worked for this contest: The Scandinavian House. Well, despite the name, it does have Italian furniture!

A Game of Scopa

First comes my participation image. It was the first thing to work on as I got in, and I've spent quite a time to center and put on some props (clothing and Scopa cards), and by mistake, I've placed a traditional rosary (for men) behind the vase which made it mostly invisible from that angle. The image didn't win anyway, probably because that Italian elements are not prominent in it. Anyway, the work is still going on to render more projections out of this panorama, which I might post more of in this blog later on.

Planeta Scopa

Moreover, later after shooting this panorama, I've wandered around to see any opportunities. Just recently, I've discovered a shot that I've made with my converted camera without using any filters, which I've neglected previously for its lack of interest and other technical problems. However, I noticed that I've shot it a number of times and with some shift in perspective, which sparked the idea of creating an anaglyph out of it. Which I did!

Il Vaso (3D)

The white balance here was fixed during the edit which rendered the colors back to normal (almost) as if it was taken with a regular camera. It is a hard task to make a concrete anaglyph using a fisheye lens, thus some ghosting effect is still obvious at some areas, but probably focusing on the edge of the vase or the rosary would pop the effect out.
Another shot was taken raising my Rokinon 8mm fisheye high up above a long table, being on a tripod itself. Took several shots to pick one from and then the shot undergone a distortion fix process with DxO. Not quite to my liking though, but I tried hard to keep some lines straight and the bowl round perfectly but that didn't go well it seems. Yet the shot was too simple and I didn't submit it to the contest of course. It might serve as a concept for minimalism though!

I Biscotti

Then there is the previously posted in 3D shot, which I've re-processed from a single RAW this time. Looking at it right now, I wish that I've shot it with my Canon EF 50mm at f/1.4 or f/2.8 at least to have more of a blurred background. However, I've this shot using Voigtländer 20mm, at its widest aperture at f/3.5. Good perspective and sharpness (even though manually checked), but the background needs more blurring to reduce the distraction away from the glassware. I did crop a large portion from the sides just to reduce the distraction and balance the image more (but not perfectly).

L'Urna

In all, this might be all that have been interesting for me in this place. Now, I'm busy working with other projects still and preparing many other things.

Feabhra

February (Feabhra) was the month of the national days (Independence and Liberation days) on 25^th and 26^th. For this reason, the project for this month was to be about Kuwait in general. To roll back the memory a bit, our group now had established an activity with this year's beginning, by picking a topic (sometimes by vote) for every month, and members involved in this activity must shoot from 1 to 3 images in that picked up theme.

بلداً آمنا (Safe Place)
Canon EF 50mm, f/2, 250^-1sec, ISO160.

Flag of Kuwait

My first trial for this project was with my mother and her colored rosary resembling the flag of Kuwait. I needed an old hand to resemble the old age which, for the time being, is often attached (mentally) to wisdom and faith; beside the fact that the rosary is hers given as a gift! I've taken several shots (and had some struggles with my speedlite). At the end I've picked this shot. In all shots, I was setting the focus point at the Arabic word [آمنا: safe] and as I was changing the angles to see a better view, the word just vanished from sight at times. However, I've struggled to satisfy myself with the depth of field, and finally decided to settle with f/2 here. The critical point though came after, when friends brought my attention to the fact that the rosary is encircling the specific phrase in the page (with a meaning almost the opposite of what I wanted in the line above); which delivers a meaning not what I really wanted in the first place. Anyway, now I've been busy with other things and I have no time to re-shoot this, but if need be, and if required after the critique, I might shoot it again.

Kuwait Print
Canon EF 50mm + ET, f/22, 250^-1sec, ISO100.

