Crazy Me, Crazy World...

Finally I can say we got winter. The weather is getting chilly a bit in the morning, and sort of nice at noons. I want to spend more time in the outside but then, with my life pace and the tiresome body and mood, I don't think I can do that in the current time.
I'm struggling to get back to my writing habit, writing and joining some words from here and there and calling these stuff a poem or lyrics. The latest was done yesterday and called it Alien. It is about my feelings in the current time. Just lost in space and time nd I don't know where or what I'm doing really. All I know is, I need to be alone. I'm using now a tool that helps on pushing my thoughts about the words a bit, or brainstorming if I should say. The website generates a random word and asks you to provide some words related to that random word then you should make sentences linking the idea of these keywords to the main idea you want to write about! It is so random that I like it really. Some people say that Alien is nice, but I'm not yet sure it is that good. The website can be found here, Creativity Tools (check the left panel). I think it is mainly for story writing but it serves everyone right I guess.

I've started to work a bit on a new facade for my webpage and I've made a general graphic representation then divided that into several parts using Photoshop and saved it as HTML. somehow piece of cake but yet, this is just the tip of the iceberg. A load is coming and I need some time to do the rest. For the time being, all I need to do is stick links to these cut out pieces, and the race with time begins on finishing various stuff. The dictionary that I've made for Ayvarith will be one big headache. My mind is already shattered and scattered that I've forgot that I'm supposed to go on a field work this morning and must, again MUST, go tomorrow, Thursday.

Camera-wise now. I've managed to take some pictures of myself in order to work around with them, even though I'm not quite satisfied with them. I need to study the light more AND I would need more tools to control the light. A desktop lamp will not do any good and a flash source is not always adequate in such situations. I've started morphing the image already in Photoshop but stopped now for some time doing some other things. The process of morphing my face to apply the idea I have in my mind is quite challenging for me, because I've never done such a thing before. I was looking forward to see if there is a plugin that can spare me some of the tiresome tasks I need to do, but no luck. I guess I need to do all by myself.

On the other hand I'm looking forward to order some stuff for my camera, and most importantly, a macro lens. The options are wide open, but to keep it under a certain budget, I've decided to go for something else other than Canon. Also, and because I don't seem to need a macro lens very often like I do with a fisheye lens in snapping architectural features and panoramas, I've decided to take one with a range of focal length and not a fixed one. The thing about this feature is that a lens with fixed focal length usually gives a sharper image. Besides, a lens with adjustable focal length tend to have some "creeps," that is when the sliders tend to be easy to move with a slight shake or movement. The main aim now is for a Tamron, or Sigma lenses.

Some of the options.

Along with these lenses I'm thinking of getting a new backpack to hold my camera stuff and lenses. As with a new lens to the group, my current case will be stuffed, ridiculously. Then there is the matter of the moving ball head for my monopod, and who knows, maybe a whole new tripod even? I'm not sure yet. Expenses. I'm trying to hold my horses back a bit and forget about my credit card. It already has unpaid amounts hanging on.

I've finished my fourth album recently for pictures from Ireland, 2010. For the time being, I'm taking a kind of a break. I don't upload images to Mostphotos.com that often right now. I used to upload around 3 images a day, in average, last month. My rank stepped back a little now because of my laziness, but until the end of the month I will be in the front page as the photographer of the month. I'm working somehow on uploading one image a day and give more space for comments and "likes" in the website, because too many images at one time might cause some chaos and people might not know even that there are new stuff in your profile.

One of the images though, that people seem to like it a lot, was one image I called "In Terra Gigantum," or "in the lands of giants"...

In Terra Gigantum

This image was taken with a mini-tripod that I think it is supposed to be used for webcams (since I got it from a computer store from here before going to Ireland). I went wild with it for some reason, I think that was my mood with the saturation of the image. I didn't like it much. It was too much reddish and I don't remember I was that cheerful that day. The best thing I could find in my mind was to make a vivid image with weird settings (typical for HDRs). This image at this angle really revives my hopes of a panorama on a low level to the ground. The technical problems are there but hey, here comes innovation. I think I should think of something but before this, I need a location. Imagine looking at a scene from the perspective of a smurf! Voila! I would some sort of high support to fix my VR-head on the top of this small tiny tripod on the ground. The tripod already flips over when I attach it to my camera and lens, be it my Canon 7D (heavier) or Canon350D (older and lighter somehow). Now imagine putting the weight of something around 2kg (around 4.4lb) on the top of that WITH a camera. The only good point about it is, once fixed the balance, you just need to rotate the head of the VR-head itself and not the tripod. I need to think about it and try it technically to decide what to do about it and how to balance.

Again, gone wild. With Mostphotos you really got the chance to show the world how crazy you are. This time, with a simple golden clock antique that was in the lounge of Thornbrook House. Most of the crazy part here was done in Photoshop after the tone-mapping, with many adjustment layers...

Lord Time.

