Announcement: MostPhotos…

Well, this is another short post of some sort. I want to announce something and in fact I'm barely having the time to type this! Things just started to get busy suddenly! Home, work, health... mood swings, you name it. With all this mess, some ideas had been building up in my head, and I will talk a little about them down below. But first, with the announcement.

Announcement

As I've posted some announcement in my previous short post, here is another one and this time for something a bit more than just stock photos.
I'm actually providing some of these new panoramas that I've been "re-making" with their original size at the time of stitching. What does that mean? Well:

Typically when I set my images to be stitched and make a panorama, the stitcher would take the original sizes of these images by default, and the resulting image by default would be somewhere around 22k pixels wide! However, when I stitch, I reduce the size to about 10k pixels wide, and from there I do even minimize the size further usually before uploading to the stocks because usually such websites do have a size limitation.
Right now, since MostPhotos does not have a cap on the size, I've decided to upload these panoramas at their 10k pixels wide size and put them in a special gallery on MostPhotos for sale. They would be perfect for large prints, being up to 86cm wide (or more), that is about 2.82 ft, at 300dpi. Meaning, the size can still be enlarged further with proper DPI reduction, if needed.

So far, 10 panoramas had been uploaded to MostPhotos and hopefully more to come. I've been spreading the word across social media and now, in this post. In case you would like to follow up, you can also mark this page and check if any new panoramas been added. Worth noting that these panoramas are exclusively available on MostPhotos, alone.

A glance at the gallery in MostPhotos. Clicking each thumbnail would provide more info about the panorama.
Click to enlarge.

Now, the reason I'm doing this is for the technical (and financial) hardships that I'm having concerning printing and sending prints (even before COVID). Things are worse now because of COVID of course (specially with technically a non-existent postal services here and relying heavily on private couriers which charge much). Thus, I've decided that maybe I should offer those for sale with a suitable price online for people appreciating arts, and leave the choice of printing (and sizing) to them, instead of doing the whole work of printing and sending. As noted, this is a first batch I would say, and hopefully more will be added when I get the chance to make some more (I have some ready but wouldn't upload them for various reasons, but only display them, on smaller sizes).

Finale

Well, as you can see above, I've been busy with the issue of creating panoramas (and still with that in fact), and in the same time busy with new ideas that I'm still trying to figure out how to apply them. In addition to that, I will be preparing another batch of single shots to be uploaded to stocks (mostly some old shots re-processed).
All this work with preparing photos for the stocks makes me think seriously of checking for some "keywording" software to aid me with generating relevant keywords instead of thinking about them from the top of my head! I do use some websites already but I'm guessing that they are not too advanced. That's another story for another time.
On the other hand, I've been surprised by 123RF, which rejected ALL of my previous 25 uploads! The reasoning for 90% of them (if not 99%) was set to "Pixelation" or "Pixels". I deem this completely a non-sense, as I know that the images that I've uploaded were reasonably sharp and clean. Setting this reasoning for mostly all the images makes me think that there was another reason behind the rejection, probably not technical at all. Meanwhile, Dreamstime did accept about 11 out of these 25 uploads (and these 25 are also available on MostPhotos).
February is on the way, and I'm trying hard to squeeze my mind for some ideas regarding my annual shot for Retinitis Pigmentosa; If you are reading this and don't know, February is named as Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month. I used to do a shot every year since 2017. For this matter, I'm trying a bit of brainstorming using some websites for random word generating in order to spark something in my head, beside surfing Pinterest but so far no chain of thoughts had been established yet.
On the other hand, some ideas visit my head concerning drawing inspiration from my daily (or semi-daily) readings for Quran; A habit that part of a resolution I've made some years back and got fulfilled during COVID and lockdown till this very day (and so far I've read the whole of the holy book for 3 times and doing the 4^th nowadays). That would not be an easy task of course, specially when trying to avoid modeling (which brings me back to selfies). Anyway, since I read one part of Quran almost every day (Quran is divided to 30 parts), then initially the idea is to create 30 images, with each image being inspired by some line I do read in each part. I don't see results pretty soon for this but let's say it's a goal in itself and to be achieved with an open time limit. But I do have to put this aside a bit and focus on my Retinitis Pigmentosa project for now.
Now, all I'm praying for is, some peace of mind, and less mood swings, and yet further some quiet place. Maybe I would be able to recollect some of my thoughts that way…

Unconventional…

Was going to let go of this post and let it go off for another week, but here I am, trying to finish it to the best I can just before Thursday. Let's hope this works out well!
I was going to post about two main topics. One is related to re-creating (old) panoramas from adjusted RAW files (if you don't know me by now, I usually shoot for HDR when it comes to panoramas), and two is presenting some ideas about representing images. However, the first topic did not go smoothly (for now) but I will post about it later hopefully. I'll dedicate this post mainly for the second topic, which I thought of calling "Unconventional," because it is all about weird or not-so-common dimensions when representing photos. 

Unconventional

As I've said above, it is just a bunch of ideas that raced through my mind lately. However, it is not the first time. I'm just taking one step further in this topic of representing photos in some unconventional ways.
The idea, in simple terms, is to get rid of the conventional ways of representing photos in "orthogonal" axes, namely rectangular or square frames. Instead, how would it be if photos are represented freely? Essentially, this is not new, since in classical times many photos (specially portraits) were cut to fit a circular or an oval framing; A trend that seems to have had disappeared in current times, specially with the digital era. My thoughts, however, roam about and around both realms: The digital, and the print.

