Inis an Ghaill...

Wow! What a day! I'm so tired now that I can barely write this. Worse though, I can't have a nap before I finish everything for tomorrow; mainly packing.
Today I've head to Inchagoill island (Irish: Inis an Ghaill), which happens to mean "island of foreigners". I'm not sure why it is called like that, but surely I was like a stranger there today! As I've jumped on the boat I've got my camera ready already before hopping in, and fitted my Sigma 70-300mm lens and started to shoot as the boat was ravaging through the lake. It would have been good to use a polarizer in such situations but the shake of the boat would absolutely make this addition useless and helpless. However, I did take a number of images, and I won't be filtering them out probably.

Same house on the banks of the lake shot 5 years ago. This time in close up!

Upon reaching the island, of course we docked and headed down. My "guide," named Patrick, told me where to go: just follow the path. And he headed to other side in front of the dock (there was a rocky dock made) and he said he will be waiting there. Sure I said!

Where I landed. The trees (scotch fir trees) were Patrick headed waiting for me.

The entry to the church.

I followed the path, got lost for a while, but then I've found the church "complex"; well, if I can call it so! Anyway, I did take some shots from outside with 50mm (because it has the largest aperture I have already and helps with shallow depths when needed). My main interest was the designed gateway, which was so narrow for my, and my bag to pass through! After snapping those shots, I started right away setting up my tools to do a panorama outside just in front of the gateway. I'm expecting problems in terms of the exposure and showing details in the sky. Also, seems that using Daylight WB was not the proper choice, but that problem can be easily fixed later on. Strangely, this WB made the ground and some areas of the scene a bit bluish instead of yellowish as it usually does. For this reason, after that point, I had to use the Shade WB.

Things went great in the beginning; panorama outside, panorama inside, and then things started to get a bit wicked. Finishing from this location, it was time then to head to the Coffee House. I got lost again, and luckily I got back to the path again, from which I reached the church. Found some workers on the island (they were there when I landed and started my journey on the island). I asked for directions and they just told me to follow straight in that path. Strangely though, when I asked them about the coffee house, they don't really realize it, but when I describe it as "that little building on the top of the hill" they reckon the building and told me where to go. Again, on the way, I was about to get lost, and then found a gentleman who guided me further and turned me back to the church (apparently I was going in circles) and from there, he told me to follow the path and he left me at a certain point. From that point and on, it was one heck of a way to that building!

Strangely, forgot to take a general shot for the coffee house with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. However, I started my work directly with a panorama from the outside. I was thinking of doing a panorama inside this small building, but I neglected the idea for two reasons: One, not much details inside that would make up for an interesting panorama, and two, the buzzing sounds of flies, wasps or even bees. Whatever was there, the buzzing sound was really loud inside! On the top of the coffee house, there was a nice view, but again, it wasn't suitable for a panorama. However, I did take some shots for the stairway with my fisheyes. Now, the adventure is about to begin...

Finishing from the coffee house, now it is time to go back to Patrick. All what I did is just follow the path down the slope (and had a fall on the way). At one point, I reached what seemed to me like a dead point - no way further with trees filling the way. All what was there is a small outlet leading to the beach area, which seemed to be my only way out! So I did.
The beach was really rocky. REALLY. I can almost say, no sand is there but rocks. Rocks filling the shore and I had to walk on them. I didn't know my location but my pace was slow now and hurtful because of the twisting feet. A tripod on my shoulder, a bag on my hand, and backpack on my back, with a camera around my neck. I even used the tripod (with VR-head attached to it) as a cane to help me go through the rocks. At this point, I realized I'm on the wrong side of the island, but it's too late now to go back. I had to continue and "survey" the shores until I reach the dock!

Map of Inchagoill island (from Wikimapia) and the red circle is supposedly where I got lost I presume, but I'm not that sure about it.

After passing through some muddy ground and dipping myself in water to avoid some branches (heck, I've broken some branches with my shoulders even!), I've reached a maximum point of exhaustion. I literally tried to rest a bit on the ground but the weight of my body and my tools didn't help and I almost fell to the water if it wasn't for me catching the ground with my hands. My head started to twist around, and apparently I do need some glucose in my blood for now! In this journey I was so exhausted to take pictures but at certain point (and before I get so dirty in the mud!) I tried to a simple shot here.

On the rocky beach. It was at this point that I've realized I'm on the wrong side, because the dock is opposite to this piece of land of high scotch fir trees (check 2^nd picture from the top).

After all, I made it! With all that exhaustion I did reach Patrick and we had a laugh together! It was a little adventure but surely a refreshing one. The amazing thing here is, in the beginning you feel miserable for getting wet, but when you get extremely exhausted, you would really enjoy the feel of water in your shoes! Later on the boat, the cold air and the splashes of water drops against my body did really help me cool down and enjoy the ride, but this time, I had to go on without taking photos on the way back - and that gave liberty for Patrick to speed up with the boat unlike the slow motion in getting to the island form the Waterfront. What a day.