Maybe you can call it an emphatic image about the importance of time, as for me, all I wanted to do is pronounce this clock and show its details. Along with my work I've found myself radiating the blue part and so it was. The main reason to do all of that was the position of the clock with that wall at the back. I was not free to remove all the distracting elements. It was hard to do so. Hence, the only solution that came about in my head was to simply, attract the eye by colors and their contrast as if the subject was hit by a spot light.

Now away from my crazy mind, there are moments that are crazy by themselves, e.g. my life. Last week and in a day like this, I was out in some sort of a secret mission if I should say (yeah and I'm talking about it here) with a group from the military. We were supposed to go to Boubyan island again, but then suddenly and when we were there, the plans changed. They decided to go to some where in the middle of Kuwait. Some area that was a junk yard for destroyed military vehicles and weapons. We checked 3 locations generally and in the first, I was surprised for that tank, that after we finished the general check-up work there, I snapped several images for it and made then back home several versions from HDR slides.

A series I called "Bellum et Pax" (War and Peace).

The junk yard is always a good spot for HDR images, with all the red and yellow hues of the corroded metals. The funny thing here is that the gun of the tank is missing as you can see from the images. Been told by the soldiers with us that some Asian workers come here put a tent over the junk and by night they come back to work and weld off the parts they need away from the eyes of patrols. I really don't know what they would do with it, but it sucks!

Our next stop was in an open area where some containers used to be collected, but nothing was interesting for my camera there (despite maybe the barbed wire that I wanted to snap but didn't find it attractive enough for my eyes). The third stop was the one that really made me hate such field trips once and for all and wish I wouldn't go there anymore. We drove into a field of junk ammo that didn't explode, with my own eyes I saw a huge bomb, obviously it's not a tank's or a normal gun. It got to be an airplane's. We stopped thinking about the matter (or I should say they were thinking and I'm stuck in the car) but then they decided to retreat backward and went around that junk, but yet, we were still surrounded by ammo, maybe lesser in amount than the location before. One of soldiers told us that this area was a mine field before as well (and who knows if it was cleaned in a proper manner or not!). We had to walk in a straight line following some traces of car tires on the ground to make sure that the land where we step is safe. At the end of our work, I picked the camera and snapped only one scene for the horizon, where the clouds where gathering in what was somehow a sunny day...

Forgotten Grace.

I called it "Forgotten Grace" because, maybe, for some time, we really don't know how lucky we are that we are alive still. After these moments in a mine field amid the ammo that can explode at any minute, who knows what or when or why your life might be taken. It is just a flick of an eye sight, and you're not here anymore. Praise it, as long as you can...

The image here was bracketed (i.e. for HDR) but I merely used the technique to show the details of the clouds and pronounce the more. Nothing crazy about this as the feelings and the situation, were not adequate for such a crazy mood.

Life goes on... but till when?

Alexander 6, V97.

Being struck with diarrhea made my day almost idle. Thank God I was able to read the whole day in the office. There are many things in this book that I've encountered before, so it is kind of a revision to me, but nevertheless, I'm keeping on reading even the things that I've known already by experimenting before, just in case I would capture some details that I didn't know of before. It is a good book for a beginner I would say, and probably I should review it as it is like that.

 

I've found a little glitch in the text though about Photoshop and the photomerge tool, where it says it doesn't support merging HDR images, while the fact is it does and I've tried it many times before I move on with PTGui. Probably the talk was about CS3 version, and to me, I actually jumped from CS2 to CS4 directly, so this could be true for CS3 only.

Anyway, I'm formulating some ideas to experiment with, with my camera, as I'm reading the book. Hope to progress on those soon. We have a holiday here on next Sunday (The Ascension Day), so despite the sickness inside me, I'm trying to feel cheerful for one day off in the next week.

Tried my monopod briefly without shooting any images, with the heavy VR head on top and the camera attached to it. It shook a bit of course but remained standing still. There was some slight slanting to the right side because of the "L" shape of the VR head, which makes the center of mass shift in that direction slightly and bend the monopod a bit. Still the experiment is not finished yet, because I have to do a serious panorama out of it. Thinking about it now, I think there is no other way to avoid taking the usual bulky tripod with me when I travel to Ireland. Extra weight is on the way!

Thursday, finally here. I don't feel like eating lunch even for today, but I really need my bed, even though I slept from 7:00 p.m. and woke up today at around 4:00 a.m.; that is a total of around 9 hours, yet, I do still feel like sick and drained...

If only these damn 20 minutes pass so quickly now... 

