Bipolar…

Here we are, with Ramadhan running now 2 weeks deep, and 2 more weeks to go or so. I didn't take any leave from work this year for Ramadhan, so you can tell how my activities would be in this month. As of writing this, I've already had to skip one day of work because of my sleeping problems. I do have sleeping problems as it is, so imagine the turbulence when Ramadhan comes! However, I've been trying as much as I can to do some chores with the camera, be it astrophotography trials as usual, or some ideas that I'm working with indoors, with some bad news that surprised me: My oval dome diffuser for speedlites is lost, and cannot be found in any single place in the house! I'm not sure what happened there, but I have to work without it right now. I didn't pick it outside the house, so it must be in, and maybe it will show one day, but not sure how or when...

Bipolar

Well, now much have been going on with my camera but I've been really trying to dust off my attitude and mood and work a bit with some ideas that I've been already thinking of doing in a long time now (and one of them is related to Retinitis Pigmentosa which was supposed to be done back in February!). Anyway, as my mind is rambling randomly, I didn't start off with old ideas but just started to work with whatever spark was there in my mind at the moment, and that idea was based on reflections on water surface.

Setting for my reflections shoot (which was adapted after trial and error)
The blue thing is a small fan to make ripples in the water but realized it won't make the image any better.

My beloved lost diffuser
:~(

As you can see in the image above, I had to adapt to using the small beauty dish instead of my usual global diffuser which is lost already. Working with this dish and in such conditions probed to be such a challenge with hard-to-predict results. It took me a while to find out what reflects better. Initially, I've used an aluminum box (biscuits box) and filled it with water but that did not work well and did not reflect well. After surfing a bit I've found out that reflections with water work better with dark/black surfaces and I have to say I kind of felt stupid at that moment! Because I always use dark background under transparent acrylic or glass sheets to make good reflections off them! How come I didn't think of that! Anyway, it was time to get some more kitchen stuff: A cookies' tray.

Bipolar

It took me a while to perfect the position of my head in relation to the tray of water here, and also to position the speedlite with the beauty dish (and a diffuser) in a good place to light the face. The idea of the image was already to take 2 or more shots and merge them reflecting on the bipolarity disorder. Excuse the messy hair in Bipolar, but I really had hard time leaning towards the table (with my face almost touching the table) just to get the reflections on the tray right. No need to delve deep into the work in Photoshop I guess, but I have to say that I didn't like the abundance of black space between the two faces; I've tried to remove it but it didn't work out well, so I kept the original. There is also the luster on the edge of the tray which proved somewhat annoying, but then after a second though, I kept it as it is just to define the limit and edge of the water body.

Bipolar (B&W)

This said, I think I do prefer the B&W version more as it shows a stark contrast of emotions, and mood. This is aided with the fact that I had to do some extra sharpening here (just on the smaller versions for this blog post). But the thing that annoys me remains, that black empty space. Not sure if I'm right with this annoyance or not actually but this triggered me to think of doing it in another way, if I can. What I really didn't anticipate for is the hardship in working with water reflections. Despite the simple settings, but location and lighting proved hard to achieve (or let's say needs time to get it right). This is with the help of a polarizer on the lens (Voigtländer 20mm here) to get the reflections to pop up clearly on the water (in contrast to its typical use in photography I guess!).

Bipolar II

The second trial was to be using my Canon EF 50mm lens this time and not Voigtländer 20mm like the previous shot. That required a change in the positioning of the tray and other things and I tried to use another modifier here (a simple reflector from Rogue attached to the speedlite, which can be bent to direct the light in specific direction). This one, too, took me by a storm as I was trying to fix the distances and the lighting (and because of the change in positions, I had to fix the background a bit). Like its previous predecessor, the idea of Bipolar II was to merge 2 or more images together. And while Bipolar was shot with camera in portrait position, Bipolar II was shot in landscape position but then cropped to keep the important elements. My plan was to show a full face but physically that was not possible and I didn't want to switch back to 20mm (it would have been problematic for all the elements I would need to crop out later). In the make of Bipolar II I decided to use the little fan again but placed a bit far away from the set to cause gentle ripples (unlike the tense ripples while working with Bipolar which made me stop using it). In both instances also, I had to take a "blank" frame; That is a shot for the set without me being in it to use later for corrections and cover-ups. This blank frame was essential for Bipolar II, as the table and the edge of the tray were quite clear, so probably a black band in the middle seems plausible!

Bipolar II (B&W)

As is the case with Bipolar, I find satisfaction with Bipolar II in B&W rather than being in color, as it is more dramatic and shows stark emotions. Moreover, working with Bipolar II was somewhat tricky as the original shot did not show the ripples and the looks through the ripples clearly, but once I've rotated the image upside down, it was clear that there is a contrast in emotions between a smiling face and a "maniac's" look. I've rotated the image originally to see portions of the eyes clearly and try to dodge them a bit but then when I saw how it is clearer than the original position, I've decided to keep Bipolar II in that position. I think the ripples here played a good role too, adding to the drama and the mood of the image. However, dodging the shady areas in general was not quite smooth and I had to abandon the idea altogether. You might have noticed how the light and shadows almost divide the lower half in the image into 2 halves. Probably I needed to use a reflector here on the other side of the settings (but the space wouldn't allow for it anyway). But my expectation is, this would not have happened if I was to use the oval dome diffuser on my speedlite.

These four (or rather two) images are all I've been trying to do with my lazy mood and schedule. As I've mentioned, there are some more ideas that I'm willing to try but I just need to push myself harder, specially with Ramadhan ongoing. Not sure how I'm going to work without my beloved diffuser though; Just when I started to like working with it, I lost it! If I didn't find it any time soon, I might have to prepare for another order. For the time being, I'll try to work with what I have and maybe try some DIY solutions.

