Re-Discovery...

I've been devouring my new book this week. Not much was done in my projects and even the Ayvarith text that I wanted to vocalize, still not touched. However, my reading for this book now, seems there will be lot of re-considerations for some plans I was aiming at.

This book is a real mine of information. Not something weird to expect from Alain Briot. The thing about this book, it is not only for marketing fine arts, but I think you can make it a universal approach to any business, or even read it when you feel down. Chapter 15 specifically contains a lot of motivational quotes from Briot himself with examples from his life and how he turned it upside down from low to high.
The motivational words by Alain Briot were important for me specially in this critical time, when it seems that every week comes with a new burden over my chest and back; from home or work. It made me re-think my projects and think of what to do in the near future. In the mean time, I'm still waiting for a response from the Marina Mall administrative office, to whom I've submitted a request for a permission to take photographs from the mall and also included a line about offering my services (with a little non-professional folio). I might visit (not even call) them to check about the status of this request.

While I was reading Briot's book, I came up to some page full of motivational words from Briot himself, and one line that really captured my attention and in an instant I got the idea of a photo; from this page itself.

Inspiration
from "Marketing Fine Art Photography" by Alain Briot, p.210.

In fact, I've sent a message personally to Alain Briot asking for permission to allow me to submit this image to stock sites, in hope of a response soon.
It is a time to re-think my approach to my pictures and to emphasize my emotional connection to them, i.e. my emotional connection in the process of the creation, before the shutter click up to after the processing.
On the other hand, there are some thoughts of how to be able to achieve this high quality of prints while I'm here. Things are available in the US or Europe (papers, print shops for fine arts...etc), but here things are not that easy. I can print my photos on canvases but still, they are not of high quality or known brand. Some people gave me out a thought of being the first to bring such papers and use them in printing (or even be a sponsor for such paper types), but I believe for the time being this is too much. I'm supposedly an artist-to-be, and not a merchant-to-be.

While this week was idle generally camera-wise, except of the image above, there are some trials to make a new panorama from the balcony, which is not ready yet as I'm typing these words. In this new panorama, I'm trying to achieve an idea, and in fact I didn't aim at making it perfect.
Beside these two "experiments" (the image above and the panorama), I've tried to visit some old pictures taken from Ireland in 2009 and also some images taken in 2010 and 2011 from Failaka island. I've re-edited two images from Failaka specifically. After the change in some of my views about how to do things and how to process images, I've decided to re-discover these images.

Περίπλοκος (Complicated)

I couldn't find an older version of this image when I first processed it, but seems anyway that I didn't upload any version for it. This image, was taken with WB Tungsten making it bluish. Back then I had an idea of being blue, mysterious, sad; but now, I think all of that is just unnecessary. I even tried to do it on HDR to give a dramatic look before this time, but now all what I did is simple RAW editing.

Eagerness

This image was done before as well, and I tried to make a twist to it with HDR technique. In fact, right now, I like this version more than I like the HDR done before.

Lonely (old version)

The image was taken with my 55-200mm Canon lens, which is malfunctioning at the moment and I'm not sure it can be fixed. Trying to fill in the gap in the range of focal lengths in my collection by using the Tamron 77-300mm, but still there is a tiny gap in between (55~70mm).

Aside from the camera, I'm also doing some experiments still with glossing prints. I've discovered that the spray I got some weeks ago was stamped as "Satin" instead of "Gloss". Seems that the owner handed me the wrong can. It did give a little sparkle however in one of the prints. The process costs some money for sure, but without experimenting I wouldn't know what's the best choice to make.
When I realized this mistake, I bought another can and I made sure it is a gloss spray - and it was entitled as "acrylic gloss". I've used it on a print I've made for Φοβία (Phobia) for several times (over 2 days period after multiple drying times), and also tried the Satin spray after the gloss spray. The results seem promising, even though I was expecting more contrast.