__________
2305. "Birbuár! what a surprise is that!" Alexander said
2306. Birbuár laughed out loud and this he said to Alexander
2307. "yes hero! your news are reaching the horizons!
2308. I finished the tasks of Khaznútím and came to you!"
2309. Alexander asked then: he let you go? just like that?
2310. and Birbuár answered: yes, he realized I am a good man now,
2311. and when he knew I wanted to help you out,
2312. he figured out that it is a noble reason indeed,
2313. thus he allowed me to come here and help,
2314. how shall I forget Alexander the hero of Caqobia?
2315. or how shall I forget the friend who helped me?
2316. then Alexander asked: but you are still a Shágí?
2317. Birbuár said: it is about time for this to change anyway,
2318. I think Khaznútím is considering to let me go as a soul,
2319. thus, no torture shall I have to see anymore!
2320. Alexander then wondered about the change in Birbuár
2321. "you look different Birbuár! your face is not the ugly one,
2322. and your shadow is not that blackish as before!
2323. you changed a lot" Alexander said to Birbuár
2324. Birbuár laughed again and said to Alexander
2325. "yes indeed, this is what happens when you help out,
2326. I discovered nothing is like helping people!
2327. thus, my halo changed slowly into this,
2328. and this is why Khaznútím changed his mind!"

Alexander 6, V88.

I would say it is fair enough to say, it was an awesome weekend. Not for any gift or present or any good events happening in it, but merely because I slept for 12 hours! Yes! Twelve hours! I rarely do such a thing but it is true and it is indeed there! I could do it!

Anyway, back to business. Despite this 12 hours of sleep kind of wasted my time that I've planned to spend in front of my PC working on some issues, but anyway it was a nice venture. During this weekend I worked on the 2 panoramas that left for me; the office, and the gamma lab.
The first to be mangled with was the office panorama. The main challenge here was that I've shot myself in several positions (with the help of the timer in the camera of course), and my aim was to make a QTVR out of it. Unfortunately, I had to give up this dream for many issues that I've encountered while stitching and I've discovered that I made many mistakes in the location itself!

Me, Myself and I

The mistakes I've done here were sort of many, but in brief, I was not careful when I moved in the scene and caused some chairs to move here and there, which later on proved fatal for the stitching process. Also, I discovered that in my middle picture on the sofa, the original shot did not include my right feet on the ground! Hence it was impossible to recover this at all, and I was not in mood for Photoshop tricks really. For this and that, I've decided to put down the idea of a spherical panorama with this trial, for the time being. I don't know if there will be a second time. The theme and colors of the tone-mapped image here is to give some drama or action to the boring lighting conditions in the office. Some people told me it looks nice, so I hope.

The second panorama to deal with then was the Gamma Lab. In fact it was already finished with some days ago but I didn't work on fixing the image an removing the unwanted bottom (tripod legs) till yesterday. There are some noisy part of the image which were not related to the noise of the camera itself, but because these slides were dark, and I think it was a mistake from my side, when I was not careful to track down the exposure reading. Finally, I fixed it and made into a QTVR, which I hope it makes everyone happy to look at!

The Gamma Lab, at CRER, Kuniv.

However, the resolution of the QTVR was put down to 80% to reduce the size as usual. They usually say 80% quality is good enough, specially for such a small window.

Now after all this work with several panoramas, it is time to take a look a bit at what I got earlier that day (after shooting these panoramas). They were several single shots that I need to examine closely and decide whether to upload them into stock sites or not. The snaps are taken from the front space of my working place, for some pile of bricks that they dumped there (and causing some annoyances for me when I park my car!).

Good news arrived today. The DHL called and told me that my passport had arrived. It is due delivery at 3 p.m., but I know these guys will deliver it earlier when I'm not at home, as usual. I've just forgot what's my application number so I can check online about the status of my visa request. I just hope it got accepted and everything is right.

I've decided today to place an order as well. This time an order on Amazon. I thought it is better to get everything at once instead of placing everything separately. This time I had to some research of my own about what kind of monopod do I need. I just figured that a monopod is more practical than a tripod, but the real challenge is, is it possible to do a panorama with it?
After many look-ups and checking, I've decided that I might need this specific one:

 

Benro MA-96M8

There were many good monopods out there, with several specifications that can fit any purpose almost. But I picked this one specifically for several reasons:

1. It has suppostive legs to turn it into a mini-tripod.
2. The maximum height is around 173 cm, around mine.
3. The maximum load it can take is around 20kg, and this is exactly what I need. Why? Because I'm planning to try it out with my VR head.
4. Relatively, cheaper.

There were even some monopods made by Manfrotto, same brand as my VR head, but they were sometimes almost double the price of this one. Now, I'm quite sure that I will have problems when I decide to try this out with my VR head (weighs 2kg), but I'm up to it and will see if I can overcome this problem by some trick. The problem here is that, no real reviews for this monopod were available, not in Amazon nor in BH websites. Thus, I had to rely heavily on reviews made by customers for another, somehow similar, tripod.

Benro MA-91M8

This tripod is almost the same, but different in weight, and height and the maximum load it can take (18kg). The height is 163 cm and that's shorter than my built, so I preferred to go to the longest one. I was hesitant first because when it is folded, it might not fit in my backpack whenever I want to move here or there, but anyway, it is an easy stick to carry on. The real challenge is to make it work with the VR head. The reviewers, however, decided that it is a great tool, but with shaky base when it comes to a tripod, and here you go with your expected problems!

The work with VR head and a monopod would be awesome indeed. I had many hard time erasing and fixing the images with Photoshop after taking my panoramas with a tripod. The three legs and the panning handle gave me a great deal of hard work in Photoshop to remove, and not completely in a good way. A monopod would ease the problems, considerably!

