Dormantile

Well, this is my first ever post to be done with this new Blogspot platform changes. Everything is so white here and I don't know if I can change things later. However, I really don't have the mood to even think about doing changes to this. Why does everything I get used to change? How do people get the time to adapt to new changes every now and then? 

Anyway, never mind the grumpy mood and the whining here from the very beginning of this blog post. I've lost track of my posts and I didn't have much material to be posted here anyway. I was seriously thinking of stopping to blog for a while. My life with the camera and conlangs had been significantly dormant. I could hardly motivate myself to do any work or even think of any idea. If, by miracle, I do think of an idea, then I'd not the power (and mood) to work on it. 

Yarding

I guess I'm inventing new words into English. Hope you don't mind; English is not my first language and I'm trying to be innovative in the last bits of mind that are left intact still. Anyway, the term "yarding" is just a term I'd like to use for my activities in the yard, where I take my sunbath almost on a daily basis. Now that we have some nice and shiny plants, I've been trying for many times to get away with some shots, specially in ultraviolet. My attempts, though, failed miserably for most of the time. No denying that such failure did put me down even further, and made me lose the appetite to hold the camera often. A whirl of emotions that was, and still is, hard to get out from.

The yard as shot with my favorite Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens from my room's window; (top) normal, (bottom) Red/Blue channel swap. The rectangle at the center is the swimming pool.

One thing (to be positive a bit here) brings me joy though, is when I go out to check the yard and all the plants there that I've been watering myself (not every day) and some of them were planted by me personally. Anyway, I was thinking of some sort of a challenge with my own like I used to do back in the day when I would go to work every morning taking my camera with one lens only, as a challenge to squeeze creative juices out of this rotten brain of mine. Probably thinking too much about ultraviolet and infrared photography did ruin (in some sense) my appetite for just normal photography trends.

HDR version of the same shot.

 

Noticeably though that I've stopped thinking about doing bracketed shots (for HDR merging later), and this is good and bad in the same time. Probably I've stopped thinking of shooting in HDR as I usually do because of the long immersion with infrared and ultraviolet in the past few months (because I usually don't shoot bracketed for such type of photography). Anyway, this is a good and bad point as I've mentioned, because bracketed shots do have the initiatives for more artistic work and not necessarily just for HDR merging, specially as I've learned some new editing techniques that basically uses under-exposed images (or pulling back the exposure down for a properly/brightly exposed image). But did you really think I could stop shooting infrared or ultraviolet?

 

InfraPots

 And just to get myself ongoing with the camera work, I've decided to play around with my fisheye lens (Rokinon's 8mm of course) in the yard, fit on my modified 7D. Since I didn't do a panorama in AGES, I've decided to shoot a little one. I was stuck between the swimming pool and the scene I wanted, so this lens was the best for the job here. And just as if I do need more problems as it is with this very simple shoot, the weather was humid and I had to shoot the scene twice after noticing how humidity blurred the corners of some shots.

InfraPots (Red/Blue swap)

Since the work was with the Rokinon fisheye lens, I didn't really put any filter into the lens to shoot infrared with my modified camera. So, probably I shouldn't call InfraPots with such a name since the image is, technically speaking, a combination of visible and infrared spectra. Shooting without a filter, even under a harsh sun, does make it easier to shoot in brackets for HDR, which I did here even though I didn't go crazy with tone-mapping like I did with the yard shot above. Stitching the panorama, as expected, did bear a lot of stitching errors; I've fixed some and neglected some. I really didn't want to waste much time with something I'm doing merely for fun and to get me going with my camera and break the dormancy. What I like here is the lines on the wall; These are not visible in reality, but only when shot in infrared (or infrared+visible). As you can see, too, that my shadow is on the ground in this panorama, so it is absolutely not something I would be wasting my time on fixing it. Shooting a panorama here would require a lot of work, and with the pool installed at the middle of the yard, it would be hard to setup a tripod even.

Lustrous Green

With all that shooting during the daytime, I have to admit that it is probably by night that the plants (though simple compared to other professional gardens and other floral arts) do look fabulous; With all the LED lights in the yard that give a soft touch of light to the leaves. Finding a proper composition was not something to really work with specially in a (sort of) stacked yard like this but I tried. I've relied heavily though on the post-processing aspects, as in Lustrous Green and those that would come afterward. The main point though is to focus on shooting dark on purpose and processing the image with that intent in mind and not adjusting the exposure to get every detail possible from the shades of the image. With my 50mm at f/1.4 it was not a problem to shoot handheld in such a dark place with faint lights. The shutter speeds were just about enough at ISO100. Though later, I think, I've increased the ISO up to 200. No HDR shooting this time though. 

