Stroll IV (2022)…

So, I'm still up with my strolling posts. Meanwhile I'm typing also one blog post for my Arabic blog (about using Hα filter) and I was going to skip this week's blog post, but I've changed my mind. However, this could be a quickie one. The weather is getting warmer and warmer and soon I won't be able to go on strolls in the morning. In fact, as of the time of typing this blog post, the last time I went out to do experiments with my pinhole lens (and might make a blog post about it later, but I didn't check the shots yet at the moment of typing this), the flies then ate me alive and I couldn't bear with it longer so I had to return home as soon as possible after just about 20 minutes of strolling outside. The weather was nice, relatively, but the conditions were awful. Probably it's just the area I was strolling into. I'm not sure!

Stroll IV

So, this stroll is actually a continuation for the last stroll which was done with a UV filter, but this time using my favorite 50mm lens instead of 20mm. Also, as a destination for the stroll, this one was directed eastward from where I live, while the last one was done westward. And I have to say, the block next to us really blew me away. I think it has some great potential for future visits (when the weather allows it), and as of the time this is being typed, I've paid 2 more visits to that place with different filters. So, from now on, I will be calling it the Eastward zone! The stroll took place on March 11ᵗʰ.

ΟΔΟ

So upon walking Eastward, and just before entering the block I've noticed some trash outside, and as I always hold in belief: Trash places are treasure troves. This is if you are hunting for abstracts mainly, but of course it is not limited to that genre. In fact I've passed on this trash once more in another stroll which hopefully I will talk about in a post later.
What captured my eyes here is the geometrical shapes. My eyes was scanning for such abstracts. If you may notice in ΟΔΟ (and thanks for the Greek alphabet to give me the means to name this image!), the image here had been rotated clockwise, as I thought the triangle's apex gives some direction to the image better than being laid down (and pointing to the left). Of course the image had been cropped (and had to test various crops) and actually I still think that I do need to crop a little from the bottom as well. In the process as well I needed to test various colorization sets (or color corrections); Sometimes, Ultraviolet images can be quite hard to decide upon when processing them (specially when no image of real colors is merged along). In fact, I've been questioning my ultraviolet set of filters lately (the B+W 403 and Kenko D-655). I need to re-check the charts again to see how much infrared is getting through. From looking at the exposure times, yes, I would say it is blocking a fair amount. Yet, I have some doubts still!

Entangled

I'm going to skip here the long walk and all the snap shots taken along the way as most of them were shaky; no tripod and exposures range from 1 to 2 seconds or even more at f/1.4 AND automatic ISO!
Finally anyway I've reached a mosque with some bougainvillea branches dangling just out of the fence. It was a nice target but I had some hardship shooting because of the stability I needed, the hard-to-see LiveView, the slow focusing, and since I'm using 50mm I needed some space, which wasn't quite available (I had to stick my body to the wall of a house behind me to get enough space). Anyway, I've shot several shots for Entangled and I've even made a 3D anaglyph out of some of these shots in the series (and the image processing was synchronized of course). 

Entangled (3D)

The overall look is quite messy in fact but I still like Entangled for its somewhat dark and mysterious mood; to me at least. I think I got some nice comments about Entangled. Left to note that this image was taken at ISO3200, f/1.4, and 60⁻¹s. This is just to imagine how is it like to shoot in UV, specially with a lens that do have some anti-UV coating which makes things harder further. For this reason, a tripod can be a must for UV photography under such conditions, with not-so-adequate lens.

Одинокий
(lonely)

After leaving the mosque, I've also encountered some subjects but most of them were shaky or not quite interesting, but then comes my favorite moment in this stroll where I've encountered (what I think is) a Calystegia sepium; A white flower reminding me of some of the old cartoons I used to watch when I was a kid. The flower has many local names in English alone so I'm mentioning the scientific name only.
The flower (or I should say flowers) were growing naturally in between the cracks of the flooring in front of one of the houses. In order to increase my chances of getting a stable image here, and beside putting my ISO on auto, I've shot several shots in burst mode. It might be a bit of a sorrow to shoot in such high ISO here but nevertheless, it was worth it to at least keep the image and the memory. When processing the image, and after correcting the colors, the general tint was blue and I've added some more saturation to that, and even created another version of it with the reverse (or inverse colors); That is swapping the Red and Blue channels like in infrared images.

Одинокий 2
(lonely 2)

I've also placed the camera further away a bit and made a series of shots, but I didn't like them as much as these ones from the first trial. I need to re-check those though to see if there is any possibilities to create a 3D anaglyph out of them. In processing Одинокий, I didn't use any color-shifting techniques as I did with Entangled or ΟΔΟ, but a simply color correction (that is adjusting the White Balance only). The blue tint fitted the mood and the shape of this flower perfectly, I presumed.

So, technically, this was like the end of the stroll after taking some shots of this flower. I did take few shots here and there (and for part of my dirty car then!) but I don't think they are worth posting here (and in fact I didn't process the majority of them as I didn't see any potential). Worth noting though that this UV stroll was done in early morning and even the sun was not so strong; In fact, even Entangled and Одинокий were shot in the shade rather than under direct sun beams because, well, the location was in between buildings and the sun was not yet in a proper angle to cast a light through. But with some high ISO I was able to hasten the shutter speed a bit, despite the noise level that is hard to deal with. But anyway, I'm not printing those so no worries (for now) I guess!
Yet this experience do call for more UV work, indoors and outdoors, whenever possible. Now with the summer coming over and it would be almost impossible to take such walks in early morning (because the temperature can get well over 30°C in the early hours of the morning before even people leaving their homes to work!).

Finale

So, it's April already, and Ramadhan is ongoing too, and the weather is getting hotter and hotter by the day. It is a time now to be happy for being a retiree I guess. Yet, something out there is missing. I've put plans in the beginning of my retirement process that I should organize my time and specify some time for my own projects and specially camera work but seems nothing is coming together. I'm having a great deal of an urge to stay in bed all day if I can, if not for the damn back pain that I get every time I spend a long time in it.
I'm not sure where things went wrong here but probably I shouldn't waste my time thinking about the reasons and rather try to gather myself up. Yet, I don't know how. Is this normal? Do I need some more time to come to my senses? Many questions loom in my head and no answer in sight, so far.