Finale

As the situation is growing crazy in this area, as much as I get sicker and sicker of my reality. Not only for that, but because of the irony with these traffic jams, which proved to be denser in Ramadhan than in regular days (our working hours in Ramadhan are shorter). The weather is already reaching 42^oC in temperature, and of course this is not so-pleasant occurrence. Things at work are going crazy for preparations to move to the new location and as for my department we still don't know if we are really moving or not because of the complexities of laws and protocols. I'm starting to regret my decision for not having a vacation during the month of Ramadhan actually but I'm trying to keep myself going by wishing to myself that I would be traveling some time later. This said, I'm really not sure about any plans nor any real wish to travel with the craziness around me, as much as I love it and eager to do it, as much as I am getting tired every time I do remember the hardships of traveling plus the preparations. Sometimes I do wish if I have a companion for such travels. I'll be dreaming for now. Sometimes trying to be optimistic and fighting the darkness inside yourself leaves you so exhausted that you cannot even see the purpose of all of this. One it will all over, so I'll just be waiting…

Go Mall…

Ramadhan is in and the usual sleeping problems are back as well. I can't wait to start my vacation starting from the 10^th day.  That's when the summer course would start around my workplace and things would get ugly as usual. I really don't understand how the mentalities around here work and what's their idea about "planning" but apparently they need a major brain surgery to fix that, and I'm almost hopeless about that too.

Thanks to Borderlinx and DHL, now the shipment that I was hoping to get before Ramadhan is definitely to be here after Ramadhan and who knows, I might not be able to get it even. Up till the time of typing this, no sign of my shipment which I'm supposed to get back into my Borderlinx box to be delivered in some other way other than DHL. Because of the dispute between the two, probably thousands of customers ran into havoc. I have to say, though, that prior to this order I was really thinking of shifting my interests into other stores around the globe rather than confine myself into US stores, for camera gear specifically. Anyway, I had to do this bit of shopping after some incident and a lengthy story; No need to bring it on here. However, let's see some of these delayed "joys."

Source: Amazon

I'm starting off here with 2 books, and the first one of them is not related to photography. Something related to two sectors I like: Archaeology and Linguistics. I'm not sure what will I find in this book (I didn't check the sample pages thoroughly), but despite my eagerness, I might have to put it aside for a while after its arrival because I do have some books on my stack of reading list, which were purchased 2 years ago from the Arabic Book Fair! *sigh* They are just some thick books…

Source: Amazon

The second one in this order is an interesting book (of course, otherwise I wouldn't order it, right?). It's about infrared portraiture, even though I'm not that interested in portraiture in the first place. However, since I'm inclined to the weird and strange or whatever is surreal in the world of photography, the topic of infrared portraiture seems plausible and I did it often (in the form of selfies, and a bit within my Scopa project which I've stopped). I'm guessing that the bulk of this book would be focusing on film, but we'll see when it comes (again, I didn't check the sample pages thoroughly).

Source:Amazon

The third item in the list was something that got me by surprise in fact. A set of 4 infrared filters (each with different threshold), just for $29.99? Too good to be true! I'm still not sure how to feel about this in fact; I do have a feeling that it is a low quality, but yet I'm willing to try them out when I get them. One of these filters is supposedly at a threshold of 920nm! Previously, I thought that my Kodak infrared gel filter has a threshold of 1000nm, but I was completely wrong (in fact 1000nm is the maximum a camera sensor can "see"). It is rather around 850nm, or what is usually dubbed as Wratten 87B. This threshold is suitable for what they call X-Ray Infrared (not a real x-ray but just a mocking term). Thus, I just can't imagine that I'm getting a 920nm threshold of a filter! How would the photos taken with this be like? Might be time to indulge my 20mm Voigtländer lens in some panorama work, in the future.
These are the main items which were ordered and which, unfortunately, cannot have them any time soon because of the postal problems. My hopes now are set to wish for the shipment not to be lost, as I didn't get any notifications till typing these words about the items being returned back to my box to be shipped to me by other means. Fingers crossed.

Working Re-Working

Meanwhile, as my plans are put to hold (at least till I start my vacation during Ramadhan) I spend my time checking my old photos and trying to come up with new solutions, specifically to those which I've forgotten or neglected for one reason or another. My main aid in this inspection is the LAB technique which I've been applying a lot lately (despite the troublesome aftermath to be cleared out later on). I have to say that I was surprised by some images like if they are new to me when cropped and edited all over again. I think that proves that the status of our mentality in time does affect our "vision" or how we see things and the world around us.

مدائن (towns)

One of these photos is [مدائن] (towns/cities); A photo I've shot back in 2013 when I first got my ever first infrared filter and I didn't know much about the technical aspects for this filter or this art in general. The dark and gloomy atmosphere was apparent at the moment I've fixed the colors (the typical blue tint was not quite visible after fixing the white balance). It really inspired me to write some poetry in Arabic but I didn't complete this task because of my, well, disturbed mind already.
I've intentionally sharpened a portion of the photo and keeping the rest soft to attract more attention and focus. With my calibrated monitor, the image should look dark with reasonable details (I edit while focusing on the histogram). However, as I noticed, on other devices the blacks can look brighter and even further noise artifacts would appear more prevalent (specifically at the bottom portions where rocks lie). This is why it's important to work with a calibrated monitor; Without any calibration, and with such levels of blacks, this photo would definitely be erratically printed! I can already see how it shows on my tablet and I'm not much impressed.

Sometimes digging out for old photos comes up with a bunch of ideas, creating anaglyphs is one of them, but what interests me more is the surreal chances, and that comes typically from trying to achieve the "mutli-exposure" look with some of my continuous/burst photos.

Surreale Tänzer

Doing those multi-exposures AFTER the shoot and even without a preparation beforehand makes it a difficult task somehow as to achieve the proper look which is typically assumed for multi-exposure images. Anyway, in Surreale Tänzer, I tried my best to merge a set of photos shot back in 2013 in more of a normal way (as I did once), keeping the colors as original as possible while showing a hint of movement. However, this didn't happen with Blending options. Thus, I tried another method, which was the focus stack blending in Photoshop. I tried this method before with some old images, and it did produce the same color spectrum as in Surreale Tänzer. There was some surplus of course which needed to be cropped out. I think I need to focus on this trend and look deeper into my old files, specially those from 2011 and 2012, which for me, were the very active years with my Canon EOS 7D.