 

The Bright Side of Shade

Bougainvillea Stoccata
Click to enlarge

Something that night pulled toward minimalism and abstract work, but probably this is natural in such place and such limitation (of lens). The lens itself does not give me enough distance to include large bodies into the image (and it is the only f/1.4 lens I have), but nevertheless, I'm just happy to work with it that way. I don't mind abstract or minimalism after all, even though I know that around my circles, such forms of photos are not quite appreciated except in few instances for whatever reason that could be. The whole thing sounded like a "picture-hunting" challenge, like those I've used to do at work, but a nocturnal version of it. At some point, some of these images were actually dark; too dark. Apparently I have to adjust my LCD settings to make sure that I get a close representation for the lighting of the scene. Yes, I did a mistake here for not checking the histogram. Anyway, it was not a big deal as I went on with processing these dark or semi-dark images specially that I don't need a bright image anyway; I needed a representation for the night in these images after all. The image Bougainvillea Stoccata inspired me to start with something (along with a previous re-make of an older panorama) but I think I will leave that for another blog post.

Tranquil Solitude
Click to enlarge

So, I got somewhat encouraged to hunt again, and this time during the day (morning time). And Ta Da, it was humid. Probably you can tell already how much I miss winter already as it is. Anyway, this time, I was more dedicated to find some details, and in order to do that, I've connected my 12mm extension tube to the 50mm; This is just to get closer and not to shoot macro (the magnification factor here is way below 1x). One of the striking shots (to me that is, I don't mean to the outside world) is a somewhat macro shot for the bloom of Portulaca oleracea (or some related plant) which I've struggled to shoot before specially in extreme macro conditions (reversing my 20mm lens and using a rail just to get it right, and never did). Turned out that this simple sitting of 12mm extension tube and 50mm lens was just about enough to get some nice details of the little bloom (diameter might be a bit more than 1cm). The reason for fitting a 12mm extension tube is not to do any work for macro actually; As explained, the magnification ratio is way below 1x. But I had to use it to shoot at a close distance because of the pool in the middle of the yard which limits my distancing from the plants (the shortest focusing distance for Canon's 50mm is 45cm). Anyway, I've used apertures between f/1.4 to f/2.8 to shoot several images (and still under inspection as I'm typing these words now). When checking Tranquil Solitude the photo looked promising even though there was maybe a slight motion blur (caused by the breeze) which I tried to compensate for by selectively sharpening (using NIK) the bloom. The image had undergone massive crops which probably enhanced the "proximity" of the bloom giving, maybe, the allusion that it is a macro shot at 1x. The cropping was due to some undesired elements and distractions in fact and also to re-locate the bloom at one of the cardinal points in the law of thirds (golden ratio in fact). Still, it looks not bad and I might considering uploading Tranquil Solitude to the stocks at some point.

Green Delight

Now, since I didn't process or check closely all the images I've shot in that morning, but Green Delight was one of the images that got my attention from the first round of check-up. The light green hues grabbed my attention already without editing even. In editing, I've increased the brightness on various levels as much as possible and then stretched the blacks or shadows almost to the end. Finally, the image was sharpened selectively at some specific zones of the images. Another thing I like about this one is the fact that the maize leaves acted as a background (to most of the image). The image was also cropped according to the triangular method which fitted the two (left and right) branches perfectly.

(Golden) Triangle crop marks labeled on Green Delight

I have to note though this is usually not the proper way to use this method of composition or cropping, because the trend is to use the spaces (the triangles) to put the elements within, and not the lines to set the boundaries in the image. However, it is a work of art and I guess we need to experiment from time to time. The whole thing is an experiment after all.

Finale

First of all, I have to say that this new design for Blogspot is really giving me a hard time typing the post and organizing the photos. So, you might have already noticed (if you reached this point in reading that is) that there gaps and texts stuck to the photos. I've also stopped checking the statistics of the blogs here because of the bulky design and navigating through the options and too many clicks just to check a graph or see origins of hits. Why do they do this? Why do developers like to complicate other people's lives? Specifically, my life; As if I don't have headaches of my own.

