Kika XII + Announcement…

Well, I was supposed to wait for 2 weeks to post this but I thought maybe I should do it now and have some rest from blogging for several weeks. So, this post would be a quick one, talking about Kika's photo-challenge for the last week; Week 12. The theme for the last week was "Reflection".
I've mentioned that already in my previous post, and I say it once more here. I think I do need some vacation from blogging for some time (even though I know the content I'm sharing here is not a big deal nor it is large in size).
I'm not sure how many weeks I will be resting (and trying to come out with more ideas for photos) but I would say it might be 3 weeks to 4. Meanwhile, I'm guessing I'll be back to work during that time and things shall get busy back again for sure. Unless the higher-ups decide something against returning back to work because of the Delta-Variant and its wide-spread nowadays. I don't want to sound bad here but I do wish for this decision, of going back to work, to be postponed for a while. 

Kika XII

Well, hope you like the new color for the subtitles here! I think I will use it from now on. As I've mentioned before (as well), the last 3 weeks of Kika's photo-challenge were busy times for me. But the lucky part, the themes that Kika picked for her challenges were, sort of, always related to something I did before. And the theme for week 12 was "Reflections" and, of course, I've worked loads and loads with reflections before!

Reflecting

Thus, I've picked an image that I've shot back in 2019 (and surely posted about it here) which revolves around reflecting on the inside and, well, watching myself in the mirror. I'm sort of used to adjust a bit in every old picture I post for Kika's photo-challenges, but at this level and for this last one, I didn't do much editing really except of some selective sharpening and maybe added a bit of contrast.
It is an old shot (from 2019) so I might just talk about the technical aspect again, in case the reader is interested in it. Reflecting is actually made by merging 2 photos; One regular one for myself and my reflection on the mirror, and another one with ND filter placed on the lens and making long exposure for one minute or so for me shaking my head. To manage the shooting here, I've used wireless tethering. So, the whole image is real but it is just a merge of TWO real photos, and the Photoshop part did not exceed the layer masks (to merge) and converting to B&W along with the rest of the usual enhancements done.

Finale

Well, since this is my last post before my "little" vacation, probably I shouldn't talk much about other photos other than the final one in the series of Kika's photo-challenges, and after all, this is the reason that I wanted to post this earlier than I anticipated (which is supposed to be a week later from now). It does sound weird for me though to make a full post like this just for one image, but well, I guess necessity has its own measures after all.
My head is now scrambled big time for many things that are not adding up together. Specially on the work-ground. As I've stated in the introduction above, we are not sure when are we going back to work; Is it August 1st or July 25th. I do wish this would be even postponed a little further.
I've submitted my papers to get a "special needs" status but so far, no news is coming back to me concerning this matter since the end of May when I did submit the requirements online. This is taking longer than I thought and it frustrates me further. Not sure what the next step would be, but I might anticipate a medical retirement if possible. I can't help but think of how ugly things might turn into back at work with me being alone there and being quite novice when it comes to managerial dealings, or even scientific ones since I didn't do a "real" scientific work in a long time. I'm really having dreams about a stress-less life; A life where I wouldn't have to worry about getting social for work matters, nor worry about getting early for work matters, and not getting a heart attack every time I see a WhatsApp message in the work group.
But a bigger dream is cooking in my head and I'm not sure if it is the dream that I really want but after the chaos I've been facing at home lately, I really dream of having my own place, which would require a lot of money. A lot…

On a side note, I've worked already with some extra panoramas; I mean old ones but in a new processing and looks. However, seems not many of them are worthy for uploading to the stocks yet. I have to re-check some of them and see if I can do more to enhance the quality, and also I need some time to visit more panoramas from the past to re-process. For this reason, and others that I've stated before, I'm hoping that this break from blogging would help me sort things out and create more, and hold the camera back again to create something worthy. See ya after a while…