Disturbed

Not only multi-exposure is part of my interests, but also some of those blurred images which, previously, proved useless somehow! As in Disturbed. I really don't know why I neglected this image from 2013, but the motion blur because of the wind during this relatively long exposure (13s) got my attention. I have to say that some of the images I've gone through this far did incite me to add some blur to them; Motion blur that is and not lens blur. Yet, I'm not sure it did look realistic for some of those images so I just ignored the idea for the time being. With Disturbed, the RAW was processed as any infrared shot would be processed (when the shot was taken I didn't know any of such processes). Generally speaking, I like it and it does give a sense of mystery to me but I'm not sure about the colors. Sometimes, I do wish I made it into B&W (which I might do after a while).

Finale

It is just the first week of Ramadhan and I'm really, really, wishing for my vacation to come by next week. I thought it would pass quickly but I was wrong. Chores, and bad time management and bad sleeping (more than before), all that combined made me wish if I just signed the whole month of Ramadhan as a leave! 
I'm living a somewhat strange transition, between hope and despair. Looking forward to life, and yet despising it. I'm not sure what is going on inside my head, but one thing for sure: I'm tired. Mentally, that is. I think lot of values need to be checked up and re-evaluated.

Ours,
till the end of time,
and beyond that.

Post-Ramadhan…

Ramadhan has passed, and so did Eid (The Feast), and now I'm back to my normal pace. Well, almost. If you can call my life normal anyway.

As much as it was idle, I had the chance to do some experiments during Ramadhan, and the majority of my work with photography was actually visiting old photos and doing effects or re-working panoramas I've done in the past (mainly from Malta). All this experimenting did actually trigger me to place an order, which I will explain later.

An Ghrian

An Ghrian, the sun, in Irish. I did try to take shots for the sun before (and almost got my sensor fried too!). However, this time it's a bit different, with my converted Canon EOS 7D and an ultraviolet-pass filter. Though I did some trials using my Rokinon mirror lens which I didn't use much, but most of my trials were done with my Sigma 70-300mm plus two teleconverters (yielding a total of 1200mm in focal length). Not only controlling the Sigma lens is relatively easily in terms of focusing (a must-be manual), but also most of my filters (ND, IR, and UV) are circular filters that fit the Sigma lens only (with a step-down ring). As for Rokinon's mirror lens, and despite the great zooming that could be achieved, the fact that filters can hardly be used here made it a dangerous tool and hard to control.

The sun shot with a stack of 4 filters.
Story about it here.

In the process of capturing better images for the sun (and the moon), I came into the swirl of the world of filters and not only for lenses, but also for telescopes and eyepieces, as I was looking for ways to get the desired look (scientifically) and checking probability for finding what I need in other categories; but without the need to get a telescope either.

Taken in UV filter.
The set can be found
in my stream.

In the process of learning more about the world of filters in relation to shooting the sun and astrophotography in general, I've encountered the sad fact that my B+W Black 403 UV Pass filter is not a pure UV Pass filter, but it does leak some great amount of IR. Hence, probably many images I've taken before using this filter specifically were actually formed by IR beams and not by UV spectrum specifically. Nevertheless, some of these were good, and weather in IR or UV, I was able to show some surface features for the sun, even though the usual filter used for such detail is the H-α filter (another filter on my wishlist). After researching a bit further for some way to enhance the performance of my UV-pass filter, I've found out that the only way to do this is by attaching a hot-mirror filter or NIR-cut filter (Near InfraRed). I'll talk about them a bit later, as it seems I couldn't get exactly what I wanted.

Beside the mess, I'm considering seriously to get some 30.5mm filters for the rear of my mirror lens, but that should be on hold for some time now since more important issues must be dealt with.

1200mm, f/128, 0.8s, ISO100.
Using UV-pass filter.
The dot on the sun is Venus.
June 17^th, 2016.

Re-Work

During Ramadhan, the majority of work was actually re-working or editing my old panoramas and applying some techniques or effects on them (e.g. watercolor effect). The majority of this work is just to post these images on Instagram later on though. However, I was able to mingle a bit with some older panoramas to discover some new projections that I've never done before to them.

Qalaoid

Gruama

In fact, my work also included some old shots from 2013, like Gruama, which was shot using my then-new infrared-pass filter. It was just a re-process in some different way since I was not experienced back then with such filters (and it was taken with a regular camera). Back then I didn't appreciate the effect much but now I realize that my B+W infrared pass filter with threshold of about 650nm is in fact pretty useful for artistic uses. Increasing the threshold for infrared filters will approach photography more into the realm of monochrome rather than being colored infrared with the typical vivid and pleasant strange color cast. Kodak's gel filter which I usually use with my fisheye lenses has a threshold of 1000nm, and thus chances for producing vivid colors even with my converted camera is next to null; shots are always monochromatic, in between red and blue tints, as can be seen in Dawwar tal Qaddis and Planeta InfraĠużeppi.

Planeta InfraĠużeppi

Dawwar tal Qaddis

Toys

 Now to the fun part: new order placed and excitation in the air! Though I wished that I could expand the list of my items this time but all is placed in the wishlist waiting. I have a budget I'm trying not to exceed, and yet I'm trying to educate myself further in terms of filters and some aspects of astrophotography.

Source: B&H.

As I'm limited in terms of the budget, I've tried to limit myself to the very essential items, like this one: CamRanger MP-360 Motorized Pan/Tilt Tripod Head. This tripod head must be one of the MOST wanted items in my list since I'm having hard time controlling my lens when it is zoomed in (specially when it comes to shooting the sun or the moon). Tripod heads available for me now are just impractical, since at large magnification values for objects like the sun or the moon, the object would look to travel faster than it would appear to the naked eye, and I would have to adjust the knobs for the tripod head after each shot to follow up. This head should and is supposed to solve such problem quite easily by controlling the orientation by a cable remote.

Source: B&H.