All of that now came down to some loss. I have to get a new tripod as soon as I reach home because my tripod lost one of its rubbers in one of its legs, and my VR-head lost one of the screws; luckily it was the 3/4" screw designed for larger cameras and not the 1/3" screw which fits my camera. Now, I have to post this and start to arrange my things in order to leave the Waterfront tomorrow. Goodbye for now, and probably this might be my last post in Ireland...

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...

Roaring Engine...

Attention: QTVRs ahead - give some time for this post to load, please!

Amid the political dilemma in this country, I'm cooling down my head and trying to carry a grin wherever I go. Despite the fear in the eyes of everyone I meet, I just feel delighted. I'm on a vacation until November 17^th and I'm going to enjoy my time even if the sky is falling down on Earth.
I'm coping still with my sleeping time and somehow I managed to fix it little bit. But I know myself, I'm going to screw it up again soon. It is amazing how time flies, as I've prepared already my first album of 20 images from New York (and Staten island specifically). I remember when I used to work on images from Ireland, it did take me more than just 2 weeks to prepare a single album (of 20 images). I have to prepare a mass e-mail with all 20 images now.

There are lot of panoramas here to deal with and naturally, lot of problems to deal with. Unfortunately, some of them have problems that are not resolved so far; mainly problems in flare and exposure settings, but less problems in terms of alignment of slides and broken lines.

Enlightenment

Working with panoramas is a weird business indeed. Hardships can arrive at any point, and easiness might come from points that you thought were hard - or vice versa. The panorama taken from the Chinese Scholar Gardens on Staten Island, Enlightenment, can be an example for this phenomena; if I can call it so!
This panorama had no need to add a zenith point (topmost slide) because the upper range slides make up a closed region on top making the panorama perfect. As for the nadir point (bottom) it was relatively easy to work it out with a logo. The hardest point in the panorama, however, was the White Balance (WB) and I've struggled with the color cast and the shade in general. I think I've learned my lesson here: a gray space is not as easy as it seems! I had to do many editions in HDR mode before baking (tone-mapping) the HDR here. One of the fixed things is selective exposure reduction which helped adding a halo around the lanterns.

The Porch

I'm trying hard to make a QTVR out of any panorama I've taken already but some of those just don't make it as good as the flat version, just like the The Porch panorama; taken from the porch of the Victorian B&B. I would describe my struggle with panorama as a moderate one, but the magenta tones and the dramatic noise level made the QTVR a bit of a non-pleasant experience. Anyway, I've added the QTVR below. This particular QTVR was limited with its downward tilt because the logo got really awful after tone-mapping - which taught me a lesson here: Add the logo AFTER tone-mapping.

The Victorian B&B

Just before leaving those panoramas from the 1^st set or album, I'd like to bring here one panorama that is already to 2^nd set. The Victorian B&B panorama was/is one of the hardest panoramas that I've worked with so far. In fact, it was stitched and re-done twice. In the beginning, I stitched the panorama making the middle line of the house (the partition between the first and the second floor) in the middle, which makes it a horizontal line. Why? Because at this point I was able to clone the tree branches on the top and I would no need a zenith slide to be placed there. However, after making the QTVR I've found out that the result is weird a bit and the view does not resemble how the scene is viewed with perspective of a standing man.
On the other hand, the clouds and the exposure related to them were a major problem and even though I've reduced the effect of the plain color patches by changing blending priorities, yet there was some cloning job waiting for me in Photoshop. Tone-mapping this HDR panorama was done in such a way to emphasize the green factor in the scene, which required Photoshop processing too.

Bent Not Broken
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/2.8,
800^-1sec, ISO 100

Of course, not all my work had been on panoramas, but I try to spread my efforts equally between single shots and panoramas by doing some single shots in between panorama projects, but there are times when I just didn't feel like touching anything at all. Bent Not Broken was already done when I was on Staten island, but I've re-done it when I arrived back home and I've increased the sharpness dramatically to make it more pronounced. The crop is made into a square as I felt it is more pleasant for the eye and serves the bending stem perfectly rather than a wide empty space on the left side (even though such space can be used for some text if any need arises) - yet, I've felt I should make nature speaks with silence and no need to give much unnecessary space.

Happy Halloween

However, not all single shots were easy. I mean by single shots, shots that are not prepared for a panorama here. Most of them though are bracketed shots for HDR merging - even though I frequently see my chances with single RAW file editing before proceeding to do the HDR - unless I'm pretty sure and know exactly what I want to do with the HDR, then it is the time to head directly for merging. A shot like Happy Halloween pronounced to me that I need more dramatic light here. After mangling with Photomatix for several minutes if not one complete hour, the effect I really need to do was not available just like that - so, I had to approximate and carry the job into Photoshop to take care of the rest. I can't remember how many adjustment layers did I add, but two words can tell it all: Too Many!

Basket Maker House

Basket Maker House (BW)

There are also some instances where it is hard to decide which to upload to the stock images websites like the Basket Maker House sample. The Black and White version was done back in Staten island with my laptop (since I was planning to to work with color with my PC alone for better resolution and view). Both versions are tone-mapped from HDR and to me, I like them both. I leave it for you to decide which one is closer to your feelings!

