Official...

Surprises (or should I say Semi-Surprises) still have a plenty for me to show, and it is yet still the first month of the year.
It is official now. I've been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa by a specialist, after checking all the results of the tests I've done in the past 2 months: Field of View (FV), OCT, and ERG. I'm not sure how did he really read my results without a close-up inspection to my eyes, but he depended, as it seems, on the ERG test result which I've done last Thursday. I'm not sure what's the next step, but anyway the doctor said that he cannot make up for how severe it is. When he asked if I do suffer of anything, I simply replied what with what I feel and what I've seen: Nothing.
Anyway, more about that probably later. I'm somehow happy for this past week for a number of reasons which I'll be talking about below.

A World of Pajero

I've finally had a chance to do a panorama for my new car; Pajero 2014. The panorama wasn't any easier than the one done with my old car, Seat, despite the relatively wider space inside. This is mainly relative to the size of the tripod and the bulky nature of the panorama tools I need to use. This in fact sparked me to think seriously about finding some alternatives somehow.

Pajero 2014

Even though I've stated before that I'm not going to use the parking lot in my work place because I'm disgusted of that place, but anyway I've come up with a solution just to avoid suspicions. That day, however, I had to wash the car and make sure it's clean of dust and I had to remove all the plastic sheets covering the seats (as in any new car). After doing my fingerprint scanning to leave work, I've went to the back of the parking lot as if I was leaving but instead of leaving I just parked there in somewhat isolated spot. The total process (settling and shooting and packing at the end) took me around one hour and a half. During this time there were employees who did pass in front of me and I somehow managed to escape some of them, while HDR technique and merging did the rest of eliminating some of the moving objects that appeared out of control!
The panorama was mainly formed by 3 rows like in normal panoramas with one or two shots for the zenith (but didn't use it later). As for the nadir, it is already a hassle in a regular panorama so imagine shooting this inside a car! I did try, however, to dangle the tripod with the camera and the carrier from the back of the Pajero, but the shots taken were not to be considered "serious"!

A World of Pajero

However, even though it is not a full panorama, the set of images were enough to do some twisting in the projection style as can be seen in A World of Pajero. I think what really helped me here very well in accentuating the colors is using a proper white balance to start with, and this was achieved by using my new Vello white balance disc. From that point, changing colors and vibrancy of colors is, relatively, an easier task.
Even though Pajero 2014 was tone-mapped using Photomatix, yet I find that tone-mapping A World of Pajero using Photoshop CS5 did the job perfectly and with relatively more flexibility than in Photomatix. With the new controls that Adobe provided for tone-mapping HDR images, I think this is becoming a serious candidate and a powerful tool for tone-mapping HDR slides.
I've already printed the flat panorama and prepared it (and signed it) to give it as a gift to the sales person who managed my papers for this car in the nearest opportunity; probably when I go for the first service after 1,500km is passed. This is in a part, can be said to be a "self promoting" somehow, or let's say a free ad. Since I suck at socializing, probably such acts would do me a favor "socially." We'll see about that later...

Nächtlich

Now, there was an idea that I've been trying to do for several weeks but I would always lay lazy or exhausted, or simply the weather and timing wouldn't allow me to. This past week though I had to force myself to work despite some health issues. Seems that the coughing syrup worked on making me drowsy in the first night of the weekend, thus I couldn't do much at night, but the second night I had to push myself despite the persistent coughing. Even though I headed to the location late after midnight, I've encountered some annoying "youngsters" who were not of this country. I somehow got pissed off because at the only time I could be there I must bear with such people. Even though I tried to work silently without paying any attention, I've decided to go back to my car and watch the please until they leave - they seemed to be under drugs or high because of something!

Die Kuwaitische Mitternacht

Guess I've forgot to mention that the destination is the Soog Sharg pier (or dock?) which was a favorite location in the past weeks for long exposures with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. This time, however, the measures are different; I'm doing  panorama and to ensure that the luminance is coherent for the HDR merging later, I have to take 3 bracketed shots, and to ensure that the total time for each shot does not exceed 30 seconds, there is no escape from raising the ISO. Even though it's not something new here but my previous record was to work with a panorama in ISO800. This time, however, it had to be ISO1000! This will have gruesome consequences later on...

