Well, it's been such a cold weekend, or whole week actually, and I kind of feel something is wasted for not going out to shoot in such weather like in the old days. Alas, I have to accept the reality and satisfy myself with cozy warm room, long sleep as much as I can, and songs from the 1990s when something called "Romance" did exist, at least in songs.
It seems that I've already finished talking about my activities in December 2022, so I'm supposed to hop into what I've been up to lately in 2023, where I've done 3 strolls (sort of). However, since it is February, Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month, I've decided to post about my single experiment (so far) to shoot something for this occasion. I'm not sure if I can shoot something else in this narrow time gap till the end of February but anyway it shouldn't be such a limitation in case any new ideas came about later on.

RP 2023

As usual, the beginning was hard. Ideas simply didn't come about however I tried. I've tried brainstorming using some websites to create random thoughts and hence random ideas in relation to the topic of Retinitis Pigmentosa, but all the trials just failed.
The idea (and only one so far, at the time of typing this) didn't come about till the family here wished to do some grilling outside!

Grilling Night

I shot Grilling Night from the balcony with my Huawei phone. It did take some considerable time to rectify the image as much as possible but I guess there are still some tilted lines in it. Anyway, this shot is not that important (though I really like it!), but it was about the beginning of the inspiration when I saw that sack of coal lying around. 

The black color just triggered many things inside my head, and not just in relation to my Retinitis Pigmentosa. Thus, I've set my aim to do something with that coal. Luckily, I do have an acrylic transparent board which I keep for such "photographic missions" whenever I need it. The initial thought was to take a picture of my eye, looking through the darkness, in a symbolic gesture for coping with the loss of peripheral vision. However, talking about it proved to be WAY easier than doing it. 

Roundflash Softbox

I decided first to work outside in the yard (the one seen in Grilling Night above) and it was just my luck that rains started to pour down on and off for about 3 days. To add more to my troubles, coal proved to be hard to break and I didn't have proper tools and preparations (gloves and towels and other stuff) to work. The least to say about the situation is that it was a miserable one! All these conditions, beside lacking the means to let the coal really stick to the acrylic board (I'm not ready to sacrifice it and I need to wash it afterward) - all of these issues made me realize that probably I should put "authenticity" aside and just do the whole thing as a graphic design, combining two images; one for the coal, and the other for my eye.

The other issue was with the lighting. In the beginning, I've wanted to use speedlites on the side of the coal to give out some texture but then changed my mind in order to work faster (because I'd need to make a setup for the speedlite on the side) and decided to use the Roundflash softbox which is something I didn't use in ages. It is ironic how it is now publicized as a "softbox"; When I got this item years ago, it was supposed to be a cheap macro photography solution, which proved to be an awkward claim and it was completely impractical for such a field. It is still impractical here in this situation too because of the size and the bulkiness, and using my 50mm lens made it hard to stabilize this whole item on the camera and speedlite (it requires a somewhat longer lens to fit in the middle). Anyway, with all these hurdles, this tool still had its nice effect on the eye when shooting portraiture.

The final coal layer on the acrylic board

Now, there was another problem for using this Roundflash to shoot the coal, and specifically directly from above almost at 90°, which didn't yield much details for the texture. I have to admit though at this moment I was reliant on my capabilities with editing RAW files and doing other tricks in Photoshop; Something that a photographer shouldn't just take for granted when working on projects because bad surprises are, well, abundant in that category of work. Anyhow, I've decided to shoot 10 images (actually didn't count them it was just random) and I was moving the coal pieces around the acrylic board to create some textures with the hope that one image from all of this mess would be the "one". Later on in Photoshop though, I've realized that I could stack all these images and merge them into one smart object and set a specific mode for stacking. After trying several ones, I've settled with median (and mean mode was also good). 

The eye layer

Now I though working with the Roundflash would be an easy task with the camera on the tripod but I was completely wrong; It was even more cumbersome than when the camera is handheld, because of the tripod legs which obstructed the Roundflash which had a somewhat large diameter. Anyway, I've managed to work with it anyhow despite the Roundflash not being completely straight and round. It was hard to shoot my own eye in that manner so I had to use the help of my brother to check the location of my head using the LiveView and also I had to use 12mm extension tube with the 50mm lens to get as close as possible to the lens. In fact, I was going to get even closer and use other tubes but as I got closer, it was hard for the Roundflash to light my eye, so I had to satisfy myself with this and rely, again, on post-processing to focus on the eye. I had also to use larger f-number (I think it was around f/13) to ensure the sharpness (or the depth of field that is).

Through The Darkness

I won't go through the post-processing mess to create Through The Darkness here, but probably you have noticed how the coal layer turned green-ish. It was even greener but I've reduced the saturation and I really wanted to turn it to black and gray, but seeing how the green helped a bit in giving a texture, and also kind of balances the red tones in the eye layer (which of course underwent many post-processing techniques), I've decided then to just let it be green but with lesser saturation (as it is supposed to be the "darkness"). There was some resizing involved as well to let the gap narrower, and to make things a bit "realistic" to some extent, I've decided to add a touch of shadow to the coal layer. 

With this, my work for the main image for RP 2023 had ended and so far, at the time of typing this, I didn't quite think of any more ideas to do regarding this topic. I might use these test images for other projects though; I think they'll be useful somehow in the future. The shot got "relatively" higher number of likes on IG which makes me somehow satisfied about the results even though my perfectionist side is still nagging deep inside of me for not doing things in-camera. 

Finale

Some storms are calming down, and I'm hoping not temporarily. My sleeping schedule had been screwed up again just like the sweet old times, where I stay awake all night and sleep most of the day. I guess it's just my natural defense against the hurdles of life and the way i seek quiet and calm atmosphere in this house.
I've left myself with the question "What's next?" but as usual, I can't find an answer to this question. People talk about traveling here and there but I really don't know how would they think about such a thing under the current crazy situation worldwide. One might say "just travel to near by countries to change scenery"; Easy said than done. This region is just out of question (and order) and I really would need a place to escape my reality, for a bit.

