Fantaisíocht…

The Eid came and passed already, with typical wishes to see the holiday go longer already! Meanwhile, I enrolled in a 3-day workshop with some members of the group in portraiture & fantasy.
I've stated through this blog all the way that I'm not a portraiture person and not into this kind of art (mainly because it needs a good contact with people or models to achieve a good expressive portrait shot). Anyway, I've found it somewhat obligatory to get along with such workshop with the founder of our group, Mr Bahaadeen Al-Qazwini, to move my imagination a bit and break the dullness and idleness regarding the work with my camera. I didn't touch it for a real project since my work with solar shots for more than a month.

Short coverage from the last day of workshop

Probably the most fascinating thing about these workshops is the team work involved and exchange of ideas, specially when the number of participants is small. I took the chance opportunity here to try out some real infrared and UV photography on human subjects. As can be seen in the coverage above, we contacted a model for a number of hours in the last day of the workshop, but prior to that we did some "training" shooting on a friend and a fellow member in the group.

Anger Halfie
Click to enlarge

Training with a friend did ignite some ideas about poses and facial expressions but yet it was hard to think of something. Many did argue that shots like Anger Halfie are not really "fantasy" but it is mainly a regular shot helped out by the fact of using a filter on lens (UV-pass leaking IR) to make the image look different. Anyway, since I'm not into portraits, I did really like this shot, and the colors produced here are simply made by fixing the white balance in RAW file.

Skullptonite

However, I tried my best to get out of the ordinary even though the shots were taken with my converted camera and some kind of filter. In Skullptonite, I've imagined a jaw bone and a row of teeth, and thus I've rotated the image. I have to say that the pose itself did force me to think in that way already because the facial expression was not appealing to me and I cropped a lot already. I loved the tones in Skullptonite, so it was hard for me to even think of disposing it. Both shots, Anger Halfie and Skullptonite, were taken with UV-pass filter fitted on Voigtländer 20mm lens. 

I wasn't using a tripod in this training, and Voigtländer 20mm lens is manual (except for the controls for the aperture), hence just imagine the hard time I had focusing in a close-up using an opaque filter like B+W 403! Luckily for me, the studio strobes were strong enough to light the subject while using this filter with high f-number. Without such a high f-number, I doubt the subject would have been in focus like that without seeing anything in the LCD of the camera.

Player

When it was the last day, it was the day of the "real" work with a "real" model. Frankly, I didn't even think of anything specific prior to that day, but everything happened at the spur of the moment. I had some x-ray slides in my car for my chest so I decided to use that, and then I thought of some dice to do a Hi-Speed shot using Profoto studio strobes. 

Each participant had 30 minutes to apply his or her vision and ideas and I was last (mainly because I had to use Profoto's instead of Bowen's like the others). Initially, my shot and idea with the X-ray slide failed dramatically; using infrared here was a grave mistake! Generally speaking, The idea was to fit the X-ray slide into the black t-shirt of the model standing against a black background, and I thought that the infrared technique and filter would actually create a good contrast for a black and white shot at the end; but all my calculations proved wrong, when the black t-shirt turned white! After that I started working with the dice as it can be seen in Player. 

Player II

Initially, my idea was to blow the dice from below, but the founder found it much easier to drop the dice from the top. The founder and I had the same idea for a concept in mind and he pretty much liked it; it's about someone playing with others like puppets. The culprit behind the scenes. 

Many shots were taken and it was hard to rhyme. In Player, one flash didn't go off and that caused a dramatic low-key effect. I didn't count for this in mind but this is one of the "happy" malfunctioning stories! While processing, I was fluctuating between colored and B&W versions, but seems I like the two above in that manner. I made even a "soft" version, but probably Player wouldn't benefit much of that, since the sharp look required harsh skin somewhat as well (softening too much might turn a male subject into something girlish).

After many, many trials for trying to catch the dice in front of the model's face, I passed my 30 minutes limit already, and thus had to stop. Probably, however, that we might be doing this again after a while.

Finale

This has been my life for the past 2 weeks almost, and now waiting for the news come about the participation of my group in an event abroad. Meanwhile, my health is getting low back again with unstoppable cough, and seems I have to check it out with the doctors again. 

As I'm canceling my plans for any vacation this year, and with the bad economy and corrupt in this place, I'm trying hard to enjoy myself in this short holiday of 9 days; a holiday spent at a home like mine is not really considered anything but a torture, but to a lesser degree. At least I had the chance to sleep as much as I like in some days, beside not going to work to check-in for attendance.

