Retinol VI…

Life life life… what to do to get one. I'm typing these words as early as possible because my shoulders are getting more loads from various things; Home, personal life, responsibilities, and the last thing I would need right now ― work.
In this post, I'll be talking about the last shot(s) in the series of Retinitis Pigmentosa for this year, as well as, as usual, talking about Kika's photo-challenge for week 5.

Retinol VI

The last idea for the RP project came about quite suddenly and unexpectedly, somehow. In fact, this shot was also intended to be shared for both, the RP project as well as Kika's photo-challenge week 3, which was about "framing". This is because the main structure or composition contains such framework (no pun intended).

Prospect

The whole thing started as I noticed a little jar or vase where my sister keeps some dried pink flowers near my room. I liked the color first specially with the sun light that seeps through the balcony behind this squared-shelf. Eventually, as my eyes kept gazing, I followed with the lines and it was one of these "Aha!" moments as I thought right away of framing (which was the theme of Kika's challenge back then). Probably I should have posted this back in the post about Kika's photo-challenge week 3, but I've totally overlooked it, as it was more dedicated to the RP project. Now, despite the pleasant look in the morning with the sun being out, the shoot was performed at night time, and to merge the two ideas (RP + framing), I've decided to stand there out of the balcony and just extend my arm with the blind-cane as symbolism for the unknown future and prospect of people inflicted with RP, like me.

Now, Prospect did not go exactly as I wished or planned in the very beginning when the idea was formed. Originally, the idea was to merge a bright and a dark shot (the ones above) AND with each being of different focusing range, as a resemblance of changing from bright to dark future and the uncertainty that looms around us, people of RP. Anyway, aside from the "semantic" talk, the technical aspect of the idea didn't go well, with Photoshop failing me and my skills in editing the layer masks probably was not up to the level. But let's be realistic; After all, the two shots are quite different in blurriness and that affects the "virtual" displacement of the objects in the scene, so it is definitely hard to merge the two smoothly. Should've known that beforehand! Anyway, as an intermediate solution to the dilemma, I've decided to simply put the two images together and merge them by changing the blend between them, as the blurry outlook would somewhat deliver that idea of confusion and the unknown, supposedly.
The funny thing is that some people liked the outcome (though not much for me) so I've decided to post the single images (above) separately on Instagram. People do like bright and warm stuff I guess, specially when pink.

Kika V

As for Kika's challenge for Week 5, it was about "Every Day Items"; It was a bit vague though and hard to put in a single hashtag as it is. I think Kika realized this fact later on and she has been putting the theme into a single word as much as possible lately.
Anyway, for this challenge I was a bit puzzled and baffled, beside being limited with my time. I was honestly going blank with ideas back then and didn't know how to come up with something creative for such an "every day item" - I mean till this very moment as I'm typing this, I really couldn't think of something creative in that venue! So, I had to go back to the old trick: Check back the arsenal.  

Thus, I rolled back on the memory lane and I thought that the best candidate for this photo challenge is to be a high speed image done in 2019, by the name Telaki تلاقي. Well, we don't use candles daily I suppose so it might not count as an "every day item" but in my defense I would say that the elements of the shot are the essence of the theme: Fire and Water. We use both daily… of course…
Anyway, so just not to leave the image as it is and quite a replica or a re-post of the original image, I've applied a quick channel swap (applying the Invert adjustment layer and changing its blend to Color). I did that for the flame only but then reversing the layer mask it applied itself to the body of the candle. It was perplexing to choose only one as I really liked them both. So, I've combined them both in a single image. Anyway, only the original photo is available on the stocks; As I didn't (and don't) think of uploading this new version to the stocks as well.

Finale

My queue stack of things to do is growing bigger by time. I remember I've stated that I need to prepare some images to be uploaded to stocks; Technically a 4^th batch. However, everything (almost) in my life is on hold with my chores and responsibilities, beside the upheaval in my sleeping pattern. The good thing (sort of) I could actually slice out a piece of time for myself to do some shooting, indoors and outdoors. The "funny" thing with this is that I'm actually adding to my queue stack of things to do by doing some shooting, because definitely some of these photos has to be added to the stocks later, and even ASAP!
On the other page of my life, I have work and work issues that had been stepping on my nerves lately, for real, despite the fact that I'm not going to work at the moment (for a year now) unless it's needed. With my colleague retirement decree, I'm left alone in the place, and apparently some loads of quite "unscientific" stuff that I need to do, and which I'm not ready for nor I want to be ready for (because, simply, I'm not an admin, nor an economist). My job, in time, moved from being a scientific job with hours spent in the lab conducting experiments and preparing samples and take readings, as well as going on field trips – moved to be a behind-the-desk job and dealing with numbers and terminologies that I don't understand NOR have any interest in. Adding salt to the wound, it seems that I'm the first person to come in the manager's mind (even with my colleague being around) to do any socializing, interacting, workshops and do tasks outside; As if he does not know that I do suffer Retinitis Pigmentosa, and as if I don't have life problems on my own.
For all of that I've decided to take one step regarding Retinitis Pigmentosa, which probably I should've taken long time ago, and that is trying to get a certificate of "special needs" which is given to people with, well, special needs of course. The certificate to be given after medical check-up and reports and a decision to be made by a council. It's a long path, and I've just stepped my first. This said though, I'm not sure yet if this would be followed by a medical retirement issue. At least such certificate (which some members of my family has already and for the same reasons) do provide some useful privileges (e.g. parking in specific parking lots for special needs personnel).

