Sporadichiskiy…

I was reluctant to make this blog post. Honestly, I didn't feel like it. But here I am, trying hard to force myself. For nothing but to think of myself as being occupied.
You might be wondering about the title, well, I was going to put it as Sporadic but then I thought it would be so boring, so then I checked the translation in Russian and it was Спорадичиский, which is exactly what the title says but I didn't wish to put it in Cyrillic; Maybe in some other time, just for fun really.
The reason for this title for this post is that I'm going to talk a bit about various shots taken on different dates and not necessarily in chronological order but it's like a collection of quick-minded ideas that were done in a hurry without much preparations. 

Before I head on with the body of this post, I'd like to announce that I've uploaded some loads of images already (from 2021 and 2022 so far) and they are available on Canstockphoto, Dreamstime, and 123RF; However, one image might be in one place and not in the other because of the different criteria that each stock website uses to judge the images. Just in case one wishes to visit the profiles, they can click on the links above.

Pinhole

In my past post I've talked about creating some abstract art by intentional camera movement while having an infrared filter on the lens and shooting indoors. This activity somehow triggered me to think more of long exposures which I didn't do for a while. Naturally, using the pinhole was one of my first ideas. In the beginning, I wanted to keep it simple.

夜間孤獨
(nocturnal solitude)

To keep things simple, I headed out in the yard and decided to shoot the little palm tree we had (I've posted some shots from the same palm tree before on this blog) and my plan was to shoot a long exposure and convert the image into B&W. I've done this at night specifically to have a significant long exposure with the pinhole without the need to use any ND filters on a regular lens. However, I think I'll be defining the idea of bad luck, as my hopes for some motion in the image were just shuttered by the fact that (suddenly) not much breeze did accumulate or shake significant part of the palm leaves during the 13-minute exposure! However, I have to give due credits, as I didn't expect some colorful flare to appear (caused by the lights on the wall above the palm tree). For this reason, I've kept it in color and made another version in B&W (and posted both on YouPic).

Nocturnal Solitude (BW)

The B&W version is still interesting though, despite the fact that the flare doesn't appear colorful. The hardest part though was to gauge and control the tones in B&W (and because of the tiny details in the leaves, I disliked the idea of using layer masks). The final result, Nocturnal Solitude (BW), looked like some infrared shot done in daytime! Other work was needed though to keep the bottom of the image from being too dark and add a bit of details; Of course all of that was done in Photoshop (I don't convert to B&W in ACR often as I need more control). One particular thing that I've noticed or maybe I think I've noticed and my eyes are just playing tricks on me: The image, despite being taken with a pinhole, looks sharper than other pinhole images taken before (which were mostly in daytime). It's still blurry a bit (not because of the motion though) but I do notice that it is sharper in general, just a tiny bit. I did for sure apply some sharpening but this is now what I meant here of course. I meant the original shot. Not sure what to make out of it but maybe because the surrounding lighting was closer to the blue color? Or is it because a really long exposure? But the most strange thing of all… why did the breeze stop when I needed it to be there already?!!!

وَحيدْ
(lonely)

Another pinhole experiment (with a hope of some motion) was done 2 or 3 days later but this time it was indoors (after midnight) and including me personally. The idea of Lonely is not just having a selfie (away with the dramatic title already) but I was hoping to capture those tiny reflexes and breathing movement in a form of a "ghostly appearance" somewhat. The exposure took around 7 minutes and I remember doing it twice, and picking the best of the two. Probably the difference was in the pose itself. Anyway, the intention, again, was to convert it to B&W already and this also helped in covering up for the colorful and checkered blanket! Added some tone and vignette for some "vintage" feel to it. It was a nice shoot though; Somewhat a chance to relax and meditate while asleep! However, I'm not done with long exposures yet…

الأَغْبَرْ
(the dusty one)

I was still interesting in doing long exposure combining myself (because I have no model of course) to record the body movement. I've done one experiment in the yard using my 10-stop ND filter (which I used only once in Malta back in 2015!). The experiment in the yard somewhat failed and didn't like the overall looks. So, I moved indoors. This time I've set a challenge to myself, to stare into the camera for more than 8 minutes. I know this is not possible already (specially for a coffee-addict like me) but this is the goal of the whole thing after all.
In the processing phase, I tried to add some drama to the ghostly-shaped face somehow and made use of some dodge and burn. Well, wouldn't say I like it much but nevertheless I consider it as an achievement to stare into the camera for full 8 minutes! However, on the other hand, the linear version of this image came out really interesting!

Plastered Man

Now, I don't know how it occurred in that way but the whole thing seems to be formed by layers of skin on top of each other with holes for the eyes sockets! I really like the "linear" version more than the original. It looks like a surreal painting in some way (not sure what genre it would roll under though). Scary a bit though, isn't it?

So, at this point, I think the first part of the sporadic shooting ends (even though it's not all about pinhole). But still another part remains which I think I should include here as well. 

Frowning

I think I've mentioned somewhere in my previous post that I've done some experiments with high-speed shooting involving water and shells (walnut shells to be specific). The fact, actually, is that I've been collecting a lot of walnut shells. I've been buying those lately as Mom likes them and me too (and some times I put some of it in my coffee!). For some reason that I can't really explain or understand myself, I've got fascinated by the shells and started collecting them in hope that I would do some photography projects later on with them (which I did to some extent). My collection of them is getting quite large though and I need to find proper storage!
Anyway, I will keep the talk about that high-speed experiment for another post, but now I'm going to talk about a simple (and might be strange) quick selfie experiment which I've done with these shells. I've called the series: The Frowning.

عَبوسْ
(frowning)

The aim here wasn't really just to do something with the shells (which I'm fascinated with by the way!) but also to work and go crazy a bit with HDR tone-mapping; It has been a really long time since I worked with HDR images. I'm talking here about a span of years. But as it will be shown, normal processing wasn't bad as well (and somewhat preferable too). In fact, from the series of shots I've done with these shells, I ended up with only one or two shots that were the base of all the versions that I'm about to show now. The only difference here is the processing.

عَبوسْ 2
(frowning 2)

The shooting was done using my lovely 50mm, and at f/1.8. Even though I could've gone lower to f/1.4 but I wanted to add a slight depth to the front. I've headed out under the sun to shoot it just to ensure a quick shutter speed, as I didn't want to complicate things with such a "crazy" quick shoot and use speedlites. From the series that had been shot, as mentioned above, only 1 or 2 that were somewhat proper (with some cropping) as they had a good depth as I want it. Shooting selfies with such a shallow depth of field on your own is surely a mission for superman! 