One of the major items and one of which I've been hesitant to order is the Tiffen 58mm Standard Hot Mirror Filter. The idea was primary about using this filter to aid my UV-pass filter and stop the IR leakage in it. However, checking the transmission curves provided, things would seem shaky with this filter because it does block spectrum in the range of UV as well. Roaming the net around, I've learned more and I've experienced more on how to read transmission charts, but unfortunately, no perfect match for my need was found. Few filters were found with quite narrow band passage allowance in the UV, but the corresponding websites looked weird a bit and I couldn't even place an order! Anyway, if this filter didn't work well with my UV-pass filter, I'm planning to use it normally and directly with my lenses, since it helps on clearing the image and increase its sharpness as I read in some articles; so in essence, it has a clearing factor just like what UVC (Haze, or UV-cut) filters do, but in a different region of the spectrum. However, this is not the end of the story with filter, as the lens itself play a major part in UV Photography, because modern lenses are usually multi-coated for UV protection, and seems older lenses are more appropriate for the task!

Kylemore Abbey

Coming to mention UV-cut filters, I've noticed some bluish streak in the panorama done for Kylemore Abbey in 2014. Even though the panorama is tone-mapped from HDR, yet such bluish haze (in the mountains) might not be removed with HDR technique and would require UV-cut filter indeed. For this reason, I've started to look for gel (or polyster or resin) UV filter to be used specifically with my fisheye lenses. Ironically, I barely used my circular 58mm UV-cut filter!

Source: B&H

Another critical item which I've been postponing its purchase is the ring flash for macro photography. Since I don't delve deeper on a professional level with macro photography, I've thought that such professional ring flashes like Canon's are way too expensive for my simple use. Thus, I've decided to head to something more simple and cheap for occasional usage: Bolt VM-110 LED Macro Ring Light. It comes with various adapters for various diameters, and it uses LED instead of a flash tube. Moreover, this ring flash is universal and doesn't depend on TTL system, thus it works with any DSLR almost as the description reads. Some people would strongly recommend using TTL systems but I'm quite used by now on using manual modes in regular speedlites. Thus, handling this item should not be a problem supposedly.

Beside these major items, I've ordered some cheap infrared polyester filters and other stuff which I might talk about later. Also on the way but from another resource, some Baader filter sheet (or solar filter) to be cut and shaped freely for shooting the sun, and a book about Sumerians (been my fascination for some time). I can somehow consider this to be my own birthday gift to myself, but a bit early.

Finale

Up till this moment, my life is undergoing a storm, despite the calm appearance from the outside. Let's not delve into these matters of the heart for now. All I can say for now is I'm urging these new toys to arrive, as soon as possible, to get me started playing around. I need to put my worries onto something; the sooner the better…
 

Pre-Ramadhan…

After stopping for a week because of lack of time and the tiresome body, here I am again trying to put up with the latest. I'm lagging behind with some ideas and experiments I should have been working with lately, and my time management, to say the best, sucks. Yet, not sure if this is my problem or it's just my destiny to be so.
In the meantime, I think it is time to put some of my work done in 360 mall here in Kuwait, after the end of the contest specified for that mall. Of course, none of my work did win (3 photos maximum for every contestant). However, I did get an email about one of my images being shortlisted (i.e. qualified at some point). Not sure though which image is it!

I

The location itself was, despite its visual beauty, hard to find a good perspective in it. The third place in the contest was awarded to a friend in the group and I'm not sure at what location exactly was it taken. My three contributions were actually made of the same panorama in different projections. It was hard for me to find some interesting points or some harmony, and to add to my hardships, my light meter was out of power and I had to depend solely on the camera's light meter; which meant I must work in Av mode instead of the Manual mode. That contributed a lot to discrepancies in exposures. Not to mention the final weird color spots which I usually encounter from time to time in my HDR panoramas. However, it seems that I was either in the wrong section for the contest or, maybe just didn't find hidden corners like the others did.

II

After doing the panorama, I did indeed take single shots, but then reading the conditions thoroughly I've found that shots should be more into those Vertical Gardens. The single shots I've made were, unfortunately, not into these gardens and more into the architecture of the place. Also, they were taken with my converted camera and using an infrared gel filter at the back of Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. Thus, I've found myself just changing the projection for this single panorama and submitting the images to fill in the 3 slots available. Of course, it is not necessary to fill in these 3 slots but I felt bad of uploading just one, the regular flat one (I). The vertical one (II)seems to be the messiest of all with many color splashes and a lost focus on the gardens themselves, even though I tried to make somewhat a swift movement for the gardens and the decor. Still, the element of harmony is lacking drastically in this one.

III

The planet projection of the same panorama had the same defects almost; lack of harmony, though maybe to a lesser degree than the vertical projection. In the planet projection, specifically, I tried to increase the cyan tones a bit to counteract the excessive red to magenta tones. Doing the panorama beside that long pillar was absolutely a wrong idea. But with such a place that lacks a specific center of mass (i.e. a center architectural focus to wrap the panorama around it), I had no choice there. Doing the panorama in the middle of the sets of tables of the cafés in that area wouldn't be any better too.

Upperways

As I've mentioned before, after doing the panorama, I tried to take single shots. These singles shots were done with my converted EOS 7D, and tried taking shots with and without the infrared filter. The difference here is that, the converted camera would record all spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet, as well as the visible spectrum in between. But using a filter on the lens, would filter the visible spectrum and other ranges to allow a specific band to pass. All single shots were taken with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, and some were in landscape while most were in portrait orientation. Shots like Upperways include the widest spectrum, and after a bit of twitching to the white balance value, some strange mix of colors is produced far from reality. Nice effect. In Upperways, I used DxO software to correct the fisheye distortion, and that resulted in cropping a large area of the image. One question occurred to me at that time which I'm still not able to answer: How to do the metering for infrared shots?

