Ag Dul (Going)...

It is a torn out vacation! Many things to do and so much little time, and sleep. I think I do need to organize my daily activity for now, as I have so much leisure stuff I "need" to do. Mom's sudden sickness and asthma got the bulk of my time for now, but I see things are kind of getting better (specially after buying an inhaling device to help her). Beside all of that, I do need to get back to the Arabic blog as well and talk a bit about my trip to Ireland. Where is time when you need it…

Ag Dul

Still working with the load of photos taken from Ireland this year. Well, not a surprise that I'm not able to work with lot of these photos. Not disappointing, for after all I had my vacation! But maybe I will find some ideas for some of these shots later on. Probably the most frustrating incidents are those related to infrared shots (specifically done with 8mm), as some of them are not sharp enough and I'm not sure if it was because of the focusing of the (manual) lens or is it because that infrared slide got scratched. This brings into my mind another topic, of how to fix a gel filter easily at the back of Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. I can use, of course, a little duct tape. However, this is not practical on location so to say. Still thinking!

Ag Dul (Going)
Rokinon 8mm fisheye,
f/8, 28m, ISO100.

Probably one of the most beloved infrared shots to me is Ag Dul, which was shot on the bank of the lake not far from the Waterfront. I did already a black and white version of this image and sent in a mass email few days ago. However, the new edit was done with the help of the IR profile I've already made for my ACR. This processes usually tends to shift the general tint from Red towards Blue. The only annoying part about it is the slightly out of focus aspect. Not a big deal in a small size but it is so when viewed at 100% (and of course would be so in a large print). As for the grain and the noise, it is a typical story in infrared shots. Unfortunately, stock websites do not comprehend the struggle here! Anyway, such shots, I believe aren't much of use for their line of commerce.
This bluish streak actually makes the infrared gel filter (Kodak's) more desirable than my B+W infrared circular filter (58mm) because of this effect when adjusting colors. Infrared filters have many varieties depending on the threshold value; i.e. the value of the wavelength after which photons may pass (high pass filter of some sort). However, there is so much to learn about them. I wonder now if I can adapt this gel filter even to those lenses which are supposed to be using the circular B+W IR filter.

Áilleacht Dhorcha (Dark Beauty)
Canon EF 50mm + ET,
f/8, 160^-1sec, ISO200.

In one of the weird incidents lately, one of the images which was easily discarded in my first group meeting here, was quite popular in other places. The main reason for the discard is the regularity of the shot I believe as it has nothing to add or no new attraction. This shot, Áilleacht Dhorcha, however, did gain some reputation in communities like Flickr, 500px, and Instagram. Áilleacht Dhorcha was mainly processed (and it is the lowest exposure in a bracket) in a way to mimic the effect of a painting. The main tint of colors was simply achieved by changing the white balance (the original color was pinkish). The rest is the usual job of layers in Photoshop. I do like it personally even though it was discarded from the main stream of reviews in the meeting; The shot gained some popularity in 500px too.

Panorama-wise now, I'm still working on flat versions of the panoramas and didn't start yet with QTVRs or any other projections. This is just a step to manage and control the pace of my work as to not scatter my efforts in various directions. I do believe that I made my mind now of the small "gift" that I should print and send to The Waterfront…

The Waterfront

Probably the blues should have been richer? Maybe. Anyway, I'm still working on the rest of the panoramas one by one and might add another target. The work with panoramas wasn't out of (bad) surprises and disappointments, somewhat. One of the panoramas that I was hoping for more vivacity in its appearance turned out to be hard to be managed and had to put (kill) it down. That is the inside of Inchagoill church panorama…

An Eaglais na hInis an Ghiall
Inchagoill's Island

I'm not sure where did things go wrong, and specially with the halo effect around the edges, but I've tried my best to make it better through tone-mapping but to no avail. Probably it would have been better to tone-map such a panorama using Photoshop, but the problem here the seamless edges; if I want to make a QTVR out of this panorama, the left and right edges must be equal in luminance and other aspects so that the QTVR would be seamless and smooth as one unique view (without any cut in the middle when wrapped). This feature is available in Photomatix when tone-mapping, but not in Photoshop CS5 (so far). I might come back to this panorama to make it better somehow, but not for now!

