Post-Oman…

Here we are, a week after a rigorous trip to Oman last week, and still waiting for the upcoming (real) vacation by the end of September. I have to say though, despite the rigorous nature for this trip it was a 50-50 adventure; I had fun despite "some" circumstances that might upset lot of people in such trips. The trip was a photography trip in the first place, but Oman is such a beautiful place that 4 days are merely enough for a single place to "document" - least to say.
We used to go out in early mornings (usually 8 a.m.) and come back to our "dwellings" after dusk, and sometimes spending more than 3 hours on the roads traveling from one city or village to another. In this rush it was hard to document the activities we were doing by writing or typing, and I barely had time to even upload the pictures I've taken during the day to my laptop (did that in the last night in Muscat only). Just to give an imagination about the rush we were in, we did in fact start doing photography at the night of our arrival in Muscat, the capital city of the Sultanate of Oman. It was a minor activity to "grease" our eyes a bit - yet I did come up with some shots that might be favorable for the group's activities later on!

Zenith
Mohammed AlAmeen mosque. Muscat, Oman.
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 1/4s, ISO400.

The architecture of Mohammed AlAmeen mosque was quite favorable but because of the tired body and mind it was hard to focus in doing much there. Yet, I did try my best and found my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens quite favorable for such place. I had to do some body-stretching though, as in Zenith, where I laid down on my back pointing my head to one of the entrances of the mosque and resting the camera on my chest. Three bracketed shots were taken in this position, but since I was breathing (surprisingly!), the first and last exposures were hazy and shaken and had no choice but to pick the lowest exposure (at -2EV) to edit in RAW format, which made up Zenith. Considerable work was involved here to enhance the exposure and sharpness and reducing the noise, but I doubt that it would be a good view in a large print.
The main gain in the trip goes to those who are interested in portraiture and documenting the rural life of Oman (unfortunately, international contests are always emphasizing these elements which leaves me empty-handed). Some members did indeed bring studio flashes and monolights, dragging them wherever we go; and the apogee of such activity was in Bayt Al-Safah: the home town of our guide which was an active center for the surrounding villages along many aspects of day-to-day life in the past. In that location specifically I didn't touch my camera and I really enjoyed myself in the rural life style and the traditional music which I love.

The Race
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/3.5,
8m10s, ISO400.

Compared to other members in the group, I would be probably at the end of the list in number of photographs taken, specially that I was concentrating on panoramas more than anything else (but I did take single shots yet I don't think they add much to my arsenal but a mere documentation). Probably the thing that I feel sorry the most for is the fact that I didn't do much night shots despite the dedication from the group to do a milkyway-shot from the top of the mountains on our second night in Oman. The wind was somewhat cruel with our summer clothing and no jackets (which caused me some severe pains in the wrists in the following days). Even though I'm accustomed to such atmosphere but being on the top of the mountain was quite a dangerous venture and yet somewhat annoying because the job was done by a group and not a single person, me. As you can see in The Race, which was a star-trail shot rather than milkyway-shot, there is a trace of car lights which passed through the frame just seconds before the exposure ended. I guess it is just my luck and it is supposed to be so. Probably it does add some dynamic touch to the overall look of the image. I've raised the ISO here to 400 instead of settling with 100 to shorten the time (it should have taken around 32 minutes with ISO100); spending so much time in that wind and with other members lighting their torches on and off to see their ways would be just a vain. After completing this shot (and the only good one I suppose), I've went down back to the hotel (on feet as the hotel was on the top of the mountain itself) with some members leaving the others there trying to find their luck. It was an amazing night, and in the morning the sun light exposed many aspect of the breath-taking terrain surrounding the area: we were on the top of a mountain, where we could see other mountains below us. Definitely this place needs more than just one-night stay. Unfortunately, that morning and because of the pain in my hands, I didn't risk doing anything; it was a time to rest.

Ya'aribah's Halo
Al-Ya'aribah Mosque, Nizwa. Oman.