QTRVs

Now, to the real stuff. Well, skip this section if you don't have QuickTime plugin installed already. I've prepared small QTVRs for posting here but also some of them were prepared in large format.
To reduce the size, I've started not to render the QTVR using 100% quality, but something between 70-90%, even for large format panoramas sometimes depending on what I'm aiming for. I've noticed though at 100% large format QTVRs tend to be crisper and sharper more than the original sharpness - I hope this is not an eye trick.
First we have the temple place at the Chinese Scholar Garden:


You can get the large format from here.

In this QTVR I tried to do an elegant move by putting the text in a circular form around the nadir point instead of just putting the text in the middle as I did before. I think it works nicely that way - but the mistake was that I didn't put the nadir point after tone-mapping, but I did it in HDR Mode and tone-mapped the whole image making the text, sometimes, illegible.

The porch's QTVR isn't really something I'm happy about, but I did try after all. The weird textures and patches of colors in such a small size QTVR makes it weird looking and doesn't really reflect the comfort reflected in the flat image itself. I didn't prepare a large format QTVR for this one though.


 

Then comes the irony with the hardest panorama but the easiest one to fix its nadir point: The Victorian B&B from outside.



And you can find a larger format in here. You can see that the nadir point was easily fixed by cloning the concrete ground. I love such grounds! But alas! it's not always that easy!

With these panoramas, I've done mostly all of phase one concerning my panoramas, which is supposed to be about flat presentations of these panoramas, and QTVRs along with that when possible. Only few panoramas like my room's remains to be checked, and also the pond of the Chinese Scholar Garden which is prepared already but unfortunately, has a flare and changing colors problem that can't be easily fixed in Photoshop. Probably I have to work hard on this one. Phase two, however, can be anything; Litte planets, wide-view, tunnel view, I really didn't decide yet.

Thoughts and Condolences

Despite my short stay in the US, on Staten Island, I think my experience and interactions with people there was rich - richer than it was in Ireland I presume.
One of these interactions were not physical, nor even direct, but something ethereal, if I can call it so. It was Saturday, October 20^th when I headed with my friends from Staten Island to a nursery where Mr Harrison is kept for extensive care, specially for his condition of Alzheimer. It was a quiet little family gathering and I've been introduced to the members, but not directly to Mr Harrison. However, I've remained and took some pictures, and in one weird moment, this old man, who was celebrating his 91^st, raised his head with a smile looking at me for some reason that I couldn't realize until this moment I'm typing this - yet, after being paralyzed for a moment and looking into his eyes, I've started to shoot some pictures of him with that look.
Now, after Sandy hurricane that swept through the eastern parts of the US, and which devastated Staten Island, and after 2 weeks and getting back home, I got the news that Mr Harrison had died. Maybe we should be happy for him because he didn't live in torments for long and now he is in a better place. But the fact that such a connection was made between us, without even a chat or a touch, that, is something to be revived and remembered.
Now, I do have a firm belief, that everything that was done -my travel, my stay, meeting friends, and getting back home before the storm, and being there with the family of Mr Harrison, and being with Mr Harrison- all of that, was done and planned in my fate for a reason and a goal. Now, it is the time for me to think and recognize the lessons. R.I.P. Mr Harrison.

Ikaros...

Ikaros. Some island in the vicinity of Greece, but the Ikaros I'm talking about here is the now-called, Failaka island. Maybe I should call it Ikaros of the Orient?
I've finally did what I was wishing for, for the time being; spending a night on Failaka and get back the next day. I almost ran into a disaster when I realized that I didn't bring the wire to connect my camera to the laptop, nor I did bring an external hard disk to dumb my files into it. Anyway, gracefully, my 16GB and 8GB memory cards did the job for the two days. I recorded some videos in the beginning and that took some large space in the card as well.

I. Failaka:
On Failaka island I've found the places that I need for doing a "flash panorama". Perfect deserted place and buildings in wreckage. However, it is hard to move at night on the island. Not many places got electricity, and I couldn't move far from the hotel (Ikaros Hotel). I was trying to do a star-trail photography at night but the sky did not differ from that on the main land, and the few people on the island in the vicinity of the hotel were annoying with their vehicles and lights. I think it is not a job for one person though, and with my weak eyes already, I wouldn't dare moving around in such a darkness.
My first target on the island was to take a panorama of some place; a place the resembles destruction (and of course this was abundant almost every where on the island). Empty and deserted doesn't mean necessarily a safe environment; I had to watch my steps here and there, and also I had to pick a place that resembles my idea the most. Despite the fact that lot of these places were deserted, but not all of them give interesting patterns in the inside to make some interesting panoramas after all.

