Showers

It's the holidays. The National and Liberation days made this passing week somehow of a less suffering. However, because of the stupidity outside in such holidays, usually, I've preferred not to go out and do any activities, even at late night. In the meantime, I do have to pick Mom to dialysis of course, even during the holiday. Thus, waking up in the morning is a no-escape matter, with one delight; which is to have an option for whether going back to bed, or stroll all over the place and try to find some joy.
On other hand, my plans to go to Failaka island last week suffered a catastrophic failure. After waiting for around 2 months just to have an adequate time during the weekend, I had to lower my expectations for spending a night on the island, and later, I had to cancel the whole thing after being told that if I got onto the ferry now (Friday), I won't be able to get back until Tuesday. The number of visitors is increasing by every year, and probably the company has no plans to increase the number of ferries. The situation is catastrophic for me, because temperatures are going up gradually by the day, and I don't have a chance to enjoy some tranquility and solitude on the island.

Showers

Had a chance to go out at night, the week that I was planning to go off to Failaka and failed. The thing is, I barely pushed myself out of the house since I was exhausted. However, I had to work as fast as possible because I arrived at the location just around one hour before the sunrise.

Ciudad de La Mañana
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 4m8s, ISO100.

My first aim was the (typical) gazebo which I've shot before of course. I've made a critical mistake here for working on the ground instead of close by. The steps leading to the gazebo-like structure proved to be hard to fit into the composition. Anyway, there were more hassles along the way.
In the beginning, the shot was taken several times with different exposure times, ranging from 4 minutes down to 30 seconds. However, merging them into a HDR slide proved problematic and I had to use only one exposure from the set. This is because some exaggerated level of noise and some tiny trails in the sky became weirdly black with white outline! Thus, my choice was to pick the longest exposure to have the longest trail possible, the 4 minutes and 8 seconds exposure. Processing, however, was another story. I couldn't find a good compromise between the level of the light over the city and the faint trails in the sky: you lighten one, the other is blown out, you darken one, the other disappears almost.

Mitternachts Dusche
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 6m, ISO100.

After finishing from the first shot, Ciudad de La Mañana, I've realized that the city lights in the horizon are problematic. Thus, I've simply put the camera in portrait position and recomposed. The move proved to be efficient somehow - the exposure is lengthened to 6 minutes and more trails are shown. I'm lucky at that time that the light poles near by were off; I think they are switched off automatically some time between 3 and 4 a.m.. There is no extra exposures for this shot. Only one taking up to 6 minutes. In post-processing, and in order to eliminate some of the color casts (since I didn't use my WB disc here), I've simply clicked with the WB dropper on the steps; thus, the yellowish tint for the structure is gone and turned almost gray, while the sky became bluer. Some cropping was needed of course just to re-define the edges and to remove the somehow-harsh light blow on the right from the horizon (not completely eliminated though). I think Mitternachts Dusche proves that you can still do star trails to some extent in the city and no need to go out into deserted places just do such trails. All you need is some really dark place, and preferably without a glowing horizon when possible. I used to do such trails deep into the seaside, but my trials were mostly during summer, which deemed these experiments useless.

Ahmadi

Since it's the National and Liberation Day(s) holiday, I've decided to pay a visit again to Ahmadi just as I did last year. Ahmadi, further south, is probably one of the fewest places in Kuwait that are entitled for "city". The city of Ahmadi is majorly administered by oil companies and they are responsible for housing their workers as well as the decoration in such holidays. I happened to call a friend, same friend that picked me last year to there, and went together in a trial to catch something. Strangely though, this year the lights were not as pretty as the last year. I could barely think of something to do there. I even picked my VR-head thinking that I might be able to shoot some panorama at some location, but it was to no avail.

Blumen des Lichts
Canon EF 50mm, f/22, 2sec. ISO100.

One of the first encounters (after roaming for 15 minutes or more) was a thought for an abstract (as it is usually). The hardest part here was to frame the light decoration which was raised high on a light pole. It would be preferred to be on the same level as the lights. I've tried several lenses and even attached teleconverters to get to a specific focal length and framing (15mm to 30mm). Mainly because I didn't want to use the shaky and outdated 18-55mm. Finally, I've settled down with my Canon EF 50mm and framed Blumden des Lichts the best I could by moving my tripod (and its head). Still not quite satisfied, but the least to do I'd say. Later, when processing Blumen des Lichts, I had a vision for it to be in BW. Night shots converted to BW do have a special taste that I still don't understand, but I like!

Blumen des Lichts (BW)

Moving not far away from the first location, we've encountered a curve of light decorations on light poles which was somehow a good target, but one major problem existed: trees.

