The weather is getting better (in my terms) and looks encouraging for some outdoors activities. I'm not an outdoor man generally speaking, unless it comes to some solitude and lone walks - with or without a camera.
So far, at the time of typing these words, I've gone indeed into 2 strolls and planning for a 3<sup>rd</sup> one when everything settles in properly. Anyway, just not to put all the eggs in one basket, I've decided to dedicate a blog post for each stroll, as much as possible.
Stroll I
Things were not planned, to begin with. Just some nice weather and a quiet morning; Things I do miss indeed. I cannot describe it with enough clarity but I can say it was somewhat like a sudden surge of energy that rushed through me and pushed me to change clothes and head out with my camera. It was one of these challenges that I used to set to myself when going to work on some days; One camera, one lens. However, there was a catch: A filter.
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One Normal Day
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The lens of choice here was (my trusted) 50mm, and the filter was my H-alpha (which is a filter dedicated for night sky photography). I picked this filter specifically to see how it responds to light in normal conditions like these (the sun was not so strong though, it was a cloudy day) and this filter acts like an infrared filter of a low threshold (not scientifically but I mean in the looks of the images) and that's why I've picked this filter specifically. The camera is, of course, my modified Canon EOS 7D. Even though the H-alpha is somewhat forgiving when it comes to viewing through the viewfinder (unlike regular infrared filters), yet working with a mask on and wearing glasses made this task difficult and I had to go with shooting using the LiveView instead. Shooting using the LiveView is somewhat cumbersome even though the shutter speed with high enough for stabilization while using this filter. To be on the safe side, I've decided to shoot bracketed shots; Shots like One Normal Day (which was a test shot) and more later to come, were mostly those of lower EV value because they were the most stable ones. Were I to shoot using the viewfinder, things would have been more stable.
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الياسمين على الخد قال
(the jasmine on the cheek had said)
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One of the things that keeps me from going out strolling and shooting images is the people around this area (almost everywhere here actually) which, if not taking privacy beyond the reasonable limits, would be bugs in the armpits (I came up with this). Anyway, I've kept on exploring around trying to find something interesting in some way and I did find some, but kept it for later because some people were standing there and I didn't want to stir trouble. I've even started to shoot some cat on some trash bin to ward off attention (I kind of like that shot though but I never posted it anywhere). Anyway, seeing that I might get more attention if I remained in one place and not moving, I've kept on going with the intention to get back to that location later to do the shot that I had in mind. This is where I've encountered some garden with a fence with some (Indian) jasmine flowers; We had a similar plant in my workplace and it attracts flies, but good thing there were none when I wanted to shoot that. There was only the keeper of the garden who greeted and was happy to watch me shoot the flower (and maybe was hoping that I would take a photo of him!).
Now, processing these images (later after the stroll) did produce such a nice turquoise tint (naturally) to the leaves while keeping everything else almost close to B&W; But things will change as it will be shown later. I could also go on and explain the procedure for processing each shot (specially the crop) but I guess no need for that here right now. I just hope you get accustomed to seeing Arabic titles for my images here as I preferred to use Arabic for these shots! Usually I use one or two words, but the jasmine shot reminded me of a line from a song, so I used it here.
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The Signal
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When it comes to surprises, I was kind of not disappointed in fact. I'm still wondering what is that thing that bears the Batman logo on top of it. I really wanted to turn around and take a shot from the front of this thing but I felt like someone is watching me so I decided not to linger longer here. One of the mistakes I did when shooting this, though, is not placing the Batman sign on the left to give it a proper space and direction. I've also decided to crop it first but then I've realized that the crop would take out a lot of the space and the environment around the sign so I just kept it as it is. Not a photo that I would use to participate in contests or anything but it is a good practice to notice and study.