Panorama-wise now. I was reluctant to do a panorama wherever I go; this is mainly because of the time limitation imposed on the group's activities overall. For this reason, I had to inspect in a whim and make quick decisions about whether or not a panorama should be done here or there. Well, this made me forget some points and precautions (typical even in normal conditions), but the great challenge with panoramas taken from Oman is not the architecture and the looks, but the surroundings and the people roaming the place.
As we were going around typically tourists attractions, it was inevitable to do panoramas with people roaming the place. At the time of typing this, I did not inspect all panoramas but so far so good with those done with the stitching already. The greatest challenge though is to see the yielding results of stitching Sultan Qabus mosque's panorama; the mosque is said to have the largest chandelier in the world and it is a tourists attraction, while taking photos is allowed only from 8 to 11 a.m.; I'm quite positive right now that there will be a great deal of Photoshop work and skills needed in that specific panorama, and I'm relying on the HDR ghost-removal techniques to reduce (not completely remove) some of the movements in the place. The HDR technique did some nice job in other busy places before!

Solar Jabreen
Jabreen fort and castle. Bahla, Oman.

Problematic as much as it is fascinating, those panoramas taken outdoors did have the glaring sun disk in them. Fascinating for the fact that exposures are done easily (in brackets), and also increasing the depth of field does not impose an immediate lag in the shutter speed after all; the sun light is rough! On the other hand, it is problematic because the sun disk does not provide a pleasant addition to the scene with just a glaring white spot in the sky. For this reason, I've found myself doing the tone-mapping for these HDR panoramas using Photoshop to control the tones curve freely - this way I could create the annular shapes for the sun as can be seen in Ya'aribah's Halo and Solar Jabreen. This work did extended in fact with some few other panoramas after these two even though there is no sun disk visible in the scene but because of the harsh contrast between the sky and the other elements in the scene. One thing I wish I did (but couldn't) is an infrared panorama like the one done in Ireland under a diffused sunlight (but here we got a strong sun light which should shorten the time of exposures). The time limit did not allow me to achieve this dream. My infrared panorama from Ireland did have quite a voiced support from some of the audience in the latest expo.

The Waterfront (IR)

QTVRs are early to talk about but they are doable. Despite the fact that I've taken shots for the nadir point under my feet with the intent to clone the tripod and other elements to make them adequate to be merged into panoramas, I've actually just cropped the bottom areas of these panoramas to remove the tripod without adding a nadir point. When it comes to making a QTVR later on, I'll be adding a label with the name and location for that QTVR. The only backlash here is when other projections are needed where the nadir point might be in the front instead at the bottom, which calls for heavy skills in cloning as usual. Hopefully I'll be posting more panoramas in the coming days just before my second travel to Malta on September 27^th.

Finale

I do feel like a running horse right now; all work and no play. Work with my photos that is. We have a sorting meeting coming up next week and thus I must prepare as much as possible before coming Sunday. Meanwhile, I do feel like doing nothing. In fact, once my feet stepped on the soil of the homeland, I wished to go back to Oman; not to take photos, but to live - as simple as that. I think it is time to change the people around me, yet it is such a hard task to do nor visible in the near horizon. All I can do is just travel as much as I can, as long as my financial situation allows to. If one has a home that doesn't feel like home, and workplace that bears no respect, where one should be going next?

3D Fort
Bayt AlRideedah, Nizwa. Oman.
Click to Enlarge

Yggdrasil…

This blog post contains a QTVR which uses QuickTime plugin to be displayed. The page might load slowly, and might not be displayed properly on tablets or smartphones. 

Summer is officially here. It is already 43°C (~109°F) at daytime. I wonder how much that would be around "real" Summer? I can't even bear the idea in my mind with getting a splash of melancholy more than it is already.

I've recently finished an eye check-up (last Sunday), which is a regular one done every 6 or 7 months since I've been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). Sounds a bit of good news now when the doctor said that the situation seems stable. I do have my problems already in walking around specially in confined spaces, but compared to my eldest brother, I can well take care of myself so far. Probably the Vitamin A treatment is doing its job in slowing down the process of decay of the retina cells. Hopefully!

