It is a beautiful day today, not because it was my birthday yesterday, but it is indeed! The humidity is gone now and some clouds and the heat is a bit down, and I just had a nice time driving to my work place with some music, except for one spot where a police car was parking and observing!
If you read this like everyday (which I doubt!), you might have noticed that I didn't post anything yesterday, which was my birthday. Anyway, I had one day off for myself and I just remained home. Nothing so special about my birthday really except that I slept as much as I could. Hence, and because staying at home most of the time, I didn't post anything yesterday. However, later in the day, I was experimenting again with my dumbells and voila! I did it in such an easy way that I can't imagine myself that I never thought about it at all! The solution was simple: use a tripod! Yes.
Since I have a monopod, I used this instead for my camera, and the tripod which has a small flat rigid surface was used instead fo settle the dumbells on top. The rigid surface helped me actually with its friction to stabilize the dumbells set, but before all of that can be done, I changed the background to green by using some cardboard. The problem then was adding suitable lighting to the scene to make the rings' surface shiny and lusterous. Unfortunately, with the tools I have already, I can't control the light as much as I can. Now thinking about it, I might had to lower down the tripod a bit with the background, and put some power-saving lights on the ground to light it like the last time, but because of the bluish-ness hue of such bulbs, that might effect the green background, which is specifically put there for easy separation later on.
Another problem I faced was the unstability of the monopod, mainly because of its position when I snapped the image which made it vibrating little bit with its mini-tripod legs extended. I really should think of something to stabilize the monopod more than this. I think it can solve and saves many troubles, if only I can get it to be stabilized more. With this problem, many images I took for the settings were shaky a little and can be obvious somehow when zoomed to 100%, beside some parts being sort of out of focus. Some "heavy" sharpening was due however and minimization took place to enhance the look a bit (but I doubt stocks will accept it easily like that).
Originally, the image had a green color cast (i.e. everything looks greenish), but that was not a big deal for me since I was aiming at black and white in the first place. They say black and white works best with images that convey and idea, to letthe viewers concentrate on the abstract meaning and not the color compositions, and this what I want. Besides, the color noise was not nice to me here after all! My hand in the image was pictures in the same manner and placed on the tripod flat surface while setting the camera on a timer. The separation was easy, relatively, because of the green background, and then the two images were combined together. I do have a question though about the light quality and whether the light and shadow of this image is consistent or not, but to me, it is hard to judge for my lack of experience in tracing elements of light in a scene. To my eyes, so far, everything seems fine with light coming like from the left and casting a shadow to the right.
I got myself today from a stationary shop near my working place some glossy paper again, and this time they are labeled for 260gsm. 20 gsm lesser than the HP panorama photo paper. Unfortunately, as it is cheap, and that's why I'm looking for substitutes for the HP in the first place, the company name is not known not even on the net! It's called New Century and according to the information table at the back, they do have other products of paper that got lesser qualities and for various purposes, and the one I got, marked as premium glossy, is on the top of the list with 260 gsm. I'm not optimistic about it though that it would accept printing with a normal glossy mode from my printer, but well, worths a try and I can compare my results later on.
Is it time to build myself a portfolio of prints? Maybe...
No that I'm officially 30, some words are passing through my mind to write something about that specifically yet I'm gathering my power to do so. The hit just doesn't come. I really can't tell how do I feel about it now. I don't know how people think about it usually either, but to me, it is just something came along and now its into thin air. I can't say that I will see the world differently now that I'm 30, but I will try to resist my pessimistic attempts... however I can.
__________
2977. Alexander hugged Agdalán tightly with tears in the eyes
2978. and he moved out with his Cadid back to Juvvál the farmer
2979. after careful landing from the top of the mountain to the base
2980. he saw Juvvál with his old friend, Birbuár, waiting with a smile
2981. and Alexander knew that the mercy of God was around
2982. in every step and every event, and in every battle he fought
2983. and the three went on and made up a farm land for Alexander
2984. while Agdalán covered himself with sands to the neck
2985. it was but moments when he gave up his soul to Heaven
2986. his heart was satisfied after the view of his great son, Alexander
2987. and days passed in the lands of Uhir Daynur, good and bad
2988. until it was the day when Alexander felt his end is near
2989. thus he gathered his children and grand children around him
2990. he gave his final words to them and advised them
2991. and made a will for them, and asked them to be buried in Daynur
2992. for with the time passage he knew how to get back there
2993. but he never did, because all his beloved are now in Uhir Daynur
2994. thus, Alexander gave up his soul soon after his final words
2995. and his grand children took his body within a tomb to Daynur
2996. and there, some where, on the mounts of Dragon's Backbone
2997. far away, out of Caqubdarius, that was in ruins by that time
2998. they buried him and put pillars around his grave with no name
2999. and these are the lines and the story of Alexander, the hero of Caqobia
3000. as told and written by, Mituharnun bir Agdalán bir Alexander, the hero
2978. and he moved out with his Cadid back to Juvvál the farmer
2979. after careful landing from the top of the mountain to the base
2980. he saw Juvvál with his old friend, Birbuár, waiting with a smile
2981. and Alexander knew that the mercy of God was around
2982. in every step and every event, and in every battle he fought
2983. and the three went on and made up a farm land for Alexander
2984. while Agdalán covered himself with sands to the neck
2985. it was but moments when he gave up his soul to Heaven
2986. his heart was satisfied after the view of his great son, Alexander
2987. and days passed in the lands of Uhir Daynur, good and bad
2988. until it was the day when Alexander felt his end is near
2989. thus he gathered his children and grand children around him
2990. he gave his final words to them and advised them
2991. and made a will for them, and asked them to be buried in Daynur
2992. for with the time passage he knew how to get back there
2993. but he never did, because all his beloved are now in Uhir Daynur
2994. thus, Alexander gave up his soul soon after his final words
2995. and his grand children took his body within a tomb to Daynur
2996. and there, some where, on the mounts of Dragon's Backbone
2997. far away, out of Caqubdarius, that was in ruins by that time
2998. they buried him and put pillars around his grave with no name
2999. and these are the lines and the story of Alexander, the hero of Caqobia
3000. as told and written by, Mituharnun bir Agdalán bir Alexander, the hero
, supports a maximum of 280 gsm, which was exactly the weight (or index) of the panorama glossy papers. More than that, the glossy paper might harm your printer instead!