Planeta Mitternacht

One of the gruesome consequences of such panorama under such ISO is, naturally, the hardships with the cleaning process and, with highly distorted projections like in Planeta Mitternacht, the noise level becomes even uglier. To clean the image, then, means you must lose details. Thus, so far, these images are for display only and printing them is not something to think of in the current time - unless I find some other workflow to work with these images.

Gravitation

Obviously, the noise level is harsh in shadow areas. There is a noise layer as well in bright areas like the blue sky for example, but they are not as harsh and "ugly" as those in the shadow areas. Probably, I needed even more time for such exposures to expose the shadows properly! But to do this, I would have, properly, spent 2 hours if not more, shooting this panorama.

Schrein Am Meer
The worst to suffer from the noise.

Working at the pier in fact was not even any easier physically than my previous panoramas done back in 2012 on the seashore. Because of the bulky planks and the gaps in between them, clumsiness in movement which I've been known for was NOT allowed! Any loose clutch or grip on any of the tools I've been using (to screw, unscrew...etc) is definitely not an option, and walking must be done carefully in such darkness because my feet can easily trip in between the planks.

Working with these panoramas now did in fact spark some desire within me to work with older panoramas, specially those from Ireland of 2010, from Co. Tipperary. Under the light of the new vision and the new techniques I've learned so far, probably I could make out something different from these old pieces!

Helios

Source: B&H

I've finally received my shipment here and I had the chance to do a simple test for my new lens, the Rokinon 800mm f/8 Mirror Lens (a.k.a. reflex lens). To use it, I have to connect it to a t-mount adapter specified for EOS system. I was lucky that Vello's T-Mount Adapter comes with a small booklet that gives some idea about connecting the camera to a telescope and other optical devices which gives me some simple guidance of what to expect in the future if I need to do more with my camera.

Source: B&H

I've ordered also a Cokin ring adapter to fix my welding glass in front of the lens (which has a diameter of 105mm), but for some reason the ring came a little! Hence, it is hard to completely fit it into the lens but it did some job after all - even though the situation might be shaky. The other hardship here is the fact that I'm not using a zoom lens, but a "prime" lens. Previously, I used to zoom out to find the object and then zoom into the object (be it the sun or the moon or anything else). Here, though, I have to find my way the hard way, and with this shaky tripod system. Things get even harder with adding teleconverters and raising the focal length up to 3200mm! Anyway, I was able to give it a try.

Sonntag
Rokinon 800mm Mirror lens, f/8, 800^-1sec, ISO100.

To add to my "good" luck (and please note the sarcasm), since I got the new lens, I didn't have a good chance to shoot the sun nor the moon because of the clouds and few rains. I did have a single opportunity to shoot at the sun with welding glass, but it seems that the nature (and thickness) of the welding glass is a main reason for defocusing. The shaky system probably makes it harder for me to concentrate my eyes and focus properly (and everything is done manually) but it apparent that focusing with the welding glass is harder. As I'm typing this, I'm waiting for my chance to shoot, this time trying my ND filters (and I do need to use a stack of them). Not sure though if they will fit and cover the diameter of the lens. Another option would be to use the gel filters sheet which I still have, and let them down in front of the lens with the help of the Cokin ring. Just some ideas that I need time to test further. These issues, however, are nothing compared to be having a good and dependable tripod right now which made me think seriously of getting a new one from here.

Finale

Now it is probably the time to slow down and do as much as possible in the same time. Despite the fact that I'm officially diagnosed for retinitis pigmentosa (RP) right now, I'm just trying to chill and cool down my nerves and go on with my life without putting much weight on my own notifications about my own sight.
I had some ideas before in fact about what if I was a sculptor; probably I can make a monument somehow to commemorate RP and its patients.But since I'm a photographer (or let's say trying to be still), maybe then I can show and do something on the same line? What can I do as a memorabilia for this?

I do have some ideas in my pocket right now, but to do them, some effort is needed, specially if I'm working alone and trying to take shots on my own for my own self. I do have some other ideas not related to RP as well and all is scribbled down on sticky notes. Just need the proper "timing" to work with them.

Maybe I can imagine RP to be an inflicted photography style somehow. I'm not sure how this is possible but probably with some thought and philosophy and meditation, I would be able to reach a solution for how to work around RP, and show it in my work.