Zerstörung (Destruction)

This place was, I guess, a workshop or some engineers work place (judging from the instructions and some debris), and it was located near the old power plant. I liked this place because of the patterns of the sun rays across the broken roof, beside the "amazing" ground with all the trash and debris on it resembling a real destruction scene.
The greatest challenge was to settle the tripod itself on such floor. Here at this moment, and going around carrying my backpack, tripod and the VR-head only, I couldn't think of going back to my car to bring the other tools just to snap a shot of the Nadir point. From the beginning, I realized that the Nadir point will be a challenge already. It wouldn't be a big deal if I'm planning for a flat panorama only, like the one above, but later on I decided to do a QTVR for it. Remember: always take a shot for the nadir (from the VR-head itself) even if you are planning for a flat panorama. You wouldn't know what this will be useful for, nor when your mind suddenly changes and make a QTVR out of your scene. However, I admit that later on, some panoramas I did were simple (360 panoramas) without any zenith or nadirs. I'm breaking my own rules!

Anyway, later on, there was a trial on a QTVR and the nadir point, as expected, proved to be a challenge somehow. I put the name of the picture, instead of a logo or something. Check out that you have QuickTime plugin installed.



Now, there is a lot to be done with the pictures from Failaka. Reminds me of the happy times after getting back from Ireland with loads and loads of images that kept me working the whole year or so. This of course is not comparable, but with these few panoramas, I can do many things that might make me look busy, and also might add to the inventory of the prints that I can offer too. Just by the end of the second day and to pass the time till the ferry arrives, I was roaming the island aimlessly trying to find some targets... like this...

Marching Chicken

II. Business:

Trying to keep ahead now with my prints and website. Now, it seems that I got myself a first customer and hopefully things are going well in that direction. There had been some delays though.

The final product to be delivered. The picture was taken in a haste anyway!

Now after such prints and news, and maybe some people can be (or so I foresaw) potential customers, I think it is time to delete some of my work on stock sites, specially those which are the most liked and cheered. It is a hard decision indeed because, up to this moment, I still Likes on some of these old images, but I think it is better to remove them from stock sites if I'm going to make them as prints for people. This way, only one resource file will be available with me.
Also, after my last visit to Failaka, I did a panorama in the main hotel (Ikaros hotel, no other hotels there!) and that is sort of tempting me to start publishing myself out, i.e. writing proposals. However, this step could be somehow a dangerous step if I write to the management of the hotel about my services, while I did take a panorama already without their acknowledgement. Who knows, they can sue me for it! But it is an idea, worth investigating I guess, and lays in wait to be exploited.
Now the time is getting closer for the expo and mostly everything is in place, all what is left is some preparation or decorations for the place itself, i.e. the corner in the expo. Responsibilities had been thrown on my head again and I don't know what to do about it but anyway, in hope things will sort themselves out soon.

These were extremely exhaustive two weeks now, and I can't wait until I have some good rest and a slow paced business plans...

Planeta Herba

Crazy Me, Crazy World...

Finally I can say we got winter. The weather is getting chilly a bit in the morning, and sort of nice at noons. I want to spend more time in the outside but then, with my life pace and the tiresome body and mood, I don't think I can do that in the current time.
I'm struggling to get back to my writing habit, writing and joining some words from here and there and calling these stuff a poem or lyrics. The latest was done yesterday and called it Alien. It is about my feelings in the current time. Just lost in space and time nd I don't know where or what I'm doing really. All I know is, I need to be alone. I'm using now a tool that helps on pushing my thoughts about the words a bit, or brainstorming if I should say. The website generates a random word and asks you to provide some words related to that random word then you should make sentences linking the idea of these keywords to the main idea you want to write about! It is so random that I like it really. Some people say that Alien is nice, but I'm not yet sure it is that good. The website can be found here, Creativity Tools (check the left panel). I think it is mainly for story writing but it serves everyone right I guess.

I've started to work a bit on a new facade for my webpage and I've made a general graphic representation then divided that into several parts using Photoshop and saved it as HTML. somehow piece of cake but yet, this is just the tip of the iceberg. A load is coming and I need some time to do the rest. For the time being, all I need to do is stick links to these cut out pieces, and the race with time begins on finishing various stuff. The dictionary that I've made for Ayvarith will be one big headache. My mind is already shattered and scattered that I've forgot that I'm supposed to go on a field work this morning and must, again MUST, go tomorrow, Thursday.

Camera-wise now. I've managed to take some pictures of myself in order to work around with them, even though I'm not quite satisfied with them. I need to study the light more AND I would need more tools to control the light. A desktop lamp will not do any good and a flash source is not always adequate in such situations. I've started morphing the image already in Photoshop but stopped now for some time doing some other things. The process of morphing my face to apply the idea I have in my mind is quite challenging for me, because I've never done such a thing before. I was looking forward to see if there is a plugin that can spare me some of the tiresome tasks I need to do, but no luck. I guess I need to do all by myself.

On the other hand I'm looking forward to order some stuff for my camera, and most importantly, a macro lens. The options are wide open, but to keep it under a certain budget, I've decided to go for something else other than Canon. Also, and because I don't seem to need a macro lens very often like I do with a fisheye lens in snapping architectural features and panoramas, I've decided to take one with a range of focal length and not a fixed one. The thing about this feature is that a lens with fixed focal length usually gives a sharper image. Besides, a lens with adjustable focal length tend to have some "creeps," that is when the sliders tend to be easy to move with a slight shake or movement. The main aim now is for a Tamron, or Sigma lenses.