Φοβία (Phobia)

Now, I'm going to post this (well, scheduled post) and sit and wait for my new shipment to arrive. The new shipment from B&H includes:

Kodak Gray Card (9x12")
Source: B&H

Gossen Digisix Ultra Compact Digital & Analog Incident and Reflected Lightmeter (finally!!!)
Source: B&H

Canon Telephoto EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Autofocus Lens (interesting?)
Source: B&H

Unfortunately, after I've made this order, I've received a newsletter email from B&H listing some items, and I've figured out that there is one item that I really wished to have for some time, and probably I would have ordered it instead of these items:

Sony CLM-V55 Portable Monitor
Source: B&H

This item specifically would help me a lot in the non-conventional situations which I like to drop myself in, usually! Not cheap, but I think it's worthy.

With these orders now which I deem as essential, I'm trying to reduce my credit card debt step by step, and in hope I would be able to go out in a vacation. A vacation that I really need, before my mind goes astray...

3D Hunting...

Been a lazy week on one frontier and a busy one on the other. Lazy in the sense of my own projects, and sort of my photography, and busy with my work place somehow. I've been roaming around looking for chances to get a scholarship, again. I stopped looking for some time because many events took place and I was not in the mind for it but I'm in again and trying to find my way around. Still, there are many places to ask in. All of that gave me no time to write a poem, which is annoying really because I do have a sort of a wave of feelings, but yet, I can't write them down for the lack of words. A line or two and that's it. Also, been looking around for some other host to build my Ayvarith page, since the discovery I've made, which is: Fortunecity, sucks. I can barely upload some images there; no audio, no clips, no MOV files and probably no SWF (flash) files as well? The thing is that publishing the Ayvarith transliteration of Alexander's story online via WDC is on hold, because I need to add these vocal samples, which I need to dumb online first. I'm still looking and didn't make a decision yet. There are lot of webpage-building websites with ready-made templates, but those don't suit my needs.

Grabbing my backpack wherever I go, trying to get my eyes on anything I can catch, but with not much to be done. I'm trying to get back to the 3D realm, that time when I used to take pictures and convert them into 3D anaglyph (red-blue) images, but so far, I couldn't find good subjects. Only once though, with that scene from the beach...

3D Infinitum

I'm on the look for more appropriate subjects, and taking my backpack of cameras and lenses and the tripod wherever I go almost, even to work. At home too, trying to come up with something, but the trials aren't always successful. Not successful in the means of having my own satisfaction with it. You can tell I spend so much time alone and have nothing to do, yet my mind is in turmoil and barely able to do anything. It's like being paralyzed "ethically". However, doing more trials with my Tamron 70-300mm telephoto macro lens, I remembered that I do have an old collection of seashells that I've collected from the nearby shore, and it was a thought, long time ago, to take a close-up for some of them. I had to settle it down somehow (and it hard, because I didn't want to use glues) and went on shooting (with brackets of course)...

Seashell

I had to stay away from my self-made softbox for about one meter or so (~3 ft), and I think the zooming factor is good, having in mind that the shell is actually the size of my thumbnail (or less). One of the hardest things in the image above to settle down, was the White Balance (WB). With HDR tone-mapping you can change the WB as you wish but also the original WB used plays a role, and I think the original was Daylight WB. I figured that Daylight WB is more flexible to change when doing tone-mapping after doing HDR. Having Tungsten or Fluorescent WBs (i.e. cool temperatures for the images) makes the original images bluish and when tone-mapped and changing the WB to something close to "hot colors," usually the images end up with a violet or purple hue that, most of the time, won't be suitable for the general mood of the image. However, doing this, will still require some extra work for boosting the contrast and tweaking the general temperature or fixing the color balance, and all done after tone-mapping in Photoshop. I tried to do some 3D effects here but, unfortunately, the fact that the subject is in a softbox and not much of an interesting background makes it really dull and useless to do it in a 3D anaglyph image.

How to do a 3D Anaglyph? 