To Grow
100mm, f/2.8, 15^-1sec, ISO100.

I won't be talking much about the many shots taken for To Grow, because I tried many lenses here and many compositions. The trees were problematic thus I had to rely on somehow a low exposure. However, maybe you have noticed that I didn't mention the lens type I've used above and only 100mm. This is because a moment of stupidity from my side, which, after remembering it, I couldn't stop laughing!
The matter was about finding a proper focal length to compose with. As I was trying several lenses, I came over to the idea of using my Canon EF 50mm with a teleconverter to raise the focal length to 100mm (and the lowest f-number will raise from 1.4 to 2.8). The point is, I do have a Canon EF 100mm macro lens (for which lowest f-number is f/2.8 indeed) which can be used as a telephoto lens! I didn't realize this fact until the day after the shoot when I was going through all the shots! Anyway, it is all related to the frame of the mind and the field of its working ideas at that particular moment I guess.
I'm not so satisfied with To Grow, and even though it is uploaded to my Flickr, I didn't like to upload it to any stock websites. After all, however, this is the best I could get with such a photo.

Path of The Rainbow
Canon EF 50mm, f/16, 2sec, ISO100.

As we were about to leave Ahmadi city (with some disappointment) we came across this path covered with arches of lights forming some sort of a rainbow. Initially, I've tried my favorite fisheye lens, the Rokinon 8mm, but it proved not so useful in such circumstances because so much of the surroundings would be included in the image, beside the relatively small size of the arches. The other fisheye lens, Canon EF 15mm, wasn't much better also. Because of this, the Canon EF 50mm sounded like a good compromise, and it was.

Rainbow Splash
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 125^-1sec, ISO100.

Just before I pack up my stuff, I've touched the focusing ring by mistake, causing a defocus of the scene in front of me (could see it because I work with LiveView on). I loved the (bokeh) effect here, if I can call it a bokeh after all. Usually "bokeh" is used when there is an object in the foreground while the background goes blurred into a bokeh, but here, there is simply no foreground and just blurred lights. The effect, after checking it on PC, turned out to be like a watercolor painting done by a child. I like the effect. And this was all that could be done in Ahmadi that night!

Geltani Galore

I didn't have much time with my Geltani project lately, but with my queue of books is over (and lurking on Wikipedia for more reading) I did work slightly with Geltani in my work place trying to push things forward a bit.
I've almost finalized some "radical" strokes for the characters and trying to do more tests for the sounding system, as well as the writing system itself. The grammar, of course, is another story to put up with. In all ways, I must prepare myself to make a specific introduction for the language, specifically into Omniglot. It seems though there would be a lot of "idioms" if I can call them so, because there would be a lot of expressions that I need to go around to avoid ambiguities that arise because of the nature of the Arabic language; the primary source of the script, and the conlang.
In the meantime as well, I've been reading much into Mesopotamian literature and languages (majorly Semitic) and their scripts. Akkadian is of special concern, as it is the predecessor of Babylonian and Assyrian dialects. The cuneiform used to write these languages (before the advent of Aramaic/Nabataean) can be a source of inspiration for another conscript, but let's hold the thoughts back for a moment and concentrate on Geltani and relative conlangs already in the field! The grammar of Akkadian does have slight similarity with Turkish when it comes to the order of the sentence, but the its Semitic influxes that are pretty much similar to Arabic to some extent are the real source for future ideas about grammar and conlangs, if there is any to be in the future. This might mean complicating the matter further, but my view of conlangs had changed since I've created Ayvarith and other conlangs and con-scripts. Back then, it was making communication easier by dropping lot of grammatical needs; Now, however, it is about being unique and interesting, beside the type of sounds as well of course.
On the course, I have a plan to study the IPA representation of Arabic letters and sounds, as I think it had been somehow off-the-track with some sounds. I need to do a bit of study and more thorough research through IPA and, of course, my own native tongue, Arabic.

Finale

Life had been inert from my side. Or maybe it is in general. It is something beyond this boring holiday. I think it is the unavoidable black look to the future, specially when it comes to the family matters.
People keep on telling me to continue with my studies. An issue that I've long forgotten about. I'm asking myself now, am I really into studying again, in any field? Looking at how I can organize my time and life, makes me feel it is just a joke to suggest the idea.
All can I think of is, right now, a vacation. Somewhere, far away from this land and its inhabitants. 

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

Maschinen Auf...