I wanted to talk a bit further about other things and ideas that have crossed my mind lately and I'm trying to work on them currently, but I'll keep these ideas for later posts, hopefully. One of these ideas involve re-working panoramas, and another one involves breaking the conventional photo display. The latter one is still under inspection and I'm trying to find the ins and outs and form some ideas about the... idea (if that makes sense). Anyway, we'll see if I can post in 2 weeks time. 

I think I've been grumpy enough at the beginning of this post, so I guess I don't need to pour more into it here in the closing of this post. Everyone is waiting for 2020 to finish as if things will be better by 2021. I really don't know how they got this idea as if circumstances and epidemics do count the years and are limited by some time limits. To me, I don't find much difference anymore in the passing of time. All I want is a garden, or a sea, and some birds; And if possible, to die there as well…

Dubai Back and Fro...

Well, been to Dubai for 3 days this week and I couldn't have much time to take some photos or work on some pictures. I received and invitation (as I've mentioned in previous post) from HIPA to attend to the ceremony of awards giving.
The stay was fine and Dubai is a nice place to stay (I couldn't imagine there was no traffic jam!), but unfortunately way too expensive for my budget. In just 3 days I've spent what I would've spent in Ireland for 5 days or more!
Despite the beautiful atmosphere it was hard for me to take any pictures from there, and the sum was a total of 3 images only and 2 of them were, well, fine.

Dornige Schönheit
Canon EF 50mm + 20mm tube, f/22, 160^-1sec, ISO100.

I went strolling outside of the hotel after breakfast on the 18^th, first without any camera just to check my surroundings, but then I went back to my room and got my stuff and went out again to catch some weird looking plant (but then I've realized it is abundant in UAE). Weird for me at least as I'm no botanist! In here, I've used an extension tube (20mm I think) and took several shots with and without flash, but I think after all Dornige Schönheit was the most stable of all. I did took shots from above but I needed a larger zoom to hide my other hand which was holding the stem. Lately, I've been using the extension tubes a lot with my 50mm lens as I see it a nice and fast substitute for the heavy 100mm macro lens and would give a single hand the power to control the camera body properly more.

Columns and Columns
Tamron 70-300mm @300mm, f/8, 500^-1sec, ISO100.

I've walked and wandered further away and took some shots (mainly of abstract nature) but lot of them didn't turn well, and finally reached a construction site where I've noticed some raising columns under construction - probably the only thing that really caught my attention.
That night there was the ceremony which I went to Dubai for, the HIPA awards ceremony. Nicely done and I got the chance to see such amazing photos indeed. I'm checking with HIPA to see if the ceremony will be published on youtube.

I do realize that lot of people are surprised for the fact that I didn't take much pictures and I didn't go out a lot in Dubai - but this is back to the simple fact that I don't really consider it a vacation (or completely a vacation let's say). I would spend a vacation in a calmer place like the countryside or a sea village probably, but not in a big city. Also, I'm not a shopping person and I didn't go there for shopping in the first place, and photography-wise, the urban scape is not greatly inspirational for my mind. However, it is a nice city with nice people and there were lot of things to think about by observing my surroundings - Culture, attitude, and arts. Dubai is a big city but not within the same reputation line as other big cities like New York or London. This would seem hard to explain but probably easy to observe in Dubai itself!
Anyway, after a fast roll over Dubai events, I'm back to my previous regular work with my own humble photos the week before.

Flora Mood:

Well, they say it is spring already but years of living here as a native, I sort of realized that Kuwait has no spring. It's simply: Winter, Summer. It's an On-Off case, so to say. However, some blooms and flowers had sprung already and I didn't want to miss the chance. I think after my last workshop with my teacher about geometrical plays in floral arrangements, it seems that I'm (or my mind is) more aware of floral arts and the inside arrangements of floral lines.

Aglow
Canon EF 50mm+ tube, f/16, 50^-1sec, ISO400.

These images were taken the week before I travel on two days, when I started packing my camera and taking it with me to work. This time, however, I decided not to take my tripod. In fact, a tripod can be a hassle in such situations specially for one heavy and cranky tripod like mine!

Quinquenia
Canon EF 50mm + tube, f/20, 60^-1sec, ISO400.

