The Office…

Alright! I think I can literally say that I'm officially retired now! I didn't go to work for more than a week now (or by the time this is posted, it would be 2 weeks), and as I'm writing this, some papers need to be signed and completely detach myself from that workplace (and it is vexing me off).
I have to say though there are some bitter-sweet moments involved here but I'm trying not to gaze upon these for a long time now and just keep going. I'm not sure where I would be going from here, but the joy of not having to drive the car daily to and from a specific place routinely is just overwhelming!

Last Encounter

As I've mentioned in my last post here, in which I was updating about my life, I've already made some shots in my workplace, specifically for the office where I used work. This is like a tribute and a farewell. Honestly though, I do wish of shooting other buildings around my workplace as they are more interesting (architecturally), but I'm not sure how to be permitted to do so. I might ask about it later.

The last Meeting

So, I've posted The Last Meeting in my last post and I didn't go about the technicality here. Originally, this shot was taken using Hα filter fitted on Voigtländer 20mm lens. The shooting was bracketed but I picked the darker frame of the three to process as it yields the mood better. The colors look almost natural after fixing the WB, and this is typical for Hα filters when used in this manner (the effect is exaggerated way more when doing it outdoors and shooting plants). In the process, diffusion was added on purpose as well to add more to the mood. There is a building showing from the left window, thus it was yellowish.

The Dark Meeting

And because of the number of these shots taken with Hα filter, I've decided to process one of them without adjusting the WB just to see the look and mood of it, as seen in The Dark Meeting. I think not bad for something to give dark vibes. Interesting though to see Blue/Cyan/Green tones are somewhat preserved (though faintly) in this dark version.

Workplace

Then of course we have some words with panoramas, but the big talk about panoramas will be left for later for the time being. After doing the main panorama in the office (which was faced with some struggles), I've headed out to shoot some handheld panorama for the building in general. It was quite an opportunity because things were quiet and just my car is there to add some element to the building. Probably you've guessed it already that Workplace was shot using Hα filter, fitted on Voigtländer 20mm lens. Actually, I've shot it more than once, as the sun didn't allow me to judge the proportions correctly from the LCD (and in fact it was a bit soft and needed to be sharpened). In fact, I did shoot in brackets in order to merge images into HDR slides and tone-map them later after stitching, but turned out that it was not quite needed as not much can be yielded (or let's say, not much drama could be deduced from the scene). 

Workplace II

I made 2 versions of the same panorama by swabbing the Red/Blue channels (quickly by using the Invert layer trick) and in fact I've liked the swapped version, Workplace, more than the original one after stitching, which happens to be Workplace II. Such swapping is common in such images taken with special filters, in order to turn the red sky into blue and give some mixed sense of normalcy and surrealism. Anyway, for me at least, I judge by the overall looks and I do prefer Workplace to Workplace II. Probably the proportions are not quite fit as the ground occupies more space than the sky (and I consider it a bad thing really) but I couldn't ask for more in such a handheld panorama.

The Office

Now, the big part of that "session" in my workplace was a panorama for my office, and I got all my gear for that; Well, most of it… I'm not a picky person when it comes to the gear that I should include when visiting a location.
Anyway, I've already set some basic ideas to set the mood or the general looks for such a panorama:

• Dark mood, so the panorama would be shot with lights switched off.
• Reflecting my life in the office, so most of the things in the office should be untouched and not re-organized (except for few items of course).

With these in mind, I've started to settle down with my tripod in that narrow space between my desk and the meeting table (my office is originally a meeting room).

The Office

The shooting went relatively smooth and it was my luck that I got a mix of yellow and blue lights (or warm and cool) from the door and the window respectively. In this shoot, I've tried to capture the nadir point as well in hope that I can stitch it as well with the rest but things didn't go well in that perspective. I was hoping to do that to increase the space at the bottom if possible and not make things look quite close to the edge of the frame in this panorama.

The Door Upward

Of course, the shooting went bracketed for HDR merging later on and I had a peculiar problem there when some specific slides  (and for a reason I'm still not sure of) where the bracketed images were not aligned properly by Photomatix and caused quite a hassle when I tried to stitch them. I've discovered the reason later on, and it was some option in Photomatix for aligning the images; Everything should be off except for By Matching Features (or in fact, I might have turned this off as well!). Anyway, what puzzles me is why that specific set of bracketed images that was affected? I still have no answer. And for sure, one has to turn off the Crop aligned output option. This is designed for handheld panoramas and not a systematic one done with proper tools like this one. I found out all about this the hard way.

At The End of The Office

And of course, if you've known me for a while and my work with panoramas, you might know as well that I won't just satisfy myself with only one version of the panorama. Each projection style has a potential to carry on some kind of message or feeling (or mood) that has a big chance of being different than the original flat normal version. Now the difference of course is not to be understood as "diverse" but let's just say: Tweaked little bit.
So, the 2nd version I've made, The Door Upward, can be interpreted in 2 ways; Either as the door that lead my up (on a financial scale) or the door exiting from which would lead me upward. I'm appreciative toward my work, but I'm just not in harmony with the people in it or the system.
Then I made a 3rd version, which is based on the typical "little planet" projection, and actually I used to call such style "wide view" projection or style. In At The End of The Office I was lucky that the light from the door kind of met the light from the window (with a little help in editing). But this version, unfortunately, is not suitable for big format because of the mess in the ground from trials to remove the tripod remnants. This is one of the reasons that taking the nadir shot and stitch it altogether was a goal when doing this panorama; With such differences in light and tones on the ground, it's just not that easy to clone out the tripod/head remains in the image. I think this version kind of mimics going in a trapped environment and then freedom shows somewhere at the far end. You are free to read it as you wish of course.

Ethereal Opposites

And finally, the 4th version of this panorama and I would say probably my least favorite. In fact, this is one of the reasons that I've done a "wide view" version before the typical "little planet" version (and consequently the "tunnel view" version above). In fact, I've didn't make a little planet out of this panorama (so far) as I couldn't feel the aesthetics behind it. Not only that, but removing the tripod remnants from the little planet would also require a great deal of time (if it is possible to begin with). So in a sense, the tunnel view version, Ethereal Opposites, was quite easier to be done and be dealt with than the little planet version. I don't like the general composition formed by the inner elements of this version but I just like the way the light from the door sweeps through (and I've added more of it in the HDR phase) which somehow gives a sense of spiraling from the center going outwardly. Emotionally, well, I don't think I can feel much out of this version really.

Finale

Well, I've posted everything new that I've made lately in this post, but there are more which was done from old images, some of which do roll back in time to 2010. I'm not sure where to start with.
On the other hand, and as I'm typing this post, I'm still having problems with the management in my (ex-) workplace with the final procedures to get my "leaving certificate". Because of these delays, it is quite probable (or even for sure) I won't be getting any salary or pension for the month of November. Papers here, papers there, and then I've been told things are to be done online, and then after some told me you don't have to do a thing, things will be done automatically and all I have to do is to check my custody; Which is a burden worth a week of work I presume. I'm digging old files and documents to track these items AND I do need to find someone to transfer to. Otherwise, all of these valuable scientific instruments might go away for good with no return. For this matter, I'm officially retired, but I'm bond to go to work now and then to check things and to follow up. One of the jokes I've been told just lately, is that one of the critical websites that I need to complete some of the procedures, would not open from outside; It must be opened with a connection from my workplace. Did anyone laugh? No? Good…