Alexander 6, V13.

I woke up late, and that was not great. So, I felt tired already, and to work I was not ready.
Since I didn't go to work, there was no work in tranlisteration for today (plus, my papers are already in the office!). The weather is nice, and seems it is nice every time you skip work in a working day or something. Well, with the beginning of this new year I have 4 casual days in my account so I'm just going to use one. Nothing is like sleeping for extra 6 hours in the early morning! But wish if I know why did I wake up late like that... my sleeping time was the usual!

Anyway, started to work on the previously made panorama of our living room. There were many problems in the image that I tried to solve some of them by cloning out. Beside that, with some spots in the image, I really do need to hurry up and look for some cleaning kit even if I have to order it from the US or so. The problem is with liquids as usual and hence I have to look for what is usually called "the static brush" which grabs the dust by electrostatic force.
I think the main problem that caused all the fuss in the stitching process is mainly not being able to rotate the camera around its no-parallax point. Unofortunately, you'd a special head for the tripod to do so and they aren't any cheap stuff. Still, I did previously some nice panoramas with this simple tripod of mine which I inherited (sorta) from my father.
Another problem that I think it affected the process is that I probably was not rotating the camera in a fixed amount of degrees in a circle (because I was depending on my eye sight in the viewfinder of the camera and aligning the AF points in the viewfinder). I think next time I should consider using the scale engraved on the head of the tripod itself and rotate accordingly for a fixed amount of 30 or 60 degrees around the axis.
been thinking seriously of finding some shop to do me a favor and create my own lens ring or what is sometimes called a "Q-ring" (it looks like a Q). I was inspired for this by some German photographer (which unfortuantely I can't find his webpage again) who put a photo of his gear and below that he clearly stated "my self-made Q-ring". I think if you have some specifications for it you can go to any metal-works shop to do something similar. This ring is to be fixed on the top of the tripod and it holds the lens of the camera in a specific point, i.e. the no-parallax point. Sounds a simple solution instead of buying those complicated and expensive tools, but yet I'm thinking of the body weight after all and is it really safe to use it that way (even if the German photographer did so already with his Nikkor lens).

However, I keep working on some versions of the living room. Until Now I made several versions and 3 of them are similar in projection type but different in the tone-mapping process:

1. Tone-mapped then stitched:

I did this version mainly when I was trying to find a way to stitch my panorama with a lesser memory requirement that it would take for an HDR panorama. The tone-mapping was done in a batch process in Photomatix over all the smaller HDR (smaller relatively not in size!) images. These images were stitched later. I didn't like this one really, because my aim was to produce an HDR panorama and being able to tone-map it manually in Photoshop, or even more, fixing it before tone-mapping it, and suck a task can only be done in Photoshop (to me, I know there are other softwares out there). However, I gained something after all in return. I saved the template (or the order of the control points and their settings) and I used it later on for the HDR panorama stitching. A process that I might be using it a lot in the future. The advantage of this, you can fix everything in a low resolution JPG panorama and save your work and then just apply it as a mold on the BIG work of HDR later on and directly. Without worrying to optimizing it in the PTGui itself (I did not run optimization for the panorama after applying the template taken from this one).

2. Manually Tone-mapped:

After taking the control points "mold" from the previous model, I applied it into the HDR panorama here. I made several adjustments on colors and saturations and saved it directly on top of the original HDR (unfortunately) but anyway, the greater deal was with the errors of stitching and the occurence of broken lines or features. After all these adjustments, I went on and manually tone-mapped it by using the usual "local adaptation" and the usual toning curve. This was my aim in the first place, because I can manually control the illumination of the light sources themselves here and drag it down to make the light bulbs just like a glowing stick by itself.
Notice however, that in all these versions of panoramas, there was a hole in the ceiling that I could not clone out perfectly nor I could use the healing tool in Photoshop in 32-bit mode, thus it was necessary to fix that only after tone-mapping. This is a result of removing 3 images from the sequence because of troubles in finding control points suitable for them.

