+5…

Did I pass 2 weeks already without blogging? I guess! I really didn't count the days. I've been under pressure lately which made me unable to do much even with editing my old photos. The largest portion of this stress has passed (somewhat) already, but some deal of it remains still. More about that a bit later.
I don't think I will be posting much in this post except for an announcement, and as I go on, I might think of posting a bit further about some of my latest edits!

Announcement

I think I've mentioned in previous posts about new uploads to Mostphotos. So, here it is, I've uploaded about 3 new panoramas (plus 2, adding to 10 panoramas uploaded months back). So, the total right now is at 15 panoramas at large sizes, suitable for printing as fine art pieces. I think I didn't post much about these extra 5 panoramas, so I'll try to do so here right now. 

Failakan Sunset

Earlier (as in last month or before!) I've added Failakan Sunset  to Mostphotos (exclusively), and it is an old (half-way) panorama shot over a ramp, which is used to slide boats to the water, on Failaka island. It was taken in 2012. I say "half-way" here as it was not a full panorama, but merely 2 rows was shot, and the third one was not shot (probably because at that time it was getting pretty dark on this depopulated island). Originally done in HDR, but this time it is done with singles of RAW files; All edited and stitched. Of course the colors are edited here and in fact they caused me a problem because when merging layers the appearance of the image would change drastically. I had to re-work the colors after merging (and at 100% zoom to ensure the accuracy of the colors). At 300 dpi, the panorama is close to 102cm by 36cm. I think if I was to print this panorama I would print it on a glossy material, preferably metal. Just one must be careful about the reflections from light fixtures. 

Entry
(Slí Isteach)

Then I added Entry, or as I like to call it in Irish: Slí Isteach. This is a panorama shot in 2014 inside a little defensive tower in the remains of Aughnanure castle in Oughterard, Co. Galway. It was my 3^rd time in Ireland, and my 2^nd time in Aughnanure (the first being in 2009). Generally speaking, this projection is relatively new for this panorama. I did many projections and styles out of this panorama, but this is the first time I do a simple vertical one like this, and centering it at the door. At 300 dpi, this panorama is almost 33cm by 75cm. I had to crop quite a portion to balance the image here and remove unnecessary or incomplete details. I would consider printing this on glossy metal but one has to be careful with the lighting surrounding this; Otherwise it would turn just like a reflective mirror with such dark areas. If one would want to go safe with this one, matte never hurts anyone!

Solar Towers

Then, we have Solar Towers, which took me quite some time to put the keywording for, and I'm not sure why. I think I was passing through some "mind-boggling" phase or something. Anyway, I did the keywording after all and here it is. Of course this is an old panorama and it was done in HDR before but this time, like the rest in this series, it is stitched out of single RAW files. The projection here, though, is the new thing as I didn't do such a projection before out of this panorama specifically. I had some struggles of course with the tripod and its shadows (like in the original) and I had spent quite some time fixing it. At 300 dpi, the size is about 42cm by 76cm. I tend to think that glossy printing of this one would add to the vibrancy of the blue tones and adds more overall contrast.

Beyond Abzu

I rolled back in time and checked some of these winter adventures I did back in 2012, and found some worthy stuff (but with a great deal of post-processing work and fixing), such Beyond Abzu here. Beyond Abzu was one of my first night panoramas and I still remember that cold winter night when my feet got frozen by the cold water. As the processing went on, the general tint of the image got green and that inspired a sense of mystery in me, hence the name Abzu (also Apsu) which is the name of the primitive waters, supposedly, from which the world was created in Sumerian myths. In some way, the whole surrealism in this panorama was pointing to that meaning in my head so I gave it that name. At 300 dpi, the panorama is about 37cm by 85cm, and I would go with a glossy print for this one though I would fear for the level of noise here to be exaggerated. I worked on cleaning the noise moderately because there is a limit, after which details might disappear. However, this panorama still bear some dark aspect and dark areas might work as mirrors in glossy prints,specially metallic ones. But I would imagine it would be so vibrant if printed on metal!

Return to Nammu

Lastly, there is Return to Nammu which I consider like Part-2 of Beyond Abzu. In time, these two panoramas are not far off; Both were shot in the same winter, and both in January of that year. However, with Return to Nammu, the sky was a bit darker than in Beyond Abzu specifically because I shot this facing the sea and the moon and the city lights were relatively further away. This allowed for some star constellations to appear in the sky in the original shots and here I tried to process the panorama and clean the noise without touching the stars. Thus, they appear in the original panorama, despite being shot within the vicinity of the city, but only when zoomed in at 100%. Unlike Beyond Abzu though, this one looks quite colorful, and yet mysterious a bit because of the dark night element and the stars, and that moon that shines like a rising sun (but in the middle of the night!). At 300 dpi, the size is about 85cm by 38cm. Print-wise, I guess it would do good in glossy as well as matte. The green hue here, as I see it, would be a vibrant one on a glossy media, specially a metallic one. 

Well, this is for now 5 new uploads to my Mostphotos, which are exclusive to Mostphotos. The links are up there to visit the profile or the specific images, in case you are reading this and wish to get one of these.
My capabilities right now are not quite aligned to provide such printing services and shipping, so I let these images to be purchased on their own as big original files in JPEG format to be printed on whatever the client would like.

Finale

Well, probably I can't get on so much with this post but I believe the announcement above and the details mentioned are just about enough in length for this post; Let's not make it longer!
I am currently on a leave from work for 2 weeks but not for resting or fun, but rather for stress and tracking. After a long wait, I've finally received my "disability certificate" which took a bit more than 2 weeks actually, and finally I was ready to submit my request for a grant of medical retirement from my workplace. But things weren't easy as I hoped for; Suddenly, solving a problem 2 or 3 more problems would occur and some more responsibilities regarding my work are added to the mix, which made every single passing day count. As I'm typing these words, I've finally submitted my papers by email (after a little adventure in going to the new campus, my future workplace supposedly) and a recent phone call confirmed to me that my papers had been signed and ongoing in the process. I just hope the big part of this is over with just before my two-week leave ends. Bureaucracy is not in a friendly terms with my time.
For this reason, and because of all of that stress, I don't think I would be blogging on a regular basis, but surely I will try as much as I can, at least once every other week. Who knows, maybe by the next blog post here, I would be completely free…

Ikaros 2014 II

QTVRs ahead, please give some time to load. This post won't be viewed properly on iPhone or Android systems. A proper QuickTime plug-in must be installed to Quick Time Virtual Reality (QTVR) scenes. QuickTime plug-in for your browser shall be installed automatically when you install the free QuickTime player. 