عين السلطان (The Sultan's Eye)

Killing Evil

The idea of breaking the dimensions is not new to me as I've done that already with my panorama in Oman from inside the Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat back in 2015, The Sultan's Eye. This image is a panorama rendered in little planet format and that formed beautiful concentric circles which inspired me then to cut out the edges and make it as a perfect circle as a whole. To keep the image as a circle, I had to save it as PNG which, along with GIF, is a format the saves transparency in the image and can be dealt with through the web. On the web though, people might not realize that the image is "circular" because, simply, the frame is still rectangular in shape; A user would only figure this out if they downloaded the image or changed the background color in the viewing environment, which is something seldomly done. I really wanted to print this panorama on aluminum and present it to the Omani embassy here but I've always racked up this desire on the shelf for more important matters then (and now). The workers in the aluminum workshop told me already that the image can be indeed made into a circle using a water-powered special gun to cut out the edges into a perfect circle as in the image.
Another method which was used in the past and nowadays is to shoot the subject across various images, as can be seen in Killing Evil, which was part of a project back in 2017 when I was with the group then. In the past though it was realistically through shooting several shots (mainly polaroids) and exhibit them in that manner, attached together or glued in some way to form the full shape of the subject. Probably I can call this a "broken panorama" of some sort. Anyway, this is what I did in Killing Evil but rather digitally than physically (and it was never intended to be printed). It can be of course, but I never did. Here in Killing Evil, the background was painted black already for the purpose of displaying the image digitally, otherwise it could have remained transparent as well (and saved as PNG).

 

The Floating Inchagoill

Both The Sultan's Eye and Killing Evil were some artwork from the past, but the idea progressed further as I was working (again) in recent years with this panorama from inside the historical Inchagoill church which I've shot back in 2014. What happened here, after stitching this old panorama anew, is that I wanted to minimize the distortion in trees because they were closer to the top of the image. Thus, I made the main subject smaller and smaller towards the center to reduce this distortion and that resulted, of course, in a vast blue area from the sky. Things followed after the stitch and when I looked at this image, I thought to myself, why would I make this image rectangular or squared? I've tilted the "planet" here on purpose, to reduce the distractions in the trees further as much as possible. So, instead of cropping the surplus area of blue and make the image as a "square", I thought why not cut it along the general orientation of the planet as a whole, and keep the transparency. If, for any reason, this image is to be printed, I would definitely display it as it is; Tilted like that. 

Unconventional Green Delight

As I progressed further, trying to experiment and explore my options more, I've started cropping some images to see how would they look like, as the one above, Unconventional Green Delight, which I've purposefully shot tilted. In this image, I've used squares to crop the main body in the image (the central stem) along with the branching ears. Anyway, when I compare this method with the cropping of The Floating Inchagoill, I do realize that the squares here do not get along with the main subject which is composed of lines mainly. It looks rigid. Probably if I did spread the shoot for this plant on several frames and then combine them together as was the case with Killing Evil - probably things could have looked better, as the broken lines in Killing Evil were done on purpose and by virtue of design these separate frames do act as if they are trying to grab the attention of the viewer to every detail of the full image spreading across the many frames. I might work again with this image and try to cut it with straight lines instead (it is hard to take several shots of it and combine them later).

Unconventional Planeta Cuvaitum (2011)

Unconventional Planeta Herba (2012)

Probably you've noticed the trend now with starting each image of those with Unconventional. Anyway, working further on exploring what can be done about this kind of images (or format of images), I've thought right away of checking some of these old planet panoramas that I've done in the past. In fact, they seem to be the most proper candidate for such non-orthogonal cuts by virtue of their original design, as planets; This is of course limited to these panoramas done outdoors because we can have some portion of the sky which is easier to cut (relatively, not always). However, the sun proves to be problematic in such compositions, and while it can be removed altogether from Unconventional Planeta Cuvaitum it is yet hard to do so with Unconventional Planeta Herba, because it mingles with elements on the planet itself. This said, though, I do like how the random branches of these bushes in Unconventional Planeta Herba look like as if they were floating in space with no blue sky. I wonder how would this thing look like if just by magic I was able to print it in 3D?

Thoughts:

Well, I'm not a tech guy by any means, but this is something that I've been reflecting about and wondering about the technical difficulties that do face such representations for photos, away from the orthodox methods that are common and know.
Now, images like The Sultan's Eye or The Floating Inchagoill can be quite easy to be printed and cut out, but it won't be the same for sure when it comes for images like Unconventional Planeta Herba which has a great amount of details in the brushes that need to be cut out. Probably a handwork with specialty cutting knives would do? Maybe. Though I can't imagine it done that way. If objects were done in 3D with 3D printers, I do foresee or maybe I can dream that such flat images of floating pixels and that had been cut off from its background in irregular shapes - that, might as well be done in some manner and methodology related to the technology of 3D printing. This really reminds me of those visual aids and prints that we used to do as kids for school, but those images were, well, paintings; Very simple paintings and made specifically to be cut out.

Now that was on the physical plane, but I'm not sure how easy it would be on the digital plane. Sure, images can be displayed on the web (like you see here in this post) using PNG format. However, there are two or three issues, at least for me:

1. The format itself. I think PNG is acceptable on most platforms right now but I don't think it is as common as JPG. Also, to what I know, it is not compressed. Thus, even though the image is saved with transparent pixels that are supposed to not carry any data of any color, these do take up a considerable size. Also, I'm not sure that the web in general is flexible with TIFF format, yet.
   
