Dreamer…

In a nutshell, I'm sick of summer. Can't wait to have winter around me here. In Kuwait, we don't have the typical 4-season scheme; It's either summer, or winter. Winter though is more or less like spring for us.
Anyway, there had been some good news around and some more experimenting with my camera as I'm feeling more free and out of my obligations. Yet, I'm trying to find the power and time to work on some projects.

Peeking

One of the projects I've started to experiment with here is the usage of my idle pinhole camera cap from Rising, which I've used only twice previously before this time. Now, I'm trying to get used to it and trying to be more creative about it, specially with its fuzzy and blurred images.

Rising Standard Pinhole
Source: B&H

The "adventure" of using such a pinhole to take pictures took me around with some simple mathematical ventures as I was trying to calculate what is the proper wavelengths and what are the proper sizes for pinholes, and I'm even thinking of making my own. Surfing around about pinhole photography, there is a plenty of text (or most of it actually) talks about analog rather than digital, and even though most people do state the fact that it is one of the features of pinhole photography to be blurred and fuzzy and create such a mood, but some others do also speak of infinite sharpness as well! Well, people in the latter type are few. This makes me think continuously of finding a way to merge such a small aperture with some lens. But what do I need to create a sharp image with such small aperture (and high f-number)? The answer is kind of complicated and involves lot of calculations but I'll leave it there at the moment.

According to the Specs mentioned for this pinhole (one of two types), it states that it is 0.22mm in size with f-number of f/222. However, I'm not sure how it was calculated since according to my own investigation here, this should be f/200, because the focal length or the distance from the mount to the sensor (a.k.a. flange distance) for EF and EF-S mounts is 44mm, and calculating the f-number using the relation: N=f/d yields 200, and not 222!

Visionem Infirmus (weak vision)
0.22mm Pinhole, 6m51s, ISO100.

Away from calculations what is supposed to be or not to be, I've managed to try it out and I really like some aspects about using a pinhole, specially when it comes to the flare as seen in Visionem Infirmus. Lot of people think those are light bulbs, but they are candles actually (long and short ones). Because of the perfect circle of the aperture here, the flare is more pleasant it seems and provided such a halo effect; How I wish my regular lenses would do the same! While doing Visionem Infirmus, I didn't really know what I'm doing exactly, it was a random setup just to test this pinhole. There is a mystic feel to it after all (probably because of the talisman too).

0.22mm Pinhole Selfie
6m51s, ISO100.

Even though the exposure times are pretty long (since I prefer using ISO100 most of the time), but I think this is what creativity is about after all; doing something unusual. Thus, I've decided to go on and do a selfie that took almost 7 minutes to do. I wouldn't mind the long exposure here as long as I'm cozy in my lazyboy. Hope you pardon my tired face and sleepy eyes! I could have done something more creative here even, like moving my head slowly or striking some pulses of flash or many things with such long exposure, but this is enough for now as I'm doing these tests and doing some calculations.
Calculations-wise, there might be a hope to create something sharp, or at least sharper than usual, if I just find a way to nudge the pinhole cap for about 5mm forward (or to be precise even further, for 4.8mm). Taking images with my Canon EOS 7D with a manual lens (e.g. Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 fisheye) or like this pinhole, it rigesters the value of 50mm as the default focal length of the camera, which I have to consider as the real focal length. However, my previous work with macro photography and shooting into the microscope, made it clear that the flange distance (or distance from sensor to the mount) which is supposed to be the pinhole focal length is indeed 44mm (all my calculations for the magnification ratios were based on 44mm and shown correct in practice). Mirrorless cameras do have a shorter focal length by the very nature of their design, but they might be more appropriate for pinholes because of this shorter focal length under the light of the relation: d=2√(fλ); where "d" is the diameter of the pinhole, "f" is the focal length, and (λ) is the wavelength of the light (typically fixed at 550nm). With some algebra here and solving for (f), it seems the proper focal length for 0.22mm pinhole would be 22mm. As far as I know, Canon's mirrorless cameras have 18mm flange distance; close.
Meanwhile, I'm expanding my experiment with the pinhole further to my converted Canon EOS 7D, as I'm trying various filters with the pinhole (taping it on the top of the pinhole). Pinholes though, under the light of the formula mentioned above, can be quite sensitive to the wavelength under inspection. However, thinking about it, it seems this is my only hope to get a proper UV image; since most of the lenses I have are coated with Anti-UV protective layer and might not be blocking essential wavelengths in UV range. Thus, I'm set to try this out soon (and of course using a hot mirror to block IR over my UV B+W 403 filter). Pinholes, of course, do not have coatings and thus might be the only way for me right now to shoot decent UV despite the fuzzy image I'm going to get.