Success with Mess

I've finally managed to stitch the tricky panorama taken from Al-Hamra tower about two weeks ago. The panorama was tricky because of the moving subjects AND stable subjects in the scene; adding to that, the hardships with moving the remnants of the tripod in some projection styles.

Inside Al-Hamra

Of course, the series must start off with the regular and the most humble project: the flat spherical. The major problem here was with slide 7 specifically (center, to the right a bit). There were major stitching errors in that spot specifically and there was a "gap"; because slide 7 was removed completely. Adding any bit of it would scramble the whole area, thus I had to remove the culprit and try to mend it manually. In a small size it would be fine to look at I presume (and the QTVR looks good I believe). The tripod remnant in this version is not a problem since it is at the bottom, and a simple crop was enough to remove it.

By The Crown

The next "play" was to change the perspective. When trying the little planet projection, I personally didn't like the results, thus I changed my mind directly to see what the tunnel projection would yield. The result was By The Crown. One of the major problems here is the fact that, despite my attempt to centralize everything, but, as usual, things should go astray when the final image is made! I've spent quite a time with By The Crown trying to wrap, mold, and fix the axes to meet my vision. I wasn't lucky in other styles though!

İmparatorun Avlusunda
(in the emperor's courtyard)

Before heading to the little planet projection, I paid a minor visit to the Mercator projection (usually this is one of the "last" projections to explore when I do panoramas). The shape of the straight lines in the architecture and the uneven ceiling of the place did not help in achieving a good twisted panorama, adding to that the fact that the group members do appear in a crucial part of the panorama. Thus, a simple vertical panorama using Mercator format (to have a proper width instead of a slender one) is all I could do for the time being. Yet, I allowed myself to break the normal attitude when tone-mapping the HDR panorama and tried to add more drama to the scene by using "harsh" techniques, so to say., which caused specific halos around some elements in the image.
Yet when moved to the little planet projection style, there was not much to be done in this projection. It did not yield interesting results as much as the tunnel projection did. However, changing the viewing angle in that projection was enough (in fact the tunnel projection is just a planet projection with 180 degrees reversal).

Παλάτι του Ηρακλή
(Palace of Hercules)

Changing the viewing angle in the planet projection format did in fact yield 2 interesting results as we'll see; with 180 degrees of difference between the two. The first attempt, Παλάτι του Ηρακλή, is probably the most interesting panorama in the collection so far. When posted to 500px website, it was ranked as "popular" in just 30 minutes from posting it. This panorama caused me a lot of headache when trying to fix the axes of the image to make it as symmetric as possible, and removing the remnants of the tripod was a great deal of time and effort and yet it is not a perfect render still - it might look good only in the small version. Here too, I've decided to push the HDR tone-mapping further and try to make a harsh impact on the eye by exposing the black levels and increasing the contrast (and the vibrance of colors too). The tiles of the ground were hard to keep in symmetry and I believe they were not meant to be symmetrical in the first place! I think I'll revisit this panorama soon for B&W conversion or so…

Yggdrasil

The second, or the opposite angle for Παλάτι του Ηρακλή, was named Yggdrasil. Originally I was thinking of something related to spiders, but it crossed my mind that Yggdrasil is more interesting! Yggdrasil is the tree of life in the Norse mythology. To add a twist to Yggdrasil, I've added a Photo Filter to the original HDR panorama before tone-mapping. It was a magenta tint filter. However, I have to say I somewhat regretted this decision, as working with the panorama later on proved to be harder than I thought and the tones were problematic. I'm seriously considering re-tone-mapping this panorama without this tint. Anyway, it did reach the "popular" status in 50 minutes after posting it to 500px website. Removing the tripod remnants from Yggdrasil was relatively easier compared to Παλάτι του Ηρακλή, but it did take a long time as well, and discrepancies did occur in that area later on when tone-mapped and processed. The visual impact was sealed with sharpening the panorama with a bit of overdose. In this panorama, I couldn't hold things in a square format as it was with Παλάτι του Ηρακλή before, because some features at the bottom were not adding much to the scene (and cropping from the sides a little did help eliminate some stitching errors and avoid me the hassle of fixing them). These are the panoramas done from that specific location so far…