On the other hand, I'm still thinking as well about my next move with the camera and what ideas I might try work with. There are many old stuff crossing my mind at the moment (like finding a way to capture a 3D anaglyph video using DSLRs or phone cameras) but I do feel some kind of pressure for doing something concerning photography in the first place. So far, I've been out strolling and trying to capture images from the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods twice, and I might make it for a third and fourth time as well, but all I can do is to hope. In addition to that, I still have the issue of my Arabic blog which I didn't post anything in for months (already breaking my resolution so hard).

As for now, I think I'll just waste some of my days listening to some memories-sparking music from 1990s…

Arabic Day…

Well, I'm here, after finishing all the procedures for the retirement (with few things left to sort through). One would think at this point that I'm going to have a pleasant time with myself and have more time to work on whatever projects or hobbies I have in mind; But things are not so just yet.
I'm writing these lines right now with pains coming and going and seems it's some colon issues. Been having some carbon pills and they did some good job but yet some work need to be done! I just hope it's not a complicated matter other than simply "color gases". 

Anyway, in this post I would like to talk about few things I've done lately (well, not things but a "thing" mainly) in correspondence to The Arabic Language International Day, which was on December 18th. 

Lingua Arabica

I was lucky to have a memory that aided me this year to remember this day. December 18th, The Arabic Language International Day. This day is considered the international day for the language because on such a day, the UN admitted Arabic as an official language in the institution beside 5 (or 4?) others.
In the past years, I didn't do much (since knowing the fact that there is a day dedicated to Arabic) but merely posting about it on the media with some logos or anything I could find. This year, though, I already planned to do something, despite my currently-low inspirational fit and the frequent fatigue. But this was a start, as along the way, it inspired me to do something else (which I will state later).

I've spent quite some time to get inspiration, and tried hard with some "games" online to brainstorm some ideas out, as well as surfing Pinterest to be inspired. I've noted things down and I've already had some handful of ideas, but then I picked one to work with. I'm thinking about the rest of the ideas that I've recorded already; I might work on them later if possible, when I get the time (and the health) to do them!

Trial with 8mm fisheye lens

The idea that I was inspired with is something I've seen on Pinterest, which was about an eye with the pupil or iris being shaped into specific shapes. In the beginning, and because I was not quite in the mood to work with my macro toys, I've thought maybe shooting with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens would be a suitable choice; Like, shooting in close distance (about 30cm) and then crop the image to focus on the eye. But I was completely, absolutely, wrong!

Another one with in-camera flash!

It was fun though and I even worked a bit with in-camera flash (i.e. the built-in flash) and seems it works well as well providing that I would change the power of the flash to balance it with the ambient light. I think typically we tend not to think about using any type of flash when going wide, or extra wide, but it is something worth trying in the future I guess.
Anyway, from these few shots it was clear that there is no escape of dealing with a bit of macro. Maybe not "real" macro but nevertheless, something to get me close a bit to the eye. And in case you are wondering why I don't just take a picture of someone else's eye, well, the answer is obvious by now I guess; I have no one to work with.

One of the shots done with 50mm + 12mm tube, cropped.

Thus, I got my 50mm and a 12mm extension tube. Such combination is not aimed for a real macro job as it doesn't reach even 0.5X magnification (by crude calculations). But it was just about enough to break the closest focusing distance of 45cm for such a lens. Now, I don't know at what distance does it focus with this extension tube but it was surely enough to include some adequate portion of the eye and part of the face (which was cropped later).
I've made a number of shots for the eye with this combination of lens and tube, but seems the last 2 or so were the sharpest on closer check-up on PC. So, the one shown above became the base for my work with this little project. 

ع
The final image.

Of course, on RAW level, there were so much to be done and many sliders to move and click, but all was somewhat a routine. The heavy load of work and meat was mainly in Photoshop itself to mimic the pupil and replace it with the letter (ع). The work with this effect did take a lot of time and trial-and-error attempts mainly because I didn't know what I was looking for here. Finally I've settled down on a specific font (mimicking the Farsi or Nastaliq style) for its swift curves. Worth noting also that I picked the color of the pupil from the original image (after editing the RAW) so that it won't be pitched black and closer to reality. I also copied the flare from the original shot and pasted it (with little modifications) on the edited version.
I would say the rest of the work in photoshop focused on color corrections and adding emphasis on the pupil by shading the surrounding areas (using reflected gradient), besides, of course, sharpening. 

I've posted the image on Instagram with a lengthy caption to make the post informative a bit beside being artistic.

This little project (but lengthy in processing) inspired me to expand it a bit further and make a whole set of such images to include all 28 letters (a bit more than 28 in fact) but yet I have to test further fonts to see which one might work better, as well as turning the image in a simpler format.

On a side note, I worked also on another "design" for this occasion (i.e. the Arabic Language International Day) but I don't feel so proud about it, since it is so simple…

اقْـرَأْ
(read)

Originally, the idea for Read was to do some art by hand using the Verse 1 of Chapter 96 from Quran (the first verse to be revealed from Quran). However, my calligraphic talent is so mediocre that I just forgot about it and turned out to do the whole thing digitally. I picked the background from some old shot for Quran, taken back in 2012, and the rest is a plain text (with a bit of struggle here since my Photoshop does not support proper Arabic text, so I had to deal with it as a path-work). The whole image was tinted with so-called Islamic Green (Hex: #009000).
I wouldn't say I like the whole thing as it is completely different than what I had in mind originally but at least I did something I guess instead of letting things sink deep at the back of my head and just get forgotten there. Who knows, I might visit this design and do it as I intended to originally. However, one thing I've realized from all of this experience, and that is: I do need to install more artistic Arabic fonts!

