Thar-Corcra…

Been a while since I typed something here, I know. Been like another little vacation to myself, but this is not the case unfortunately. I was plagued by many issues; Mainly, health problems. Back-Shoulder pains, gum pains, weakness in general (as I was not able to eat properly) and mood swings in a great deal. So much there was on my plate, which really left me a bit paralyzed and unable to do much. In fact, the pains are still there as I'm typing these words but to a lesser extent and I'm praying that they don't come back - not any time soon.
Because of all of that, my activities with the camera had been minimum, sort of, and I was wondering for a long time about what to post for this week actually. In fact, I was almost going to skip this week as well, but I thought maybe typing something here would initiate a spark for me to carry the camera again. I do have little experiments done in the past few days that might be suitable for posting here.

A Little Announcement

I've announced previously in one of my posts that I will make my Mostphotos profile a place to upload some of these artistic selfies, since Mostphotos is down easy in terms of faces and model releases. This said, I do upload my selfies with a model release there (a release that I've made myself). 

Anyway, I've recently uploaded three of my infrared artworks there and I thought it would be nice to announce them here just in case someone reading this would wish to check them out and maybe download them for any artistic purposes (well, that incorporates commercial purposes I guess).

Link

Link

Link

 

I've talked about the make of these images in some previous posts (probably back in June or July) and I thought why not uploading them to stock websites. In fact, I'm still working on creating such looks but on other types of images, yet it didn't work quite well. 

So, this was my little announcement, and now to the post!

Corcra

Corcra is purple  or violet in Irish. Anyway, I had some minor activity with my B+W ultraviolet filter after my daily "sun bathing" routine. I have to say, after sun bathing and watering the plants I barely get some energy to do anything else; and that was before being struck with the various pains in my body.
Now, one of the hurdles of shooting with such filters (UV or IR) is that I can't see a thing through the viewfinder, and I have to depend on the LCD LiveView, and that means a tripod, which I was too lazy to carry around. I was shooting these shots freely handheld, but also because of the swimming pool that was installed in the yard, I wouldn't have much space to set up a tripod and shoot some of these plants in the yard. In return, looking through the LCD was not that easy and on many occasions I was shooting almost blindly and checking the photos later. All in all, not much of results did I get, but I'm going to show some of these that I've processed already.

Portulaca oleracea (UV)

I have to admit first that this is not exactly Portulaca oleracea, but it is something close to that species. I've known that later after giving this name to the image. Anyway, this was a UV image shot under the blazing sun. Of course it's an abstract as can be seen. What attracted me here specifically is the fact that leaves did retain their green color after adjusting the white balance (and the color profile of course before that). I had to, though, push the vibration a bit further and like magic, there was a plenty of green in the image mixed up with violet. I think it depends on the angle of the reflecting light here that the leaf would appear as green or purple when shot in UV and processed. Anyway, that's just a speculation of course and not a real "scientific" say in the matter. As for the black background here, it is done digitally as there was nothing interesting in the background and been more like a distraction.

Minimal UV

Ultraviolet Jute

So, generally speaking, I did like this idea of getting green leaves despite the shot being spectral (that is ultraviolet). Usually green foliage turn white in infrared images but here they are green, with sometimes tint of purple of course. I find the purple tint of the image annoying, specially after increasing the vibrancy of colors in general (to enhance the Greens mainly). For this reason, I tend to "suck" it out of the image, or in more technical terms, desaturate it. The image would then automatically look like a photo with "splash" style (those B&W images with only one color prevalent in them), and sometimes with a slight blue tint remaining a bit as in Minimal UV. Sure, since it is a surreal type of photography, some bits of minimalism won't hurt!

Colorful Watermelon (UV)

The last one, is my favorite one I guess, where I shot almost blindly (because the sun didn't allow me to see LCD clearly) some pots or tubs where we planted watermelon (but not fruit did yield!). Anyway, here in Colorful Watermelon (UV) you can see the original shot after fixing the color profile and white balance in RAW on far left. The rest are just results from channel swapping in various methods. Actually, I do like them all and it's hard for me to choose one if I wanted, for example, to print something of that for any reason that might be. Each one has its own mood. Saying that, I think I'm more inclined to the far right one for its mood and colors that ignite some feelings in me that I can hardly describe; But something that reminds me of film days and my old times, as well as cloudy winter (despite the fact that the shot was taken under a blazing sun).
Now for the record, I do follow two methods in swapping channels mainly, and I use them both for infrared and ultraviolet images. I have to try them both and see the results as I can't decide beforehand. The two swapping techniques are (using Channel Mixer adjustment layer in Photoshop):

• Red to Blue, Blue to Red, and Green untouched or re-distributed between Red, Green and Blue. 
• Shifting each channels to the next one: R to G, G to B, B to R. 

For those who are reading this and didn't try the Channel Mixer before, you might get an idea what I'm talking about once you open that adjustment layer and see the options for yourself. I'm trying to keep the post a bit a shorter so I can't make tutorial about it here!

Now, there had been some trials to do some long exposures in the yard as well but those didn't work well mainly because of the inadequate perspective (couldn't set up the camera correctly because of the narrow space and not being able to see through properly). The long exposure was to be for some plants in the yard moved by the breeze as well being sprinkled with water; However, none of that was really impressive. On a side note, I was thinking of doing some pinhole work as well, maybe in morning time, in the yard as well. Typically under such sun the exposure with the pinhole would be a matter of seconds and not minutes as it would be indoors. Still thinking about it though as I don't have any specific composition in my mind yet not a specific goal.

Finale

LCD Loupe
In case it's a weird terminology!

As I was typing this blog post I've reminded myself that I have to find a solution for my loupe problem (a scope to fit the LCD of the camera to see it better, specially under the sun). I bought this thing months ago and I didn't really have made any use of it, and the sticker that was supposed to stick the magnetic holder to the LCD was weak and fell down easily. Adding to that, the holder itself was not exactly the size of my LCD. Such a headache! Probably I will end up using it like that anyway for more mobility, despite the ambiguity.
The humidity here is wrecking my body, as well as my mind. I'm seriously growing sick of it and can't wait for winter to come. With every wave of humidity comes illnesses and pains, as I am having right now with my gum and my shoulder-back muscle pain, and at some other times, my skin as well. Maybe my gum has nothing to do with humidity but the rush of health issues that come with the humidity every time really blows my mind away.
Time is going by and I'm still not able to find a venture of a side-way for some sort of an income that might enable me to detach myself a bit from my current work, which is surprisingly getting more annoying while I'm staying at home. I'm even growing tired myself of my own mood swings, and I just wish I could sleep, and never wake up. I'm trying to improve some habits still, like reading Quran in early morning while sun bathing. In fact, reading Quran has been indeed my joy and the only help I could get to myself against mood swings. For this, I'm trying to read it often to calm me down. On the other hand, the more I read of it, I kind of loathe the world and all its events, realizing how much worthless it is, and how much this life lacks luster. But I'm keeping up with it with all I could get of power, in hope that I might get some sort of good news or a happy event that surprises me to draw a smile on this solid face.