As you may notice from Aglow above, that even f/16 can have a shallow depth of field in such situations (with extension tubes in used). Lately, I've been using the tubes a lot (I've mentioned that already above) because it is fast and easy to get a close up and ALSO because I can use 50mm lens which has a maximum aperture of f/1.4. This is of course a very shallow depth of field and when you compare it to f/16 which still has a shallow depth, f/1.4 might not be that good as an option. However, adding this value to the range of stops available is pretty valuable and I wouldn't know when would I need it. Anyway, in both shots here, Aglow and Quinquenia (and also shots that would come later) I was forced to raise the ISO little bit and use the on-camera flash. Here comes another advantage for using extension tubes: the length of the 50mm lens with an extension tube (be it 12, 20 or 36mm) is shorter most of the time (I'm talking here about connecting only one tube) and it gives a good close-up abilities. This relatively shorter than 100mm macro lens length makes it feasible and possible to use the on-camera flash easily because if the lens is too long like the 100mm lens, then a shadow cast is most likely to occur. A cast from the lens itself that is. Of course, we are talking about on-the-go photography and not the precise and making-art photography in which a photographer would spend many minutes if not hours studying the situation and settling the tripod and picking the lens and then choosing the appropriate moment.

Green Ankh
Canon EF 50mm + 12mm tube,
f/22, 200^-1sec, ISO100.

The on-camera flash solved lot of problems, and mainly allowed me to use the manual mode on the camera to speed up the shutter speed as much as I like. I would say though, if I was to use my 580EX II speedlite here, I would need help or something to stabilize the plant's stem at least. In most of these situations, both of my hands were busy and the on-camera flash seemed the appropriate solution for such situation, even though a slight shadow might burst out as in Quinquenia or to a lesser degree as in Green Ankh. The on-camera flash as well helped to create that translucent look and glowing atmosphere in Aglow; but the talk about the ISO noise is something else of course.
Yes, the on-camera flash does eat out some of saturation of some colors specially if no gels are used as it is the case with Green Ankh where the plant's stem was faint in color and I had to reduce the highlights and boost the vibrancy of colors (not the saturation) to some degree. But such situations are easy to deal with in general.

Quadraspinasphere
Canon EF 50mm + 36mm tube, f/20, 20^-1sec, ISO400.

As I've said before, using the on-camera flash allowed me to work with manual mode but this is not always the case. Like in Quadraspinasphere, I was not so sure where to begin with my shutter speed so I've just turned the the dial to Av and let the camera choose the shutter speed for me (in combination with the flash). Here, I was lying on the ground after putting the car shade on the floor out of my work place (and thank God no one was there to watch me do it!), thus it was reasonable to concentrate on my approach to the plant in such a low level, rather than work or think about the shutter speed. I had to crop Quadraspinasphere to make it as a quarter of a sphere as I envisioned it, but one of the hardest points in taking this picture is the fact that I have to work in manual focus most of the time. A fact that had been persistent with using extension tubes, as the auto-focusing function seems to be baffled when it comes to extension tubes, probably!
One of the tricks that I usually do in such situations with manual focusing (and with such bad eye vision like mine), and with a shaky situation (like a plant in the wind or breeze or a shaky hand) is to do a scanning with continuous shutter speed clicks. Meaning: with relatively high shutter speed (20^-1sec seems fast enough but slower with flash turned on), I set the camera with continuous (or burst) mode/drive and check out a point where the sharp focus is most likely to occur (all within the viewfinder). After that, I get closer to the subject little bit (not much!) and press the shutter button and keep holding it while moving my head slowly to the back getting further away from the subject. This way, I get load of pictures of course, but at least my chances for getting a sharp image in between are more. It is a talk of probability and statistics if I should say. 

Thoughts:

