Alright. I'm supposed to talk here about my last stroll so far for this year, which was back in February. Exactly, on February 2ⁿᵈ, just the next day from the stroll before, which I've made my previous blog post about.
As I've stated before, I was going to make it all into one post but I realized that probably the post would be too long. The main goal for this stroll was actually to take some pictures of some wall with graffiti that I've noted the day before. Thus, as variation goes, the images shot that day were not varied much. However, there is one shot or scene in particular that made me call it a "day"! I'll come to that later.
Unlike with the rest of wandering for this year so far, and as I've mentioned in my previous posts, the lens in use here was Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens, which is completely manual, and of course no way to fit the flare filter on the front. This lens had been always my choice for creative endeavors and one of my favorites, despite the somewhat hard control and other lens issues (e.g. chromatic aberrations).

Westward, Again

غَرْبْ
(west)

In the beginning, as usual, I've started to take some test shots in the neighborhood, which later were processed. The time was about sunrise back then. However, strangely, the western horizon had a slight glow as if the sun was rising from there. Anyway, as I typically do for such times, I've set the WB to Fluorescent, thus the final image (tone-mapped from HDR), West, had a nice blue-pink tint to it. Now it's time to go!

My World 2

Test shots were not limited to West, but I've also shot some on my way to that wall with graffiti, but nothing important here. Luckily, though, the puddle that was there the day before, was still there (and it was quieter than the day before). Shooting this puddle with 8mm was a bit of a challenge though. For a starter, I had to rely on my instinct concerning the hyperfocal distance and adjust the lens to that (and putting on more f-stops in aperture to make sure things are within the depth). To shoot My World 2, I had to get so low (almost touching the water surface). Despite its small size, it does somewhat look like a pond or a lake (thanks for the wide field of view and distortion). I was surprised that some of these houses still have antennae on the top!

The Wall

Coming to the wall, I've started to shoot many images for it and on various orientations. However, when processing these images, it did prove to be a challenge on various levels. First of all, the distortion of such fisheye lens didn't serve the purpose and the nature of the subject. I've tried to rectify the images (manually, which consumed a LOT of time), but such rectification would chop a big portion of the wall. In fact one of the problems when shooting this wall was to get a decent angle to have fine details with some interesting view instead of shooting a boring head-on shot as if I was simply documenting the place.
The second problem arose with the WB, as the blue tint from the Fluorescent WB kind of killed the image and its tones, which contained some warm tones.

The Wall 2

However, I did find that the landscape orientation is way better than the portrait orientation, and rectifying the image in this orientation was somewhat a success (despite some areas or angles not being fit I guess). It was clear, in the process of making HDRs and tone-mapping these shots, that Fluorescent WB wasn't a good choice for this particular subject, so I changed the WB (when merging into HDR) into Daylight WB (or maybe Cloudy WB) and added some blue tint later while tone-mapping and editing in Photoshop.
This wall created in me the desire to shoot a panorama in this place, but alas, that didn't happen until the moment of typing this. 

天堂之下
(under Heaven)

Probably the most ironic thing in this short stroll wasn't related to that wall, the main goal of that stroll. Rather, it was a random scene that I've shot on the edge of a big pool of rain water. Shooting low and bracketing for HDR, I've made several successive shots just to make sure I have some workable images. Even though delicate handshake don't quite show clearly when using such a wide angle lens, but I wouldn't have that for granted. At the time when Under Heaven was shot, I've already set the WB to something else other than Fluorescent (maybe Cloudy or Daylight). In the process, I've stitched 2 HDRs and composed a composed (panoramic) image from the two to complete the scene (specially the sky), as depending on one image would have forced me to crop a lot and lose some details from the edges. I'm so happy with this shot, that I've created 2 more versions of it!

Two extra versions: (Left) Color reversal, (Right) B&W.

Despite these versions, I think I still prefer the original one. Alas, I don't think it would good to print this image unless on some rough texture, like canvas, to "swallow" up the noise in the image. Otherwise, I'd need a considerable time to manage these noise zones in the image on a micro level to avoid significant loss of details. In fact, de-noising the image(s) on one go failed to remove the noise or grain from some specific areas; Not sure why, but this is typical actually when dealing with HDR tone-mapped images. I've encountered such problems a lot in the past when I was active with panoramas.

This shot was probably the "last" in this stroll. There had been some shots afterward but I don't think they are that interesting, so I won't be talking about them here.

Finale

Ramadhan is almost over here, and along with it I'm hoping to get some relief and some stability with my sleeping schedule, a bit. The weather is getting warmer and warmer though and I'm not sure I would be able to go out to shoot anything. We'll see…

Maidin
(morning)

Meanwhile, since this is the last post for my strolls since the beginning of this year, I'm not sure that I would be able to post further despite the fact that I'm indeed taking some pictures here and there (mostly with my phone actually), but they are a bit chaotic and random with no specific theme. That reminds me of the time when I was a member in a photography group, when there was a monthly challenge for members to participate. Would I be able to imply the same discipline on myself, though? I greatly doubt it. So far, most of my trials to create some sort of a discipline for many things I'd like to do, had failed miserably. Yet, probably I should give it a try and see.
This said, if you are a reader to this blog on a periodic basis, expect some gap as I'm not sure I'd be posting anything in the coming weeks from now.
On the other hand, I'm also still on the look out for any new topic for my Arabic blog as well. Thus, I might invest a bit of this time to think of something and actually post it there. In fact, many things in y life had been on hold, specially during Ramadhan. I've realized just recently that I didn't add anything to my list of writing and quotes (which I keep on Writing.com) for the past month or so. I think this is reflective of how busy had my mind was and is, beside the exhaustion. At times, it feels as if it is one long nightmare, and I just can't wait to wake up…
 

Westward…

It seems that I will always be pressed with time to do posts on here, however earlier I try to start. Anyway, this post is a continuation for my strolls outside during the last winter (as if it was last year!). Actually, first, I was planning to talk about 2 strolls done on the February 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ, all in one post, because they are somehow connected. However, I thought then it would be such a long post (and probably won't have the time to finish it all in time), thus it would be better to take things by chunks. I'm not sure even if this one will be a long post or not!

