Again...

I lose. Again...

There are times when the world seems to have no meaning. Plain... boring... and inside you just lose the ability to feel emotions; yours and others'. A week that begins with a panic shouldn't be considered a week on your calendar. Started this week off with realizing the fact that my passport is missing, and after looking around for 2 days, at home and at work place, it didn't show up. I was going to inform the nearest police station about the missing passport (the procedure to get a new passport here), or should I say I did go indeed, but they told me that I have to come by day time in the official working hours and not afternoons. Then, as if by a miracle, ta-da and the passport was in my hands. In the place I've least expected: my camera bag. Why? Don't ask me please.
Seems I'm growing a trend of "geekalization" in my blood. Why do I feel so comfortable going around in circles in ACE hardware store? I have to say that just looking up at tools (even those in the pet section) might, at any moment, spark some ideas for your camera. I'm going there from time to time just to check the latest WHILE looking for some tools that I do need indeed.
Even though I've decided to have a vacation from my camera for some time, still, I'm working with it somehow, by force, as my brother wanted me to take pictures of some products to help him in some graphic design he is working on for an ad. Not that my brother forced me to do it but I had to do it to help him out, using my softbox and my humble desk lamps and shot with my Tamron 70-300mm macro lens. The challenge was in using the flash unit (strobe as some call it). I'm still not mastering the lights, and needless to say, I don't have the right equipments. Is it time to order EZcube? I don't know...
As a new break to my vow, I made a trial with this "spiderpod" that I've got from ACE last week. I was afraid that it won't bear the weight of the camera, but it was fine. It can bear the heavy weight of Canon EOS 7D and a lens attached, to some limit, until you lower the camera level so much that the legs don't stand a chance for a support, then you might need to use your fingers or something at the base. Spiderpod is useful for many other situations of course, because of the flexibility of its legs, but for the time being, I just aimed at using it for a ground level photo shoot. The target: my car.

Seat Altea 2006
I didn't notice the cat until I began processing the image!

And just a glimpse on how it looks to be using a spiderpod on the ground...

Spiderpod in action

I took many shots from different angles in this experiment, but I've decided that the best angle is what you see above. Also, I was aiming for a focus stacking. My fisheye lens was configured on f/2.8 which means a shallow depth of field, and this is the effect I wanted in fact but I wasn't sure how to focus specially with the spiderpod being so slow (I'm not going to lay on the ground, would I?). Here, I've used the Manual Focus and rotated the ring according to the approximate distance as measured by my eyes.

Canon 15mm Fisheye lens. The focus ring and the distance indicator can be seen.
Source (B&H)

Despite the fact that we use the metric system, and all our education is in metric system, but sometimes it is useful to use the imperial (?) or measurements in feet instead of meters. This is because, as the name implies, the foot is indeed approximately more or less, the same length of your own foot. When I used to go for some field trips for my work and I needed to take some long measurements and the measuring tape would fail me because it is short somehow, I would simply count my steps and divide the number by 3 (if I'm having a calculator at hand that would be 3.3) and my steps are converted to meters now. Of course the whole thing is not supposed to be precise, but to give an estimation. I think we really need to distinguish between cases in our daily life where we need to be perfect and where we need to be, simply, practical. Well, Maybe matters of the heart are an exception.
However, this is what has been done here, the distance between me and the car front is about 0.5 meters with my own eyes, but I took also shots fixing the focusing ring at distances longer and shorter than 0.5 meters, thinking that I would go on focus stacking, but I realized when I checked the shots on PC that there is no need for all of that. One final shot was enough.
Photomatix, again, played some weird role. This time even though the slide was a single slide, and I'm not doing any batch processes, it did show white edges. The edges were not removed until I turned on the option to crop the images after aligning. The thing is, the pictures are aligned by the virtue of the spiderpod. I just keep the option to align the image on all the time because I don't like to change the options often when I work in between the projects. Cropping your images when doing a batch process in Photomatix, as by means to prepare for stitching a panorama later on, might cause you some headache. Most of the panorama stitching programs would give you a notice that the dimensions of your images are not equal, and maybe some of them won't stitch the images at all because of that (I remember AutoDesk Stitcher would display the images with equal dimensions only and neglects the different ones).

