Stroll VII, VIII…

Well, back again with my struggles with the fatigue and guess what? I think my strolling days are over already. Since the last time I've posted here where I thought I would be doing more strolls, the weather here continued to be nothing but miserable. From dust storms and waves and increasing heat (and turbulent sleep); all that just left me no choice at the moment. It seems to be a time for my usual roll back to the oldies and re-editing some photos. And as it seems it's not only the strolls that I'm breaking off with, but with my promises to myself to post at least one Arabic post in my other blog!

You might be wondering about the title and why I'm merging 2 strolls into a single post here. The reason is that the 7ᵗʰ stroll was quite a short one and quite not interesting that I thought it wouldn't fit for a single post on its own. It was a stroll done using my pinhole lens and actually the images taken are not that interesting that I didn't process any of them till weeks have passed already! So, just to keep the track, I thought maybe I should include the few shots in the blog here.

Stroll VII

So, as I said, this stroll was done using my regular Canon 7D camera and the pinhole cap which I didn't use in such a long time on April 8ᵗʰ. Using calculations, I've discovered that there are many problems with this pinhole since a long time ago, and in fact I've considered getting one of these new Thingify pinhole lenses which have some flexibility but I've neglected the idea. Nonetheless, shooting with such a weird apparatus or tool (and an ancient one) is somewhat fun at times. However, my stroll here was a quick one for some factors, and of course done without a tripod and hence I had to use a high ISO to shoot handheld. The images in general are not impressive and I had to end the stroll quickly because of the flies!

Hills and Dunes of Decemania

It is a general belief from my side that pinhole images do look better in B&W. It is not the first time I do shoot with this pinhole lens but it is the first time I do it handheld. Thus, I was expecting much here. Remarkably though, the images might look better when seen from a distance (or at a smaller size) and some details start to appear better to the naked eye rather than at close up where everything is blurry (unless of course the blur is a motion blur, which I prefer in such images).
Still though the story is not ended here and the rest is left to the post-processing to "enhance" the image a bit and extract some textures and details out of it despite the fuzzy view. The issue was somewhat even more sensitive in Hills and Dunes of Decemania because there is a large area of black (originally black even in the colored version) with all these heaps of sand and tar or asphalt. 

Дом и Дверь
(a house and a door)

As I said already, I didn't quite take interesting images in this short stroll and in fact I still check the images now and then in hope that I get inspired by something. One of the ideas I have already (but didn't work on yet) is combining several pinhole images or maybe a pinhole image and a regular one in some way. Anyway, A House and A Door is a later comer to the collection here and I remember that I liked this house and its green door (ironically, forgot where it was located exactly) and I kind of shot it at hip level at this point. Anyway, as with all pinhole images that I take, I had to convert the image into B&W and discard the green (which I like). 

There are few images (maybe 2 more) that I've processed already from this stroll but I don't think they are worth posting still. Composition and contrast are probably the two most important factors (if not the only) when it comes to pinhole photography; This is my own opinion though and I'm not stating this as a fact. But this is how it feels to me. I'm thinking even further of enhancing this pinhole lens in some way, after doing some calculations and realizing that the "stated" pinhole diameter is quite small. So, maybe if I just make it bigger a tiny bit, I would be able to enhance the sharpness in some way. I'm thinking of passing a needle into the aperture to see if I can enlarge it a bit as I think, but let's hope it doesn't get ruined!

Stroll VIII

Days passed since that pinhole stroll on April 8th, and I was literally out of ideas, up until I remember the old trick that I was fascinated by in early 2010s when I worked largely with my then-new lens, Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. Since the lens is completely manual, I was mainly fascinated with the idea to let it work with various filters, firstly ND filters, then at a later time, infrared gel filter. Thus, I've decided to revive this old fascination and go out in a stroll (two in fact) and fix an infrared gel filter at the back of the lens, on April 23ʳᵈ.

Turmoil

This stroll, with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens and a Kodak gel filter (of threshold of about 820nm) was dedicated to the Eastern zone from home (and honestly, I see more chances of me taking shots there rather than in the Western side). Anyway, a western stroll was done later. As a starter, and as usual (in some way of a ritual form by now) I took test shots just outside home pointing to the sky. Such test shots are somewhat important to get my camera into the initial settings (which I try hard not to change them as I go on). For my surprise, the test shot was also a "nice" shot where the clouds in infrared showed up (but not to the naked eyes).