Back-In

Now that I'm back, I'm trying to regain some foothold on some aspects of my life, specifically those related to "social" activities to some extent. The group I'm a member of is working on preparations for Al-Thani photo contest and the sorting process is still going on. I'm thinking of joining in some workshops within the group as well in fields that are, usually, not in my immediate interests; e.g. sports photography.
Meanwhile, after stopping for several months, I'm back to uploading 500px website. I'm not sure really how special or what is the deal with it, but within the circle of the group they do talk much about it (as if being a circle of professionals). The irony here is that some images that were rejected in the group, do have their own fans on 500px! This said, I got into the trap again of renewing my Flickr account again (to Pro) despite removing my Paypal info long ago from the website. Just discovered that the Paypal info were there (again) somehow. I do realize now that having such Pro accounts in any website of this type isn't a big deal after all. Statistics? Sure, they might be important for some to some extent, yet I do not think it is worth the money. If, however, it is a group of photographers sharing a gallery online, it might be worthy to pay for such services. This is what I think.

I've been also trying to get back to poetry somewhat. I still need something to leak my feelings into. The poetic engine is not as greasy as before when things come easily, but I'm planning to try from time to time, or at least put on a specific time on my schedule to think of some words to pen down. This is not how it used to work though. However, the initial result was The Red Leaf. The biggest problem, in my case at least, is that feelings are there, words aren't.

Finale

I'm here now, trying to fill my life with things I'd love to do before I go back to work in mid November. It is not an easy task though, I tell ya.
For starters, Mom got ill out of a sudden; probably allergy-related condition. At least this is what I hope for her, so that by time things get adjusted. I have to do inhaling procedures for her (and she feels better by now at the time of typing this).

Then, there are some of the chores that I have to do, specifically checking out what happened to the parcels sent from Austria, containing the catalogs of the members (of Trierenberg Circuit's contest) and my Luxury Edition 2014 (where one of my images is displayed). I don't know why they still send to my home address even though I've changed my address to my UK inbox; the post services in this country are down the drain. Beside these chores, I do have a plan to go back on educating myself with Gaelic (Irish) a bit. It is a hard language, even harder than German I'd say, but it would be fun to try maybe! This tempts me to talk about all my projects that are on standby! So, I better stop at this for now...

I've said earlier that I'm trying to get a foothold in my life; but until that is done, this heart is going to be swinging in between the matters of life. It does feel like walking a tunnel, with no light burst at the end. Sometimes, it is but a dream, to let someone know how you feel…
Anyway, better start cleaning my camera now.

Uaigneach 's Ag Fanacht
Lonely, and Waiting...

Inis an Ghaill...

Wow! What a day! I'm so tired now that I can barely write this. Worse though, I can't have a nap before I finish everything for tomorrow; mainly packing.
Today I've head to Inchagoill island (Irish: Inis an Ghaill), which happens to mean "island of foreigners". I'm not sure why it is called like that, but surely I was like a stranger there today! As I've jumped on the boat I've got my camera ready already before hopping in, and fitted my Sigma 70-300mm lens and started to shoot as the boat was ravaging through the lake. It would have been good to use a polarizer in such situations but the shake of the boat would absolutely make this addition useless and helpless. However, I did take a number of images, and I won't be filtering them out probably.

Same house on the banks of the lake shot 5 years ago. This time in close up!

Upon reaching the island, of course we docked and headed down. My "guide," named Patrick, told me where to go: just follow the path. And he headed to other side in front of the dock (there was a rocky dock made) and he said he will be waiting there. Sure I said!

Where I landed. The trees (scotch fir trees) were Patrick headed waiting for me.

The entry to the church.