3. Photomatix after stitching:

This is the reverse of method #1. But the main thing that affected it is that the original HDR file was actually saved from the previously non-tone-mapped version when I did some work in Photoshop with it before. Maybe it's not different much in general hue, but it is brighter and, well, might look a bit artificial. I based it on Grundge style and re-worked the values accordingly. This is how I mostly use the Photomatix; pick up a style and adjust it. I noticed however, later on, when I zoomed into the image, there was strong banding in colors around the light bulbs in the ceiling. I kept a larger version of this image for later work. I'm thinking of submitting this one to the stocks. I need to do some work with it after all to remove the portraits on the walls and see what else I can fix in it. I'm not so optimistic about accepting it though, since it has lot of erratic stuff going around with it. I will minimize it before submitting in hope some of such errors disappear or just go unnoticed when zoomed in. (Thinking) this is not cheating, is it?

Time to head now and do some work for "work"! I leave you now with Verse 13 of Alexander 6.
__________
289. and the swords met in a fierce battle
290. someone is seeking revenge
291. while the other is seeking joy and blood
292. you could hear the roars echo
293. in every valley and over the mountains
294. it was a day of terror over the lands
295. when you could see the rocks spark with fire
296. and with every hit from the Charnagút
297. and with every hit from the Balíkhah
298. the ground would shake with every sound
299. the sounds of the swords were like fierce thunders
300. made by the mad Heavens and Earth
301. one hit by the other with no rest
302. they exchanged the force mercilessly
303. and and the hero had many injuries
304. fighting was hard for him now
305. and the shepherds were watching and surprised
306. if Kadmún was a god how come he is weak
307. if he was god why he did not kill Alexander before
308. thus they started to rage like Fulkan Muttere itself
309. and starts throwing stones on Kadmún
310. amid the rage Kadmún shouted at them
311. "verily I shall kill you all with your sheep,
312. useless creatures deserve not the air they get!"

TGIT...

The last day of the week and the weekend is here... but seems this weekend is going to be interrupted with work somehow after my boss asking me to be available, if possible, in the work place on Saturday to help on some exerperiment. Despite the fact that I always prefer to stay awake all night on weekend days and sleep till almost or past the midday, I don't really have any problem with being in the work place on a Saturday and doing some work. The only thing that bothers me, something else would and should be with us to do the experiment, and I'm sure it won't go without complications.
I had a go with my camera today around the place, and, I snapped some garbage dumbed near our building... you might ask what a garbage has of beauty, well, in HDR composition everything can be made into something... trust me!
This time, I shot 6 shots of RAW keeping almost 1 stop between each exposure set. It is a tiresome work and of course I won't be using it always specially if ghosting (shades of moving objects in the final image) would be a must. The process was to put a bracketing for the exposure with +/- 1 gap, and then with the AV control I moved the 3 cursors of bracketing to the far left and made 3 shots, and then move them back to the far right and made another 3 shots, and thus the final result was 6 images with -/+ 2, -/+ 1, and two 0 which after canceling one of them, we settle with 5 images. I don't know how the results would be, anyway, I read before that 3 images with +/- 2 gap is enough to make a fine HDR image, but the more bracketing you have, the smoother colors you would have as well.
The brochure is amost settled down for now and my boss gave me the permission to add my credit on it. Of course you might think it is natural since I'm the designer but well, I didn't feel like it until my boss announced it for me. Since it is a brochure that would be given to people and I didn't want to corrupt the facade with a little name in the margin! The next move is convert everything into JPG and tell the stupidos in the press to print it as it is with no addition or edition and fix it in a 3-fold brochure as we want. Still, I'm expecting problems in that way.


Continuing my work with some photos from Ireland again, and as I expected, Canstockphoto refused the HDR tone-mapped images. It wasn't a surprise really. However, I will try Exposure fusion more this time if I'm planning to get softer gradients of colors with more natural look.