عَبوسْ 3
(frowning 3)

All through the Frowning versions, I think each one of them has a specific visual impact and personally I couldn't really say which one is better than the other. Frowning for example, which was tone-mapped from HDR, has this look as if some nuclear explosion just happened in front of me! Moreover, I like it for the grungy look and the details in the hair (upper right) which don't appear quite much in other versions. Nevertheless, Frowning 2, which was processed from RAW (with additions from Photoshop itself of course), does have this dramatic (dark) look that probably adds more emotions to the overall look. Meanwhile, Frowning 3 (which is based off Frowning 2) has even a darker mood I guess. Worth noting that when converted to B&W, I've added a slight "titanium" tone (Hex: #B6AFA9); Honestly, I think I like this tone pretty much and will be using a lot when converting to B&W (or monochrome that is).

The Frownies

Frowning (linear)

Afterward, and just for fun and comparison, I've worked on manually blending the three versions of this shot and put them all in one image; The Frownies. Probably I can say it serves as an optical illusion, just a bit! I think it needs a bit more brushing though. Moreover, probably you could tell by now that this "linear" technique is becoming a trend for me already and I've been trying it on many images, old and new, and Frowning was no exception.
The base for working out the "linear" version is the RAW version of the shot. I still call it "linear" technique because of the basic look but maybe I should change the name at some point because for images like Frowning it doesn't quite look like linear because of the heavy texture of the skin and other things here. The technique is based on merging various layers blended with Difference blending mode, so I might as well call it the "difference technique". I think I've talked about it in this blog before, as well as in my Arabic blog. All in all, I do like the "linear" version as well for its strange dramatic look; Actually, I can imagine it being printed on a t-shirt or something like that (my mind is working on some ideas now).

Finale

So, this is some of the sporadic stuff that I've been doing in the past 2 or 3 months, and actually I'm still going on with it. There are many other stuff actually but I wouldn't put them here since they are re-makes or so of old photos, specially with that "linear" technique I've talked about already.
I do have some plans at the back of my head and I'm not sure if I can even try those or not. Meanwhile, I've just remembered some old projects that I've simply forgotten about, and I might as well try to revive those or something. All I have here is to wish myself good luck.

Recently, I've gone back to my obsession with Solitaire (the classical card game) on my phone. I didn't play it for a long time but now I'm just back at it and I could wipe half of the phone charge just playing it. It feels soothing for some reason, but I'm not sure what exactly. Is it a sign of hidden desires to gamble (I don't)? Or is it the order and structure in the game (which I lack in real life)? Whatever the reason is, I just feel it leaks away my stress. I play it the Vegas style (only one round of the deck is allowed). On the same line, I've realized that I didn't play any PC games in such a long time (even before my official retirement in October 2021). Maybe if I can find time back for this activity my stress (and depression) would be lowered down? 

They say no Man is an island, but apparently I became an island myself with my social circle. I had bursts of urge to chat, to talk, to say something, to anyone, but there is no one to talk to. Not even on the so-called "social media", which made me think why do they call this stupid thing "social" in the first place; All there is to see is trolls, ads, and people who made it their job just to correct you. Even those in fact, there was none for me in the past few days to just say anything with. I've been sleeping a lot, skipping meals a lot, and I'm just not sure where I'm heading with this, nor what's the meaning of it. All that I know is that my body is alive, but my mind is…

The Banana Affair…

Breathing some air now and then with the schools being off, and yet trying to get my emotions ready for the stress and frustration with schools' return by next week. Temperatures here dropped down drastically and it was pretty cold, which I like! Unfortunately though, I didn't go out as I was hoping to take photos outside. I managed though to do my promise to myself and took the camera with me to work with Voigtländer 20mm lens and tried to snap some images. Well, I had to admit though that I did a bit of cheating here (if I can call it so) since I did take some accessories with me to help me out with the task. Anyway, this is not the main topic for this blog spot but let's see what I've managed to catch with this lens and camera combination!

20mm Fishing

As I've stated above, I did some cheating here (always in fact) when I did take the 20mm lens and camera with me to work. This cheat was to include, in the pack, some filters and the intervalometer. The filters were: Big stopper (10 stops) and a polarizer. Testing my eyes with this combination of camera and lens didn't happen in a single day in fact. I did take it with me wherever I went for 3 days. I couldn't touch the camera at work in the first day (got busy out of nowhere!), while in the second day, I was actually in a friend's workplace. Initially, I've wanted to shoot something but no one was there and I got bored alone and felt so tired so I needed that nap, until one friend came in and decided then to try something with him, as he was enjoying his breakfast on the desk!

An Taibhse Ag Obair
(the ghost at work)
Voigtländer 20mm, f/9, 10m, ISO100.

 Despite the dim light inside the office, yet the exposure time was not slow enough. Of course, if my desire was to show a motion blur in a suitable manner, I would have used that slow shutter speed and would have asked my friend to do some specific motion. However, this was not my aim. My aim was a complete abstract with a stable background (and for a bonus, a stable object as it appeared with the bowl of cereals!). To help lengthen the exposure time further, I've used (of course) my big stopper which ads 10 stops to the exposure time (and of course each stop is a double), so the total time happened to be 10 minutes. He was shocked at first, thinking how come he would remain stable on the chair for 10 minutes! Anyway, I've explained the idea for him and told him just to stay in the chair but he can move freely as he likes within the chair. I've placed the camera on a small tripod which I got years back (even before my travel to Ireland in 2010; I know because I used it there!) which was sturdy enough to carry the weight of the camera and lens, plus the lengthy intervalometer. It was cumbersome to straighten the image in-camera though, but it was good to some degree, yet I had to depend on the vertical line formed by the board on the wall (its edge) to straighten the image. The bulk of the work on the image was focused on turning the image into a dramatic and yet smooth black and white image; A combination of sharpening and smoothing the noise will always be the nightmare to achieve.

It's Changing
Voigtländer 20mm, f/13, 30s, ISO100.