Now, this post is supposedly the second part for last week's post with the rest or some of what's left so far from my photo shoot on Failaka island, and specifically on the second day of my stay there, and just before leaving the island.

First things first they say, but I will discuss what I've done secondly on that day, since the first thing done back then is the complicated and the lengthy part of this post! But as a hint, it includes a panorama.

Στην Κορυφή
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/?, HDR, ISO100.

In the past two weeks and during my vacation the clouds were persisting only in the morning time, thus I didn't want to miss the chance of shooting some dramatic views that morning from the island, as I once did almost 5 or 6 years ago! The problem was, I didn't have a clear vision of what I really wanted to shoot that morning (after finishing the panorama first in the court of Ikaros hotel). I just started the engine and drove a little; everything was quiet, such a beautiful breeze and weather that literally made me hate the idea of going back to the mainland (except for the fact that there is no wireless service at all in that place unless you have your own!). Anyway, I've just noticed the first place I wanted to shoot here, which is the same spot that I've been doing long exposure the night before, but this time, getting even closer since I'm using my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens to include as much scenery from the sky as possible. I've changed my position several times and got many shots, and not until sorting out the images back home I've decided that the angle of Στην Κορυφή is the best for my intentions.

Processing-wise, there had been many hassles with Στην Κορυφή. Generally speaking, the issues were related to noise, color cast, sharpness and softness of some details, saturation and vibrancy; but the most persistent problem I had to cope up with, surprisingly, was the crop. Cropping had to be done elegantly and carefully – because as I was trying to keep the perspective of the image (3:2), I had to remove some undesired details or parts that may get attached to the corners or the edge of the frame. The problem rose when I couldn't match the two requirements, thus I had to do one on the expense of the other, hence you can see a small green bush or grass on the lower edge. As for the noise cleaning, there was no way I would do it without losing a great amount of details thus I had to get to the layer masks, not only for cleaning the noise, but also to sharpen some details in the image. Generally speaking, the noise filtration was done to the skies (and sea), while sharpening was done to the landscape features, including the wall of course.

Φοβία (Phobia)

I have to say that my later strolling on the island was somehow in vain trying to look for inspiration, but as I've stated before, my strolling was more like exploring. One of the spots that I really wanted to catch (again) was a spot where I did shoot some images before, of some calcified rocks in low tide time; like Φοβία (Phobia). Unfortunately, I didn't find that specific spot, besides the fact that the tide was high apparently. Anyway, I kept on shooting but this time, I had an idea of trying some scenes for 3D anaglyphs (and lot of that will come when we talk about panoramas in a while).

3D Ruins

3D Trash

Usually, it would be one of the hardest tasks to do a 3D anaglyph with images taken with fisheye lenses, mainly because of the great distortion. There were, however, some successful attempts in the past. This time, I got the idea that we as humans do see the difference in displacements in closer distances to our eyes, and as the distance gets further away from our eyes, the lines would converge to some point in the horizon; technically this is what they call the vanishing point, and it is one of the basics for artists. Thus, in some of these shots taken with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, like 3D Ruins, I've decided to align the further away features (the desk). To my eyes, the effect is handsome and truly 3D - though I regret now that I didn't do a panorama in that small space (don't trust a fisheye in judging the space!). On the other hand, 3D Trash which is taken just few meters away from the first location, has most of the features almost in the same image plane, for this, I kind of had the freedom to align any feature in this anaglyph, which in here, was the heap at the center almost. 

10
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4,
640^-1, ISO100

After going back to the hotel and sorting the images out (and packing some stuff) I just noticed the simplicity of my room's door - and I just couldn't neglect it. Despite the shot being bracketed, I've chose only one shot and worked it out in RAW editor (ACR). There were some branches of some plant beside the door, but they were relatively easy to close out. The main obstacle in 10 was to show that the board with the number "10" is not part of the white wall! This is a mistake from my side with the exposure (and I didn't want to open another image of this door and do the whole adjustments again). A good exposure is a must, and a photographer should not rely on Photoshop to fix his images. Bad exposure, is equal to a wasted shot.

For the time being, I would stop at this - there are other shots that are still under investigation (from this day and the night before even), but I'll stop here to move to the major even that day - a panorama in Ikaros Hotel.

Panorama Ikaros

I have to admit that when I asked the receptionist about taking photos inside the lobby, he said that I do need a permission. Anyway, the panorama here was done in the court (which probably required a permission too!) but since I'm not doing any commercial benefits from this, I think it would be OK. It might be even a free advertisement through my blog! 
Anyway, to organize this matter now, I think I will start with the regular stuff: regular panorama(s).

Regular

That morning, and since the place was relatively quiet, I decided to work out a double panorama (so later I would try, again, doing a panaglyph). Here in the regular part, most of the panoramas that you will see ahead are the right portion, because this was the first panorama to be taken anyway. 

Ikaros Hotel (flat)

The right panorama, or the first one to be taken is special because of the light quality. Both panoramas, anyway, were taken with fluorescent WB; but I guess the magical atmosphere is more apparent in the right panorama rather than the left (second) panorama simply because of the light level and the position of the sun (which was still rising then). To tell the truth, the flat version of the panorama was NOT the first panorama I did stitch, but quite the opposite - it was one of the last ones done. Yet, it is just the "protocol" I guess. The first one to be stitched was in fact a tunnel projection panorama...

Ikaros Loop (tunnel)

The reason that made me jump directly to this projection is, the checkered ground; besides the fact that the nadir (as usual) was something hard to eliminate here. Where there are crossed lines (squares and the like), a flat perspective is not artistic enough!
I was reluctant to work on other projection of this panorama because of the nadir point and the hardships that I already knew will happen to eliminate the parts of the tripod showing in the panorama (something normal in panoramas really). However, I had nothing to lose in fact (except of time on expense of other images), thus I decided to work out a wide view panorama this time (planet projection looked boring!).