I followed the path, got lost for a while, but then I've found the church "complex"; well, if I can call it so! Anyway, I did take some shots from outside with 50mm (because it has the largest aperture I have already and helps with shallow depths when needed). My main interest was the designed gateway, which was so narrow for my, and my bag to pass through! After snapping those shots, I started right away setting up my tools to do a panorama outside just in front of the gateway. I'm expecting problems in terms of the exposure and showing details in the sky. Also, seems that using Daylight WB was not the proper choice, but that problem can be easily fixed later on. Strangely, this WB made the ground and some areas of the scene a bit bluish instead of yellowish as it usually does. For this reason, after that point, I had to use the Shade WB.

Things went great in the beginning; panorama outside, panorama inside, and then things started to get a bit wicked. Finishing from this location, it was time then to head to the Coffee House. I got lost again, and luckily I got back to the path again, from which I reached the church. Found some workers on the island (they were there when I landed and started my journey on the island). I asked for directions and they just told me to follow straight in that path. Strangely though, when I asked them about the coffee house, they don't really realize it, but when I describe it as "that little building on the top of the hill" they reckon the building and told me where to go. Again, on the way, I was about to get lost, and then found a gentleman who guided me further and turned me back to the church (apparently I was going in circles) and from there, he told me to follow the path and he left me at a certain point. From that point and on, it was one heck of a way to that building!

Strangely, forgot to take a general shot for the coffee house with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. However, I started my work directly with a panorama from the outside. I was thinking of doing a panorama inside this small building, but I neglected the idea for two reasons: One, not much details inside that would make up for an interesting panorama, and two, the buzzing sounds of flies, wasps or even bees. Whatever was there, the buzzing sound was really loud inside! On the top of the coffee house, there was a nice view, but again, it wasn't suitable for a panorama. However, I did take some shots for the stairway with my fisheyes. Now, the adventure is about to begin...

Finishing from the coffee house, now it is time to go back to Patrick. All what I did is just follow the path down the slope (and had a fall on the way). At one point, I reached what seemed to me like a dead point - no way further with trees filling the way. All what was there is a small outlet leading to the beach area, which seemed to be my only way out! So I did.
The beach was really rocky. REALLY. I can almost say, no sand is there but rocks. Rocks filling the shore and I had to walk on them. I didn't know my location but my pace was slow now and hurtful because of the twisting feet. A tripod on my shoulder, a bag on my hand, and backpack on my back, with a camera around my neck. I even used the tripod (with VR-head attached to it) as a cane to help me go through the rocks. At this point, I realized I'm on the wrong side of the island, but it's too late now to go back. I had to continue and "survey" the shores until I reach the dock!

Map of Inchagoill island (from Wikimapia) and the red circle is supposedly where I got lost I presume, but I'm not that sure about it.

After passing through some muddy ground and dipping myself in water to avoid some branches (heck, I've broken some branches with my shoulders even!), I've reached a maximum point of exhaustion. I literally tried to rest a bit on the ground but the weight of my body and my tools didn't help and I almost fell to the water if it wasn't for me catching the ground with my hands. My head started to twist around, and apparently I do need some glucose in my blood for now! In this journey I was so exhausted to take pictures but at certain point (and before I get so dirty in the mud!) I tried to a simple shot here.

On the rocky beach. It was at this point that I've realized I'm on the wrong side, because the dock is opposite to this piece of land of high scotch fir trees (check 2^nd picture from the top).

After all, I made it! With all that exhaustion I did reach Patrick and we had a laugh together! It was a little adventure but surely a refreshing one. The amazing thing here is, in the beginning you feel miserable for getting wet, but when you get extremely exhausted, you would really enjoy the feel of water in your shoes! Later on the boat, the cold air and the splashes of water drops against my body did really help me cool down and enjoy the ride, but this time, I had to go on without taking photos on the way back - and that gave liberty for Patrick to speed up with the boat unlike the slow motion in getting to the island form the Waterfront. What a day.