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Urbangle
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Some surprises, on the other hand, did require a bit of scrutiny, as is the case with Urbangle. As I kept walking forward, after shooting the Batman sign, I was rolling my eyes around (literally, because of my retinitis pigmentosa) trying to find out anything interesting, when I noticed this leather sofa which apparently had seen better days, and been devoured by these palm trees outside one of the houses. I'm not sure what's the story here but apparently someone (probably a gardener or someone who works for one of the houses) used to rest here as I noticed an extension cord and a cable, probably acharger of some sort. Anyway, without thinking of the final outcome, I've snapped the shot as I thought it is kind of "funny" (my sense of humor isn't class most of the time). Later, at home, when this image was set to be processed, I was amazed by the colors (and here, I've processed the dark version of the bracketed set); Somehow, it looked like a fluorescent image and surely served a certain mood. Originally the image was sharp but I've worked on creating a dreamy look. And by the way, Urbangle is "urban" + "jungle". Not sure if such shot would make it through contests or anything but some people on YouPic really did like it indeed.
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هَيَجانُ نَواعِم
(softies' upheaval)
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At this point, I didn't see much interesting things after Urbangle was shot, so I decided to go back to that road where I wanted to take one specific shot for a bougainvillea, but didn't because of some people were standing by. I was hoping that they left the place, and I was right. However, I did notice something that somehow I didn't notice before. Some grass or weed growing on the roadside on its own; I'm not sure what this plant is called but seems I've seen it called "dogtail" somewhere. Anyway for this post, I will simply call it the "weed". I loved this plant and its soft structure. It was windy a bit that day and the way it moved with the wind or breeze was, to me, breathtaking. Just like sea waves and I literally stood there watching it and shot a video of it, before I started to shoot several shots from different angles. I did wish at that moment that I do have my Voigtländer 20mm with me but nevertheless, I did make some shots with the 50mm lens with good perspective at some point.
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تَناوُشْ
(reach)
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The deal was with the processing of such images (whether to be taken with 50mm or 20mm) as the perspective in any way would include unneeded elements from the surroundings or the background. So, in any way it would be, a crop and some darkening for the background (beside the special work with layer masks and all that mess) - all that was a must. Because of the movement here, we do have some blurry images and this is something I didn't mind with such a scene and even appreciate it more than a still image; It is a source of abstracts as it is, as seen in Softies' Upheaval or Reach. Yet, there was at some point or moment when I had to switch off the camera and start to shoot again, and forgot to set up the bracketing option again (as all the shots in this stroll were done that way). I've shot 7 successive shots (burst mode) before realizing that the bracketing was off because I've switched the camera off.
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اِهْتِياج
(rampage)
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It was a mistake, and I was thinking that I will delete these files later when I go back home. But, as usual, that didn't happen. Checking the images back and seeing that the exposures are somewhat workable (some shots were stable and some had motion blur), I've decided to do the multi-exposure magic and add a bit of dark mode to the mix. The result was Rampage. It was a mistake, but a useful one. It occurred to me at this point that sometimes, beauty lies in the mistakes; or as we say in Arabic sometimes: May a harmful/bad thing be beneficial. From the set of images taken for this weed, I think Rampage is the one I like the most and I'm grateful for such a mistake! But now, after stopping by this plant, it is time to work on the shot that I've came back to this road for.
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أَثيرِيْ
(ethereal)
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The scene attracted me for that long bougainvillea branch AND the lantern (that looks somewhat Victorian in style). It is a facade for one of the houses and that's why I was hesitant to shoot this scene. So, before anyone would comes in and disrupt the process, I've decided to work quickly. I had no time to check for the tilt, perspective and all that in between; I was just there shooting. Thus, in the processing phase back home, I spent quite a time fixing the perspective and managing a proper crop for the image to remove undesirable additions (and cloning out some too). I would say that
Ethereal is my No.1 favorite from this stroll, followed by
Rampage which was shot for that weed. The dreamy look, of course, was added in the processing phase and I tried to confine it to the plant alone. What I like here is the shadows that add some ethereal feel (hence the name); Some feeling that I can't find proper words to describe it except: a dream. Things didn't stop here though, as I've created a swapped version, where the blue/red channels are swapped.
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عَبْرَ الأَثيرْ
(via ether)
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Some people even preferred the swapped version. Personally, I like them both and I find it hard to decide which one is better than the other. I'm wondering in fact if I was to upload them to the stocks, would they both be accepted or one of them is rejected on the grounds of similarity (happened before with me when one image is rejected because it is similar to another in the upload). However, the closest to a "real" dream (if I can call it so) would be
Ethereal despite the nice contrast and the colors combo in
Via Ether. Also,
Via Ether won't be completely unrealistic in terms of colors, I'm sure that the town of Chefchauon in Morocco does have such beauties with its blue theme (it is called
the blue city/town indeed). This said, I need to think about it thoroughly as I'm not sure if these images would be a good addition to the stocks, or they are better being treasured up for events, contests, or printed for any expos in the future (though I didn't participate in any since I left the group).