Just some steps that you might want to try out to make these things, but remember it doesn't work all the time because it all depends on the composition of the image and also depends on the visual capabilities of the viewers themselves. Have in mind that you will need some editing software like Photoshop. I believe some other freeware stuff can do. So, here we go:

1. In this process you will need to take 2 images of the scene to mimic the human vision; one left-eye image and one right-eye image. You can do this by 2 cameras if you like, but for me I always go with one camera and after the first shot I would pan the camera (or rotate it around its body axis) for few (not much). This distance in few degrees is just to mimic the distance between the two eyes. You can as well simply, while standing in the same position and being stable, move the camera's viewfinder (if you are using it) from your left or right eye to the other eye and focus on the same subject. Remember, there should be one object at least that is the center of the focus in the image, because this point of focus is important for later process. Having this idea in mind, you can go around with your tripod if you like for more stability, if you like.
2. Now processing. You got your images correctly hopefully (and maybe you'd better be shooting in JPEG rather than RAW but the choice is yours). In Photoshop (or any other software) you should open your images and layer them one upon the other. You should mark carefully which one is for the right-eye and which one is for the left-eye. You can check for yourself easily as you notice the relation between the focus point and the background; things tend to shift to the right when viewing with the left-eye, and vice versa. Put the right image on top.
3. Reduce the transparency of the top (right-eye) layer to 50%, or to whatever suits your level of vision, and now drag your layer around to make the focus point coincide with the focus point in the lower layer. Remember, it is not necessary to make it 100% perfect, as there might be some difficulties coinciding the two foci. The major idea here is to make the distance between the two images as minimum in that particular area of the image (parallax error?), while neglecting (somehow) the rest of the image for the time being. Once this is done, get the transparency back to normal (100%).
4. Now, the setting is Right on top, and Left is below. Now take the Right image and suppress the RED component (I'm supposing you are working in RGB color system). This can be done in Photoshop by pressing Ctrl-L (or by using the menus to get to Levels command, or by adding an adjustment layer of Levels over the Right image). Once you get the dialogue box of "Levels", change the drop down menu from "RGB" to "Red". Now, move the White arrow at the bottom (not the one below the histogram which corresponds to highlights, but the lowest one) to the far left (or simply put "0" in the number box). Thus, you will have the black and white arrows all together in one place and your image will look bluish. Make a mind connection here: Right <=> Red channel. For me, I got the habit of using adjustment layers and I don't edit the images directly, thus whenever I use them in this case, I make sure I use the clipping (right click the adjustment layer itself and it's there). This will make sure that this effect will affect the layer just below the adjustment layer and nothing else. Just in case.
5. As you did with the Right image, you will do with the Left image below, but this time you have to suppress the Green and Blue channels, and your image will look reddish.
6. Change the blend mode of the topmost layer (Right image) to Screen. You image now should look something similar to what I've done above. Crop the excess on the sides as you wish, though I prefer you do it with respect to the aspect ratio between the height and width. To crop with respect to the aspect ratio of the image itself, pick up the crop tool and mark the whole area of the image. Then, move the corners as you wish but while pressing the SHIFT on your keyboard to ensure that the ratio is preserved.
7. After cropping and everything, your 3D image should be ready. Try it out and view it through the special glasses if you have any. Remember, you might want to try it more often to get some satisfaction and not every scene is capable of producing some astonishing results. To my experience, I think spherical objects have the potential of giving out great 3D view.

 On the beach still, trying to go out there specially in the times of low tide to fish for some chances. I was lucky one time which kind of sparked my mind on another purchase on the list of my endless dreams...

The Observing Heron

I was working on my monopod (because the tripod was fixed inside the car to take some videos while driving) and it was sort of flexible with me, with its 3 mini-legs expanded. The monopod was collapsed o its minimum height and using the full zoom of Tamron 70-300mm and switching to Macro focusing as well, I had some how a nice shot of this fella. I took so many images (of course not bracketed) trying to get everything i can from his own movement over the surface just before he flies away, and then I would sort them out back home. The weather was dusty and didn't help much in this, but at home I picked one image and did the "magic" to eliminate the yellowish hue and enlighten the body of the heron. Herons by the way are immigrants, but by time they somehow settled down in Kuwait. This is what I've been told by someone in the know. Despite the dust that day, HDR imaging somehow improved some images as well...

Infinitum II

Processing the previous image was not an easy task for the level of noise that was present with tone-mapping. This is one awkward point in doing HDRs. You have to develop some strategy to overcome this somehow and after all, several ways might not work at all. Been receiving some attacks on HDR images and that it is not a real photography, and I'm tired of explaining myself that my goal is doing something beautiful and HDR is merely a technique for me to extract as much details as possible out of the scene. Strangely, in the last image, I did things unconsciously. After I got back home I remembered the advice of Alain Briot in his book, when he talked about capturing interesting lines and shapes, and specially the S-curved lines.