2. Displaying these photos, like in this blog, or anywhere else on the web really, still takes the rectangular dimension. I remember back in the 1980s and 1990s when printed newspapers were THE thing, they had back then some methods to incorporate images within the articles where the text seeps on the sides of such images, making the images appear as floating over the text. This can be done in editing phase in Photoshop (I did that for some ads and posters) but imagine this is done right away on the web by default. The transparent pixels that the image has are not yet truly transparent in my opinion because the image is still dealt with and considered as a rectangle and the text goes about that accordingly.
3. A minor issue: How would the viewer on the web feel or get the impression that image is floating or somewhat 3D, with transparent background? If the background is plain, typically black or white, and sometimes gray (well, most of the time that is), then a viewer probably get that impression about the image (maybe not so if the background is colored indeed). Or, maybe a shadow can be added to the image to give the impression that it is floating but, again, this shadow should not be added in Photoshop (using layer effects), but rather in the viewing environment (e.g. web browser). Technically, I don't know how this is possible, or whether it is possible at all.

These are some thoughts about displaying and printing images with "unconventional" dimensions and transparent background. Not sure how practical these are (most probably not) but it would have been somewhat amazing to see images floating, beside displaying such images in exhibitions and art galleries, at a considerable size. I think it would deliver some 3D sensation to the viewer (better than those anaglyphs that I've printed for some exhibitions I'd say). 

Finale

So, these are some thoughts about what I've been working on and thinking of in the past weeks, and still. There was another matter considering re-working old panoramas using processed RAW files instead of the typical HDR approach that I usually follow with panoramas. However, this one needs a lengthy work and considerations must be taken. So far, all my trials had failed and the only way successful one was actually a combination various RAW files, but that's a story for another time. 

Old (HDR tone-mapping)

New (processed RAW)

The difference is clear. However I do it in HDR, I couldn't possibly get natural as the new one done with RAW files only. But, the catch is, the panorama done with the RAWs are a bit complicated for the time being. Something I will check further in the coming weeks hopefully.

As you read this, I hope life did not have its toll on your mood and spirit already. I'm not sure where I am heading with all of this, but I do wish that one day, I would open my eyes and it's all gone. Just, gone… see you.

 

A Micro Job…

Well they had been some easy-going weeks, relatively, but with me back to work there is also the lack of time and energy (typical) to do some of the chores or projects I set to myself. But after winning a gold medal, I think I need to get some rest, yeah?
Well, my rest is not a real rest here though, with many other chores I need to do. First things first, I had to print my winning panorama as a gift for an old friend, whose uncle is actually the deceased Kuwaiti Icon, AbdulHusain AbdulRidha; for whom the whole thing was done after his death as a tribute.

The image here (without the external margins outside the black border) was about 175x79cm, and that's way greater than A0; The largest size in the A-series of ISO 216 standard (the typical standard of papers here). Thus, my typical go-to printing shop was not an option since they don't print larger than A0. I had to go to the main branch of that printing shop (and I was surprised that it's now owned by another company in fact). Anyway, it took them some time to print it (which triggered a headache for the lack of sleep). I tried my best to keep this file at its best of clarity and resolution, so no wonder the file size was a monster! An almost 1GB 16-bit TIFF at 300 DPI! Such a gigantic file caused their system to crash (according to one of the workers there) and they had to re-open it on some other system and try again. Makes me wonder, really, how come they can deal with this file as I do while their PCs or Macs or whatever were connected to those big large format printers (dedicated to posters and other types of prints)?
I've chosen canvas as my medium here. Their canvas material had a finer and smoother texture than the one I usually print on and in fact, in some sense to the touch, it does feel like if the canvas had been already glossed. I didn't bother to apply any varnish on the print with this relatively-new material to me; I was afraid that it would ruin the looks and it's really not a good time for this! Thus, I went along and just wrote my dedications on the margins (after shooting the video above).

The Other-Wise

On the other hand, I've not done even a little with my camera, but still doing experiments on and off with my microscope. My shaky, microscope. There is a great hope here. First of all, I'm not afraid to use the 40X objective anymore (unless the beauty of the details calls for a lesser magnification). Then, it seems that I've somehow managed to have even a better position when shooting the eyepiece with even greater magnification (all by coincidence), but further investigation is needed here since I'm still unsure of how to calculate the magnification in that position. I'm aiming on achieving something beyond 1000X magnification; And somewhat I think I've done it (if my calculations are correct).

Aspergillus
~ 1280X

I was blessed with a friend who works in the biological field and offered me to prepare a sample of a fungus. He also toured me through some of the microscopes where he works and I was really impressed (though my eyes was problematic to view some samples through the stereoscopic eyepieces). Now for the image above, the magnification should be around 1280X (40X objective, 10X eyepiece, 3.2X reversed 20mm lens on camera). The original sample was blue as, according to my friend, the sample has to be stained to be recognizable in a good way. However, after the merge of 4 to 6 shots, I've corrected the colors (using the 3-point correction on Curve in Photoshop). The image is also, in fact, a third trial after 2 failed attempts. In one of these attempts I was trying to shoot using my Sigma 12-24mm in reverse! With that lens at 12mm in reverse, I could have achieved around 3300X theoretically! However, the images were quite unclear and I definitely need a more stable environment with a brighter light source.
The second attempt, also a fail, was using the 20mm lens in reverse and, by coincidence, discovering that I do not need to get so close to the eye piece to take pictures of it (only if I want the image to dominate and remove the black border of the eyepiece). Somehow, the concept is like a projector and a screen: the further away you put the projector from the screen, the larger would the image be; Only thing left is to re-focus the image. The only thing, though, I wouldn't know exactly what the magnification power would be with a distance between the eyepiece and the camera! But sure thing it would be something greater than what would be calculated usually. What is left now is, to do some infrared work as well to see if there is anything special about it.
With the help of my friend, we've taken some shots using my smartphone at high resolution, and from both eyepieces of the microscopes in order to merge them later (hopefully) into an anaglyph if possible. These shots were taken at 400X and I might post them in the future. When I compared some shots from the mobile and the image I've done above, it is apparent that the shallow depth of field exists even in such good microscopes (the details of the granules were not clear) and it's not very different from my own very old microscope - and I thought such a problem would have been solved already - So, I guess, there is a call for photo stacking EVEN when using an advanced microscope!