The next day, in my workplace this time, I had another chance to try out the same camera and lens combination in addition to the same big stopper as well (with the polerizer as well but its effect was minimum). The cloudy weather was encouraging to some degree, even though to my experience, an overcast sky would not quite suitable to show clouds line in the sky with long exposures but I tried anyway and the result was It's Changing. I tried a longer exposure of 10 minutes but the image was so bright and the highlights could not be saved as I hoped. To make sure everything is in proper sharpness, and because the camera was to be placed on the ground near the pillar which did not allow me to see the LiveView or LCD, I depended here on the hyperfocus principle on setting the focusing ring and then I added one third of a stop (hence using f/13 instead of f/11) just to make sure that things are in good sharp level and enough depth of field. I placed the camera on the ground, on the box of the big stopper filter just to avoid scratches to the LCD, and that in fact allowed me also (when I did the 10 minutes exposure) to place a coin under the camera to see the reflection of the red light (which notes the camera is busy exposing the image); That way I was able to see for myself if the camera finished the exposure or not in case I don't hear the click sound when it finishes. Some might wonder why I don't just check the intervalometer, well, for some reasons I didn't want to move or touch the intervalometer: The camera was a bit shaky and easy to rotate on the box, so I kept the cable remote beside the camera, AND, it is better to check the light as I was having a walk in the garden instead of bending close to the camera to see the intervalometer. The red light from the camera's body is way clearer than trying to figure out the numbers on the LCD of the intervalometer. Anyway, I've picked the one with 30 seconds exposure here for processing and the rest of the game with this image, again, was to settle down with proper black and white tones. The highlights were a bit over but I was able to pull them down away from the cut-off region when processed. Strangely how this image was exposed for 30 seconds only at ISO100 with such a filter as the big stopper. I called this image It's Changing because it kind of gave me the chills in the spine for everything that is changing around me and in my life, from simple things such as likes and dislikes, to morals and priorities of people around me. It's changing.

The Two
Voigtländer 20mm, f/16, 1/3s, ISO100.

I wandered a bit around while exposing It's Changing and did notice some good approaches to minimalism and abstracts in some spots, but unfortunately, later on I've found out that many of these images were shaky because I was trying to bend or take them in some hard angle without any help from any tripod or mini-tripod, so I had to forget about them from the time being, unless I can figure our some creative way to edit my mistakes in some form of art! However, I was able to capture The Two here which is, to me at least of some sort, gives and shines some hope in me; About good things that happen in desperate times without me being in control of anything yet make me grow and flourish. I hope. Again, in The Two, I've used the principle of hyperfocus and with even greater f-stop (f/16 this time). I've taken several shots at various distances and angles around these 2 plants but probably the best one was the very first shot I've made (with some re-alignment and crop). Taking such pictures with bent back has never been an easy job, and I wouldn't be lying down in this dirt! I still didn't upload all these photos to the stocks yet. Didn't have the time to keyword them. As for the time being, I need to think about my next challenge and what lens I'm going to use. Should I go with a telephoto this time? Or change the camera and move to my converted 7D? We'll see…

The Banana Affair

The bulk of the previous two weeks, on the other hand, was focused on another experiment done at home, and not a mere challenge with a single lens and camera combination for one day. This, in fact, is a process that took me 10 days to finish! Well, with professionals I'm sure a period of 10 days of shooting is nothing really. The experiment? Rotting bananas. And just for fun, I've called the whole thing "Operation Banana."

 Footage from the 2^nd day.

So, before delving into the details, I just want to talk here a bit about the idea, which was simply to document the process of rotting for bananas, and since I didn't know what the exact outcome would be, I've decided to place a peeled one and unpeeled one, side by side. To get some good contrast with the white banana body, I've placed the set on a black paper (then acrylic board). The shooting took place under black lights (UV lights that is) and, of course, used my UV-pass filter (B+W 403) and DR-665 hot mirror to block any infrared, and after fixing the white balance, the result was a monochromatic image.

In the beginning, as you might have heard in the video if you watched it already, I've set the timer to take a picture every 2 minutes, but then I realized this was a bit of an exaggeration to get a smoother transition when frames are merged into a video. Thus, by the 5^th day, I've changed the interval of shooting to every 5 minutes instead. There was some degree of disappointment though, mainly because I didn't realize some biological (botanical) facts, such as that bananas do not turn brown because of some bacteria of fungi, but it turns brown or black in time because of some enzyme. Also, after the 5^th day, I've decided to warm the set up during the shoot, so I placed a hair dryer not far from the set (which actually made the whole room warm and cozy in one or two hours!). Finally, the end result was actually a shrinkage in size for the peeled banana while the unpeeled turned into a "fluid" form, but I didn't dare open it! They were 10 days full of running around checking batteries and memory cards (used 2 memory cards in the process, exchanging one when it's almost full with the other one), and the total shots taken here were more than 4000 shots (yes, four thousands).

 The Banana Affair

The hurdles were not limited to the physical realm with the set, but also in the digital realm with the preparing of the photos. Shots were all done in RAW. You might see the video here is a bit shaky and cumbersome with some movement? Well, blame my clumsy movement which caused me to shake the tripod in the process many times. Anyway, the video above is the total one and it was adjusted later on. Originally, the video was 2m14s long but I've shortened that later on by increasing the fps (frame per second) rate. 

To do such a massive and huge edit on these files (done in patches each time I would have to change the memory card) I had to dig out the old Digital Photo Professional (DPP), or namely the Canon's software which is installed along with the drivers long ago but I seldom use, if ever. Despite its controls, I managed to achieve the look on one image and generalize the "recipe" (i.e. the parameters of editing) on the whole set of images and then save all those edited as JPEGs with resize and changing the name of each file in sequential manner. All this process was to be so hard to be done in Photoshop - Maybe someone might say Adobe Bridge is the tool for this task? Not sure it would do so, besides, the controls and menus are some what complicated for me to dig out. DPP was much easier to work with and simple (and its simplicity sometimes is what makes not edit in it as well). Oh, and I could even change the color space to Adobe 1998 space along with the conversion to JPEG. 

This was the story of the Banana Affair, and guess what? It is now uploaded to the stocks and accepted exclusively on Dreamstime! It was hard at first because I don't know many aspects about uploading videos or footage to the stocks and they have special requirements, but I've done it after all with some trials, and now I'm up to do one more if I can! Let's see if it ends up well.

Finale

Well, as you can see I'm trying to keep myself busy with the camera as much as possible, but on the other hand I do have my moments of inspiration which I translate into some quote writing of some sort. I didn't write or think of words to pin a poem for some time now (since December if I recall) so probably my plan for the next coming weeks is to focus on this more, but more importantly, to focus on my feelings. 

Many things are troubling my mind; Life, work, future, as well as death in fact. I'm trying my best to stop my mind from triggering panic attacks and anxiety, and to keep thinking that it is all in the hands of God. This alone, is really leaving me tired to the extent of not taking care of what I'm supposed to take care of, or even indulge myself in. I think this exhaustion is even placing some love inside of me to hatred, to some aspects or some... people.