Doors and Windows (wide view)

The beauty in Doors and Windows here lies in the vanishing point tendency and the repetitive patterns on left and right; well, the helix stairway disturbed the symmetry a bit but the extension of lines going to the horizon straight are a stronghold. Probably the colors, specially the blue tones, are the magic in this image after all. If the sky was to be obvious in this scene with details in the clouds, I would have probably thought of doing a black and white version of this scene - yet it is something to be tried still!
The hassle in removing in the tripod parts by patching parts of the flooring was, to some extent, successful, despite the apparent disturbance in the ground if you have noticed that already. To patch this part, I had to lasso-select (selecting using Lasso tool in Photoshop) the tripod parts (which formed a semi-trapezoid) and then stretch this selection to make it larger with the same ratio of dimensions. After that, the selection was moved to the area under that space and the tiles were copied from that space and then dropped and minimized according to what's needed. The lines didn't match up exactly (and probably more work was needed with distortion tools at this point) but after all, I have to say this result is far better than previously done. It is always easier to take panoramas on a seamless ground which has patterns that can be cloned out easily prior to the stitch even, but such grounds rarely do make an interesting artistic look! Well, unless, of course, the roof is the one we're talking about.

Panaglyphs

Typically, the issue with panaglyphs, or panorama anaglyphs were not an easy task with this type of panorama, specially that it's not only a 360^o panorama, but a full spherical panorama. This means the arousal of one specific issue: vertical misalignment.

Ikaros Hotel Panaglyph (I)

Notice here in Ikaros Hotel Panglyph (I) how the blue shades (which are supposedly viewed by the right eye with red-cyan glasses) go below the main object; and of course this displacement increase as the distance from the main center of interest (the focal point of the panaglyph) increases. In the beginning I lost hope and thought it can't be done. However, it simply ticked in my mind that the alignment is actually centered around the focal point (at the center of the image) - the plant pot here. This means, I can divide the image into two halves: left and right, and work on solving this problem. After all, it's only a problem of displacement or shifting of perspective; and the Skew transformation was the right tool for this task.

Skewing method around the center of the image.

Ikaros Hotel (Corrected)

The corrected version of the panorama proved somewhat promising with reduced ghosting effect and more reasonable depth just by pulling the "wings" of the panorama up a bit to match their corresponding features. This, however, won't be perfect for all the features in the scene and I do believe that this is natural, even in regular anaglyphs. The important point after all is, to reduce the vertical misalignment as much as possible; and it happened!

Ikaros Loop Panaglyph

The situation was repeated then for the tunnel view panorama, and the same correction was applied even though the situation is a bit tricky here since it is a polar panorama and not a flat, spherical one. Thus, technically, I can't really state that the misalignment was on the vertical axis, but nevertheless, the method worked just fine, to some extent. However, the wide-view projection (Doors and Windows) was the most persistent and despite applying the same method, yet the ghosting effect was not enhanced further as in the ones mentioned here. Probably another type of distortion was due; more investigations are due.

QTVR

At this occasion I had several trials of QTVRs done, since we are talking about panorama, and panaglyph. As you may know probably, QTVRs are done only with flat panoramas, thus there is no more talk about other projections - but there is a further talk about anaglyph QTVR. 



This QTVR was done smoothly with not much hassle, and the nadir of course (if you can see it) is an added simple logo to the panorama.
At this point, and after doing the first panaglyph (without correction), I got encouraged somehow to do another QTVR and see what will come out. I was sure though that it won't be aesthetic!



As you can see if you rotate for 180^o from the starting point (towards the door behind the pillars, opposite the plant pot), you will see that the cut is obvious, as this is the two ends of the original panorama, and the shift between the Red and Cyan made it worse. No surprise here. But then I've worked out around the shifting problem as I've mentioned above (by skewing the panorama) and tried to do the QTVR. I'll put it here for comparison as well...



I'd say the seam line is almost hard to notice with normal view, but it gets obvious when viewed with 3D glasses (red-cyan) - and yet, this is the best it could get I believe. Much better than the previous version at least. 
You might have noticed how the original QTVR is dark a bit with vibrant colors while the other two are light in color. This is normal since the second panorama (for the left eye that is) was taken with a change in light level from the first one, and the court yard was getting much brighter during the second take.
I don't know what to consider an anaglyph QTVR; is it really a 3D environment? or would I call it a 4D environment (supposedly that a QTVR is originally a semi-3D representation of space)? Anyhow, the name is not that important right now nor the philosophy behind it - the experiment just adds a new dimension to my experience...

Finale

Click to Enlarge

This week we got the news that our group, BPF, won one of the gold medals in Austria's international photo contest, or the so called Trierenberg Circuit. We have to wait now for July to come to receive our copies of the catalogs, and a ceremony is supposedly to come in October. I'm not sure how the awards are distributed but it's like there are many subcategories and fine details for which gold medals are rewarded. I'm proud to say as well that a number of Kuwaitis (other groups and individuals) did win various gold medals as well in other categories. The full list can be checked out in here. 
In the meantime, as I'm typing this, my shipment is ready for pick-up; I've ordered some books and items that I might post about here but it's just not the time for this. I do have a plenty of photos that I do need to work out and talk about in the future. I've been pretty busy writing this blog (which I'm trying to finish as early as possible) and my other Arabic Blog which is dedicated to beginners. Despite the fact it's in Arabic, the word flow is not a match for my flow in English when typing this blog post! Anyway, the fact is I'm trying to "arabize" as much as possible to enable those who see foreign languages hard to read (because of many reasons) would be able, as much as possible, to learn. I do have higher level topics like HDR in my mind, but the time for this isn't up yet. Been days now I'm taking 2 laptops (old and new) with me to work just to work on the text for both blogs. Don't know how long this will take, but it is surely better than sitting bored and sick of the maltreatment in this work place...

Ikaros 2014

Finally done. One more objective is off the list: A visit to Failaka (Ikaros) island. To avoid any rush, I had to book a ticket almost one week earlier and I was lucky to make it in the middle of the week; as the ferry schedules are becoming more congested in weekends. My travel set off on Wednesday, and I came back on Thursday after spending one night there.
Luckily this time the reception in Ikaros hotel didn't make a big deal of me being a single occupier. There are certain laws here that I just don't quite understand, but anyway, what to understand nowadays with many other laws?
The quantity of photography this year from the island wasn't as much as before, mainly because I was busy exploring rather than getting inspired; specially with me having a new car better acquainted for desert and rough conditions. There were some nice geographical features but artistically, they won't have much value in the eye of the camera, but they were something for the eyes to please.

Ίκαρος

The first day wasn't full of activities in fact. As I've stated above, I was mainly busy exploring. I've found the idea of recording some videos a fancy idea to include more about the atmosphere on the island - specially with some spooky sense at some specific places!
I won't be placing all the eggs in one basket for this post, since I'm still working on sorting out the images and trying to fix some of the images (specifically for the noise problem). Summer is coming, and my chances for a good long exposure are diminishing slowly as well...

