Stroll V (2022)…

Well well, Ramadhan is about to end, and I'll be back to my coffee routines, and my sleep... will keep being disturbed as usual. Nothing new. I have some plans already that I'm delaying for after Ramadhan; Nothing serious, but few errands to purchase some items for home and the thing is, the opening and closure times in Ramadhan are changed and with my sleeping pattern it's a total mess. And yes, I'll be driving (and maybe through some rush).
Meanwhile, the weather of April hasn't been harsh as I thought, except for some dust waves (and rains!) but up to the moment of typing this, the weather has been nice, specially in the morning, which allowed for some strolling, though limited because of my "lack of ideas" mode or simply, my mood (which I've been fighting with ferociously lately).

Stroll V

So, after doing a stroll with my 50mm lens and UV-pass filter, I've decided it's time to go back to the old stuff, and do a stroll with my Hα filter (which is not an infrared filter but I like to call it a "weak IR filter" figuratively) and 50mm lens. In fact, I think this filter is my favorite from my collection when it comes to infrared and UV, even though it is not a real infrared filter, and it is even designed for deep sky astrophotography! Yet, the colors and looks it provides are just surreal, and I've even made a post in my Arabic blog about this filter specifically. The closest an infrared filter from my collection that comes closer to the looks created by Hα is the B+W 092, which has a threshold of about 680nm (Hα's is about 656nm); Thus, images taken with B+W 092 can be a bit desaturated and needs some boost.

Traces

The stroll took place on March 21ˢᵗ, and I remember it was a nice morning with a nice breeze, and the sun wasn't high up (or it was even an overcast), and for this stroll I've headed East from where I live. Because Hα is light in terms of opacity and not like how a true infrared filter would be, the exposures could will be quite fast (and in fact I've raised the ISO a little bit here), thus I've switched the drive mode to burst (or fast continuous), which proved beneficial when shooting the first thing I've seen in front of me: Traces. Actually it was merely some test shots from various angles trying to make sense of what to expect from this filter and shutter speed, and because I was holding the camera and shooting without looking much into the LCD (and at f/1.4) I've shot various images of the same scene with a shift in the focal point. I used a number of these images then to create Traces as a focus stack. In fact, on inspection later on, I wished I've shot this at least at f/2, but nevertheless, I'm happy with the results. 

Спрятанный
(hidden)

Heading east, for me, was like getting into some uncharted territory. Heading there in my previous stroll with UV-pass filter was my first time and now with Hα it is my second time. I've passed here, just across the street after shooting Traces, to the same house where I shot ΟΔΟ in my previous post (if you like to check it out). This time though, there was a different mess outside this particular house; Some palm leaves and other trash items (thought was like: Treasure!). In the midst of all this mess, I've found out this star which I don't really know what it should be used as, but probably as a glow-in-the-dark item or something (I think I've seen something similar in the family). Anyway, it was hiding there and I couldn't resist the sense of abstract. In my style of shooting, in such instances of abstracts and sudden moments of findings, I don't like to move any object and shoot the scene as is, as much as possible. Anyway, I've shot the star from various angles and tried to include as much as possible of it. Ironically though, I've cropped the image in post-processing to remove some remnants of the pavements and some strings from these palm leaves. As I was experimenting with the colors, the image popped at me when I swapped the Red and Blue channels, as if it was screaming Soviet! Hence the Russian name for this image. Well, I'm frequently naming some of my images in Russian nowadays as I've been learning Russian for more than a year on Duolingo (in fact I think since 2019, long before being a retiree) so naming images in Russian helps me to push my vocabulary forward a bit.

Out of Dimensions

On the same path, in the same neighborhood, I've faced a tractor and I've quickly started taking shots for it as it passed through. I was actually afraid that the guy driving it would make an issue but all went well. I was hoping though that I would make a 3D anaglyph out of it but unfortunately, the motion direction didn't help. So, I've combined the series and merged them by channels (each layer has a separate color). It strikes me though how much Hα filter retains most of the original colors with striking differences when it comes to vegetation and few other things. To be honest though, this shot is probably one of my least favorite shots in this stroll (if not in general). I think it's completely aimless!

The Army

After the path I came about to some open space, like the one I have near home on the western side, but this one is bigger and not used to heap dust and tar like the one on the western side. All I found there is a bunch of different machinery vehicles set there made ready to work for asphalt fixing (we have a major road/pipes renovations in my area). Out of fun, I've shot several shots for this row of vehicles and combined them later in post-processing like a panorama (had to do this in fact instead of picking one to have more cropping freedom). The surprise came out though when this image specifically (and for some reasons beyond my understanding) was picked as an "Inspiration" on YouPic!
What I particularly like about this shot (or shots) is the depth of field for such a wide view (the wide view is made up by the panorama and cropping later of course). I had ideas of doing something somewhat similar to that but here I've done it without thinking about it. However, probably the depth in The Army is not quite popping out as "shallow depth of field" even though it was shot at f/1.4, mainly because of the distances between the objects and me (and the background). Anyway, it is something I'm wishing to try one day with better conditions (and distances), and the challenge here is to do everything handheld and with locked focus.
The fact that this image had been marked as "Inspirational" on YouPic, I think, is a proof that however you calculate and think ahead about your upcoming shot, you can never predict the outcome and how people would receive it. Of course, I'm not talking here about the "contest" atmosphere where judges are involved; These environments have their own field of study (and I'm saying this as an ex-member in a photography group that used to chase after medals in such international contests). Contests are somewhat a subject of study to get through or at least to have a good estimation and probability of winning something, but my talk here about the occasional artist or photographer who shoots out of exercise, out of spirit, and out of sensuality, rather than out of calculations.