Some of the options.

Along with these lenses I'm thinking of getting a new backpack to hold my camera stuff and lenses. As with a new lens to the group, my current case will be stuffed, ridiculously. Then there is the matter of the moving ball head for my monopod, and who knows, maybe a whole new tripod even? I'm not sure yet. Expenses. I'm trying to hold my horses back a bit and forget about my credit card. It already has unpaid amounts hanging on.

I've finished my fourth album recently for pictures from Ireland, 2010. For the time being, I'm taking a kind of a break. I don't upload images to Mostphotos.com that often right now. I used to upload around 3 images a day, in average, last month. My rank stepped back a little now because of my laziness, but until the end of the month I will be in the front page as the photographer of the month. I'm working somehow on uploading one image a day and give more space for comments and "likes" in the website, because too many images at one time might cause some chaos and people might not know even that there are new stuff in your profile.

One of the images though, that people seem to like it a lot, was one image I called "In Terra Gigantum," or "in the lands of giants"...

In Terra Gigantum

This image was taken with a mini-tripod that I think it is supposed to be used for webcams (since I got it from a computer store from here before going to Ireland). I went wild with it for some reason, I think that was my mood with the saturation of the image. I didn't like it much. It was too much reddish and I don't remember I was that cheerful that day. The best thing I could find in my mind was to make a vivid image with weird settings (typical for HDRs). This image at this angle really revives my hopes of a panorama on a low level to the ground. The technical problems are there but hey, here comes innovation. I think I should think of something but before this, I need a location. Imagine looking at a scene from the perspective of a smurf! Voila! I would some sort of high support to fix my VR-head on the top of this small tiny tripod on the ground. The tripod already flips over when I attach it to my camera and lens, be it my Canon 7D (heavier) or Canon350D (older and lighter somehow). Now imagine putting the weight of something around 2kg (around 4.4lb) on the top of that WITH a camera. The only good point about it is, once fixed the balance, you just need to rotate the head of the VR-head itself and not the tripod. I need to think about it and try it technically to decide what to do about it and how to balance.

Again, gone wild. With Mostphotos you really got the chance to show the world how crazy you are. This time, with a simple golden clock antique that was in the lounge of Thornbrook House. Most of the crazy part here was done in Photoshop after the tone-mapping, with many adjustment layers...

Lord Time.

Maybe you can call it an emphatic image about the importance of time, as for me, all I wanted to do is pronounce this clock and show its details. Along with my work I've found myself radiating the blue part and so it was. The main reason to do all of that was the position of the clock with that wall at the back. I was not free to remove all the distracting elements. It was hard to do so. Hence, the only solution that came about in my head was to simply, attract the eye by colors and their contrast as if the subject was hit by a spot light.

Now away from my crazy mind, there are moments that are crazy by themselves, e.g. my life. Last week and in a day like this, I was out in some sort of a secret mission if I should say (yeah and I'm talking about it here) with a group from the military. We were supposed to go to Boubyan island again, but then suddenly and when we were there, the plans changed. They decided to go to some where in the middle of Kuwait. Some area that was a junk yard for destroyed military vehicles and weapons. We checked 3 locations generally and in the first, I was surprised for that tank, that after we finished the general check-up work there, I snapped several images for it and made then back home several versions from HDR slides.

A series I called "Bellum et Pax" (War and Peace).

The junk yard is always a good spot for HDR images, with all the red and yellow hues of the corroded metals. The funny thing here is that the gun of the tank is missing as you can see from the images. Been told by the soldiers with us that some Asian workers come here put a tent over the junk and by night they come back to work and weld off the parts they need away from the eyes of patrols. I really don't know what they would do with it, but it sucks!

Our next stop was in an open area where some containers used to be collected, but nothing was interesting for my camera there (despite maybe the barbed wire that I wanted to snap but didn't find it attractive enough for my eyes). The third stop was the one that really made me hate such field trips once and for all and wish I wouldn't go there anymore. We drove into a field of junk ammo that didn't explode, with my own eyes I saw a huge bomb, obviously it's not a tank's or a normal gun. It got to be an airplane's. We stopped thinking about the matter (or I should say they were thinking and I'm stuck in the car) but then they decided to retreat backward and went around that junk, but yet, we were still surrounded by ammo, maybe lesser in amount than the location before. One of soldiers told us that this area was a mine field before as well (and who knows if it was cleaned in a proper manner or not!). We had to walk in a straight line following some traces of car tires on the ground to make sure that the land where we step is safe. At the end of our work, I picked the camera and snapped only one scene for the horizon, where the clouds where gathering in what was somehow a sunny day...

Forgotten Grace.

I called it "Forgotten Grace" because, maybe, for some time, we really don't know how lucky we are that we are alive still. After these moments in a mine field amid the ammo that can explode at any minute, who knows what or when or why your life might be taken. It is just a flick of an eye sight, and you're not here anymore. Praise it, as long as you can...