Some people do think that I do believe in horoscopes and the stars, but I'm really reading and checking those to ease things on myself and to feel the pat on my shoulder, not because I do believe in them (even though they are an interesting thing to study somehow because of my interests in occult in general). These things promise a happy and a promising new year; I'd like to keep that thought but I'm sure that the reality has another venture for me. Probably I'm due to a short vacation, not to travel, but just to stay home and sleep or do things and work with my camera without trying to manage the damn bedtime and the sleeping pattern…

Burning…

Things are becoming to overwhelming in this month. I was really going to postpone typing this blog post for another week, but here I am; Trying my best. Things are going slow to stand up again after the rain crisis and my room turning into a swimming pool. There remains some clutter to clear still though. With all of this and that, I'm trying to get my cameras going on again, as well as checking some of the photos in my arsenal to be uploaded to the stocks (and keeping some of them exclusive to some, as well). However, numerous things happening around me and inside me that all leave me just like paralyzed and unable to think clearly or even get the motive to work on anything I like at the current time.
Heavy-weight news are coming one by one, starting now with the change in policies for Flickr, after being acquired by SmugMug. The new change is to take effect in January, and in that time users with free accounts will be limited to 1000 images only (regardless of their sizes) - My account bears more than 2500+ images already. They are planning to delete old images till the limit is met, and thus more than half of my work will be deleted eventually. Registering as a pro-user is not an option as well. back when I used to pay for Flickr for a pro account, it was for $25/month, but now it is for $50/month (some even say it costs more than Photoshop does). For now, I've backed up all my albums on Flickr and compressed them and kept them safe in clouds, and I'm not sure where to go next to show my work. I've posted a Good-Bye note to my Flickr already and I've stopped posting anything new there already. And this happening only when I started to link my images from Flickr instead of posting them here directly, so I think I'm going back to my old methods of posting my photos here as I type my blog posts.

On the other hand, events are taking place in my workplace and some time by the next year, my workplace would be moved to another place. Other people (most of those I know) are excited about it because, as they see it, it is better; Yet, this is not the case with me, as the place is further away from home than the current location, and with me feeling my eyes' weaknesses taking the toll on me, the idea of moving further away to that area makes me gloomy a bit, specially if I would be needing to drive in the dark (winter mornings or rainy days like we are having right now mostly). Needless to say, I'm trying to cope with exhaustion (and failed already) as it is with my workplace now, what would be the situation with a location almost double the distance? And the traffic jams? All that lead me to think seriously of submitting a request for a "medical resignation" for my eyes problem with Retinits Pigmentosa. But then what? I just don't know…
Things are not any better on the personal and home fronts. Even though I didn't do any official diagnosis, but it seems I do have a touch (or maybe more than that) of depression. Mood swings, family affairs, flashbacks... all of that is just not doing any good and I'm really tired.
Usually I keep ranting till the end of the blog post but I couldn't keep it this time as it is at the core of being able to post this in the first place.

Burning

As I was idle with my camera for 2 weeks or more, with all the struggle with my mood, and the rain interference, I've finally managed to raise up and shake my head a bit to do something. Initially, the idea came about first time when I was burning some incense stick in my room (beside burning aromatic oils) to banish away the bad smell after being soaked with rain water in my room. In the mess, I just got perplexed with the view of these smoke lines going out of the incense. This is not the first time I work with smoke in fact, I've played before (burning some tissue paper though to get the smoke heavy and clear) but this time I had different ideas I wanted to implement.

Censer XXI
An old work with smoke photography.

The main idea this time with these burning incense sticks "was" to do a long exposure in combination with flash strokes; It does sound like the stroboscopic functionality, but I'm talking here about a really long exposure, in minutes, for the duration of the burning incense completely. In rough estimation, one of these sticks would need about 30 minutes to burn completely. This essentially was the first impression or idea that occurred to me (and it took me days to get myself to move and do something about it). However, things had to change drastically as I started the practical side of the idea here. Mainly, the idea swept from being a long exposure with stroboscopic effect, to a regular time-lapse-like shooting (frames at specific assigned time) and trying to combine all these, as much as possible, to get an overall effect.

Sample shot from the series

At time of typing this blog post, I didn't proceed with the merging process for all these shots (more than 80 number), but I'm offering here a sample shot.  To get some inspiration, I've checked Pinterest to get some ideas further and I've seen some photographers who did digitally colored their smoke shots, and I think this is what I will be doing even though it is a bit further away from the "authenticity" measure. The Censer series which was done long time ago had been colored using gels and it is definitely to work with. However, I need to think about my choice of colors to overlay over the final image(s), as most of the images of smokes I've seen been colored as a rainbow. You can see from the sample shot as well that I do need to work on my background as well and this black cloth is not suitable here (actually it got brighter as I processed the images to lighten the smoke). I just hope darkening the background would be easier later in the process.

The set used to shoot the incense sticks.

The shooting and its set is a story on its own, starting with my everlasting nightmare: Tables. Even though I got this table from my sister which is higher and with larger area (far better than tea tables I used to work with mostly), I did have this problem in setting everything in proper level, specifically the speedlites with the incense sticks which were pinned to this Styrofoam box. The camera level was also low and I had to bend my back for long times (by the end of the shoot I got a chair though). To add to my hurdles, my 50mm lens is malfunctioning now and I'm not sure what to do about it next. Probably I'll try to fix it if it possible at some workshop if any exists here! For now, I've combined my 20mm Voigtländer lens with a teleconverter which doubles the focal length to 40mm. This did it for now, but the downside is that the aperture cannot go wider than f/7.1 (i.e. the f-number cannot be less than f/7.1) and of course this is not quite useful if I'm planning to do any bokeh effect in the background. I'm checking my options now but I'm so overwhelmed that I think I will keep this for later to see.
Now, to business for those who would like to read what this set above is all about (I'm sure professionals don't need to know what I'm doing here):

• Far left (the silver curtain): This is a car shade I've kept specifically to be used as a reflector. Frankly, probably didn't do much for the shoot here.
• The white box at the center is the Styrofoam which I used to pin the incense sticks.
• The speedlite on the table between the camera and the Styrofoam is connected to the camera by cable and worked as a master without triggering itself. I've used this first to be able to use the HSS (high speed) option and shoot beyond the sync speed because I've been told high speed shooting is required for capturing the smoke. Turned out to be not true and the HSS didn't help at all so I was back to normal sync speed (1/250s).
• The two speedlites (only one obvious in the image) are the main source of light here. I was planning to use one, but then as I wanted to empower the light in HSS mode I've brought in a second one. But then went back to normal sync speed and left the second addition as it is. Took me a while to figure out a suitable technique and finally I've placed a white cardboard behind them and reflected their light from that surface. Their power was reduced as much as possible with the most significant effect; This is mainly to save power as much as possible with long continuous shooting, and to keep the flash light duration as short as possible. Working in Manual mode, 1/8 of power was enough for both. 
• One cardboard was placed between the speedlites and the camera to block any stray light causing flare. Flare was a problem in the beginning and some annoying brightness was present when I started testing and this black "flag" solved the problem, initially.