West We Go

Before I head out to this stroll, it came to my attention that there is some corner that I didn't visit before in my previous strolls to that direction of the neighborhood. The spot is actually a narrow alley between 2 houses, and on the map, it showed some kind of strange building at the outlet of this alley. Usually, I would skip this alley (which leads north actually) and head further west (on different paths) but this time I've decided to "investigate" this alley.

سَحَرْ
(morning twilight)

This stroll was done, again, using my Sigma 12-24mm lens and also with that flare filter fitted on top (stuck it into the lens hood from the inside). Also, I was aiming at working with HDR here as well. As usual, my first shots were trial shots to gauge the exposure a bit (to add or subtract EVs as I was shooting in Av mode). The first shot in this stroll was (ironically) pointing southward into some road that I've visited a lot before (where the haunted house in ruins lie). To stabilize the camera, I've placed the camera on the asphalt directly and put my finger on the top just to let it stand still while shooting using the 2-second timer. Actually this was the final shot, Morning Twilight, but many shots were made before this one and many of them were shaky, and this is why I've decided that I should placed the camera literally on the asphalt for stabilization. The atmosphere was not quite as dark as it appears in Morning Twilight, but the mode was created when tone-mapping the HDR, and with the help of using Fluorescent WB in-camera when shooting; My favorite WB in blue-hour times. I remember posting Morning Twilight on Instagram as well and used the available filters there to increase the blue tones and make it more fluorescent like. It can look too dark, but on a large scale there are still some details to be seen in the shadows.

My World

That day was my lucky day somehow, because some rains poured down the night before and it was a chance to shoot some reflections for sure. However, as I entered the alley, things were muddy and busy, with some construction workers at work already since the very early morning hours (even before sunrise time). I had to tread carefully here as the ground was really muddy and I was not wearing any protective footwear or anything (so chances of slipping were high) and I've put the strap around my neck just in case. I came about some reflection upon a big pond of water that formed in the middle of the narrow alley and it was inevitable to step somewhat in the water, but before I step in, I had to take my chances to shoot something. In the horizon, there was a building and a lamp post (or a street lamp) and I thought this would be a good chance to put the flare filter to some good use, beside taking a picture of a reflection. After many failed trials and getting so down and close to the water, I've managed to shoot something out of the mess (and I had to endure some thigh pains here after squatting for a long time). I think My World was not processed in HDR (because the shots in the bracket were shaky most of the time so I had to pick whatever stable image I could work with). In the process, I've reversed the image just for fun and thus made the reflection on top instead of below.

The Portal 2

At this point, I've reached that building that I was wondering about and it turned to be some housing for an electric generator for the area AND it had some graffiti too. At this point, I didn't take any pictures of it, but this is a subject for the next post hopefully. I'm not sure why I didn't shoot anything here at that moment but probably because I wanted to discover the area more than just shoot the building at that point of time. Anyway, I've continued moving northward at this point and then I had to move eastward as if I was going back home but passing in front of the houses that are at the back of my house (if that makes sense). The smell that morning was fresh and reminded me of my morning walks in the Irish countryside when I traveled there 3 times before. I've seen some nice things (home facades) but as usual, I was afraid to shoot something and been called for privacy violation or something of that sort. Some simple homes and structures were really interesting with the trees growing around such houses or on their fronts. Anyway, I've reached around the end of that back road where I encountered a pond of water again.

The Portal 3

At that pond, I've decided to take my chances with some speed shooting, but not in the conventional way like using speedlites set to HSS of course, but rather trying to just capture a specific moment here as I throw a stone into the puddle. The shutter speed was in the range of 125⁻¹s to 160⁻¹s (I was on AV mode still) with ISO160. It sounded fair, I just needed to try my luck and hope for the best. However, what makes the task harder here is the fact that I'm not using any tripod or a remote, but simply my rwo hands to hold the camera and throw a stone. Of course focusing here was a hurdle so things were fixed with the hyperfocus principle (or hyperfocal distance) at f/8 and switching the camera to burst mode to take successive shots. Despite the cumbersome, I've got somewhat good shots here as seen in The Portal 2 and The Portal 3 (the titles are in reference to a shot of the same name taken back in January and posted in my previous post). I call myself lucky here to have such clouds. Of course, in the post-process, I had to do all sort of things to create some interest in the image as much as possible, specially with The Portal 2, where the splash occurs somewhat closer to the corner rather than around the center and cropping was somewhat hard to be done while keeping essential elements.

A Stranger Like Me 2

Keeping on the track (and now I'm walking southward trying to reach my neighborhood and back to home), I've encountered one of my favorite subjects on such wet grounds; A single leaf. I've always expressed how much I like single leafs. In fact, I've posted my thoughts about it on Instagram (A Stranger Like 2 and A Stranger Like Me 3, but the title was changed into Russian there). Anyway, even though I took these shots in brackets for HDR, but the shaky hands didn't allow it, so I processed single RAW files, which, to me, look just fine; Absolutely fine. As for the titles, they are a reference to one shot I've made months ago with my Huawei in the yard for such a falling leaf wandering alone. Thus, just for the similarities here, I've decided to make it like a series. In the future, if I get the chance to shoot something like that, probably I would keep on with the series. It's not a new thing really; I remember shooting something similar in Staten Island back in 2012. 

A Stranger Like Me 3

In the process of these 2 images, I've tried to sharpen specific details instead of sharpening the whole image and to pronounce the details of the leaves more, with sharpening as well as with colors altogether. Hence, it was a work for layer masks for sure. I liked these 2 images that I've even made several monochrome versions of them as well (and I might check channel swaps later on), as I think monochrome conversion would emphasize the details, specially for the leaves. I've tried to cast some color on these monochromes, but seems the golden color (#FFD700) works best.