Dream Coming True

For about a month or so I've been going around and trying to find a way to get a permit to shoot some pictures inside a theater. Not any theater. It is a theater that bears a memorial for the Giant of Kuwaiti acting field, AbdulHussain AbdulRidha, who passed on August 11^th, and we are still mourning him almost every day since then. A rare man who witnessed the rise of this country, as well as its changes from old to modern (and not to say I do like the modern). The significance of this work is that, I dreamed about it, and it came true indeed. I couldn't apply some ideas I had in my mind prior to the work but at least I've done a masterpiece panorama for this memorial.

زارع البسمة وفخر بلادي
The Smile Giver and Pride of My Homeland.

 I will not get into much of the details of how I got into the theater, since it is a lengthy talk and took me around a month o talking my way through. Who cares for an amateur photographer trying to take a photo for a memorial on a wall? Anyway, let's get down with business about the panorama-making.
First of all, I paid a visit once I got a phone call that I can go into the place. This visit is to set some ideas straight and a get proper vision for the place. In fact, I once thought that there are two paintings: a mural and a portraiture painting. However, later I've discovered that it is actually one painting, and it is the mural that everyone was talking about. The mural or painting is a masterpiece painted by the artist Ahmad Muqeem. Not sure about its dimensions, but the height of the painting is surely somewhere beyond 2 meters (~ 6ft) and the width is around  2 meters as well. This changed some of my ideas as I was planning to pick my brother and make him read Quran in front of the mural, but since it is elevated off the ground, I think it won't be of much use here (or it might in fact but I didn't think that way back then). My main focus was the panorama.

Rear view of
Canon 15mm f/2.8 fisheye
with its gel filter pocket.

In 2 days time, I was ready with my gear (spent the day before cleaning them and tidy up my scattered tools and cameras). Headed there around noon time with my brother (as a model). Despite the fact that I've picked my location in my visit before, but I noticed that the artwork would appear small relative to the whole scene, thus I've decided to do it up-close and climbed the stairs. However, much of the details of the place (which were important for me) would disappear and I decided to go back to my original place (after shooting some already) as it can be seen in the image above. In this panorama, I've used my UV gel filter for the first time in a panorama. It is a gel filter equivalent for the typical UV-reduction filters which are placed on lens, but this one is placed at the back of my Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens (in a special pocket for filters). In fact, thinking about it a bit, it might have helped a bit to reduce any bluish streaks, but since the job was indoors, it is unlikely that UV would affect my work here much. Nevertheless, it is an experiment and the panorama was clear with no problems.

My old light meter.
No ON and OFF button,
thus I have to remove the batteries
after using it. I'm literally sick of
changing batteries for it!
Source: B&H.

Typically, when I do such panoramas that involve merging people, I would do the whole panorama first, and then start shooting the model separately and merge the two in the stitching process. This plan makes me at least grant my chances for a regular panorama in case the merging of the model or there was some shake when the shot for the model was taken (the shooting was for HDR, i.e. bracketed shots, and I do not guarantee the stillness of the model during the whole 3 shots). Before shooting, I've started metering the light all around the tripod-camera set and made an estimate about the least EV. It had been my practice, when shooting bracketed shots for HDR and doing a panorama, to reduce 1 or 2 stops from the minimum reading possible by the light meter. This practice, so far, proved to be a great savior. Sometimes, stretching the dynamic range does make gaps in the HDR histogram and some details are lost for good. Here, even though I've used my White Balance disk before the work is done, during the process (specifically when tone-mapping), I had to adjust the WB further for a nudge or two, as the whole image was a bit bluish (and I don't mean the blue streak from the glass facade, but the wall of the mural and the white details in the mural itself). Posing my brother here as a model took place in the end after finishing the regular panorama shooting and I've tried several poses at the same angle, and seemed to me that the prefect pose (and size ratio) was for him to stand on the stairs instead of up close against the mural. Nevertheless, there is the problem which could not be solved whatsoever, which is the absence of the facial expression (and it is almost impossible to get anything clear with this lens and at that scale). Thus, I had to depend heavily on hand and body gesture and pose. For this, I asked my brother to change the gesture several times with the change in his position relative to the mural.