It was a long shoot made on intervals of 30 seconds for 30 minutes (in addition to some manual shots done after the program on the intervalometer was fully executed). Processing the images in a haste collectively did make the background brighter than it originally was and the lines in the background showed clearly now, so I hope those can be eliminated later as I work on it. Initially and just for fun, I've created this short time-lapse in reverse.

Well, I didn't bother adding an audio. This said and done, I'm still looking for opportunities to do a long exposure using speedlites triggered at specific intervals of time, in stroboscopic manner, and thus creating a multi-exposure-like image in the same frame of these burning incense sticks. It needs a bit of research so let's hope I get the time to do this. I'm doubting that traditional methods would do here and probably controlling the speedlites with a third party device is required here.

Finale

Well, I guess after ranting in the intro of this blog post maybe I don't have much to state here, but I did in fact work on a short poem, which I've called Just Dance:

Just Dance

In whatever land there is to be
long forgone, or beyond many a sea
Dance!
In whatever Heaven there to be
or wherever gone that soul of me
Glance!

Pretty young to handle all the romance
sweet sixteen or eighteen set to dance
Be!
Sleepless nights all there is in the stance
That is the passion and its annoyance
See!

Praying though in distress or through the glee
however the soul of yours is free
Glance!
Solitude, watching is all to be
under the years and tears over me
Now, bye bye,
Just,

Dance

 

The rhyming scheme goes by A-A-B-A-A-B/B-A-A-B-A-A (which seems to be called, partially, Caudate) and with metering as (9,9,1,9,9,1) except for the last stanza, in which this order of meter was broken. I had a real struggle to complete this one though and I was somewhat lost in thought. To tell the truth, I'm not so convinced about it but I had to take it off my back and post it. So far, I got 2 positive feedback despite being clearly hard to understand as someone noted.

Now, it is clear from all these events and all that struggle (and some more to come concerning my cars), I do really need a vacation. A real one, with traveling. I know, I've kept saying this for almost a year now or more and still didn't do anything about it. I just keep asking myself, why can't I just have some rest on my own? 

I need to wind myself now and get ready to do some phone calls (I hate phone calls) to get some insurance work done (and paid) and finish with the annual check up for the cars, with one of them still in the garage for a month now... might be the time to get rid of it but I'm not sure yet. The idea of taking so many decisions all at once successively is just overwhelming that makes me want to go to bed and just sleep. A really long sleep, and giving the world my back with little care, if any…

Through and Through…

Here we are, time passed quickly and we are past mid-Ramadhan even. I'm trying to enjoy my leave from work but in the same time I keep in my mind that I must work with my camera a bit or anything else I have in my mind before I get to work again. Easy said than done anyway, because my sleeping pattern is greatly skewed and screwed during this month, and I'm almost putting behind my back everything related to morning chores or tasks (except for little shopping maybe). For the time being, I've been amusing myself with little work on the macro level; Or should I say, extreme macro level.

Microfy

After working for a while with my old microscope and achieving somewhat extreme magnifications (exceeding 1280X sometimes), I did realize at that point that sometimes, going extreme is not the solution nor does it show the details properly. I did indeed at some point reach a magnification of 2640X but the images were blurred and hard to figure out any details (add to that the shaky set I'm working with). Moreover, I think I do need to learn a bit more about sample preparation for microscopes and how to make thin slices. I hope I can find some suitable procedures over the net; We'll see.
Meanwhile, with the help of my Vello's Macrofier, I've flipped my Voigtländer 20mm and started to work with "extreme macro" and I couldn't find anything better to work with except of my old collection of shells. In fact, I'm thinking now, as I'm typing these lines, of documenting these shells for good.

Twirl
6.6x Magnification.

In the beginning, I thought that having a bigger magnification means a more powerful and more interesting shot. Of course, I was wrong. However, it was up to trial and error still, like in Twirl, which is a shot for the tip of a small seashell that is approximately 1cm long or even less. I shot this one without any flash just a LED desk lamp. Flipping a 20mm lens with Vello Macrofier would achieve, typically and according to calculations, a 3.2x magnification. To achieve a greater magnification, I attached all my extension tubes between the camera and the reversed lens (total: 68mm). According to calculations, this would give out a 6.6x magnification.

6x Shell

As usual, shooting with such magnification was not (and still not) an easy task. Mainly because of the limitations in the gear and other props available for me (and my eternal torture: a proper table). However, I tried after all. The topmost problem that happened to be here, though, was the light and how to deliver the light properly to the surface of the shell being photographed. On many trials, the flare was the main problem, causing a general reduction in contrast and the center being bright and detail-less. Tried to add a speedlite and changing its direction, and even a continuous light source (LED), no proper solution was found. Images like 6x Shell, which was shot using 68mm of extension tubes and a reversed Voigtländer 20mm, was done in fact using ambient light with 15s exposure at f/20. No focus stacking. To add, the image looks better in a small size as in this blog, but viewing at a larger scale a bit shows some ugly noise and somewhat blurry features (probably some movements occur during the exposure? Not sure). Anyway, in time, I've realized the real problem.

The set used to shoot extreme macro after the "little" fix.

The problem, as it seems, was the white foam on which I was placing my samples. The light reflected off this surface fooled me as to be of help, or so I thought, but once I put a black card on that, the images became clear. There was a slight problem still because the light would not reach a specific part of the shell, but the general view was better, and contrast was enhanced further when processing these final images (after merging the full stack together).

Bandaí (Bands)
(Left) 3.2x shot made by focus stacking.
(Right) The original shell, around 2cm long.

It can be seen in Bandaí how the light did quite reach the left side of the image (originally the image was horizontal so this dark area was down). This might call for a "real" ring flash but I'm not thinking about this right now. I do have 6 speedlites and it would be a shame if I cannot put these to good use in such stable environment (well, almost stable!) like shooting seashells. The matter that is left is, whether to cover the shell with oil or not. I've painted or covered some shells with oil (well, hair tonic oil actually) but the cotton balls were problematic for this task and some fibers got stuck, and yet it seems oil is not a good contributor. In Bandaí, I've covered the shell with corn syrup (as a substitute to glycerine) and it seems to have yielded some good result, providing some good luster. It's all sticky but it's alright till it dries up! However, sometimes, the shell is so small that I just neglected the idea of dipping it into anything!