Palm and Minaret

Seeing the vehicles, I decided to head and take a closer look in order to hunt for some abstracts. However, before heading (and it was a relatively long walk actually), I mused myself in shooting a mosque on the right with its palm tree; This is the same mosque that I've shot the bougainvillea branch from, in UV, in the previous post. I will be visiting the same branch after a while (and in future posts hopefully). I think it is a good target to get innovative as much as possible.

Mechanical Circle

And then I've arrived at my first abstract catch with Mechanical Circle, which was taken from the side of one of these vehicles with big cylinders (I suppose to flatten the surface of the new tar or asphalt). Again, with burst mode on, I've taken several shots here and combined them together. I was shooting at a low level and almost didn't see the LCD, so this was a safety procedure to ensure I get one shot right but then I've decided to combine the shots as in a focus stack. Anyway, despite its relative simplicity, I did have some dilemma cropping this image (as I like to crop keeping the aspect ratio usually). However, probably the thing I regret here is not turning the image into B&W before uploading it online (mainly onto YouPic). I think turning it into B&W would strengthen the focus on the geometrical shapes rather than the colors (even though the colors here are somewhat faint). I was so focused in having a proper crop and forgot about other aspects of the image! Well, I guess it will be revisited some time in the future (hopefully near future!).

مَـصْـفـوفَـة
(matrix)

Not far from Mechanical Circle, and just beside that vehicle, there was another vehicle with many front wheels (I guess it is probably to flatten the tar in some way, not sure), and I got attracted to the continuous row of these circles. Again, the shoot here was at a low level and I had to do it without looking much into the LCD. Anyway, unlike Mechanical Circle, I've picked a single shot here with the focus I wanted (on the front element). Ironically though, the image wasn't converted to B&W, yet it looks like one (almost)! It all depends on the dominant elements in this shot I guess where everything is gray/dark gray, and literally that was it; No more colors except for the ground maybe (which I hated actually but I couldn't remove it or crop it properly). I did crop the image but to eliminate other elements, mainly in the lower right corner.

Стробоскоп
(strobe)

Then again with the vehicles still, some strobe or flash bulb caught my eye. It was standing out separated from the rest of the vehicle (visually) as if it was seeking and begging to shoot it. I know, nothing special about such strobe or light (or whatever) but being isolated and with shallow depth of field, all sounded hyper to me. I've actually shot this from various angles which allowed me to experiment with 3D anaglyph making again and I think it did give some good result but in the same time it made me think that probably images with very shallow depth of field as this one (at f/1.4) might not be as good as images with greater depth of field because of the lack in details in the background which would contribute more to the depth.

Стробоскоп (3D)

Nevertheless, I still think that the 3D anaglyph here is good enough. As for the original shot though, the process was naturally different, as well as the crop. I think I've cropped Strobe into 16:9 (wide screen format) and processed it with much blue tones to give out that cinematic look as much as possible. I didn't follow this path of processing for some time by now, but the Hα filter kind of imposes the blue tones by nature. I could've swapped the channels here and give it a golden/yellowish tint, but that didn't sound (look) right to my eyes, so I kept it as it is and added to it in terms of contrast and tones. 

مَـدْخَـلْ
(entrance)

Away from the vehicles, I've passed through some neighborhoods here and there trying to find some targets, and I've arrived at one of my favorite subjects: A Door!
There are fancy doors around m area where I live, old and new, but I'm always scared to shoot any, mainly to keep myself away from problems with the owners. I have some bad experiences in the past with various sects of people so I really don't want to repeat that experience in the early hours of the morning here. But as I was walking, I've shot this door quickly in burst mode and combined the images to have some freedom to crop (and correct the image). Correcting the image actually was a bit time-consuming as I was doing it manually and didn't think of doing it in DxO which has a proper tool to rectify things. The neat thing about 50mm lens is that it doesn't impose too much distortion on the image and it is "almost" identical to the sight of the human eye.
Now, in the process, I've swapped the channels to make the door more golden in color as I think it adds more "magic" to its design (and in fact this was the actual color somewhat). Yet though, the effect was faint and even with the addition of vibrance to boost the saturation, thus I ended up applying a Solid Color layer with gold tint (#FFD700). Of course with applying some additional steps to make it a tint.