Infra360

Usually, when shooting infrared shots with a regular camera, I would in fact take several shots using high ISO value and checking the histogram. When the histogram is alright, I just roll back to the lowest ISO and do a long exposure. Things are a bit different when using a converted camera because (without a filter) metering is done for a whole spectrum (adding the focusing problems). With some filter on the lens, probably the method of trial and error can still be done though it would be lengthy somewhat; yet the concept of having a converted camera is to be able to work with such filters (UV or IR) with ease as if working around with a regular camera. Working in LiveView is a must in these cases, whether the camera is converted or not, and specially when the lens has no IR marker (and I've never seen a UV marker before at all!). While doing more shots like Infra360, I've discovered later that some shots were adjacent somewhat to each other with little perspective difference, which might be proper for making a 3D anaglyph later on. I wouldn't know exactly until I try though.

Finale

I'm trying slowly now to work on some of my projects; specifically the 4D experiments. I'm trying to formulate some ideas about it though. Meanwhile, I'm observing the arrival of Ramadhan by next week, and I'm not sure if I will be keeping up with this blog or not. However, one thing is for sure: I'm going to have sleeping problems the whole month. My activity, as well, will be down low because of this. I miss traveling, but looking at my budget at the current time, seems this year is not going to be mine. Ironically, it is the year of the Monkey in the Chinese Calendar, which is my Chinese sign as well… The Monkey.

Heedless…

Well, this is a quick wrap for the latest events here, after some long pause during Ramadhan. Ramadhan is over now and I'm trying to hop to the regular pace of a normal life (figurative speech). So many things to do here, including preparations for the vacation I'm planning to have on September, in which I'm supposed to travel to Oman first with the group for a workshop, and then I'm planning to head to Malta few days after that trip. I didn't organize the trip and timing still, and one thing new to me here is the transportation (supposing I'm going to land in Malta's main island, while I'd like to stay on the other island, Gozo). Up till this moment, I didn't even do anything about the visa.
Meanwhile, I'm not doing much with my camera except for visiting old photos and trying to do retouches and reworking some of them (specially converting some to B&W). I'm still aiming at that goal of doing a B&W panorama in JPEG format, but I'm still not sure about the location. Needless to say, summer is killing my chances in "cold" blood… pun intended.

Arabian Eye
One of the reworked images from 2014, adding luster to the iris and more sharpness.

This said, I did spend a considerable time with my Geltani trying to prepare some graphics to put on the page. I'm still not sure how I will send this to Omniglot, but anyway the process is going on. I prepare the characters for the syllables by scanning my own handwriting and then cutting the shapes and prepare them in a specific squared sizes to fit the main document about Geltani. This said, I did already add some more sounds to the syllabic system, beside adjusting some shapes for the 3^rd or 4^th time. Yet, there are things to add, and a numerical system to fix.

ِA scan for some doodles with
trials for the numerical system.
Click to enlarge.

In addition to that, I've added (or made up the idea) a symbol for stressing the syllable just as in Japanese syllables as well. The number of syllables so far exceeded 100, which seems a lot, but the virtue here lies in the fact that they are mostly systematic in derivation (or composing so to say). It is a leap if  I should say; there was nothing and now I'm already in the middle of something. I need to check some of those phonetic values and the transliteration system, essentially to be noted down in the document I'm going to send to Omniglot. The document must be in HTML, and with so many pictures, it seems I'm going to zip it all and send it over. Doesn't sound quite right though, don't know why exactly!

With all this work, and Ramadhan is over, I'm planning for some "move" that might probably get me to set a foot in some direction. Some celebrities did ask for the collection of photos I've taken for them on the stage after checking them out on Instagram. However, because of the malfunctioning endeavor with Instagram (which is embarrassing me a lot), it seems that I have to do it in person. I'm planning as well to make a print for a celebrity as a gift. I just need to know a way to deliver those to them!

Young and Old.

Meanwhile, I've trying to push myself further with poetry as I'm trying to get in touch with my inner feelings and expressing more of myself as I used to do in the old times. I've found out that some abstract photos that I've taken before do entice the memory and some writing capabilities. Well, it's not a joke to say that sometimes you have to be tortured just to do art, any art, if possible. Anyway, I did write a piece, which I called Young and Old, inspired by an abstract photo taken from Ireland in 2010!

Not sure for now what the coming days hold for me in store. All what I really want is just a vacation. A vacation... with that I should also be sleeping without thinking about the next day! I'm sort of having what I like to call a "relapse" to Phil Collins music. I was more into Irish music for some time. Well, Phil's music is good, pretty good, but I tried to avoid it in the past trying not to lick over my injuries… and I failed.

Extrema II

Not much is happening this week I guess. Except for some, maybe, panic attacks and fatigue? Well, temperatures are noticeably down these days, but still in the 40^osC range. Probably this is happening because of the low traffic congestion during Ramadhan in general. I'm waiting for the month to be over with by next week to gain back my normal pace, and sleep (which then was screwed already!).
I've passed this week trying to find out  a good subject for my new macro "thrill" but didn't find much to do actually except of two substances which aren't much of "wonderful" nature, so to say. I can't deny the fact that I'm still greedy for more in terms of magnification. It would be a wonderful thing to work out with my old microscope (which has x100 magnification capability) and take pictures directly from there. For this reason, I do plan to look for some glass plates which are used to settle the samples for the microscope examination. I believe I can project the image on some white screen of some sort and take a picture then - this is beside the capability of rigging the camera with the microscope with some adapters but this is a costly solution for now I believe and not worthy the time consumption. Better start easy first. Now with the two simple subjects...

White cardboard.

The first attempt was by using a white cardboard or something of this sort. I usually use these as reflectors when I use my flashes. The subject is translucent and not completely opaque as it appears to the naked eye. I was afraid though that the heat from the 80W floodlight on its back with such a short distance would burn it, but things went well after all. The image was taken at ISO800 and for a second or two using Bulb mode. Nothing much to be done with the image anyway, since it is random and no value for colors even, but only a slight noise reduction. Yet, the challenge was not in at this particular moment.