A Stranger Like Me: Monochromes

At this stage, the stroll was over and I walked back home with no new "image hunting," but I had to pay a visit the next day to that wall with graffiti, and along the way I did make some shots that are better than wall actually. I'll keep those for the next post, hopefully. However, it seems I will be revisiting these RAW files again and again to see of possible edits still, this is beside re-processing those HDR slides in different styles and tone-mapping; The creative possibilities with HDRs are almost infinite, I'd say! Despite that, I don't want to get in a rut and re-process images from the past and forget about shooting new images. Things should be balanced regarding that perspective.

Finale

Well, it's Ramadhan already, and times fly so fast, as we are already in the middle of it (or passed that at the time of posting this). My sleeping pattern, of course, is more scattered and random than before, but I'm grateful for the fact that I'm retired right now. However, the issues of home are still roaming in my head and just exhaustive. I remember that I used to go out in some mornings of Ramadhan to shoot something in the neighborhood(s), but I don't think I'll be able to do that this time. It would such a waste, since the weather is still somewhat nice in the early hours of the morning and the neighborhood won't be active and alive till about mid-morning, which gives a plenty of time to walk around and shoot (without being harassed by the sun rays into my eyes or the LCD). Yet, talking about it is easier than doing it for this year.
I'm even thinking, at the moment, to put my mirror lens (Rokinon 800mm f/8) to some good use in some way, but of course that won't do itself and don't be possible in the house periphery; I do have to get out and walk around to try it out. What I fear with this lens is the bulky shape which is quite the "attention grabber" that I just don't need in such hunting for pictures around. Adding to that, of course, the weight, which makes me unsure of my capability of shooting handheld (I definitely don't plan to shoot with a tripod!). At the time of writing this blog post, some ideas for some indoor work also occurred to me, so I might try my luck with that before I can even take my mirror lens out. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm still thinking of some good topic for my Arabic blog. Yes, my plan for "a post per month" is way beyond ruins. Unlike this blog, I don't talk about my photos much, and I focus on putting new info (and "arabizing" terms when needed). My last post there was indeed about the making of a photo, but I don't want to repeat that topic often. Until I find a topic to write about there, then I guess that blog will be dormant for a while.

Home-wise, things feel like being in the middle of a sea or an ocean; Waves raise up and dip down, splashing over my mental health, and always on the look for any beam of wood to hang on to keep afloat. I don't know how long I'll be afloat, but I'm praying things would enhance a bit after Ramadhan, when things "slightly" get back to the normal schedule. If only I can ditch my whole past behind me without feeling it…

East We Go…

So, the weather is officially warm now. Nice still, but warm with some cold breeze. I don't think the window is open now for more strolling outside in early morning hours. In fact, I prefer to sleep longer now when I have nothing to do in the morning (i.e. tending to Mom before heading to the dialysis). I had some plans to take a panorama in some location but I'd need to do it in early morning hours (like, really early hours), but now it is difficult to do that somehow, besides, I'm still afraid of the surroundings (i.e. the people around that place).
Away from the weather fuss, this post is supposedly to talk about my second stroll for 2023 which took place in January, specifically January 14ᵗʰ, 2023, as I was trying to capture new "perspective" from my surroundings, with a Sigma 12-24mm lens.

Eastward We Go

At the moment of that stroll, it was my second time to use the Sigma 12-24mm for such "hunting" outside. This time I've decided to head eastward, as the previous stroll was westward (then southward) from home. The camera, of course, is my regular Canon EOS 7D and not the modified one, so no infrared or UV hunting here. However, as usual, I need to have some twist in the whole process, and that comes in with HDR rendering.

Green Lights

It was one foggy morning, just about a perfect day to shoot! However, I did have some problem when rendering such foggy mood in the image and actually I had to add it artificially on Green Lights. Even though it was really foggy, but it was coming and going and was concentrated on one side of the main road where Green Lights was shot and not the other side. The HDR technique, though, helped here to show some of the details in the sky and the clouds thereof. I would say this image could have been processed from the single RAW though if not for such details in the sky which stretched the dynamic range a bit.

جَنوب 2
(south 2)

Just opposite to Green Lights, the fog was concentrated a bit and the street light poles were still on (one of the rare times I'd call myself lucky!). I had a go with this scene and shot on several levels and zooming levels of the lens (and also, the flare filter was on the lens already since the last stroll). It was a good chance to test the flare of this filter. However, the flare wouldn't be so noticeable on small scale and one has to zoom in to check it out. But never mind. I really like the dark mood of the image here, which was greatly improved in tone-mapping the HDR; Honestly, in reality, it was brighter than this. I had to take several shots here on different levels and zooming just to make sure that the poles line up in some "proper" way (if I can call it so). Again, HDR saved the day with those details in the clouds. The title, South 2, is a recall for another shot taken some months before on that same road (but further away from this location) and looking southward as well. Actually the series was still ongoing with a third one, shot in this stroll as well, but I'll come to it later.

Spark

Crossing the road and going eastward still, I've gone into a neighborhood which I've visited many times before (I'm wondering now if there is anyone there who would have recognized my face already). I have to say though that there are some nice scenes and home facades in such neighborhoods, but as always, I don't like to step on anyone's toes in this area, even if it was an early morning and supposedly everyone is asleep!

The Portal

Nevertheless, I've decided to try my luck and shoot something quickly. One of the doors (and it seems to be for a section separate from the main house) caught my eyes with the plants decorating its surroundings. Since I had to work fast (and I was shooting in brackets still), there was some delay and shaky images (the light wasn't strong). Anyway, I've processed The Portal from one of the exposures (the darkest). Now, I did shoot Spark specifically as test for the filter on the lens and you can see the flare clearly here (enhance even more with HDR tone-mapping), but for The Portal, the shot was mainly aimed at the door specifically and I had to do it quickly. Thus, when I shot this, I didn't think of removing the cap or the hood that holds the filter on the lens and you can see the effect on the fluorescent lamp just above the door. This effect in fact is the one that inspired me with the title as it did feel like some kind of distortion in the time-space. Anyway, as a consequence as well for shooting in a hurry, the perspective needed to be "severely" fixed and thus a big portion of the image had to be cropped. When fixing the perspective, I've aimed mainly to make a perfect rectangle out of the door itself. The rest of the processes involved enhancing the contrast, color, and exposing more details out of the door itself.