There is a hard mix in thoughts right now, specially after this trip to Dubai, and regarding many aspects. In Dubai, it seemed to me that people talk about arts wherever you go, and galleries of art are displayed in public - it was like a public education concerning arts. How was this done? What elevated the level of consciousness of the people of Dubai, at least those I've been meeting on the way, about arts. Such level of thought that I didn't encounter so far in here. Needless to say, that such big city get a traffic jam only in the rush hours time (morning and evening), unlike us with 12 hours a day.
I remember back in the 1970s and 1980s Kuwait was something like that, and the simplest form of art appreciation would be seen in the National Day celebrations, when people and schools used to go out on the streets in an organized parades with props and stuff made memorizing and emphasizing the history and the identity of this country. Where did all that go? All these parades are now replaced by a bunch of sanitarium inmates going freely outside and splash each other with water and foam and traffic jams blocking the roads. Is this the identity we are commemorating?
It is clear and evident that the foreign policies and the openness of Dubai to the world made it a global center with an elevated level in most aspects of life - but do we really need to be open that much as much as to indulge in (mostly) western culture to be elevated in the level of consciousness? Logically and from the perspective of history, Arabs did conquer such place in time and now it is gone, hence, I think building over what was achieved and not merely adapting to the western way is possible; thus, creating a self-identity awareness. The thing is, where and how to start and what could spark people about such advantageous endeavor? One particular clue lies in the ruling family of the UAE and Dubai specifically. I was surprised that HIPA (which stands for Hamdan International Photography Award) was established by the crown prince of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Hamdan and he, himself, was a contributor. He is a young man, and I thought he was old, or not-so-old type of person. I realized at this point that the upper class and those under in a community like UAE's is really entwined to some extent and the leaders themselves push people in that direction and encourage the openness of thoughts and arts. He should be an example to be followed in the region, and the ME in general. This is what I believe.

Writing this now, with a call from the main organizer in the group about another fair or expo that they want me to get involved in. I have to say frankly that I'm getting tired of this. At the time that I want to raise consciousness and arts appreciation in the group members and make them stronger in spirit facing the criticizing of their images, needless to say raise their technical skills, the management of the group on the other hand concentrate so much on the aspects concerning the group's reputation and pronouncing its name. I wonder now, how this can be done with members that don't even shoot in RAW format?!
I've been chitchatting with a friend on dinner last Friday and he made a note that he felt that the group and its responsibilities are pulling me down, and I'm pulling or carrying the heavy load of the group's well-being on my shoulders like Hercules. He suggested that if it didn't quite work well, I should quit.

I'm not memorizing all those beloved projects that I've established some time ago along with Ayvarith conlang, like the Bulughman and the Betenic for example. I need to continue and I need to spend more time with these projects that suddenly stopped in time. My Geltani project is also postponed and can barely touch it with all these responsibilities over my head. I have to say NO to many stuff just to sit down and complete some of these fantasies of my own. That might mean, for some time, saying "Goodbye" to my camera and have some rest from all the mess and confusion that I've got myself into with photography world - specifically here in Kuwait.

Stranded...

This week took off with some busy rhythm going on. Not enough sleep and time seems slipping away. Ironically, the first thing that takes over my time (and power) is my work itself. If I can grant no rushing on the roads every morning, I would have slept more and went to work like the others do, but no, I have to be awake before everyone else.

The past week was a week of showers. Kuwait received some nice amount of rains and some areas were even flooded. It's weird for such a dry place like this to get flooded in such a way! Lot of people though get melancholic feelings for winter time, but all it takes for me is something green, and a window with some rain pouring outside.

Halb Grün, Völlig Grün
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/11, 8^-1sec, ISO 100

It rained one night heavily and the next morning the sun was shining outside but with some damp feeling in the atmosphere. I couldn't resist the green that shows from my window (which is covered with a green curtain as well) so I decided that I must do something about it. The result was Halb Grün, Völlig Grün. The image had been tilted for around 10^o to fix the diagonal line to be dividing the square evenly when being cropped. The image itself is in fact a compound of two shots of different focal points: first image with curtain in focus and trees out, and the second is the reverse. Some cloning and fixes were needed later to adjust the not-so-perfect blend from Photoshop itself. 

Starting from Monday I've started my new workshop with the group, entitled Philosophy of Light, which will discuss supposedly the creative aspects of controlling the light in images. I'm not sure how many days it will take, but I think I heard them say it's 5 days long. My teacher had been inactive for some time because of his daughter's illness. Pray she's alright by now.

My Teacher Mr Bahaa Al-Qazwini in first day of the workshop

In the mean time my mind is empty of any ideas to photograph, but on the other hand, I'm sitting here waiting for some new toys to arrive at my hand. Let's call it my own gift to myself (since there's no one who would give it to me anyway). This time my toys are of the light (weight-wise) type.