I'm working currently, as I'm typing this, on some vectors (or something like it in fact) by doing art by hand and scanning. It will be taking me a while to complete the task. Probably one thing I'm regretting in this holiday is my inability to dedicate some of my time to work with Geltani (and other conlangs I've set some plans to before). But as the degree of boredom and mentally-low status increase, I find myself eager more to play games non-stop, and I'm hoping that working with some art projects like the one I'm doing right now would take my mind off of some of my troubles…

Stranded...

This week took off with some busy rhythm going on. Not enough sleep and time seems slipping away. Ironically, the first thing that takes over my time (and power) is my work itself. If I can grant no rushing on the roads every morning, I would have slept more and went to work like the others do, but no, I have to be awake before everyone else.

The past week was a week of showers. Kuwait received some nice amount of rains and some areas were even flooded. It's weird for such a dry place like this to get flooded in such a way! Lot of people though get melancholic feelings for winter time, but all it takes for me is something green, and a window with some rain pouring outside.

Halb Grün, Völlig Grün
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/11, 8^-1sec, ISO 100

It rained one night heavily and the next morning the sun was shining outside but with some damp feeling in the atmosphere. I couldn't resist the green that shows from my window (which is covered with a green curtain as well) so I decided that I must do something about it. The result was Halb Grün, Völlig Grün. The image had been tilted for around 10^o to fix the diagonal line to be dividing the square evenly when being cropped. The image itself is in fact a compound of two shots of different focal points: first image with curtain in focus and trees out, and the second is the reverse. Some cloning and fixes were needed later to adjust the not-so-perfect blend from Photoshop itself. 

Starting from Monday I've started my new workshop with the group, entitled Philosophy of Light, which will discuss supposedly the creative aspects of controlling the light in images. I'm not sure how many days it will take, but I think I heard them say it's 5 days long. My teacher had been inactive for some time because of his daughter's illness. Pray she's alright by now.

My Teacher Mr Bahaa Al-Qazwini in first day of the workshop

In the mean time my mind is empty of any ideas to photograph, but on the other hand, I'm sitting here waiting for some new toys to arrive at my hand. Let's call it my own gift to myself (since there's no one who would give it to me anyway). This time my toys are of the light (weight-wise) type.

Source: B&H

My first toy would be the B+W 58mm IR Dark Red (092) Filter. In the beginning I was going to order a Hoya Infrared filter first because it was cheaper, but then I've noticed the specs which say it is for infrared films

, and since I'm new to this with my digital camera, I decided to head to another filter. The B+W is almost double the price but seems to be working with digital as I've figured from little research online. It is not expected to be working extremely good because, as I've reckoned, it would be better to convert the camera by removing the protective layer on the sensor to receive IR radiation. Even though it is said to be an easy process and harmless, but I'm not into any risks right now. I did a simple test with my Canon EOS 7D and a remote control and found out that the remote's LED was blinking while I press its buttons, so I assume this filter will work with my camera for infrared photography to some extent.

Source: B&H

My second toy would be a polarizer. Finally. A polarizer, with no sheet cutting and fitting in front of the lens, but a 58mm polarizer that fits the lens perfectly. The B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer MRC Filter is, according to the specs, said to be made of a special type of glass and a special polarizing technique. I'm not sure how that works anyway, but the circular polarizing as they say works with autofocusing more than the usual linear polarizers do. I believe this piece specifically would do me wonders with long exposures. I need it badly right now!

Source: B&H

My third toy is one of the funniest as I believe. The General Brand 58mm Macro Coupler
is a ring that enables you to connect two lenses in reverse. It is an old technique for achieving a macro level. Maybe you wonder why all my stuff are in 58mm range, it is simply because 3 out of 6 lenses I do have, have this diameter. In fact, I was able to simulate this procedure but I will come to that later.

Source: B&H

Finally, we have here a set of toys. The Kenko Auto Extension Tube Set DG for Canon EOS Lenses is a set ot tubes to help with macro shooting by shifting the focal plane further away from the sensor, thus allowing for a closer approach. I believe combining these with my Canon EF 100mm Macro lens would yield great results. These tubes are supposed to support AF functioning as well but even with my 100mm macro lens alone, I do have a problem sometimes with focusing and I must resort to manual stuff. However, better have AF capabilities after all rather than manual; 2 are better than 1!.

Reversing lenses experiment at home.