Also, this short trip to the seashore in the last weekend made me find out a fact about the Tamron lens I have; it has a tendency to show some strong chromatic aberrations. Now, this is somehow contradicting my own belief that wide lenses are the ones that exhibits such phenomena the most. I've read somewhere that it's a common feature for wide lenses and fisheye lenses to have chromatic aberrations specially if the object is back-lit. You would find some thin lines of red (or magenta), blue, cyan and yellow around the edges of the object. This is exactly what showed up in some of the images I've taken with this lens. Fixing it should not be hard task but when HDR technique is involved, it is worse than solving an equation in physics. HDR, and because you are combining several exposures, tends to somehow intensify the effect of the aberration and adding some contrast. Hence, it's hard sometimes to remove it with the usual "lens correction" procedures provided in Photoshop or any other software. I did go around it sometimes, but still it is not a practical mean nor successful all the time. One of these procedures is using the Hue/Saturation adjustment layers to suppress the magenta or cyan channels and confine these changes to the edges of subjects in the image. Photomatix, my favorite so far, got an option to remove chromatic aberrations from the RAW files as it combines them into HDR, but this option seems not quite the useful one here. It doesn't work most of the times. Maybe the best thing is to give up the RAW (and the stored dynamic range in them) and fix these aberrations in RAW then convert the images to TIFF16 format, and start the HDR from that point. One of the ways to go around this, is what I did with this image. Simply, converted to Black and White:

Terra Algae

The sun reflection from the water surface was strong even in a dusty haze, making all kind of aberrations around the edges of the rocks on the ground. Final solution I had in my mind is to give up colors and go Black and White! So much green in the image anyway and it sort of lost its magic in my eyes.

Currently, I've been worried about my tendency to be an "addict" to chocolate. Now with my life style like a single guy trying to do his own food most of the time, I do tend to eat some snacks rather than "real" food, and most of the time, it is chocolate. Well, I do change to candies but that's seldom. It's chocolate all the way. To be more specific in fact, it's only one brand that brings me joy: Kinder Bueno! Can't have my enough of that!

I do cook sometimes, say thanks to the microwave. The guy who invented the microwave got to be

a single guy as well. Turkey sausage wrapped in egg (stuffed with cheese, tartar sauce and cucumber with some spices). 

All done in microwave.

Majorly now, all what I have in a day is one meal, and the rest is just bits of this and that and some snacks. In fact, once I get back home I don't feel like eating (probably because I've already filled myself with chocolate and candies in my work place). Most of the time this one meal is a dinner; be it a simple corn flakes dish, or some cooking I do when I have the mood for it, or simply and order or a take-away.

It's Thursday now, TGIT. Hopefully, I will try to take a second try on shooting the Chinese restaurant from the inside as I was planning. Few days ago I was there as early as 7 P.m. just to reserve that corner of the restaurant for my work but unfortunately, there were already some people there in that specific corner. Maybe I should work late, despite the fact that the owner wanted to show the dishes on the table to add "life" to the image. However, that night I got several shot from several angles for the restaurant from outside, but none was what I aimed for. The long exposure time and the large f-number (small aperture) made it hard all the way.

Golden Chopsticks

Although I used somehow a small aperture to make a star effect as you see, but seems my choice was wrong. I think the star shine effect is not good in such a scene, or maybe it was way too hard on the scene. As you can see, the cars didn't spare me here. Some of them even had the mind to come forth and then go on reverse in front of te camera (the big white beam on the left). Unintentionally, the speed-lights covered the number plates of the cars in some nice effect. I don't want to expose these numbers to the public!

I took images with my 15mm fisheye and 18-55mm, but this one was the most appealing to me so far despite all the wrong-doing in it. It's taken with the fisheye, as you can tell from the edges of the image. The WB here is set to Tungsten, but the scene didn't go bluish in an ugly way. I should memorize this lesson now as I might as well use it for shooting inside, which has a reddish atmosphere as well. The WB here emphasized the bluish trend for the spot lights at the top while keeping the main building within its hot colors atmosphere (reducing the red a bit of course). Next time, I will try using a larger aperture (small f-number) for fast shutter speed, and to avoid the star shine effect which is not appealing here. I hope I can do this tonight.