QTVR-wise, there was only one QTVR of course, since it is all about one panorama. Again, when making a QTVR right now, I don't have to worry much about the nadir point. I've started to adapt the logo approach at the nadir point mostly right now. However, because of some recent developments, I'm thinking more about changing the style in which I represent my QTVRs on the web; even though it might takes up some learning curve in the field of coding and webpage development…

 

The difference aspect here though, is the fact that I didn't render the QTVR at the size of 400x300 pixels as I usually do for this blog - but it was rendered here in a larger size and the window is fixed at 400x300 size; I think this way is better for representing the details better in such a small space. At the bottom of this QTVR you can find the information about the location.

Revision

In the past two weeks I've been ignited again to have a peek into Chinese and Japanese, specifically after my follow up with an old cartoon: 三国志 (Jap: Sangokushi), or Romance of Three Kingdoms; a famous work of Chinese literature made into an anime.
Digging further into the names of the characters and trying to understand more the tonal system used in Mandarin Chinese, made me sweep through the language as a whole and specially some of the sounds and notations used in the Pinyin system to note down Chinese. Some of these sounds used in real Chinese are not implemented in Geltani, but I did add some Semitic sounds already to Geltani which made it a Sino-like language with a Semite touch. Some of these sounds are: voiced and voiceless alveolo-palatal fricatives. I think applying the tonal system is out of the question here since this would complicate the matters further, but it would be nice to understand AND comprehend the tones by hearing them in spoken manner. I know, things like that sound natural to a Chinese person probably, but as an Arab, tones are used to distinguish a style of speech (as in most languages, e.g. in question or sarcasm), but to use tones solely to distinguish meanings is pretty much a harder task for someone without trained hearing. This ignites in me a question of whether or not such languages do help, naturally, their speakers in musical endeavors. Would someone learning Chinese get, by nature, the capability to distinguish musical notes more easily? Is learning Chinese easier relatively for someone who deals with musical tones?
Anyway, there might not be a space for extra sounds in Geltani already, but I think it is worth some consideration. I do have some plans regarding some revision for the Geltani - and I know, I've been saying this for long now, but most of the processes regarding this project are mental and not noted down! I think I must start building a webpage for it soon and send it over to Omniglot and see what happens.
By the way, probably I should stop using the "semite" and "semitic "notation by now since lot of people, as far as I know, are reluctant to use them because they are remnants of the Orientalists who based their classifications upon the Bible majorly, and less on scientific evidence. However, in Arabic books that I've encountered so far, some authors tend to call this language group as Arabic / Arabian languages or Ancient Arabian languages sometimes, referring to the fact that most of those who speak such languages, specifically Akkadians (the first Semites to arrive in Mesopotamia and lived along side with the Sumerians) were immigrants from the Arabian peninsula, and hence it is logical to call such group as Arabian languages as a whole. Anyway, in modern Western styles, such group is called mostly Afro-Asiatic languages as I reckon.

Finale

Feeling a bit down since I couldn't accompany the group to Dubai this week to attend PhotoWorld Expo. Too many things on my plate that I couldn't really afford to go and come back just for 3 days. Anyway, many positive feedback are coming already and I'm glad that they've made it as the only Kuwaiti corner in the expo.
I've got visiting visions in my mind about writing some short story of some sort (many topics crossed my mind actually), beside writing poetry as well. Yet, when I look at the time I do have and all the things that I must attend to, makes me scared to even think about adding one more task into my daily scheme and schedule. For this reason, I might have, at some point, to give up some of my time that I do spend here in front of the PC and processing images, as well as dwelling on some social medias aspects, to pour that time down on other sides of my own self. 
Meanwhile, I'm trying to re-collect myself; my judgements, actions, reactions. Many things to go through in my life, as I get more isolated. Sometimes, leaving and relocating yourself in some far away places might be the only solution available, to gain some respect that you deserved in a long time…