I've mentioned before that I've ordered one cheap macro coupler where two lenses are attached in reverse order and connected to the camera allowing for closer shots. I've done already some time ago and also this week but with my Tamron 70-300mm which has a diameter of 62mm. Since I have only one 58mm adapter ring and one 62mm (and one 52mm) I can't reverse two lenses of the same diameter (like two 58mm lenses) - hence, I've decided to reverse two of different diameters: 50mm lens, and 70-300mm lens.
I've simply connected the adapter rings that I use to carry the ND filters, and then combined the lenses in reverse as you can see above and held them together with hard paper clips. Tried an experimental shot with a tea spoon and it was sort of hard to adjust anything but merely the distance of the subject.

The result: the handle of tea spoon

From this simple experiment I've drawn some conclusions about this process, but I would still need to do further experimentation with this method - and it would be easier with a macro coupler.

• This method would do better when applied to manual lenses rather than auto-lenses, because then, you can control the aperture on each lens solely.
• I still don't know if extending the zoom of the Tamron lens would increase the magnification factor. The image above was done while Tamron lens was set to 70mm.
• Because of the bulky setting, it is better to move the subject rather than the camera and lenses, but then it would require some guessing somehow if one person is operating the whole thing. In my shot above, I asked my brother to hold the spoon (and he was shaking as well) and I moved the camera back and fro as I was shooting on high-speed. Later on I've filtered the images and luckily I got this one.
• Maybe it is better to fit Tamron lens to the camera and Canon 50mm reversed on that. I think the circle of light or harsh vignette is caused because 50mm has f/1.4 max aperture, while Tamron's is f/3.5, and because of that the smaller aperture of Tamron is projected into the Canon 50mm and then into the sensor causing a peek-effect or whatever it is called!
• Focusing is somehow something to forget about. You have to depend solely on the distance to the subject.
• I'm not sure that increasing the f-number on the main lens is useful to increase the depth, but I'll try it later when possible. 

All of these procedures now are somehow tempting to go deeper further in the field of macro photography. Maybe we don't have much of a wild life around here but of course it is not confined to such field. Macro could be done to almost any subject when inspiration strikes. I'm more into architecture and panoramas, but yet into abstract as well, and macro photography gives a good hand in this.


It feels now a bit like stranded now. I'm not sure what's my next move, and I do have an urge to increase my income somehow but I don't know how. In the same time I'm outraged for many things in my life. I feel my work position is not respected by the admins there, and flashbacks are visiting my mind often lately to remind me how much I suffered for others but then left alone. I have a firm belief now, or maybe I have to believe, that one day, all of that will pay off in some way - the least I'd be asking for is, a peace of mind.

Bumble Bee...

Well! It is finally here! A great burden is taken off my back! The vocalization process for Alexander's story is complete and the whole 6 chapters are now represented in text, and voice. The whole story can be found here, while the Ayvarith and the vocalization can be found here.
With this project off my back now, it is time to re-schedule many things and fill the gap with many other things I need to do; reading, learning new things, or pushing myself to go outside take photos - and of course pushing my marketing trend a little bit. I'm thinking of editing my website as well and add a new tab for my services as an architectural photographer. Also, I'm thinking seriously of having online classes in ASL.
On the other hand there had been some events taking places, like the workshop that I've attended with my photography group, which proved to be a real challenge. Anyway, the talk will come to this later.
It feels that there are so much to do in such a short time before I have my vacation. If my visa request was accepted that is. If all goes OK, I'd probably be traveling to the US for the first time, for around 3 weeks. In hope of having some nice catches of photos. Yet, I still have this eagerness for the countryside and the Irish soil.
In the meantime, I do think seriously of doing a medical check up for my eyes and my back, and my heart if possible. I know I have been suffering from back pains for a really long time now, but as for my eyes, I'm not sure yet if I'm subject to the hereditary Retinitis Pigmentosa, which runs in the family. So many things to do, and it is summer, and Ramadhan is on the way in few days from now. My visa interview is coming by 31st of July, after the beginning of Ramadhan that is, and by early morning (8 a.m.). So much to do and even a bee would fall dead I believe just thinking about all these chores. Maybe, just maybe, all of this can block my heart away for some time.

Sadeem:

By Saturday, the photography group scheduled a workshop in a marble factory called Sadeem (and just a note, Sadeem means "nebula"). The factory is situated far from the city and urban areas, and around 30 minutes needed to reach the place. However, the heat was not any better away from the city in that industrial area.
After getting into the factory and after a little lecture from our teacher and the leader of the group, Mr Bahaa Al-Qazwini, we went out into the core of the factory where the marble is cut and prepared.