I leave you now, with two videos. First one is one of my trials with time-lapse photography, with me going back home from work. The camera was programmed to take a shot every 2 seconds, and to minimize sizes and make sure that the memory card will take it all, I've changed the settings to shooting in medium sized JPEGs only. In the traffic jam who knows when will you be reaching home!?

The FPS (frames per second) here is 10, and I made several versions to check for the speed, and probably this is the best one. At the end it gets fussy because of turning around like a bee trying to reach home from the other end of the street. However, the generally quality is reduced of course for web purposes.

Secondly, I leave you with something I got addicted to at the moment. Old stuff (relatively), but addiction-trigger, to me...

Alexander 6, V118.

Well well well. Finally, finished the book list at hand and now it's time to move to others, or maybe just chill and work with someone else? Anyhow, I think I will edit my review about Alain Briot's book to add more details, if possible. The last time I wrote my review, the reading was not over yet.
Calm day work-wise. Ramadhan is coming soon though, and more hard time is on the way I think. I've had the chance to leave work today and look after some glossy paper A4 size, and I found some brand (not HP) and it was cheaper than HP however. I picked this one specifically because it says "Made in England" rather than the other one which was Chinese made and, reputation-wise, might make me problems! Anyway, I'm still not sure if what I got now will work perfectly, I need to try it. Beside this, I dropped my watch for repair for the second time. Although I had the urge to buy a new one but I'm trying to control my impulses here and decided to go for a repair instead. This is the second time that the dial knob falls down!

On another note, I've been working on a little panorama in the past few days with no apparent success in blending the layers correctly. Not because of parallax errors this time, but mainly because of my bulky movements. I went to the beach on Friday morning with a monopod and a tripod as a spare in the car, and I've fixed the VR-head on the monopod. With the sand there (and the short neck of the monopod) the work was somehow manageable, but my movements were bulky and slow, so much that caused variations in light level caused by the fast rising sun. Spent the past few days combining into HDR and manipulating as much as possible, but no use. Photomatix got me a headache as well because of its malfunctioning and its weird noise on the whole window making me unable to read or see anything. It has gone erratic! I think now, the last remedy is to crop around 1/3 of the image just to unify the light conditions as much as possible, but for now I do still have some plans out of my sleeves to do with this, but it's going to take some time. I'm getting busy trying out my new glossy papers as well.

Nightmares now have been frequent visitors. I don't know why, but one thing for sure. I can't sleep properly, in a life style that made me sleepless already in the first place...

__________

2809. Alexander walked around the place slowly and gazed
2810. he saw many pillars of books and papers in every corner
2811. and with the smell of history in his nose, he remembered the time
2812. thus he asked: tell me O good old man, if you know everything,
2813. how long then I have been in this world since I left Daynur?
2814. Agdalán answered: verily I know how long did it take until now,
2815. for you it was a matter of some days to go around this world,
2816. but now over the lands of Daynur, one hundred winters passed
2817. the bones of Alexander were shaken for such time passing
2818. even though his shape did not change and did not get old
2819. but he asked Agdalán: how come?! this is impossible to be!
2820. Agdalán calmed down Alexander and said: yes, it is possible,
2821. do not count the time you go by on Daynur as it is here dear,
2822. your time belongs to you and here we have our own time,
2823. life goes so slow in this world my son, not as fast as you have up there
2824. then Alexander was saddened for this fact and knelt down
2825. and with a flash of memory into his mind he remembered all
2826. he remembered the old days and the wars and the glory
2827. then Agdalán torn off the silence and said: come my son and see
2828. Alexander approached Agdalán slowly to see something
2829. and there was this mirror that stood in the darkness
2830. its luster catches the eye amid the darkness of the books
2831. and Agdalán said: you will see now how life evolves,
2832. thus, be brave my son and do not be desperate for now

Alexander 6, V117.