Carbon Pill

The real challenge was to take a shot of this carbon pill (used to resolve some digestive problems). The pill here is opaque and no hope in lighting it through, which means dropping the light from the front. After tiresome trial and error process, I positioned the floodlight on the top with around 45 degrees angle which shined a bit. The problem is I don't have any carrier, so I had to hold the light with my own hands and also fixing the focus (by adjusting the macro rail that carries the sample). Thus, using both hands to do three tasks (lighting, focusing, shooting) was a complete mess. his triggers me to think of some way to carry this light when needed, and also to think of some way to hold the sample in front of the camera since I'm working horizontally now and not hanging the camera vertically like before (as a microscope).

This is all what I could come up with in this week, but there is a lot of work in B&W and Tone splitting on the side. Tone splitting specifically is opening a gate for me for studying colors and their relations with each other, and indeed, I do have an idea in my mind right now but I need to think it thorough to see how to apply and compare the results. The colors websites are opening a new venture and making things a bit easier. My main idea is of the relation between highlights and shadows, and the corresponding colors which are assigned to them in the process of tone splitting. Anyway, this might be in details for another post later.

Pine-O-Rama

Here we are. Finally, the last week of Ramadhan (and writing this 2 or 3 days before its end). Not to say that it was a heavy burden, but people and life in general are so during this month. Fasting was not a problem for me (or let's say a minor one) back in regular days when I used to fast before Ramadhan, but the time shifts that occur during this month, and the sluggishness of people aided with my not-enough-sleep syndrome, all of that, can make up for one month long of defocus.
As a consequence of this turbulent time, I couldn't post anything last week. I didn't prepare any material; Not with Geltani, nor with my camera, for the lack of ideas and will. Even though I did some "brainstorming," if I can call it so, but that didn't help, specially that I don't have what it takes to do some of those ideas.
Mom's situation remains the same and I can't see a glance of hope of, at least, reducing the dialysis times per week. I guess I have to live it that way. Isn't it amazing when you have such a large family? Meanwhile, she almost got me into a heart attack last week when her blood pressure refused to "calm" down and at the end I had to give her one full pill to reduce the blood pressure (and she used to take only half a pill when needed only). Knowing Mom, I'm almost pretty sure that her pressure raised up because of someone and/or something that she either saw or heard. The typical worrisome heart of a mother.

Still

Out of despair, I've picked my stuff downstairs into the guest room where there is a plenty of space to move around and do some "acrobat" and tried to shoot something. Anything. The first thing that my eyes fell upon is my can of marbles (which I've used before for some trigger testing).
I didn't know what I wanted to do with the marbles but as an initial thought, I wanted to make a still life image with some water droplets on the surface of one of the marbles. However, that didn't work because of, I presume, the surface tension which doesn't hold perfectly. I heard that photographers who are into flowers and macro do make use sometimes of glycerine to mimic the water drops or dews on leaves. I guess I needed that here, and one more thing on the list to try to get!

Planeta Marble
Canon EF 100mm macro + extension tubes, f/22, 320^-1sec, ISO400.

After realizing how water drops failed, I've decided to just work and test my speedlites and just make it another ordinary experiment to familiarize myself more with my speedlites. I've realized also that working with 50mm and extension tubes is far easier than working with 100mm macro lens AND extension tubes (and also I was working with Tamron 70-300mm tele- and macro lens with extension tubes).
Even though I've brought several reflectors and been trying to create some interesting light pattern over the marble but I've found out that probably the easiest way is to roof the marble with the big reflector-diffuser which was connected to the 580EXII speedlite.

Position of reflector-diffuser over the marble.

Of course this is not a substitute for a good light tent to photograph such objects but it was a quick quirk. The result of this can be seen on Planeta Marble above where the tissue of the diffuser is reflected on the surface of the marble (a light tent is not supposed to give such a reflection). Anyway, since the surface is a sphere, I didn't really mind that. Also, to create the rim light from behind, I've placed my 430EXII with a yellow gel at the back of the marble (not shown above) with a snoot.
As I was going in and out from my room I've noticed another object that I could be working with: my pine cones, which I've brought from Ireland in 2009. The awesome texture of the pine cone surface is perfect for abstract shots and it can push the inspirational attitude forward I would say. It just needs meditation...

Blooming Pine
Canon EF 100mm + Extension tubes,
f/32, 320^-1sec, ISO400.

Touch of Pine
Canon EF 100mm, Extension tubes,
f/22, 250^-1sec, ISO400.

Even though when shooting for the pine cone I've used both speedlites (580EXII and 430EXII) but the major light source in shaping the final image came from the 430EXII which was handheld with a reflector and a yellow gel, and controlled by wireless. I've taken several shots while changing the position of the 430EXII speedlite by hand and checking the results. If I'm asked about which one I like the most, that would be Touch of Pine because it bears some mysterious sense within the touch of light on the tip of its wooden shards.I wouldn't say it would be suitable for other purposes though as I'm sure that for contests it has no meaning, and for stock agencies it, possible, has no meaning as well nor any potential customers. Probably someone would like to see it as a background or printed?
The same thing applies as well for the marble shot, which I do consider somehow as a minimalistic approach (and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't attract many people). I have to say that the original marble was dark green and almost opaque but with the change in the color temperature while processing the RAW image, the surface turned blue, which goes along well with the yellow rim light.

Source: B&H

Reflections: With this work, with the marble and the pine

Source: B&H

cone, I've really started to think again about having some kind of ring-flash or a beauty dish. I'm not sure I do need the high-end tech stuff like the Canon's Ring Lite or Canon's Twin Lite flashes, and for this reason I'm planning to look for some "remedies," if I can call it so; Stuff under the DIY category. The beauty-dish would be a start as it is easily constructed but the problem is, it cannot be held by the lens to light the object from the front in macro situations, and here comes the part where we need ring flashes. The two items displayed on the right are expensive and yet not into my budget range (specially after buying my new PC). I need some time to recollect my finances and be firm again before buying such luxurious devices. Also, before getting such devices, I have to develop my sense for still life shots and products photography (or I should say, tabletop photography in general). My mind is still hanging in the arena of landscapes and architectural venue.