Finally, I do need a tripod for easy snapping without the need for my usual heavy tripod wherever I go!

Along with the tripod I placed as well 2 books in the same order, and decided to let the other books wait for the time being now!

 

Now, it had been some days that I didn't write anything in my notes, and it makes me a bit annoyed. I don't want to stop writing ever. I must get myself busy, either behind the camera, or on a piece of paper, or of course gaming around! I've changed my working time starting from today, for I found out it is really useless to stay here till 2:30 p.m.. That's way too much for such a place I would say. Thus, my time has changed from 7:30 to 2:30, to 7:00 up to 2:00. That's why I have to plan to write my blog earlier than I used to before, maybe. I'm sort of used to blog while at work more than at home!

Now, it's time to wait for the events to come along...

__________

2089. Alexander sat down on the grass and was tired
2090. and asked Aramramátáníth: am I allowed to ask?
2091. Aramramátáníth replied: go ahead O warrior of goodness
2092. and Alexander asked his first question
2093. "who are you?"
2094. and the mother of nature replied: I am Aramramátáníth,
2095. I am whom God made to guard the health of the land,
2096. I am the guardian of farms and valleys, meadows and hills
2097. then Alexander asked his second question
2098. "what are you?"
2099. and she replied: I am the Light beyond the sight,
2100. I am the voice of conscious inside everyone's heart,
2101. I am the breeze, I am the wind, I am the storm
2102. then Alexander asked his third question
2103. "what is Mikanazzar?"
2104. and she replied: my fierce enemy on Uhir Daynur,
2105. the bringer of sickness where it goes and comes,
2106. he is the damned one, who seeks not the Mercy
2107. then Alexander asked his fourth question
2108. "why you did not heal the tree yourself?"
2109. and she replied: I was not commanded to do so,
2110. and to heal it, we needed a brave heart,
2111. and to fight Mikanazzar in it, that is dangerous,
2112. thus we were ordered to wait for you, and teach Kaliván

Alexander 6, V85.

 It's here! I can't believe it! The lab(s) that intimidated me for very long time are finally here stitched like a piece of cake! HAHA!

Well, for the time being only one is ready and the work is still going on on the other. The one made ready for today is the Anti-Compton lab. This lab is a small narrow space with one big device occupying one of the walls and closets occupying the other walls. I tell you, while shooting this, I had a hard time rotating my body with the camera.

Now the main work was to clear the bottom edge of the panorama itself, or the nadir area. The Nadir was a hard task to do and finally I decided not to add it. I'm trying at the current time to learn now to add simply a white space with the title of the image and my name at the bottom. It sounds easy really but still, I can't figure it out. Rather, I've duplicated the panorama layer and simply flipped it vertically and pulled it down to be in the place of the current nadir. It gave out some wonderful shapes though!




Now it's the time to attack the 2 remaining panoramas; the gamma lab and the office. Anyway, the first one is finished with only some color adjusting is needed, almost, while the other one needs a heavy work which I just don't know how to start with, mainly because it contains a moving object, added for a purpose. Me.

Now with a VR head, I get even more possibilities to snap places that I thought would never be possible to catch at all! Specially those nasty narrow places and/or those with checkered pattern, like the anti-compton above or the gamma lab. I think I'm lucky that my fisheye lens doesn't require much adjustments for its rotation axis on the VR head, because the default, initial, conditions for setting up the VR head are valid from the beginning. Just make the front of your lens meet up the base of the VR head (above it) and here you go. I need to work more to get my hands used to it. Doing things fast is always something I seek. It's bad, but in a country like this, where everyone with a camera is considered a paparazzi and not allowed to go into many places, I have to learn how to snap quick and accurate as much as possible, even if it was a shoot for HDR. Things might not be different with panoramic shooting. I've already worked on fast-rhymed panoramas specially when I went to Ireland, when I snapped some places and I was afraid that I was bugging other tourists who were waiting for me to get the hell out of the place, or me being afraid that they would come in and ruin what I was doing! In a fast-rhymed panorama, I used to work with my simple tripod alone with no VR head and all the fuss, or in many times, simply using my head and rotating my body with the camera. Back in Ireland I had some control over my camera and I kind of gained some stability with my body, but coming back to Kuwait ruined all of that!
__________
2017. Alexander remained for three days in bed
2018. he could barely move inside the small house
2019. and he felt well after that and got out of the house
2020. then he paid a visit with Kaliván to the tree
2021. and he asked Kaliván: why this tree is so important?
2022. we could have cut her down from the beginning!
2023. and Kaliván answered: this tree bears the holy seeds,
2024. it is what keeps this valley alive as it is now,
2025. and if it dies out, then no green you shall see here
2026. then Alexander asked: but now it is without branches,
2027. how it will give the holy seeds without branches?
2028. then Kaliván answered: here comes your part O hero,
2029. Aramramátáníth said you will heal the Jawsamályá again,
2030. and it will give fruit just like before and be always green
2031. then Alexander wondered: why me? Aram... couldn't heal it?
2032. Kaliván answered with eyes to the sky: you cannot say it yet?
2033. she ordered me to tell you that, but I do not know why,
2034. although I am sure she has the power to heal the tree,
2035. but yet she told me to ask you to try your luck with it!
2036. Alexander wondered about this argument
2037. and then started to think how to balance Jawsamályá
2038. the tree looked poor and pale without any branches
2039. thus Alexander thought of restoring its branches back
2040. so he ordered Kaliván and his Cadid to collect branches

Alexander 6, V83.

