Alright. I'm supposed to talk here about my last stroll so far for this year, which was back in February. Exactly, on February 2ⁿᵈ, just the next day from the stroll before, which I've made my previous blog post about.
As I've stated before, I was going to make it all into one post but I realized that probably the post would be too long. The main goal for this stroll was actually to take some pictures of some wall with graffiti that I've noted the day before. Thus, as variation goes, the images shot that day were not varied much. However, there is one shot or scene in particular that made me call it a "day"! I'll come to that later.
Unlike with the rest of wandering for this year so far, and as I've mentioned in my previous posts, the lens in use here was Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens, which is completely manual, and of course no way to fit the flare filter on the front. This lens had been always my choice for creative endeavors and one of my favorites, despite the somewhat hard control and other lens issues (e.g. chromatic aberrations).

Westward, Again

غَرْبْ
(west)

In the beginning, as usual, I've started to take some test shots in the neighborhood, which later were processed. The time was about sunrise back then. However, strangely, the western horizon had a slight glow as if the sun was rising from there. Anyway, as I typically do for such times, I've set the WB to Fluorescent, thus the final image (tone-mapped from HDR), West, had a nice blue-pink tint to it. Now it's time to go!

My World 2

Test shots were not limited to West, but I've also shot some on my way to that wall with graffiti, but nothing important here. Luckily, though, the puddle that was there the day before, was still there (and it was quieter than the day before). Shooting this puddle with 8mm was a bit of a challenge though. For a starter, I had to rely on my instinct concerning the hyperfocal distance and adjust the lens to that (and putting on more f-stops in aperture to make sure things are within the depth). To shoot My World 2, I had to get so low (almost touching the water surface). Despite its small size, it does somewhat look like a pond or a lake (thanks for the wide field of view and distortion). I was surprised that some of these houses still have antennae on the top!

The Wall

Coming to the wall, I've started to shoot many images for it and on various orientations. However, when processing these images, it did prove to be a challenge on various levels. First of all, the distortion of such fisheye lens didn't serve the purpose and the nature of the subject. I've tried to rectify the images (manually, which consumed a LOT of time), but such rectification would chop a big portion of the wall. In fact one of the problems when shooting this wall was to get a decent angle to have fine details with some interesting view instead of shooting a boring head-on shot as if I was simply documenting the place.
The second problem arose with the WB, as the blue tint from the Fluorescent WB kind of killed the image and its tones, which contained some warm tones.

The Wall 2

However, I did find that the landscape orientation is way better than the portrait orientation, and rectifying the image in this orientation was somewhat a success (despite some areas or angles not being fit I guess). It was clear, in the process of making HDRs and tone-mapping these shots, that Fluorescent WB wasn't a good choice for this particular subject, so I changed the WB (when merging into HDR) into Daylight WB (or maybe Cloudy WB) and added some blue tint later while tone-mapping and editing in Photoshop.
This wall created in me the desire to shoot a panorama in this place, but alas, that didn't happen until the moment of typing this. 

天堂之下
(under Heaven)

Probably the most ironic thing in this short stroll wasn't related to that wall, the main goal of that stroll. Rather, it was a random scene that I've shot on the edge of a big pool of rain water. Shooting low and bracketing for HDR, I've made several successive shots just to make sure I have some workable images. Even though delicate handshake don't quite show clearly when using such a wide angle lens, but I wouldn't have that for granted. At the time when Under Heaven was shot, I've already set the WB to something else other than Fluorescent (maybe Cloudy or Daylight). In the process, I've stitched 2 HDRs and composed a composed (panoramic) image from the two to complete the scene (specially the sky), as depending on one image would have forced me to crop a lot and lose some details from the edges. I'm so happy with this shot, that I've created 2 more versions of it!

Two extra versions: (Left) Color reversal, (Right) B&W.

Despite these versions, I think I still prefer the original one. Alas, I don't think it would good to print this image unless on some rough texture, like canvas, to "swallow" up the noise in the image. Otherwise, I'd need a considerable time to manage these noise zones in the image on a micro level to avoid significant loss of details. In fact, de-noising the image(s) on one go failed to remove the noise or grain from some specific areas; Not sure why, but this is typical actually when dealing with HDR tone-mapped images. I've encountered such problems a lot in the past when I was active with panoramas.

This shot was probably the "last" in this stroll. There had been some shots afterward but I don't think they are that interesting, so I won't be talking about them here.

Finale

Ramadhan is almost over here, and along with it I'm hoping to get some relief and some stability with my sleeping schedule, a bit. The weather is getting warmer and warmer though and I'm not sure I would be able to go out to shoot anything. We'll see…

Maidin
(morning)

Meanwhile, since this is the last post for my strolls since the beginning of this year, I'm not sure that I would be able to post further despite the fact that I'm indeed taking some pictures here and there (mostly with my phone actually), but they are a bit chaotic and random with no specific theme. That reminds me of the time when I was a member in a photography group, when there was a monthly challenge for members to participate. Would I be able to imply the same discipline on myself, though? I greatly doubt it. So far, most of my trials to create some sort of a discipline for many things I'd like to do, had failed miserably. Yet, probably I should give it a try and see.
This said, if you are a reader to this blog on a periodic basis, expect some gap as I'm not sure I'd be posting anything in the coming weeks from now.
On the other hand, I'm also still on the look out for any new topic for my Arabic blog as well. Thus, I might invest a bit of this time to think of something and actually post it there. In fact, many things in y life had been on hold, specially during Ramadhan. I've realized just recently that I didn't add anything to my list of writing and quotes (which I keep on Writing.com) for the past month or so. I think this is reflective of how busy had my mind was and is, beside the exhaustion. At times, it feels as if it is one long nightmare, and I just can't wait to wake up…
 

Rolled…

I was really reluctant to type this blog post and I was going to let it be an off-week again, but then I thought maybe I should talk a bit about some of the old images made anew with new processing techniques. But then, I've realized that there is just a tiny pocket of new images that had been taken in the past 2 or 3 months that I've never posted anything about.
I have to admit that I've been lazy with my camera; No motivation whatsoever to even touch it. Anyway, from time to time I would just pick the camera and take a "snap" shot here and there, just because. So, some of the images that will be posted in here don't have any big story behind them, mostly, but merely snap shots and a story of processing…

Roll

So, in case you read my previous post, you did probably see the "king series". During the make of this series which took a span of several days of course (depending on the influx of ideas into my head), there had been some snap shots here and there as I was trying to grease my mood and appetite for photography, again and again.