اِنْبِلاج
(dawning)

Even though my camera was fixed on the bracketing mode, but I wouldn't necessarily process the image in HDR, as was the case with The Portal. However, with The Portal, the case was about a shaky image that somewhat forced me to use the most stable exposure in the bracketed series. Anyway, there were moments when I've picked one RAW file to process from the bracket specifically for some effect that I pictured in my mind as I was reviewing the images later on, and Dawning was one of such images. I can say that this one shot is probably one of my favorite in this stroll, if not from my collection in general. Well, I do have many favorites of course, and this is one of them, this is what I meant!
Now even the shot was dark in general and silhouette-like, but there is actually a bit of details in these shadows (probably won't be that clear in such a small size). I just love that flame-like light in the sky! The process here involved many touches here and there, like showing more details out of the sky (and using sharpening for that purpose even) and adding more blue to the image and somewhat keep a balance between the dark areas and the light areas (in a way to keep the image divided vertically somehow). How ironic that I didn't even try to merge this image in HDR still, not even for experimentation!

اِنْعِكاس
(reflection)

Then, there were moments when I had to sort things out using "fake" HDR; Meaning, HDR images created from a single RAW file instead of bracketed shots, as in Reflection. I could have done that as well in previous images (like The Portal) but I think I was hoping for so much out of this image because I don't usually take (or get the chance to take) shots of reflections. Anyway, the brackets made for this shot were shaky and I've found myself forced to create 3 TIFF images off the same RAW file, with changing the exposure value and then merging them together in HDR. The results were acceptable I guess. Actually, in this way, I got the chance to process the WB and some other color elements (and tone-splitting parameters) for the images individually and then merge them together as HDR which somehow can be considered one dimension of freedom added to the process, I suppose.

في الرَّوْض
(in the gardens)

Another failed HDR attempt here was In The Gardens (named in Arabic after a folk song). I shot this one in brackets but the images were shaky and only the dark exposure was taken quickly enough to be stable here. Thus, I had to process this one alone (and I didn't think of doing fake HDR here because I just loved the dark atmosphere after all). Many had to be done here though, like cropping, rotating, enhancing the touch of light. The main reason to rotate the image actually was to make the light source on the top, as it was on the left side originally. I also had to apply some editing "tricks" a bit to add faint rays that didn't exist originally in the image. Anyway, I've tried to be reasonable here and not to exaggerate these beams. The image overall was tinted with a golden shade (my favorite, which I use also for the headers on this blog, #FFD700).

Displaced

Keeping moving eastward, I've reached the parallel main road (parallel to the one in my block that is). At this point, I could have kept going east as well and delve deeper; the atmosphere was foggy and sparked some interest in the surroundings, even though I wouldn't have been able to shoot most of it. In that neighborhood there were intriguing villas indeed with some nice doors (I have a soft spot for doors!). However, what was the first to catch my eyes here was just under my feet; a grating. Sewage grating. I do have a passion for straight lines specifically when combined with geometry, but in Displaced, things had one more dimension here with that small green cover that popped on the edge. Actually, my first trials with this object was focused mainly on that little plant on the edge but then I realized I'd better go for a full abstract and take the whole thing into the frame instead of the plant only. In the process, later on, which was done from a single RAW as well, things had to be rectified and I've spent some considerable time making sure that lines are parallel (vertically and horizontally); and I hope my eyes didn't deceive me in this aspect. Now, it wouldn't be an image that I would upload to the stock or participate with in some contest, but yet, I do feel satisfied when I look at it because of the lines here.

جَنوبْ 3
(south 3)

And as I've mentioned before, I've made a series named South and the 3ʳᵈ one in the series was shot right after shooting Displaced. Actually, I've made several shots from this scene and I picked just one to be processed into HDR and then tone-mapped. However, even tone-mapping, there was a considerable amount of work to be done to enhance some areas, colors, contrast and other issues (and I believe I did crop a bit out of it as well). Worth noting though that I don't usually process HDR images in that grungy manner, but i do like to go out of my norms from time to time! It can be seen here in South 3 that the image is full of halos and it would have been better if it was processed otherwise or even from a single RAW (if the details in the sky would show considerably), but this is a shot for fun and to grease my gears a bit before I forget how to even hold a camera!

Yellow Mess

Cloud Park

Keeping going southward, heading towards the main road the divides the area (locally known as Schools Road full the number of schools overlooking this road), I've encountered few "interesting" objects scattered around me. At this time, the fog started to disperse unfortunately, as the sun had gone higher on the horizon. Anyway, I had a moment to stop by and shoot some flowers (hoping that no one would come to block my way or object to that). It seems to me that nature (specifically flowers) do show some fine drama when shot in HDR. In Yellow Mess, I had to count my blessings here since most of the shots were shaky but I tried to merge it into HDR anyway (done twice or thrice). Cropping was due to remove some objects on the edge. Not far off from that, I've arrived at a school, and for some reason unknown to me until now, I've decided to shoot the parking sign, in HDR. I think probably I've made it as a test, since I shot it once in landscape and then in portrait orientation. Of course, the portrait orientation was more suitable. It wasn't until I've started to process this shot that I've noticed that the arrow in the sign was pointing (or like pointing) to the clouds in the horizon just above the school, which made me give it the title Cloud Park; Otherwise, the shot was completely random. In the process, I've made sure to let the "P" be brighter than the rest of the sign just to grab the attention.