My next shot was inspired by a logo. A logo which was used for the Martyrs Bureau; an institution which was established after 1990-1991 war to take care of the affairs of martyrs of Kuwait and their families. The logo was composed for a fingerprint sketch colored with the flag's colors. I've used face-painting colors here on my brother's index finger, and though I did a random sketch and splashing, it did seem appropriate to have a more organized set of colors (which he did paint later on). The  real struggle was with the bulky tripod and lens (with extension tubes). To add to my frustration, I've added a rail to the tripod, while pointing the camera 90^o down (I wanted my brother to place his finger on a table top so his muscles would be relaxed). I thought of doing a focus-stack in the beginning but shooting at f/22 seemed just about enough (using one speedlite on the side). Even though I do own a simple LED ring light, but when it comes to f/8, its maximum power is barely enough, not to say at f/22! Thus, I needed to use a speedlite with its maximum power or so, at a close distance. Modifiers here were hard to use so I had to depend on changing the direction of the speedlite and play with its power a bit to get a proper exposure (with the help of the processing power for RAWs!). Looking at it now, I think I should have made it in portrait orientation instead.

Kuwait Eye
Canon EF 100mm Macro, f/9, 1/2sec, ISO400.

RoundFlash
Source: B&H

The last one in the list was the real puzzle. Using a high power flash made the flag's reflection disappear from the eye, while reducing the power did not help with the exposure (and eventually would need a longer exposure in parts of a second and that caused shake). In the beginning, my brother was my subject, and I used his iPad to reflect the flag from it on the eye, but he couldn't cope for long with the strong flash strikes. Thus, my sister took his place. Using light modifiers didn't help either. It was obvious that I needed to take the shot with ambient light and without using any speedlite but that was hard because of the shake. By trial and error, I've finally got a somewhat better view using the RoundFlash and raising the ISO. It was a compromise, since the reflection of the light ring did fall on the eye as well (naturally) beside the flag. Up till this very moment, I'm thinking about fixing this problem but no solution occurred to me yet. Many people insist that such effect is in fact a graphic editing, but I'm sure there is a way to do it (beside having the subject wear a contact lens with specific design, which is a harder option for me of course). I'll keep thinking about that and we'll see what will be the result!

Finale

Now, many things are weighing on my shoulders; at home, work, and the group. It seems to me that those psychological tricks to do things one by one and not thinking about the overall load - seems these tricks are not working with me here. I'm slowly saying goodbye to winter, which is a sad time for me actually.
Our group is participating in a Comic-Con expo for 3 days and I will be there helping other members for some time, so I might document the event; If I had the mood to. For the time being, I have to keep thinking of some more ideas for March project: Geometry via birds, fishes or fruit. Quite challenging, but I have some ideas already. The real challenge now is actually doing these ideas and having the materials available! I'm trying to keep my mind busy here; as busy as possible. But I'm not sure I would be able to hold that for long…

Scrambled Eggs…

Been some hectic weeks, and somehow the process is still going on. Anyway, it seems I have some problems in focusing in general, as I cannot stand doing a single job without being distracted or, simply, drained. This will be a quick stroll about the latest stuff I've been working on, or will be.

TessellaQaddis

Of course, first, there is my interest in tessellations, which I've stopped running after for a while to do some other chores and projects. In my hunt for new "composites" for creating a tessellating panorama, I've returned back to block #1 as I was working with TessellaQaddis, and this time, it is probably not even quite flowing smoothly at some edges. However, I've made some thoughts and still flipping ideas in my mind to see if I can get back at it later.
One of the projects that were in my mind for a long time was a peeling effect for a human subject (no worries; no blood or violence involved!). I've finally got the chance to work with my brother about this idea, though it might be just a first trial and we might do it again later, but not sure about this possibility.

Peeling Bro

A great deal of cloning was involved here; I guess caused by the vertical movement of his body as he rotated. The rotation was clumsy if I can call it so, since no concrete method for measuring angles were used except the convention of using the big toe as a scale: two steps of a toe at a time is somewhat visually equals to about 30° or so. The hair was a big problem too; his was so rigid and random! I've done a mistake here to forget about the top shot (for the top of the head) and the chin shot (from below that is) which could be done easily by reclining the head back and forth, but I've forgot about that completely (since I'm more used to do simple horizontal rotations). Thinking about it now, I wonder how would I be able to fit these two shots into the composition. There might not be a big deal for the top of the head somehow, but as for the chin shot from below, that would definitely be a hard task. I'll leave it at that and see if I can get the chance to do this experiment again... with a better hair!
Another project which I was so proud to do was colorizing an old photo. I've seen lot of B&W images online which have been colorized, and mostly WWI and WWII images. After asking around, it seemed that colorizing was indeed a manual task most of the time! There might be some hidden technique out there using the original B&W slides to produce colored images but I'm not sure of such possibilities. Anyway, I set out to do my own project in this, using an old photo for Dad…

Dad
Left: Original, Right: Colored Version.