The video you see above was taken in the court of an old mosque (now just ruins as you can see). These banging sounds prevented me from going further deeper inside, but I had the chance (and courage!) to climb up the narrow minaret⁽¹⁾. The bad thing is, I didn't have any shotgun mic, because the wind was blowing up there and my voice was barely apparent...

Though I had an idea to take a panorama up there from the top of the minaret, but the conditions were bad and dangerous. In fact, I couldn't even climb up to the top of the minaret with my gear, and I barely made it out with my backpack only on my back and the camera dangling from my neck. Up there, I knew there is no place to place my tripod and VR-head, specially that the location was not central. Since a panorama up there would (and should) be handheld and merely few shots to be stitched, I've decided it's not a big deal make the troubles for and a video up there is enough.

I had some troubles fixing the exposure in the video. As you can see, I had to stop every few steps to adjust the "shutter" of the video. I'm not a videographer, thus such concepts are somehow beyond my understanding. Probably because the lens here is Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, which is completely manual, the camera didn't adjust to the lighting conditions automatically. Just a speculation!

I've left the mosque after taking one shot only (before doing these videos) and still till this very moment I'm wondering what was that banging sound that was coming from inside. The sound in the video isn't as loud as it was in reality (mainly because of the limitations of the camera's mic). I'm pretty sure, it wasn't the wind. The loud noises made by these bangs point to a staggering wind, yet it was breezy with a nice atmosphere - only up in the minaret, the breeze become a bit faster (but recorded in the camera loudly!).

As I've stated before, I won't be putting all the eggs in one basket; otherwise it would be a pretty long, thus I will just state the activities of the first day on Failaka. I'll leave the next post (hopefully) to discuss more thoroughly some of the panorama work and panaglyphs.
In the first day I've went deeper into the desert land, far away from the urban (uninhabited) side of the island. Lot of geographical features and nice green spaces because of spring, and lot of troubles too as my car got stuck at some point but I was lucky to pick it out! At the end of this journey I decided to take a shot of a lonely tree, with a twist...

Μονήρης
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, ISO100.

This tree, for some reason I'm not quite aware of, attracted me for its simplicity and loneliness. I tried to add some twist to it by shooting with infrared filter and in HDR bracketing. I've used here the 50mm lens with f/1.4 (widest aperture) which enabled me to work fast even with an infrared filter - helped by the sun in the middle of the sky as you can see from the shadow of the tree. In processing this image, I had to process each RAW file for infrared as I usually do with infrared images, and then convert the shots to TIFF. and only then HDR was merged from these files. Merging infrared RAW files is somehow, senseless. The surprise here is to see that the image retained its greens on the leaves of the trees after being relatively lowly saturated or almost black and white when processed in RAW! The rest was a job of fixing the vignetting and the saturation of colors, and of course, noise reduction.

The night hovered over Failaka and I was reluctant to go out in the pitch darkness on the island; there is no electricity except in few buildings in the periphery of the hotel. No street lights. Anyway, I decided to head out not far from the hotel and try some long exposures. The disappointment is, to find the sky out of any significant features; and needless to say that the periphery of the hotel wasn't much in features that help formulating a foreground to the images - the only thing I could think of is the ruins of some old clay house which I've taken shots of before several times.

Εδώ Είναι ο Ίκαρος
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/11, 18m, ISO100)

Surprisingly, one of the first problems was, what lens I should use? The 50mm made the features of the ruins somehow far away. I didn't want to use the sigma 70-300mm here simply because I was hoping that a prime lens would the image better - I'm expecting a load of noise already as the weather wasn't cold enough! Thus, my only choice as it seems was the 100mm macro lens (of course I can use it as a telephoto lens!), besides, the proportions when applying the law of thirds looked appropriate. To focus here, I had to keep my car's light on and pointing to the wall, then turn them off after auto-focusing was done. Several test shots in ISO12800 were due of course and then the work began with a 18 minutes exposure. However, before starting with the exposure, I had to do some testing for the White Balance. Even though at night times, the Tungsten WB is my usual choice, here I've decided to sway a bit from the typical and headed to Fluorescent WB (which I typically choose for dusk and dawn times). I didn't regret this choice afterward when the file was processed and gave out an astonishing blend of yellows, and blues! The only bad point here, the sky was featureless (not even clouds were present till next morning).

Υπήρχε
Canon EF 50mm, f/11, 9m, ISO100.

Just to show how much dark it was even near by the hotel, the other portion of the ruin was not visible until I took the previous shot and started to move backward with my car, when the car lights fell upon this feature, and thus decided to stop and do something about it. Because the focal length here is smaller and more landscape is included originally, the exposure time became almost half of what it was before, rounding to 9 minutes. Since the general atmosphere is not complex in terms of composition and quite normal, I've thought that the only way to get something interesting out of such settings is to produce unnatural colors, and here, again, I had to bet on the white balance change. This time though, it was set to Shade WB. This white balance made the image in general quite yellowish with a golden theme. Something magical a bit. The car's and my shadows were present in the foreground because of the lights not far away from some building - the shadows can be faint on location but they persist with a long exposure; something that you MUST be careful from. When processing the image, the noise level was hard to fix; the general noisy population on the image was reduced, but many hot pixels or hard spots remained. As for the shadows, I tried to clone them out but I chose the easy way out: crop the image into a square. A small sized image like Υπήρχε above, can be easy to look at and pleasant to see, but I wouldn't risk printing it on some large prints! Probably a canvas would be fitted the most for such printing method to suck in the noisy appearance as much as possible.
(1) Despite the fact that the word minaret is used now mainly to note the tower of the mosque, in most of English speaking word, the word itself is a misnomer. The word "minaret" is derived from the Arabic word Manárah [منارة] which means "the place of light" and used for the lighthouse. The proper name for the mosque's tower is Mi`thanah [مئذنة] in Arabic which means "the place of the prayer-call". It is probably one of these words and concepts that got lost in translation over time.

Finale

This is part one of Failaka's print, and hopefully more to come next week with more discussion about panaglyphs, anaglyphs and panoramas and some fixes to the ghosting problem (more like reduction in the fact).
I've started as well posting in Arabic in another blog. The blog is mainly for beginners in photography in hope that the language would make things easier for some people to understand and comprehend the photographic concepts. With this in mind, my schedule might be busier than it is already.
Trying now to enjoy what's left of days in my short vacation before I head back to work next Sunday. Just remembering this day makes me shiver with anger... Seriously, if only young people know what does it mean to be an adult, they would have probably ended their lives before reaching 25...