Finally, I've came to put my new VR head under the test. It works just like magic! Luckily for me, my fisheye lens seem to be working just fine with the default settings; that is, putting all the plates of the VR head on their centers and make the front of the lens rotate around the tripod axis. At least this is what my eyes told me when I went on calibrating and checking for any possible parallaxes.
My first trial was to shoot the Guest Room again...

The Guest Room

Maybe the most amazing part of it all is that the tiled floor came together as if by magic. However, there were tiny problem here, relative to the previous problems I had before.
One of the problems is that the zenith was completely plain and had no features, thus attaching it to the rest of the panorama at the end was a bit tricky. The second problem was the nadir and the head of the tripod that had to be erased. Strangely, the first stitch for whole thing proved unique with no stitching error at all, and the optimization in PTGui kept on showing a "good" to "very good" results. However, after stitching the nadir, I realized that it is hard to clear the bottom of the image simply like that, and hence I decided to go back to the original shot and work from there on erasing the head and fixing the tiled floor. Only when I did this, some stitching errors appeared, but, they were relatively easy to handle, sort of, while the rest of the image and the floor blended nicely. The next step of course, was to make up a QTVR out of it, otherwise my efforts have no meaning!



Beside the stitching errors, there was a tiny problem as well that might be a result of unclean sensor, but all was easily removed after tone-mapping with a "healing brush".
This said, today I decided to pick my tools and head to work to catch those labs that made a fuss out of my day before. I captured the two labs, the gamma and the anti-compton lab, and also I'm thinking catching a panorama of my own office! It's a real mess, just like any single guy's room. My PC will complain a lot in the few coming days!
Working with the VR head is not only about rotating the camera around a specific access to avoid the stitching errors, but it also organize your shooting in such a way that makes your computer understands the angles easily. Also, it enables you to avoid unnecessary shots of repetitive angles. Many times when I was shooting with  regular tripod, I realized that sometimes I was going into one full circle plus 1/6th, or more or less. Now with a clicking VR head you would simply avoid this matter and reducing the amount of photos that you have to take, and if you have a full-frame camera and such a fisheye lens, you'd need 4 to 6 horizontal angles, and one shot in 90 degrees up, with one down. For my camera, which has a smaller sensor (of crop factor 1.622), I need at least 30 degrees between shots, adding up to 12 (normal) shots, and beside the zenith and nadir, I would need an angle of 30 or 45 up and down. The idea of having a full frame camera is nice, but it would be a waste of lenses really.

More than 100 lines were checked today in Alexander 6, but still the path is long to the end! I've just reached line #721! I figured that I might finish in 30 days if I get used to read this amount daily, but alas! I can't do this in weekends!
I didn't write anything lately but instead I'm keeping whatever comes to my mind in a note, in hope that I would gather my thoughts altogether one day and pin it down in one piece (or more!).
Time now for some biscuits and ice tea, with some peaceful reading till the time to go off from this camp...

__________

1969. after some moments of fast thinking
1970. Alexander decided to do something with Kaliván
1971. thus he asked Kaliván to gather the cut branches
1972. and they put them around the tree away for some distance
1973. then Alexander asked Kaliván to make fire with him
1974. so the two of them started to rub the wood altogether
1975. and so they made a spark and then into a fire
1976. then with their clothes they started to smoke the tree
1977. and the moaning started to get louder and louder
1978. when suddenly a black air came from the top
1979. with fierce shouts that none did understand
1980. Alexander felt that the danger is hovering around
1981. thus he got his hands ready on his Charnagút
1982. and as he expected the black smoke attacked
1983. but nothing he could do because it was but air
1984. thus the air passed through Alexander
1985. and Alexander could not feel his power anymore
1986. thus he knelt down and planted his Charnagút
1987. and he started to breathe heavily and looked at Kaliván
1988. but everything turned black and he fainted
1989. Alexander then opened his eyes to see Kaliván
1990. Kaliván was sitting on the chest of the hero
1991. and Alexander gazed around but he did not know the place
1992. while Kaliván said with a happy tone: we did it O hero!

Alexander 6, V80.