Finale

So, this is something done quickly for the Arabic Language Day, and I'm still cooking some ideas at the back of my head; Like creating a set of letters with a similar design for the stocks. I'm also planning to do some post for my Arabic blog concerning the process of creating (ع) but I'm not quite sure about it yet as it would require a number of technical and lengthy talk. Still flipping the idea…
On the other hand, I'm still going on here and there to do some chores regarding the finalization of my retirement and the pension, but this should be almost done around the time of typing this; Almost. I'm so eager to take my morning walks this winter after missing them out in November and December. However, I'm thinking of early morning walks before the sun is above the horizon, with H-alpha filter on the lens; Just a fun game to see how things turn out. Unfortunately, I'm confined in time because of my mother and some of her health issues that bounds me to her in the morning in order to get her ready for the dialysis (or the trip to the dialysis center). But all in all, I think this is doable, it just needs some time.

With retirement, comes some kind of a rush of ideas or desires to work with the camera even though the ideas are lacking. Thus, I'm spending time right now to brainstorm from time to time in order to get some ideas. Ironically, most of the ideas that get into my head are those involving people so I just erase them right away from my head. And yes, I won't be really hiring a real person to do such ideas because, well, they are not for business and it doesn't sound a good idea to invest money in something for nothing in return in general. So, I would have to rely on selfies, whenever such visiting ideas permit so. I have to mention also that astrology had been occupying some of my time now as I'm investigating this realm and testing theories.

All in all, retirement time seems to be, or would be, some busy time more than the time when I was employed, but I'm still not sure if I still can time-manage the whole thing or not, but I would have to for sure, sooner or later. Along with that, I need to put my hopes in-check, as some of them do sound a bit unrealistic, for now, or later…

 

Kika IX…

Kika IX

And on with the 9^th Week in Kika's challenge, which bore the topic of "color". This theme kind of coincided with a separate work that I was planning for and working on away from the Kika series, and just happened that the photos I've shot were full of colors; Though in abstract sense. And that is my work with the bubbles. However, the work with the bubbles, then, was still in its beginnings and I didn't quite find a valid or perfect way to capture these bubbles, and yet was doing some stroboscopic and macro experiments. Anyway, I think I will keep the majority of these posts for later, but for the time being, I'm just going to post those that I've dedicated specifically to Kika's photo-challenge with "color" as a theme.

Bubbly
Some abstracts shot with a macro lens.

The first problem with the bubbles was not being able to blow a proper bubble, so instead of having one big bubble, there was a cluster of small bubbles, Not wanting to lose the chance, I've decided to shoot those anyway. With a bit of processing, colors popped out more. Not sure why, but these images brings me nostalgia for rainy winter days, specially in my old home.

Set A

Then, there are the trials with stroboscopic flash. As for Kika's photo challenge, I've posted only one set, and that is Set A. Now, the reason for this name is that this image is made up of various images and not a single one, all shot in stroboscopic flash. Because of the empty spaces in each image of those, I thought it might be a good idea to combine them altogether and fill the gaps with other photos in the series. Then there is another series, and that was dubbed as "Set B" but I didn't post it for this theme of Kika's photo challenge. I'll keep that set when it's due when I'll be talking about the bubbles project.
Anyway aside from bubbles, I still had one last try here, and posted it on Instagram on the last day for Week 9 challenge.

Pantone Eye

The idea in the beginning was far from the photo challenge really, as taking a macro shot of my eye was something I wanted to do in a long time. I did it before but usually with 50mm or 50mm plus extension tubes (which provides moderate magnification of 1x or a bit more). This time I was aiming for a bit more but with me failing to get any good perspective, I reduced my ambition down to 2x magnification.
It's not the first time I do take a shot of my eye but with such magnification it was so hard; harder than before even. I had to use a hand mirror and hold it behind the camera to see the LiveView in order to frame correctly. Barely made it there actually with few shots with proper lighting. As the lighting goes, I had to hold two 430EX II near my face (and feel the heat of the pulse!).

Pantone Eye (details)

As the title goes, I thought of coloring the iris to pantone's color of the year (2021) which had a hex value of #F5DF4D. I thought this would also be suitable for the theme of Kika's photo challenge for Week 9. Anyway, coloring was not an easy process; It's not as simple as picking a brush and go over the iris. But I wanted the iris itself to adapt this color to have a more natural look. Thus, I've color-picked somewhere in the brightest region of the iris and started twitching colors to arrive at the proper CMYK equivalent for #F5DF4D (I think that was 8,7,78,0 in CMYK). This might initially resemble the pantone color but of course these digital values would change as I downgrade the file from 16-bit, change the color space and save the file as 8bit JPG. But the visual outlook should be the same since I use conversion of color space and not assigning  the color space. In the end, for the love of details, I've created another image from the first one (a crop) to show more details from the iris. I just can't remember was that my right or left eye!

Oxeneye

Usually, when shooting macro outside, I wouldn't go beyond 1x or 1.5x magnification. Even with such magnification, it is quite a hurdle to get a stable shot. Anyway, I've decided to take this further up, using my Voigländer 20mm lens (in reverse) and reaching up to 4.2X, and shooting outside. It was March, so many blooming plants were still available, in contrast to the situation now in May, as the temperatures already started to reach beyond 40°C here. So, my work begins with the oxeye bloom, or in fact it could be something of that family but not exactly the oxeye daisy itself, as the petals for the bloom here are yellow instead of white.

عَيْنُ الأُقْحُوانِ
(oxeye eye)

I have to admit, despite the hurdles and difficulties (and the back pain) for setting up the tripod and the camera (with or without a rail), the view at 4.2X for such small parts of the flower is simply amazing! I used to work afternoon when the sun is almost gone and not shining on the yard; This way it would be easier for the camera to communicate with my handheld 430EX II speedlite via infrared. Otherwise, it would be impossible to shoot using a speedlite unless I use a cable or a radio transmitter, which I don't have at the moment. Holding the speedlite freely at hand also enabled me to change the light direction and experiment with the looks by changing the light direction and distance even. 