Morning Delivery

After moving forward from the school, I've found myself on the main road (or the Schools Road) and seems my senses got back to me then (well, after the fact), since the image I've shot here was done in HDR but with "reasonable" tone-mapping. There was nothing special in Morning Delivery, as I've made several shots while walking back home, but some cars passed by. Honestly, I was hoping to capture the trailing lines for the cars but with the sun shining already, the shutter speed would have been short and the images would be stable enough. Anyway, from the shots I've got, I've picked the ones with the cars on, and despite the movement already between the shots in the bracket, Photomatix did the job in eliminating these ghosts and fixed one car position. Maybe one thing I do like about Morning Delivery and that is the leading lines to the far horizon. In the process, I've tried to keep on the warmth of the sun (even though it wasn't that warm, since it was January) and I tried to keep some clear details in the trees branches.

Finale

So, this was all (I think!) for that stroll back in January. Since the weather is going warmer by the day, I'm not sure I would be able to do another stroll any time soon, especially with the circumstances at home and the continuous fatigue. Honestly, I was almost going to abandon this post altogether for this week.
After doing my last Arabic post for my Arabic blog, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, my mind went wandering again (and still) looking for a new idea for that blog. I don't think I want another post of telling a story about some photo I've taken, just like the last post. Thus, it seems it would be some months ahead before finding a good topic for that.
Meanwhile, I've been worried about my mental health in other terms other than what I was anticipating already. Forgetting things and missing what day, accompanied with the chaos in my sleeping pattern, all that made me think if this is an age thing (I know, many say I'm still young and that movie talk) or simply because of the stress in this house which I barely leave. It feels like I'd be hit with dementia by 50.
I'm struggling already to work with the camera. In fact, I didn't really touch it for about a month now. I did some shots with my phone but I wouldn't call that really a "work with the camera" - even though some of these shots were in RAW (phone RAW that is). Thus, it comes to me that at some point, I might stop blogging for a while until I find some material or something to post about here, since I've abandoned my conlang projects for a long time now (ironically, they were the reason I've started this blog in the first place!). Till then…

اِنْبِلاجْ 2
(dawning 2)
Done while typing this blog post still.

A Beginning…

Well, the weather is getting warmer that now are in March already. I'm not sure if I can do more strolls outside. My last one was on February 2ⁿᵈ when it was rainy and cold; Life kept me occupied then after and I was not able to repeat the experience. In fact, I was already thinking of a panorama in some place, but to do it I'd need to be up early and I'm not sure if it would be safe because it is a place in between some houses. I don't trust my luck when it comes to dealing with people's mentality around here.
Anyway, for the coming few posts, I'd be going through some of these simple strolls that I've did in January and February, so far.

A Beginning

For starters, the strolls for this winter were a bit of a challenge, simply because I'm using different lenses other than what I used before (20mm and 50mm). As a starter, I've decided to use the Sigma 12-24mm, and on my regular or normal camera. Thus, no infrared, no ultraviolet this time.

Sigma 12-24mm DG HSM
the adapter hood is not shown

This lens has a diameter of 82mm and I can't fit any of my filters on it even though I do have step-down adapters. I tried to fit it once onto the front hood (which is an additive to the lens and not part of it) but for some reason, the ring did not click in. It seems that such hoods are made into a slight ellipse and not a full circle to be able to hold onto the body of the lens front, thus it was hard to put a circular ring adapter onto it. I didn't want to try further for fear of breaking something, but i assume that even if I was successful here, there would probably be a big chunk of vignetting which probably won't be fixed in post-processing. However, it is worth another try, some day, some time; Just not now! Anyway, I had one more trick in my sleeve yet.

Cokin flare filter

Vignetting from the tape

Funny thing that I've talked about
vignetting already and how it might cause problems that can't be fixed in post-processing; because, this is exactly what I did in fact, but with a different kind of filters here. This filter was the Cokin flare filter, which I purchased for cheap from a friend. The filter needs adapters to fit onto the lens but I don't have any of that. I've used it before several times just by fitting it onto the lens front and hold it there by improvisation! This time though, the filter fits nicely (sort of) onto the hood of the Sigma 12-24mm lens, but I needed to tape some edges to keep it in place and THAT what caused the vignetting (not the filter itself!).

开始
(the beginning)

For the beginning, I've headed westward from home and I've set the White Balance to "Fluorescent"; My favorite one at times of dawn or dusk (so mainly around the blue hours). Made some test shots just to gauge the exposure a bit (working in "Av" mode). The Beginning was processed from RAW, but later on, I've switched to bracketed shots and the whole work (almost) in these series to come was done in HDR. I didn't work in HDR for quite some time, and I felt the urge to do something crazy. Just to note, I used HDR (and still) for panoramas and other shots but typically I'd tone-map the image to make it close to reality, but this time I needed to do something "unreal".

藍色的背後
(behind the blue)

Moving along that neighborhood (facing south now) I've arrived at the playground just at the local grocery shop. It's such a suitable place for geometrical abstracts, but I've never thought of stopping by and taking some pictures here. Anyway, it was a nice opportunity to inspect the place and do some HDR spree. I had some clicks around the fence and I tried to stabilize my hands as much as possible (and I was shooting at waist level). The real struggle though came about afterward when processing such images, like behind the blue, as I was trying to "perfect" the geometry and make sure everything is parallel and straight; A theme that I will be struggling with a lot in the coming shots and later days as well.

Candy Gates

As I'm typing these words now, I''m trying hard to memorize the sequence of events as much as possible (it had been 2 months already). Ironically, as I'm doing this and going through the files, I've discovered some files that I didn't process at all for some reasons that I can't remember. Anyway, finishing from the fence, I've headed inside the playground (which lies on quite a small area) and the place was colorful indeed despite the harsh treatment from the sun all over the past summers. Honestly, I liked the place so much that I really wanted to go into these tunnels and structures (no wonder kids like them, it gives a sense of secrecy!) but alas, my body size wouldn't fit there, and no need for further embarrassment here (cleaning workers were around). The colors in this place reminded me of candies, hence the title of the image(s): Candy Gates; and I say images because things developed naturally into a series of such "gates".