Finally! I got it! I got my passport! An occasion worths a party indeed. Nevertheless, it was a tiresome day indeed. I'm completely dehydrated now and I hate to cut the fast now. I spent two hours roaming the streets in this sun from one location to the other and finally, to get my passport. The traffic jam got me by a surprise... EVERYWHERE.
Now, it's time to settle things with my visa application and keep going! I had a nap in my office for one hour in hope that I would remain awake at home a bit in order to work on the visa application, and tomorrow I would send over my documents over by DHL. I've sent a single book today with a weight less than 1 kg (2.2 lb) only for 45KD! That's around 154 dollars!! Now you know how we get rocketing salaries and still we remain poor people. Sending the documents to the Irish embassy in the near by Riyadh, would cost even 55KD as far as I remember.

Worked for some time after getting back home yesterday with my VR head and trying to fix it over the tripod that I have already. Unfortunately, my idea for wrapping and stuffing some plastic sheet in between the two didn't work out.
On the other hand, I noticed some extra nuts and arms with some of the other tripods that I don't usually use, because they don't fit and also broken. However, one nut, worked out like a converter from small bolt to big bolt!

This nut, from an old tripod, was then fixed into the body of the VR head and it fitted perfectly!

The VR head was then tightened to the tripod...

The set is not completely stable though and needs careful rotation when working with the camera. So far, I've attached the camera on top and it was stable still. There was a tiny problem though later on, that is when I removed the VR head, the nut was hard to remove from the body of the VR head after tightening it, thus I had to use pliers. All is left now is to calibrate the camera with my fisheye lens and take the reading on the scales to refer to them at any time I decide to go on with this head and with the fisheye lens. Of course, I can do the same with the other lenses I have, but now for panoramas, I do use mostly the fisheye lens for the wide angle view. Although I always read about a calibration to find out the nodal point (or no-parallax point) for the lens, in order to avoid stitching errors later on, but I always thought it is a horizontal process, i.e. done for the camera when it's rotating in a horizontal plane. Here, with the manual of the Manfrotto 303SPH, I find out that we need to do a vertical calibration as well.
The whole thing is shaky for the time being but I might be able to test it at least for the time being. Who knows though, I might get myself a new tripod fitting for all the fuss I'm having now...
___________
1897. then Kaliván continued and said: but I wonder!
1898. where are you from O stranger? you do not know all this?
1899. thus Alexander smiled and rested his back on a tree
1900. and he started to tell his story to Kaliván
1901. and Kaliván surprised more and more with every event
1902. then Alexander told him how he got into this world
1903. and what happened before in the village until he arrived here
1904. thus Kaliván said: a man who catches his own Cadid is a hero!
1905. and you are a king, thus you are a doubled hero!
1906. I think I know now why Aramramátáníth chose you,
1907. with your faith, it seems you are the only one to help us
1908. Alexander thought for a moment and said to Kaliván
1909. "the Jawsamályá as you said is responsible for balance, right?"
1910. and Kaliván answered: yes, it is to be so
1911. then Alexander said: but do you not think that it is more than that?
1912. this tree is weirdly acting as if it is alive, and not only sick,
1913. it is as if the core of this tree is inhabited with something
1914. then Kaliván replied: I agree, it should be a sick tree only,
1915. then what do you suggest O hero of Caqobia?
1916. Alexander thought for a moment and said: let me check,
1917. I need to get closer to the tree without being caught,
1918. any way you can think of O my little friend?
1919. Kaliván felt a bit of anger with his new title
1920. but forgot about it rapidly and started to think

Alexander 6, V79.

 Monday with a diet. This is what today is, and my passport is still not ready and I'm worrying about being late to submit the visa that might take more than 8 weeks (2 months that is) in order to get it! Welcome to a new level of stupidity for how things work in this country.
My mind is shut and I can't write anymore right now. Trying to get inspiration like I used to have it last week, but no luck. There are other things that I'm concerned about at work but I'm needing this visa application to be sent and get rid off to settle down a bit with my thinking on other things.

At home, I've tried to look for something to fit my Manfrotto head on my tripod still, but no luck. Not until, by coincidence and while I was playing a game that the idea jumped to my head! The game is "Art of Murder - The Hunt for The Puppeteer." At some point in the game, the heroin of the whole thing tries to fit the cap of the radiator from one car onto another radiator in another car, but it is bigger. I unconsciously put on a disposable glove from the inventory which I've collected through out the game, and put on the radiator and closed the cap to hold still. I don't know why I did that unconciously and it worked in the game, but I never thought about it in reality for my tripod! I was thinking of other things and even fixing a piece of paper or anything like that, while the solution is simply, a nylon or rubber!

The game is not the sort for fainting hearts by the way. Well, not that violent but lot of things there that might not be suitable for sensitive people anyway.

Hence now with this idea in my mind, I've borrowed some plastic wrapping that are sort of hard (and not the type used for tables, this one is thicker) and I will try to stuff it in between the hole and the bolt and see if it's going to work now. Hopefully. I'm afraid though of the heavy weight of the VR head (around 2 kg). The whole thing might collapse while working with it or something! Headache, headache, headache.

Nothing special for today, only proof-reading the text and fixing the Ayvaric grammar and spelling wherever I manage to remember the right thing! I made a simple sketch for my proposed webpage, but I wonder if this sketch is possible without using Flash this time. I've decided already that I don't want to get back to Flash, and I don't know if this is possible the way I'm thinking about it right now.