زارع البسمة
The Smile Giver

After finishing the work with the panorama, I've started planning for a single shot. I had plans prior to the visit to the theater, but as I've said before, I had to change, and because of the fact that I cannot re-visit the place again (for the lack of time and probably I won't be allowed to easily), I've decided to get my essential gear without any lighting gear (speedlites and power packs, plus some modifiers) which I keep in 2 traveling cases. Here, again, I had to rely on (and trust) bracketing for HDR to be able to control the light as much as possible. Again, I had problems with a proper angle. When shooting these single shots from a close distance as seen in The Smile Giver, I was in dilemma as to what lens I should use. However, because of some "wash" out or undesired light reflection on the mural, I had to think about using a polarizer, which eventually forced me to use my Voigtländer 20mm; the only problem here is my limited space to move backward a bit to include the whole scene and give some space around the mural. In The Smile Giver, I had to fix the distortion and straighten some lines (or rather make them parallel) and, of course, crop the surplus. The photo was tone-mapped from HDR twice, as the first time had some problems that I didn't notice in the first glance. Probably, The Smile Giver, so far, gained more popularity rather than the panorama itself, but I'm not sure is it because of the details that show up clearly, or for the nature of the shot (portraiture) itself.

Planeta AbdulHussain
كوكب عبدالحسين

Vertical AbdulHussain

Finishing from all that essential work, it was time to try out some surreal projections for the set. Here, again, comes the benefit of shooting without a model first and then merging the model. With such surreal projections, the model would be stretched extremely and would add such a disturbance to the general view. However, because of the nature of this panorama, and the concentration over the mural itself more than anything else, the geometrical play here was not important for me but rather how to pop-up the mural to the eyes of the viewer. Because of this, my choices for these various projections was limited. Generally speaking, I think I was lucky here with this architecture, as I noticed that the lines (floor lines and the surrounding wooden decor) do point somehow to the mural and act as a guide line to the eye. I didn't notice that in the first place when I was doing it till I had to process the panorama. Anyhow, I think my choices here are limited to vertical and planet projections; and the latter required some angular adjustments to displace the location of the mural in the scene.

VR

Of course I wouldn't pass the chance of creating a VR out of this panorama. Moreover, I think I will adapt to the practice of uploading my panoramas to 360Cities and get an embed link for my blog here. This way I can avoid many plugins issues I guess and they provide further options to view the VR as well. Unless the VR is not significant, I might upload it the old way (spawning the file somewhere and embedding the link here).


The Smile Giver

A good thing here is that 360Cities provides the option for viewing the VR with VR goggles (on smart devices) which enables the viewer to roam the place by moving his head (or the device that is) around instead of being static and roaming the place by the controls.
If you are reading this and do enjoy VRs, I'm asking you to, please, Like it and share it with people you know. Unlike the rest of my panoramas, this is a work and a job I'm proud of, as a tribute to a personality that means so much to me, personally. Thank you.

Finale

Well, I feel like a bulk of load is removed off my shoulders. Some issues at work are finally done for good, and I've finished the panorama that I've always wished to do, I think now it is time to dream a bit again and think of something else to do. I do have some ideas to experiment with, like the pinhole and UV photography, beside some other ideas of "regular" photography. The problem though, as usual, time, and further more, the need for help (from my brother mainly who has other responsibilities). I think detaching myself a bit from the photo-club which I'm part of did give me further motivation and time to try out my camera. Probably I'm the type of photographers who cannot work in a team and rather establish himself alone. Anyway, time to post this, and go on dreaming, again…

Digging In The Past...

Here we are. Almost gone with my vacation and back to work. I'm going back to work by the 20^th, just after the Eid holiday. Enjoyed it? Definitely no. Had some rest? Sort of, but not completely.
With such holiday all I could do is work with old photos and photos that I've long forgotten to work with and process. I'm not sure what happened, but it's like nothing works out as planned, or at least to ease itself out. Just to list some of the hassles...