الملوية (The Twisted)
(Left) The final image after focus stacking at 3.2x magnification.
(Right) The original shell with a length of 0.8cm (8mm) only hooked to a toothpick.

Would some syrup make The Twisted more lustrous? Not sure, but I think it would; Yet, with such a small size of 8mm I cannot risk it. My working environment around here is completely unstable and I could easily lose it, and with my eye problems, finding such a small piece of "artifact" would be a novel to read!

Sleeper

At some point while working on all of that macro job, I had a slight idea for a long exposure done indoors. It's not the first time I do such experiment in fact, but long exposures in somewhat dark rooms somehow fascinate me always for its unpredictable shapes and its surreal looks.

Laid

An Codlatán
(The Sleeper)

My work with these long exposures were done with 50mm lens (unlike my typical choice of 8mm fisheye lens) and that was for a reason actually. That was to fit my B+W 092 infrared filter on this lens (on a regular camera) and I was really aiming on the head only. Even though I do have a super ND, but I preferred to use this filter (and I would use a filter with higher threshold if I have one to fit this lens) mainly to see the strange strikes of color and/or contrast. The images you see here, Laid and An Codlatán, where not converted to B&W but were processed normally and eventually they reached a level of monochrome (but not completely B&W).

The exposures took about 21 minutes and some seconds, and I literally tried to nap indeed during the exposure. In Laid, though, I was actually checking my tablet, but I was trying to get to that sleeping mode in An Codlatán! The looks were surreal, and ghostly; Specially with Laid, which somehow made my mind spiral and wander into some thoughts, that can be called black or melancholic, yet I think they are legitimate and profound…

It is not a strange idea nor a seldom visitor to my mind. The idea of being dead and what will be happening after my departure is a frequent mind-occupier. This is the image, more or less, which comes to my mind when laid down, people look at me for the last time, before the dust takes what I owe to it. But will there really be anyone willing to give one final gaze? Will there be any visitors in the first place? Will there be mourners? Weepers and keeners? Or maybe cursers and some happy people for where I'm going to end? In essence, nothing of my current life is that different from the scene in this picture; All but a mimic of life, and death. Yet, I cannot grant to myself that my eyelids will be open in every morning that comes. As much as it might be a disturbing image, yet it is the ultimate truth. Nothing is granted; Not even my next breath right after finishing this sentence, and the more I live, and the more loved ones I lose, my belief in the mediocrity of life becomes confirmed day by day…

As I'm writing these words, I'm indeed thinking of doing the same experiment again but using my pinhole, I'm sure the exposure would be drastically long here. The only hassle here is setting up the tripod and the camera near my bed (I can't do this experiment elsewhere around here). I have a plan though, and let's hope it works later. We'll see…

 

Finale

 

By the time of typing this text, My shipment had arrived already in Kuwait, and yet I'm not sure as parcels or as EMS (each has a separate center for sorting, welcome to Kuwait). Would I be able to collect my items before Ramadan ends? We'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get as much as possible done before the vacation is over and being back to the usual routine and exhaustion.

Among the plans: Some ultraviolet, maybe ultraviolet panorama, an infrared panorama (which had been in my head for more than a year), beside the usual work with the microscope and the shells. Working with the shells seems more pleasurable for now, as the rest require some extra work which I'm usually too exhausted to do. One final question remains inside of me and that is: Would I really be able to kill my feelings and the fears inside of me by working myself out to exhaustion? I'm afraid that I don't have the answer for that yet. 

 

Secret Spot...

QTVR ahead. Give some time to load and be sure you install QuickTime to view it

My vacation is over, and I'm already dying to start a new one. The summer is hovering over making it harder to breath even at some point. Fasting is putting my down a bit; it's the month of Rajab and like the previous 3 years, I usually start fasting in this month, and if I can, I would add the next month, Sha`ban, to it. Then comes Ramadhan. However tiresome I might get, Ramadhan will always get me down further even though the working hours are shortened.
Anyway, today I'm going to talk a bit about a special place that I planned to shoot in for a year or more even but never had the chance till few weeks back.

Secret Spot

This is not completely a secret spot, but I like to call it so because it is somehow deep and isolate. It is a piece of land from the beach isolated from the rest of the urban features around it with an artificial cliff of rocks. In high tide time, the water level gets really high that it is almost impossible to stand there and work for a long time (even though I did that already in fact!).

Das Licht Der Dunkelheims
The secret spot is not far from this location fair straight and down.

As stated in the image caption, that location isn't far from there. First of all, I paid a visit to the place with my regular intentions to study the location and see what I can do with it. This simple visit paid well with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens!

Washing Shore
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, HDR, ISO100.

My single shot there back that night, Washing Shore, seemed to get the attention of the viewers. I planned it in such a way to make a curvy line leading the viewer from the bottom right corner to the top portion of the image in a curve. Two bad parts here though:

• The building on the left, which seems to weaken the image for me.
• The noise and processing later on.

 Because of the temperature, the noise was unavoidable with this HDR image done completely with long exposures (ranging from 8 minutes down to 30 seconds). The final result was some complicated smoothed and sharpened details all over the place, with some banding in the sky (after using Hue/Saturation adjustment layers and Selective Color adjustment layers). I'm still not sure how suitable this would be for printing but I won't be sacrificing money for the time being just for experimentation! 

The most terrifying aspect here was, not surprisingly though, the white balance. I admit; it was my mistake to not use the white balance disk to fix the white balance properly before shooting. I had to relay on many layer masks to adjust the colors in one place rather the others and so on which made it a lengthy work and process.

Seeing how things turned around for this single shot, I've decided to head the week after with somewhat an adventure mood. It's not easy for me to be in that mood, I tell ya! But first things first; I had to check the low tide timing and I was lucky to get it accordingly for the weekend after midnight. The hardest step though was to get down through this rocky slope, which might be an easy task for a sportsman, but not for me, specially in the darkness. Retinitis Pigmentosa hits severely in the darkness.

Mare Lunare

The work began when my feet hit the ground. It wasn't easy as I didn't carry my LED lights and only my bulky flashlight. Also, setting up the tripod and the bulky VR-head on such soft sand was troublesome and did consume a considerable time. I've found out also that the VR-head needed some tightening in some positions as some screws were getting lose! Pretty dangerous working conditions if you ask me - imagine losing one of those small screws in such soft sand!