These two images were taken almost at same location around the Waterfront, the place where I stayed in Ireland. I hope they look more natural here than others made before!
Now, with my camera with me... I'm planning to shoot The Dome again, but I need to come here earlier than I used to be. No need for parasites in my way as usual or people who greet me all the time. This time, I'm planning to keep my camera low as much as possible and try to revolve it (while it is flipped in 90 degrees) in a full circle. The previous shots were taken at each column holding the dome up, but the result was, of course, disastrous.
The yield for today is 3 verses, and I'm approaching the end of this torture to being another torture later on!

Back to Work...

My first day at work. Nothing has changed. Blabbering, clumsiness, and yet, stupid administerative people.
I spent the previous days playing one game or two and working on lot of photographs (specially those that were made into panoramic views). Not all of them turned out great and as usual, fotolia refuses all. I'm planning to order some stuff from outside and I need indeed some cash for it, even though it will be over the visa of course.
I didn't post much here, specially the photos, but hopefully I will make an email later for a group of photos and I shall spread the email all over.

In case you want to receive the email later on, please, leave me a note here or send me an email (the same ID of this blog @ gmail), and I shall work on it.

A little example of what I'm working with;


Now, I need some time to grease my mind and my nerves to cope with the daily stress as usual. Also, I have to push myself to write poems and to complete what I began with that story and also with the translation of my story, Alexander. The stress seems to be coming from my private work rather than from work for the first glance, but in Kuwait, everything brings a stress I believe. I also plan to look further than stock sites to sell my photos, but I just need a start point to begin with...

Back Home...

Here we are again... home. I arrived at Kuwait almost at 1:30AM Friday. Ironically the next day I had to at night time and in the middle of the heavy traffic around the airport to get my sister who arrived back from Iran. All what you need is few moments to get your pressure built up again as it was before your vacation, but to grease my engine and get me out of the vacation mood I need a bit more time. I'm doing things slowly at the current time... my room is a mess as I left it before leaving to Ireland.

I got myself an external harddisk to help me with storing the images from the laptop and work on them with the PC and my sweet ol' Photoshop CS4! I got really sick with the laptop and its speed and the old software too. The panoramic capabilities and HDR composition is just "SUPER" with CS4!

20GB of RAW images were transferred to my new external hard disk... some of them are shaky though, but I might get around that later on. I'm working right now on some panoramic views that I want to fix and get ready to print them out and frame them, and send them to the owner of The Waterfront, as a "little" gift for such beautiful place and vacation.

I won't go on telling other stuff that happened when I arrived here, but not everything was pleasant. Continuing my activities, I want to visit Failaka island (hopefully on next Thursday) and might check for Miskan island later on or in the same day IF I could. I need to grease up myself again and get to work on stopped project now... the translation of Alexander's story... the Blackened Image story (which I have to read again to build the chain of events in my mind back again)... also there are books waiting for me to be read! I think there is no time for heart affairs right now... as I am just... exhausted...

So Damn Slow...

This week is a disastrous one. It is almost the end of Ramadhan there, but this week just won't pass away easily. Problems in sleeping and so... barely can be at work, and if I did I would sleep there for 2+ hours. Today, I didn't go at all. Planning to sign it as a casual holiday... my last casual day for this year. If people whom I know would be kind enough to do the fingerprint thing I would be relieved by now, but oh well... you can't get everything you like... but surely you can hate whatever you don't like, right?
The bad thing about all of that, it is affecting the progress with my own projects, which I deem more important that my work itself.

Last week I went on doing some photography near a mall, namely Soug Sharg, where lies another marina. My aim was to take a panoramic shot for the whole mall from the back of the marina, but alas, my trials went wrong when I disocvered that I didn't focus correctly. I didn't discover that til later when the images were downloaded, because I was taking off my glasses, and I thought the blurry image was only because of my eyes! However, I'm planning to take other photos some other time, hopefully this weekend, if I can.