Source: B&H

My first toy would be the B+W 58mm IR Dark Red (092) Filter. In the beginning I was going to order a Hoya Infrared filter first because it was cheaper, but then I've noticed the specs which say it is for infrared films

, and since I'm new to this with my digital camera, I decided to head to another filter. The B+W is almost double the price but seems to be working with digital as I've figured from little research online. It is not expected to be working extremely good because, as I've reckoned, it would be better to convert the camera by removing the protective layer on the sensor to receive IR radiation. Even though it is said to be an easy process and harmless, but I'm not into any risks right now. I did a simple test with my Canon EOS 7D and a remote control and found out that the remote's LED was blinking while I press its buttons, so I assume this filter will work with my camera for infrared photography to some extent.

Source: B&H

My second toy would be a polarizer. Finally. A polarizer, with no sheet cutting and fitting in front of the lens, but a 58mm polarizer that fits the lens perfectly. The B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer MRC Filter is, according to the specs, said to be made of a special type of glass and a special polarizing technique. I'm not sure how that works anyway, but the circular polarizing as they say works with autofocusing more than the usual linear polarizers do. I believe this piece specifically would do me wonders with long exposures. I need it badly right now!

Source: B&H

My third toy is one of the funniest as I believe. The General Brand 58mm Macro Coupler
is a ring that enables you to connect two lenses in reverse. It is an old technique for achieving a macro level. Maybe you wonder why all my stuff are in 58mm range, it is simply because 3 out of 6 lenses I do have, have this diameter. In fact, I was able to simulate this procedure but I will come to that later.

Source: B&H

Finally, we have here a set of toys. The Kenko Auto Extension Tube Set DG for Canon EOS Lenses is a set ot tubes to help with macro shooting by shifting the focal plane further away from the sensor, thus allowing for a closer approach. I believe combining these with my Canon EF 100mm Macro lens would yield great results. These tubes are supposed to support AF functioning as well but even with my 100mm macro lens alone, I do have a problem sometimes with focusing and I must resort to manual stuff. However, better have AF capabilities after all rather than manual; 2 are better than 1!.

Reversing lenses experiment at home.

I've mentioned before that I've ordered one cheap macro coupler where two lenses are attached in reverse order and connected to the camera allowing for closer shots. I've done already some time ago and also this week but with my Tamron 70-300mm which has a diameter of 62mm. Since I have only one 58mm adapter ring and one 62mm (and one 52mm) I can't reverse two lenses of the same diameter (like two 58mm lenses) - hence, I've decided to reverse two of different diameters: 50mm lens, and 70-300mm lens.
I've simply connected the adapter rings that I use to carry the ND filters, and then combined the lenses in reverse as you can see above and held them together with hard paper clips. Tried an experimental shot with a tea spoon and it was sort of hard to adjust anything but merely the distance of the subject.

The result: the handle of tea spoon

From this simple experiment I've drawn some conclusions about this process, but I would still need to do further experimentation with this method - and it would be easier with a macro coupler.

• This method would do better when applied to manual lenses rather than auto-lenses, because then, you can control the aperture on each lens solely.
• I still don't know if extending the zoom of the Tamron lens would increase the magnification factor. The image above was done while Tamron lens was set to 70mm.
• Because of the bulky setting, it is better to move the subject rather than the camera and lenses, but then it would require some guessing somehow if one person is operating the whole thing. In my shot above, I asked my brother to hold the spoon (and he was shaking as well) and I moved the camera back and fro as I was shooting on high-speed. Later on I've filtered the images and luckily I got this one.
• Maybe it is better to fit Tamron lens to the camera and Canon 50mm reversed on that. I think the circle of light or harsh vignette is caused because 50mm has f/1.4 max aperture, while Tamron's is f/3.5, and because of that the smaller aperture of Tamron is projected into the Canon 50mm and then into the sensor causing a peek-effect or whatever it is called!
• Focusing is somehow something to forget about. You have to depend solely on the distance to the subject.
• I'm not sure that increasing the f-number on the main lens is useful to increase the depth, but I'll try it later when possible. 

All of these procedures now are somehow tempting to go deeper further in the field of macro photography. Maybe we don't have much of a wild life around here but of course it is not confined to such field. Macro could be done to almost any subject when inspiration strikes. I'm more into architecture and panoramas, but yet into abstract as well, and macro photography gives a good hand in this.


It feels now a bit like stranded now. I'm not sure what's my next move, and I do have an urge to increase my income somehow but I don't know how. In the same time I'm outraged for many things in my life. I feel my work position is not respected by the admins there, and flashbacks are visiting my mind often lately to remind me how much I suffered for others but then left alone. I have a firm belief now, or maybe I have to believe, that one day, all of that will pay off in some way - the least I'd be asking for is, a peace of mind.