What a busy week. It is good to be busy sometimes; it makes you forget stuff you don't want to remember, mostly. The trend of such busy week is still going on and might go on for the next week as well because some group members are going to Dubai in the coming weekend and some responsibilities are flung at me. It would be my first time to organize and be responsible for a field trip to some distant area.
It seems as if this week is spreading seeds of reputation and a renowned name. I'm getting personal invitations and simple requests for occasions related to photography. I wouldn't say I'm on the road of being famous, but it does give a portion of confidence that I needed for some time. Say, would I be reading my horoscopes daily if I do have some support on my back? I wonder...

Blooming Me!
As Mawahb-3 expo is approaching closer and closer, the management of the group realizes that not many fine photos are available, if there is any, for a large number of members in the group. For this reason, my teacher and the leader of the group thought of giving a workshop (workshopS in fact, see Andaluz below) concentrating on geometrical shapes in flowers and their beauty. Personally, I'm not a flowers person but since the topic bears some resemblance and sense of an abstract work, I've decided to join in.

Silhouette in The Heart's Rose
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/16, 500^-1sec, ISO 200.

After some advices and a short lecture by my teacher, the work started. He prepared a rose under a monolight with some gobo, but I picked my own rose or flower (which according to my teacher was the most expensive of them) and started  to work on it on my own. What attracted me to this flower specifically is the stems in the middle (sorry, don't know the scientific name for those!). Frankly, I don't know why or how did I forget the ISO on 200, but anyway it worked just fine with the pulses of the speedlite.

Harmonie
Canon EF 100mm macro,
f/16, 800^-1sec, ISO 200.

My 580EX II speedlite was connected with TTL cord to the camera and attached with honeycomb grid giving 16^o range. One of the hardest parts of all was to fix the flower on some stable ground and up high close to the camera's level, and the only way to do this was to put the flower into the handle of the small bag which carries my speedlites and filters! After that, I was free to move the speedlite around the flower and testing the results. Even though my teacher doesn't recommend using the LiveView feature to do the metering and focusing, I do find this way is really useful and I can almost never imagine myself without it now. With LiveView you can move a cursor to the desired location to do the focusing, and this is much more easier than depending on zones or points in the viewfinder. Metering, however, can be a bit tricky with the rectangular cursor across the display and also the possibility of leaking light rays from the viewfinder that can put the exposure reading off track, but still it can be useful to take readings from various areas in the scene without moving or tilting the camera - that is for comparing the differences in stops and so on.

Die Glänzende Finger
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/4, 400^-1sec, ISO 200.

As I've mentioned before that I was moving the speedlite (and changing the depth as well) which yielded some interesting results. It did feel like working in a studio full of diffusers and reflectors but in a macro level! Images like Silhouette in The Heart's Rose for example was achieved by using the petals as reflectors for the speedlite pulse and hence creating a silhouette out of the stems in the middle of the bloom. On the other hand, Harmonie was achieved by using the petals behind the stems as diffusers which also painted the stems in red giving something in between ethereal and a romantic look. Well, some people pointed out it is scary as well! Just worth a mention here that Harmonie is originally in landscape orientation but I felt it's more appealing to make it in portrait position.
Even though we were supposed to exchange flowers and work on each for some time, but the time was limited, and personally after shooting Harmonie I thought I did achieve my purpose for this session already.

Award:

Award to BPF
Canon EF 50mm, f/4,
1600^-1sec, ISO 200.

Just one image but it has to be mentioned here for it did take some deal of experimenting with speedlites. Last week I've received an award dedicated to BPF group (the group I'm member of) since I was the representative of the group and the middle man between the group and Kuwait University's Cultural Festival last January.
What I really loved here is the wooden texture and its touch (yes, its touch). I wanted to show an image focusing on the group's name (upper white line) while showing fine details for the rest of the shield. After experimenting which consumed a great deal of time, I've held my 580EX II speedlite with a snoot on top of the shield pointing downward, while controlling via wireless a 430EX II speedlite in front of the shield but pointing away from the shield with  reflector in front of it to spread some light on the shield. I guess I achieved the desired look little bit though I wished it to be brighter over the logo and the group's name.

Christmas in Ahmadi!
With the beginning of the last weekend, a friend in the group suggested that we head out to Ahmadi, a town or city down south with around 30 minutes of driving from my place. Ahmadi is known to be a home for many foreigners and citizens who are related to the oil industry. I dare say even that it is a town created and established by oil companies alone!

Stern von Licht
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 125^-1sec, ISO 100.

It Snows in Ahmadi!
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4,
125^-1sec, ISO 100.

