So, the weather is officially warm now. Nice still, but warm with some cold breeze. I don't think the window is open now for more strolling outside in early morning hours. In fact, I prefer to sleep longer now when I have nothing to do in the morning (i.e. tending to Mom before heading to the dialysis). I had some plans to take a panorama in some location but I'd need to do it in early morning hours (like, really early hours), but now it is difficult to do that somehow, besides, I'm still afraid of the surroundings (i.e. the people around that place).
Away from the weather fuss, this post is supposedly to talk about my second stroll for 2023 which took place in January, specifically January 14ᵗʰ, 2023, as I was trying to capture new "perspective" from my surroundings, with a Sigma 12-24mm lens.
Eastward We Go
At the moment of that stroll, it was my second time to use the Sigma 12-24mm for such "hunting" outside. This time I've decided to head eastward, as the previous stroll was westward (then southward) from home. The camera, of course, is my regular Canon EOS 7D and not the modified one, so no infrared or UV hunting here. However, as usual, I need to have some twist in the whole process, and that comes in with HDR rendering.
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| Green Lights |
It was one foggy morning, just about a perfect day to shoot! However, I did have some problem when rendering such foggy mood in the image and actually I had to add it artificially on Green Lights. Even though it was really foggy, but it was coming and going and was concentrated on one side of the main road where Green Lights was shot and not the other side. The HDR technique, though, helped here to show some of the details in the sky and the clouds thereof. I would say this image could have been processed from the single RAW though if not for such details in the sky which stretched the dynamic range a bit.
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| جَنوب 2 (south 2) |
Just opposite to Green Lights, the fog was concentrated a bit and the street light poles were still on (one of the rare times I'd call myself lucky!). I had a go with this scene and shot on several levels and zooming levels of the lens (and also, the flare filter was on the lens already since the last stroll). It was a good chance to test the flare of this filter. However, the flare wouldn't be so noticeable on small scale and one has to zoom in to check it out. But never mind. I really like the dark mood of the image here, which was greatly improved in tone-mapping the HDR; Honestly, in reality, it was brighter than this. I had to take several shots here on different levels and zooming just to make sure that the poles line up in some "proper" way (if I can call it so). Again, HDR saved the day with those details in the clouds. The title, South 2, is a recall for another shot taken some months before on that same road (but further away from this location) and looking southward as well. Actually the series was still ongoing with a third one, shot in this stroll as well, but I'll come to it later.
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| Spark |
Crossing the road and going eastward still, I've gone into a neighborhood which I've visited many times before (I'm wondering now if there is anyone there who would have recognized my face already). I have to say though that there are some nice scenes and home facades in such neighborhoods, but as always, I don't like to step on anyone's toes in this area, even if it was an early morning and supposedly everyone is asleep!
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| The Portal |
Nevertheless, I've decided to try my luck and shoot something quickly. One of the doors (and it seems to be for a section separate from the main house) caught my eyes with the plants decorating its surroundings. Since I had to work fast (and I was shooting in brackets still), there was some delay and shaky images (the light wasn't strong). Anyway, I've processed The Portal from one of the exposures (the darkest). Now, I did shoot Spark specifically as test for the filter on the lens and you can see the flare clearly here (enhance even more with HDR tone-mapping), but for The Portal, the shot was mainly aimed at the door specifically and I had to do it quickly. Thus, when I shot this, I didn't think of removing the cap or the hood that holds the filter on the lens and you can see the effect on the fluorescent lamp just above the door. This effect in fact is the one that inspired me with the title as it did feel like some kind of distortion in the time-space. Anyway, as a consequence as well for shooting in a hurry, the perspective needed to be "severely" fixed and thus a big portion of the image had to be cropped. When fixing the perspective, I've aimed mainly to make a perfect rectangle out of the door itself. The rest of the processes involved enhancing the contrast, color, and exposing more details out of the door itself.
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| اِنْبِلاج (dawning) |
Even though my camera was fixed on the bracketing mode, but I wouldn't necessarily process the image in HDR, as was the case with The Portal. However, with The Portal, the case was about a shaky image that somewhat forced me to use the most stable exposure in the bracketed series. Anyway, there were moments when I've picked one RAW file to process from the bracket specifically for some effect that I pictured in my mind as I was reviewing the images later on, and Dawning was one of such images. I can say that this one shot is probably one of my favorite in this stroll, if not from my collection in general. Well, I do have many favorites of course, and this is one of them, this is what I meant!
Now even the shot was dark in general and silhouette-like, but there is actually a bit of details in these shadows (probably won't be that clear in such a small size). I just love that flame-like light in the sky! The process here involved many touches here and there, like showing more details out of the sky (and using sharpening for that purpose even) and adding more blue to the image and somewhat keep a balance between the dark areas and the light areas (in a way to keep the image divided vertically somehow). How ironic that I didn't even try to merge this image in HDR still, not even for experimentation!