The Hanging Cliff
(Hour Glass)

The work was done completely using the Bulb mode, and took around two hours. Yes, and all of that was done without having a book to read during these long exposures; which ranged from 2 to 4 minutes. Believe me if I say, going around the tripod in such soft sand is not an easy task, and needless to say that walking around must be done carefully so that the level of the tripod doesn't change while shooting the panorama.

Things went smoothly, but very lengthy (and at some point, pretty boring I have to say!). The rewards were as you can see in Mare Lunare and The Hanging Cliff (Hour Glass), and more to come in few. In somewhat a strange turn of events, the Nadir point wasn't that easy to merge into the panorama but that was fixed in a hurry with some cloning. In fact I had to do some cloning in each panorama projection I've made so far.

Processing-wise, there was a lot to do; really a lot to do. This is because every single RAW file (total 41) in this panorama was checked for the histogram to ensure it's alright histogram-wise at least and no cut in highlights or shadows. All the files were converted to TIFF and the stitching process started from there. The final result in each projection needed also lot of work in Photoshop because the colors needed to be emphasized; the pure output was simply dull with not much strong contrast. Probably you've already noticed the green water surface in the panoramas. To do this, I had to use some layer masks and plenty of delicate work in selecting the water surface only. This is because without any change in the color of the water, one would deem it all as one with the sky. The water itself looked faintly green and hardly noticeable, thus the color cast was increased using Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

Skyscope

Probably my favorite projection of all, is the tunnel view projection; Skyscope. The texture of the sand acted naturally as a guideline somewhat to the center of the image. Here, specifically, I didn't change the water color cast to make it merge with the sky a bit and form semi-circle. I think adding a third color to this combination of yellow and blue (and bit of magenta is already in the clouds) would make things diverse in a bad way.I've tried, as well, to create a slight twirl in the outside rim of the image to make a feeling of something sucking into the depth of the image (and to do this you have to work in 8bit format rather than 16bit), but the process got complicated and I decided not to waste more time with this.

Planeta Litus

The planet projection of this panorama wasn't much dynamic like its cousin Skyscope, except for some faint clouds lines which somehow acted as field lines around some planet. In case you were wondering about the long white line in all of the panoramas above, this is just a light trail and flare from the lamp posts as it seems. 

Schwimmend am Höll

The last projection in the series is a wide-view projection, Schwimmend am Höll, which appeared to me as a floating island in a surreal view with a sky that seemed like burning in flames. Originally, I've stitched this panorama in a large format (11,000 pixels wide) in order to be cropped later into a suitable size. However, after looking at it for few minutes, it did appear to me as if the sides were essential despite the featureless space there. I think without such space, the look won't be that of a floating island balancing itself on a tip of a hill... am I exaggerating here? Ah well.

Ironically, all of these panoramas were refused from some stock website for "too much processing" - probably these people never heard of something called panoramas ever, and processing is the core of panoramas. Anyway, at the end of my work, the sun was starting to cut out through the horizon and the atmosphere began splashing with violet hues, and I didn't want to miss that chance...

Good Morning Kuwait (VIII)
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8(?), HDR, ISO100.

The exposures ranged from 2 minutes and down for one stop each time till 1 second. This was somehow essential because of the city lights and balancing the atmosphere with these lights is somehow impossible with a single exposure. The final image had strong artifacts caused by chromatic aberrations (one thing that I really hate about Rokinon 8mm in such situations) - but after a tedious work in Photoshop I did somehow reduce the effect of these colored lines at the edges of the buildings.

QTVR

With this hard work that lasted for two hours, it would be a shame not to do a QTVR for this place, specially that the nadir point was relatively easy to fix.

If you look to the top above (zenith point), you will notice some strange mark in the sky, and the truth I'm not sure what is this either. However, as I didn't really use a zenith slide in the panorama (even though I did take it), probably this mark is the result of cloning the gap in the original flat spherical panorama, which is Mare Lunare. The gap was so small to even think of adding the zenith slide to the whole panorama (and cause a mess to the whole set!).

Delays

I keep telling myself that I will be facing my projects soon but I'm not sure how much soon is soon in my own timing. There is Geltani, and IPA check up for Arabic (which is pretty important for me). In the meantime, the nearest thing I could think of right now is at least to try and translate UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights), which is usually used with most languages on Omniglot (both constructed and natural). With that, I would probably do a voice recording to see and examine closely how the (new) conlang of Geltani does sound; needless to say, it is a real test for the transliteration system (or codification so to say) that is to be used or transcribing this conlang as well. Time management is one major leak in my personal life, which is full of leaks already...

On the other hand I've been testing some sounds of Arabic and trying to figure out precisely where my tongue resides in some of them and how the air articulates in and out of my mouth. Well, been acting (more) as a maniac while doing this while driving or being alone in the office. Still I didn't catch the whole concept completely in fact. The major difficulty resides in two letters: [ض] and [ظ], which, sometimes, are both transliterated as "Z" from the fact that many "dialects" of Arabic today do so. The IPA version provided in Omniglot seems to be on the same trend and hence, it's not convincing for me as an Arabic speaker - Yes, I don't speak the standard Arabic in my everyday life, but it is the supposedly lingua franca between all Arabs, and yet, it is the formal and the prestigious form of Arabic for letters, communications, and the media. My other blog is in standard Arabic as well and I cannot ever imagine myself writing something to the public in one dialect of Arabic, and say this is Arabic.

Finale

One book is off my list now. The Extraordinary Everyday Photography by Brenda Tharp and Jed Manwaring is somehow just another version of another book I had before; The Contemplative Photography. It is in fact a mix between contemplative aspects and technical aspects about the camera and some tips and tricks to do some shots. Never the less, I did like reading it, and specially the last few chapters which are related to dusk and dawn, and night photography.

Source: Amazon

Source: Amazon

Source: Amazon

The book on the queue line is Optics and Optical Instruments, which looks from the few pages I've read so far - looks that it is a students' book; and this is good! Exactly what I was looking for. My previous reading about lenses and their design made me somehow in a status of stalemate; I couldn't comprehend much of what was there, specially the mathematics involved. It is an engineering book of the advanced type which requires some background. However, Optics and Optical Instruments might look old from the shape of the graphics in it (obviously handwritten) but so far so good with the body of text. But that doesn't mean consuming the context is going to be an easy task, specially without someone forcing me to "study" so to say.