Meanwhile, with all that mess, I'm trying my best to live each day on its own and work with my camera as much as possible and create art to the best I can. Things aren't easy on that plane for sure though, as I'm kept busy with other chores, and exhaustion. This house is stepping on my nerves with each creeping day…

Retinol III-IV

Busy busy busy. So busy that I can't even play games! Can you believe that? However, to be honest, the major portion of my time is consumed by bad sleeping patterns. All in all, I'm trying to cope with the daily tasks here as well as trying as much as possible to work with my camera and a little bit with a new venture: Adding educational posts to Pinterest. This is a new thing and probably I won't be doing it often, as other things in my life do already have their own priorities. But I'll try to do it whenever I get a new idea or whenever a friend (who is learning Arabic) might suggest.

Announcement

As promised and as with my previous posts, I'd like here to start with a little announcement for a new batch of uploads to the stocks. This time they are scattered across the usual stocks where I upload.

The new batch

First of all, one of these images (won't say!) was canceled from the upload because of some brand name and it would be such a time-consuming process to remove that mark (stock websites usually don't accept such images). Anyway, photos with faces are typically uploaded to Mostphotos, with the exception of only one which is accepted in Canstockphoto as well. The rest are uploaded across Dreamstime, 123RF, as well as to Canstockphoto. However, 123RF, again, did refuse all 5 uploaded images (most of them were denied for being out of focus!). I'm pretty sure they would not be accepted by other stock websites if they were indeed out of focus - there is something fishy or misunderstood going on.

With this new batch, I'm trying to find time to re-process some of my old panoramas, specially the old ones from 2011 and 2012 and prepare them to upload them to my Mostphotos along with the rest of the large-size panoramas there (with a width of 10K pixels). Issues keep arising here though, specially with the new lock-down and health, but I'm trying my best (with coffee!) to organize my time and priorities (and yes, I'm failing so far).

Retinol III

Then, we arrive at my third image for Retinitis Pigmentosa (this year) - which was actually done in the same day as the previous one in the previous post. It was a quickie idea that occurred to me and thought of working it out right away after finishing Sensing which I talked about in the previous post.

The Seeing Hand

The principle thing was to be simple actually; Just using the sun to shoot something and the rest is to be fixed later in Photoshop, and with the help of a fisheye lens (my favorite Rokinon 8mm), the dramatic impact can be achieved (in terms of sizes and emphasis).
The idea of the shot is about the usage of hands to navigate through our spaces as people with Retinitis Pigmentosa and how we are greatly affected with the change (continuous change or period changes) in the environment around us on us; This is specifically about changing furniture at home frequently. Something that I've often suffered from, and still.
People with Retinitis Pigmentosa, like me, are typically using their body parts and memory to navigate through places and when at home, it is mostly memory that gets activated because things are "supposed" to be in their own fixed places.
Now as for the technical part, the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens does not have provide such a shallow depth of field, thus it was one of the first things to be done (after the general color editing in RAW first). It was important, though, not to exaggerate the synthetic lens bur here. Next, it was time to fix the eye on the palm, and for this, I've picked an old image from my arsenal (of my own eye). It was a struggle though to let it be as natural as possible as if it was drawn indeed on my palm. Till this very moment I'm not yet convinced that I did the job correctly.
Anyway, the shot was liked by some people specially those with Retinitis Pigmentosa and could relate to this particular problem. Thus, if you are reading this and you do know, or live with, someone who has such disease or any type of visual impairments, just mind the change in the environment around them. It can be just frustrating; Big time.

Kika III - Retinol IV

Yes, you read that right. I'm posting 2 shots from the Retinitis Pigmentosa project for this year into one post, here. The whole thing was actually a coincidence.
As I was planning a shot for Retinitis Pigmentosa in my head (for days), Kika gave out the theme for her 3^rd week challenge: Framing; And this is exactly the "structure" that I had in my mind for my shot about Retinitis Pigmentosa!

RPG: Retinitis Pigmentosa Game

The idea behind RPG: Retinitis Pigmentosa Game is, again, the furniture and the obstacles that we face INSIDE the house. I was actually thinking of more like an "earthly" composition; Things set to the ground. However, after watching Kika's video for the weekly theme, framing, my mind started to (automatically) combining the two ideas and I came up with this framing, with furniture (or something similar that is) - of course with the blind cane as well to deliver the idea. Now the shoot was a bit of an adventure and unfortunately, I didn't take any shots to document the setting.