Trying to find some means not to work with my camera as before and take a break, I turn from time to time to my arsenal of images from Ireland (2009 and 2010) and the Scientific Center, unless some idea pop up in my mind and makes me on the go and MUST use my camera. This will happen soon with the arrival of the sound trigger that I've ordered. For the time being, I've been re-submitting some of the old sketches I've made during the boring meetings or simply when my mind was having a walk in its own world...

Africanus

Zombie Survivor (renamed)

I remember saying to myself that I want to take a break from my camera in order to handle other things that are hanging around, like my Ayvarith conlang. I've started already recording some verses but it was a slow start with some technical problems, hopefully though I will fix this soon. I was recording my voice in 16bit format, but seems I have to do it in 32bit, just to make the transition smoother, as the 16bit recording appears to be cut sometimes into some fragments. Either that, or simply, my PC processor is so slow at the moment! However, just as an example for how Ayvarith sounds, you can get a little MP3 file here. And just in case you need to follow up as well here comes the English and the Ayvaric text...

English:

Once upon a time in the dusty past
when tribes dominated and hatred spread
the destiny was waiting and waiting it was
for the man of might who will come and unite
so destiny chose a man called Alexander
far away from the land of Caqobdar
king of kings whose father was Pilippán
ruled with just and spread the wise word
the kingdom of Caqobia now is unite
the kingdom of Caqobia now is mighty

Ayvaric:

wáħád maąiþ baZmén hú ğabrán
baMat xawanim sabíŧún ąaramramún mağ maskamah
xawan e-qazalzul minŧár vi-minŧár hú xawan
leAdam vu qáħayluþ yi ga-yiyawħad e-ħayyúþá
kazá e-qazalzul baxtar adam hú ąališgandar
mí hínhín, mí ąiric húþ Caqubdar
malík e-malíkún yi avvú xawan hú Pilippánút
yi dakal vi-našŧar e-miąšavúþá mağ ąadnakút
malakúþá Caqubdar húþ haylá mayawħadiþ
malakúþá Caqubdar húþ haylá qavíriþ

During reading some of these verses, I've noticed that my perception for the vowels' lengths had slightly changed, or it might be affected by my desire to say things in a hurry to sound like a fluent speaker of Ayvarith. The experience here is that, in the beginning of the creation of this conlang, I was concentrating on each individual word and how it sounds (to me of course), but the story was changed completely when these words are added together to form sentences; the level of hardship in pronunciations got elevated. Nevertheless, I'm on the way. Who said a language doesn't evolve? I realized even that the original UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights), that I've made in the early beginning of the creation of Ayvarith, is considerably wrong to the current state of Ayvarith and its grammar.

Well, for now I'm going to finish The Playful Brain, as soon as I can, as my shipment is on the way. It is here already but waiting for the clearance to finish. If I'm lucky (huh?) then I would be able to pick it up today. I've been trying to write something with a gush of emotions, and made something out of the haste...

It was but in these eyes,
one truth above my lies,
when everything scattered away.
Trying hard not to cry,
though my heart is set to fly,
from me, far, far, away.

Now it's like from above,
cruelty won over love,
wishing you good luck over my pain.

A tear on the cheek
laughter is all I seek
now, it's all over again
it's all over again
Learning how to survive
digging for a life
it's all over again, now
it's all over again
My life is beginning,
all over again...

Weird things happen, I know,
but to be lonely again, no, no,
I'm not identified, again.
Shadows of my past,
and the gloom they cast,
am I scared of love, again?

Now it's like from above,
not a thing to be thinking of,
two hearts dancing in the rain.

A tear on the cheek
laughter is all I seek
now, it's all over again
it's all over again
Learning how to survive
digging for a life
it's all over again, now
it's all over again
My life is beginning,
all over again...
all over again...

Hibiscus Addiction...

However I try to take it slowly seems my life pace just doesn't want me to. Having hard time cutting out my coffee habits and drinking hibiscus instead to lower down the blood pressure as much as possible whenever possible. I'm sick of the traffic jams everyday, so I'm having a little vacation for myself. Just one week off work trying to have fun (sleeping) as I like and going out as I like (whatever!). I might even try to go to Failaka and check for other locations here and there in this deserted island. On the other hand, I'm trying to enjoy my time in weekends, pulling myself back to the seaside and the photography there. Now with my Tamron 70-300mm I can sort of aim at birds from, somewhat, conventional distances, like I did some weeks ago with that lovely heron...