سُجودْ
(prostration)

Not surprisingly, many of such ideas occur at or after midnight when everything goes quiet in this house. My sleeping pattern during the COVID-19 crisis had been up and down; Once regular, and many times out of sync. Because of coffee abuse I literally drink one mug and just fall asleep right away. Anyway, in one of those nights, I thought of shooting سَجودْ, Arabic for prostration. This kind of shots is not new really, but I'll talk about the story behind this in a bit. It was shot with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, and as you might have guessed already, there was a lot of crop that had been done beside "coloring" or burning parts in the background to hide them. The reason for picking this lens and not any other wide angle lens (e.g. Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5) is the type of distortion that I wanted to apply here, and also the size of the lens so I can place the camera between my legs as I prostrate (my Sigma DG 12-24mm is bulky for such a job!). Despite being somewhat stable, I was actually planning for some tiny movements and that's why I did lengthen the exposure a bit (by adding +2EV) but anyway, with a fisheye lens, movements can be barely visible and this is natural with most wide angle lenses (talking about small movements or shakes here). The rest of the job is, of course, just a story of processing and converting to B&W, and rotating the image upside down. Controlling the light and dark areas was a delicate matter here.

تَسْبيحْ
(glorification)

The shot above, سُجودْ, is in fact a result of pondering at an older shot, تِسْبيحْ (glorification), which was shot with my Huawei Mate 9 phone. It was a long exposure shot, and in my Huawei there are a number of options that would stylize such a long exposure, besides it's light to use and quick (just needed my mini-tripod to put it in front of me). The resolution of the shot, of course, is not comparable to that of a DSLR, specially that the image is done in JPEG and not RAW. Anyway, some user on YouPic noted that "he" can take that photo with DSLR and started to list his gear and whatever that is. Tried to make him understand that I do indeed have the gear required, but it's something done in a whim; Not everything should be professional and done with hi-tech gear. Well, seems he didn't get the idea anyway. But that actually sparked in me the idea of shooting another shot of a similar type. Still, though, I didn't use ND filters with سُجودْ (as he suggested).

Perspective

Then, there was this shot which was done… in the sink of my bathroom. The situation was shaky, I admit; I feared any water drops from the faucet onto the lens, but miraculously, it didn't. Again, Rokinon 8mm fisheye came to the rescue, and again, of course, the final image needed some crop to remove the unneeded edges here. I've placed the camera on a towel at the base of the sink and I've used that to pull it left and right and shoot. It was hard to put that one image that covers my face perfectly, so I kept on shooting and pulls the towel to one direction just a bit and shoot again, and so on. All shots were bracketed for HDR merging later on, so the one you see here, Perspective, is tone-mapped from a HDR slide in fact. In tone-mapping I tried to be moderate as much as possible and still give that grungy (dramatic) look to the image without going crazy with the sliders! I thought also that the blue tint would give it that "medical" or hospital-atmosphere that I usually see in horror movies (I don't watch movies anyway so I might be wrong here). Anyway, the blue tint serves the mood better here more than a warm tone would. Later on, I've even created some anaglyphs out of the shots.

The fun continued (in some other day) and AGAIN, with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. I guess you can tell already how much I love this lens despite my fail in adapting it to some of my landscape shots when I used to travel! Nevertheless, the distortion it provides, does add such a dramatic tension to the image (well, if used correctly and thoughtfully).
So, I picked this lens again and went on trying to find some interesting venture to shoot, and i decided to do some camera motion (again).

So, nothing really special about these shots except for the abstract and I'm actually thinking now to upload them to some stocks. All what was needed here is to fix the exposure time to 1 or 2 seconds, just enough to rotate the camera in my hand for a full circle. As for the colors here (despite shooting the same subject under the same lighting conditions), this is just a change of the white balance (probably when processing the RAW files). More work was done to fix the exposure actually as the images were originally brighter than this (and softer).

Infrared Craze

Been months now with the lock-down (it's easing now but my schedule didn't really change much here) and I got into the habit of going out in the yard to read a book under the sun in the early morning before it gets scorching hot. I also water the plants and all of that; A daily routine (almost). Anyway, there was a time when I wanted to write a post for my Arabic blog about infrared (part 2) and just needed some infrared shots to explain some aspects about this art. So, after doing the "innocent" stuff for that blog post, I've found myself roaming and playing around with these infrared selfies, and I kind of created a path or a style for me here that I might try on other images (portraits and other).

The general aspects of this style are:

• Raise the brightness (by exposure or brightness sliders or even Fill) but without going off the histogram.
• Raise the blacks just to show outlines (or until it kisses the left side of the histogram).
• Maybe just lower the saturation to near B&W. 
• Outside the RAW editing window, the pupils are kept as black as possible with selective (layer masks) editing techniques.

The rest, then, is just a work of contrast (which I would probably set before doing the above adjustments), beside fixing the white balance and other color issues. So in a sense, it is kind of a synthetic high-key done after the fact instead of with speedlites or strobes in a studio. It is important though to realize that the less shadows are there, the better. I've tried this technique already with some older shots done indoors, and the results were not up to the level, but I'll keep trying anyway and see!

Finale

Well, I guess I better make this short at this point. There are some few shots that I did want to talk about but probably I'll keep them for later for now - along with a probable discussion for another style of editing. We'll see if I get the time to do that post in the future!
On a side note, it seems I've totally forgot to mention this item of news, and that is two of my images had been accepted in 16th PSAChina international exhibition of photography, and I've received some emails to provide the original images for display in the exhibition. That does not mean that I've won any award, but simply that these images did pass the judgement or critique and deemed worthy of display. I didn't get involved in any contest for a long time and probably I will not do so in a long time as well, but this display do give me a bit of spark.

The two accepted images: (left) Anxiety, (right) Houdini.
Worth noting that Houdini was marked as inspirational on YouPic as well.