طَـلَـلْ
(remains)

Not far off, in fact just before I walk away from shooting that door, I spotted an old house that was shouting "HAUNTED" to me. It was straight ahead and I kept staring at these windows and that curtain dangling outside. Reminded me of some escaping scenes from one of these movies; A jail, a sanitarium, something of that sort. The style of the house is 1960s/1970s and in ruins. Made me wonder why did people abandon this house? What's the story behind it? I'm sure it looked one fine house and quite spacious as well. Ah well… something nostalgic and sad kicks in every time I look and remember that house.
Anyway, I was on the ground and the windows were high up and there was no way I could raise myself up to the level of those windows of course so I just shot some images from the ground and in fact I've intended for them to be a memorabilia only. However, the story changed when I got back home and started to examine the images.
For the record, I had to crop big chunks of the image to remove all that is not needed, so relatively, the image became quite small in size after all. The next part was to try and adjust the distortion or perspective to let the image appear as if taken face-front. It took me ages to fix the perspective and yet I'm not that happy because of these car shades in the lower right corner which I couldn't crop them out unfortunately. I wasn't using a fisheye lens here so I couldn't just stand in front of the house and shoot  to exclude the shades (and even if I did that, I think the perspective would be beyond repair). I've shot many shots with slight difference in view in order to combine them together because I knew that if I'm going to work with this image and find anything good about it after adjusting the colors, I'm surely going to need to crop big chunks, which I did. The image wasn't converted to B&W but it just happened to be in such tones (there are bits of color in those tiny flags hanging in the shades). Probably it wouldn't be something I would print for an expo or participate with in a contest, yet I feel satisfied (and sad) when I take a look at it.

九重葛的白色
(the white of bougainvillea)

Finally, I've reached the "promised" bougainvillea branch which I've shot with UV in my previous stroll, and still shot it in the coming strolls afterward. In case you are wondering why I named the image in Chinese, well, it simply gave me the impression of Asian art icons which I typically see on china and other such items. Since the shutter speed is high right now with this Hα filter, I gave myself the freedom to shoot this branch in burst mode (I guess you can tell I'm happy about it). Because of that I got the chance to make one or two anaglyphs.
Back to The White of Bougainvillea, here the shot needed some delicate "doctoring", if I can say so.
To begin with, I was really hesitant about the position or the orientation of the image as a whole and it took me a while to decide. The image was originally in landscape but I've rotated it and made it in portrait orientation. Then, it was time to crop and eliminate things and my trials to keep the aspect ratio failed and I had to crop freely here. In addition to that many areas of the image were actually just "blank" with not much details and just white space so I had to fill those and also to mimic the shallow depth of field to the best I can. So, yeah, it is "doctored" as you can see now. I've actually made another version for it specifically for Instagram with 4:5 aspect ratio (cropped the top) and swapped the channels.

金葉
(golden leaves)

As I've mentioned earlier, I did take various shots for this branch at that moment and gave myself freedom to play around with some of them, like Golden Leaves which was originally blue and was going to leave it blue as a friend suggested but then thought I might as well turn it golden in color with Solid Color adjustment layer in Photoshop again like Entrance. Swapping the channels was not "gold-ish" enough actually so I had to do it that way. Big chunks are cropped here to focus on this "framed" part of the image with the intermingled branches. I'm thinking and considering this one (along with others) to be uploaded to the stocks. I didn't upload for quite some time now.

So, this branch was the end of my strolling journey across the "Eastern Realm" from home. I did probably take few shots here and there on my way back home but I don't think they're worth mentioning here anyway. I have to say I liked that zone more than the western one but still surprises might occur at any place between the two, and there are more strolls coming on the way and I'd probably make one specifically to post about in my Arabic blog. I'm hoping to do that in May, but the stroll itself should be done any time now, in the last days of April!

 

Finale

Thus, this was the end of this stroll with one of my favorite filters by now (for artistic usage) and I have to say, April had been nice to me. I still remember some years back when April wasn't that "breezy" like now. It can also be related to the fact that it is Ramadhan and the working hours and traffic jams are delayed so that makes for some quiet time in the early morning between 6-8 a.m. and some nice breeze with no much smog. But I have to say, smells still there. I had to cope with some to get some shots done! There also had been some days with dust hanging in the air which wasn't encouraging to go out and shoot, and some days with fatigue that kept me bedridden.
The question remains though: Would I be able to do more or do something creative or anything that would fill my life after Ramadhan? It's hard to answer that (specially with the weather surely will be getting warmer). I'm keeping my hopes up though, not for anything but to try and switch off my anxiety off a bit and putting my mind into working elsewhere other than pessimism. Traveling is dearly needed right now, but it's hard, if not for my eye condition (which I don't think is that catastrophic anyway) then for the global issues in general. It feels like standing in the midst of an endless desert right now; No direction, no aim, but staring at a blazing sun…