• Mom's dialysis schedule really made it feel like no real vacation.
• My car never got fixed and I'm still waiting; and probably will never be.
• My new shipment faced some delays in reaching my US box originally, and eventually it reached here (and paid extra for express service) and yet, it didn't pass the customs before the holiday - so I'm waiting for the holiday to be over with to get it. In other words, I paid extra, for nothing.
• Just with the start of Eid, my AC went off as usual with any slight humidity in the air. I'm passing the time in my room typing this with a fan on my side. Does a nice job though. Only problem: it's noisy somehow and I can't hear sounds from my monitor easily.
• With such harassment from fate, I really lost the capability of receiving some inspiration and the appetite to hold my camera; even though the weather outside is relatively nicer.

My only joy, as it seems, for the time being is to play games. Games, games, and games. It's a sport for the lazy but at least enjoyable. No new books to read and no new gear to try and no ideas to photograph; what else could be done except of playing games.

Re-Visit

As I've mentioned before, I've been spending my time going through some old shots mostly, specially those that I didn't process before; and others that I've processed before but tried to do them differently. This is all beside playing some games of course!

Sonnenuntergangsstadt
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/??, 30^-1sec, ISO200.

One of the images that I've been struggling with was Sonnenuntergangsstadt, which is a shot that I've taken some days after my return from the US in 2012. The struggles with this shot is mainly the composition and the distortion because it was taken with Rokinon's 8mm fisheye lens. Probably the strongest reason that I didn't want to upload this to the stock sites in the first place is the view of my tripod near the fence along with my backpack! Anyway, just to amuse myself and not to upload it to the stock sites, I've started to fix the distortion with DxO as much as possible, and adjusting the WB (which gave me some hard time as well) and then trying to centralize the view (with cropping). Without cropping, the left and right portions of the image would be highly stretched because of the distortion fix earlier in DxO.However, cropping was to centralize the horizon and the central line within the wooden boards and make an almost perfect symmetrical image. The colors anyway were a problem to settle with!

At The End of The Tunnel
Rokinon 8mm fisheye,
f/??, 250^-1sec, ISO200.

Another shot that I've re-processed was a shot taken inside one big pipe in a marble factory that belongs to Sadeem. This shot was processed previously with DxO to fix the distortion of the fisheye lens, but now with new vision and new ideas, I've decided to make it a simple circle inside a square frame. I think back then I was a beginner with DxO and I was thinking about each shot taken (specially those by the Rokinon fisheye) within the framework of DxO. This process kind of gives me a lesson for not getting swept by new findings and try to keep control on the process of the thoughts when seeing through the photos. I particularly like the new simplistic touch rather than the "undistorted" and stretched version (which looked like panoramic view in fact for its width). I'm fond of Minimalism.

Waiting A Prey

Waiting A Prey (selective)

An Fhuinneog

Then There were some few images from Ireland (2009 and 2010) for which I've paid a visit and got some astonishing results, like the spider on some leaves, snapped on my way back from the Swiss Cottage back in Cahir town, Co. Tipperary. That was in 2010. Anyway, the original is the full colored one of course and now with more understanding for the nature of the color spaces I've decided to play around to pronounce the green tones more in a vibrant way.Then, and just by coincidence during the process I've got a hint that a selective coloring would make it a good idea and helps the spider to be more eye-catching with its yellow tones. I was lucky here mainly because of the tones and with the help of the Color Range command in Photoshop which helps on selecting specific tones exclusively. It is bad enough that I didn't have a macro gear back then in 2010. What a loss. Anyway, with EOS 7D's 18 megapixels, a crop can be made in a suitable manner to get a closer look at the spider with somehow a reasonable resolution, but of course it is not expected to yield large prints if such thing is needed one day. This made me arrive to another visit to a very old challenge: An Fhuinneog.  An Fhuinneog (Irish for The Window) is a fenster or a window-like structure (forming an arc) in the fields of Aughnanure Castle in the outskirts of Oughterard, Co. Galway. Back then, I barely had any knowledge about panoramas or even photography and perspectives. However, I had fun with this structure with my 18-55mm kit lens (and back then I only had 2 lenses: 18-55, 55-200). As I was rushing through the old folders I've found out that there are 66 HDR slides already there and not deleted (like I usually do with old HDR slides, to save some space). I've stitched this naive handheld panorama many times with my old PC and that was a big struggle and a time-consuming process (and mostly with Photoshop) and I did have some progress but the main challenge with this panorama is the sluggishness of the process itself by which the panorama was taken. It's handheld, and it's not a spherical but a composite of a flat object (with focal length at 52mm) and, to my bad luck, there was apparently a gap in the sequence thus the prime stitch would appear as if the image was torn at certain spot. My love for architectural details pushed me to some hard lines! I really wish to visit this place again with the gear I have right now!