All of that now came down to some loss. I have to get a new tripod as soon as I reach home because my tripod lost one of its rubbers in one of its legs, and my VR-head lost one of the screws; luckily it was the 3/4" screw designed for larger cameras and not the 1/3" screw which fits my camera. Now, I have to post this and start to arrange my things in order to leave the Waterfront tomorrow. Goodbye for now, and probably this might be my last post in Ireland...

Alexander 6, V72.

 Sometimes technology can be so harmful for the brain. Yes. Spent hours and hours trying to figure out my way through MySpace, and voila! My brain is jammed or tied, or maybe both.
It was a busy day relatively, but not much with work issues. By the early morning I've went on to pay the installment for my damned car that still in the garage. Yes, I'm paying for something not driving since last April. After coming back, fish samples to be prepared and stinking around, and then here you are, surfing the net for some solutions and some ideas about writing. I thought that I might fix some profile in MySpace and let people see some images there, but I guess I will have to do this back home, because my brain is just so jammed working here. The main problem is that, I cannot put on a signature like the one you see below at the end of every post here. I think this is because of the "iframe" code that the HTML editor does not accept or something! Nasty. I have added an app for my Photobucket account and hopefully, when I get back home, I shall add some pictures solely.

Good news so far. I've received the receipt for my booking and hopefully I shall proceed soon with my visa procedures. I wanted also to book my tickets today as well, but with my head into MySpace, I kind of got busy and could not remember to do this. However, not a big deal for now. But in between this and that, I made a step forward for now with my VR ambitions. I've finally ordered a VR head for my tripod that would allow me to go on making error-less stitchings. I was actually surprised that I've added this VR head into my wishlist before and I've just forgot about it! The thing about this head, away from the previously checked Novoflex, is that it is relatively cheaper (but still big amount of money) and the description is clear with a big mouth: Manfrotto 303SPH QTVR Spherical Panoramic Head Kit. So, this is exactly what I need! Novoflex descriptions were a bit mysterious to me as I was trying to figure out is that suitable for spherical or not, does it rotate in the directions I need or not, and so on. But with this Manfrotto, the obvious is stated: QTVR head kit.

Mentioning panoramas, I'm getting back to the lab panorama with all the stitching errors involved. I'm trying to divide my time between working on other photos and on panoramas for work, and I've just finished one simple panorama that I think I've done before, but that time I didn't have the PTGui or Photomatix:

Inchagoil church from the inside.

I've been roaming the streets and the roads with my mind being busy in many things lately and trying to find the slightest motion in front of me and put it into some line. Trying to train my brain to not stop writing poetry as it was the case few months ago when I remained for more than 5 months without thinking or writing anything. I'm regretting that I didn't practice much music when I was a kid. I think 30 is not a good age to start learning music-playing. I believe our brains at some old ages just stop absorbing new data and information and remain just like that, with little bit of development here and there. Ah well. At least I got a camera...


__________
1705. when the hero got conscious back again
1706. he ran to the hills to avoid the running horde
1707. but the sands were soft and his hands swept
1708. every time he tried to go up the sands put him down
1709. thus he decided to face his fate in front of the hordes
1710. then he turned back and ran toward the horde itself
1711. and jumped high above and started to run
1712. his feet were stepping on the animals' backs
1713. he had to run so fast upon their backs
1714. no mistakes were allowed from his feet
1715. or else he shall be lifeless and dead
1716. the hero kept on running from one back to another
1717. even though they were few moments in time
1718. but time was slowing down in the eyes of Alexander
1719. by jumping from one animal to another he got injured
1720. because the backs of the animals were sharp like swords
1721. but he kept on jumping with all the blood from his feet
1722. until he fell down on the ground and the horde passed away
1723. his sandals were torn out and the blood filled his body
1724. and he felt the pain in every part of his body
1725. thus he crawled to a near by tree to take some rest
1726. while the Cadid was trying to break his chain
1727. the Cadid wanted to rescue his master from this
1728. but the hero remained under the tree and slept

Inchagoill (Inis an Ghaill)

Today, I went by boat to the marvelous and "mysterious" island of Inchagoill. I was supposed to go yesterday but, although the weather came out nice later in day, it was cloudy in the morning, and later on my host told me that it was good that I didn't go yesterday because despite the fact the weather came out good later on, but the air was active and there was some current in the lake.