We don't really celebrate Christmas in here (not officially), but Ahmadi was lighted up with decorations made of light patterns in shape of miniatures for the celebrations of the national day (mainly February 25^th and 26^th). It was one heck of a night and an absolutely fantastic spot for night photography. If only I could head there on my own I might have tried my luck often there. We had our share though from the annoying people and hooligans but around 1 p.m. it became relatively quiet.
We spent around 2 hours taking shots and experimenting on only one road, and we were leaving the place we noticed prettier scenes even but it was time to leave specially after getting a pin penetrating my shoe and sticking to my foot! This incident was the end of our journey that night and we had to leave. I didn't go to the doctor to get any injection (tetanus?) but my foot feels just fine right now and as I'm typing these words, the pain is almost gone and I don't limp as I used to when I first got the injury. Well... just in case you care anyway!

Star Spangled Kuwait
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 25^-1sec, ISO100.

Candy Clock
Rokinon 8mm, f/3.5, ISO 100.
HDR

One of the significant features in Ahmadi's general design is the light miniatures in every roundabout you go around. I think it works so good as a land mark! Other areas in Kuwait would resemble just one big maze for their roundabouts within the area.
One of these roundabouts did fascinate me the most though; it was one with a small clock tower which carried lighting tubes and lights were going on and off like a running fluid. A long exposure for this clock tower didn't give much beauty for the lighting conditions there, thus I've decided to go on to the roundabout itself and do some HDR shooting right in front of it. There was a total of 6 images taken in a range of -6EV up to +2EV. Despite the usage of a tripod that was flattened almost to the ground level (and I had to clone out a portion of the leg out of the image), yet the image on 100% zoom seems to be shaken and because of the long exposures taken here, the merged HDR had lot of noise specially after tone-mapping, and some portions looked shaky as if the camera was shaken. I don't remember any staggering wind that night despite the cold weather! The final result is, after all, an image that looks like a sweet candy in small size, but not suitable for printing as I believe.
Too bad I won't be able to go out there this weekend because my friend is going to Dubai with the rest and I have yet also to process some images from that night that I haven't touched because of the events that followed after that night!

Andaluz:
It was place that I could spend my week taking photos inside without being bored. The ideas in that place are just, simply, abundant and there is a chance in every moment, in every corner. That place was called The Arab Organizations Headquarter (AOH).

A La Luz
Rokinon 8mm, f/8, 10^-1sec, ISO 100.

As part of the efforts by our leader to increase the amount of publishable works from members of the group, as I've stated before, more activities are on the run, including a trip to Dubai this weekend. For him, it was easy to gain access to the AOH, as he said. "I just needed to do a phone call," he stated! This is the good thing about our group - not only we're trying to do the best we can, but also we are under the leadership of a renowned photographer that got access to many places I wouldn't even dream of.
As soon as I heard about the plans, I've prepared my VR-head and made it ready for panoramas. As soon as I got into the place, my mind was completely boggled for all the fine crafts and the handmade wooden decorations along side with the Andalusian style of architecture. It was indeed a dream! However, because of the time limit and the practicality needed (along side with cautions and precautions for walking around such a paradise!) I couldn't just walk and do panoramas wherever I settled with my tripod. Thus I've just wandered off to take some shots from various locations.

Anti Gravitatis
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 320^-1sec, ISO 400.

One of the first locations to be visited was the reading hall or library. Once I got in there, my teacher told me to be careful for the high contrast around the elliptical stairway because there is a light fixture on top (in shape of a chandelier). I was looking for such structure because I was thinking of some sort of a shot for some long time now - an abstract shot with an 8mm fisheye lens from the ground level of the stairs. First, I've used the tripod but it was not so flat and the framing was not appealing much, thus I had to use my hand and lay completely on my back and take few shots, most of them are shaky. I was planning for HDR merging because of the high contrast but A La Luz was made from a single shot while the others were shaken and unclear. This experiment sparked some ideas for improvising something or making something already to handle such low-level shots.
When I wandered into other rooms, I've found a fountain with some faucets that were somehow a good target for a long exposure. However, I've found out that however stops I add to the shutter speed (with the help of ND filters), the water's outlook does not change drastically despite the speed of the water, thus I've concluded that the turbulence in the water waves or currents (including changing directions) is essential to long exposures done for the water to show some dynamic attitude for the image. Otherwise, The long exposure image would look just like Anti Gravitatis which was taken as a test shot from the very beginning. And by the way, when Anti Gravitatis was taken and then viewed on monitor back home, the image was not in portrait position as it was taken originally (this is because I turned the rotation option in my Canon EOS 7D). However, I liked its look and how the water is like flying in the air!

That One
Canon EF 50mm + 12mm tube, f/1.4,
25^-1sec, ISO 400.

Enlightened Curves
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4,
100^-1sec, ISO 400.