I leave you now, with some catches from Ireland...

__________
1849. the two sat down beside one tree, with the Cadid
1850. and Kaliván just noticed the Cadid beside Alexander
1851. and he shouted so out loud: Cadid!!! you have a Cadid!!!
1852. Alexander answered calmly and said: yes, he is my servant
1853. but Kaliván stepped back and shouted: what kind of man are you?!
1854. Alexander replied: calm down O Kaliván, or else!
1855. under this pressure from Alexander, Kaliván got back
1856. and with a calm and humble voice he said: yes O good man,
1857. what are your questions? I hope I will answer all I can,
1858. but later, you should tell me your story as well
1859. Alexander agreed to the terms of the dwarf
1860. and then he asked: what is Jawsamályá?
1861. what is Mikanazzar and what is Aram... ?
1862. the dwarf man then answered calmly but in surprise
1863. "it is indeed a surprise that Aramramátáníth chose you!
1864. but what can I say in front of the will of the Great,
1865. and I wonder how come a man do not know these!
1866. however, I shall answer you as you requested"
1867. Alexander kept a careful eye on Kaliván
1868. and for his answer he was waiting patiently
1869. but the time was traveling so slow in that moment
1870. thus he could not keep it inside his heart
1871. and he had to yell at the little man out loud
1872. "Kaliván! hurry up! we do not have all day!"

Alexander 6, V75.

 Calm day relatively after all the fuss that happened yesterday. Yet, working with Ayvarith right now jammed my brain little bit. Finally I finished the additions and fixes. Now it is time to pour everything on the HTML files, or rather convert these text documents into HTML. In the meantime as well, I'm going on thinking of a layout for the webpage I'm planning to do, which is something not settled yet in my mind.

Been writing down some words that were cooking in my mind for a while, and finally put them on paper here. I called it Let Go The Passion. I've submitted the same piece into another website that I've known recently, www.songwritingfever.com. A nice website I'd say for wanna-be-artists. I've submitted the piece for opinions only.

Unfortunately I didn't find something really useful with my digging up in the photos of last year's visit to Ireland, but hopefully I shall try again today (tonight) and upload them up into the web. I found some that would turn out great, but neither HDR merging nor Exposure Fusion were successful in eliminating some of the hard artifacts. Most of these photos were taken from the boat. I would still, maybe, make something out of a single shot rather than merging 3 of them together, but I'm not sure of the outcome.

Checking up with DHL now, and I'm glad my shipment had finally moved a bit, though still in the USA. I need this VR head now to try it out with my latest lab projects, since I gave up the hope completely in anything good about the stitch. They were simply, erratic!

Signed out for an earlier leave, so I must submit this now, and go back home and play a game that I've been waiting to play for some time!
Tschüss!
__________
1777. in that moment a shout from afar cut off the silence
1778. "hey you! what are you doing?" someone said
1779. Alexander looked behind him and saw no one
1780. he looked back to the tree and wanted to get close
1781. but the shout again appeared again and louder even
1782. he stopped and looked around but no one he could see
1783. until he felt something that hurts his feet
1784. he jumped a bit and looked down with anger
1785. and found out a dwarf creature close to his feet
1786. Alexander got surprised for the size of that thing
1787. and down to his knees he knelt to see
1788. then Alexander asked: are you talking to me?
1789. the bad tempered dwarf replied: you see others here?
1790. Alexander replied with confidence: no, but who are you?
1791. the dwarf replied with anger: I think I should ask you this!
1792. Alexander answered calmly: my name is Alexander,
1793. a stranger from these lands and seeking my destination,
1794. now would you please tell me who are you?
1795. the dwarf replied with a high pitched voice
1796. "I am Kaliván, and the owner of this half of the lands"
1797. Alexander stepped back then and said: Ah! Sorry then!
1798. I did step here by mistake as I am a stranger,
1799. but what is wrong with this tree of shadow?
1800. then the dwarf sighed and looked down

Alexander 6, V69.

The heaviest part now is gone. I've booked my place in the B&B in Ireland, and now just waiting for the receipt. Next step now is to work on the tickets and the visa. I think I will pick the Turkish airlines this time as well, like last year. I wouldn't bear sitting for like 12 hours in the airplane in one line from Abu Dhabi to Dublin!

I was supposed to this phone call to book the place since last Thursday but my laziness did not allow it to happen! Anyway, after calling several times today, it went through later on. They told me they will call me at 10 O'clock, which is like 12 O'clock for me. I was hesitated to get busy with anything fearing that they might call (in like 20 minutes from my first call), but then I couldn't help it and I fell asleep on the couch to recharge my batteries to get back home later! They called however after almost one hour or so and thank God I didn't yawn while doing this!