Candy Gates 2

However, "colorful" doesn't necessarily mean "joyful" or "merry" - does it? This is one of the strong points for shooting HDR (or to be precise, shooting bracketed images to merge them into HDR later); it would allow you to control the mood of the image more than just editing the RAW file itself, but with some expansion with the capabilities to shape the light itself in the image. Thus, images like Candy Gates 2 would normally (maybe) look merry and colorful with all the tones of red and blue in this corner, but darken the image as if it was a Halloween scene and you have a reflection on some abandoned place that was once "alive". Not far from reality though.

Candy Gates 3

One thing, I might say, is common among all these candy gates shot, and that is that they would have done better if I had focused a bit and spent some time centralizing the camera to make the perfect symmetry. Maybe I was just a bit lucky in Candy Gates 3 and 4 (just a bit) but focusing too much in shooting such abstract scenes would defy the whole purpose of this stroll and this shooting session altogether; wouldn't it? Therefore, I was literally reckless when it comes to precision here. Also, pointing with precision here would really require a tripod in my case; These coffee-addicted hands are no good when it comes to stability AND precision together. One of them is allowed only!

Candy Gates 4

They Shall Pass

I arrived then on a bridge-like structure between two "towers" I think (or something similar). What I liked here is how the morning light seeped through. I have to admit here that much of the blueness in that scene, They Shall Pass, was majorly done in post-processing phase, but the play of light and shadow was still beautiful to my eyes in reality, as it is in the post-processed version. It was a struggle to shoot this vertically as I was holding the camera with one hand and pointing downward, while keeping the camera strip away from the scene with the other hand, and all of that had to be stable for 3 successive shots. I was lucky, actually, to find a suitable set from all these shots to work the HDR out and tone-map it. I had to do some cropping of course and some perspective fix.

Broken

Of course, it wasn't all sweet with such playgrounds; you'd definitely find something broken (well, things were broken). I have to say, though, that such a broken swing did initiate my juices for 3D anaglyph making (which I did). Beside bracketing for HDR, I've shot in fact a dozen or so of single shots in burst (continuous) mode while moving gently from side to side. This was in order to pick 2 shots for making an anaglyph later. However, as I'm typing these words, another idea came to my mind but no need to put it here just yet as I'm not sure if it will work or not (and I don't know even if I will work on it soon enough!).

Три Арки
(three arches)

Having enough from the playground, I've moved out to check on the rest of the neighborhood, which is not something new really, but what makes it "new" here is the element of using a different lens; A lens that I didn't use before in such strolls outside.
Just outside the playground, few steps away, stands a house with arches. Now, I like architecture photography but such an activity has its own allergies when it comes to places like where I live for privacy issues. People like their privacy and a stranger, who can be barely seen outside his home and don't have friends in the neighborhood, is always a suspicious sighting. Anyway, since I was in a haste and I didn't want to stay for a long time in front of the house, I've taken a shot for these arches on the house's facade. I thought to myself "I'll try to fix this at home." Fixing here was mainly in terms of the perspective. I sort of done this, somehow, as seen in Three Arches, but the final result was somewhat catastrophic, and I've spent a LONG time trying to fix the perspective. Perspective issues, specifically, are always better to be fixed on-location if possible. In this shot, there were two perspective problems: sideways and vertical perspective. As for the vertical one, this is natural because I'm shooting on the ground and not using a tilt-shift lens. As for the sideways, I was supposed to be standing directly in front of the arches, but alas, that didn't happen, and I had to do both corrections in Photoshop, and thus the resolution of the image did suffer so much. Originally, the image had more than 3 arches and more space on the sides and top, but all was gone in the process.

Jailing Shadows

There, at the same house, some shadows made a play on the outside walls (and I was lucky to have no car parking there!). The irony about the shadow (or shadows) is that it was formed by a small metallic piece in the corner of the cars shade, but the shadows were naturally magnified on the wall (just like how the projector works). The post-processing was in HDR first, of course, and I tried to tone-map the image to show or get a more dramatic impact. However, this was not enough and I had to do more to the contrast and sharpening in Photoshop (specifically to get that texture on the upper portion of the image). This one, too, had undergone some perspective (and distortion) fixes, as I was trying to make the verticals as straight as possible. The distortion caused by the lens itself is mainly due to the edges rather than the center, and thus with cropping the image to focus on the center subject, it wouldn't really matter much to fix the distortion for such images, and for such a lens, the Sigma 12-24mm DG HSM. However, I have to say that I don't quite trust the installed lenses profiles in my old PS, and from time to time I'd be looking forward for other reliant methods to rectify the distortion caused by my lenses. It can be done at home if only I have the proper chart and proper space to work within!

Colorful Past

Afterward, just after that house, I've arrived at the (in)famous house which, if you've been around this blog for a while, you probably have seen already shot in different styles with different lenses and filters. This time though there are a number of different factors, beside the falling metallic roof on the front door here, as seen in Colorful Past. The difference here is that I'm shooting it with a new lens, and no filter, and using HDR technique.
In processing this shot (from HDR), I've focused on the element of "livelihood" - that is to show how vivid the place is despite the apparent of the status; Maybe we can call it a "contrast in concepts", aided by that contrast in colors between the blues and the yellows/reds tones (as complimentary colors on the colors wheel). This image also was subjected to perspective adjustments and cropping accordingly. Here, though, the tilted lines (vertical or horizontal) could have been already there in the scene regardless of the camera tilt or distortion, but I still worked on making the vertical and horizontal lines as parallel as possible. HDR is not the end of the story of course, and I still had to do a lot of things in post-processing (beside the perspective fix that is), like adjusting the contrast and adding some blur or haze, as I deemed sharpening in such situation wouldn't add to the feel that I'm aiming for.