Auf Arabisch... بالعربية

It seems like it doesn't matter how many hours I do sleep, there is always a need for more! One of the awkward things about having a vacation in the homeland! Anyway, I'm trying to catch on with time and I've already booked a ticket in advance for the ferry to go to Failaka island on Wednesday, for this reason, I'm typing this blog post on Tuesday - and hopefully as you read this on Thursday, I will be waiting for the ferry to pick me up from the island and get back home, with hope that I will have a load of new images (and panoramas!). Thus, I may not have done much with my camera in the past few days, but I will post about them anyway for the time being in hope that you will like them.

Auf Arabisch (بالعربية)

I've been thinking lately of starting to post in Arabic in this blog as well as I do in English. Some people liked the idea. For the time being, the posts are supposedly to be about basic photography stuff, and mainly dedicated to arabize the many terms used in the world of photography, which, unfortunately, I didn't find any current translations or contemporary language advancements. The reason for such thought is the desire to raise the linguistic awareness as much as possible for the technological terms that started to flood the arena and mainly being in English, leaving people with not much linguistic abilities almost paralyzed when it comes to learning new techniques or sciences.
Probably, the future posts would act as of some sort of dictionaries, but I do hope that it will help people who want to start at the beginner's level in photography, and yet can't get hold on the English language specifically, or any other languages.
The dilemma now is, whether to post it here, in this very same blog, or I'm supposed to create another blog for this purpose solely. My main thoughts now are, to post here, in the very same blog in which I post in English, to keep things concise and gathered in one place. This is what I think for the time being. Besides, I didn't specify a day in the week to post the Arabic article yet, but hopefully the decision will come soon. Probably, this step would be a first step in making a book even, as most books about photography in Arabic are in fact just translations of English books (and they do include a lot of English jargon inside as well). What I'm afraid of for the time being is the awkward and sluggish arrangement and format when typing such documents in Arabic. Arabic goes from right to left, unlike many other languages worldwide. This leaves much to be desired in the field of Arabic typing and writing in the digital world; Photoshop itself up to CS5, still issues a special version, entitled ME (Middle East), for those who would use the typing tools excessively in Arabic (and other ME languages like Hebrew). Not sure if newer versions after CS5 do combine the whole technology in just one pack and one version, but I'm hoping to see this any time!

Trust Me!

One of the humble trials to do something with my camera (and flashes) was an idea that had been cooking in my mind. Of course, since it is some sort of a portrait, the main subject is me myself, which increases the difficulty.

Trust Me
Canon EF 100mm, f/22, 250^-1sec, ISO100.

The shot was edited later on with Photoshop to add final touches that can't be done on camera of course - like the teeth. The idea is to look after everything that looks nice in its appearance, but the core might be corrupted; e.g. the excessive freedom that might destroy the community with its unlimited boundaries.
Technically, I've planned the image to be in black and white with a tint or split tones, but probably the noise level that appeared later made me change my mind and stick to pure black and white. One of the mistakes I've done here is to hold the rose with my fingers covering the petals. Some people, after viewing the image, didn't realize it is really a rose, and some of them even thought it's some sort of food! The problem here, technically, was to use the Fill option in ACR excessively, which lightened the shadows, as well as the noise. Such noise, beside the original noise in the image itself without processing it, are one of the hardest things to smooth and work around.

Macranglyph

OK. I think I do sound ridiculous for inventing such words again and again, but this is really just for a title here. I'm not intending to coin it! The Macronglyph I'm talking about here is to make a 3D anaglyph image on macro level. Even though I've been working on some concepts yet in the panoramic anaglyph field, I thought how would such technique work in the macro field? The main concept is, of course, to take two shots resembling the two eyes. But the distance here is critical. On the macro level, a slight movement can prove to be a big leap!

3D Bad Teeth
Canon EF 100mm Macro, f/22, 250^-1sec, ISO100.

As a first trial, I tried my "bad" teeth here with my 100mm macro lens. Despite the fact that this is a macro lens, it is actually limited to x1.00 magnification power, or 1:1. This is, however, fair for most of macro purposes. Unless you want to go deeper, then a change of technique is due.
Anyway, in 3D Bad Teeth, I had to nudge my head a bit to the left and shoot again (using remote cable). The bad point here is that I've discovered when viewing the images that my lips muscles got lose in between the shots and thus deforming the stability of the shape (of the lips). However, when viewed with 3D red-cyan glasses it does look fair enough and pops out considerably.
Now, I'm not sure how much I did really nudge my head to the left (my left) when this shot has been made, but I doubt it would count as much as 7cm or even 5cm. And here comes the point that I need to do more research about...

3D 100 Fils (reverse)
Canon EF 50mm + 68mm ET, f/22, 30sec, ISO200.

To explain the point, in another shot made for the reverse side of a Kuwaiti 100 Fils coin, I've taken a shot for the masts of the ship (which filled the frame in fact), and the magnification factor here (using 68mm of extension tubes) counts as much as x1.36. In this shot, the difference between the right and left shots are just few millimeters in fact, but since it is a macro shot, the difference between the two shots was huge. If the engraving on the coin surface was deeper, probably the ghosting would have been more grave and more apparent.
Two thing for sure, but I can't still hold on to the mathematical concepts behind these facts:

• Degree and value of magnification has a role in the distance that to be applied. More zoom, lesser displacement.
• The distance of the subject from the image plane also plays a role. I'm not sure though if this is really significant to a great deal in macro shooting because, by virtue, in macro shots the subjects will always so close to the lens front and (relatively) to the image plane.

Note that the scales on lenses for focusing distances are actually measured from the image plane (sensor placement) and not from the front element of the lens.

Finale

This is for now. I'm looking forward to my Failaka trip tomorrow (Wednesday) - thus as you read this, I would be probably on the ferry coming back home, or still roaming till the scheduled time comes!
I have to get packing my stuff now and out this post on automatic "pilot" mode (i.e. to be posted automatically on time), and needless to say, get more and more sleep before I head over to the ferry! See ya...

Snooze...

I think I'm reaching the climax of my endurance capabilities through the past 2 weeks. It is just the fact that nothing goes as planned, and more unexpected events.
People here (and everywhere) are happy for the arrival of spring. However, it is my weeping time. My nighttime photography had already ceased and almost no power is left for me to leave at night. I technically spent 2 weekends sleeping most of the days. With the arrival of summer soon, I'm left to do tiny projects at home, specially in the macro field.
In the meantime, I've already signed for a 2-week leave from work just to rest my nerves from the amount of stupidity that lurks in this workplace (and all workplaces in this country; let's be honest). Everyone thinks I'm traveling somewhere - my chances are slim. The best I might be able to do is to head to Failaka island, if possible, and maybe spend a night there. My leave should start on April 1^st and extends till April 17^th. The best part of a vacation is to see people go to work while you don't!
Anyway, despite the hibernating activity with photography, I still had some few trials with my camera (and flashes) and might be interesting to share...