Pine-O-Rama

The observations mentioned above about the pine cones dragged me to do another experiment directly after finishing with the macro shots. Peeling.
This time, I didn't use the typical flash from the top of the object like I used to do before, but I depended directly on the available light in the room beside increasing the exposure time a bit more to create a high-key-like image. Anyway, however I would try to place my object in the middle of the rotation plate, it seems to slide to the sides after some angles. Probably because the body itself is tilted!

Notice how the right and left margins change as the pine cone rotates as if it is dragged to the right during the rotation. Anyway, after many trials to stitch the shot images I've came about a compromise which needed lot of work to be done to clone out the stitching errors; Some of them, but not all. I'm lucky now that I do have such a fast PC to stitch larger panoramas and in less than 10 minutes. The fortune that I've spent on this PC instead of the car's cooling compressor paid off I would say!

Pine Roll

In my trials, I've stitched the peels in various ways but I think the best way was to use the spherical projection as that enabled me to correct the fan-shape of the original stitch by changing the "virtual" pitch of the image. In other words, I had to drag the final result upward over the canvas and PTGui would do the job to stretch and stitched image. However, it was not perfect of course and some work had to be done in Photoshop to do some cropping and some perspective corrections, and the bulk of cloning out irregularities. By this method, the stitched image lies in a sea of "black" or empty background, thus to preserve the original resolution of the stitch, I had to stitch with maximum dimensions that sometimes exceeded 65K pixels wide (and the file had to be saved on PSB, or Large Document Format, and not on TIF). The resulting size was in the range of 1 to 16GB!! Of course that was reduced radically after cropping and correcting perspectives to something around 650MB (not something weird for a panorama on 16-bit).
To reduce the load of work I had to do some sacrifices with some details, or maybe some of these stitching errors were beyond fixing as well! However, I've noticed that the largest portion of stitching errors and smudges were concentrated on the upper part of the image (middle point and above). Thinking about it in the terms of the laws of rotational motion, I think it is because the upper part formed a wider circle while rotating more than the base would do.

C = θxR,

where C is the curve of the rotation (or portion of the circumference), θ is the angle of rotation, and R is the radius from the center of the rotation to the surface at a specific height. Well, it doesn't need any brains of course, unless you really suck in maths like I do! However, because of this, the virtual change in the features of the pine (or any object that is) as it rotates for every 5^o would be greater when C is greater. The question raises then of how to make this value as minimum as possible and would it have been better if the pine was up straight (providing that the center of rotation is exact)? The pine cone can be resembled with a cylinder, but what about other irregular objects? I can't have any thoughts about this until I try more and more of irregularities. 

In my work with such peels, I've started to attack the problem without much calculations sometimes and depending solely on changing the number of pixels for the crop factor (from which PTGui would read the control points). It doesn't work all the time and often I find myself tracked back to do the regular degrees-pixels calculations, but done in various of ways in hope that a better stitch would result (with minimum of errors). 

Finale

I'm exhausted. That says it all. I wish if I can find a word that expresses me better than this. Thursday is an official holiday (either for the last day of Ramadhan or for Eid), yet I'm not going to see any resting point soon, as I still have to pick up Mom to do her dialysis. Talk about having a family without being a family. God knows what dwells in the heart, but I shall try not to complain anymore.

Goodbye for now Ramadhan, I've got to prepare myself to the usual munching-engine mode again. Probably I can do more in the near future if I just have the right amount of strength. I need to play more games for now...

Dilemmas...

Here we go, and as expected. Ramadhan has arrived and the unneeded stress started along. There is never enough time to do anything. Majorly, the main problem is the after-work nap which takes from 2 to 3 hours and sometimes even for 4 hours, and that makes me awry at night and unable to sleep early as in regular days. People in Ramadhan do indeed make a time shift and sleep late (because working hours are also shifted as well) but for me, I always try to fix my sleeping time as in regular days and never stay late unnecessarily. Now, I need to do that more than ever because Mom's dialysis timing is not changed and I do have to pick her up to there in the same time as in regular days. Moreover, I have to make her something to eat before leaving home (while we used to grab something on the way in regular days). In Ramadhan, it is insulting (and illegal) to eat in public while the whole nation is fasting. Well, we do have a medical permit or reasoning, but still, no need for embarrassment.
I've been to the doctors to check up with my nose and see the reason for bleeding. He said that the capillaries are probably weak and I need to have more vitamin C in my diet and provided me with some method to stop the bleeding as well. Finally, he said if that didn't work, then I have to go back to cauterize, probably by laser (?). I think in this week alone, I've lost a quarter liter of blood just through my nose!

The Dilemma (1)

This week I've been working on an idea for a panorama (and barely did) which I've been cooking in my head for a while. However, unfortunately for me, I'm having technical issues and a sluggishness in my skills. The panorama was taken twice in two different days, and two different lighting conditions, and with two different techniques.
In the first trial, in order to fix the bracketing for the HDR merging later, I've used my light meter and measured the light (incident) from different angles to the camera. There was a considerable gap in the EV values. In the beginning, the expansion of the bracket was from -2EV to +2EV but apparently that some shots were somehow dark and the +2EV shots appeared as if they were taken at 0EV instead, thus I've started all over and made the expansion from +3EV to -3EV. However, the story was not over here.
In the current time and because the memory issues in my old PC, I've decided to work with my (new) laptop as I'm still preparing my new PC before plugging it online completely. Sincerely, I'm so lazy to do all of that and it's connected to my TV at the current time; Not a pleasant view and my room is a mess. However, in my laptop and after merging the RAW files into HDR slides and trying PTGui to stitch them out, it turned out that the slides were apparently dark and PTGui could not find control points at all!
This matter triggered me to do another trial and this time, instead of working in Manual mode and taking light measurements, I've decided to go back to the old methods (tried and true!); Working in Av mode and letting the camera decide for the shutter speed, and I had this occasion to increase the f-number from f/8 (as in the first trial) to f/16, to make sure than things are sharper.
The reason I've decided to do a second session is the assumption that the dynamic range was so wide that PTGui could not assemble some control points in between any two images. However, even in my second trial, Photomatix and PTGui followed with the same behavior: dark slides, and unstitchable panorama. After many trials to install and re-installing older versions of both programs, I've finally came about to some solution and finally the panorama was stitched.