Well well! What do you know! It's Thursday! TGIT!
I won't waste much time here writing, since I'm going out of here so soon, but just few updates follow.
I've finished reading one of the books just now. That book about geological matters and fossils. It's an amazing journey really. Also, I'm about to finish reading the other book, Alain Briot's book. The discussion at the end of this book is so fierce with so many marketing and financial issues. In the meantime, I try my best to understand how the print works and quality issues, after printing several panoramas now with my simple HP Photosmart inkjet. Small panoramas, nothing serious really. Yet, some ideas and visions visited me while reading about marketing issues in this book. Mowahaha. Ahem...

However, finishing some books doesn't mean I'm totally free. I got another list of books at hand however. Anyway, their time will come.
Not much photography or photos to be processed as for yesterday, but seems people are more in love with the black and white images. One of those was in fact a slide in a panorama, but I had to take it out separately since the panorama to be processed was not good (due to some shaky images).

The Path to Aughnanure (or to Oughterard)

A slide from a panorama

Doing things in black and white gives you a sense of documentation really. Something very important being documented. This is what I feel.
Bigstock refused some images, well, it was not a surprise at all, but anyway their reasoning was acceptable at least (unlike other websites). Some of the images could use some adjustment and re-submitted even, while some others are not of interest (to them). That's fair enough for me.

Had some time to write something new, in a haste, after some imaginary story that I've made in my mind. Well, it is imaginary for me, but who knows, it might be true for others who lived in such situations; losing someone by force...
I called it 1945, signifying the end of WWII. No need to link it I guess, unless you would like to check the rest of my profile which I guess won't interest you anyway! Thus, here go the words...

1945

Was it, or was it not,
a rainy day, when I met you?
Everything was so fast, so quick,
so much I didn't notice, but you.
And then, you held my hand, Martha,
a hug then I felt, no end was for it.
You passed your hand on my cheek, Martha,
and Aufwiedersehen Geliebt you said.

Oh, the Nazis are gone,
so well the Soviets.
No Normandy now or then,
no explosives.
The two are one, Einigkeit in the sky.
The banners are here, all fly so high.
Been ages now, since that time,
Do you hear my rhyme?
Oh Martha.

Then you slipped into that train,
to somewhere, far away from Dresden.
"Wohin Geliebt?" I said so in vain,
and the utter came on with "Zu Leben".
"Freiheit" they're singing now, O Martha,
and not many of them know you.
But I'm here always and you know, Martha,
and an Ave I'll always sing for you.

Oh, the Nazis are gone,
so well the Soviets.
No Normandy now or then,
no explosives.
The two are one, Einigkeit in the sky.
The banners are here, all fly so high.
Been ages now, since that time,
Do you hear my rhyme?
Oh Martha.

Sure we'll wander high,
O Martha.
In between the clouds,
O Martha.
Just wait not so long,
I'll follow you along,
O Martha.

__________

2785. he saw huge collections of books and papers
2786. time forgot about such objects long ago
2787. and the dust filled the air with the smell of history
2788. Alexander with a surprise said: what are all of those?
2789. Agdalán answered: these are records of history,
2790. history that expands for thousands of years before you,
2791. everything people made and everything they invented,
2792. every move they made and every battle was made, all here
2793. Alexander said with a surprised tone: should I read it all?!
2794. Agdalán giggled a bit and said: no my dear, this is to see,
2795. your Charnagút was the key to all of this history,
2796. a history that will one day be spread again on Daynur,
2797. when the people and the the tribes are ready for it,
2798. your sword is the key to this history, assigned by the fathers,
2799. the sword had been moving from hand to hand,
2800. father to son, from son to a grand son, until you come,
2801. your time was a time when Ayvars got mixed with others,
2802. and thus you became a Caqobian, but with an Ayvar blood,
2803. you are the answer for the prayers of my fathers and myself,
2804. that one man from our lineage will unite Daynur again and do good,
2805. thus, God answered the prayers and now you are here to see,
2806. your own history and why you are here my dear,
2807. and for your own goodness, these secrets are for you now,
2808. you can do whatever you like to do with them now

alexander 6, V116.