عَيْنُ الأُقْحُوانِ 2
(oxeye eye 2)

As I've stated already, changing the light direction can make quite a difference in looks, as can be seen here in Oxeye Eye and Oxeye Eye 2. In the former, the dark background wasn't quite to my liking (hence cropping to get closer to the stamen), while in the latter, the background was harmonious to some extent in terms of color (keeping the foreground darker a bit). All that change was done by changing the direction of the speedlite and/or its distance from the flower. And it's not only the background here in fact, but also the texture of the stamen's surface popped out clearly (well, in the former version it is clearer because of the crop). Probably with a lesser than 4.2X, such texture won't be visible much.

Cornered

Probably the awkward part of shooting at such high magnification and shooting such a subject, is fixing the composition. In fact, as I was working behind the camera keeping an eye on the LiveView, I would have snapped any clear details I could get there. Images like Cornered and Last were originally aimless without concrete composition, but I've tried to fix things by cropping, sometimes to some severe measures here. I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but I'm guessing that more professional photographers in the world of extreme macro photography do have their own techniques to pinpoint the composition properly. As for me, it was a mere trial-and-error and a game of chance!

Last

Finale

Something is going on with my mind and body lately, and I just can't figure what it is exactly. I've been lethargic most of the time and taking a nap after a nap, after a sleep. I'm starting to wonder if this is a normal thing to have at 40? Or should I say 42, if I want to count my age according to the lunar years. Is this part of what they call the "mid-life crisis"? Or it's just a fleeting influence or transit from the planets upon my life and would soon go away? Or maybe it's just escapism at its best? I'm hoping, as I really need to get going and work with my camera more.
I'm still going on with the process (and the bureaucracy) of attaining my "special needs" papers. And who knows, I might work on getting a medical retirement afterward, but the long from here is long and hard to speculate. I'm not sure I'm going to attain the retirement yet. It sounds inevitable though, specially with the move of my workplace to a new location which is double the distance from home almost; I can't imagine myself driving that much on a daily basis, twice a day. My body is not what it was in my 30s and 20s. Trying hard not to think ahead about it but my brain can't stop flipping the channels.
As days pass by here, I just realize how awesome it would have been if I had my own home, and yet how hard it is to gain one. Even my trials years back to settle down and get my own place were never fulfilled, and interrupted with my mother falling sick for kidney failure. I was the main carer for her for 3 years then and I've totally forgot about myself then. More chances came in later, and never worked out, and now here I am… at 40, not knowing where am I heading, nor what I'm supposed to do, or what to be…

Heedless…

Well, this is a quick wrap for the latest events here, after some long pause during Ramadhan. Ramadhan is over now and I'm trying to hop to the regular pace of a normal life (figurative speech). So many things to do here, including preparations for the vacation I'm planning to have on September, in which I'm supposed to travel to Oman first with the group for a workshop, and then I'm planning to head to Malta few days after that trip. I didn't organize the trip and timing still, and one thing new to me here is the transportation (supposing I'm going to land in Malta's main island, while I'd like to stay on the other island, Gozo). Up till this moment, I didn't even do anything about the visa.
Meanwhile, I'm not doing much with my camera except for visiting old photos and trying to do retouches and reworking some of them (specially converting some to B&W). I'm still aiming at that goal of doing a B&W panorama in JPEG format, but I'm still not sure about the location. Needless to say, summer is killing my chances in "cold" blood… pun intended.

Arabian Eye
One of the reworked images from 2014, adding luster to the iris and more sharpness.

This said, I did spend a considerable time with my Geltani trying to prepare some graphics to put on the page. I'm still not sure how I will send this to Omniglot, but anyway the process is going on. I prepare the characters for the syllables by scanning my own handwriting and then cutting the shapes and prepare them in a specific squared sizes to fit the main document about Geltani. This said, I did already add some more sounds to the syllabic system, beside adjusting some shapes for the 3^rd or 4^th time. Yet, there are things to add, and a numerical system to fix.

ِA scan for some doodles with
trials for the numerical system.
Click to enlarge.

In addition to that, I've added (or made up the idea) a symbol for stressing the syllable just as in Japanese syllables as well. The number of syllables so far exceeded 100, which seems a lot, but the virtue here lies in the fact that they are mostly systematic in derivation (or composing so to say). It is a leap if  I should say; there was nothing and now I'm already in the middle of something. I need to check some of those phonetic values and the transliteration system, essentially to be noted down in the document I'm going to send to Omniglot. The document must be in HTML, and with so many pictures, it seems I'm going to zip it all and send it over. Doesn't sound quite right though, don't know why exactly!

With all this work, and Ramadhan is over, I'm planning for some "move" that might probably get me to set a foot in some direction. Some celebrities did ask for the collection of photos I've taken for them on the stage after checking them out on Instagram. However, because of the malfunctioning endeavor with Instagram (which is embarrassing me a lot), it seems that I have to do it in person. I'm planning as well to make a print for a celebrity as a gift. I just need to know a way to deliver those to them!

Young and Old.

Meanwhile, I've trying to push myself further with poetry as I'm trying to get in touch with my inner feelings and expressing more of myself as I used to do in the old times. I've found out that some abstract photos that I've taken before do entice the memory and some writing capabilities. Well, it's not a joke to say that sometimes you have to be tortured just to do art, any art, if possible. Anyway, I did write a piece, which I called Young and Old, inspired by an abstract photo taken from Ireland in 2010!

Not sure for now what the coming days hold for me in store. All what I really want is just a vacation. A vacation... with that I should also be sleeping without thinking about the next day! I'm sort of having what I like to call a "relapse" to Phil Collins music. I was more into Irish music for some time. Well, Phil's music is good, pretty good, but I tried to avoid it in the past trying not to lick over my injuries… and I failed.

Es Ist Winter...

What am I? A question that persisted all this week. I'm not sure how to answer it, but to answer this, I have to do some photography. Some more photography, as much as possible. It's winter, with fresh air that would help me clear my mind.
I've been running some errands and will schedule for ERG (Electroretinography) examination. It makes me awry and worrisome. I've read a bit about the test and how it is done and I do feel scared a bit of the way it is done, and annoyed. However, it is something that must be done in addition to the previously-done OCT and Visual Field tests.
I've gave up hope about my (old) car and seems it won't be fixed any time soon. After fixing the computer or chip was fixed, the mechanic said that the car would turn on, but can't be moved as the car doesn't response to the accelertion paddle. I've decided now to get a new car and even if my car gets fixed, probably I would give it up. It will be another drop of money and budget but for something very critical. I didn't decide yet what make of car yet, but it's not a big deal for now.
The nights of winter are lovely and chilling. Fresh air, quiet atmosphere, and sparkles of light. It's a shame though that I can't go out to do some photography every night (and this is one more reason to think of a vacation in winter only), but there is a beginning for everything...