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البَرَكَةُ كانَتْ هُنا
(the bless was here)
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Finishing with the bougainvillea, I think I felt a bit exhausted and started to go back home, but on the way, again, I stopped to shoot some old door. I have a soft spot for doors, specially old ones. Such elaborate doors are quite the flag for the 1960s and 1970s eras here (give or take). Personally, these eras were the golden age (even though I was born in 1980) and probably the best times in the history of this place (if not in most of the world). I guess you can tell now why I named the photo here The Bless Was Here. Anyway, modern doors for modern houses nowadays don't happen to be with much art and craft like these old doors and that makes even more special.
I don't know who owned this house really and apparently no one lives here as you can probably tell from the ruins. Such houses are common in some areas and usually some haunting stories looms around them, and I'm pretty sure this house is no exception.
Anyway, back to the technical aspects of shooting this. This photo is actually a merge of two shots, panorama if you say. Two or three shots just about enough to include the door and whatever above. For some reason, I didn't like to take a shot of the door alone; I think it was my eye calling for me to include the environment and not just the door alone; Some form of complementing environment I suppose. With that, there was quite some work to be done with the perspective as I shot this in a haste and without a tripod to begin with, so some alignments and straightening was needed to fit the door into a perfect rectangular shape (and consequently, cropping out some parts as well). Honestly, I didn't experiment much with channel swapping here because the colors that pop out when the white balance got fixed were quite sufficient for that dusty, old, past mood. Probably swapping the channels (red and blue mostly) would not serve the mood much here.
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خَريفْ
(autumn)
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خَريفْ 2
(autumn 2)
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At home even things didn't stop and I glimpsed right away the curves of the bougainvillea, which despite its thorns, I'm quite fond of. Despite the fact that I've shot these plants many times before (and posted some of the images here as well) but the atmosphere that day was somewhat adding a new layer or a new vision power over my eyes. It is a well-known fact that the weather does control the mood for many, and I'm no exception. However, it seems it goes more for me as my eyes are opened to see more lines, more abstracts; To see things in ordinary things that I do see every day. Things with
Autumn, of course, did not go without a crop. And it seems that people are more interactive with the swapped version rather than the original, as well. I believe it's natural to feel that way about it since it has a stronger contrast (visually).
Finale
So, basically this was my first stroll. There is another one that was done which I've kept for another blog post, hopefully. I hope though there would be a third, a fourth and even more. It just depends on the situation at home and whether I'm being very active or not. We are well into December already and when I roll back with my memory, it seems that there is some work waiting to be done (some of it concerning my car). I have to admit though that staying home all this time and not going to work is a good thing but in the same time I'm kind of dragging myself to do the usual regular tasks that I used to do regularly back when I used to get up every morning just to go to work. Nevertheless, I'm not complaining. If there is one thing to complain about in the meantime that would my sluggishness and mood swings (which I'm trying hard to control).
So far, at the time of typing these words, two strolls had been already. The first one is the one I've talked about above, and the next one will hopefully be posted in the week after the next. In this stroll I've used 50mm lens, and in the next one I've used 20mm lens, and yet I'm still thinking about my next lens. The issue is technical as I'm trying to keep shooting with my H-alpha filter and this filter, being 58mm in diameter, won't fit my Sigma 12-24mm even with step down rings (the lens' diameter is 80mm). On the other hand, I could be using Sigma 70-300mm (with a diameter of 62mm) but this lens is definitely for a stroll I would say. It would be nice to use a classic zoom lens like 18-55mm as it has a good range between wide and normal focal lengths but unfortunately for me, my lens is quite old and not functioning well. Is it time to update my lenses and more? Maybe Canon's pancake (40mm) lens? Anyway, at the time of typing this, I'm still not sure what lens to use for my next walk or stroll, beside the many, many, many things, that plague my mind as it is already…