The image here was bracketed (i.e. for HDR) but I merely used the technique to show the details of the clouds and pronounce the more. Nothing crazy about this as the feelings and the situation, were not adequate for such a crazy mood.

Life goes on... but till when?

Alexander 6, V37.

Well Well. One busy day I presume. I shall call this day, the day of Panoramas. I've taken lot of short panoramas either vertically or horizontally and most of them were with my fisheye lens. Too bad it doesn't have a zooming capability, as I am working with the images now, seems some of them are going to be small with big portion of the sky showing on. All of that, in Failaka island.
The sea is great. Can be full of wrath, but generous after all. Some of the panoramas I did today were not really exactly to be called a panorama, but rather I loved to include more portions of the sky in the image and hence, I prefered to take them on parts vertically to add a bit more of the sky. The weather was weird though, shiny and cloudy in the same time! And while we were approaching Failaka port, the Salmiyah city port on the main land was still obvious. Such view I've never seen before. The two do not appear in the same time usually.

As luck has it, I was able to view the shores of Miskan island from Failaka's northern shores. Also, there was this abandoned center for seafaring activities which, supposedly as stated on sign posts, would provide a pick-up to Miskan island. Yet, the place was abandoned and no one was there, despite the relatively apparently-new yachts or boats over there. I could see 2 long towers from where I stood... too bad I didn't snap it with my camera! Bad me! I wonder if they were lighthouses as I always thought, or some "chimneys" of some factory over there? Could be? I don't know. Everything is possible after the statement of this man in Silsan, in which he said going there is restricted by now! It was foggy, I could see that. Like some blackish or greyish smoke hovering around the two towers for some reason, and that's why I thought they were chimneys of some sort or an exhaust of some factory and not lighthouses. This view kind of revived the hope in me of visiting this island one day, and I was already looking for someone to ask about going there in Failaka island itself, but no luck.
Not only Miskan was visible, but also the lands of Auhah (عوهة) island was visible before arriving at Failaka's port. I don't know really why they translate it as "Auhah" since we say it as "Oohah" usually, but anyway this is how it is spelled and you check it yourself on Wikipedia.

In the beginning, I played a little prank on myself, again. I got shocked to see the schedule time in the time table for the ferry travels to be delayed more than I thought it was. It said the ferry would leave at 9:00 and come back at 3:00 afternoon, and frankly I wouldn't like to stay there till 3:00 by myself. Yet the date of today, 14th, was on Thursday. I really doubted myself "did I miss counting my days because of this little vacation of mine?". After all I discovered it is all because I was looking at the time table of January 2010 and not this month! Not the first time I do this really.

I was planning to take an inner panorama of that old mesh-holed building, which I think was some governmental place, but I changed my mind later and thought of taking a panorama of the outer area. Moving people there with their four-wheeled banshi all around really frustrated me. I could hard even park there and take the panorama from the outside.

The ruined building from the outside.

What seems to be an ex-electricity housing, in the periphery of the ruined

building and includes in the to-be panorama project.

This said, I'm looking forward now to have some sort of a software to fix my fisheye distortion for real now. The PTGui software, for stitching panoramas, usually takes care of such distortions, but I can't tell it does them as well for single images however. Thus, I'm looking for some software or plug-in to do so. Photoshop does it as well, but it sounds a bit tiresome in Photoshop, and maybe I would get more precise tools out of the framework of Photoshop. I wish if there is any program that would fix a straight line by specifying 2 dots marking the beginning and the ending of a proposed straight line in the image. Maybe there is one, I can't tell really.
Talking about a plug-in, I received a response from HDRsoft people about my suggestion for a web plug-in to view HDR images, and here I quote it for you:

Dear TJ,

Thank you for your interest in Photomatix and for suggesting an HDR plug-in for web browsers.

The closest thing to a plug-in for  displaying HDR images in browser that we know of is webHDR:
http://luminance.londonmet.ac.uk/webhdr/

It might also be worthwhile having a look at Christan Bloch's 'HDRI Labs' website for such software:
http://www.hdrlabs.com/

Regarding Photomatix, we don't have any plans to develop a web browser plug-in to display HDR images at the moment.


Kind regards,

Andreas
Photomatix Support Team
www.hdrsoft.com

This is nice so far. I'm still checking the website as I am writing this (and I'm doing all of that after getting back from that tiresome ferry trip). I don't feel like concentrating on anything so I might leave it for later. In a quick glance over the webpage, there are some freeware included, but I can't tell which one is to be used as a plug-in to view HDR in the web browser, if any. I guess I'm going to ask Blochi for this! Blochi in case you didn't know is Christian Bloch, the author of this magnificent book:

As for now... I should take a rest and work on batch-processing my bracketed images and put them into OpenEXR format for heavy use later. I leave you now with Alexander's story, verse 37.