I'm not sure what I'm awaiting in this life for the time being. My exhausted mind and body are really urging for a vacation somehow but it's unclear how or when. The only thing that I can do for the time being, is just look for some time to sleep, as much as I can...

Sonnenaktivität

Here we are; a new year. I won't be talking about resolutions here as, in fact, the new year thing is not widely separated and the concept of New Year's resolutions is just something weird for most of the people here - needless to say that we grow up without really considering it something special that a solar year passed and a new one began.
I can't say my beginnings of this year were good, but I really couldn't care lesser about my bad luck, or the troublesome conflicts with other people around me, specifically at work. This, by now, became like a daily dish for me.
One of my great sorrows for the past week is that I wasn't able to go out at night during the long "weekend" which consisted of 4 days and shoot at night. Mainly because not much scenes were available, and some of the locations that I've used to visit for some solitude and silences, were bugged by annoying people and their trash. Luckily, I did some of my homework the week before and did shoot something at night.

Blaue Nacht

From the early beginning of that night, it was a helpless endeavor trying to find out something to do and not to sleep that early in a such winter night. My first pick was a location that I used to visit years back, and specifically at such time of the year (and even did a panorama there deep in low tide time). This time, however, the situation had changed. People (specifically the annoying type) were still roaming the place. I tried my best to stay away from the rest and do my own business.

Ausstrahl
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/11, HDR.

I have to say that the main reason for visiting old location is some inspiring kick that got to me when I viewed some old images (specially those I've made into 3D anaglyph images) of a broken shade on the beach. Back then, I didn't have the fisheye lenses that I do have now, specially the Rokinon 8mm. Thus, I've decided to re-discover the area and this shade specifically with my Rokinon because, simply, the geometrical patterns were inspiring as they are.
As I settled down in the place, over the soft sand, I was faced with two main problems: a) setting up the tripod on a soft ground, and b) the flare from the harsh lights of the restaurant at my back. In the final image, Ausstrahl you can still see some traces of the flare even after the crop. One of the problems with fisheye lenses like Rokinon, with a large field of view, it is the hardship to use a flag to block other light sources that cause the flare; simply because there is a big chance that the flag would get into the frame, and when moved out of the frame it does not technically block anything!
On the soft sands it took me some time to settle and to take some test shots with ISO12800 to judge my composition. I've decided then to go with long exposure brackets; something that became a favorite activity at night exposures. Can't remember the exact timing but it ranged from about 8 minutes down to around 30 seconds. Almost at the end of the exposures, some guy was peeking from the top of the concrete wall behind me and started to make comments. His comments weren't bad or vulgar, but they were simply nosy. Thus, when I felt the situation being like that, I didn't stay longer and picked my stuff and left the place.

Altar
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 4m, ISO100.

Leaving the first location, I still had the urge to work a bit more, thus I've visited Soog Sharg dock place where I made some shots several times previously. This time, it was relatively quite (as the time was nearing dawn by then). Even though I did take several shots with different times thinking of bracketing and merging into HDR when I finish, but at the end I only picked the first shot that took me 4 minutes. The rest was a play in the RAW editor (DxO in this case) to fix the shadows and highlights as much as possible, along with the distortion but not to the extreme flattened look. That night, however, wasn't the last activity for me in 2013!

Pajero

As I've mentioned before, I've got a new car just before the end of 2013. A Pajero. I really like driving it and it was a great help with the rains that hammered over Kuwait this week. I'm grateful.

Pajero 2014

The day I picked to shoot my new car was cloudy and prior to some light rains back then, but with HDR rendering I was able to show details in the clouds above. For such an elevated car, it was hard to pick up a proper angle to shoot form a lower level, unlike my previous car, Seat.
I've taken several shots as well from various angles. However, no need to put them here as they are just regular ones. The main interest for me now is to do a panorama from inside like I did with Seat. I've managed to check the rear and I've almost settled with my mental process on how to setup the gear inside - but I do need a proper place to work (for some long time) and it should have proper light level. Let's not forget that I must wash the car prior to my work!
There is one old panorama taken from inside of Seat, which I've done in the parking lot of my work place, but now with my sickness of this place, I've neglected the idea of heading there and shoot a panorama.