It seems that, at this point, that YouPic can be somewhat an aid for me to judge my images in the future and see what to submit to contests, though I know this approach is not quite accurate, simply because professional photographic circles do not work in that manner, and YouPic is still, after all, a social media website and not a circle of professional photographers whose job is to critique. You can critique on YouPic but I doubt people there would welcome that anyway specially if not asked for it.
Anyway, after receiving the email about the pick, I was asked to submit the originals (for printing I suppose) plus a personal photo. I did all of that, but now, I'm not sure what's next. Would I receive an online catalog (like most contests)? Are my images considered or classified as Honorary Mention? I'm not sure, but we'll see. I might receive some other email containing the catalog. It's funny though to know that both of these images are actually selfies or self-portraits!
On the other hand, there had been some few incidents with my workplace that I didn't talk about before probably but amazingly I'm discovering new things about my life and the whole thing called "work" at this point and this stage. I've realized that some people are simply annoying or causing problems even more when they are further away (and work online)! i kind of feel sicker of my workplace at the moment despite the fact that I didn't go there for months (except for 2 days back in July). This calls my brain again to find a substitute, but as always, most probably the search end up with nothing and be in vain.
As I'm getting closer and closer to 40 (in less than 2 weeks time), I'm looking back at what I've achieved and what not. Some say I've done a lot, yet I don't really see it. They say that 40 is a new time or a new age, and it's like opening a new page of life, and again, I don't see that coming. Maybe I don't want to see? Maybe. However, I'm trying to keep it as real as possible. One of my simplest dreams was to have my own family and stay away from this problematic house and build myself up as I like, yet, all my attempts failed miserably. And reaching 40 does not make the process or the thought of it any better. In fact, I've already abandoned such an idea already and I think I better be on my own. All what I need for now is a home; A place I can call home.

Pre-Ramadhan…

After stopping for a week because of lack of time and the tiresome body, here I am again trying to put up with the latest. I'm lagging behind with some ideas and experiments I should have been working with lately, and my time management, to say the best, sucks. Yet, not sure if this is my problem or it's just my destiny to be so.
In the meantime, I think it is time to put some of my work done in 360 mall here in Kuwait, after the end of the contest specified for that mall. Of course, none of my work did win (3 photos maximum for every contestant). However, I did get an email about one of my images being shortlisted (i.e. qualified at some point). Not sure though which image is it!

I

The location itself was, despite its visual beauty, hard to find a good perspective in it. The third place in the contest was awarded to a friend in the group and I'm not sure at what location exactly was it taken. My three contributions were actually made of the same panorama in different projections. It was hard for me to find some interesting points or some harmony, and to add to my hardships, my light meter was out of power and I had to depend solely on the camera's light meter; which meant I must work in Av mode instead of the Manual mode. That contributed a lot to discrepancies in exposures. Not to mention the final weird color spots which I usually encounter from time to time in my HDR panoramas. However, it seems that I was either in the wrong section for the contest or, maybe just didn't find hidden corners like the others did.

II

After doing the panorama, I did indeed take single shots, but then reading the conditions thoroughly I've found that shots should be more into those Vertical Gardens. The single shots I've made were, unfortunately, not into these gardens and more into the architecture of the place. Also, they were taken with my converted camera and using an infrared gel filter at the back of Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. Thus, I've found myself just changing the projection for this single panorama and submitting the images to fill in the 3 slots available. Of course, it is not necessary to fill in these 3 slots but I felt bad of uploading just one, the regular flat one (I). The vertical one (II)seems to be the messiest of all with many color splashes and a lost focus on the gardens themselves, even though I tried to make somewhat a swift movement for the gardens and the decor. Still, the element of harmony is lacking drastically in this one.

III

The planet projection of the same panorama had the same defects almost; lack of harmony, though maybe to a lesser degree than the vertical projection. In the planet projection, specifically, I tried to increase the cyan tones a bit to counteract the excessive red to magenta tones. Doing the panorama beside that long pillar was absolutely a wrong idea. But with such a place that lacks a specific center of mass (i.e. a center architectural focus to wrap the panorama around it), I had no choice there. Doing the panorama in the middle of the sets of tables of the cafés in that area wouldn't be any better too.

Upperways

As I've mentioned before, after doing the panorama, I tried to take single shots. These singles shots were done with my converted EOS 7D, and tried taking shots with and without the infrared filter. The difference here is that, the converted camera would record all spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet, as well as the visible spectrum in between. But using a filter on the lens, would filter the visible spectrum and other ranges to allow a specific band to pass. All single shots were taken with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, and some were in landscape while most were in portrait orientation. Shots like Upperways include the widest spectrum, and after a bit of twitching to the white balance value, some strange mix of colors is produced far from reality. Nice effect. In Upperways, I used DxO software to correct the fisheye distortion, and that resulted in cropping a large area of the image. One question occurred to me at that time which I'm still not able to answer: How to do the metering for infrared shots?

Infra360

Usually, when shooting infrared shots with a regular camera, I would in fact take several shots using high ISO value and checking the histogram. When the histogram is alright, I just roll back to the lowest ISO and do a long exposure. Things are a bit different when using a converted camera because (without a filter) metering is done for a whole spectrum (adding the focusing problems). With some filter on the lens, probably the method of trial and error can still be done though it would be lengthy somewhat; yet the concept of having a converted camera is to be able to work with such filters (UV or IR) with ease as if working around with a regular camera. Working in LiveView is a must in these cases, whether the camera is converted or not, and specially when the lens has no IR marker (and I've never seen a UV marker before at all!). While doing more shots like Infra360, I've discovered later that some shots were adjacent somewhat to each other with little perspective difference, which might be proper for making a 3D anaglyph later on. I wouldn't know exactly until I try though.

Finale

I'm trying slowly now to work on some of my projects; specifically the 4D experiments. I'm trying to formulate some ideas about it though. Meanwhile, I'm observing the arrival of Ramadhan by next week, and I'm not sure if I will be keeping up with this blog or not. However, one thing is for sure: I'm going to have sleeping problems the whole month. My activity, as well, will be down low because of this. I miss traveling, but looking at my budget at the current time, seems this year is not going to be mine. Ironically, it is the year of the Monkey in the Chinese Calendar, which is my Chinese sign as well… The Monkey.

Official...

Surprises (or should I say Semi-Surprises) still have a plenty for me to show, and it is yet still the first month of the year.
It is official now. I've been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa by a specialist, after checking all the results of the tests I've done in the past 2 months: Field of View (FV), OCT, and ERG. I'm not sure how did he really read my results without a close-up inspection to my eyes, but he depended, as it seems, on the ERG test result which I've done last Thursday. I'm not sure what's the next step, but anyway the doctor said that he cannot make up for how severe it is. When he asked if I do suffer of anything, I simply replied what with what I feel and what I've seen: Nothing.
Anyway, more about that probably later. I'm somehow happy for this past week for a number of reasons which I'll be talking about below.

A World of Pajero

I've finally had a chance to do a panorama for my new car; Pajero 2014. The panorama wasn't any easier than the one done with my old car, Seat, despite the relatively wider space inside. This is mainly relative to the size of the tripod and the bulky nature of the panorama tools I need to use. This in fact sparked me to think seriously about finding some alternatives somehow.