Trying to measure the width of the hypha (if this is what they call it), at about 2475X.

Shy Green

There is one poem which I've written few weeks back but I didn't post about on here. Since then, though, my mind got blocked with many events, chores, and responsibilities which I need to attend to. Words come and go, but I don't even have the time to push further. Anyway, I called this poem Shy Green after getting inspired by a photograph I've shot in Cahir, Co. Tipperary, back in 2010 - My second visit to Ireland.

Stormy seas, by the winding fear,
calmly standing in a shy green,
My heart in hope to set a clear,
gazing about a peaceful scene.
Miracles happen so it's seen,
but none to a beauty I know,
tranquil, alone, battling off the snow.

My sighs, that which all I could give,
a tear, a caress, or a thought,
But would my gentle one just forgive,
a wretch like me, happy in distraught?
By this grand asylum, I'm caught,
and the blooming shy abounds me,
when all that I dreamt of, not to be.

Charming in loneliness set,
what a rose had an ill such luck?
Take my palm and never get wet,
and thy green, may never get a pluck.
Thus, when the nightmares are struck,
my heart shall keep you by finesse
then on that headstone, chant me a bless.

Shy Green

In this poem, I've used a rhyming theme which I've never worked with before or heard of (probably challenging myself?) with the help of Verse Perfect. The form was called Rime Royal and goes: a,b,a,b,b,c,c. An odd number of lines is required, so it is kind of challenging to connect ideas that way, somehow. 

There had been many instances of inspiration in the past weeks, either from events or photographs which I've shot and edited myself, yet there was a lack of something that kept away from typing few words down. Not sure what it is, but maybe... motivation? praise? desire? I'm not sure really. Let's hope this blockade shutters off my mind soon. I need to write…

Finale

The past 2 weeks were quick and slow at the same time somehow. It's a weird feeling. Ramadhan is drawing near and I do feel the sleepless and tiresome nights already before its coming. I've signed for a leave already, but still I will attend to work for the first 10 days of Ramadhan. Traffic jams now are unbearable because of the stupid time management we have in this country where and when people all must go out of work at the same, making Ramadhan itself as worse in jams than regular days despite the shorter working hours during this month. I'm typing this with a sigh. Hopefully though, I will be able to work more with my camera and do something useful more than what I usually do in these regular days. Let's hope.
The whole story about the microscope and the works of the microscope made me think of seriously getting a more "advanced" one (since my friend been nagging on my head actually) but the idea was actually abandoned quickly; or was it? One thing for sure, I can't get this right now as I'm mingling with budget issues and other priorities. My friend's view was quite "profit-wise" as he looks chanced to get more money in any way possible. That's not me really. I still consider it a hobby and something that ignites that long lost childish curiosity in me. I did have my dreams about having a telescope and connect it to the camera as well, and this is such an old ambition which I'm not considering right now as well. 
As for the time being, as you can see, I'm still editing my old photos from time to time with some focus on weird crops and ratios to bring the attention of the viewer. Even lately, this activity has come to a perigee because of the other chores I need to do (including typing this blog which takes some time to do). On the other hand, I'm waiting for a new shipment of books and something that I think it is too good to be true but I can't judge till I see it with my own eyes (and test) - I'll talk about these books and "things" later in the future. Now... where did I put that pillow and blanket…

Die Spinne…

This is a quick wrap again for this week, just going over the latest on my schedule. My time is up almost and I will soon prepare myself to travel to Dubai for an exhibition. I didn't even think of what to pack yet! I just hope it would be easier for me to do some documentation.


Meanwhile, I got the chance to print (finally) a panorama from Malta and I've prepared it with varnish and then wrapped it. The plan now is to deliver this little gift to the Maltese embassy on Thursday (the day of posting this). Let's hope all goes smoothly. I know security can be a great issue around such places.

The print after the varnished had dried off.

The print is for L-Orizzont; an image that I've submitted to a number of contests already (and it was accepted like 50-50). However, it is a second version from the original, which I've processed specifically to make it look more normal, beside cropping the sides significantly.

L-Orizzont: version I

L-Orizzont: version II.

 

To my ill luck, I've forgot to sharpen the final image before printing it on canvas. I was lucky though that the print shop, the one I frequent for printing on canvas, was able to print this despite the size which was larger than A0; slightly. They charged the same price for A0 size in fact. Now, it is wrapped and kept in a box and waiting to be delivered.

On the other hand, I've been playing around with my only ultraviolet panorama so far and trying to extract some other projections. The fact that I was way off-center this time (more than the last time I did a panorama in this location), made it hard to accomplish much. Projections must be picked carefully in regard to the asymmetrical attitude of this panorama.

Die Spinne
(the spider)

The hardest part here was cloning out the remnants of the tripod at the nadir point, which was too obvious, and the ground was of mixed media and hard to be cloned out. Probably it looks fine in such small size, but definitely it won't be acceptable at large. I'm still working on this and yet have to discover new projections.