Sonne

In the past 2 weeks I've picked up a new hobby. Shooting at the sun. Well, it can be classified as astrophotography, but the case with me is that I'm not completely within the reach of astrophotography; but my main interest is the sun, and the moon of course.
This main interest was sparked (again) in fact when I was surfing B&H website to find what was new for me back then, the mirror lenses. With some little research and study, it seems that those lenses are in fact just small telescopes to be attached to the camera (with the help of some adapters too). This even sparked in me the desire to, maybe one day, get my own telescope and try some astrophotography - but we would need REAL good locations for such hobby, and the urban areas where I live and roam are, of course, not suitable for such task.

Sonne I
Red arrows point to noise bits from the system itself.
Blue arrows point to features on the sun itself.

My first trial to shoot at the sun was with my relatively-new Sigma 70-300mm. As I used to do with the moon, with my Tamron back then, I've attached two x2 teleconverters to raise the focal length to 1200mm. Using the two teleconverters can be awkward in normal conditions because the light quality becomes lower, but with the sun, we would still need some filters to block the harsh light, and here comes the welding glass (green) to do the role.
The welding glass provides around 11.7 stops which was enough to look at the sun thru the LiveView LCD at the back. They say, usually, if it is safe for your eyes, then it is safe for your camera when it comes to shooting at the sun, and this is what I've done in fact. Focusing, however, was a bit troublesome; typical for such a long focal length and a shaky system. I think I do need a collar to hold the lenses to the tripod like how it is done with typical large telephoto lenses.

Sonne II

I did another trial few days later but this time the harsh spots from the system itself did vanish, and I'm not sure why! Maybe it has something to do with the focus itself. When focusing at a subject like this I usually zoom the LiveView to the edge of the sun disk and try to make it out as sharp as possible visually (which is not always a good solution). With two teleconverters (and f-number exceeding f/2.8 in multitudes!), the AF function is simply idle. Just to note here that the image were corrected for colors later of course. In Sonne II, the spots (or flare?) are more obvious than in Sonne I. The best has yet to come though...

Sonne III

My third trial with the sun was done differently. I've used the IR filter instead of the welding glass. The thing about the IR filter is that I can't technically measure the number of stops it reduces, because mainly it is intended to block visible spectrum and pass the IR band of the spectrum - this is the main goal for producing it, and using it! Thus, with this uncertainty in my mind, I kept some ND filters at hand just in case I do need to reduce the light even further. Just to notice, my IR filter thread is 58mm and my Sigma's thread is 62mm, thus I had to use a step-down adapter between the two which causes a bit of vignetting at the edges, but here it's not really important.

Sonne III
Original IR shot.

The light level, however, was easily controlled then by the shutter speed and the aperture (which was kept at maximum) and reducing the ISO too (back to 100!). All that was done as I was watching the LiveView. Not so surprising, focusing using the IR filter was much easier and I could achieve a relatively sharper edge focus. This is understandable since the welding glass is bulky and it technically hangs in front of the lens, while is IR filter is screwed in. What I'm not sure of though, does the IR radiation has any part in any of that? Meaning, does the IR radiation come into focus and NOT the harsh disk of the sun itself? Logic says that I've been focusing with the help of the IR band since I'm using an IR filter - but who knows! However, with Sonne III I was even luckier to find several spots at the center of the sun. Adding to that, the original IR shot did have some "halo" around the disk, unlike the dull image done with the welding glass. Seems to me that it is all a good practice for now before, one day, getting my hand on a mirror lens or even a telescope.

The f-Problem

One of the problems that accompany using a teleconverter is the fact that not all information might be recorded in the EXIF of the image file, or even communicated with the camera itself. In my case, my Bower x2 teleconverter would communicate such information, but the Vivitar x2 teleconverter does not communicate any of such information with the camera. Thus, the camera would show f/22 for example, but in reality the f-number is supposedly larger than f/22; after all, the f-number is a ratio.

When shooting at the sun with my two x2 teleconverters, the recorded f-number was f/64. I thought, if someone would try to track the information of the shot to try and do something similar, the consequences might be not "pleasant". Also, I have to think about the future use if I want to mention such information with my images, like in this blog for example, and definitely such information would be misleading. All in all, there must be some accuracy in the information represented with the images. Sigma's maximum f-number is f/22, and it is recorded as f/64 when using the two x2 teleconverter, and this value comes from the Bower teleconverter alone.