Linien des Lichts

I've talked last week about my desire to go out and shoot, specially at night. This is a must for me in winter time. Winter, is the best season to shoot for many reasons, and for me, it's enough to talk about the temperature. Being cold and out alone in solitude is far better for me than being boiled at night when the soil gives the heat back after a hellish day, like those in summer!

My first trials here were not good but they are a start and I did spend some time reflecting on the results. I was wishing for a cloudy night to do some clouds' movement with long exposures. The target was the dock at Soog Sharg.

Nox Infinita
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 4m20s, ISO100.

At the moment I've stepped out of home, I've realized that there are no clouds in the sky to help me. However, it happens that clouds can accumulate on the shores, or specific shores rather than others. I had to try after all. When I reached the place (and it was after 3 A.M.), I've found it busy with some fishermen or just "picnic" takers. I hesitated because I was (and always am) not ready for interference and annoyances, specially from security guys. Thank God, none of that happened. Back to the image now.
I've realized later that the location wasn't good. The fisheye lens did a good job in eliminating the presence of people far from my location, but the light sources made a harsh flare. Such flare might even be hard or impossible to avoid because the sources lie in front of the camera directly I suppose. The f/8 made the effect drastic as well. That, however, didn't stop me from making some few adjustments to Nox Infinita later on, at least to make the color blend nicely with some good contrast. One thing though I wish I've done back then; is to raise the level of the camera which was less than one meter high above the ground (< 3ft).

Unendlicher Nacht
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 4m20s, ISO100.

While working with Nox Infinita back home after that night, I suddenly got the urge to transfer the image to B&W. I had some feelings that it would be a nice and a mysterious scene when in B&W (and probably more communicative than the color version); and thus, Unendlicher Nacht was born.
The work with Unendlicher Nacht was harder than I thought in fact. The matter was not a simple matter of adding Black and White layer in Photoshop, or simply changing to Grayscale. Not even as simple as desaturating the image. I had to spend some time changing the tones to reach my own satisfaction with this image. Amazingly, the lines of the stars (or planets) in the sky in the B&W version are clearer and more visible than they are in the colored version. These lines I will talk about later.

Back to the location, I've thought that since there are no clouds to record, the situation and the image was boring already. Since I've brought my LED light with me, I've decided to try and do an experiment with light painting.

Comparison
Left to right: Normal, writing "Allah" in Arabic, then writing TJ.
Click to Enlarge

My trials are awkward of course because light painting requires special arrangements first. I should have wore black clothes to avoid reflecting light back to the camera. I didn't flip the images when post-processing because they are not serious shooting trials. Another lesson I've learned in these trials, is the importance to time the writing with switching off the light. As you can see from the two examples above, the writing looks more like doodling because the LED was not switched off in between letters.
Back now to the lines in the sky formed by the stars or planets at that location. I have to say it was all discovered by a coincidence, because in fact, I've never thought that such place with relative abundance of light resources would allow the camera to capture any glimpse of the skylines. Let's take a closer look...

Click to Enlarge
Original image: Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 80sec, ISO400.

In the previous shot I've increased the ISO just to reduce the time to around 80sec, but in comparison, the histogram between those taken at ISO100 and those taken at ISO400 are almost the same; probably the only difference in this case is the length of the lines formed at ISO100 (because it takes 4 minutes and 20 seconds to perform the exposure then). At this point, I do see some hope in this location despite the (usually) inadequate conditions like those light sources and the fear of flare in the image. Add to that, of course, the movement of the active people in this place at 3 A.M.! This tiny discovery about this location, and finding out that B&W rendering do somehow help on accentuating the lines in the sky, makes me eager to do some experiments in the coming days if possible - but this time deeper inside.

Scattered Mind

Source: Amazon

We had the annual book fair last week and I barely had a chance to go there and get some books. I didn't roam the place and barely visited three corridors of the fair with composed (I guess) most of the Lebanese sector. Most the books I bought this year were from Lebanese publishers. However, I was somehow disappointed because not much innovation is involved. The books are mostly in Arabic, but most of them are translations from foreign books. One would say this is good for people who are not good in English (or French, or even Russian for example) but with me, it doesn't matter. One of the books I'm reading now is How to Think like Leonardo Da Vinci in Arabic (originally by Michael Gelb). However, it is important to read with some critical thinking present. I have to say a lot of the methods and notes written in this book are already done by me naturally (and some of them for unknown reason); Just consider this blog for example where I jot down my thoughts about some stuff in my life (but not much about my emotions like the book states). Moreover, the book seems to give a sense that the western methodology and culture is the base for the rising of a community and its "wake". This is some point that I critically don't agree with, not because I'm from the opposite side of the world, but because I follow up with history and many arousals did exist before the European renaissance. In fact, the European renaissance is the last in the chain so far (and to seal this arousal in culture and science, we had the two world wars with all their push to technology and industrialization) and as life progresses, we are surely to see another link to its chain (as the Chinese are already on the rise). This fact makes me consider Leonardo as a tool rather than an example. Yes, there are many things to be learned in his methodology, but not everything in his methodology should be learned, specially that Leonardo did work under the framework of the European culture back then with all its consequences and shadows over many fields like architecture and music. It seems, to me, the book is mainly dedicated to European audience more than to a universal audience, and this is one negative point in the translation movement. Arab translators seem to be translating without really knowing or understanding the contents of the context in between their hands - it is merely a process to milk money in any possible way. I did even find out many orthographical mistakes in the Arabic context and I didn't reach half of the book yet!