Finale

Everyday now sounds like it's a race against time. But for what? I'm not sure. Though everything is ready for the flight, yet I don't think I'm psychologically ready yet. This said, I had to put some stress on my budget to make this work. Mood swings have been severe lately, and it definitely is putting some blocks on my way of thinking, creating and working with what I'm planning to do. What can I say anyway; had not it been like that for years now? My last hope is to have some "fun" in this upcoming travel to Dubai, despite the hard work which I know is awaiting for me. Maybe a busy body, means a thoughtless mind…

Paralyzed...

As the title says. This week I've been paralyzed. Not much activity (except of some self portrait issues) and all of that because of, mainly, the car issues. In the middle of the week we had a special religious occasion and it is customary to fast on this day so I did fast 2 days in fact - and with fasting, my powers go down a bit and I wouldn't be able to do much after working hours. some ideas are there, but to work them out, I would need either more resources or, so to say, more objects to buy and/or help (something I seriously lack).

Source: B&H

My savior cable turned out not much of a savior. However, it still works. After getting the Vello 33' cable, I've found out that I can't access the speedlites via the menu in camera but I have to do mostly everything manually. Strangely, this problem persists only when the speedlite is attached to the far end, but I can access the menus when the speedlite is attached to the main head connected to the hot shoe on camera.
After contacting B&H they did indeed help me out and sent me a Return Form to be sent through UPS, but unfortunately, this service doesn't work out for international destinations like from Kuwait. Thus, I have to keep myself contented with what I have right now. The main thing is applying High-Speed options which might be problematic, but the wireless triggering works just fine so probably I would have some work out around this problem.

Source: B&H

On the other hand, the new ColorMunki is working just fine and I've already calibrated my new laptop and the desktop monitors. What is left is to try out and calibrate some projector (which I don't really need but to get the hang of it) beside doing some printer calibration when possible. All of that is on hold for the time being till I finish my car problems!
What I like about this ColorMunki is the more sophisticated options it has (beside of course the basic calibration which a beginner can still use). It has options to calibrate according to the ambient light or according to a light temperature (e.g. D50, D65) and so on. My monitor now looks significantly darker than it was with the calibration done from the old simple ColorMunki (with monitors settings set to default or factory settings).

Other toys are just fine and the pinhole mount specifically needs more experimenting, but initially the test is fine. For the time being, I'm thinking of using my light meter to initiate the calculations for finding out the required exposure time when using the pinhole (of f/222). To find the required exposure here I would have to measure the light level at a specific f-number and then build up the exposure time up to f/222. I will try the simple formula:

V = 2*Log(N) / Log(2)

Where V is the number of stops needed, and N is the f-number. However, for N here, I would substitute for the difference in f-number (i.e. ΔN) between f/222 and the initial f-number (say f/8 for example). I'm not sure this is mathematically correct, because I think I'm suppose to drive ΔV and not simply V. Anyway, my mathematical expertise is not good enough to derive such a formula. My main, and simple, derivation is from the equation mentioned in Wikipedia's page here.

Of course then, after calculating the stops (V in this case) I would use it in the following formula to get the required time for the exposure:

T = S * 2^V

Where T is the Time that we need to know for the exposure, and S is the shutter time calculated at the initial f-number (f/8 for example as stated above) by means of the light meter. You might think or feel it is kind of ridiculous to work with all these equations just to use a pinhole (while you have a set of lenses that I can use still with TTL systems), but trust me, it takes a physicist or a mathematician to realize the sweetness of such experimenting and the joy when you find out that you've done the right thing.

Away from this mess, I'm still spending some time with other people's photos and trying to enhance them somehow. Lot of nice photos but the noise level makes it horrible to work with such photos. Anyway, I'm advising everyone I can reach to get a real camera instead of a phone camera.

The Gaze
Canon EF 50mm, f/6.3,
400^-1sec, ISO200.

In the meantime, I've decided to work with my own camera little bit and do a half-portrait; after all, I didn't take much photos of myself for a long time, and I didn't even edit much of my photos to make some of them as pieces of art. The setup was time-consuming and I had to stand, literally, in a jungle of tripods. 

I've taken many shots with different setups of the speedlites and among the tens of shots Ive taken, only one that got through, even with some lighting problems. 

The Gaze II (Edit)

The main problem here is that I was using the 430EXII speedlite with a honeycomb grid to act as a spotlight and give extra light to the eye area, after lighting the whole face with 580EXII speedlite plus reflector. Anyway, pointing the spotlight is so critical and I've never got it right after all, and as you can see in the images, the closest I could get is the area under my eye, on the cheek and thus we have an overexposure in this area specifically.

The Gaze III (Edit)

However, I'm glad that one shot survived at least from the tens of shots I've made (and how ironic in the beginning I was using the speedlites on the wrong side of my body). Everything in this experiment was set on a tripod; two speedlites, monitor, and camera. Moving was something delicate. My main idea in the beginning was totally different in which I wanted to use some flash drag technique while moving my face (to create a ghosting effect) but for this case I would probably need a darker atmosphere rather than the hall in which I've conducted this experiment. In hope that I would be able to do this soon. Just thinking about the configurations and the settings that I have to do makes me a bit sluggish and lazy to do all of that. For this experiment though, I might use a simple hatchet configuration, which is made by placing 2 light sources on the sides of the face, and yet because I have 2 different speedlites here with 2 different powers, I might as well have to change the distances accordingly, making the 580EXII further away from my face (or reduce its power accordingly) - and probably the guide numbers would help with this. New venturing, let's hope it goes smoothly without much headache!

Finale

As of writing these words, I'm still struggling with my car yet and I'm not sure there is an easy way out to fix the damn A/C. Living without an A/C in your car in Kuwait means a catastrophe for most of the fields of your life - because you need to do your business outside and with no A/C, you are simply a melted chocolate!