Koffee, Anyone?

Writing these words now with some relief. I've finished issuing the new car license (which has been always a hassle for me), and the weather is getting colder with 12^oC (~54^oF) in the morning sometimes, and I'm waiting for it to be even colder. I just love this type of weather specially here in Kuwait. Less suffocating and some circulating air that gives a breath of refreshment into the nostrils.
Yet, on the marital front my rapid fire came to a pause and held in its place. Sounds indeed like Schlieffen plan; everything goes fine but then you are suddenly digging a trench and making a stalemate situation. Anyway, I just hope the time is close by when I can get someone beside me - just anyone.

However, as I've mentioned before in my previous post, I was going to do some experiment on shooting coffee-related stuff for a competition within the group. In my arsenal of images, I don't have a real coffee-related image, except of one which I deemed not suitable at all.

Caffeine Art
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/2.8, 60^-1sec, ISO 800.

I'm still hesitant about submitting Caffeine Art, which was taken as a test shot for my back-then new 100mm macro lens. I made some extended use here of ProPhoto space which made out the colorful patches and pronounced more colors into the coffee bubbles. However, this old image doesn't seem to reflect much about coffee. This is why I was/am hesitant to submit this image, and also decided to work on a new image. The idea, however, was not easily formed.

Koffeinsee
Canon EF 100mm + 2x Bower, f/11, 400^-1sec, ISO 100

In the beginning, my idea was to draw Kuwait's flag with coffee grains, but since my artistic talents with drawing is nothing but a failure, I've decided to abandon the idea. In fact, I abandoned the idea of getting into the competition at all! However, some inspiration stroke in as I was watching some macro shots, and also as I used to watch the sea. It's really complicated to describe how the process of being inspired did go, however, the idea just settled in.
As you can see in the caption of Koffeinsee (Caffeine Sea), I've used the Bower doubling tube. This came after many shots and experiments. This is natural; make some shots, and see what needs to be adjusted and fix it and shoot again. Not a big deal in digital photography (and that's the power!). However, in the beginning I was shooting solely with my 100mm macro lens and holding my speedlite in hand. On the speedlite I've fitted a chocolate gel filter to give more warm color (and many people did already say that it looks like fudge!). This filter reduces 2-stops from the speedlite light.
My main idea was to give some sense of infinity in the horizon as if it was a sea indeed. I've tried shooting in portrait position as well, and in all of the trials I had to do multi-shots with changing the focusing point in order to blend them later. Later on, and because I want merge multiple shots, the light source had to be coherent and fixed, thus I've used the monopod and the lateral arm to hang the speedlite above the grains as I do the shooting with changing focal planes.
Stopped for a while, then I thought that I do need a closer aspect of the grains - it makes for a better abstract look, I thought. I wasn't sure in the beginning whether the Bower doubling tube would help here, but I decided to do it anyway. When fitted in, and making my lens 200mm now instead of 100mm, I've discovered that I don't need to change the position of the camera much, but the zooming effect (magnification factor let's say) was the same generally but the focal plane range was a bit different. The image above was composed using 3 shots - and I don't wanna talk about the memory problems with this piece of junk!

Source: B&H

After this little experiment, I got to think seriously about having one of those extension tubes. Extension tubes are not lenses and do not have any lens component - just the opposite to the typical focal length multiplier. Extension tubes are used to increase the magnification factor and widely used in macro photography. The reason that I've never thought about it is, simply, because I never felt I need to. For some time though, I was thinking of a DIY extension tube (for which the instructions can be found online).
However, the item now is on my wishlist. Not that I'm expecting anyone to get it for me of course, just my way to organize my future purchases.

Passionate Mess
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4,
500^-1sec, ISO 200.

That's it for this week. Not much of camera or artificial language expertise. I can't deny the fact that my mind is a complete mess right now and, in the near future, there are some activities related to photography that I might as well try to get myself involved in - for nothing but to keep my mind busy.
My ideas are shuttered too much that I couldn't work out more with my camera. I still do have plans though, specially for long exposures. Winter is the best time for long exposures because of the temperatures; yet it is not an easy work environment!

Just wish if I could sleep, eternally, in peace...