Hitting mathematics, let's see what does that mean. That is, having f/64 with two x2 teleconverters and the lens zoomed to 300mm. First of all, let's get the diameter of the aperture here without teleconverters:

N=f/D;

Where N is the f-number, f is the focal length, and D is the diameter. Simple algebra, and we get the equation of the diameter as:

D=f/N;

Thus, in normal conditions with 300mm focal length and maximum f-number of f/22 (as in the Sigma 70-300mm lens), the diameter should be: 300/22 = 13.636mm. 

Now, the teleconverters are just magnifiers and do not have any aperture control. In return, then, the diameter doesn't change with the addition of teleconverters, but the focal length does. With two x2 converters, the focal length is theoretically expanded to 1200mm! (300 x2 x2). Now, if we supposed that the f-number is indeed f/64, and the diameter of the aperture is not changed, what would the focal length be in that case? Again, simple algebra would give the equation as: f=ND. Meaning, the focal length is: 64x13.636 =872.727mm. A wrong answer of course.

Using the above equations again to find the correct f-number, it would be: 1200/13.636 = 88. It is worthy to note that in the specs of such teleconverters, it is mentioned already that they double the f-number, but the problem here lies a bit in the mathematics involved, because f-numbers are not based on the rule of stops of 2ⁿ, but rather on 2^n/2. I find the method of finding the diameter is more "direct" if I can call it so!

This item of info, though simple, I believe it would play some role in critical times when calculating the required exposure becomes essential and finding the correct f-number would be a must at such times, along with other uses.

Finale

Gaston Bachelard
The Aesthetics of The Image
Ghada Al-Imam, PhD.

Husain Ali, PhD.
The Philosophy of Art
A New Vision

My arsenal of books is about to finish, but that's going slowly for the time being. Two interesting books (somewhat) are on the list for now. The first is a discussion of Gaston Bachelard's (1884-1962) philosophy. In fact, despite the title of the book, I thought it would be a direct impact on the matter of the arts, but it turned out to be a highly deep and sophisticated discussion for various themes, and generally for the relation between science and art. I had to stop when I reached around quarter of the book or even lesser than that because, simply, I could not comprehend a single word from the text. Thus, I've just decided to put it aside for later and start reading the second book on the list. The second book, The Philosophy of Art, is more clear in its aspects about art and the philosophy related to it. I've just began reading it though and I need to see what comes next; at least the talk is clearer and I'm able to follow the ideas so far. I'm not expected though some tips about how to criticize a work of art or the likeness of that, but at least I might develop my own sense and evaluation of art in order to see future work with a philosophical eye, and not simply with the visual attraction.

Aside from the cultural venue, I've been suffering a lot of downs with no ups. Mom's condition is not getting any better (though stable), and in my work place things are getting on my nerves more and more. In fact, my work right now is the last thing I do care about. The mediocre, if not poor, treatment from the administrative people in my work place makes me question the value of my dignity and respect relative to those people. It's not the first time to think of seriously leaving that work place and be on my own doing my own job and the things I like - but it is better to be with moonlighting; that is working with a stable job and a side job until the situation becomes concrete on the side job. I didn't start this yet even and makes me wonder what to do next. What angers me the most is to realize that I've spent 6 years in this college to get a scientific degree, to be controlled then by a bunch of monkeys that barely know how to do algebra and simply got no considerations for our simplest rights.

The situation is vague. I'm simply living each day to its extent and trying hard not to think of tomorrow. It's hard to neglect that because of the hammered mind, an expectation for a new trouble arises with every morning I turn my opened for the daylight. My heart is tired.

Macromatic...

Here we are, another week passed, with a special twist of Christmas, of which we don't celebrate in fact. In this week, I was somehow busy with paperwork and going back and fro to finish some business related to my car, and by the evening I'm left exhausted (and mostly with a headache). Thus, I couldn't do much either with my photography projects or with my Geltani project.
I've finally got my new car; a Pajero. I'm used to drive salon cars and this is my first time to drive a somewhat elevated car; I mean like owning one and drive it daily. In the meantime, I don't think I'm getting rid of my old car, because apparently Mom's flexibility and movement won't give her much when riding a big car like a pajero. The plan for now is to drive her to the dialysis with my old Seat while in other days and doing other chores with my new pajero.
I do have my plans for this new car of course, other than just driving! But I need time to think things through and to get myself more used to its dimensions. I really wanted to shoot the car in a cloudy day to have some long exposure but the sky had been clear for days now. Hopefully, the opportunity will come soon.