After settling in a place above the reading hall (seems to be a cafeteria or a reception area) and doing a panorama there (see below), and after having a break with a cup of coffee and a chitchat with my teacher, I've resumed shooting at some details of the miniatures and the fine wooden work like That One and Enlightened Curves. These two images specifically were supervised by my teacher. In That One, I've decided to use the 12mm extension tube along with 50mm lens to reduce the minimum focusing distance and I was surprised for the magnificent isolation of that piece of the rail. I can almost say that even in regular circumstances and under f/1.4 this would be hard to achieve in such a way. Anyway, the image was good as my teacher said but it does not have that touch of light that makes it special, and he's right. So, he guided me to my second shot, the Enlightened Curves. In a hurry there were some long exposures for a fountain outside as night befell us already, but the framing was done in such a haste and apparently, the final results could not be adjusted properly. They might be a subject for some work later on though!

Panorama and QTVR

The day I've received the news about going to AOH, I've realized it is a significant chance for a panorama, and the first thing I would grab was my VR-head. Even though I didn't see the place before but my friends who had been there before assured me that it is an architectural gem and a good spot for panoramas.
When I got there, I started to wander around and in fact I've found 2 suitable places for panoramas just at the reception place inside! But if I was to start to work on panoramas in every location I'd get to see, I would not give a chance for single shots. Thus, I continued to wander around taking photos until I arrived at a place just above the library (and can be reached from different entries) which was, as I believe, the cafeteria. Such a vast place with Andalusian designs in marble and wood; it was an architectural heaven!

Tiempos Andaluzas

The wooden decorations were intriguing indeed. I still need to test my lenses against these structures but unfortunately, I had to leave, naturally!
When I started to settle down in this spot, I've started to take general readings from my lightmeter in incident mode. I was going in a circle around the tripod and camera set and pointing the lightmeter towards the camera as I was circling the tripod and measuring the light at different angles. It is the first time I apply this, since I usually prefer shooting my panoramas in Av (aperture priority) mode, which specifies the shutter speed automatically for me. Now, I'm working in a completely (M)anual mode, and I need a starting point for bracketing my exposures for the HDR technique. After completing a full circle around the tripod, the average reading was around 6_1/3EV, corresponding to something around 1 second at f/8. By the way, f/8 is one of my own personal favorite f-numbers when doing panoramas because I can easily gauge the depth manually on the focusing ring of the Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens, and next comes f/16. Thus, bracketing the shutter speed for HDR in the range of -2EV to +2EV would be something like: 4^-1, 1, 4 seconds respectively.
In this panorama, the zenith (topmost) shot was not hard; the ceiling had enough details to be stitched easily within the rest of the slides. The nadir, as usual, was a big problem.
I didn't bring extra tools with me to take the nadir (and I was standing on some tiles with decorations) thus I had to improvise something. I've tilted the set a bit (and almost fell to the ground!) but back at home when stitching, this method proved problematic and not suitable enough; probably my shot was far away from being flat. However, I had to render the QTVR putting my logo after all, after a long fight with the stitcher!


for a larger version, you can download it here

The Hanging Andalusian

One of mistakes that I've done while doing this panorama is picking such a location between two distinctive features, making the flat version of the panorama having two focal points, or two points of interest for the viewer: the fountain, and the wooden decor. However, I was afraid that if I situated myself behind the fountain I would lose some details from the decoration itself. Hence, I've decided to work on a vertical panorama in which both features are aligned vertically. It still might be competing for interest that way, but usually in vertical images the eyes would scan the view from top to bottom!
Yet there is more to work on with this panorama, and more points of view that might be intriguing still. All of that, beside working with other images taken from Ahmadi last week, and from AOH as well. All of that and more to come probably after Saturday's trip to a reservation down south. I'm not the kind of person who shoots for wild life but it is something I have to take care for with other members.

Finale:
Here I am again, busy all over again with projects and barely have the time to think of my personal life. Can be good and bad in the same time. The heart is swinging in the current time; it says something, and the mind says something else - isn't it always like that?
I've been thinking a bit about Geltani and trying to complete some aspects about it but with such a fuss of projects and the pressure with the group I couldn't really collect my thoughts about some aspects. And still the problem of ambiguity in between words of similar letters and different meanings persists. I've collected my leaflets on which I usually write down my thoughts about the Geltani conlang, and brought them all back home with me so I would stay, hopefully, calm and meditate into them and think of something. On the other hand, the chart of sounds for Geltani is still not complete, and the syllabary system for writing foreign words is not thought of yet. I'm surely lagging behind with my ideas and achievements - it does sound like a time for a vacation to work more, rather than a vacation to rest...