Source: B&H

Anyway, away with Leonardo for now and let's bring more toys into play. In fact, I was hesitating and asking myself if I should do this order now or not. After all, I guess we all have our crazy "momentos". Thus, I had to place a new order at B&H for some stuff that I'm going to list here. The first, and the most important item too, is the Sigma lens of 70-300mm which should replace my broken Tamron. It costs a bit more than the cheap Tamron, but it has an OS system, or Image Stabilizer (IS). It has some good reviews so let's see how it will act. Let's hope I fight the urge to do extreme macro tricks with this one! Good thing that the filter thread is like Tamron's; Ø=62mm. Meaning I can use Cokin's adapter ring already with it for filters. Unlike Tamron though, this telephoto lens, doesn't have a macro mode, which I deem not necessary by now actually.

Source: B&H

Then, I've decided to add a macro rail after the many failures I had while doing extreme macro shots lately and I though this item is a must by now. Compared to other items of the same category, this one rail from Manfrotto is considered cheap! It says that it can be up to 8kg (17.7lb)! Quite good! Ironically though, I should get a new tripod to my collection as well since I do feel my old-by-now heavy tripod is getting chipped and awkward to control by time. However, a tripod can be probably taken from shops around here instead of ordering from outside with the rest even though I'm sure the quality won't be a match.

Source: B&H

Next on the list is another kit for light modifiers. The Impact Syl Arena Strobros On-Camera Flash Light-Modifier Kit is named after one of my favorite authors about Speedlites, Syl Arena. I'm not sure what's the difference between this Impact kit and the other "original" kit, but bearing the name of Syl Arena sounded like it is a recommendation from the author himself! Anyway, I've been struggling for some time with a single set of modifiers and I've realized that I need more modifiers when I work with 2 speedlites. My Rogue kit which I already have, bear a single entity of each modifiers. Thus, in case I decided to use 2 snoots on the two speedlites, for example, then that would be a problem and I have to work around it. Now, it should be no problem I guess!

Source: B&H

One of the ironic thing here is that I've ordered a new camera mount to replace the (crap) Delkin camera vice mount which became dismantled piece by piece with the first or second use. The ironic thing is, once I've placed this order, my brother managed to fix the Delkin vice. Anyway, I'm not sure how good the Delkin vice mount would be after the fixes, so two mounts are better than one. I didn't try the Delkin after the repair until now as I'm typing these words. The Pedco Ultra Clamp Assembly with 1/4"-20 Screw here has a high rating from users on B&H, but I came not to consider much of that. Delkin has a high profile as well and I AM the only one who wrote a negative review about it! Let's wait for its arrival and see how it will manage heavy weights.

Source: B&H

 I've always thought of doing shots in strange weather conditions. Well, not strange, but I mean under conditions that usually people try to avoid. For this reason I've longed for having one of those coats for camera systems. The LensCoat RainCoat RS (Rain Sleeve) (Medium, Green) would help me with this from now on, hopefully. I remember one time I had to spend few minutes in the rain waiting for my long exposure to finish. Ordering this sleeve, though, doesn't mean I'm looking for troubles specifically! But it is just something useful and good to have with you in winter specifically.

Source: B&H

Finally on the list, I've placed an order for Vello Universal White Balance Handheld Disc. I've felt that I need such a tool specifically when working at night time in locations that bear lot of lights of different types. It does indeed make a difference when trying to fix all that in post-processing. The disc here is handheld and I think it is what I need - it doesn't screw to the lens like other WB tools available and it is up to 95mm in diameter. Thus, I can use it with many lenses now and in the future without worrying about the filter thread on the lens itself. The thing I'm not sure of yet though is whether I should take a shot of the disc with the same ISO as my original exposure or not. In my camera (EOS 7D) all I need is to take a shot of the body that I want it to be a reference for the WB, and then use it by Custom WB function. Does the ISO make a difference? Theoretically, it should not. We'll see!

Finale

Books, tools, camera, lenses and even artificial languages... where am I and what I'm doing? It's a weird feeling inside me; it's like hope and despair entwined together. There are lot of things I want to do, yet, something is stopping me. Well, beside the physical condition that is. At work now, more issues are awaiting and I must tend to them, beside doing my own business with the eye-checkups and Mom dialysis schedule. As much as I want to keep feeling strong, yet I can't neglect that feeling inside me; a feeling of betrayal somehow. Like someone had been left all alone by life, despite all the good things that I've been trying to achieve to others. I wonder if this is what they call midlife crisis.

Now, with my ideas for getting new toys, and new car as well, I do hope that my mind is taken off a bit from such melancholic thoughts for some time and get busy with other creative projects. With my new car (if I get to purchase it any time soon), I would be free to go to Failaka island some time, at least for few hours if possible. On the other hand, and because of the retinitis pigmentosa possibilities, I've decided to dig out for solutions for my brother, sister and me personally. I'm so sick of life right now in fact that I'm challenging it not because I like living it - there is nothing much for me here, but merely because I hate it, and if it was a man I would have strangled it to death. Thus, I want to do everything I can and RP won't stop me right now. I want to keep looking and doing everything I can do and reach with my ideas. One step at a time... and all alone.

Swinging

Yet another idle week here. I don't have much to add in this blog for this week. My photography projects and linguistic endeavors are all on stand-by. This week I've been doing some eyes check-up examinations and consequently, I didn't have much time to work with my camera or think of something to do with my camera (just a little). After applying the eye-drops before the examination, it hinders my vision. Thus, most of the day for me would be to relax, and sleep.
Initially, the primary check-up doesn't give a good indication of a good health. There is a chance for Retinitis Pigmentosa, which is a hereditary condition that runs in the family. My eldest brother, and one of my older sisters are already suffering from this condition, and it leaves them helpless, specially with no ability to drive the car. With the responsibilities on my shoulders in this house and taking care of Mom, such news leaves me hanging in the mid-air in between moods fluctuations, in a time that I'm already suffering from those swings (and that's why I didn't post last week).
All what I want to do for the time being is play games, games and more games, trying to vent the bad thoughts out as much as possible...