After The Rain

Then after the "haunted house", I came across, again, a previously-featured a corridor/alley/lane (whatever it's called) which passes in between two houses. I've shot this before in various lenses and filters as well, and this time it was the time for HDR testing. I have to say though that with such lens and without any filters, this scene doesn't seem quite interesting as before (adding to that, some objects and features had changed, like the wasted tire that was dragged further away!). Probably the only interesting thing here was the damp floor after the rain that fell the day before. However, HDR technique did help a lot in showing the details of the clouds (which would have been faint otherwise). Again, perspective fixes were needed and some work was put on highlighting the greens, specially on the tree in the background. 

Media Center

However, there is just that door before the entrance to that alley, which really caused a great deal of frustration for me. It was shot before (of course!) and in various lenses and filters, but in all cases, fixing the perspective for this door was/is/will be something troublesome, always. I'm not sure what's the secret about this door but I do think there are some issues in the architecture itself that I didn't pay attention to on-location, which makes rectifying the image is such a hard task to keep the verticals and horizontals as parallel as possible. The name, Media Center, comes from all these newspaper boxes on the wall. I really thought that this house was abandoned like some in the area (like the one I shot above) but turned out it is inhabited. These newspaper boxes actually were a deciding factor for me when I wanted to rectify the image, as I really wanted them in the image to add some element to the story, and because of them I had to change the whole perspective and cropping process to include as much as possible of them. Probably you can tell that I had to sacrifice one (or maybe two) boxes on the far right side. I tried to rectify the door and make its sides as parallel as possible, but yet there seems to be a bulge on the upper side or shade just above the door. Call me a perfectionist or some OCD'er, but I can't keep my eyes off such "discrepancies"; My eyes just go there automatically.

Media Center 2

After finishing from that door, it was time to go back. Usually, I'd take that alley and go out from the other side and walk back home (this is what I did in previous strolls in this area) but this time I just headed back on the same path that got me there already. The clouds were interesting, so just not to miss them I've shot something that I'm not completely proud of or something, but something for fun, as in Media Center 2. No rectification was required here as I didn't have a real goal or anything in this shot, but I was focusing mainly on the clouds and tried to highlight them as much as possible with HDR tone-mapping. In the post-processing (after tone-mapping that is) I've tried to add a tint of magenta as is usually seen when shooting using the Fluorescent WB (as this shot wasn't shot with it).

Восьмиугольники
(octagons)

At this point, my wandering was almost over and I'm already heading back home, but I still had some itch in my pocket (or my camera) and I passed the local mosque (just at the back of Media Center 2), where I shot Octagons. This time, the fence was high but still somewhat reachable, so I raised the camera with one hand to have a better perspective (better, not perfect!). Again, shot for HDR, but I didn't go super-crazy with tone-mapping, as I didn't like to have halos around the edges in this one. There was still some perspective fixing to be done as well as cropping to centralize the image (i.e. cropping in such a way to let the center of the image be a specific point or subject). In such situations, using a high f-number is a must (kind of) since I was shooting without looking and depending solely on the concept of hyperfocus (which better be done with higher f-numbers, f/8 and above).

At this shot, the stroll was over and I was already on my way back home. Processing the shots took me a while (of course) and I remember there was some delay because of some health issues back then. It was clear though that the Cokin filter (which was on the lens all that time) didn't do much for the shots, as I didn't have points of light in the images. Still though, the filter would accompany me later in the next stroll with somewhat good results I'd say.

Finale

So, the weather is getting warmer and warmer here, which is kind of sad (for me, I know lot of people hate winter). I've been already idle with my camera at the time of typing these words and I'm not sure what to shoot next. Going outside to shoot is something that I'd need to do in very early hours, and with the situation at home (and Mom), this sounds somewhat impossible at the moment.
For the current situation on the home-front, it feels as if something inside me has been dead. Maybe dead beyond resurrection. I don't know how I am moving or doing things around here, but all I know is that I'm alive, supposedly. fatigue and the turbulent sleeping pattern is the main theme for the current times of my life. I'm even typing this blog and finishing it after midnight. I consider myself lucky to finish this blog in time by the way, as I was running late and I couldn't force myself to type it down. It needed a great deal of power, and coffee.
I'm not sure what to expect or what to work for for the next few days or weeks, or even months, but the question that keeps ringing in my head all the time is: Could it really be that bad all the time from now on? Just to think about "Yes" as an answer to this, is quite terrifying…

Stroll IX…

Well, I think I can say it is officially summer here already, and I have to say goodbye to my plans for strolls in the morning. Fatigue and occupation with other issues at home are keeping me further away from the camera (and I was trying to get closer to it). Actually, I was going to cancel the post for this week but I'm going to try and finish it in time.
Meanwhile, I was busy typing a post for my Arabic blog about pinhole photography; Something I really need to do more (in some creative manner as much as possible).
Anyway, for this post, I'm going to talk about my stroll on April 26ᵗʰ, with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens and Kodak's infrared filter (87B), which is somewhat like the second part of my previous stroll (Stroll VIII), where the previous one was to the Eastern side of the neighborhood (into another block) while this one was Westward around my neighborhood and in the same block where I live.

Stroll IX

Probably one of the easy aspects of using wide angle lenses is the capability of achieving hyperfocal distance, to have a reasonable depth of field in the image, without even needing to have some form of autofocus (on most occasions). So, for the most part of this stroll, I've fixed the lens on f/8. The hard part though, is to have the proper frame to shoot, but of course we have the crop option in Photoshop later on so it might not be a big deal, unless one is mindful for making use of every pixel in the frame! Anyway, I'm not such a person.

حَيْ
(alive)

As the routine goes by now, I've made some shots just outside my house to test the exposure range and see the quality of the images on LCD. Alive was actually composed of 2 shots and I was lucky to have the light on the pole on in one shot (while off in the other). It was strange also to see such amount of change in shadows between the 2 shots even though they were successive with few seconds separating them. This called for merging the two shots to see what kind of shadows pattern that Photoshop would produce (and also to merge the different perspectives of the 2 images somewhat). 