__________
865. when the stranger calmed down he gazed upon Alexander
866. and Alexander smiled back at him and put down Charnagút
867. then Alexander began the speech again with the stranger
868. "tell me O friend, what is your name?"
869. and the thing said: my name is Birbuár, son of Árúc
870. then Alexander asked: you know this sword? why were you scared?
871. the strange thing then stuttered and said: of course I do,
872. it is the Charnagút, the sword of the great Ayvar king,
873. it is the torture of the sinners and the sign of kings,
874. thus now I believe you are indeed a king,
875. please forgive my impoliteness master
876. then Alexander said: I am not your master,
877. but I am happy to be your friend in this world,
878. I was a king in my world before, but not anymore,
879. tell me O Birbuár, where am I and what is this world?
880. thus Birbuár said: yes I shall answer your questions,
881. but if you do not know already, how come you are an Ayvar?
882. and Alexander replied: I am not an Ayvar, but a stranger here
883. and Birbuár had a weird look upon his face and eyes
884. and this he said to Alexander: but how you got the Charnagút?
885. and Alexander replied back: it is a gift from my father Pilippánút,
886. but I do not know how he got it or made it,
887. but this sword helped me a lot to come here,
888. and discover the truth one by one

Inchagoill (Inis an Ghaill)

Today, I went by boat to the marvelous and "mysterious" island of Inchagoill. I was supposed to go yesterday but, although the weather came out nice later in day, it was cloudy in the morning, and later on my host told me that it was good that I didn't go yesterday because despite the fact the weather came out good later on, but the air was active and there was some current in the lake.

However, I went on today in almost one hour journey to the island which was thick with trees and bushes, thus from afar you'd see only a green spot on the surface of the water. I got some pictures on the boat and there were other small islands and some of them contained houses as well! It was just beautiful. I had to catch most of the photos using Tv (shutter-speed mood), because of the shake along the way, and seems the Photoshop CS2 is not as good as CS4 with aligning the images together, thus I will keep this hard work for later. Lot of photos are waiting to be processed back home.

We reached the island, and according to my guide, he said the island is now mainly not inhabited, but it was mainly populated by the Sullivans, and another family I can't remember its name (but it stards with C and got V in the middle and Y at the end!!). We walked in narrow slippery pathways and reached the church or the monastery first. It was cool and peaceful, and you would still meditate in that old hard-rocky building. You can still see the avatar and the place where the font was kept. There, I couldn't resist to run a 180 degrees shoot (with no tripod) to the hall. But there is a question that always kept me puzzled: why the entrances of such old places were narrow and sometimes even small so that you have to lower your head down to get in?!

Some steps away into a little fine height out of the monastery there was the grave yard. It was a small yard and few gravestones were showing, and some of them were dating back to 1988. Some of the stones were legible but most of them were washed out, and the weird thing is that according to my guide who is a frequent visitor to the place (and I think he works to the government to check the island and its habitat), he said that in his 21 years life time he never heard of someone buried in this island, despite the fact that one of the gravestones read clearly that this lady who was 37 years old when she died, was dead on the 27th of May, 1988. She was a Sullivan as well. On the back of this row of grave stones, my eyes captured a weird type of gravestone and obviously it was ancient but I can't really say how old is it. According to brochures, this island should have a grave stone for St Patrick nephew, so I wonder if this grave stone is for him;

There was a chamber made of hard stones few steps away from the grave yard but I couldn't really tell what so special about it and why is it there. It could be a chamber for the graveyard keeper maybe? Who knows!

During my observations for the gravestones, my guide left me for some minutes to go somewhere, where he heard some sounds of chainsaw as we came into the dock of the island. However, after his arrival and we started to leave the place heading to a place called "The Coffee House" or "The Café House" (could not hear my guide clearly when he said the name several times!), we passed through some timber that was cut and organized in the shape of a pillar! My guide laughed and said to me that he made it that way when the two men who were cutting them moved away from the location, and they would get back and see this and think there is a ghost in the island! We couldn't stop laughing at the trick!

After some long slippery way and raising on some hill, we reached the Coffee House. It was a small place, but because the gate was so close to the trees, I couldn't get back enough to take a full image of it, thus I had to resort to the old trick; Panoramic shot. There were some stuff inside, like a coat maybe or a jacket and trousers forgotten by some people! The graffiti was all over the walls inside. At the back there was a stairway that lead to the top of the building (and of course everything was made of hard rock) and from the top I got a spectacular view of the lake and the trees, and here I went on catching a panoramic shot as well. The most significant tree that you can see almost every where in the island was the scotch fir as my guide called it. It is straight and high tree and almost bears no branches with the greeny part being on the top of the tree, just like one big broccoli!

When we got down there, my guide showed me also a small door that lead to the chimney and it was so small and dark that I could barely see anything inside. Finishing from that we had a long walk on a hill and some slopes down to reach the dock again. I took some pictures along the way for some trees and my guide showed me a fir tree that was, according to him, the oldest in the island and the hugest. You cannot wrap your arms around its trunk. From the looks of it, I do believe that it is something like a thousand years old!