Anyway, the new An Fhuinneog is somehow an exact opposite of Waiting A Prey (selective) because we didn't eliminate green but I kept it and eliminated everything else. I arrived at such process and look after getting tired trying to find my feelings through tone-mapping the stitched final panorama from the original HDR slide. Green was vibrant in a pleasant way yet other colors were wither too dark and stealing the eye-view, or simply too bright and competing. Thus, I decided to silence all and keep the pleasant green. I'm fond of the Green after all!

Stroll

One day, some weeks ago, I've decided to do some strolling outside like I used to do in colder days before. The weather was not cool enough though (like this week) and I ended up sweating a river. Because of the lacking of the seeing capabilities and not being in harmony with my mind, as it seems, things didn't go well but this is understandable anyway. One should not expect to have a load of good shots in every outing, or in every photographic experience.

Tie A Knot
Canon EF 50mm, f/5.6,
800^-1sec, ISO200.

In the urban nature, abstracts and images of vivid thoughs (or let's say not-so-clear thoughts) are abundant. Unlike the photographic experience outdoors in natural trails, probably the urban structure has more of a linear style. At least to me this is how I see it. I think nature has more of a curvy form and probably abstracts are not easily obtained in the open area - but the mind has to be clogged with some scenery composed of lines. Anyway, this is just a thought that I'm not quite sure of.
However, as soon as I've noticed a trashed car in one of the neighborhoods I just realized that I have a strong chance for some abstracts. Well, even though I've tried to imply some ideas from the contemplative photography book but probably I've failed in the part where it says that my mind has to be clear from any prejudices prior to the photo shoot. In other words, I must not think of concepts but see things as they are without relating them to ideas or words! This part sounds tricky to me and hard to achieve. As soon as I saw the trashed car my mind was going: Aha! Abstract!!!
After many shots inside and outside the car, I've finally settled with Tie A Knot which was shot at a low level and thus needed lot of work to correct the perspective (keystone correction) and even harder time trying to settle down at the crop. The crop had to be a square to hide the outer frame of the tire, but how and where to place the knot. finally, I've settled down with the upper right corner of the center for the knot (and used some bits of cloning on the edges of the frame to hide some outer features). The total vibrancy and saturation were increased to get rid of the dull look that was caused by the harsh light at noon time. I do like the combination of the yellow, blue and green tones vibrating through the image.

Green X Green
Canon EF 50mm, f/11,
160^-1sec, ISO200.

Not far away from the trashed car, there were some trees (yes, trees, in Kuwait). Such trees are not as impressive as the oaks and hollies in Ireland, but what I liked here is not the tree itself, but the graduation of the green shades as you see in Green X Green. Yes, this shot is abstractive in nature but I was not thinking lines or shapes back then. More like it, I was thinking of color and light regardless of the lines and shapes. I think such shot can be used as a brush for Photoshop as well! This shot as well was cropped into a square, probably because it gives more harmony to the overall view?

Network
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 1250^-1, ISO200.

Lines and Bars
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4,
1250^-1sec, ISO200.