Белый
(white)

From the point of leaving the house and up to the neighborhoods of the Eastern zone (the next block to me), I've been taking some shots here and there and some of them are not processed yet at the time of typing this. However, I'm not going to post them all but I'm going to jump right to the ones that I think are "keys", like White.
I did like the original scene because of some details in the sky and the branches but I've found myself drawn more to crop it anyway to add focus at some point in the image (which I didn't plan really, it was a shot in the dark!). This won't be the only one to be cropped. Anyway, even though it might be such a waste of pixels to take such an extremely wide angle shot and then crop it, but the main target here is the field curvature that such lenses provide and the distortion in the perspective as well; So, it's not all to waste!
I've spent quite some time with White trying to darken the image to a reasonable amount to hide unwanted details (specially in the wall at the background) and focusing more on the flower (and in fact it was just a bunch of leaves and not a flower!). In a nutshell, I was trying to create something out of nothing, sort of. Worth noting here that I've shot many images for this scene at slightly different angles and at some angle there showed some nice flare but unfortunately none of the pots did show as well so I had to neglect this shot (but I still keep it just in case!).

Рост
(growth)

Not far from White I've then encountered a lonely growing plant against the wall of some house. Knowing that in infrared such green leaves would turn white, I thought that this is a good contrast to be documented! So, I've approached the plant and shot it as various distances and even almost got myself lying on the ground. Still though, in the final image, I had to crop a big portion of the image to remove the edges of the house and the sky; Actually, I wouldn't mind the sky if not for the edges of the wall which disturbed the harmony. I think I wished that I would shoot this at 50mm at that moment, but oh well, it's like an adventure after all and one has to manage and "improvise".
Composition-wise, I was trying to fit the plant on the left side of the image but because of the structure of the wall I was forced to let it be on the right side. It's probably not much of a critical factor but probably for people who are used to read from left to right, the position might look a bit "awkward" but for people (like me) who read from right to left, the image might look going well to the eye direction. Anyway, in the process and after converting to B&W, some strange white spots or "zones" in the image appeared and I can't quite tell what are those. Maybe some marks on the wall that appear on infrared only? Because I'm positive that there was nothing on the wall when I was there. There is a faint plant on the left of the main subject but I'm talking here about the general halo-like look, and that I don't understand yet!

تَـنْـويـرْ
(enlightenment)

Circling around and in between the houses after shooting Growth, I've came about to the main space or "square" where one can go to various directions at this point (and where I shot some images months ago, like The Army using H-alpha filter). Actually, the image Enlightenment is a late comer and it wasn't processed till a day or two before typing this blog post and not right after it was shot. I shot several images at this location and I was wondering if I can make anything interesting out of them. The most interesting thing here was the flare in some images (I think 2 of them), so decided to merge them and had some crop to remove the bright spot of the sun. It seems fares are just pretty fun and easy to create with this lens! The subject of Enlightenment though is not quite popping I guess, and the main body of the image seems to be the flare itself and in some way the flare do act as a guiding line here leading to the mosque. I have to add here that that mosque is also a favorite destination right now!

Down Under

Now, the bougainvillea branch dangling out of the fence of that mosque has been an attraction to me and I've shot many images here (that I'm still visiting till now and still processing some of them). I've also created some 3D anaglyphs but anyway I guess I will keep it short and post only those important or impressive shots (to me at least). 

Tilt

However, one of the fun images I've worked with lately with this series of shots from the fence, is Tilt (which is saved as a PNG to keep the transparency of the background). As can be seen, the image was indeed tilted to straighten the column, and instead of cropping the image here as I would usually do under normal conditions, I've just tilted the image and kept the transparent background.
There was actually a time when I was interested in creating such images with unconventional dimensions to break down the monotony of the rectangular limitation, and typically such images have to be saved as PNGs to keep the transparent background. However, not many websites would welcome such transparency and would fill the space with black or white upon upload.