I think Dad had this shot done in his 30s and probably out of Kuwait, judging from the suit. Everything here is hypothetical, i.e. I made up the colors, except for the skin tone which I've tried to mimic to the best of my memory about Dad. There were some tiny "glitches" in some areas but probably not so obvious for the first glance until one would go on a thorough inspection, with the original size. These glitches are mainly caused by the fact that I was using Gaussian Blur over Layer Masks to smooth out the edges; otherwise, the image would look rigid and not natural with hard edges between areas of different colors. Here, I had to paint the white shirt even despite being white already, but my white was a bit gray-ish as I thought it is more realistic in looks. Same thing was done to the hair in black, but a "lighter" black instead of completely pure black. After adding a color to a specific area, it must be blended with the original photo. I didn't quite make a specific formula for blending and I've actually used many blends, from overlay to soft light and even multiply and hard light at times. It all depends on the final look to be achieved. For this reason, I had to make sure to convert the scanned image to a pure B&W, otherwise there would be problems in blending colors when there is a tint overall the image. This image was yellowish a bit (but far from being in sepia). Now, this is something I would love to do for some of the major pictures I have scanned from the family collection. But this work needs patience and also information about some details. I'll look after that later on.

On the other hand, there were some urgent matters that I had to stop everything and try to get along with, like the Italian Style contest which came contemporary to the Italian Week here in Kuwait. Our group is taking this seriously and a conference was held with the Italian ambassador, HE Giuseppe Scognamiglio, to explain related issues with this contest. The good thing here is, no models or human figures are allowed into the picture. A relief!

HE Giuseppe Scognamiglio and Mr Bahaadeen Al-Qazwini, leader and founder of BPF Group, during the Italian Style contest conference.

The leader of the group held two workshops to assist the participants if they like to. Personally, I attended only the first workshop which was held in The Scandinavian House, a furniture store belonging to Al-Khonaini Group (Instagram: @domus_scandinavia). The place has two exhibitions: one for office furniture mainly, and the other one for regular house furniture. As the office furniture section was all Italian, unlike the other, I hooked myself with this section alone. My main aim was a panorama in fact but since I'm advised not to post my participation image in the contest until the contest is over (February 27^th), thus I won't be posting this now. Instead, I had some trials after doing the panorama there.

3D Urn

One of the ideas that occurred to me is this urn or big glass (whatever they call it) you see above. However, after insepcting closely, I realized that my idea is not clear; the contest required a merge of Italian goods, with Kuwaiti sense. My idea was kind of far from that concept. Thus, I decided to have fun on my own terms. I shot plain shots for this urn then found myself doing a 3D procedure on shooting and the result is seen above. In fact, I had to work it all together using HDR technique, but seems there are good slides with strong highlights that I might work on later as single images. All in all, the colors in the image are too distracting as it seems (and as I tested it with friends in the group) and the 3D effect does not show clearly. Thus, I had to make a B&W version of the image (going through the process again), and then it became a bit better when observed using the typical Red-Cyan Anaglyph (3D) glasses.

3D Urn B&W

There had been other shots for other sets but probably this (beside the panorama I've done and not shown here) are the best so far. I'm still inspecting though.
Now, even though there is a plenty of time to the end of this contest, I have to say I'm done with it and I've uploaded my participation (sent by email that is) already. I have so much burden of projects on my shoulders which need to be attended and no more time to waste!