After the shock from the original car dealer which offered fixes for 520 K.D. (approx. US$1500), I've pulled the car from there without fixing it and now I'm trying to find a good substitute. Some times I do get some hope from some garage owners, and some times they get me down, but after all one thing is certain: it's not going to be a cheap fix. I'll be just happy to finish this topic and have some peace of mind before Ramadhan's arrival and the beginning of the fast.
Mom's situation worries me and it does sound more like a chronic issue. Despite the fact that she seems to be in a good health and she goes in and out of the kitchen as she used to do before, but the matter with the dialysis is not finished yet and my elder sister brings some bad news now and then. Poor mother, we keep the bad news away from her to keep her calm, and God knows what's waiting for her. Just wish if I can give her one of my kidneys if that was possible. The least I'm hoping for for the time being, is some reduction in her dialysis times.

All what I want for the few coming days, is to stare at the sky at night and see some stars. Just, some stars...

Geometria...

Here we go, another week, with not much of activity, but at least I'm trying to grease the engine slowly. In the meantime, I do have something for mathematics and geometry still going on in my mind so far since the time when Mom was in the hospital, and that made me think of some weird stuff - simple, but weird I'd say. I'll come to that later on. Also, the group sent me (or maybe I should say put me in front of the cannon) for an interview on TV regarding aluminum prints. Ironically, I have nothing to do with this, except that I was "supervising" the printing process for the expo back in March. It went well (and short) but I have problem getting and viewing the video from the TV channel's youtube channel, mainly because they used a copyrighted topics and issues in their show which made the episode unwatchable in Kuwait! Thank you guys!

As for Mom, her health is progressing, specially that she started to head to the kitchen often and THAT is a very good sign in general, yet, personally and for my own state of mind, I won't feel comfortable until the number of dialysis processes that should be done per week is reduced. At the current time, we have to pick her to the dialysis center (luckily near my working place) 3 times a week, and each session takes around 4 hours. As far as I know (and some by logic), doing dialysis on the long run can cause more hibernating to the kidneys (because dialysis is doing what the kidneys should do) and that would weaken the body even more, beside weakening the immune system naturally. Two things that I don't wish Mom to be acquainted with.

Grease:

Source: B&H

It's been a month or a bit more since I've got the Ubertronix Strike Finder Elite for triggering the camera (or flash as it seems), but unfortunately I'm still unable to work out any ideas to work with it. Sure, water drops and splashes seem to be an obvious target but they are cliches by now. I was trying to find something new or some creative venture within these two topics (water drops and splashes). Since I couldn't think of any, I've tried at least to do some testing for the device.
The Ubertronix seem to work fine except for few awkward delicacies!

• The wires of the sensors (for sound and motion) are short, but probably can be lengthened by some means.
• The device contains no controls for the sensitivity of detection (specially when it comes to sound detection).
• The port used for connection to the camera also bears "Flash" on it, but in the instructions manual there is no explanations involving triggering flashes instead of cameras. Could that be with the help of the PC port in the flash itself?
• Motion and Laser detection seem a bit unpredictable. 
• The sensors for sound and motion with their short cord are also hard to be placed. Probably duct tape is due in some situations. They are in a bulky rectangular box shape and because of the sturdy cord it can be hard to make them stay flat on a table for example or make them still on their sides.

These might be some awkward points, otherwise, the device works in a wonderful way. I think even the Laser detector can be used as a motion detector but I'm not sure of that yet and I need to do more experimentation.

Rising Eye
Canon EF 50mm + 12mm & 35mm tubes, f/11, 400^-1sec, ISO100.

On the other hand, I was trying to catch some eyes with the help of extension tubes but my trials with other people were in vain, so I've tried to do it on my own eye. Of course it is not like a piece of art (specially with all these reflections of flashes on the iris). I've been fascinated with the lines formed on the iris and I thought maybe the best way to do this is to use extension tubes. Using speedlites, on the other hand, was problematic but it was a must; otherwise no light is available in such narrow corner! Doing the whole thing on my own eye is a really hard task, specially with using an external portable monitor to judge the focus and the composition. After many shots, I've decided to pick Rising Eye to work on its RAW and filter it a bit more. I like this version mainly because the iris is situated in the corner (and I cropped a little from the top right corner to emphasize this fact) and it breaks the monotonous look of the iris being in the middle of the frame (and I did take shots that way as well). I've never imagined myself going so deep with the macro field, but it might be time to plan for some rails for fine adjustments?

Geometria:

With my sudden amusement with geometry and mathematics (not something new in fact), I've been playing around with circles and rectangles, along with squares of course. Needless to say I had some crush on Schläfli and his symbols.
From that perspective, I've been thinking of ways to organize my composition or the way I see things in my pictures. I'm quite a believer in what Bruce Barnbaum mentioned in his book The Art of Photography about the myth of the law of thirds; something that I would beheaded for if I talk about in here inside the photographic community in Kuwait! Bruce, however, had his own points and logic indeed. Anyway, for me, I do tend to think of the law of thirds and the golden spiral as means to merely organize the objects in the scene but not a critical tool to get the attention of the viewer. I'm aided with this point by the common belief among photographers that Rules are made to be broken in general!
Stemming from this point of view, I've been working around to base some order based on geometrical means rather than visual means opposed to the theory of the thirds and the spirals.