Hoffnung (hope)
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO 200. Edited in DxO Optics.

Beside the heat that made my movement a struggle in between the corners of the place, I've forgot my vest and my VR-head. However, I don't think the place would be a good place for a full panorama, but merely the ceiling would make an interesting pattern. Because I didn't wear a vest, I had to put my lenses in my pants' pockets which made my movement awkward. My ISO was set directly to 200 since the place was not sunny and almost completely in open shade. Yet, the hot breeze of air and the dust blowing in the corners made it a struggle after all.

Mechanical Stare
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/3.5,
1/200 sec., ISO 200.

One of the main challenges in that place is the fact that my mind works in an abstractive way. Maybe the bulk of the photographers went on trying to use their flashes with portraiture and trying to capture facial expressions of the workers, but that was not in my interest. Personally, if I was to shoot people with true facial expressions, I would use telephoto and fix my standing point to a certain location. People usually can't keep the same expression for real when they face a camera and they have to make it up.
On the other hand, the factory was not a devastated place to add an element of destruction to my abstract shooting, not it was very well organized to help my vision on working out geometrical shapes. I tried anyway, and I've taken lot of shots that mostly didn't appeal to me.
Shots like Hoffnung were one of the earliest things to note. I'm not sure if there is another photographer who aimed at this internal side of the pipe, but anyway I've found it a good target for my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. Another trial with my Rokinon took place around the crane that is used to lift marble pieces around the factory, as in the Mechanical Stare.

3D Crane

The crane was a target for several shots while moving my body. My main purpose for such a movement with my body while shooting was to catch as many angles as I can and sort the angles back home to find one interesting point of view. However, I've realized then that I can try out some 3D merging and make an anaglyph from any 2 shots. Finally, I've the 3D shot opposite, which made me realize an important formula when creating 3D images with fisheye lenses. Something I needed to know for a long time!
There were many times when my 3D trials with fisheye lenses did fail because of the big distortion. However, now I can see that the closer to the subject I would be, the better it is to make a nicer 3D effect when shooting with a fisheye lens. The distance between the crane and myself was around or lesser than 50cm (lesser than 2ft).

Dilemma
Canon 18-55mm @18mm, f/3.5, 1/125 sec., ISO 200.

Opposition
Canon 18-55mm @24mm, f/3.5,
1/200 sec., ISO 200.

It was not that bad after all anyway. There was still some abstract shots that I can add a touch of mystery to a bit. But surely they needed a sharp eye to notice. Dilemma and Opposition were taken for footprints off the ground. I don't know how they ended up here, but as if they were waiting for me! After the shoot outside, we went back inside and our teacher prepared a studio to make some portrait session for photographers in the group who are interested in this kind of work. I kept watching trying to analyze the movements and actions.
In that very same day, and after the tiresome session in the factory, we had a little gathering party for the group. My teacher announced some goals, aiming at some contests and rewards, which made me think (and still thinking in fact) about my part in all of this. Do I really want to go into contests? Do I want to win? Or maybe I can use this as an advertising tool? Frankly, I'm not sure about my feelings about this matter, as I'm still flipping its sides and trying to arrive at some decision, when the time comes of course.

Morning Glory:

In a trial to relax within such summer (and for those from Europe and US who wait for summer all year long, summer here is some sort of a taboo. It is simply a hell!), I've settled down in one corner on the beach just before sunrise up to one hour after sunrise. My initial idea was to do a long exposure, but as I reached the place I've changed my idea and decided to take several shots like I do for a time-lapse. My idea changed from doing a long exposure to record the waves' movement, into applying an art concept to record the sun and the moon, or maybe mix the changing hues of the sky into a blend like I did once before from the roof of my home.

Cold Summer Day
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/11

Settling down with my tripod in a low level and fixing the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens in portrait position, I've programmed my intervalometer to take a shot every 3 minutes. The final result was 33 shots recording the movement of the sun and the moon across the horizon. I had to study the angle of the sunrise carefully from websites like Wunderground; this angle is also called Azimuth (from Arabic: السمت). Because of the depth (or should I say the distortion) that the lens exhibits, the shape of the moon and the sun was recorded merely as moving dots. Safer for the sensor, probably?
Memory issues made me a headache as usual. Blending 33 images was a goal never achieved, and the image you see on the left is a blend of 11 images only and made out of JPGs instead of TIFFs. Even blending the images was done gradually and not all at once. However, for some reason, I have a belief that some of these errors I got while blending is not related to memory issues, but some algorithm issues and some slides could not be merged because of the movement of water and rocks (and trash) in between the slides.