Finale

Things are piling up and I'm feeling drained here. Is it my sleeping pattern? I don't know, though I don't think this is the reason. Something is making me lose my appetite to hold the camera and work.
I have to finish some projects urgently before the end of the month. I'm trying to be optimistic here and say that I will be posting some of my results by next week, but I think it's early to say that with my mood swings. I hate when this happens, specially in times like these when I'm overwhelmed with projects. I even forgot totally about my older passion: conlangs.
The need for a vacation is really, really, giving me more stress when it crosses my mind. I can't stop thinking about it but it is a need rather than a luxury. The noise and the troubles and problems in this house are just too much to my already-defused mind. But where to? Is it affordable? All of this and other matters are simply behind a curtain for the time being, and I hate to look behind it…

Back Home…

Just back from Dubai last week, and nothing is changed it seems. I had to get my engine clogged with problems as soon as I arrived. Anyway, meanwhile, I got myself into some activities and projects, and some of these are related to Dubai's expo somewhat. This is going to be a quick wrap.

Photography Live

This was main title of the expo. The one held last year was named PhotoWorld. Probably the organizing company had changed and hence the name was changed as well. Anyway, this event was a major gathering for all photography-related parties and companies. It was a quite professional gathering and I did finally find professional printing companies who know the meaning of ICC profiles!
Three days plus one day of preparations, all made it such an exhausting stay. Positive feedback was galore and many people had the urge to join the group. Unfortunately, the group is not yet quite open to the outside world with its limited options for delivering workshops. Anyway, this is left for the management of the group to decide.
On the other hand, I didn't do much documentation for the expo since I brought my camera with 2 lenses only. However, I did record some videos (yet I'm no videographer). The videos weren't that good anyway, but I'll post one below. This was taken as I roamed the grounds checking various parts of the event. The most interesting part for me was those corners for companies related to printing and printing materials.

I won't be exaggerating if I say that the real work started after coming back from Dubai. This is because of the ideas and information gathered during the event and which must be studied for a while to help on advancing further, specially in the printing field. However, I've been busy with other things lately…

360^o

This is the name of a mall here. I'm going to spell it out from the very beginning: I hate it. I hate its location, and hate almost its internal design as well. Anyway, I was pushed to enroll in a special contest regarding this mall (by friends), thus I decided to pay a visit and check what I can do about it. The contest is dedicated to the so-called Vertical Gardens which is a prominent feature in a specific corner of the mall, which in return is filled with cafés. Visiting the mall prior to the shoot didn't change any of my opinions about the place; it's a waste of space. My choice was a panorama and I decided to go in the very early morning before the busy hours (realized later, that the mall is open even if the stores inside are closed, and some people jog or walk inside in the mornings!).
Doing a panorama there is really exhaustive, and to make things harder, the light meter died out, thus I had to depend solely on the camera's metering (which was fixed on Evaluative).

First Version

Despite the mall being without any visitors almost, there were the workers and the security, and all contributed to some blurry movements in the scene (which was hard to clone out in Photoshop too). After stitching and tone-mapping the First Version, the very old problem of colored spots (blue mainly) showed up further. Had to work lengthy hours just to clean these spots (and later in other versions I didn't).
After finishing from this panorama, I tried to shoot some infrared shots with my other (converted) camera, but checking the images, it seems that I've focused more on the decoration and international design (the ceiling specifically) which was one of the few nice things in the place, but forgot totally to include the gardens in the image!
Having the situation in that way, I've decided to produce other projections of that same panorama and submit them for the contest (3 images maximum). Anyway, I think I can do some other projects with these infrared shots. Anyway, I won't be posting more at this moment, and probably I will be waiting for the closure of the contest by May 21^st. The awards sound nice, but the subject is next to null. Had some ideas for capturing a motion with long exposure somewhat, and suggested this idea to other friends, but it seems even if this is possible, the interior design and angles would be hard to find and work with. I'm not optimistic about any good results in this contest (typically), and I can imagine that the future winning shot, is merely a documentation of the place. Meanwhile, I'm attending more important contests, for the group and for myself; namely the Epson's first panorama contest. This is a contest that I'm eager to roll in, even though my chances are weak in the world of professional panorama-makers.