Pajero 2014

Even though I've stated before that I'm not going to use the parking lot in my work place because I'm disgusted of that place, but anyway I've come up with a solution just to avoid suspicions. That day, however, I had to wash the car and make sure it's clean of dust and I had to remove all the plastic sheets covering the seats (as in any new car). After doing my fingerprint scanning to leave work, I've went to the back of the parking lot as if I was leaving but instead of leaving I just parked there in somewhat isolated spot. The total process (settling and shooting and packing at the end) took me around one hour and a half. During this time there were employees who did pass in front of me and I somehow managed to escape some of them, while HDR technique and merging did the rest of eliminating some of the moving objects that appeared out of control!
The panorama was mainly formed by 3 rows like in normal panoramas with one or two shots for the zenith (but didn't use it later). As for the nadir, it is already a hassle in a regular panorama so imagine shooting this inside a car! I did try, however, to dangle the tripod with the camera and the carrier from the back of the Pajero, but the shots taken were not to be considered "serious"!

A World of Pajero

However, even though it is not a full panorama, the set of images were enough to do some twisting in the projection style as can be seen in A World of Pajero. I think what really helped me here very well in accentuating the colors is using a proper white balance to start with, and this was achieved by using my new Vello white balance disc. From that point, changing colors and vibrancy of colors is, relatively, an easier task.
Even though Pajero 2014 was tone-mapped using Photomatix, yet I find that tone-mapping A World of Pajero using Photoshop CS5 did the job perfectly and with relatively more flexibility than in Photomatix. With the new controls that Adobe provided for tone-mapping HDR images, I think this is becoming a serious candidate and a powerful tool for tone-mapping HDR slides.
I've already printed the flat panorama and prepared it (and signed it) to give it as a gift to the sales person who managed my papers for this car in the nearest opportunity; probably when I go for the first service after 1,500km is passed. This is in a part, can be said to be a "self promoting" somehow, or let's say a free ad. Since I suck at socializing, probably such acts would do me a favor "socially." We'll see about that later...

Nächtlich

Now, there was an idea that I've been trying to do for several weeks but I would always lay lazy or exhausted, or simply the weather and timing wouldn't allow me to. This past week though I had to force myself to work despite some health issues. Seems that the coughing syrup worked on making me drowsy in the first night of the weekend, thus I couldn't do much at night, but the second night I had to push myself despite the persistent coughing. Even though I headed to the location late after midnight, I've encountered some annoying "youngsters" who were not of this country. I somehow got pissed off because at the only time I could be there I must bear with such people. Even though I tried to work silently without paying any attention, I've decided to go back to my car and watch the please until they leave - they seemed to be under drugs or high because of something!

Die Kuwaitische Mitternacht

Guess I've forgot to mention that the destination is the Soog Sharg pier (or dock?) which was a favorite location in the past weeks for long exposures with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. This time, however, the measures are different; I'm doing  panorama and to ensure that the luminance is coherent for the HDR merging later, I have to take 3 bracketed shots, and to ensure that the total time for each shot does not exceed 30 seconds, there is no escape from raising the ISO. Even though it's not something new here but my previous record was to work with a panorama in ISO800. This time, however, it had to be ISO1000! This will have gruesome consequences later on...

Planeta Mitternacht

One of the gruesome consequences of such panorama under such ISO is, naturally, the hardships with the cleaning process and, with highly distorted projections like in Planeta Mitternacht, the noise level becomes even uglier. To clean the image, then, means you must lose details. Thus, so far, these images are for display only and printing them is not something to think of in the current time - unless I find some other workflow to work with these images.

Gravitation

Obviously, the noise level is harsh in shadow areas. There is a noise layer as well in bright areas like the blue sky for example, but they are not as harsh and "ugly" as those in the shadow areas. Probably, I needed even more time for such exposures to expose the shadows properly! But to do this, I would have, properly, spent 2 hours if not more, shooting this panorama.

Schrein Am Meer
The worst to suffer from the noise.

Working at the pier in fact was not even any easier physically than my previous panoramas done back in 2012 on the seashore. Because of the bulky planks and the gaps in between them, clumsiness in movement which I've been known for was NOT allowed! Any loose clutch or grip on any of the tools I've been using (to screw, unscrew...etc) is definitely not an option, and walking must be done carefully in such darkness because my feet can easily trip in between the planks.

Working with these panoramas now did in fact spark some desire within me to work with older panoramas, specially those from Ireland of 2010, from Co. Tipperary. Under the light of the new vision and the new techniques I've learned so far, probably I could make out something different from these old pieces!

Helios

Source: B&H

I've finally received my shipment here and I had the chance to do a simple test for my new lens, the Rokinon 800mm f/8 Mirror Lens (a.k.a. reflex lens). To use it, I have to connect it to a t-mount adapter specified for EOS system. I was lucky that Vello's T-Mount Adapter comes with a small booklet that gives some idea about connecting the camera to a telescope and other optical devices which gives me some simple guidance of what to expect in the future if I need to do more with my camera.

Source: B&H

I've ordered also a Cokin ring adapter to fix my welding glass in front of the lens (which has a diameter of 105mm), but for some reason the ring came a little! Hence, it is hard to completely fit it into the lens but it did some job after all - even though the situation might be shaky. The other hardship here is the fact that I'm not using a zoom lens, but a "prime" lens. Previously, I used to zoom out to find the object and then zoom into the object (be it the sun or the moon or anything else). Here, though, I have to find my way the hard way, and with this shaky tripod system. Things get even harder with adding teleconverters and raising the focal length up to 3200mm! Anyway, I was able to give it a try.

Sonntag
Rokinon 800mm Mirror lens, f/8, 800^-1sec, ISO100.

To add to my "good" luck (and please note the sarcasm), since I got the new lens, I didn't have a good chance to shoot the sun nor the moon because of the clouds and few rains. I did have a single opportunity to shoot at the sun with welding glass, but it seems that the nature (and thickness) of the welding glass is a main reason for defocusing. The shaky system probably makes it harder for me to concentrate my eyes and focus properly (and everything is done manually) but it apparent that focusing with the welding glass is harder. As I'm typing this, I'm waiting for my chance to shoot, this time trying my ND filters (and I do need to use a stack of them). Not sure though if they will fit and cover the diameter of the lens. Another option would be to use the gel filters sheet which I still have, and let them down in front of the lens with the help of the Cokin ring. Just some ideas that I need time to test further. These issues, however, are nothing compared to be having a good and dependable tripod right now which made me think seriously of getting a new one from here.