Playing With Shadows

Leaving the vicinity of the mosque, after loads of images taken there at various angles, I've started to gaze around as I walked back home, trying to find something worthwhile for shooting. I didn't find much though (or I think I did but didn't like the idea of taking pictures of private premises). So as a result, I've found myself playing with my shadow as can be seen in Playing With Shadows. It would have been better though if someone else did take the picture so that I can pose as I want to but anyway it's nothing serious after all. A little bit of fun wouldn't harm I guess!

بَـقـايـا
(remains)

And not far off from that shadow shot, I've reached a pass between two houses made by bushes from both gardens (sometimes one just wishes to live in such homes but alas). Worth noting, again, that the sky here was completely plain to the naked eyes, and all the clouds details in it appeared only when shooting in infrared. I shot this image in portrait and landscape but seeing that the nature of the elements kind of point upward (and using a fisheye lens which would include unneeded objects from the sides), I went on to process the portrait version. It wasn't until the processing phase when I noticed the remains of leaves or branches on the asphalt (I didn't see them when I shot this). I've literally placed the camera on the ground (padded with my hand) and I just didn't see these in front of the camera! However, it was a pleasant addition and surprise; Not complaining here! One thing in Remains that I'm still struggling with somehow is the tilt. I'm sure that I've straightened the image but yet it looks somewhat tilted. Anyway, I don't think I will be focusing more on this image after all. Unless for some heavenly reason it has to be displayed maybe!

يَـقْـدُمْ
(it comes)

The last shot in the series (not really the last but I consider it so) was shot in a narrow corridor (probably less than 2 meters wide, and 2 meters long). At the end of the corridor, there was a car parked there, and gracefully since it was Ramadhan and it's just after 7 in the morning, it was quiet and I thought not many would notice what I'm doing. The car here was blocking the corridor a bit and I had to squeeze myself to get past and return to my block; Not a pleasant feeling!
Anyway, thanks to the fisheye lens, the shot looks spacious and wide. One thing though I don't like is the nonparallel wall lines which broke the symmetry in some unpleasant way really. In processing this shot, I've used tone-splitting techniques which I seldom use with infrared images. But I thought, since infrared filters with such high threshold do yield essentially a monochromatic image after all, maybe I should consider using tone-splitting to add some life to the image. I guess this is a decision that I did NOT regret at all! Many people liked it actually. My typical tones to be used by now are yellow and blue (with mostly emphasized blue). I surely look forward to use tone-splitting with such infrared images in the future (and I did already with few images by now at the time of typing this).

ِAt this point, the stroll was over and I reached home. I did take some shots inside the house just for fun but I don't think they are interesting much. I have to say that the images taken in this stroll are still being scrutinized to get the most of them, specially to see for possibilities to make 3D anaglyph images.

Finale

At this point, and under such weather, it seems that strolling days are behind me now. This post is the first part of using the fisheye lens with Kodak's infrared filter. There is another one, hopefully coming in 2 weeks time from now, where I picked the same combination of lens and filter and strolled westward from home. Probably not much of a scenery as these I've shot in the eastern side.
At the time of typing this, we've been already under dust for 3 days (or even 4). I was thinking of picking one of my lenses and my ND1000 filter (10 stops) to do some long exposures somewhere, but the conditions are changing quite fast and I didn't and couldn't come up with any new ideas to use such a combination (in addition, I would definitely need a tripod and a shutter remote). Looking back, I think I've used this filter only once, back in 2015 in Malta! I need to experiment more with it.
Meanwhile, I will be trying to prepare an article (post) for my Arabic blog, talking about pinhole photography. I do have a bit a problem there with the lack of material but anyway I'll try to circumvent that in some way. I just hope it will be ready for next week though. I'm having a new keyboard here and I think I'm still having issues typing with it and it gives me a considerable headache sometime!

On the other hand, I think things calmed down a bit with my mood swings lately. I just need to figure out a way to overcome the almost continuous fatigue which renders me "almost" useless. I have a plan to try out a number of herbs if possible and see if they are better than coffee in giving me the "zing". Lately, I've been feeling quite sleepy after having a mug of coffee. My daily dose of coffee had been 2 mugs a day, on average, with having one extra sometimes on occasions. Herbs on my list include cinnamon (which I do drink occasionally), lemon balm, and few others with some weird names which I need to re-check and try to find! I just hope one or some of these would help out with my fatigue problem. 