The Observer

I was lucky that he (or she!) didn't move and fly away directly. I took tens of images for it while it was moving and this is just one of them. The dusty weather here made me add lot of enhancements in the image (and nope, it's not in HDR technique). Herons are said to keep a constant distance from people, thus every time you get closer they would step further away to keep the distance for their own safety sake. However, seems the rule is not included in the situation here! I was stepping on the rocks and algae in a fast pace with my camera attached to the monopod with its 3 mini-legs spread trying to take some nice position. Another target for my Tamron was the morning sun with its sweet reddish hue in the horizon and the not-so-harsh beam of light. In fact, it was bright, but with minimizing the aperture (high f-number) and speeding up the shutter speed, I was able to catch a simple, yet interesting, image...

Sunspots

If you see the image in a larger view, you will notice some small black dots in the direction of 7 o'clock. I've read once that such black dots, in early morning, can be in fact for Mercury and/or Venus passing over the disk of the sun, but it can be also sunspots probably! However, I have to say that taking pictures for the sun with a normal DSLR is a dangerous trial, because it can harm the sensor severely. Just be careful in case you want to try something like that.
But not only suns, herons and Tamrons would go together, as I was chasing a pigeon with my Canon 18-55mm all the way to the moment of its flight above the ground. The reason I was chasing it actually was not for mere fun nor that I did indeed want to, but it was something completely different...

Acrobat

The story behind this shot was: I was in the Marina Crescent, the opposing side of the Marina Mall here in Salmiyah (area or city, whatever). I was in the exact position that you may check in the link above after taking pictures from the beach, not far from this location. After working on taking pictures for the yachts in the marina some sucker called a SECURITY came to me saying gibberish with "forbidden" at the end (in Arabic of course). I said sure, and walked away with my tools. I knew he was following me with his eyes so I walked to my car not far from the location and put my stuff there except of the camera and my 18-55mm lens, with a fisheye lens in my pocket. In fact, I was almost finished from the location but I just wanted to take a picture of the palm trees reflection on water when this sucker came in! I took a walk trying to get back to my previous position or to the opposite side of the marina to get a better view for the reflection, but there was another sucker roaming around and looking at me as well, hence I knew there was no way around it. On the other side of the dock, on the beach, there was this lonely pigeon walking around so I decided to play with it a bit hoping that this sucker will move away and leave me alone, but after taking all these images for the pigeon, he was still there, so I had to get back home.

However, after this little drama, I did have the chance to use my fisheye once and my 18-55mm another time to take pictures for the yachts and try even a 3D shoot. I'm going to share them here despite all the suckers in security suits who suck and make me sick of this suckering sickening world! (yeah, try to say that again fast enough...)

Yachts Awaiting... (BW,3D)

Yahcts Awaiting... (Color,3D)

Vivid Yachts

Vivid Yachts (3D)

Taking a new venture now with my camera, trying to take 3D photos, but this time, real 3D photos. This is done usually by rotating the object in constant angles and taking a snap at every angle. Supposedly later on, you would need some program to make this "object QTVR" rotating. The more angles, the smoother transition you would get. However, my aim now is not to rotate the object, but to make it "flat".
Unfortunately for me, things doesn't work like it is in spherical panoramas in the big big world. PTGui does not realize surfaces that easily and was not able to connect them to make a flat "peeled" surface of the object, even after putting my own control points to guide it through like blind. Seems there is no escape from doing this manually with Photoshop as it was in the old days when I saw one tutorial about this for doing a profile for a man's face and making it flat like if it was peeled (like an orange). This way you can see all features of the object without the need to rotate it or anything! This, to me, is more beneficial than creating a rotating QTVR. So far, I've failed, but I'm planning to continue with this.
My tools here were simple (in my terms as I didn't have to buy anything). I already have the VR-head (yeah, bought that back in 2009 or 2010) which can be used as a turntable base when disassembled. I looked around and didn't find something better than a CD and some kids' clay. Fixed the CD on the top of the base of the detached turning node of my VR-head with the clay and used some clay on the top of the CD to stabilize my object: A Seashell.
Now, we got some problems here:

1. The CD's reflective backside might not be good impression in general for the high and wide spectra reflected from it. It's better to be a white or black background below the object.
2. Because of my laziness, I used my monopod on its 3 tiny legs, which was shaky of course, specially with my 70-300mm macro lens. The turntable itself was fitted on my old tripod. Maybe it's not an issue but I didn't feel like removing my tripod from my car. It is already there for video recording!
3. Unable to put proper lighting, thus I depended solely on the room's lights without playing around. I can't attach the lights to the tripod and I don't have carriers for them.