Finale

It's been a week now since I've got back from Dubai, and seems my schedule is overloaded with activities; work problems and contests, and also considering options and studying. The bird inside of me is clicking in need to travel and change scenery. Alas, summer is here scorching my body and mood, and Ramadhan is coming soon as well with my sleeping turbulence.
I know that I've forgot about lot of my life's pleasures, and I would need more time for myself. But what would I do with this time if I "create" it? I'm technically losing interest in many things as I grow older and older. It seems life is but a silly chain of events in my eyes, no more, no less…

Sewing…

Things are going in a fast pace here. Expo, international contest, and work; it's all having a toll on everything in my life, even photography and specially my health. There had been days now that I've simply stayed home just for some extra hours of sleep away from work and the photography club I'm involved in. On the other hand, I'm trying to quantify my work pace with my photos (from both, Oman and Malta) in the rhythm of two images per day; at least for the time being. One would be a single shot and the other one should be a stitched panorama in some projection not done before (all flat versions are stitched already).

Sewing Matters

As the big day of The Book annual is approaching, comes with it the pressure to introduce some kind of new photography and new imagery within the group (or club) to be presented in the photography expo coming along the event. Many professional photographers and clubs are invited to participate in this event, and hence, the job is a tough one; to stand tall among the crowds.

Maltese Abstract (3D)

From my part, I've introduced the idea of printing 3D anaglyph images and the deal was to push the whole group to do this activity, but alas, at the end it was only me who kept on working on this project. Hence, there was a great change of plans.

Maltese Delight (3D)

In the beginning, some of my images and panoramas were sorted out for this expo, but then seeing the lack of 3D images presented, the plans had changed and I won't be presenting these images. But instead, I will present two 3D images. Having done 3D panoramas in Oman was a bonus here; the two images selected for this task were from Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque: a panorama, and a single shot with my Rokinon fisheye lens. No need to display them here for the time being as I will leave that for the expo later on. However, these two were among a dozen or more of 3D images I've been rendering from Malta and Oman (and Malta specifically). From a list of 17 images which I deemed "meaningful," six were chosen, and those were filtered down to two for the expo display. The last filtration actually took place after a test print in A3 size on semi-glossy paper - not a good quality actually and the contrast increased significantly (a critical factor in 3D images), but it did the job to make a quick comparison and decision. Despite the increase in contrast, the images did show little or no ghosting at all.

3D Prints

As for the time being, all these images which were supposed to be printed for this coming expo, would be probably moved to the stack for Al-Thani international photography contest (organized by Trierenberg Circuit, organizers of Austria's international contest, which I've forgot to state before that they published another panorama in their luxurious edition). The contest has only 2 major themes: General, and Travel. One of the items here that I wish for it to be printed is the Sultan's Eye [عين السلطان], which I have plan for it to be printed and framed in a circular form instead of the conventional rectangular shape. It would be something non-ordinary, here at least.

عين السلطان (Sultan's Eye)

Anyway, if I get the chance to, I would present this for Al-Thani contest as well. The decision is left at the end for the judges who sort out the group's stack of images. The art I do, or specifically the kind of photography I do, is not understood by many and when professional photographers are invited to judge for the group members, my panoramas are deleted quite often and for various reasons; but mainly all stem from the fact that they don't understand what is going on or the nature of this image (and mainly thinking it is a graphic design which is automatically out in contests of photography). I'm not mad or upset about it, but in some ironic way it does show the mentality of photographers, specifically those old professionals and how they look at it. In any way, what really upsets me is when all options are exhausted and I would not be left with an accepted image to submit for the contest, or when such judging takes place so late, a day or two before the deadline day of the contest.

Finale

Despite coughing is being down a bit for the time being and I've stopped taking a nebulizer for my "asthma" (and I'm not sure it is a real asthma really), yet my health is still dwindling up and down. Suddenly sneezing with a seizure, or waking up late at night with a harsh dry cough. In all situation, my lack of sleep is greater than before. As of late, I would be awake for about 19 hours in exchange of 4 hours of sleep only, on a course of several days. Can't wait for this weekend to come and have some long sleep (and play some spooky games too!). I just hope all that would disappear with the arrival of the real winter whose rain showers appear last week with heavy rains and harsh wind (yet humid weather!). I'm keeping hopes that this winter will carry out more activities for me despite this shaky health. It is my favorite season in the year, specially when it comes to photography…

Barra (Outside) - 3D
Despite the strong 3D effect, this image didn't pass the sorting process.
Taken inside my room back in Qala, Malta, when it was raining outside.