Air Remote, for wireless tethering.

The idea needed a top-view, and I guess nowhere is better to do such an idea except for the balcony (and we are lucky to have one). The problem here is, though, I am shooting myself with no help from anyone. So, it was a call for the Air Remote tethering tool, which I didn't use a lot since I got it years back simply because it does lack some features and it's quite cumbersome despite the (supposed) ease of use and the relief that it should be providing. This time, it was no exception, because it did disappoint me further. I will talk about that shortly.

Lateral arm from Photek

To shoot the ground from the balcony, it was natural to use the lateral arm to carry the camera and extend it out of the balcony looking downward. Luckily, I had those weight bags which I've ordered 3 years ago or so and never used them till this moment! Nevertheless, the situation was shaky and I had my heart up my throat. I'm blessed to have an elevator (lift) near me in the balcony to go up and down; Otherwise, I wouldn't even think about shooting this. 

The lens of choice here was my Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 because, well, the field of view and the autofocus system. After shooting this though, I realized that I might have done better using Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5, to have a wider field of view and then crop it to a suitable size and boundary, and probably the manual focus of this lens won't be a big problem. After all, I was shooting at f/11, and with wider lenses, the depth of field is forgiving anyway. The main drawback in the whole process, though, was with the tethering.
Actually, day by day, I'm starting to realize that the usefulness of such device is quite limited more than I anticipated in the first place. Here for example and in this situation, I was aiming to capture bracketed images sequence in order to create HDR and be able to achieve the dramatic look by controlling the light in the image at "baking the HDR" level (i.e. tone-mapping). It turned out that because of the timer (10sec) which I've set initially to be able to do my pose, each bracketed image would be taken with a 10sec timer! Of course, holding my pose for 30 seconds is next to impossible, so, I had to go back and just take single images. I'm glad that I could somewhat achieve what I've envisioned using just a single RAW image though. I would have done it properly with an Intervalometer with proper time-delay settings to give me some time to go down to location via the elevator, and that way I would be doing bracketing quite easily, but I still need to check myself on location to pose properly. Maybe next time I will try to combine using both tools, if it was possible (honestly, never tried).
The irony is that every now and then when I decide to use the Air Remote Tethering I do get first a message for updating the firmware and I really don't know how that is done but what I really wonder about is what the update is really about? I don't see any features being enhanced at all; Specially the annoying rotating display which cannot be displayed correctly for shooting in portrait orientation. That's another story for another time and yet, there is another misfortune that I will talk about (hopefully) in my next post when I was about to take the 5^th shot for Retinitis Pigmentosa project.

Finale

Here we are, close to summer again. And yes, I'm not so excited about it. We've gone into partial lock-down here for one month period (ending at April 8^th). Everything will be re-evaluated afterward, and who knows, the lock-down might be extended.
People here are complaining about everything, about all measures and don't get me started with conspiracy theories. Each individual in this great nation is an Aristotle on its own. I just hope my mood swings won't attack me severely in the meantime as it did one year ago, last summer, when we had partial lock-down as well. Not to say it's all gone but I'm coping better. I think the routine of fasting lately beside reading the holy book added greatly to the comfort. I've stopped fasting just recently and strangely I can't stay up late now like I used to do when I was fasting; I'm getting tired easily. Probably because of the digestive operations taking place. Who knows…
Things are a bit awry on the work front, but that's a story for another time I guess. I'm trying to keep my peace of mind as much as possible by trying hard to neglect and forget about these problems. I foresee increasing responsibilities upon my shoulders, and I'm not sure how am I going to cope with these, nor whether I should trust my experience or not (apparently it's not a match, scientifically speaking). From one lock-down to another, things are just spanning and expanding and all there is to hope for form my side is…to stay away as much as possible, until some "right time" comes for a proper resignation.

 

Precautious Selfie (2020)

Meanwhile, as I'm posting these images about this year's Retinitis Pigmentosa project as well as about Kika's photo challenge, I'm still active with my camera but I don't want to post or talk about these images until I finish the Retinitis Pigmentosa series at least. I'm also anticipating working again with my speedlites, with both high speed and stroboscopic, but I'm still puzzled for what I'm going to do. Trying to seek hints from Kika herself, as well as from the work of other photographers I find (mainly on YouPic and YouTube). I'm posting these photos, of course, on my YouPic, but not yet on Instagram. You can check out the link if you like to take a peek on my YouPic profile. But I have to say that many of these images are actually old images re-made or some ignored test shots from the past that have been worked out, specifically to be posted on YouPic. My chores list, surprisingly, is building up and I'm trying to do one thing at a time (including the typing of this blog post actually). There is a lot waiting for me that I've been even postponing playing some games! No time to rest and my body is failing me as usual… also, it is time to think of a new post for my Arabic blog. I think I do need another vacation from blogging at some point, soon…