Transition

Another trial to blend, but manually this time. It was an exhaustive work indeed with a lot of Layer Masks. The idea is simple but achieving it needs time. Well, some people might argue this is not photography at all, and simply "photoshopping", but as you can see... I did indeed take these shots! It is just the vision and the idea that plays the role in all of this, even in photography. The only thing I'm regretting about Transition is the fact that the moon is not visible in this blend. However, when I checked the single slides I've taken, I got encouraged for a longer exposure at that same level during a high tide time to record the advancing waves. What lens and what time it would be, this is something I need to check out and study for a while.

Long Exposures:

As I'm a member of a group right now, and as I'm trying to contribute to this community of photographers, I've decided to write down an article about my experience with long exposures. My experience is nothing compared to others I believe, but anyway, I hope it is a guide for the new comers in this community.
The thing is, I'm more fluent in explaining things in English and not Arabic, so I just hope they find this article useful (specially with the mathematics involved). I'm posting the article in parts in the group's forum, but you find it here. Pardon for the lousy format; writing documents is not my thing at all!





Remember this is all about my experience. Not a professional advice I would say, but I hope they are beneficial for other readers.


Now, with this heavy head, I'm not sure where I'm heading with my life, but maybe I should start thinking of getting busy is far better than getting wrapped up in my own emotions. Now with my chores in my work place being over with gradually, I do have more and more time at hand and maybe even reading books won't do to fill the gap in time right now. What to do, I just don't know...

Administrative

General scheme of the week is "administrative." Not much have been done so far with my camera, only few experiments on some old images.
Beside that work, there is of course the work with my Ayvarith and the vocalization of Alexander's story. The new pack stretches from 1008 up to 1728, with a rate of 6 verses (24 lines each) per day. Unfortunately, as I'm writing this post, something went wrong with my Sites Google account and I can't upload any files to it anymore. In hope this issue would be resolved, I would be posting the sound files again.

One of the things that I've been working on this week is completing the registration of my own logo. After paying some fees back in April to "post" the logo in the department of Trade Marks and Patents, it was written on the invoice that I have to check back with the department after 60 days, which was due few days ago. One thing I didn't realize, and that is 30 minutes of our time, we earthlings, accounts for around two hours in that department's time.
However, after paying the rest of the fees (17 KD), and also correcting some spelling mistake, I've been told to check back after 4 months to get the official registration form. Voila! What a speedy work. Anyway, I'm supposed to watch for the official newspaper to check my logo there for 3 months. A period when other people get the chance to see the logo and know its copyrighted, beside people who might argue that the logo violates some rights.

I had a short meeting with my teacher, Mr Bahaa Al-Qazwini, to ask him more about the business trend and about many other topics. Most importantly, I received a much-needed dose of encouragement and optimism; something I rarely find nowadays. He also guided me through with my "job request" paper, which is supposedly to be a paper given to the customer before proceeding with the job (a sort of an agreement). I'm doing the edition still, in hope that I will show him the new version again soon for more check-ups. One precious advice on the line was: chase after the customer.

Historical Boats
Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 @f/22

I've been working little bit on some of the images from the Scientific Center taken last month, and I can't say I've done much about them, but I was experimenting on converting this image into a 3D anaglyph. However, this was hard to achieve but I've discovered some new methods to make out for a 3D image out of a single image (instead of the typical 2 shots for right and left). The method was sort of complicated and might not be feasible to any type of images, but it was nice to learn about it. It's called the "depth map" method, and depends mainly on the Displace command in Photoshop.
Checking on the complexity of the image above, I've realized that it might not be a good idea to waste my time on this for now, but I better move on to do something else.

Despite the fact that I have some plans ahead that I need to chase after and apply in my life, yet, I do feel so tired. And despite my general hate for portrait photography, I suddenly get the urge to grasp on some aspects of this field, and hopefully I will be on the way to that with a workshop concentrating on Canon flash units with my teacher in the coming days soon, hopefully. A holiday next Sunday is coming up, and I'm hesitated whether to sleep as much as I can, or try to do something out with my camera. My life seems to lack the fun...