Ego

Don't read it wrong; Ego here is the Latin form for I or Myself! For the past week (and also for the coming few days) I've been trying to test my flashes and light modifiers on a real subject this time and not against some slid subject: me.
The fact that I don't really do well with portrait with other people, and yet I don't have someone to help me with testing my gear, leaves me with me! Experts usually advise the photographer not to be the subject of their own self; this is related to the degree of concentration and the attention paid by the photographer to the light formation - it would be lesser in such situations. Anyway, I'm working with my own face here and I don't have much options. The funny part is, as it is supposed to be a check-up for my gear and lighting positions, it became also a trial for some Photoshop experiments.

With RoundFlash

All of the coming shots are taken with my Canon EF 50mm lens, not only for its sharpness or wide aperture (f/1.4, which in fact is not used or needed here), but for its perspective in regard to the distance available for me in the room, and for the scale on the lens' barrel which I used to adjust the focus range properly. The first thing to try out with my flashes is the RoundFlash, beside another flash for the hair light on my right and above my head, with a diffuser. The rest is a simple processing in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW). One of the fascinating aspects of using the RoundFlash is, like the ring-flash, creating an interesting catch light in the eyes. The post-processing included some simple fill light, contrast, vibration, and clarity adjustments.

After the initial (simple) post-processing, I couldn't hold my fingers from doing further editing like I usually do for some friends photos. I have to admit that the edit does scare me a bit! When it comes to black and white converting, there are two possible paths actually: Convert in RAW, or convert in Photoshop. Each one of those has its own benefits and limits in fact. The image you see above is converted in Photoshop (and it is just one image from the series of shots).

RAW Edit

I've picked one of the many shots and this time tried to convert it to B&W in ACR alone without the help of Photoshop. The results, to me, were astonishing. Te image you see on the left is completely edited in RAW without any enhancement in Photoshop. The difference here is, while in Photoshop you can convert to B&W using the Black and White adjustment layer, which in return has specific tonal ranges to fix the black and white tones depending on the colors - in ACR, the tonal ranges available are varied and more delicate than the simple black and white adjustment layer in Photoshop. For example, in the adjustment layer we have tonal sliders for Reds and Yellows; However, in ACR, there are tonal controllers for Reds and Yellows, with another one for Oranges in between. This latter addition can prove very useful. in specific situations, like my selfie here. Usually, in Photoshop, raising the Reds tones to brighten the eyes would brighten the eyes and the face altogether, calling for a need to use layer masks. In ACR, however, the two zones are somewhat easier to control by the Reds and the Oranges tones (and with some fill light increment). At this level, it all looks normal. For more eye-catching bright eyes effect, then, of course, Photoshop is needed again.

The second experiment with the flashes was to light the face from top and bottom, in something like the so-called hatchet lighting. Usually, a hatchet lighting is when lights are used on the left and the right of the subject, but here it's on the vertical plane. To achieve this, beside the head light above my head (with bulb diffuser), I've placed a white cardboard on the ground and bounced the flash from it.

Selfie #4

After many trials to check the position of the lights, I had some nice shots. It seems that this hatchet method is good to show the details of the muscles of the face; though it might not be so pleasant to look at! In Selfie #4, most of the editing is done in ACR as well, including desaturating. However, some editing was needed in Photoshop to boost the eye of the color. Also, some drama was added by sharpening the image excessively.

Unblinking

And there is a big benefit of having some high resolution to your camera; It is some way to make an abstract with suitable resolution out of the general image, like it is in Unblinking. Probably it won't be a good image for a large print after all, but nice to see online! In Unblinking, the image was converted to B&W in Photoshop (except of the eye), and was given a tint to have some drama.

There is a method of manipulating images that I've read something about, in a long time, and back then I really didn't pay much attention. Probably because the talk was technical more than artistic. However, now with the ACR, it seems that this method is opening a new window for the world of Black and White manipulations. This is the method of tone-splitting. The idea is simple: give one tint to the highlights, and another tint for the shadows. The result was somewhat perplexing I have to say!

Selfie #5

I applied this method to one of the selfies taken with the hatchet technique and the results appear interesting. After converting the image (and adjusting the tones accordingly) in ACR, I've applied the tone-splitting (also in ACR) giving the highlights a tint of violet, and the shadows a tint of green. There is in fact no limit for the choices as you can control the tints and their saturation and also the balance between the shadows and the highlights in general. However, it seems reasonable and more appropriate to work within the circle of the laws of the Hue Circle. The method is simple, after adjusting the tint for the highlights by picking a specific hue and adjusting its saturation, I picked a tint for the shadows then after by adding (or subtracting) 180^o from the hue value of the highlights; For this reason, it got to violet highlights, and green shadows. I've adjusted the Balance control in ACR towards the highlights simply to reduce the weird look of the hair and black areas of being too green. Also, to add more luster to the eyes, I had to sacrifice the contrast for the whole image, and yes, I could have done it in Photoshop editing later on, but my goal was to produce an image edited in RAW only without much editing in Photoshop; and I think I've done it. This in fact taught me a lesson for the time being: It's not all about pronouncing the tones by adding contrast, but contrast must be added carefully in regard to what features of the image I'm willing to express and show more than the rest.
A note as well I'd like to add: it is a common advise when printing Black and White images, it would be a good idea to add a slight tint (most probably a yellow tint) even in a small amount just to give a color to the image and show some of the details that might be lost in printing. This is because in printers' language, White is almost synonymous with "do not print a thing here". Thus, it is advised to have a slight tint to give some color and life to the image. Anyway, experimenting with your images is always the rule I presume!.

Heaven is Watching

Out of the desire to break my daily routine and also to try to produce something before the summer is finally and completely here, I've decided to do a panorama near my workplace. I have to say though that I was in a fighting mood as well; I was willing to fight anyone who would be interrupting me and try to stop me from taking photos near my workplace. Anyway, at the end things went smooth, but I wish if I can say that to what happened later when processing the panoramas.