All Eyes On Me...

It was one of these weeks that I could call busy. Yet, however, I'm not so satisfied about it because I've found myself too lazy to do a single thing. Seems it's the effect of summer. I've just realized that I had been in almost continuous activity for around a year, without real vacations. Summer had its toll on me and I'm seriously growing sick of it. Temperatures are going down slowly, yet it is still hot. For example, instead of being 46^oC (~115^oF) at around 11:00 a.m., it is now in the range of 41-42^oC (~106-108^oF) around the same time. Where are you winter; I need you badly.
Anyway, after some struggles, I was able to do some work with my camera this week, trying to do more experiments with the IR Filter which I didn't use much. This time, however, not outdoors, but indoors.
I've discovered last week that I've completed (unintentionally!!) the 3^rdalbum for images from Staten Island. I didn't work for some time with these images. At the end of this post, I'll post a slideshow of this album.

All Eyes On Me

Source Amazon

 Seems reading some of my old books did not go in vain after all. Going through Portrait Photography and The Photographer's Guide to Making Money by Karen Dórame did inspire me a bit to do some experiments in combination with the IR filter, and with car windshield's shade. Yes. Car shades.
The tip for using a car shade as a reflector is taken specifically from Karen's book, but I've developed this idea further for my own needs. I will explain stuff later in this post. So, what's going on here? A book, a car shade, and IR filter? This life is filled with silly stuff, no?
The first idea was to use the shade as a reflector, specifically for the hair light. Well, partially inspired by reading into portrait photography for a while. However, in this venture, I've tried to accommodate this the infrared filter for some "toying" around. Remember that portrait photography is not my cup of tea, and I must add something to it that excites me to some extent, and IR filter was the solution!

Side View of the shade on tripod and speedlites on monopod pointing into it.
Don't ask how I balanced this monopod.

Frontal view of the set.
Hope you don't mind the mess!

The first trial to try the shade was to take a head shot of myself (as usual). Because of this, I have to stay a bit further away from the camera, making holding a cable and checking a portable monitor a bit of a hard task, and with IR filter it is just awesomely... difficult. Thus, for this reason, most of the shots taken in this trial are soft and out of focus a bit. Increasing the depth here (i.e. f-number) would result in darker images. The speedlites here are reflected and not directed, making their task harder even with IR filter on lens. However, some poses were fine and I might consider doing the whole set again if possible; some people did like those shots despite the soft focus.

Infra Me I
Canon EF 50mm, f/4, 0.5sec, ISO500

Infra Me II
Canon EF 50mm, f/4, 0.5sec, ISO500

There were other shots of course but probably these 2 were the best of them. The differences in the tones here is majorly because of the different approaches in dealing with IR images. I've tried to process these images in DPP (Canon's software) and also Photoshop (or the ACR) but I have to say that it was such a hard task because of the darkness of the images relatively. In outdoors shots I was able to get some bright areas and correcting the white balance was an easy shot somehow with DPP, as Photoshop didn't do a good job in that manner. However, indoors proved to be something totally different for IR shots, and I had to surf further looking for answers and tips on how to process these images digitally, specially for camera that are not converted for IR photography (i.e. with normal unmodified sensor). This step, anyway, was looked upon after my next trials for eye shots.

Second set for eye shot trial, with car shade torn in the middle.

I've been dreaming of having a ring light or ring flash for a while. Anyway, an idea struck me again since I've got a car shade of two circular sides. I've cut through the middle and divided the shade into 2 parts: the first would act as a reflector, and the second would act as a ring light. To do the ring light job, I've made a hole in the middle of the shade part (as shown above) which would be suitable somehow for a Ø58mm lens. This cut was done in a haste without much measurements like I usually do, but seems it worked fine! The idea is to reflect the speedlites onto this reflector and the light should reflect back on the subject, which is in this case, my eye. The close distance between the subject, the speedlites and the reflector, made it possible for me to use a high f-number and ensure the shot is sharp despite the slight movement of my body. Remember: the LiveView or what you see in the viewfinder is always the scene at largest f-number. Thus, it is kind of hard to judge the sharpness as the body moves in front of the lens but with high f-number, all is OK and a slight shake won't hurt a bit!

Erster Blick
Canon EF 50mm + Extension Tube, f/22, 125^-1sec, ISO500.

Zweiter Blick
Canon EF 50mm + Extension Tube, f/22, 125^-1sec, ISO500.

Despite the many shots I've taken, I thought that one was enough to be processed in various levels and ways. Erster Blick and Zweiter Blick are actually one shot but one with the Clarity option being low (soft) while the other was maximum (harsh). Of course there were some processing in between to adjust colors and clone out some overexposed areas before uploading but the general criteria here was the Clarity issue. In fact, this shot was intended as a test shot before attaching my infrared filter on the lens.
Intriguing as it may be, the reflection of the shade into my eye. This phenomena, despite its simplicity, it was something I never thought of. This reflection can open up a gate of other possibilities and art venues! We have to think about some stuff to do in the near future I believe.

Erster Blick (B&W)

Zweiter Blick (B&W)

As usual with any eye shot done before, I've went through the process of converting them to B&W as you can see above. In all these images, I greatly miss the NeatImage plugin which can do some job automatically somehow with some nice results. NoiseNinja, despite its nice work, it can leave a dilemma in the mind for what's right and what's wrong. I have to say because of these images now, the statistics of my Flickr reported nearly 900 hits that day!
Just before I leave it completely, I couldn't resist the temptation to "edit" this shot further instead of just enhancing colors and tones. That is, adding some features to the iris and doing some work with the colors. Some work was done, and Dritter Blick was produced.

Dritter Blick

The Dritter Blick is actually based on the Zweiter Blick but in this shot, beside lowering the saturation, a Curves layer was used and the black point was set based on the pupil color, thus adding some harsh contrast. As for the reflections in the eyes, probably if the speedlites were closer to my head, the reflection would be more even across the diameter of the iris.