However, I went on today in almost one hour journey to the island which was thick with trees and bushes, thus from afar you'd see only a green spot on the surface of the water. I got some pictures on the boat and there were other small islands and some of them contained houses as well! It was just beautiful. I had to catch most of the photos using Tv (shutter-speed mood), because of the shake along the way, and seems the Photoshop CS2 is not as good as CS4 with aligning the images together, thus I will keep this hard work for later. Lot of photos are waiting to be processed back home.

We reached the island, and according to my guide, he said the island is now mainly not inhabited, but it was mainly populated by the Sullivans, and another family I can't remember its name (but it stards with C and got V in the middle and Y at the end!!). We walked in narrow slippery pathways and reached the church or the monastery first. It was cool and peaceful, and you would still meditate in that old hard-rocky building. You can still see the avatar and the place where the font was kept. There, I couldn't resist to run a 180 degrees shoot (with no tripod) to the hall. But there is a question that always kept me puzzled: why the entrances of such old places were narrow and sometimes even small so that you have to lower your head down to get in?!

Some steps away into a little fine height out of the monastery there was the grave yard. It was a small yard and few gravestones were showing, and some of them were dating back to 1988. Some of the stones were legible but most of them were washed out, and the weird thing is that according to my guide who is a frequent visitor to the place (and I think he works to the government to check the island and its habitat), he said that in his 21 years life time he never heard of someone buried in this island, despite the fact that one of the gravestones read clearly that this lady who was 37 years old when she died, was dead on the 27th of May, 1988. She was a Sullivan as well. On the back of this row of grave stones, my eyes captured a weird type of gravestone and obviously it was ancient but I can't really say how old is it. According to brochures, this island should have a grave stone for St Patrick nephew, so I wonder if this grave stone is for him;

There was a chamber made of hard stones few steps away from the grave yard but I couldn't really tell what so special about it and why is it there. It could be a chamber for the graveyard keeper maybe? Who knows!

During my observations for the gravestones, my guide left me for some minutes to go somewhere, where he heard some sounds of chainsaw as we came into the dock of the island. However, after his arrival and we started to leave the place heading to a place called "The Coffee House" or "The Café House" (could not hear my guide clearly when he said the name several times!), we passed through some timber that was cut and organized in the shape of a pillar! My guide laughed and said to me that he made it that way when the two men who were cutting them moved away from the location, and they would get back and see this and think there is a ghost in the island! We couldn't stop laughing at the trick!

After some long slippery way and raising on some hill, we reached the Coffee House. It was a small place, but because the gate was so close to the trees, I couldn't get back enough to take a full image of it, thus I had to resort to the old trick; Panoramic shot. There were some stuff inside, like a coat maybe or a jacket and trousers forgotten by some people! The graffiti was all over the walls inside. At the back there was a stairway that lead to the top of the building (and of course everything was made of hard rock) and from the top I got a spectacular view of the lake and the trees, and here I went on catching a panoramic shot as well. The most significant tree that you can see almost every where in the island was the scotch fir as my guide called it. It is straight and high tree and almost bears no branches with the greeny part being on the top of the tree, just like one big broccoli!

When we got down there, my guide showed me also a small door that lead to the chimney and it was so small and dark that I could barely see anything inside. Finishing from that we had a long walk on a hill and some slopes down to reach the dock again. I took some pictures along the way for some trees and my guide showed me a fir tree that was, according to him, the oldest in the island and the hugest. You cannot wrap your arms around its trunk. From the looks of it, I do believe that it is something like a thousand years old!