I think it is useless to try to sleep and wake up earlier. I better stay awake all night if I can and go to work then. At least I might be able to check for attendance and then sleep in the office, again.
My departure to Éire is getting closer. I'm still thinking if I was ready or not. Mainly going to pack mostly winter clothes, for sure!

Double Star...

Don't I deserve a double star?! Of course I do! I spent 2 days (yesterday and today) working 2 verses at once with my own translation!!!
I reached line #912 so far, and today had a large amount of words to be made up or some corrections in the dictionry to be noted down. I'm happy today for several reasons:
1. It's Thursday.
2. Boosted my work load safely!
3. Got a new cooling fan for my laptop!
4. Dedicated more time to write more for my story, Blackened Image.

On the other hand, I'm not so happy with the latest pictures I snapped for the new born kitten. I'm not good with using the flash yet.

Tonight, will be the night of the 21st of Ramadhan, when the anniversary of the martyrdom of imam Ali, prophet Muhammed's cousin, takes place. I have to admit that I do not attend any gatherings (as usual), but showing respect is a must.
I don't know if I was going out tonight or not as it is the last day in the week, but I didn't go out for 3 weeks now, except of course for some photography small trips, which I might do as well tonight.

My departure to Ireland is getting closer. I have to think fast of what to prepare though. It's my first time to travel alone!

Up To Some Point...

It was a quiet day... up til some point when all the paperwork started. We are trying to get a damned fingerprint machine into our building to avoid running here and there by morning and by the end of the day just to do this silly thing. The responses we are getting give some indication that the administrative office here is reluctant with doing this. I really don't know what's the problem with those guys... sometimes I do feel like they are sadists and just like to make us suffer.

I didn't write anything today and didn't do any translation work, but organized a bit in my profile in www.writing.com. Hopefully I'll get the spark to start the new chapter soon. I spent my day chatting instead and getting new nice photos from people... nice people!

As you can see in the profile below, Canstockphoto.com accepted my last submission (but still more files are on the list), while fotolia.com rejected one of my photos (typical) and the reason was "overabundant category." Well, at least they didn't complain about the resolution or the noise in the image... somehow makes me feel satisfied about the work I did.

Time to pack and get back home now....

5 hours!

As I tried hard to use this 3 days weekend as much as I can, I decided to go to the shore Yesterday's morning and try to give it a shot. The results were disappointing. I tried to be there just before the sunrise. I reached the place before the sunrise, but unfortunately, there were some people who were like camping in the place, and this is not so good to catch things with your camera. This is one thing that counts for the virtues of winter time! No people in early morning because of the coldness and yet you get nice sunset and sunrise views and colorful skies... in summer, nothing.
I didn't give up though, so I tried my best ot use the photos somehow. The HDR trials (with 3 successive shots in 3 different exposures) failed because of the little breeze, the bushes started to move making unstable shot. The tone mapping also did not work, as I am no so experienced with it and maybe the exposure gaps between shots must be something greater than 1/3 stop? I'm not sure.
To not turn the situation into a complete disaster, I decided to use the magic of photoshop here and try to do something here, and you can see the result above in the beginning. The sunrising wasn't so obvious as the sun started to raise up behind some clouds of dust or so, and the sundisk was not obvious until 30 minutes after the beginning of the rise!

The great disappointment however, was when I got back home and worked a bit with my pc, some photo processing and some games, and then went to bed. I was awake for like 12 hours or more, but after all I couldn't sleep more than 5 hours. The timing is almost a constant for me... the 5 hours thing is the fixed sleeping time however tired I might be. Today, I slept more than 5 hours but in fact, I was just flipping in bed napping and waking up every 30 minutes, but essentially, I slept for 5 hours only!
I don't think I will be able to do anything with my story or the translation in this holiday, but I will keep on playing and playing! I might consider stopping my fasting just to take a cup of coffee and write something by day time. The cold AC in this room freezes my fingers and, well, I guess I must stop typing this!