Άγνωστος
(unknown)

Stroll VI…

Well well, it is May already, and seems that the weather in the morning is still promising to some walks, but we've been having some dust waves already like on and off (and sometimes flies would eat me alive!). Not sure where does this dust come from, but whenever it is red in color, it is usually from the north, from the southern parts of Iraq (which I think still suffers the consequences of the artificial drought caused by the regime back in the 1990s in retaliation to the revolt).
Now, I don't know if "dust wave" is indeed a term (we use it in Arabic though), but the conditions are not that of a "storm" either, so that's why I don't use the term "sand storm" because it's not really a storm, but dust particles hanging in the air. Sometimes it is followed by rains as well, specially in this time of the year before summer.
Anyway, it had been few weeks now since my last stroll but I'm also still processing the shots of my last stroll (I've been lazy a bit), and since I've used most of my "special" filters in strolls, maybe it is about time to get a tripod and try to shoot stuff with my ND filters or pinhole; Still thinking about it though because a tripod is a burden (and an eye opener sometimes, and I don't want to grab any attention to myself).

Stroll VI

This stroll took place on April 6ᵗʰ, and this one I've decided to go back to an old filter that I didn't use for quite some time: B+W 092.
Now, this filter is the first IR filter I've purchased before I even get a modified camera and I've worked with it as a "big stopper" for long exposures, but I don't recall I've worked so much with it AFTER getting my modified Canon 7D.
Essentially, in looks, images taken with this filter are quite close to those taken with Hα filter, but they tend to be less saturated. The difference in threshold between B+W 092 filter and Hα is probably in the magnitude of 30nm. Left to say that in this stroll, with this filter, I've used my 50mm lens.

Mr Chiller

So, for this stroll, I didn't go East or West, but rather South (which eventually lead me to West anyway). This neighborhood was visited before and I've posted images from (shot in Hα once) and probably if you are following these posts you'd recognize some scenes (some of them shot back in November 2020).
Anyway, on with the stroll with my first stop just around the corner with a cat that was ready to jump on me because I've disturbed his or her rest. Luckily it calmed down and rested while watching me taking a picture of him from a distance (maybe 3 meters or so). At that moment, I really wished that I was using my Sigma 70-200mm just to frame the cat's face as I wanted to catch that luster in the eyes as I've seen it, but alas! I had to satisfy myself with what I have. The final image, Mr Chiller, had been cropped to a great deal to focus on the cat with all that clutter in the image (and still). Channels had been swapped here with some saturation added. 

Tracks A

Tracks B

Not far off from that cat and a bit forward, I shot few images that I might as well call "the stinkiest images I've ever taken in my life so far." Track A and Track B were actually a set of images (focus-stacked) which were shot near some trash bins LOADED with garbage that seemed to me back then that it has been days since these bins were emptied by the trash car. The smell almost got me fainted and I couldn't stay more than 5 minutes (or even less) before I continue walking.
Here, working with burst mode as usual and f/1.4, I've made several shots which, because of the handshake, had a change in focal points across the scene, for this reason I've decided to do a focus stack for each set. Worth noting that the tire tracks were not quite clear to the naked eye but they were so when I processed the images. The images look B&W but they are not converted to B&W actually. Anyway, once I've finished this stinky job and walked away, the trash-collecting truck came along. It was Ramadan back then and working hours all over the country change accordingly and these morning hours were as quiet as a midnight in regular days, and in regular days, the trash-collecting truck visits around midnight mostly!

Neighborhenge

Just before walking far away from the stinky place (and while the trash car approaching) I've noticed a turn where the sun was just rising from behind the houses at the end of the neighborhood, in a scene that reminded me of the "henge" where in such places the sun would rise (or probably set) forming straight beams. Anyway, Neighborhenge is not a perfect "henge" image but I just liked this flare. By the way, if the shadows here look so dim and almost like a solid, then it's just a monitor issue (I work with a calibrated monitor and I kept some faint details there in the shadows). I've shot several images here in vertical succession and merged them as a panorama. As I've mentioned already, the image might be just black solid but it depends on the monitor and its brightness (and correction) as there are details for sure in these shadows!