After some back pains yesterday and putting many sprays and a sticker, which reduced the pain a bit, I had to take one Cataflam pill to put down the pain and sleep, and the effect lasted until this morning and I barely woke up. Well, I slept in the office which is normal by now with or without any medicine!
I've been surfing the net thinking seriously of getting a VR head now, and calculating what possibilities I have in here and there. There are many stuff, but mainly one brand that got my attention and that was Novoflex. They got plenty of types in various prices, but nevertheless, not cheap to an average user like me!

 

Something like this is what I need for decent panoramas.

Now, I'm hoping and wishing that I would be able to buy this and get it before going to Ireland. The main awkward point is, for such tripod heads, the weight is always a matter of concern. The above head for example may weight almost 1 kilogram. Not something sweet in your bag containing your camera tools. You would already have a similar weight from the lenses in your bag.

My lab panorama is still under attack with my approaches and yesterday's trial with SmartBlend plugin didn't work out. It is baffling for now and seems no escape from doing a heavy job in Photoshop for correcting the stitching errors. Meanwhile, I do want to work more on the previous images taken from Ireland, and also to play some games that I've downloaded and forgot!

 __________
1633. Alexander asked Biryári: and what shall be done there?
1634. Biryári replied: I could not understand the texts clearly,
1635. but the words say "and the red haired hero shall be there,
1636. where the three moons stand upon the mounts, he will be there,
1637. and to the help he shall come, as he always did and does"
1638. and the only place I know where the moons are like that,
1639. is the valley of peace where the moons remain on mounts
1640. Alexander asked then: and text did not mention who to help?
1641. but the old man nodded with his head for the opposite
1642. Alexander then requested some guidance from Biryári
1643. and Biryári wished to travel with the hero as a guide
1644. but the hero refused that and said: O good old man,
1645. if you come with me to there, who shall feed your wife?
1646. give me the way and I shall try it myself O good man
1647. and back to his reason and mind, Biryári agreed
1648. so Biryári guided Alexander to the Ring Mountains
1649. where they lie at the eastern boundaries of the forest
1650. and Alexander asked Biryári: are there lot of creatures?
1651. then Biryári said: none occurred to me while I work,
1652. but be careful of anything when night time comes,
1653. always settle down and keep a fire burning
1654. thus Alexander asked: and how to make a fire there?
1655. and Biryári smiled and said: you forgot that I am a woodsman?
1656. then Biryári helped the hero to get ready for the trip

Alexander 6, V68.

New week begins with new problems on the photography field. I got some back pains today out of sudden so I'm feeling a bit awkward and not feeling like working at all.
I spent the weekend however mangling with those pictures that I didn't touch so far (or maybe touched but re-touched them now) from Ireland, and while doing so, I was going all over the new pictures of the lab that I've recently captured last Thursday. The work was not all smooth and still not done perfectly. Many breakages and I think the parallax error played a major role here because of the narrow space of the lab itself and that many objects scattering around which makes it hard to stitch. Just at this moment while typing this, I've thought of converting all files into a tone-mapped JPG (the usual) and using the SmartBlend plugin in PTGui to try to minimize the effects of the parallax. SmartBlend plugin is supposedly a new (relatively) feature that comes in a plugin form and can be added to PTGui to help on overcoming the parallax error, but unfortunately, doesn't work though for big size images and/or the HDR files.
Just now and because of all these problems with stitching, I'm thinking seriously of getting myself a VR head whatever the costs are. I wish also to have it as soon as possible before going to Ireland!

I had to go out for a little while today to get an international calling cards to reserve my place in the B&B by phone for September! I hate it when it becomes so much complicated like that... I was supposed to call back on Thursday and now because of my sluggishness, I have to wait until tomorrow, since Sunday is an official holiday (duh!).

The work with the new words suddenly stopped now and I need some grease to move on with it. A weird feeling came over me making me for days now, making me checking some reggae and rap songs all over. I know, it's not weird at all for some people but for someone who is not fond of these styles, it sounds a bit weird!

As for now, I shall leave you with "some" pictures from Ireland...

__________
1609. in the morning the wife prepared the food
1610. and the old man woke Alexander up
1611. because of the tiresome times he had, it was not easy
1612. and the two gathered around the morning table
1613. while the old man was so excited to tell Alexander
1614. but he knew it is out of manners to talk before eating
1615. thus he just said: I have news for you, now be my guest
1616. both of them ate until their stomaches were full
1617. when the old man spoke with excitement to Alexander
1618. and this he said: from the books I got tips about you
1619. thus Alexander raised an eyebrow and said: me?
1620. the old man said: yes, you and only you,
1621. you are the old to look for the secret of life,
1622. and the one that will come from above then be raised,
1623. it is all mentioned here in the old books that i gained,
1624. they all talk about the red haired hero of the Charnagút
1625. then Alexander asked: and what is the Charnagút?
1626. Biryári answered: it is the key to the wisdom,
1627. I understand it opens something, but I could not know it,
1628. something that keeps a secret, the secret of wisdom,
1629. and as the books say, from above he comes, then he shall go,
1630. and I might have an idea about your next way to go!
1631. Alexander asked with excitement: and where to now?!
1632. Biryári said: The Ring Mountains and Peace Valley