Heaven is Watching

That day, I've decided to have lunch near my workplace and head back when the road is less congested. I've walked up to the roundabout which overlooks my workplace (and specifically the building where I work) and started to shoot there, even though it was congested little bit but the road was giving way and getting easier. That was not a big deal for me in fact as the whole thing was an experiment and I'm not looking for perfect conditions, but I did some mistakes later which became both: a regret, and a lesson. Anyway, I was astonished for the clouds hovering over the place and reminded me of the time I spent in Failaka 4 years ago when I had some marvelous shots under clouds of the same type. Bad thing though that I couldn't (for time limitations and capabilities) do any long exposures in that location. Anyway, after shooting the first panorama, I've moved the tripod manually for few centimeters and started to shoot again. I've measured previously the distance between the centers my eyes, which was 7cm, but here I had to do things blindly and I'm sure I've displaced the tripod for no less than 10cm - can produce a big problem, and it did indeed as you will see...

WARNING: DO NOT STARE WITH 3D GLASSES FOR LONG TIME.

The image you see above is not a perfect anaglyph (or as I called it before: panaglyph), but it is one its kind and I'm hoping to do more experiments with this kind of panaglyphs; Because it is a full panorama and not a simple horizontal panorama turned into an anaglyph as I did some weeks ago. However, I've tried hard to give a good alignment for this panorama but it never worked - needless to say the stitching errors that plagued me in between the two panoramas for the left and the right scenes. Without going into details of the stitching errors, I shall discuss here the points that made this unbearable to look at!

• The distance of the displacement of the tripod seems too large which caused the difference in between the two scenes, visually, large. This would cause hardships when aligning the two scenes at some points.
• The center of the panorama should have been one of the palms, and this is a misjudgement from my side. Centering the panorama around the center of the roundabout would have produced a more interesting scene like above. This also played a role in the bad alignment between the two scenes - the scene should have been aligned around the palm that was my zero point (and to which the movement of the tripod was parallel), but I was trying hard to align the two scenes to a new point (which was theoretically parallel as well but not quite accurate).
• The ground on which I was standing was not even. This produced a change in the elevation of the tripod and the camera configuration after the displacement, and henceforth, another problem was added to the alignment process.

With these problems in mind, I'm hoping that these can be avoided in the future for another experiment like this. I just need the good location with interesting architecture or landscape to work with.
There was a plan to produce and work with a planet projection of this same panorama, but because of some internet problems in the current time I decided to delay this research to be posted in a later time. This would give me also more time to investigate the matter and the other possibilities to produce an adequate panaglyph out of this panorama. Just remember please: DO NOT STARE AT THE ANAGLYPH ABOVE FOR A LONG TIME!

Finale

I have to finish this quick and post it. I'm living a life now where I'm expecting a problem wherever I turn and wherever I go. My only escape would be a vacation outside, which I'm already planning for, hopefully to be in September of October. But I have to wait and see the circumstances. Day by day, I feel my luck is draining, and needless to say, my home is throwing my out. What is home, if you just don't feel the respect you need in it? Would it still be called home?
Everyone is telling me that I need a vacation. Everyone is seeing my bent back and my burnt eyes, and they are advising me of some vacation, far away from home and the work environment. But what can I do with added responsibilities? The least to be done now is to have my short vacation for 2 weeks just to rest my body from the everyday traffic, as well as spend some more time with my camera, and if possible go to Failaka. So many hopes I have for such a short vacation in the homeland, but let's see what is going to be achieved after all...

Macro++

That was some amount of rains that we received this week! It's just amazing, but sad in the same time because I couldn't do much with it. I'm not driving my car, and didn't do any photography in such weather (and it would be better to have weather-proof protection stuff). My car was supposed to get fixed this week as the garage called me and said the chip they need arrived from outside and needed my permission and my agreement for the price to work on. According to them, they said 1 or 2 days will suffice. But with such rains, I didn't get any calls yet. Probably the rains are the reason for this. I can't believe I will see this car again. I'm growing sick driving other cars.

Macro Plus

I've been continuing my work with trials to do macro shots (or extra macro I should say). The work wasn't much of a success in fact for many factors. It made re-think my approach to do the whole thing really.

The System!
Click to Enlarge

As you can see on the left, the system is truly cumbersome. Long set of lenses and extensions, portable monitor, (shaky) tripod and lateral arm, with weights (dumbbell weights) added inside a sack to keep the arm and tripod balanced. I didn't make a glass surface for the macro experiments but I've been using the glass door that fell from the cabinet (the one in the picture). Sorry about the image quality as the image was taken with my mobile. I kind of suck at such images!
For the purpose of lighting I've bought two somewhat powerful LED torches or flashlights that got about 24 LEDs on one surface, plus 3 or 4 on the side in case a narrow beam is required. I think I might need to add a mirror.

Leaf

One of the shots done with the system shown above is a shot for the surface of a small leaf. As you can see above, the image is out of focus. Focusing is one of the big issues here and this is why such system as the one above is a cumbersome technique. According to some websites (they are a lot you just have to Google around) the magnification factor can be found by: Focal Length (1) / Focal Length (2), that is, the ratio of the focal lengths of the two reversed lenses, where (1) is for the lens attached to the camera, and (2) is for the reversed lens.
Hence, it is logical to attach the longest focal length possible to the camera, and the smallest focal length possible in reverse. I think I will use the notation "FL1/FL2" when it comes to image descriptions later. In my case, the largest focal length I could achieve is using the (broken) Tamron lens at 300mm plus two teleconverters, yielding 1200mm in total. The smallest focal length that can be attached in reverse is 18mm (with my old 18-55mm), and the result would be 1200mm/18mm, equals to 66.66X or approximately 67X! Meaning an object would be magnified 67 times its original size! Unfortunately, this was just a theory and in practice, working with such tools isn't plausible at all and can hardly do any good. Thus, I've neglected this approach for the time being and started to do it in other ways, like using the Canon EF 100mm macro lens in reverse with the 50mm lens.

Shaving Razor

Onion Peel

One of the issues that I was investigating is the placement of the teleconverters and the extension tube before the first lens (or the primary lens, attached to the camera). In some websites, they emphasize the placement of the extension tubes in between the converters and the lens. However, practically, seems the situation is the same in terms of magnification power, but probably it works better with the teleconverters attached in between the tubes and the lens. Maybe it is just a coincidence that it worked that way with me anyway, as most of the images here like the Shaving Razor and Onion Peel were all taken with such configuration. Later on, however, I started to use that system without reversing the lens, but simply using the 100mm macro lens with extension tubes and teleconverters.
The light direction was drastic for some shots, specially for translucent objects. Again, No lens reversing this time but I did have hard time focusing. The shake took its toll on the shoot.