The Lava Bloom

Source: B&H

Source: B&H

In a simple experiment just to test my Manfrotto macro rail, I've tried to shoot some flowers in the flower bed in the yard that have been planted few weeks back. Initially, I thought that this is an opportunity as well to try out the RoundFlash for macro shooting. Later on, however, this proved difficult, and to really use it for such a purpose you'd need to elevate the tripod higher from the ground and make sure there are no barriers between the camera and RoundFlash set, and the subject. However, I've tried to use the RoundFlash with 580EX II connected but in wireless mode but it wasn't practical because receiving the signals from the camera body can be cumbersome. A cable is better fitted for this task while moving the RoundFlash. After trying several shots, I've discarded the RoundFlash and worked with the speedlite alone. After sorting out the images I've came out with 3 shots only that I "somehow" like - not completely though.

Lava Bloom I

Lava Bloom II

Lava Bloom III

The settings for these shots were almost not changed using Canon EF 50mm lens with addition of 68mm of extension tubes. The speedlite direction and distance were changed between shots (in a manner that I don't quite remember right now). As you can see the 3 sorted out shots are cropped as the leftmost parts of the images were somehow (almost always) blown out a bit and to reduce the dramatic edit in the RAW stage, I've decided to crop it and to serve the composition in a better way (despite the random folds). I've just realized after all this cropping and editing that one particular feature seems to be at the center of image, not abiding to the rule of thirds. I'm not sure yet how to feel about this; is this a weak point in the image (regardless of the overall aesthetics), or it is an unconscious break from the rules?
By experience, I've realized that the most interesting lighting for macro shots, specially floral ones, it is when the light strikes from the side to give some dramatic sense of the scene and accentuate the features of the bloom further. Anyway, in this particular incidence, it seems other direct or close to the top directions were fit as well - and probably the color of the bloom helped me a lot with the vision I had later about this bloom being as a lava! In any case, at such level of macro, experimenting is always a key feature, specially if not using a ring flash.
Trials to render one of these shots into Black and White wasn't successful as the tones appeared somehow "monotonous" and didn't provide that striking contrast that I was seeking. This is understandable, since the tones are closely related (Reds to Yellows), and separating them by black and white rendering is hard if the original hue gap isn't wide enough.

The hue spectrum. Notice the blue circle and the distance between the yellows and the reds (connected through orange).

After these trials I've tried my luck with extreme macro (reversing lenses) and using teleconverters, along with the RoundFlash again, but to no avail.

Forgotten

Source: B&H

Two weeks ago, when it was somehow raining a bit now and then, I've decided to do some outdoor activity and this is mainly just to test my new LensCoat. I've simply forgot to post about this experience last week. I got the chance during a weekend morning, when I've decided to head to a place I'm quite used to since I've done lot of shots there before. The challenge, however, was to drag my stuff to that spot and settle and mount my camera while the rain is hammering (though it wasn't a heavy rain after all). I've found it plausible to just fit the camera and cover it with the coat and then change the lens (if not already mounted on camera) from under the cover; which might need a bit of practice if your movement is clumsy as mine!

Denkmal für Freiheit
Rokinon 8mm, f/8 (?), 0.8sec, ISO100.

Ironically, I was the one without a cover under the rain! The situation was awkward as I was trying to use the calculator as well under this rain to estimate the needed exposure. Not only that, but I've even disconnected the Rokinon lens and tried to fix gel filters on its back with my old method of attaching the gels to the back of the lens. I think I've added 8 stops. I had to move fast (and cover the camera mount fast too). It is not something I do not advise anyone to do, but it gave me a lesson on how to really prepare if you have a real goal in mind!. Anyway, the preparation here is out of question was it was just to "use" my new LensCoat.
Anyway, I've tried long exposure here but, despite the nice clouds formation, didn't produce much nice results, and this is natural in fact because the clouds shouldn't be so massive if you want to create and observe concrete lines in your image after a long exposure. After all, I've picked a single shot image and worked through it with some processing. The noise level wasn't cozy, thus I resort to the old trick of blurring a bit and isolated the background from the foreground by lens blur, beside cropping.
This image in particular, beside others taken with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, revived in me the dream of having some sort of a profile for this lens to be used in DxO to correct (or de-fish) the image. I've been checking for some methods to create such profiles, and some of them involve some really large prints, which is something out of my hand for the time being. I'm still looking for alternatives though.