One product though is quite useful and it is a complete set (beside having a turntable, it is generally a softbox) can be found from EZcube products here. It's a nice set for serious people, but since I'm not giving much thought about it, I will continue working on what I have. After all, seems as I said before, Photoshop is the one to solve the problem for profiling the object in a flat shape...

The Seashell on the CD. The yellow spot under is the clay holding the CD to the rotating base, and also there is a piece of clay under the shell itself to stick it a bit to the CD. Rotating the base was not an easy task as I thought.

Although increasing the amount of angles taken into the camera for the object would make a better transition, but since I'm not apt to make a rotating object in 3D but a flat body of the object, I'm planning to study somehow the relation between the field of view, and the size of the object, and how many angles are needed in minimum to take all the details of the object. This is tricky. Because we are using here lenses of changing focal lengths and zooming plays a role, thus it's hard to tell what's exactly the field of view we got at hand. I know there must be some formulas for this, but for the time being, I will try to stay away from those and hypothesize that the object fills the field of view (FOV). I need a paper and pen now. Back to the old days of Physics. Just imagine how it is useful to see a jar, a can, or even a car, made into a flat image to study all the details and connections at once, like a plan for making a cube! Awesome isn't it?

On the other hand, there had been some work on the other 3D realm; The Anaglyphs. I try to make one every time I get the chance (and I think I will do one for the seashell above). However, last week I got the chance to stay awake all the way to the morning time and headed to the beach for snapping some shots with the sunrise. I was late abit but nevertheless, it did the job and I had the chance to make myself dirty a bit in the sand (or mud?). Yes! Walking on the sand is really awesome! I felt really refreshed, and my footprints proved for real that I do have FLAT feet...

Steps (HDR of course)

This image is taken with a fisheye lens and cropped from the top to make the destination somehow aimless. I was moving my lens here and there, left and right trying to figure out the best way of mimicking the left and right vision in order to combine it all in one anaglyph. It was hard I have to say, as it is normally with a fisheye lens, but at home and after viewing the slides, I made the central focusing point to be the heel print of the first step at the bottom as it was the most stable one with moving the camera few degrees to the right...

Steps (3D)

I don't think this is a really good one though. But a new experiment for me was to take pictures for the junk that was dumped in front of my work place (yeah, we have so much respect here), and believe if I say so, JUNK is not a junk to the camera. When you go for HDRs or even normal images, junk can be a good source for inspiration, really...

Junk

Now, as you can see, I don't know what the hell this pipe was used for, oil or gas or water, whatever. But this same pipe, gave me a valuable lesson here. The bad point though (and this was taken with my fisheye lens as well) is that I was focusing to infinity, making near by objects blurred a bit like this pipe here, but nevertheless, the effect is there! Just get your 3D glasses ready...

Junk (3D)

Concentrate on the pipe here. The circular head of the pipe is the center point of focusing (i.e. in layering the 2 images together, not the camera focusing itself). It seems, to me, that one of the good points to make a 3D image is to make the object in a non-dull position, and by non-dull position I mean simply, not into a straight line all the way, horizontally or vertically. Make some movement in your scene; foreground close object and far background or such is the case here with my image, a diagonal line (the pipe) with some perspective look as if it is popping out of the page.
One further point to mention here is that in processing the 3D images, you have to have in mind that after all you will crop the image to remove some excess parts that don't go along with your image, thus the resulting image could be smaller way too much sometimes (specially if it was taken in a fisheye lens).

Now to explain one funny coincidence before posting this. It's an image that I've called Departed. In this image I was aiming to the horizon and the sun with my fisheye lens, forgetting about the footprints that I've made myself on the sand and that a fisheye lens does have a wider FOV. After getting back home I've noticed that my footprints were in the view and cutting them out (keeping the ratio aspect 3:4) would actually minimize the scene so much. Finally, I decided to leave it like that and give the picture a theme... Departed!

Departed

My point here is: Whatever, however, your image was, you can always do something about it. That is, if you like to! The real thing now is whether this is applicable in real life or not, or is it possible or not.