Ham(b)ra…

Still feeling like a compressed can of soda. So much to do in this week and I barely have the time to brush my hair before going out even (literally). The coming weeks aren't free any further I presume.
Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the gallery of the monodrama festival to be established, so that I can publish my shots further. It is supposed to take place around May 25^th. Still a long time if you ask me. On the other hand, there is an eye check up appointment waiting for me by next Sunday, and I'm completely feeling uneasy about it. I need a 2 weeks vacation just to do what I "have" to do and what I really "want" to do. Well, Let's make that 3 weeks…

Ham(b)ra

Al-Hamra (or mockingly: El Hambra!) is one of the longest buildings in the city here. The group managed to make a deal with whoever is in charge to let us in and do some photo shoot inside. Originally, this "trip" is not related to my current class with the group which is about B&W photography, but however, it was a good practice there and our teacher asked us to do some B&W shoot in there.

A map of the location. The blue marker points to the tower while the red one points to the mall itself. The green marker points to the shadow of the tower on the ground; compare to other shadows!

It was my first time in that building and I have to say that I did like the architecture there in general, yet it doesn't sweeten my eyes as much as a typical traditional architecture (i.e. Islamic so to say). However, the lines and shapes were abundant and in fact I spent my whole time mostly in one location trying to extract abstracts as much as possible from there. Needless to say that my burden of tools was heavy and didn't allow for easy movement from one place to another. Other members of the group were roaming the place and did have way much better shots than I did in fact. All settled in B&W. No tint.
In the beginning, however, there was a panorama for the place which I tried my best to make centralized as much as possible for a perfect symmetry. Anyway, because of the movement in the place and the presence of the group (and passing people a bit) it turned out to be a troublesome panorama and I do need quite a time to fix the slides together. With any luck, I might be able to post it next week here!

The main whole where most of my shots were taken.
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8(?), 15^-1, ISO100.
Interestingly, I fixed the tilt when editing the RAW, yet my teacher exclaimed about the presence of the tilt still!

The Ceiling

Even though most shots were taken in exposure brackets as for merging into HDR later, but only one was picked for the edit. Also, everyone agreed that the light conditions (specifically outside) were not proper for the session (hence the extremely bright windows shown in the entrance hall above). Though I don't mind the brightness and I think they add to the contrast, but still they say some details or lower level of light must be there. On the other hand, since the images were shot in RAW, and despite using the Monochrome Picture Style my Canon camera, yet Photoshop does not identify such styles. The images would still show up in color. Thus, the images you see here are in fact "converted" to B&W by the RAW editor. Nevertheless, we were supposed to use the LiveView feature in our cameras to aid in forming a perspective of the B&W image we are about to make.
I did my reading about the B&W photography some long time ago and what I taught myself is in fact what has been taught in this class so far; it is all about patterns and light (thus, abstracts are a good approach in this field). The whole idea is that you forget about the color and concentrate on composition, because it is the pinning factor for your image. You take off colors simply to make the viewer concentrate more on the emotions and the shapes involved in your photo. For that, and keeping this in mind, I wouldn't have to use the LiveView much to imagine my shot, but after all it is a good practice. One's eye should be able to predict the outcome of the B&W already by looking directly to the nature of the subject and the lighting about it, and not its colors.

Hanging
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8(?),
50^-1 sec, ISO100.