My stroll went on and on and took many shots in fact but I barely came out with something that I can say pleasant to my eyes at least. Two shots were taken almost at the end of my strolling around in the children playground, not far from my home. Both of these shots I used the really shallow depth of my 50mm lens at f/1.4 for various reasons. While in Network my aim was to mimic a great depth and to concentrate the view on one of the pucks only, in Lines and Bars my aim for using such shallow depth was to blur the bicycle tire that was in the background - anyway, the tire was eliminated after all when the image was processed with DxO to straighten the lines and make them more parallel (i.e. the 2 vertical bars in the image). The cropping afterward simply eliminated what was in the background. Anyway, they are simply ideas of abstract and I can't say I'm so fond of them but, well, they got accepted in some of those stock websites.
After that day, I'm trying to go out again but to no avail. I would be either tired, or simply busy - sleeping sounds more like a work that must be done as well right now! You might have noticed that all of these shots were taken with my 50mm lens and at ISO200. This is mainly for the fact in strolling I like to be light without my equipments and I have to choose one lens only. The 50mm lens is the best for such occasions mainly for the wide range of apertures available in such lens as well as it is a normal lens; it's perspective almost matches that of the human eye. It is also advisable in practices of contemplatives photography that you use such a lens because it matches the human vision. The ISO200 is fixed at this rate mainly from the last session before the stroll but I didn't change it back to ISO100 as I was thinking of situations when I would need to take a shot in the shade and I might need a little raise in the ISO eventually. I didn't raise it further to avoid excessive noise level (specially with such heat that day at noon time) and didn't lower it down so I won't be busy fixing the ISO while I'm thinking and seeing the shot. It is a good thing to work on the shutter and the aperture (and preferably the shutter speed only) in case an idea or some inspiration is just revealed in front of you and struggling with the ISO can be a bit of a distraction (because in my EOS 7D, controlling the ISO is not done directly by the dials like the aperture and the shutter speed). Let's see if I can do another strolling outside at any time soon...

The Raven

Since I have no mood or mind to work on my conlang, Geltani, I've been playing games here and there as I've mentioned before. One of the latest games I've played was The Raven which is composed of three chapters or parts. I'm specifically mentioning this game here because I did indeed like the storyline and the action in it. It's an adventure game and not a real action game but with a sense of Agatha Cristie's touch. In fact, even the main character in the game has some similarities to the typical look of Hercule Poirot in Agatha's novels - specially the twisted mustache. Anyway, the main character in the game, Constable Zellner, is a Swiss, while Hercule Poirot is Belgian. The difference is, though, Zellner is no psychologist and his story take a dramatic twist in chapter III, but I'll keep the surprises for me right now! It is a game that you MUST play if you like surprises and appreciate a good storyline. Click the title of this section to go to the page where you can view, buy and download the game.

Screenshot (source: The Adventure Shop)
Constable Anton Jakob Zellner

Finale

Here we are then. A life that is barely going on, a vacation that I barely used and had fun with. I'm expecting right now to have some financial drainage because of the many expenses building up on my shoulders, like fixing the car that took like eternity right now, and like the AC that suffered some short circuit as it seems and I'm not expecting myself to be that lucky to have it fixed in the easy way - most probably there will be whole parts to be changed and 100s of dinars are involved.

Voigtländer Heliar
Ultra-Wide Angle
12mm f/5.6
Source (B&H)

FotodioX PRO
Canon EOS Adapter
f/VISOFLEX M
Is this the adapter I need?
Source (B&H)

Seems that my ideas of getting a new lens, preferably a wide view lens with flat perspective rather than a fisheye, all of these ideas should be postponed for the time being. Further more, I'm having some crazy ideas for getting out of the circle of Canon lenses (and their equals). I've been thinking seriously of having some rangefinder lenses or at least lenses from some other brands for other types of cameras and use it with the help of a special mount on my EOS 7D. Not experienced in such field but it seems from my little research that it did work for some people and it is very common in fact. The thing is, I'm still not sure what mount to use specially for those rangefinder lenses that are assigned to Leica M mount, or Bayonet M, and I'm not sure if these two types are the same with two different names. I need to ask more about this so I can get a proper mount along with the lens. Anyway, rangefinders are expensive lenses and probably this is a long term plan, which I don't know if it will come true one day! I can keep dreaming though for the time being. Such lens with such quality and flat perspective, and combined with panorama processing can prove very powerful, so I believe. I can think of another 50mm lens along the line as well.

Dreams, dreams, dreams. I'm going to keep dreaming, at least this is the thing that I can do well beside playing some games to sooth my nerves and ease my mind. But for the time being I'm going to have one dream in front of my eyes - have my car back. Simple dream, but dearly missed. Traveling? This is a delayed dream, probably for eternity...

Tranquil Ireland