Arabic Day…

Well, I'm here, after finishing all the procedures for the retirement (with few things left to sort through). One would think at this point that I'm going to have a pleasant time with myself and have more time to work on whatever projects or hobbies I have in mind; But things are not so just yet.
I'm writing these lines right now with pains coming and going and seems it's some colon issues. Been having some carbon pills and they did some good job but yet some work need to be done! I just hope it's not a complicated matter other than simply "color gases". 

Anyway, in this post I would like to talk about few things I've done lately (well, not things but a "thing" mainly) in correspondence to The Arabic Language International Day, which was on December 18th. 

Lingua Arabica

I was lucky to have a memory that aided me this year to remember this day. December 18th, The Arabic Language International Day. This day is considered the international day for the language because on such a day, the UN admitted Arabic as an official language in the institution beside 5 (or 4?) others.
In the past years, I didn't do much (since knowing the fact that there is a day dedicated to Arabic) but merely posting about it on the media with some logos or anything I could find. This year, though, I already planned to do something, despite my currently-low inspirational fit and the frequent fatigue. But this was a start, as along the way, it inspired me to do something else (which I will state later).

I've spent quite some time to get inspiration, and tried hard with some "games" online to brainstorm some ideas out, as well as surfing Pinterest to be inspired. I've noted things down and I've already had some handful of ideas, but then I picked one to work with. I'm thinking about the rest of the ideas that I've recorded already; I might work on them later if possible, when I get the time (and the health) to do them!

Trial with 8mm fisheye lens

The idea that I was inspired with is something I've seen on Pinterest, which was about an eye with the pupil or iris being shaped into specific shapes. In the beginning, and because I was not quite in the mood to work with my macro toys, I've thought maybe shooting with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens would be a suitable choice; Like, shooting in close distance (about 30cm) and then crop the image to focus on the eye. But I was completely, absolutely, wrong!

Another one with in-camera flash!

It was fun though and I even worked a bit with in-camera flash (i.e. the built-in flash) and seems it works well as well providing that I would change the power of the flash to balance it with the ambient light. I think typically we tend not to think about using any type of flash when going wide, or extra wide, but it is something worth trying in the future I guess.
Anyway, from these few shots it was clear that there is no escape of dealing with a bit of macro. Maybe not "real" macro but nevertheless, something to get me close a bit to the eye. And in case you are wondering why I don't just take a picture of someone else's eye, well, the answer is obvious by now I guess; I have no one to work with.

One of the shots done with 50mm + 12mm tube, cropped.

Thus, I got my 50mm and a 12mm extension tube. Such combination is not aimed for a real macro job as it doesn't reach even 0.5X magnification (by crude calculations). But it was just about enough to break the closest focusing distance of 45cm for such a lens. Now, I don't know at what distance does it focus with this extension tube but it was surely enough to include some adequate portion of the eye and part of the face (which was cropped later).
I've made a number of shots for the eye with this combination of lens and tube, but seems the last 2 or so were the sharpest on closer check-up on PC. So, the one shown above became the base for my work with this little project. 

ع
The final image.

Of course, on RAW level, there were so much to be done and many sliders to move and click, but all was somewhat a routine. The heavy load of work and meat was mainly in Photoshop itself to mimic the pupil and replace it with the letter (ع). The work with this effect did take a lot of time and trial-and-error attempts mainly because I didn't know what I was looking for here. Finally I've settled down on a specific font (mimicking the Farsi or Nastaliq style) for its swift curves. Worth noting also that I picked the color of the pupil from the original image (after editing the RAW) so that it won't be pitched black and closer to reality. I also copied the flare from the original shot and pasted it (with little modifications) on the edited version.
I would say the rest of the work in photoshop focused on color corrections and adding emphasis on the pupil by shading the surrounding areas (using reflected gradient), besides, of course, sharpening. 

I've posted the image on Instagram with a lengthy caption to make the post informative a bit beside being artistic.

This little project (but lengthy in processing) inspired me to expand it a bit further and make a whole set of such images to include all 28 letters (a bit more than 28 in fact) but yet I have to test further fonts to see which one might work better, as well as turning the image in a simpler format.

On a side note, I worked also on another "design" for this occasion (i.e. the Arabic Language International Day) but I don't feel so proud about it, since it is so simple…

اقْـرَأْ
(read)

Originally, the idea for Read was to do some art by hand using the Verse 1 of Chapter 96 from Quran (the first verse to be revealed from Quran). However, my calligraphic talent is so mediocre that I just forgot about it and turned out to do the whole thing digitally. I picked the background from some old shot for Quran, taken back in 2012, and the rest is a plain text (with a bit of struggle here since my Photoshop does not support proper Arabic text, so I had to deal with it as a path-work). The whole image was tinted with so-called Islamic Green (Hex: #009000).
I wouldn't say I like the whole thing as it is completely different than what I had in mind originally but at least I did something I guess instead of letting things sink deep at the back of my head and just get forgotten there. Who knows, I might visit this design and do it as I intended to originally. However, one thing I've realized from all of this experience, and that is: I do need to install more artistic Arabic fonts!

Finale

So, this is something done quickly for the Arabic Language Day, and I'm still cooking some ideas at the back of my head; Like creating a set of letters with a similar design for the stocks. I'm also planning to do some post for my Arabic blog concerning the process of creating (ع) but I'm not quite sure about it yet as it would require a number of technical and lengthy talk. Still flipping the idea…
On the other hand, I'm still going on here and there to do some chores regarding the finalization of my retirement and the pension, but this should be almost done around the time of typing this; Almost. I'm so eager to take my morning walks this winter after missing them out in November and December. However, I'm thinking of early morning walks before the sun is above the horizon, with H-alpha filter on the lens; Just a fun game to see how things turn out. Unfortunately, I'm confined in time because of my mother and some of her health issues that bounds me to her in the morning in order to get her ready for the dialysis (or the trip to the dialysis center). But all in all, I think this is doable, it just needs some time.

With retirement, comes some kind of a rush of ideas or desires to work with the camera even though the ideas are lacking. Thus, I'm spending time right now to brainstorm from time to time in order to get some ideas. Ironically, most of the ideas that get into my head are those involving people so I just erase them right away from my head. And yes, I won't be really hiring a real person to do such ideas because, well, they are not for business and it doesn't sound a good idea to invest money in something for nothing in return in general. So, I would have to rely on selfies, whenever such visiting ideas permit so. I have to mention also that astrology had been occupying some of my time now as I'm investigating this realm and testing theories.

All in all, retirement time seems to be, or would be, some busy time more than the time when I was employed, but I'm still not sure if I still can time-manage the whole thing or not, but I would have to for sure, sooner or later. Along with that, I need to put my hopes in-check, as some of them do sound a bit unrealistic, for now, or later…