Away from books, I've been carrying a load; a load of emotions and responsibilities. Probably more of the former than the latter. I'm taking it seriously in my mind now to spend a vacation, a real one, abroad. Ireland for a third time is in my mind as well. Not sure when exactly but the usual timing would be between September and October if I can. I have to settle things down first, and inform everyone about my plans so they would prepare to take care of Mom. My mind is fluctuating between a new location or visiting the first location I've been to back in 2009. I think the latter is my choice for now, because I have better equipments now, and I don't want to miss the beauty of Lough Corrib (Loch Coirib).

I'm starting to feel numb to almost everyone now. Asking myself, why should I care...

Nacht der Langzeitbelichtungen...

Well, now we are back to the rhythm after two posts about my trip to Failaka; despite the fact that I'm still processing some of the images taken there. But probably the bulk of the images that I really enjoyed taking were already done... till I discover something new though. The B&W processing and tone-splitting sound promising but I do need more time with my images. In the meantime, I'm trying to settle down with time ripples as I'm torn in between two blogs, both of which would require an early preparation to be posted in time. Probably my future posts in this blog would be short (be happy!).

Nacht der Langzeitbelichtungen

I hope dear reader won't consider the title offensive^*. It's just a title that reflects what I've been doing since I got back from Failaka island two weeks ago. I'm trying to do the best I can before the weather gets warmer (than this already); long exposures at night time.

Sky and Earth
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8(?), 3.5m, ISO100.

My beginnings were shaky. Despite the fact that the low tide timing was perfect for me, because I wanted to go deeper into the sea shelf (the area which is covered in high tide time), yet, the tide was not low enough. To add to my problems, the beach area was not "silent" at 3:30 a.m.!
My first exposure, Sky and Earth, which was for around 4 minutes, came out blank. Not literally blank but out of features. I was hoping to go deeper into the sea shelf specifically to capture more rocks in the foreground, but it wasn't the case here.

Luminatus
Rokinon 8mm fisheye,
f/8(?), HDR, ISO100.

As you can see, because of the time that lapsed when these images, Sky and Earth and Luminatus, were taken, I've completely forgot what was the aperture used back then in this manual lens; but I doubt I've gone further than f/8 (hence "f/8(?)" in the caption). Luminatus, in particular, was shot about 180 degrees to the other side on the shore, away from the first shot Sky and Earth. Now, I have to admit I don't like both shots, but I did shoot after all. I didn't want to go back with empty hands after struggling to the beach at 3 a.m. that day! Some people commented that they like the transition in the horizon line in Sky and Earth, and I might like it a bit because of its minimalistic approach to the seascape, yet, it's not much more than a play of colors; in fact this is all what I depended on here to make this image work a bit. Otherwise, it is one big fail. Luminatus on the other hand was a fail still but with some liking from my side because of the spot-like effect that surrounds the buildings. This is mainly caused by the lights of the buildings themselves which caused a halo effect somehow. The HDR technique (gathered from long exposures) helped a lot here in controlling the range of the halo, but then some work in Photoshop was required. My night was over then and I had to go back to my car on the soft sands, carrying the load!

Extraterrestrial
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8(?), 8m, ISO100.

The night after was a bit more promising but I have to admit here as well, I didn't expect the results. One of the major differences between an amateur and a professional photographer is the expectation of the final outcome before the work is done. The timing isn't really what I was hoping for because it was close to dawn, and the exposure time, when calculated in the regular way as I usually do, must be shortened than the real calculations; This is because the sun is on rising even though slowly, but it does affect the outcome significantly (in some trials before, the exposure time would be one minute short than calculated to get a proper exposure, or at least a proper histogram distribution).
In theory, when doing long exposure for moving clouds, a cloudy day in fact is not good - this is because the movement would not be so obvious in the sky. The movement won't be noticeable unless there is some spacing in between the clouds. In the meantime, I was thinking: Is it possible to record the movement of a hole in the clouds when a cloudy day? I think I got the answer in Extraterrestrial. I'm not a meteorologist, but it seemed that this place in the sky specifically was like a barrier for the clouds passing through it and hence the lines formed around this specific vacancy. The bright spot in the sky was probably the sun disk which, on location, was completely invisible to the naked eye. Probably this is one of the beauties of doing long exposures: to see the unseen!

Blauentraum
Rokinon 8mm fisheye,
f/8(?), HDR, ISO100.

Just before leaving the place, after observing how much light is shining on the land, I decided to do one last trial, this time for HDR bracketing (and if I remember correctly it was also a series of long exposures). As you may have noticed  in Blauentraum and Extraterrestrial already, I've been using the Fluorescent WB excessively for such time of the day (along with dusk time too). In processing the HDR, I didn't try to do any magic here, but simply eliminate as much as possible the ground of the beach while darkening the sky a bit. The guide line here is not strong, and the only thing I would rely on in this image is the hues and blend of colors. Otherwise, I wouldn't submit this to be judged in a contest!
The coming weeks after that did (and will) witness more long exposure trials but I'll keep these images for later...

* In case the reader is not aware what it means; the title means "night of long exposures"; parallel to the Night of Long Knives (Nacht der Langen Messer), which was a name given to a  series of political murders in the beginnings of the Nazi regime.

Finale

Source: Amazon

 New books now arrived, and I've already started reading it. The new book is a contemplative book somewhat (just like another book I had before) but in a different style somewhat. I do have some list of books that I'm reading already for bedtime (an Agatha Christie novel in Arabic in fact) and at work I'm somewhat busy doing work related to this blog and the other blog, thus reading this book is a challenge for me now. The best I could do for now is to read in between when taking breaks, or when I wait for my fingerprint time before leaving work. The other books are related to Archaeology and principles of optics which I'm also dying to read. The latter specifically looks an old edition; I really didn't check it out! But it doesn't matter as long it gives some basics.

Source: Amazon

On the other hand, I've ordered another flash cable instead of my Vello cord which got broken after some accident. This one (from Pixel) though is cheaper than Vello's. I'm not sure why though, but it works fine and tested it for High-Speed mode on my 580EXII. If it is about the make, then I have to say the Vello is higher in price and yet couldn't stand the fall of a tripod; hence, it wouldn't make a difference for me I guess if I get a cheaper one. After all, I'm not using it excessively for the time being - but that doesn't mean it's not necessary!

This is it for now I guess. I'm not sure I want to talk about work here, because I'm trying to keep myself busy as much as possible just to forget the insults that I see daily in that place. The summer is coming, and the hell is starting to cook my body already. My only condolence is to see students finish off their semester as soon as possible to release some of the jam in this place.
Meanwhile, I do feel guilty though for not doing much work with my Geltani conlang. Two weeks of vacation and yet, I didn't touch it at all and concentrated all my time for photography; it's unfair I guess. Too many things to do, and one body to do them all...