Дверь, Трава, и Ведро
(a door, grass, and a bucket)

Not far off from that bend, I've arrived at that old (haunted) house with the metallic door which I've shot many times before. This time though, I've shot several shots in portrait and then stitched them together. Of course, fixing some distortion issues and straightening some lines, all that calls for crops, and more crops. I was fluctuating between the original version and the channel-swapped version, but finally I've decided to use the channel-swapped version as the blue tint for the original somehow didn't appear to my mood (then and now). One would think that such an old look and such deserted place would fit into the blue scheme but I didn't feel like it. I've also darkened the image a bit from the left just to add bits of mystery and "spookiness" as if the image was divided between the light and the dark. 

Скрытый
(hidden)

Then comes Hidden. What's special about this shot is that, well, I don't recall shooting it. Or maybe I was aiming at the tree and didn't notice the window in the background. I really can't remember how or why did I decide to shoot this one. Anyway, I think I got away with some good abstract here. The original color for the leaves was turquoise-ish yet it was somewhat dull and lacking luster even with vibrance added to it. SO I swapped the channels and I think it is more refreshing (but maybe needs some further saturation). In case you are wondering here why I name some images in Russian, well, it's just my habit now as I'm learning Russian and trying to get the hang of it. I name in various languages really and not just Russian, but it's just what comes to mind first.

Under The Shade

It took me a while then after that random shot (which I cannot remember) to take another shot. A long walk heading west from that road, just at the back of some houses and passing some gardens; It was a nice weather back then (and without flies!). However, away from the gardens, the interesting part here was the "wild" plants growing in between the cracks. One thing made me happy here is that no one is mingling with these and plucking them for no reason. The plants I've seen are mostly of one type as far as I remember with tiny small yellow blooms (which became white with the infrared filter). Shooting at a low angle and using LiveView, I've tried my best to keep "something" in focus! I've shot many shots in burst mode which later helped me create some anaglyphs. Maybe not quite strong in effect but there is some dimension to them.

Unidentified (3D)

Unidentified 2 (3D)

As you can tell by the titles of these images, I really don't know what is it called, and I didn't check up and search for it online as I usually do. I think they might be probably some species of daisies; Well, in shape at least. I've taken loads of these flowers but many of the images were shaky a bit but I will try to check them back later and see if I can do something about it. 

Craobhacha Dearga
(red branches)

Then not far from these flowers I've passed some trees, which I've shot randomly actually. I'm not sure why did I shoot the branches but I'm guessing I wanted to check how the leaves would turn out. In the beginning I didn't pay attention to these shots but after processing a patch from this series I've decided to check them out and do something random. The shots were actually horizontal (or landscape) but as I went on processing Craobhacha Dearga I decided to rotate it and crop it (and I think I've used the golden triangle rule here). In the process as well, I've went far with the saturation (after swapping the color channels) and I've tried to make it as selective as possible so that it would affect the leaves only and not the whole image. Same thing with the sharpening at the end. It could be a good image for a background maybe? I think I'll consider uploading it to the stocks later on, but I have my doubts about accepting it since it has clear grains (in the original). We'll see about that later anyway.

A Night of Cacti

After shooting the branches, I've passed through some little gardens with many nice flowers (can't identify them as I'm not a botanist of course!) but I tried to shoot some of them in burst mode; I was trying to work quickly here as I didn't want to be noticed by anyone and cause me unnecessary problems since these basins or pots were private property even though outside of the homes, adding to that that my legs started to hurt a bit and I didn't want to bend over to the ground level to shoot (and the sun is even becoming higher now and inspecting the LiveView is getting harder). All in all, all these shots I've done for these flowers didn't turn as I wished unfortunately, but I might try to check them again later to get something out of them. Anyway not far from these, there was a batch of cacti which was high enough to shoot from waist level (and it was easy to focus on them with the lens AF on).
Here, I've used f/1.4 which is critical and so shallow, but since the nature of the shot is supposed to be an abstract, I didn't really care much where the focus would land. Of course, despite the name, A Night of Cacti, you know now that it was taken in early morning (probably around 7 or 8 a.m.). In the process, I've cropped the top ends of the cacti heads to focus more on the linear and sporadic nature of the cacti and add more to the abstract sense of the image. I think I've cropped that in 16:9 ratio.