Wooden Hall (trial stitch)

I've spent several days trying to figure out what was going wrong with my (usual) procedure and why things do not work out in the laptop as they do on PC. The panorama above, Wooden Hall is just a trial and not a final image to be submitted to stock sites because of the weird (and usual) blue spots, but I've decided to put it online anyway without any fixes and ask for help about this matter, if there is any available! I'll try to summarize my thoughts here in points:

1. Apparently, the main problem was in Photomatix and not the (new) PTGui. After installing several versions of both, it turned out that Photomatix v4.0.2 yielded clear HDR slides that are viewable easily in PTGui (any version), but the new version (v4.2.4) was problematic. I'm not sure why this is happening but there were already some issues when I moved from Photomatix v3.0 to v4.0, like the ability to tone-map without opening the HDR slide - a problem I used to encounter with large little planet panoramas, and my way around it was to set the values in v4.0, save the settings and use the side-cart file (the XMP file in which settings are saved) into v3.0 using the batch process facility. The thing is, because of the large file size, v4.0 used to give me a memory error and stops responding when I try to process the tone-mapping at once. Why don't I use v3.0 to tone-map already? Well, it turned out that v4.0 has a better on-monitor representation of the actual image after the tone-mapping is done. When tone-mapping in v3.0 (as far as I remember), opening the image in Photoshop later would yield a completely different image in terms of colors and shades and I would have to work around this with adjustment layers. The situation here is somehow similar in between v4.0.2 and v4.2.4. Advice: Don't always jump on newer versions of any particular software. It is good to try new stuff but always make sure you will be going smoothly with it. Keep older versions in store somewhere, as you might need them at any time!.
2. The new PTGui (v9.1.6, and I think v9.1.7 is out there) has lot of interpolation possibilities, more than I had in the old stuff in my old PC. Interpolation is the way that a program would interpret or "read" the pixels across the image. The three basic ones were Bilinear, Bicubic, and Nearest Neighbor. Each one of those of course got a specific usage (some of them are explained in Photoshop resizing facility), but in PTGui there are no descriptions about any of them. In the new version, however, the list is expanded further to include Lanczos and Spline (with each one of those got several types). Speak about new stuff to learn and burn the time with!
3. I've merged the RAW files several times and stitched the panorama several times (and thanks to my fast laptop, the stitching process takes merely 5 minutes for a 10,000x5,000 pixels panorama!) as I was trying to figure out the reason for these blue streaks across some regions in the panorama. My conclusion is (and I've done that before actually) it is more related to the color space, and it might be related as well to some gaps in the dynamic range of the HDR slides; I'm not sure yet. However, merging in different color spaces and stitching the panorama after, proved to me that the blue color spots (you can see them in the image above) were reduced significantly (in saturation let's say) when merging the HDR in a lesser color space as sRGB. Also, the streaks appear more or less around regions were there happens to be some stitching errors. Stitching errors cause such problem? Color space? Dynamic range? All of them? Not really sure, but it is surely annoying. I couldn't edit the panorama and fix it in this laptop mainly because of the size of the laptop and my sluggish movement with it and the display is small already. Thus, I've decided to upload it as it is and might try to fix it later when my new PC is ready.

My world is spinning right now and I have to finish up with this PC and try to hold to my camera again, and work with more panoramas even.

The Dilemma (2)

Well, this second dilemma is somehow to a lesser degree. It is just a dilemma about Geltani and some aspects about it. I've been working a bit with the sounds that are to be used in Geltani and I've figured out that it is almost impossible to avoid repeating some sounds. I've decided here that it is time to introduce some sounds that are unfamiliar to the far east in general, thus giving a touch to alienate the conlang from a typical Asian sense. With these new sounds, like the Arabic ħ [ح], I've decided to add some possibilities for creating dual-consonants and doubling (or stressing) some. Even with those creations, it is impossible as it seems, to provide a distinctive sound for each combination of leading and driving couplet. Would there be two words with similar sounds and different meanings?
In that sense, the scenario would be a mimic of reality of the far east languages, and specifically Chinese and Japanese, where is typical to find one character with several pronunciations and even meanings. However, I don't think Geltani would be close to that level of complexity of the real languages, but it has a comforting effect to think that having a repetitive scheme of sounds for different types of couplets is not really a bad thing, and it somehow mimics the real world to some extent. The characters (or logograms) would be definitely different if, at any chance, two words or more bear some resemblance in the sounds. The question now is, on what basis I should base the driving sounds?

Finale

David Schap's book is over with right now, and I'm trying to find something to replace it with from my arsenal of old books. As I've mentioned before, probably I would go through my old languages books.
Many ideas are racing through my mind right now, like having a leave for the rest of Ramadhan just to have my own timing and not to worry about work and waking up in the morning, but Mom's dialysis schedule holds me back from this idea, because the center is near my work place and eventually, the torture won't stop (but yes, I would have more time for myself).
Because of all this pressure, in the work-front and the home-front, all what I'm trying to do right now is to break all the cuffs and find a way out of obligations to work with my own projects and my camera. Feels like being married without a real partner, I guess.
Also, I'm trying to consider some way to integrate myself through the group back again, but without the work load that I used to get. Probably my membership would be changed from special to regular because of the low activity level I'm participating with. There is also a crazy idea cooking in my mind: to write a book in Arabic about the basics of photography. This idea arrived to me looking at the arsenal of the photography books that I have that are all in English, and many people here can't have the benefits of such books despite their love for photography because their lack of expertise in English. It is such a sorrowful thing that a language can stand a barrier in learning. Not sure this idea will go further but it is worth considering anyway!
I'm typing this post and watching TV in the hall, with some show about the Canary islands; It makes me dream of vacations and traveling again. I want to see the world again out there... if only I can find someone to take care of Mom as much as I do...