Comparison

The leaf shot above is taken once with LED lights below the glass plate, and once on the sides of the leaf. One of the somewhat awkward features for using LED lighting is the bluish streak. The Automatic WB setting wasn't enough to correct the colors but it was (somehow) corrected in post-processing. Anyway, it is obvious that the look changes drastically with the change of light direction, like if it s a 3D object. Personally, I do prefer the lighting on the sides. However, this might not possible all the time, as the set of lenses can get to the subject so close that leaves no room for the light on the sides, the lighting from below is the only solution.

Beard
Canon EF 50mm+36mm extension tube,
f/22, 40^-1sec, ISO400.

RoundFlash
Source: B&H

Along with it, I've decided to do some test for the RoundFlash. This time, it's not an extra macro shot but a simple one with my 50mm and 36mm tube. This simple trial did indeed show me how the length of the lens (not the focal length but the physical length) and the closest focusing distance do play a role when using this flash add-on. I think the optimal use would be for a lens that does not protrude much outside the limits of the RoundFlash and if the subject is considerably far from the RoundFlash to allow the light to fill it properly. Here with my beard experiment, the distance was so close (and literally part of my chin was inside the RoundFlash!) because of the extension tube, and that caused a bit of smooth light and shadows (but with the help of relatively high ISO as well). The RoundFlash seems promising but I'm sure it's not a complete replacement for the typical ring flash, and for that I did place several items in my B&H wishlist which are both, expensive and cheap.

Thoughts

With this work with some macro ventures, I've somehow formulated some ideas and thoughts that might lead my work in the future:

• Practically, using extension tubes alone is enough to get a magnified and well viewed image. I think I was obsessed with the idea of turning my camera and lenses into a microscope and I didn't look at the validity of such practice and how it would reflect on my artistic side.
• I've been using a remote cable with a delay, plus the 10sec timer in the camera itself, and yet seems the images do have a shake. Probably it is because of the mirror (even though I do use the LiveView mode to hold the mirror), and the mirror lock-up mode doesn't work with the remote cable and Bulb mode (as some of these exposures took a minute to achieve). There must be a way to reduce this shake at least if not stop it.#
• Because touching the system with so much lenses together does produce a horrendous shake on the macro level, probably it is better to move the plate or the surface and keep the system stable as much as possible; and this is exactly how a microscope works! This, however, requires some mechanism work!
• I do own an old microscope. Is it possible to implement that system into my camera and lenses? It is easy to talk about afocal system when it comes to astrophotography or bird watching; but on a macro level? I'm not sure if this is even possible.
• Aesthetically: what do I want? It is obvious in such field, most of the shots would be scientific-like or simply abstract. Now if it is an abstract, arranging the lines and the edges of the frame is of a prime importance. The possibility of such arrangement, though, is yet to be questioned and experienced practically.

These are some of my thoughts so far about macro (or extreme macro) shooting, and more work has to be done soon and yet I have to discover some good subjects to shoot at!

Nostalgia

Among the other things that I try to do to keep me busy, there are some photos that I've decided to turn into something else. simply by converting them to B&W. Probably I was looking for some venting for my feelings specially that most of these images are those taken while traveling. I guess it is a case of nostalgia, for some days that can't be repeated, not in the meantime at least, to say.

Ghostly Room (B&W)
The Victorian B&B, Staten Island, NYC.

Thornbrook House B&B (Re-Visited)
Cashel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

Re-visiting old photos and converting them into B&W can be fruitful in a new set of images, specially in a time where my activities are hitting low. However, the trend is always to convert color images to B&W (for various reasons and not merely just to change the feel), but would there be a trend of changing B&W photos into colored ones? I'm not talking about the technique of coloring the old photos and movies, like those documentaries done for WWI and WWII, but I'm talking about digital photography and RAW files. I remember one time I've created 2 albums for a set of photos from Ireland, in which one was colored and the other was B&W for the same set of images, but probably I've done that without thinking deeply into that matter back then. Initially, what I think, is that coloring that B&W images adds almost nothing, since the B&W gains strength in its composition in the first place, and in the tonalities involved second. The introduction of colors into images that are already strong and fine-looking in B&W seems to be breaking the harmony and should be avoided, unless there is some good reason to do this! Generally speaking though, the B&W style seems to be the proper representation for nostalgia after all.

Geltani

This project has been on hold for weeks. Anyway, I've started to work a bit more right now and I've almost finished the set of leading parts of the syllables. What's required now is to polish this set, and try more grammar and more sentences. Initially, the order is supposedly to be S.O.V., mimicking the Turkish grammar. On the other hand, there are still some details that should be worked out. I have to check how to make a simple introductory page for Geltani to represented on Omniglot, in case it is to be accepted. Moreover, the syllables to write foreign words and names into Geltani has to be checked out again since it seems that I've made up some mistakes before.

Finale

Currently, it seems that I'm under pressure to do the most I can do with my camera, just before my eyes get bitter sooner or later. Next Monday will be the day of my appointment to do some tests. I'm still waiting for my car as I see some hope that it will be fixed soon according to the garage's statement. All this time, they were waiting for the spare part to be delivered from outside, as it is cheaper than the local vendor. As soon as I get MY car, I have to plan for a trip to Failaka island. Such weather is not to be missed on the island!

Source: Amazon

I've mentioned before that doing a panorama with my new IR gel filter is on the list of things to be done. However, this can't be done right now easily after the wave of rains that we received this week, and needless to say that I do need some "nice" location, to say the least. Yes, I can do it at home, but I'm bored of this place already. On the other hand, I'm planning to put Allison Earnest's book into practice by implementing her ideas and methodology. The book is quite good and systematic in its approach. Probably it doesn't give much details concerning calculations and evaluations of light levels, but it does provide great deal about sculpting light and how to approach a project. My work though would be using my two speedlites with some of the light modifiers I have already. The difference is, with studio lights, you can use modeling light to properly position the light and check the expected shadows location before the actual shot is taken. However, with speedlites, the modeling is limited to the pilot button which casts a fast light strike into the scene. Thus, understanding the power of the speedlite is critical. I guess I will be starting with simple objects around the house.
Finally, this leaves me with my own self at the end. With all these projects in my mind and these trials to push myself to be active by force, all seems but just a trial to escape from my own feelings about life and my own self. I think I'm in a status where I'm not sure if I should embrace loneliness, or curse it. Even a loveless marriage didn't work out with me to leave this house. It does sound more like being in a jail rather than a home. Even a prisoner might have someone to talk to, to share thoughts with,  to have hopes with - yet, I don't see this coming my way at all. It's simply a dead heart walking...