Well, I'm lucky to type this down here as the internet service in my work place is beginning to become more like a trash now. I should end up this fast before I get stuck! I know my luck just the right way. Mentioning luck, I was happy to wash my car today (in a weird car wash station), but yet, it got dirty again from water on the road the moment I drove out of the station. Yes. My luck.

Not much was done today, except that I bought 3 CDs after having a break from work to wash my car, then off to some mall here to get those CDs. I've been away for some long time now from buying such stuff and always listening to the same old on Youtube or on CDs I already have.

 

 

 

Bought CDs

I've stopped listening to my favorite Phil Collin's Greatest Hits CD and started with the new Boyzone's CD, Brother. So far, the style had changed a lot here. It felt like I'm listening to a rock band rather than that soft Boyzone band that made the strip of memories pass in front of my eyes as usual. I'm not finished listening yet, so I hope there is a song to my style.

As for the two other CDs, I've listened to some songs from them already and they are available (legally) on Youtube. Some of them, not all.

Right now, after reading more and more of Alain Briot's book, things are not hitting the bullseye. The discussion goes on about the audience, choosing, finding, and managing the audience and finding a balance between what people expect and what you really like doing. These lines now made me re-think of my project idea that I had a plan to do one day (soon supposedly). My project was supposed to be about my life; some set of images reflecting the routine of a single guy like me. But then I asked myself "Is it really worthy? Are there people who really want to know?". I can't really answer these questions now, as all I can see now is, busy people. Who would want to see what TJ is doing? Or how important it is to see what he is doing? So far, I think there is no one that would like to do that still...

Now, after printing out some small panoramas on the HP glossy paper, I had the urge to buy another pack today (and they are NOT cheap by the way). I had a problem yesterday when I tried to print out some of those and eventually, I had to sacrifice some sheets. The comedy is to know that my printer is HP, yet this type of paper (the dimensions) was not on the list of the papers provided in the software that manages the HP printer! Thus, I had to define it myself and since I did that myself, things were screwed up with the width and height and the units (inches to/from centimeters) and so forth. Finally, I was able to print 4 small panoramas, and that encouraged me for more. I want to do more panoramas, and print more of them too! There are some stuff that I need to experiment with and see their results, specially when it comes to the color management and the color profile (or space) in use. Long way to begin with...

Something from Ireland, done just for fun...

__________

2761. thus Alexander asked: why some good Ayvars were chosen?
2762. Agdalán replied: to teach the new creation about God,
2763. and some of them followed the Ayvars and some did not,
2764. but they did not involve in fierce battles like the Ayvars,
2765. thus, the descendants of the Ayvars spread again on Daynur,
2766. but this time within the tribes, south and north of Daynur,
2767. and soon they forgot all about their lives and their faith,
2768. and thus the connection was cut between this world and them
2769. Alexander asked then: and where do I come in all of this?
2770. and why my Charnagút is so important for the matter?
2771. Agdalán smiled and said: before I answer this, come with me,
2772. I will show you something you need to see for now
2773. and the two walked side by side until they reached a wall,
2774. it was the end of the large cave they were sitting in
2775. there were some holes in the wall with random sizes
2776. then Agdalán said: come O dear and put the Charnagút,
2777. thus this wall shall open for you with all its contents
2778. Alexander was surprised and he put the Charnagút in
2779. and with some movements he made with his hands
2780. the wall was wide open like a gate made of rock
2781. but the place was dark and Alexander barely saw a thing
2782. thus Agdalán brought a torch and enlightened the place
2783. and soon the fire got into some torches on the wall rapidly
2784. and the eyes of Alexander opened so wide for what he saw

Alexander 6, V114.