ساطِع
(bright)

While my destination was westward from home, but at some point I would need to go southward, and that's where I shot Bright facing eastward. Actually this shot was processed at a later time after a number of images in this series. As i worked on it, I started to unravel some details like those lines around the flare. My guess is that such lines are actually caused by the scratches on the gel filter at the back of the lens. One thing I'm surprised to find at the time of typing this blog is the fact that I've shot 2 shots for this scene; one is dark and the other is light and I've processed only the light one. Probably I should try later merging these 2 to have somewhat an average lighting, somewhat like HDR or fake-HDR image. I've spent considerable time as well to lessen the fisheye or barrel distortion for this image, but it wasn't as successful as it would have been done with DxO. Maybe I should work more on such a skill.

The House

Again, I had to visit the infamous (haunted-like) house, well, if it wasn't haunted indeed, but this time with the bucket in front of it being moved from the last time I shot it (with B+W 092 infrared filter!). I wouldn't say there is anything special about this shot except that it looks more haunted in a monochromatic infrared image. Yet, it was a good target to practice rectifying a fisheye image. The curvatures around the center were reduced a bit but I had to crop the image into a square. If this was to be rectified in DxO, the image would be stretched, somewhat with proportions similar to 16:9 or about that. I'm not sure if Photoshop can do something about that, but some tools in Photoshop needs the image to be in 8-bit format instead of 16-bit (where I do most of the work) and hence my only option in the first phase of editing is using Lens Correction option. Maybe newer versions of PS upgraded such option, but I'm not sure.

ظُلْمَةٌ وَنورْ
(darkness and lightness)

Just next to the "haunted house" there was another "haunted" place (pardon me for using the word "haunted" here but this is just my impression). The thing is that such house was like "absent" for me despite the many times I've passed through that path trying to hunt for photos. I'm not sure how come I didn't notice such a house. Anyway, I've taken several shots and combine them in a single one, and probably because of the infrared effect here, the house appeared to be half lit and half dark! I didn't try out my luck with rectifying the distortion here (I got tired I guess), so anyway, I've decided to just crop the image into a square to remove some excess of "data" or unneeded info in the image, while keeping the door centered.

بَـصـيـصْ
(glimmer)

Had a turn then to that "mystic" tree which I've shot before with B+W 092 filter to see how it would show up with such a wide angle lens and such high-threshold infrared filter. Honestly, Glimmer didn't amuse me much like Rubble before, but the walls I guess add some depth to it which was somewhat lacking in Rubble (which was shot with 50mm lens then). Maybe I've made a mistake here for swapping the channels and turning the image into yellowish tint; Probably blue adds more to the mystery. I think that old palm leaf is adding somewhat of a leading or guiding line, though faint. The irony is that it was there when I shot the same scene weeks before that time with B+W 092 filter, but it just didn't show because the lens was 50mm.
Around the end of this little corridor there is a discarded old tire and I did take some shots of that one too but turned out they were shaken. Even though I've made a 3D anaglyph image out of some of them but probably it's not worth posting about here.

جَنوبْ
(south)

The last shot(s) in this series was taken on my way home after wandering about trying to find something interesting (it was still morning time during Ramadhan and so quiet). I didn't find anything interesting so I started to shoot randomly at some light pole with a sign. I can't remember what I was thinking but when I got back home I've realized that these shots can be tried for stitching; and so it was!
Now, because of the extreme distortion on the edges and non-coherent shooting (they were taken at random, and handheld) there was some stitching errors that I've tried to fix. However, the real hurdle was trying to adjust some of the perspective here (specially the tilt in the light poles) for which I used the wrap tool as well as the puppet wrap tool, and the image had to be cropped several times for various reasons (but mainly to remove the flaring sun). I have to thank the flares here that made me interested in creating this shot after all because I was really going to just forget about them. 

Technically, this was the last shot in this stroll. There were few others but I was "playing" and fooling around with my camera, but unlike South, I don't think they were quite interesting to process and post here. I'll check them out later maybe!

Finale

So, this seems to be the last stroll in the list and I'm not sure what to post about next. I do have plenty of images here and there, scattered around and don't belong to a specific series or project (which I should think of doing any time now). For this, I might be absent for more than a week; who knows.
I've merely made it in time for my Arabic blog and posted an article about pinhole photography before the end of May. Now I'm not sure if I can do something for the month of June! I need to scan for interesting topics (at least for beginners) to post about. Otherwise, I will (again) break my resolution of posting at least one post per month in that blog.

Last week I've ran into a serious problem with my modified Canon 7D when I tried to clean the sensor (after spotting many spots in the images). One particular particle didn't move with the usual brushes that I use to clean the sensor. I thought then maybe I should use the swab cleaning kit (which I didn't use in ages) and that's when the disaster occurred, as the swab was apparently expired and should not have been used, and the whole thing deteriorated over the sensor. My trials to clean the sensor further created even worse smudges. Fast forward: All is OK, and the sensor has been cleaned and the camera is working fine.
This issue though made me under somewhat a mental pressure till the moment of typing these words. After the incidence, I've called a camera shot to see if they offer cleaning services, which they do. The center is nearby but the place is quite miserable. Seeing that no one is there to pick me up and I was in a hurry, so I had to drive to there myself. It's a long adventure for me with such eyes but I have to say it delivered such a mental shock and quite lowered my self-esteem with all the fuss that I had to endure. My family "begged" me not to try this again. The next day, my brother picked me to the shop to pick the camera up. My driving limits for the time being is barely to the nearby supermarket to get supplies for the house, and driving to such a busy and narrow place and struggling to find a parking place in that ant-colony was quite a mind straining experience. Now, I can't imagine myself even driving after midnight to do some night photography, which I ever loved to do but didn't do for quite long time by now. 

It all seems like one long nightmare, and I just wish I can wake up at any minute now. My life choices seems to decrease rather drastically on many fronts right now. Recently, all I could think of is to sleep non-stop if I can, whenever I can. I'm losing the taste for it all…