Finale

Now it is probably the time to slow down and do as much as possible in the same time. Despite the fact that I'm officially diagnosed for retinitis pigmentosa (RP) right now, I'm just trying to chill and cool down my nerves and go on with my life without putting much weight on my own notifications about my own sight.
I had some ideas before in fact about what if I was a sculptor; probably I can make a monument somehow to commemorate RP and its patients.But since I'm a photographer (or let's say trying to be still), maybe then I can show and do something on the same line? What can I do as a memorabilia for this?

I do have some ideas in my pocket right now, but to do them, some effort is needed, specially if I'm working alone and trying to take shots on my own for my own self. I do have some other ideas not related to RP as well and all is scribbled down on sticky notes. Just need the proper "timing" to work with them.

Maybe I can imagine RP to be an inflicted photography style somehow. I'm not sure how this is possible but probably with some thought and philosophy and meditation, I would be able to reach a solution for how to work around RP, and show it in my work.

I'm not sure what I'm awaiting in this life for the time being. My exhausted mind and body are really urging for a vacation somehow but it's unclear how or when. The only thing that I can do for the time being, is just look for some time to sleep, as much as I can...

Turbulent...

I'm not sure how to describe this week, but one thing for sure: I'm getting sicker and sicker from work. One of the graceful "gifts" from the "palace" of my work place is that they have given me some days when my fingerprint scanning (to check the attendance) is canceled. Thus, I kind of had the chance to get back home early without checking out, specially in the days when Mom has dialysis.Things will be back to the old rhythm starting from next Sunday anyway. This time even with further stress as college students would be back probably, hence the traffic jam will be optimum as usual. All that pushes me for a real vacation. And by real, I mean out of this place, away from those people.
On the other hand, some ideas for a panorama inside the car had to wait a bit because of the rains and the foggy days in the past 2 weeks, and yet I have to find a proper place to work. I've stated before in my previous post that the parking lot in my work place is a good spot, but because of the many headaches I've been involved in at work, I just became so sick of the idea.

Old is (not) Gold

As I was going through my archives one day I've figured that there was once a project, a small one, that I didn't yet complete back in 2011! This small project wasn't completely a photography project but more like a photo manipulation which, naturally, includes doing some photography of myself. The idea was to mimic or to express a feeling about Asperger's syndrome.

Asperger's

The final look wasn't what I exactly envisioned but since I totally lost the vision about this old project, I've decided to do some final touches and finish it. The image is supposed to show the tear of mind and soul, and how a person is stretched back in pain with every step advancing forward; this in my vision, how an Aspie (a person suffering Asperger's) would be feeling.
The merging of the two images (face and hand) isn't quite plausible. I had this idea back in a time when I had some doubts about my mental processes and my actions; as I thought I do indeed have Asperger's or something in that spectrum already. Anyway, even after assuring me that I can't have such a condition by some friends (in the know), I still kept on going and thinking about this shot. After working for some time with it I've suddenly left it as it is without completion and went on to do something else (ADHD now?). Anyway, it should have been worked out further than this but it's old and I think it is the time to just finish it without asking about the final result!
This though inspires me to do more self-projects in the near future, if possible.

Boiler

The boiler room on the top of the house has been a subject for some thoughts for some time. In fact, I was waiting for winter just to do some shooting inside. In summer the temperature in the vicinity would not be bearable. I, in fact, had the chance to work with this room at the time of doing my first sun shots 2 or 3 weeks ago, but never posted them here.

The Boiler Room

The panorama part was hard to be done. I had a dream of, by some means, keeping the VR-head hanging in the air somehow to do the panorama from the top of the machinery in the middle of the small room. Yet, looking at the situation, my wits weren't enough to find a solution for this, thus I've decided to go to the corner (directly in front of the door) and do a "small" panorama there for around 3/4 a circle, or ~270 degrees.
Looking at the final results, I've known that it's not something to upload, specially with the skewed bottom in the image. Even though I did take a lower portion (lower set of images at -45^o), but still more images and work was needed to keep things straight in such a small space. With such circumstances, I've realized that I won't be uploading this image to stock sites, and hence, I've decided to play around with tone-mapping to make it unreal a bit. I think the slightly opened door helped here to add some ghostly atmosphere to the scene. The organization of the objects in the scene still leaves a lot to be desired, but these are stable objects and I don't think I could do anything better than that, for the time being.

Boiler

Then after finishing the small panorama I still had the urge to give another try, this time though with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. I've placed the camera on the gorilla pod (which I call spiderpod as well) in the same corner I stood in and with some help with the light meter, I've gone with bracketed shots from -2EV to 2EV. I've taken several shots, and every time the angle of the camera would be changed slightly and I think Boiler, above, was the best from all, in terms of the angle and the luminance.
Unfortunately, here too, the lines in the whole image aren't quite what I desired. I feel they are random. Probably, the only feature that captures my own eyes in this shot is the set of faucets on the right side. The gap between the faucets and boiler machinery somehow breaks the homogeneity or harmony. I think we are here, somehow, working with a concept that works against the typical minimalism. In other words, stacking features and lines to complicate the image, but with a condition of finding some harmony and balance between these lines and shapes, in such a way to form a continuum for the eyes to follow when viewing the scene. I've heard about the concept of maximalism (as an opposition to minimalism) but I'm not sure if I should define the concept that I've just stated as something that goes under the umbrella of maximalism. Probably, I will just call it Anti-Minimalism.

Getting Wet

As I've stated above, because of the rains and the foggy days in the passing 2 weeks, I had to delay the idea of a panorama inside my new car. However, some drops of rain on the body of the car inspired me for some abstractive shots.

Perlen der Natur
Canon EF 50mm + 20mm ET, f/22,
HDR, ISO400.

That day, I've placed my new Manfrotto macro rail on my monopod (which does sound like a crazy idea) and headed outside while it was raining. I was in a hurry that I've just forgot to cover the camera and the lens with my new LensCoat. Working with a monopod was indeed a hard job and it was barely stable but I had to because my car, back then, was parked in front of the house and surrounded by other cars, and working with a tripod here isn't feasible.
With a high f-number as f/22 and an extension tube, I had to raise the ISO just to shorten the time of the shots and get a proper bracket into HDR later. Many people commented on Perlen der Natur, saying that the lower right portion is distracting, and that's true indeed, but to crop this portion out, I would literally diminish the image down to the size that it can't be used as a stock or a print even, and would be barely suitable for online galleries!

Liquid Gold
Canon EF 50mm + 20mm ET, f/22,
HDR, ISO400.