OK. You might be wondering now where does the IR fit in all of this. In fact, all the images above were a result of a single test shot! After testing the light level, I've fixed the IR filter on the lens and started taking pictures (depending on the portable monitor in front of me) trying to find an adequate position and changing the distances of the speedlites and their angle of incidence.

Infra Auge
Canon EF 50mm, f/22, 125^-1sec, ISO500.

All shots were dark and I had a problem fixing their white balance in DPP and ACR. The main problem in fixing the white balance is, there is no real reference point to take the white balance from Usually, in a landscape shot, the white balance is majorly a matter of the green leaves on trees or the grass, or the sky itself. Here, there are no real reference point to depend on in setting the white balance.
I did a bit of surfing and I've learned some techniques not known to me before, specifically for working with digital IR images in RAW (majorly some method to expand the white balance range). What I discovered during my little research is the fact that, in general, the matter of processing IR images, either indoors or outdoors scenes, it is mainly a matter of art and sensuality. You have to imagine yourself to be a designer and work with your images in what you think is proper. There is no right method or a wrong one. There are just some basics and the rest is a matter of processing in Photoshop or other editing programs, after doing initial adjustments in ACR. IR do sound like a fertile soil for artistic venues.
As for the shots themselves, they were (naturally) too dark despite the fact that the speedlites were on full power. I didn't want to increase the ISO further as I know the annoying noise level would make a headache but probably I should have loosen the f-number a bit, say to f/16 or even f/11 instead of leaving it to f/22. Anyway, from all the shots taken, Infra Auge was probably the least in headache. Notice I said "the least." Generally, all of them were a headache!
The blue tone of the image is a result of channel swapping, that is exchanging the places of the red and the blue channels together. The noise level because of the ISO and because of the increment in the exposure level was beyond imagination, and despite the fine look in a small size image like the one above, the real image is not as smooth as it appears here. In fact, even the focus was smoothed out while trying to clean the noise of the image. Here also, to reduce the amount of the color noise (which was specially apparent on the pupil) I've used the Curves adjustment layer again and setting the black point from the pupil itself. The contrast increased and I had to sacrifice some tiny details in other areas which became darker. The iris was brightened out wit dodging techniques. Surprisingly, some say they like this one the most from the series! I'm not expecting such image to be accepted in stock agencies anyway.

Linguamechanic

This week, I've spent some more time (at work) with my Geltani and also reading more into the Turkish lessons. I'm trying to settle with my opinions of what features to take from the Turkish language to implement into Geltani. Apparently Turkish is complex (relatively speaking) and Geltani has to be simpler in form and expressions (and it is already logographic!).
Meanwhile, I'm still working slowly on phonic values for the sounds of Geltani and assigning more possible combinations of vowels and consonants. The progress is slow, and it made me delve (back again) more into the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), and trying to figure more about the sounds it includes. What I discovered here is, somehow, that the IPA is somehow too precise that it makes some confusion. When I checked the phonetics (or Phonology) of the Arabic language, there seem to be more than one representation for the symbol for the simple sound of [خ] (equivalent to Scottish and German "CH"). The only different is the amount of air probably and the friction position (I leave the anatomical names inside the mouth for doctors here!). I believe this is somehow unnecessary. Once you learn a language, the sounds should flow along even with some minor changes in the air flow - if this change was significant, probably our ancestors would have discovered that earlier and decided to make a separation in symbols for such phenomena.
Similarly, in Ottoman Turkish, when it was written with Arabic script, there was no real distinction between "V," "U," "Ü," "O," "Ö." Most of these sounds in modern Turkish were represented simply by the letter [و], and only when the diacritics were used in the body of the text some distinction is made between some of these sounds. I think the Ottomans back then didn't give much importance to these differences in vowels because the general speech was understood and the tonal values would flow depending on the surrounding vowels and consonants in the word. This is apparent in some Turkish words in modern Turkish in which the last letter would change according to the additions. For example, the "p" in [kalp] (heart) would change to "b" with some additions like [kalbım] (my heart). Just to note, "Kalp" is originally an Arabic word and in Arabic it ends with "B" [ب], and only in modern Turkish it would end with "P". Turkish is full of such words that change their ends from light to heavy sounding ones. The question remains though: is it necessary to write and document such changes? Probably a native Turkish speaker would, naturally, end such words with light sounds as "P" (and some others) because of the nature of the vowels and consonants the proceed this consonant, thus even if we wrote it as "B", a Turk would still say it as "P" because it is more natural to his native tongue. The philosophy of precision is under question: is it really necessary to add some complexion to the written words?
In the meantime, I had as well some crazy idea to make an Arabic-based script for Turkic languages, including Ottoman, but this time it would be more to be an alphabetic script rather than an abjadic one. The Uyghur script is already in that way but it causes much confusion, at least to me, because the laws of written Arabic are broken (concerning what letters to be joined at the end and which ones to not be so). Probably I would call it, UniTurkic. The idea is just at the beginning and I need more time to make it grow. For the time being I shall be busy with my Geltani, at least.

Finale

I need a vacation. This is the bottom line of my life in the current time. I do plan to have some leave from work but I'm hesitated. Such leave might give me a break from work, but I'm still faced with duties for Mom, specially after planting another valve in her arm for dialysis.I think this will be the situation for a really long time, so I'm trying to prepare for it psychologically.

source: B&H

One of the things that are on my list to be ordered after some time (after I finish some few debts) is the RoundFlash which is something cheap (compared to the ring flash) and works with the regular speedlite on camera. Probably this what inspired to make the experiment above with the car shade! Anyway, it's on the list with other stuff. I'm considering having another lens to my collection but the matter is still under consideration and I'm not really sure if I do need one. I have something for prime lenses for the time being and wouldn't like to add a zoom lens to my list. Also on my list, a new tripod. However, that would be another story for another post probably.

I need some time to recollect my thoughts about my private life for the time being. It seems to be more disastrous than before under the current circumstances. Scariest of all is the fact that, I don't know where the end of the tunnel lies.
I leave you now with a slideshow for images of the 3^rd album from Staten Island, New York.