Still the surprises were not over yet, on the way to the dock, my guide got deep into the forest at some point and called me to join him, and he showed me a house that is forgotten and not attended. It is also built by rocks and the plants grew every where on it that you can hardly notice its walls. Of course the roof was long gone. My guide said that he would notice the government about this house, who might be forgotten maybe mainly because it has nothing special about it except that it would be a good example of how people lived in this island in the 1800s or 1700s even, as some chambers were obvious and the structure for the chimney was obvious, where a special room to keep the cattle was visible as well. My guide said it is most probably was inhabited by the Sullivans, who were farmers and most of the island were like farm lands (and his own father worked on potatoes harvest on this island long time before) before the government decided to make it a tourism attraction and planted the trees and made the forests we see now.

Just before we leave the island, there was a little spot of clear land among the trees which was a place for BBQ parties as my guide said. The traces of burnt tree trunks and the benches were like they had been used no more than 3 days I would say. My guide said that there is no danger for fires here since the soil is damp and full of green mostly!

We left the island on a long way back home, and I was so exhausted that I slept for 30 minutes on my bed while I was typing this entry of the blog and the laptop was on my lap (duh!) while I was lying down. 1 day is left for me here, and on the 14th I have a long way back to Dublin. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me sort of. I will be packing and checking that everything is fine. I have my fears with my luggage weight though...

Cong, Co. Mayo.

Today, after breakfast, I traveled along within a taxi to another county: Mayo. I headed (with the taxi of course) in a long journey that almost took one hour of driving to a village called Cong, on the north of the Loch Coirib. This long way was supposedly to be shortened (with lesser expenses) by a ferry, but since the ferry stops at the end of the September with the end of tourism season, I had to take the hard way. Not only that, but a ferry would take you into the lake to an island in the Corrib, named Inchagoill, where a grave stone of St. Patrick nephew is supposedly to be there with a church that dates back to the 5th century, and also a 12th century's Romanesque church. However, today I went to Cong, and tomorrow, if the weather was nice I shall be heading to Inchagoill by boat.

There are three main sites to see in Cong, but I saw only two of them since I didn't really care much about the third! They are: 1. Ashford Castle which has been turned into a luxurious hotel, 2. St. Feichin Monastery which dates back to the 6th century, 3. A museum, which was the house where a movie was shot, named "The Quiet Man."

1. In Ashford castle, tourism was much still alive and people were going in and out, either for picnics or to play golf in the wide green fields around the castle. I took many shots around the place and I had a long walk in the forest behind the hotel (the castle). We were thinking that the monastery is somewhere around the castle but we got it wrong. Anyway, I really loved the trees there, and some of them were giants and obviously hundreds if not at least one thousand years old. On the way out of the place, we asked a valet about the monastery, and he guided us to it. It is in the village itself and not near the hotel.

2. We got back to the village and found the monastery. Frankly, I don't know if it is St. Feichin monastery, but it was Cong Abbey, or "Ministreach Chonga." It was a national monument as the signs in the place denoted and from the design and the hard rocks it was obvious that it was a medieval building. The graves were every where and I was trying hard not to stop on them. The dead deserve their respect. The graves were marked by a grave stones sometimes but lot of times they were marked by a Celtic crosses. The abbey had a second floor which was exposed like a roof, and I tried to take a panoramic shot up there. The building was magnificent, and after the castle of Aughnanure, this is the second time I see a real medieval building with religious significance. The castle itself was not completely medieval as it was obvious that it had been renovated to be in shape of the hotel that it is seen today. The abbey was unique with its ruins. Upon my way out, I snapped the gate of the abbey as well;

3. On the way back from Cong, I had a nap in the taxi, as the long drive to Cong actually made my stomach a bit disturbed. On the way though, I couldn't help to stop my camera from snapping but this I had to make fast shots with no HDR intention (3 shots with different exposures and blah blah blah). There were many spectacular views for Connemara hills and the Corrib lake with the road being up and down all the way, but I had few shots that were good enough, specially with the problem with the light source and the speed of the shutter;

Tomorrow, Hopefully, I'll be heading to Inchagoill, and only 4 days left to get back to Dublin, and on the 5th day then, I shall fly away back home!