After doing the major work with Perlen der Natur, which included not only a crop of some portions, but also a rotation of the frame itself, I've decided to test some work-out which is usually and typically used for infrared shots: swapping channels. The Reds and Blues channels that is. The rotation of the frame, from my own point of view, was essential. The original orientation of this image was 90^o clockwise of what you see here.
I think the main issue has to do with the inclination, or the diagonals, which are made by the water droplets and the light reflections on the body. I'm not quite sure what are my feelings toward the original orientation but it just felt not right and needs to be rotated. Probably, just a theory, the droplets of water on the body in this new orientation are directed upward while in the original is going downward (naturally!); and that is a symbolical expression for hope and challenge in my unconsciousness? In any case, originally such shot would benefit a lot from focus stacking specially with me now using the Manfrotto rail, but with a monopod, my chances were slim for a successful stack.

Durch Dunkelheit

Last week specifically, with some clear atmosphere and lesser chances for rains (but more rains might visit in the coming days from now). Thus, I've decided to head out at night as usual and look for a new location that I didn't work with before (or not much at least). In previous nights I've totally forgot about one location which was a place where I created one of the most puzzling panoramas that people in here talked about!

Planeta Columnae

In fact my visit to this location again, would be a source for another vision for this panorama specifically but I will head to that later in the coming days. However, this panorama was taken after dusk hours and people were roaming the place (and I'm sure many of them were looking at me as if I was a loco). This time, I'm heading there for complete darkness after midnight with as few people as possible.

Skylander
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 40sec, ISO100.

One of the killing mistakes that I've committed there is to go out and forgetting my LED lights or any other light sources to see my way. Thus, I had to use my intuition bit and a bit of my memory (which can be worse than that of a goldfish!). Because of this, it was a shaky situation because I was standing with legs open above a water channel from the main fountain (you can see it in the panorama Planeta Columnae above). I've used my memory to set the f-number or aperture without looking at the numbers at f/8. Focusing though is another story and as a result, most of the shots taken that night had some soft focusing problem. Anyway, the problem is more apparent when viewed at 50-100% in the original file.
Despite the fact that I've taken several exposures in order to do a HDR merging later, Skylander, which took only 40 seconds, was chosen for some RAW editing instead of the other long exposures, which some took like 2 minutes. This is because the histogram of this particular shot was suitable and adequate for RAW editing more than the darker frames lesser than 40 seconds, and those very bright frames taking 1 minute and above. At the end, I did a channel swap again to show the tiny traces of trace in the sky more, as the blue is so dark and almost hid the features of the clouds as well as some trails. I think the surreal look at the end with a red sky is something, rewarding!

Das Licht Der Dunkelheit
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, HDR, ISO100.

Later, I headed to the outer walkway around the center of the place or monument. My aim in the beginning was to centralize the monument but the problem was a pillar standing in my way and covering much of the monument when I stand close by. Thus, I've decided to create a twisting line from the curved walkway roof. My thoughts were going in the field of "guiding line". I've taken several exposures, from 4 minutes down to 3 seconds even and merged the whole set into HDR. But processing this image to reflect the mystery in it was trickier than I thought!
I've made several versions of Das Licht Der Dunkelheit, either by tone-mapping the HDR slide or by editing a single RAW file. Editing the RAW file was promising in fact, with bright blue/magenta sky and yellow lights, but the problem is that this wasn't what I aimed for. It's not the soft feeling I wanted for this scene. Tone-mapping, however, proved to be even more baffling because of the many possibilities and many feelings that can be triggered by different settings when tone-mapping.
Generally speaking, I do have some regret for this angle specifically because I feel that the light sparkles (even after the slight crop from top and left) is somehow corrupting the view. I've settled my mind now on visiting this place again as soon as possible to adjust and check other angles if possible. I'm somehow satisfied with the final version here, with these directional shadows and lights, but something more could have been done, I believe.

Finale

Source: B&H

Source: B&H

Source: B&H

Source: B&H

Things are drawing near now. I can't have more patience to get more tool in order to enhance my astrophotography experience. I'm not sure when to put an order for Rokinon's 800mm mirror lens, but it is (along with other accessories in the list) are already in the cart and I might click the Check-Out button at any moment! Probably I would place such an order directly after receiving my salary payment in the 20s of this month. naturally, to order this lens I have to place an order for a T-Mount adapter (second image) in order to connect this lens to EOS systems. Then comes the Cokin 105mm adapter ring. This ring is specified for X-Pro series, (Canon lenses for EOS systems usually run under Z-Pro series) but anyway with my strong paper clips to hold the filters on the adapter I believe it won't be a problem. I've been checking the dimensions for the welding glass specifically and I think it will cover the whole opening of the mirror lens if it arrives here. This is quite essential to shoot at the sun. The only drawback here is the fact that I can't fit the IR filter in any way (not even with a step-down ring). To my experience, IR shots are more interesting than welding glass shots to some point. Finally, there is the Manfrotto 293 Telephoto Lens Support with Quick Release which will help me to give some support for the set of lenses either in astrophotography, or in macro shots, or extra macro shots (with lens coupling) instead of having the body of the camera attached to the tripod. The reviews for this device sound great!
Now with a simple calculations, what I'm expecting is a working focal length of 800x2x2, that is 3200mm! Meanwhile, most of the astro-shots for the moon and the sun are at 1200mm maximum. This is something around x2.6 more zoom power.

My future hopes and projects are what make me alive right now. The thought of leaving my current work place and just act as a freelancer is haunting me day and night. I don't know how to bear this and for how long. A vacation in this time is a must. A real necessity. Day by day, I'm getting so fed up with the disrespect in this useless work place.
Looking at the people around me I do sometimes thank God that I'm not married, specially under such conditions where everything is rocketing high up and no one is holding the greedy people back from chewing this country's people and economy. Makes me have dreams of what I would do, if I was a president of some country. The situation with my sister seems desperate somehow and I would wish to help her out somehow with her kids, but I guess my hands are cuffed in this matter. Needless to say, the more I live and grow, the more I despise the parliament and its people. I wish if I can set this place, and those people on fire.

As much as I try to ease out my life in any other way, seems everything I face is, simply, denying me this pleasure. A work place that I despise, and a home that I don't feel for. I'll wait then for some signal to see where to head next... this, with exhaustive thinking, is all I can do...

Kämpfe der Maschinen...

And I thought this week I will have a nice vacation for 3 days for the National Day celebrations. I was wrong; dead wrong. Honestly, I had some plans for my own in this holiday - I wanted to clean my room which is now a real mess; a REAL mess.
However, my plans got altered severely and I had to go after some tasks for the group as Mawahb 3 expo is approaching in March and there are lot of things to do yet. I'm praying things go well with this expo; we've put a heavy load of effort on it, beside so much stress to be coping with - beside grumpy members to go along with (or to quit working with).