Red: Golden Spiral.
Blue: Law of Thirds
Green: Diagonal-Circles

My first trial was to draw quarter circles from the corners of a 3:2 rectangle; with 3:2 being the usual ratio for imaging sensors (at least for the APS-C cropped sensors?), and the radius of these circles is half the length of the diagonal. Thus, the quarter circles would meet at the center point of the rectangle, and by drawing the diagonals of the rectangle we can specify the points of intersection between these circles and the diagonals (green on the image above). Now, would these points make an interesting composition? This, I wouldn't know without trials. However, I do imagine it is a good starting point for circular (specially overlapping circles; e.g. in a rose) subjects. But the intersection points seem a bit far away from the center which makes me skeptic about its use in general, but again nothing can be talked of without trials.

Red: Golden Spiral.
Blue: Law of Thirds.
Green: Diagonal-Circles.
Yellow: Central Circle.

Another thought then occurred to me is to draw a central circle within the 3:2 rectangle in such a way that the center of this circle is shared with the rectangle, bearing in mind that the radius should not exceed the height of the rectangle (the y-axis length). Then, drawing quarter circles from the corners like before. This one diagram is unusual for me because it shows here more than the usual 4 intersections; in fact we have 8 intersections. However, four of these intersections don't seem to be practical (the two central intersections up and down) because they touch the edge of the frame itself. Probably, after removing the 4 central intersection points, we are left with the other four that are close to the diagonals and work more in harmony with the law of thirds and the golden spirals (yet far away from the diagonals-circles intersections). I guess placing a subject in these points won't make much difference visually since it is close to the other perspectives. However, those points close to the edge of the frame which I've omitted in the beginning might make a difference if they are to be included in the rules of the composition. Notice here that I'm talking about placing a subject in ONE and only ONE of these intersection points, whether it may be law of thirds, golden spirals or any other perspective I've been mentioning so far; but what if some of these perspectives, specially this last one (Central Circle method) would work as a whole, meaning that intersection points are to be used all together to organize subject(s) in the scene and not one subject only? You think this would be visually interesting? Again, only trials would prove if it's appropriate or not.

Red: Golden Spiral.
Blue: Law of Thirds.
Green: Diagonal-Circles.
Yellow: Central Circle.
Grey: Diagonal-Central Circle.

By the end of my thoughts chain I was almost going to forget about the result of intersecting of the diagonals with the central circle. Not strangely, these grey points are in harmony with other perspectives like the thirds and the spirals, as well as the central circle intersecting points. In fact, I think the four perspectives or divisions: thirds, spirals, central circle and diagonal-central-circle do all make clusters for one position at a time around the center of the frame, and if we have one big subject within the frame it would be covering these four points in one corner at one time probably. This leaves two main questions of how affective these perspectives are when it comes to the Diagonal-Circles perspective (Greens) and the central intersections of the Central Circle (those closer to the edge). Well, as for the central circle perspective, we might, as I've mentioned before, work with the 8 points altogether (or 4 of them at a time) to place a certain subject. The greens, however, might have been tried before from my side without noticing like I did with one of the shots for some roses and petals.

Die Sanfte Ringe

Probably Die Sanfte Ringe reflects in a way how the Diagonal-Circles perspective would work - but I have to say here that this shot was taken long time before thinking about these different geometrical plays within the 3:2 frame. Yet, it does coincide somehow as a subconscious drive I presume! Notice that the Rising Eye mentioned before does somehow imply the Diagonal-Circles perspective and again it is as if it is a subconscious drive within my mind to do it that way, specially when it comes to circular subjects or rings and loops. There is a difference though between the Rising Eye and Die Sanfte Ringe in that the former is indeed a 3:2 rectangle, while the latter is a square. Not sure yet how to think about the visual impact in between these two but one step at a time - I think there is a plenty of time to think about these crazy geometrical means. As for now, I need to work a bit more on more serious stuff!

Libros!

I've exhausted all my arsenal of books by now (and only one or two short stories are left). I've been working on my queue of Arabic books that I've purchased some months ago from the books fair back in November. Back then, I did purchase some stories just to rest my mind little bit from the technical aspects that I usually wander on. Now my eagerness is back to the technical side and I've decided to purchase 3 new books from Amazon. As usual, I've decided to take up 2 books about photography and 1 about science (specifically archaeology).

Source: Amazon

One of the books that I'm eager to read is Lens Design Fundamentals by Rudolf Kingslake. The book is cheap and in fact I was going to order another one which costs around US$150, but judging from the contents, I believe the latter is way too advanced for me for the time being (it appears to be too academic in style). Thus, I changed my mind and picked this one since it's cheaper as well as it is aimed for beginners. I'm not sure where does this lead me but I've always wished to gain more insight about the make of lenses and where the power lies in the design after all.

Source: Amazon

 The second book deals with Tabletop Photography, by Cyrill Harnischmacher with some twist about using speedlites. From what I reckon about its table of contents, it is dedicated for people who don't like to work in studio environment, and eager to use some tricks with their speedlites. Not sure how much I will gain from such a book, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be disappointed as it is the case with most of rockynook publishing.

Source: Amazon

The last book is something attracted me mainly because of some formulae inside! The Handbook For Classical Research, by David H. Schaps, seems to be a general overlook about humanitarian sciences and how mathematics merge into them for purposes of studies. I was looking for a pure archaeological book with pure scientific prospect, but unfortunately most of the books I've found were novel-like and don't deal much with the scientific and mathematical side. This book, however, bears much about studies and how to do them and how to analyze data in such fields like anthropology and archaeology, in different sub-fields. This is, at least, what I've regained from reading the table of contents and some few pages in between the covers. I don't think I would be disappointed here though - anything that has some numbers in its language can be quite interesting in the current time!
The only problem that remains now is how to manage my time between these 3 books. I think I'd read the rockynook issue first, because they can be over with quickly, usually!