Eigen

It has been a trend in the past few weeks, and because of the dormant activity with my camera lately, to visit some of the older images (and specially old panoramas) to do some kind of a perspective change by editing the images in a different way; mainly by doing a selective discoloration, or what some call it color splash.
Probably the color splash is a phenomenon that occurred and is a product of the younger generations and the modern photo-sharing websites. As they say, the cool imagery. However, nevertheless, it is something worth a stand from the artistic point of view I believe. I didn't study arts myself but at the end I have a mind, and I have emotions. I think I can relate to some aspects of such effects to the images.

Coelus Ignes

The concept of selective coloring or color splash is not new to me in fact since I've done it before for some panoramas, but this time the perspective is different. I'm looking at it as a possible venting. Meaning, the colors of one image might not be flexible with your vision, or maybe the composition is not quite what you have desired for the image, then a color splash might be an option to enhance the visual impact of the image. I've excluded here the black and white option because the black and white, even though it is an option indeed, but it would depend heavily on the composition and the visual arrangement in your image. There are no colors, so the only way to attract the viewer in a black and white image is the composition in the first place, then comes the tonalities.

Planeta Victoria Verde

Orbis Fidei (II)

When it comes to choices as to which color or range of colors to pick for such task, I find the matter is a bit philosophical in nature. Just a bit, not much! As I went through many images from my past, I've found it plausible in more than one image to select more than one color to show while leaving the rest black and white. I've asked myself, what rules here? Probably I can put it down in points:

• The color can be the most important color in the scene. The most expressive color in the scene. As an example, in Coelus Ignes above, despite all the "nice" features in the image, like the lights and shadows and the wooden beams and the distortion, I've found myself compelled to show and accentuate the reddish sky (and here I've tinted the black and white with little blue). The same goes for Planeta Victoria Verde.
• The color can be important to show a certain feature in the scene because that feature is in that specific color. For example, in Orbis Fidei (II), the main feature of the ringed strips on the ground was the popping part of the image. However, because the rings were yellow and the image has a wide range of yellows originally, I've decided to show this feature specifically by showing the blue instead. 
• Even though a color splash scene can be composed of more than one color, yet I do think that showing one color ONLY is more powerful than two ore more.
• The question is, how firm is the relation between the composition, and the color splash? Would I really give an image with somewhat bad composition a push by sorting to color splash? The initial answer in my mind says "no". Composition is of utmost importance even in a color splash - but who knows!

From the thoughts pinned above, it seems that panoramas (specially those with symmetrical attitude somewhat) are a good target for color splashes.

Irish Home VII (II)

Finale

Right. Still there are books on the queue line waiting for me, and there is a Geltani project that I didn't touch for some time now, with me being busy with my life. How much I do wish if I just can change everything in my life in one night and a morning. Now with a new car at hand, I have to bear in mind the future expenses as I have to pay the installments for this car which renders me with a lesser amount of money every month, after deduction.
Meanwhile, all the mental work with the macro photography and even fisheye lenses, made my brain somehow active with mathematics again as I try to calculate and find some solutions or imagine some solutions for future usage of these lenses. In fact, I'm thinking of an experiment already as I'm typing these words. Also, let's hope for more night time photography as my last week's outing was not so promising and I really felt it not appealing to write about in here this week. Probably I'll give it a mention at some other time.
I find the real question deep inside me is, all this busy mind work, is it enough to really make me forget my worries and my personal problems? I'd say the answer is 50-50. Yet, it's really hard for me now to give even more than this activity already. My life pace and my physical conditions are giving me a real push downwards.

Now with the new year coming, I'm having plans to go to Failaka, and this time with my new car if possible. The schedule of the ferry for the days left of December aren't good at all, so I hope by 2014 the conditions are better. Just to do this simple trip I do have to arrange stuff with Mom concerning her medicine.
We don't celebrate Christmas here, nor New Year's, but some people do ask me now and then, what's your resolution for the new year. I'd like to say, simply, not to be lonely anymore, but I know this will be a failure already - regardless of how optimistic, or pessimistic person I am.

For those who celebrate it, I say Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year