أَنْـقـاضْ
(rubles)

Afterward, I've arrived at a location which I've visited before, and the shot I've taken here with B+W 092 and 50mm lens is probably the "top" from this series; For me, not for other viewers! The scene was captivating already with the quality of the light coming down on the tree at the end of this narrow alley (probably 2 meters wide or less). However, of course I wouldn't be able to shoot the whole scene with a single shot using 50mm lens, thus I've shot several images in vertical order and stitched them together here. There had been at least 2 images that had been omitted from the stitch as they were blown out and with not much details, in addition that big portion would be cropped anyway in my trials to rectify the vertical and horizontal lines (well not much of horizontal ones actually). The other big burden in Rubles is the work with gradients and layer masks to emphasize the light quality more or less as much as I've experienced it in real life.

Transitional
Staten Island (2012)
Click to enlarge

This shot actually reminds me of somewhat similar scene I've shot in the Scholars Garden in Staten Island back in 2012! Where some tree was receiving some bands of light and shadows. The difference here though is that it was a door back in 2012, and it's a corridor or an alley here. Well, beside the fact that the new image is in infrared of course.
Not far from this location and in fact directly to my right at that spot, I've glimpsed a door that I've always wished to shoot, and I thought it's about time to shoot this one (and break my fear a bit, specially that house looks deserted and not inhabited).

大門
(the grand door)

Here, again, several shots were taken in a vertical sequence and then stitched together. The hard part was, though, aligning and fixing the vertical lines which I think is still not done correctly in The grand door. Also, because of some cut in portions of the door from right or left (can't remember) because I wasn't far enough to have more space into my shots, I've decided to focus on the central portion of the door and try to be "geometric" with my abstract. The 50mm lenses usually don't show so much distortion (just a tiny bit) hence the term normal lens but I'm not sure why it was hard to fix and align the vertical and horizontal lines here. Probably the door itself wasn't straight? Could be! I was inspired by the design of the door and the golden color (after swapping the channels) to name the image in Chinese. Too bad the door wasn't red though! Anyway, I've based my corrections in the alignment mainly on the central portion of the door and till this time of typing this blog post, I still feel that the image is tilted to the left; Yet, using the guide lines in Photoshop, it seems all is straight and correct! My mind is playing tricks on me? Could be (as always)… Another annoying fact about this door is the fluorescent lamp base on the top which apparently was not quite centered with the door but at this point was way tired of working with this image to close it out or fix it in any way.

At this point, this concluded my stroll on April 6ᵗʰ with my 50mm and B+W 092 infrared filter. However, the processing is not yet over with as I'm trying to finish those images I've taken in later strolls and then I might go back to the old strolls like this one to see what I can do with the discarded images. Quite often they might be good for some form of artwork not quite attached to photography. I'm not sure how often now I can stroll out but for sure I need more ideas (and other usages for filters or lenses)!

Finale

As summer approaches, I'm wondering what will I be doing in such a period. Some suggested that I travel, specially that I'm a retiree now. However, such a dream is on hold for unknown time period. What I want is peace and tranquility, and not travel. Traveling is good for sure, and I would find some peace and a change of scenery is certainly good for the soul. Yet, all of that won't do a thing if the inside is as turbulent as an ocean in a tropical storm.
Fatigue and mood swings had taken up a big portion of my will power these days and all I want to do is to stay in bed. In whatever time I have left in the day, I'd most probably spend it musing on astrology and charts, even though I know it doesn't pay much nor I would go anywhere with it. It's like a drug that keeps me numb a bit for the time being. I need to kick myself out of it, but how?
I need to think of something to do indoors. The weather in the morning is still "graceful" and might allow for some walks here and there before the sun even rises up (which makes it hard for special filters like IR or UV) but nevertheless, it is something to seek (I hope!). I just wish for one thing at the moment: Something to block my antennae from receiving bad vibes to calm my mood swings down…