Still the surprises were not over yet, on the way to the dock, my guide got deep into the forest at some point and called me to join him, and he showed me a house that is forgotten and not attended. It is also built by rocks and the plants grew every where on it that you can hardly notice its walls. Of course the roof was long gone. My guide said that he would notice the government about this house, who might be forgotten maybe mainly because it has nothing special about it except that it would be a good example of how people lived in this island in the 1800s or 1700s even, as some chambers were obvious and the structure for the chimney was obvious, where a special room to keep the cattle was visible as well. My guide said it is most probably was inhabited by the Sullivans, who were farmers and most of the island were like farm lands (and his own father worked on potatoes harvest on this island long time before) before the government decided to make it a tourism attraction and planted the trees and made the forests we see now.

Just before we leave the island, there was a little spot of clear land among the trees which was a place for BBQ parties as my guide said. The traces of burnt tree trunks and the benches were like they had been used no more than 3 days I would say. My guide said that there is no danger for fires here since the soil is damp and full of green mostly!

We left the island on a long way back home, and I was so exhausted that I slept for 30 minutes on my bed while I was typing this entry of the blog and the laptop was on my lap (duh!) while I was lying down. 1 day is left for me here, and on the 14th I have a long way back to Dublin. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me sort of. I will be packing and checking that everything is fine. I have my fears with my luggage weight though...

Muddy Day

Today, it was a bit rainy outside. Light rain for some hours (roughly 3 hours), so my plan to go to some other village called Cong in Co. Mayo was not done. Maybe I will by tomorrow. However, the wind was strong when the rain stopped, thus I couldn't resist to go out and walk around. There is a boat that I took a picture of and found out that this picture was a bit not focused, so I went to make a try with it again.

Finishing from the boat, I decided to walk on the hard piece of land extending into the water and formed like a small cape or an isthmus, and headed toward and island that I always liked to step on its soil. After the rain, the hard igenous ground is all slippery and dangerous and the rocks are filled with holes because of the rain and got sharp edges. You don't really want to fall on those! However, I was stepping into the dense grass trying to reach that land, I accidentally stepped on a non-stable area of grass, the next thing I found was my leg going deep into the mud and me falling down. Hours passed now and I still laugh at myself for what happened. I was really walking around with high confidence and the next thing was ZOT!

After this amazing experiment (ah yeah), I went on walking to the end of the land and just in front of the island. Since I was wet already down there, with mud all over my pants, I didn't mind putting my leg into the water this time and stepping on further stones that were dipped in water but not so deep, and finally I reached the closest distance I could ever be in. Tried to go further on some stones that formed a sort of pathway to the island but were dipped a bit in water, but as I went on and on, the pathway was cut and to continue I have to dip myself to the knees or a bit lower than that into the cold water in this harsh cold wind. So I just stopped at that moment, and took a snap;

I don't know if it has a name already, but I think I will call it "Oileán Fliuch," or "The Wet Island." I wonder what or how it would be if I want to Anglecize the Gaelic phrase? Could it be "Oulanflough"? or "Ilanfloo"? Who knows!

On the way back from that spot, and dipping my feet further in water (which actually helped to wash out some mud from my shoe), I stepped on a big rock which cought my eyes for its destinctive spots. It got all those pinky or reddish spots filled with water, seems it is the oxidization of iron in the rock that left such traces;

I was about to fall down many times though. It was embarassing when I got back to the Waterfront. I had to take off the shoes outside and get in with bare feet. The owner helped me out to wash the shoes... it was so embarassing, but I still can't stop laughing at myself!

A visit to Failaka

2 days ago I had been to Failaka island, finally. Although I didn't visit much of it in fact but I had the chance at least. The island is deserted. We heard of some places there but we didn't see anything, actually we need more time next time to visit everything we can there. I started my photography there with making out a panoramic view. Panoramic photos are usually taken with wide lens, but in most cases we can take several photos and then stick them up together to make one complete wide photo. The panoramic image I made had a real size of 6.5 meters in width (that is around 18ft maybe).











I really don't know what are these buildings behind but they seem governmental from the looks. The building at the far left behind the bush is drilled with bullet holes. I had the chance as well to test my HDR capabilities (with a software help).















We went insid this building and of course it was nothing but ruins. The good thing is, you can hear sounds of some birds that sounded like, exotic if I should say. They had this place for nesting.
I took some other photos but I didn't prepare them yet to be published on the net. Some clearing for the images must be done because the weather was dusty and not clear as you can see it in the photos.
During the trip to the island I had to cope with seasickness, and thank God I didn't have anything for breakfast but still my stomach played tricks and I felt sluggish and couldn't move out of my car. As for coming back from there, I had lil bit dizziness but I was mostly struck down by the headache.

Because of this trip and being busy with the photos I had, I didn't have the time to record (again) something from the text, nor write something down in the story of Alexander. But today, Saturday, I already starting to write the story. But I think I will leave that for tomorrow or some other time... I think I have to concentrate more on recording since I have lot of problems with the sound quality and playback.

Yesterday it was my niece's birthday! Happy Birthday to Noor!