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| اِنْعِكاس (reflection) |
Then, there were moments when I had to sort things out using "fake" HDR; Meaning, HDR images created from a single RAW file instead of bracketed shots, as in Reflection. I could have done that as well in previous images (like The Portal) but I think I was hoping for so much out of this image because I don't usually take (or get the chance to take) shots of reflections. Anyway, the brackets made for this shot were shaky and I've found myself forced to create 3 TIFF images off the same RAW file, with changing the exposure value and then merging them together in HDR. The results were acceptable I guess. Actually, in this way, I got the chance to process the WB and some other color elements (and tone-splitting parameters) for the images individually and then merge them together as HDR which somehow can be considered one dimension of freedom added to the process, I suppose.
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| في الرَّوْض (in the gardens) |
Another failed HDR attempt here was In The Gardens (named in Arabic after a folk song). I shot this one in brackets but the images were shaky and only the dark exposure was taken quickly enough to be stable here. Thus, I had to process this one alone (and I didn't think of doing fake HDR here because I just loved the dark atmosphere after all). Many had to be done here though, like cropping, rotating, enhancing the touch of light. The main reason to rotate the image actually was to make the light source on the top, as it was on the left side originally. I also had to apply some editing "tricks" a bit to add faint rays that didn't exist originally in the image. Anyway, I've tried to be reasonable here and not to exaggerate these beams. The image overall was tinted with a golden shade (my favorite, which I use also for the headers on this blog, #FFD700).
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| Displaced |
Keeping moving eastward, I've reached the parallel main road (parallel to the one in my block that is). At this point, I could have kept going east as well and delve deeper; the atmosphere was foggy and sparked some interest in the surroundings, even though I wouldn't have been able to shoot most of it. In that neighborhood there were intriguing villas indeed with some nice doors (I have a soft spot for doors!). However, what was the first to catch my eyes here was just under my feet; a grating. Sewage grating. I do have a passion for straight lines specifically when combined with geometry, but in Displaced, things had one more dimension here with that small green cover that popped on the edge. Actually, my first trials with this object was focused mainly on that little plant on the edge but then I realized I'd better go for a full abstract and take the whole thing into the frame instead of the plant only. In the process, later on, which was done from a single RAW as well, things had to be rectified and I've spent some considerable time making sure that lines are parallel (vertically and horizontally); and I hope my eyes didn't deceive me in this aspect. Now, it wouldn't be an image that I would upload to the stock or participate with in some contest, but yet, I do feel satisfied when I look at it because of the lines here.
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| جَنوبْ 3 (south 3) |
And as I've mentioned before, I've made a series named South and the 3ʳᵈ one in the series was shot right after shooting Displaced. Actually, I've made several shots from this scene and I picked just one to be processed into HDR and then tone-mapped. However, even tone-mapping, there was a considerable amount of work to be done to enhance some areas, colors, contrast and other issues (and I believe I did crop a bit out of it as well). Worth noting though that I don't usually process HDR images in that grungy manner, but i do like to go out of my norms from time to time! It can be seen here in South 3 that the image is full of halos and it would have been better if it was processed otherwise or even from a single RAW (if the details in the sky would show considerably), but this is a shot for fun and to grease my gears a bit before I forget how to even hold a camera!
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| Yellow Mess |
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| Cloud Park |
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| Morning Delivery |
After moving forward from the school, I've found myself on the main road (or the Schools Road) and seems my senses got back to me then (well, after the fact), since the image I've shot here was done in HDR but with "reasonable" tone-mapping. There was nothing special in Morning Delivery, as I've made several shots while walking back home, but some cars passed by. Honestly, I was hoping to capture the trailing lines for the cars but with the sun shining already, the shutter speed would have been short and the images would be stable enough. Anyway, from the shots I've got, I've picked the ones with the cars on, and despite the movement already between the shots in the bracket, Photomatix did the job in eliminating these ghosts and fixed one car position. Maybe one thing I do like about Morning Delivery and that is the leading lines to the far horizon. In the process, I've tried to keep on the warmth of the sun (even though it wasn't that warm, since it was January) and I tried to keep some clear details in the trees branches.
Finale
So, this was all (I think!) for that stroll back in January. Since the weather is going warmer by the day, I'm not sure I would be able to do another stroll any time soon, especially with the circumstances at home and the continuous fatigue. Honestly, I was almost going to abandon this post altogether for this week.
After doing my last Arabic post for my Arabic blog, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, my mind went wandering again (and still) looking for a new idea for that blog. I don't think I want another post of telling a story about some photo I've taken, just like the last post. Thus, it seems it would be some months ahead before finding a good topic for that.
Meanwhile, I've been worried about my mental health in other terms other than what I was anticipating already. Forgetting things and missing what day, accompanied with the chaos in my sleeping pattern, all that made me think if this is an age thing (I know, many say I'm still young and that movie talk) or simply because of the stress in this house which I barely leave. It feels like I'd be hit with dementia by 50.
I'm struggling already to work with the camera. In fact, I didn't really touch it for about a month now. I did some shots with my phone but I wouldn't call that really a "work with the camera" - even though some of these shots were in RAW (phone RAW that is). Thus, it comes to me that at some point, I might stop blogging for a while until I find some material or something to post about here, since I've abandoned my conlang projects for a long time now (ironically, they were the reason I've started this blog in the first place!). Till then…
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| اِنْبِلاجْ 2 (dawning 2) Done while typing this blog post still. |
Nice shots, go ahead
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