Re-Visited:

In the mess and the fuss I was trying to work a bit more on my previous arsenal of images that I've taken and didn't touch, but also I had some unfinished story with some panoramas.

Esfera Andaluza

And back to the Arab Organizations Headquarter (AOH) where I worked on more panoramas. It seems that it is just my luck that I can't be situated under the center of the ceiling every time I head for a panorama, and in our case in AOH, it is because of the fountain. However, it seems that Esfera Andaluza with its circular projection, is visually almost at the center; but it needs a keen eye to notice the nudge off the center a bit.

Planeta Andalusia

However, before working on Esfera Andaluza, there was one weird aspect that I had to be over with yet: The little planet projection.
The story here is weird because the final image is not a typical little planet like I used to do with some interior panoramas. Rather, it is a mix or something in between the two levels of a planet projection and the wide view (which highly distorts the sides and pushing the center deep backward giving more depth to the image as in a fisheye lens).
When I first applied the little planet projection in PTGui, the whole image was not to mz likings for many reasons, but the main reason was the unpleasant view and stretch in the wooden decoration. For this reason I've shifted the nadir point (bottom point) by changing the pitch (i.e. the tilt of the view) nudging the center of the planet panorama off the center down a bit. In a wide-view panorama, the nadir point should be closer to the bottom edge of the image but here, the nadir point is just nudged little bit off the center. What I really like here is the wings formation for the hall in such projection. Anyway, I couldn't find a name for such projection and I'm not completely convinced it is something totally new other than the wide-view and the little planet, I've named the image after Planeta Andalusia referring back to the little planet projection fact.
Amazingly, with some work and some cloning, the nadir point that I've taken before and did not work in the original stitching process worked easily here (specially that it was taken with a great distortion). I had to do some resizing for the nadir image after the stitch was over and like working with tiles in a new building, I've fitted it there and done some cloning to the edges and also some toning to match the colors of the marble surface and lines between the nadir image and the rest of the stitched panorama. All of that process had to be done in HDR format, hence I was not able to use the Color Match command that is normally available under 16- and 8-bit formats.
I think at this point, all my extractions out of this panorama is done completely. I might visit back in case I had a new idea in mind. I've already inspected the possibilities of a tunnel view projection for this panorama but the overall look didn't sound so good I presume, so I've just skipped stitching this panorama for now. However, I might do it later just for the fun of it!

Arbeitsplatz:

Last week (or even before) I've received a request from the department upstairs in my workplace to take some pictures for the building (and I assume the images they have already were not as good). The whole story began with Kuwait University's Cultural Festival, when the director of the Biotechnology department upstairs was one of the invited guests and she noticed me in the last ceremony for the TV band.

A shot from the festival

However, I was busy a bit with the group (and still) and most of my tools (and thoughts) were scattered. I thought it is a great thing that such request came in winter. I was hoping for some clouds to come in and make my life a bit easier. However, many technical problems occurred! (typical, isn't it?).

Rokinon 8mm, f/8, 0.6sec, ISO100.

As you can see in the image above, the clouds mainly accumulate in the morning and I had some idea for doing a long exposure with such a fisheye lens to have most of the building in view with clouds passing over - but things aren't easy yet. Even though I've developed some ND gels to fit into the rear end of Rokinon's lens, the floodlights won't turn off until the sky is brighter, and probably the clouds are gone.

Rokinon with ND filter in its rear.

It was apparent that my luck was not lucky enough! I've been going to work for several days trying to capture a glimpse of the building and the clouds without floodlights AND cars, but seems the two options just can't be together. However, I kept on trying day after day trying to capture some glimpse of the building at different times and I had to give up the idea capturing some clouds formation because this might take such a long time to deliver the images to the director.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @37mm, f/11,
25^-1sec, ISO100.

One of the shots that I really liked is the one taken from the side aiming at making the pillars and wall lines parallel vertically. However, I was hoping to take this shot with my 50mm lens to reduce the distortion as much as possible but because of thel imitations in the space (another building at my back and some obstructions) I had to get back to my old EF-S 18-55mm; the lens that I hate so well!
After taking this image (on the left), I've first processed the image with DxO to correct the slight tilt and also to fix the barrel (typical for this lens even though not noticed) and then help on making the image more parallel (forcing parallel lines). After reviewing the image in Photoshop then, I've noticed a tiny part of the metallic shade holder popping out and it kind of irritated me because everything looked perfectly parallel but this line was sticking out.

The front and the metallic shade apparent here.
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @24mm, f/8, 8^-1sec, ISO100.

Cloning out the remnants of the shade was not a good option, thus I had to spend some time copying other parts of the image and sticking them into place and smoothing out some parts to hide the edges. It was quite a piece of cake, but if only I knew that this would work out like that I wouldn't waste my time working on cloning!
The image on the right here was also a riddle to be solved because, with the help of DxO, I tried to fix the horizontal lines and make them perfectly parallel, but when this is done, the vertical lines turn non parallel. And the situation is vice versa! I couldn't settle down with one thing after all the fixes so I just watched out for the horizontal lines, I think, to make them parallel and that's it.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @18mm, f/8, 84sec, ISO100.

Since we are at it, I've figured some experimenting with the IR filter won't be harmful, just in case this image or technique (despite being black and white) can be interesting to them. Originally, I've approached this image in different manners, in both, Photoshop and Canon's DPP, and initially I've created what it seemed to be artistically interesting photos (with red shades or with blue shades after swapping channels). However, I thought they won't be that interested in such artistic flow (specially that there is already a fisheye shot). This shot (above) was also subjected to DxO to fix certain parallel lines problems (with the usual tilt in the image because of my bad tripod!). Weirdly though, the right top corner of the building was skewed in a strange way and needed some special treatment!

Canon 15mm, f/16, ISO100.
HDR

Finally, I've decided to do a panorama outside and after the working hours. Since there are no clouds I might get out with something useful here like a high resolution panorama. The panorama is around 180^o initially, but lot of the sides was cropped. Probably the building itself occupies less than 90^o of the field view. I've done a previous panorama for the same building but it was done with a regular tripod and no VR-head and there were some stitching errors. Even though I wished for some sky here but lot of people are happy with the blue sky initially. The goal after all is just to give some printable material for the future uses; and in such cases, the bigger, the better. That way, resizing can be done with relative ease without any fear for loss of details (i.e. critical details).
The course of action was over a period of 2 days, and during that time, I was able to catch a glimpse of how spectacular my mission was:

Canon EF 50mm, f/2, 30^-1sec, ISO100.