Conlang:

In the meantime, I'm not forgetting my beloved conlang(s) in such frustrating times, but actually I'm not putting ideas onto papers or notes - but simply everything is going on in a mental note. I need to enhance my memory about some basics about the Bulughman conlang as well as Betenic.
There had been an idea of a funny or a comic version of English as a conlang. I thought about it long time ago and proposed it to Simon Ager, the author of Omniglot.com, but as he said, the priority is for conlang with conscripts (i.e. artificial and new scripts) while my version was simply using modified Latin alphabet. From that point I've been thinking of inventing a new conscript indeed. Priorities for now, however, is for the Geltani project that seems endless. Sometimes, I do think I need a wife not to love or share dreams together, but simply to organize my time. Might be a plausible idea, but I don't think I would call it a marriage, can I?

العين التي رعتني
The Eye That Cared For Me

Zooming...

I have to say that I'm really not so sure what's the big deal with starting a new year. I hear the same hopes and the same wishes all over again like the previous year and the chain of history and events never changes. Time is just time for me; something to be used as much as possible.
However, suddenly and just without knowing it, I've found myself being one of the organizers and volunteers in the photography group. This might imply that I do have some changes in front of me; maybe a new smartphone with new phone number to be in contact with the group, and a more time-occupying schedule and tasks. In the meantime, there are a lot of expenses awaiting for me this (new) year. The car and a new PC are the major concerns for now. Marriage might come later, if any. Also, I'm upset for the delays in shipping with all this holiday season. If it takes any longer than this I have to proceed with contact-making and see if there is something serious about my shipment. One item out of four is still hanging out there not reaching my US mailbox.

Early in the beginning of the last week, an old friend showed up online. I didn't have a chat with her for a really long time - probably more than 7 years. We were online friends only though.

Gothicum II

As she flipped through my Flickr photostream she liked one of the images taken from Ireland, specifically for the front door of Cahir church; Gothicum II. The shot was in fact a small vertical panorama. She asked for a print of this. The snap shot you see on the left is for the print after spraying 2 layers of varnish. I have a major problem with sprays here as I'm still in the phase of trial and error. The varnish sprays were gloss for acrylic and satin. I waited for the first to dry, then sprayed the next and waited for few hours until it was totally dry.
You might be asking if she paid for it, well no. She suggested that, but I hated the idea of receiving money from an old friend liking one of my pictures for the first time.
Now, I need to work more on trying various varnish types. Something that would make the print really glowing, and contrasty.

Currently, there is a general lacking of ideas in my head to do any photography, thus I've decided to work more on macro photography with reversing lenses. One of the hardships of such method is to determine what's the actual focal length! I'm pretty sure though that with some physics this issue might be clarified. Another issue is to know the magnification power or factor for such a combination. These matters are somehow important to make a studied option about which lenses to combine and whether to attach one or the other to the camera while the other is reversed, that is if it makes a difference (and I'm sort of sure it does). Imagine building a simple microscope with some lenses and a camera that you already have!.

20 Fils

A

Literally, Sugar Cubes

Match Head

Edge of Feather

Ant Head

The shallow depth of field is a major problem as well. Maybe with static problem it is not much of a problem but it would be so with a little moving object like an ant! Increasing the depth (i.e. f-number) might not work all the time as well and it does change the depth only slightly sometimes, add to that, a longer exposure time. Because of the many elements that stand between the camera and the subject (and depending solely on the live view display) it needs some trial and error to get the right exposure time - because not everything you see on the live view is what you will be having in the final image.

Emission
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/2.8, 2000^-1sec, ISO 100.

Let There Be Light
18-55mm @54mm, f/5.6,
13^-1sec, ISO 200.

Still going on with the philosophy of light workshop, and things are going smoothly with it. Most of the information encountered, so far, are already in my pockets. The only thing left for now is the inspiration to do something. Ironically, some of that inspiration hits at the moment while the training in the workshop is still going on, and that's how Emission was made, when I simply pointed my camera to the fluorescent light and putting down many stops of the shutter speed. My aim in the beginning was to capture a glimpse of the original tubes behind the metallic grating, but what I got was something totally different, and colorful. After 2 or 3 successive shots, some of these were bright while the others, like Emission, were colorful. This is simple to understand when we know that such CFL lighting sources depend on the excitement of atoms and emitting photons every time the electrons are back to their original orbits. That's why CFLs are energy-saving devices - because they don't need a continuous electric source like the traditional bulbs which depend largely on heating by continuous electricity to produce light.
I've suddenly found myself documenting one session of the workshop as it was requested from me by organizers, but as I was documenting I had also to indulge in the session itself, and that's when Let There Be Light emerged. A simple minimalistic shot for a light fixture in the wall, in one corridor out of the conference room (of the hospital) where our sessions usually take place. Because everyone was out I had some problems taking this one and I had to zoom in and out trying to avoid distractions. It appears to have some overexposure but according to the histogram, it is quite natural in fact and not overexposed. Probably I should have cropped a little from the right to the limits of the vertical line.

Now, it seems to me a busier time is coming up and a tiresome one too of course. I'm not sure how to cope with all of that yet, but I do hope some merit would shine through. My main concern right now is financial, and probably I'd have to drop some amount of money (and time) to do things that I need to do. I can only dream now of a secondary income source that helps me to sustain my back. I think my work with the group is a first step for the time being, even though my visions are different than theirs, but we have common interests after all.
We have other health issues as well and seems, this time, I have to consider dieting seriously. I'm not sure how to make up the time for this, but I have to. Talk about stress for doing things you really neglected on purpose because you don't have time to do them in the first place. What's so special about this year anyway?