After a while, the group decided to head up, to the 60^th floor! Later I was thrilled to know we were supposed to head to the 80^th floor but the security people disagreed with that and the maximum height we could head to is the 60^th. I was tired already and in fact I wanted to go back home at that time but the group insisted on going up and have a look from there. I have to admit that the view is marvelous, and probably would have been more eye-catching if it was the evening time with the lights of the city glimmering over the landscape. Anyway, my first shot up there was actually of me lying down with my legs stuck to the wall, as you can see in Hanging. Of course, this shot was actually turned upside down for the purpose of "visual impact"; so to say. My teacher liked the idea but said it needs some work (the image itself suffered a heavy cropping as well, as it was taken with a fisheye lens). I'm not sure what extra work needs to be done here but I agreed to bring the original RAW file to the teacher to see for himself. I've removed the empty space (at the bottom of the image) since it doesn't serve the symmetry much.

InfraCity
Canon EF-S 18-55mm, @34mm,
f/10, 25s, ISO100.

The final shot from up there was a landscape shot for the city in portrait, using the infrared filter. In the beginning I had some trials with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, and the Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens, but all yielded improper proportions and the distortion was not highly appreciated in fact. Thus, I decided to head back to the very old (and shaky) 18-55mm lens; i.e. the kit lens. The infrared filter in use here was B+W's circular filter, which has a threshold of 650nm; meaning it does allow some visible light to seep through. It would not be possible to use the gel filter with such a lens (which has a threshold of 1000nm). For this reason, despite using ISO100, the exposure was relatively short (25 seconds only), compared to longer exposures in such situations when using the gel filter. Anyway, the shot isn't typically B&W but in processing such images the image would turn to B&W somewhat with a tint, and can be converted to pure B&W after all. Even such short (relatively) exposure did help in showing the clouds on the move. I guess an exposure of around 40 seconds or 50 seconds would be enough to give some good lines for the clouds' movement. Yet, the infrared filter did in fact help on adding contrast and to show the clouds more clearly (no polarizer was used in here). Still, the amazing point which I don't comprehend still, why the teacher sees a tilt in the image despite my fixes for the horizon line in the RAW editor! It is probable that this is caused by the barrel effect for such lenses. I tried to fix this type of distortion manually but the image was highly stretched at the bottom and turned out-of-focus-like; thus, I've kept it as it is.

Alarming

In all that mess, I got an unexpected (bad) surprise, when I realized some of my lenses were malfunctioning in a weird way. Mainly, the Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens, and the pretty old 18-55mm kit lens. I wouldn't be worried much for the latter, but the former lens is pretty important for my work with panoramas.
I'm not sure what's the deal here. However, the lens seems (or looks) dry. The autofocus function works fine, but when it is turned manual and I try to re-focus, the ring would rotate without the distance indicator turning with it. I would have to press and rotate several times to make it move. This doesn't make for a precise work if you ask me, but thank God it works, for now! Does it need some oiling? Is it a problem of some jamming in the inner mechanism? I'm not quite sure. I'm glad that the autofocus function seems to work without a hassle; for now.
These problems makes me think of seriously updating some of my lenses. Maybe it is a time for another wide angle lens (rectilinear this time and not a fisheye). Anyway, such dreams on hold for now, with the financial situation being shaky and the future is quite blurred.

Finale

It seems that every time I try to recollect myself and establish some time management - everything would fall apart. I've been neglecting lot of aspects in my life... and lot of projects. Namely the Geltani conlang which had been on hold for a pretty long time now. Maybe I should transform some of these projects to be worked with when I go to work; that useless place which gives me no value, nor respect.

I've been trying as well to push myself to write some poetry. There is one finished weeks ago but I didn't happen to post it here; I called it Marbhna Croí (lament of heart). I guess in the process of making one poem you should simply lose yourself into it to the limit of talking non-sense sometimes. If we think with some sense, I guess the poetry-making process would be in halt. This would be another venture that I need to look at further, as it is, like the rest of my projects, been forgotten.

I'm trying hard to keep myself on the optimism side, but things seem to be going downward on every corner. Here, and every where I look. At times, my streak of loneliness seems to be a grace and a virtue, but it does strike back suddenly just like a cancer plaguing the heart and mind. Trying my best to work and indulge myself in work to the limit of exhaustion and fatigue; yet nothing is achieved or not much of it is, and we are back to block number one - time management failure. I need a rest from the world…