 And yes, it was placed in front of my own workplace building. Had to crop here and there to emphasize the subject...
At the time of typing these words, the CD containing these photos is not submitted yet to the director and might not hear back from her soon. I know she's a busy person and probably won't have enough time to look at those few pictures thoroughly.

Nocturnal Nostalgia:

Nocturnal Abstract
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 400^-1sec, ISO100.

Before proceeding with the nostalgia part, I have to say that I barely found some time to work on with some of the images taken from Ahmadi around 2 weeks ago. After going over the images again probably I didn't find much, but there were some images that were saved in layered TIFF format but I didn't complete the editing process to be posted last week in this blog.
Some images were hard to be liked, but I thought maybe some cropping would do the job and change the image into something likable, like Nocturnal abstract. I've converted the image here to black and white to emphasize the looks of the light and neglect the importance of the colors (they were red, yellow and orange). I'm not sure this image would be liked by anyone but I like it after all for its simplicity of lines.

Counter Clockwise
Canon EF 15mm, f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

However, there were some images that I've neglected for some time, probably because of the pressure over me with the group's activities hovering over. One of those images was Counter Clockwise which was taken at a roundabout (before the arrival of some hooligans). I could've made the exposure longer than 30 seconds but the circumstances there made me stop at this point and I thought 30 seconds is just fair enough - all what I would have to do is time it with the arrival of some cars. Initially, I wanted to take this shot with Rokinon's 8mm fisheye lens but the view was so wide that the clock tower in the roundabout seemed so small and far away and this is exactly the opposite of what I wanted in the first place. My best choice was the 15mm lens (and better than my EF-S 18-55mm of course!).

Round Around
Canon EF 15mm, f/22, 30sec, ISO100.

Gates of Light
Tamron 70-300mm @119mm,
f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

Still with the 15mm fisheye lens when Round Around was taken and in this shot I didn't really care much about the composition as much as I cared for the simple movement of the merry-go-round. I had to crop a lot from the top to remove the black sky and I've darkened the triangular part near the top edge which so bright and shiny because of the floodlight behind me here. Not an image I would submit usually but it simply has some motion that I like. Some images however could not be fixed even after cropping hard. I like some movements in them like Round Around and Gates of Light, which stopped my cropping at a certain point because of gated lights, yet I have to say I simply like some aspects of the images and not completely like the images themselves. I think it is important to have some hope in every image you take even if you don't like or love the total aspect of the image. I've met some people so far that desire and wish to make a masterpiece of every shutter click, but this is simply not possible, and not even Ansel Adams would have dreamed of something like that! The point here, I do photography because I like it, not because I want people to be impressed with it - and when I share my images, I share my interests with the world. I'm not showing people how a good photographer I am, because simply, I'm not.

You might be wondering, where does the nostalgia part comes in. It comes from the fact that during this holiday (National Independence and liberation days), I've decided to visit the area that I've lived in for 23 years of my life. I was born and raised there and back then I've never imagined myself being out of this area. But life has its own measures and (bad and good) surprises for us. Things changed a bit since I've left this area in 2003, but the general plan and shape of the roads is mostly the same. 

Electric Sakura

Glowing Kuwait

Smiley Lighty

I won't be discussing the matters of these images and how good or bad they are (and I think most of them aren't that good), but I just wanted to say that that night sparked some memories about places that maybe I was supposed to be in till this very day if not for legal and financial problems that the family had been through. 
They told me the light decoration in the area is magnificent and they were to some extent but not as brilliant as the light decoration and miniatures in Ahmadi. Yet, I tried to enjoy my time taking some snap shots. A lot of the light decorations were raised up high and were regular in patterns making shooting them with a camera a bit of a hard task and monotonous.
I didn't write up any technical details on each image here. All what I want to do personally is just stare at these images and remember the old days. Who cares what lens I've used in these shots?

Finale:

Had been a time of stress lately. Not only for the numerous activities that I have to cope with, but also for matters of the heart - which I'm trying to have a foundation of.
In the mean time, I'm keeping some thoughts to myself after the pressure over members of the group and myself. To me, I don't care much about contests and expos (or let's say my interest is minimum), but to some other members it seems not so - specially after what seemed to them it is a harsh judgement over their images. With me, being responsible for the printing process and following-ups in this field, I've realized many hardships that members face. I have a list of points that I'm keeping for myself right now but probably would expose them at the right moment:

• Neglecting expos and contests and stop pressurizing the group's activities. If you want to bake a cake, quick baking is not the way.
• Giving a period of time for free activities for the group and not putting stress on their shoulders for some months.
• Opening up a discussion on a weekly basis for the pictures taken randomly by members every week. We have to emphasize the emotional connection to the images and not only to think in an abstract manner about beauty itself. This is not sorting out by critics, but a discussion.
• We must drop down the spirit of competition inside the members of the group; photography is a philosophy, not a fight. Won? good, lost? I'm happy about my pictures.
• A workshop to produce images would not necessarily give out the results right away. Mastering a technique after a workshop or a chain of thoughts (if the workshop is about certain field of photography) can take up to months of hard work - this is if such field is really appreciated and rises curiosity inside the photographer.
• Judgements and criticizing images should be done under the light of the available gadgets and knowledge of the photographer. A beginner photographer should not be criticized up to the same level as an advanced photographer. In Kuwait, landscape photography is a pure example of such differences in creative powers in such field of photography. It's hard to make out an astonishing image from a landscape in this country; why would I ask so much from the photographer for things out of his or her control?
• The activities should be divided in between the group members. In other words, not all (or most) group members should get involved in contests or expos, but the load should be divided and shared. Moreover, it would be better if the leader of the group picks certain members to submit some of their images for certain contests, since the leader knows better about the capabilities of certain members. I think this is far better than trying to seed ideas and waiting for the plow by all members.
• Technical advices concerning working with RAW format and color spaces is a must.

Ironically, I wish if I can make out some ideas to organize myself as I'm trying to organize some aspects of the group.

I'm not sure where am I heading, but from time to time some dreams tickle my heart and mind. Age seems to be something not to be forgotten - or not so easily I would say. Walking alone, working alone, and sleeping alone. Wondering still if my life is appreciated by anyone. In the meantime I'm digging hard and trying to grasp my poetic abilities back again. Wrote something but might keep it for the next post, next week. It was an image that inspired the whole piece, a short one though, with hardly squeezed words out of my mind. Would I be able to use photography and photos to inspire for poetry? Who knows... I need something to steam off the anger, the melancholy...

Gelb und Weiß