Three days passed now and the air is still humid. Yuck! I can't walk outside without taking off my glasses just to take a glance in front of me! When does this all just be over?
A slightly busy day here in the office, with some stranded sample showing in and had to be prepared like the others. Boy, I just can't stop listening to Phil Collins all the time; eating, working, reading, sleeping. I've noticed that most of his songs were written completely or partially by him, and that proves the genius behind this head to write such touchy words, to me at least, where every song I hear seems to be telling a phase of my life in some sort of way.
Speaking of songs and words, I do have some light into this brain for writing something but so far, only few lines were done and the rope was cut and I got blank. In my work place I barely have the time to write now. All I do is read and read (after working with my samples) and then, I have plans that I must accomplish for my Ayvarith that stopped now for some unknown period of time. Ramadhan is coming on the way by next week, and the schedule would be, definitely, so clogged, that is if I was able to do anything at all. The working hours are shortened in Ramadhan, and despite the fact that I do come here so early even in Ramadhan when the working hours begin later than usual, there is still the tiresome time, and most probably, the nap that I must take in the office, and at home as well afterward. I think no need to do sports and burn calories with a busy mind like this and clogged time table like this.

Today, as usual, I went on picking something to eat for breakfast and also I had a look on some speciality printer paper. I was looking for glossy papers to try out and print my photographs at home with my regular inkjet. When I asked about the possibility of this, since I know nothing about printing and the methodology, I've been told that I have to look after a glossy paper made up by the same brand of my printer. Thus, I went on looking for HP glossy A4 papers. I got glossy ones now but unfortunately they were not A4 size, but nevertheless, I had them. I thought I might be able to print small photographs with those now. The thing is, they were long papers and not in a regular shape. They were 30x10cm (WxH), go and figure how many inches please! However, after arriving to my work place and taking another look at them, I've discovered that they were specifically made for panorama, as indicated on the cover! Well, what you know, another spark of light in this brain! Why not! Let's try printing panoramas with this! If it didn't work anyway, I think I can make one sheet of those print 2 images beside each other and we're done.

On the way as well and before I leave the place, I've fiercely resisted my temptations to buy another book from there. I already have dozens of books I need to read. The books I got from Ireland last year were not touched so far; lot of them. That book however, was about face reading, and I like such wisdoms. I do have some books though, but one more wouldn't hurt! Yet, I had to give up. I hope it is always there to grab it when I need to or when I have the time to.

Talking about the glossy paper and photography, brings me back to the origins of everything that this blog has been about for big time now, away from the Ayvarith. Photogaphy.

After failing with my experiment with that high monopod approach, I didn't really think of something else to do, except of sitting there and fix some images from Ireland. I've found myself doing things in black and white again, primarily because the colors, even though beautiful and unique, I felt them distracting my eyes more. Like that snap of the little path in the little forest in front of the Waterfront...

Little Forest Path

This slide was in fact part of a panorama. After checking the photos since my arrival from Ireland last year, I've discovered some images were shaky and not suitable at all to be combined into a panorama. I've re-visited that specific folder of this panorama and I got this slide out (one image from three brackets) and worked on it for some time trying to enhance the contrast and the green glow with the beam of light from the sun. Unfortunately, it hurt my eyes more than it did give pleasure to them. I think this is mainly because of the composition that made a fuss from such a beautiful and calm place as a whole. I do remember the fragrance and the calm atmosphere in this place, yet my photo was noisy. Needless to say of course it had that "real" noise which was hard to be cleaned and smoothed by regular methods. With all of that, I've decided to go on and make it a BW version, with the addition of some contrast of course. I tried as well to make it a sepia, but I didn't like it as much as the BW version. I didn't ask many people how they feel about this, but to me, it feels like a fairy tale (like the original colored one) but the place is lost in time.

Again, I didn't stop here though, and picked up some number of photos trying them in black and white, and found one more that might be fitting as well, and it was colored and I've published it as a colored one as well, some months ago.

In this photo, I think the whitish part of this flower (is it the Dandelion by the way?) is better emphasized (I guess) in the black and white version, rather than colored one. Why I emphasize the white? Well, I believe for this specific flower, the white tone is the core of the matter, or like this flower is telling everyone "Hey! I'm white!", and to let this flower speak the truth and not lying about her existance, I made her that way instead of being a bit yellowish originally!!!

Reading now, still, Alain Briot's Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style, and combined with my BW trend lately, I've came up with a sort of an idea after reading the specific chapters in this book about vision and personal style. It is the beginning anyway and it is not the fingerprint of my style however. I still don't have a style yet. But in his words, Briot inspired to talk about my life in pictures, and when the word "life" comes, I usually picture it in black and white always, because history (which is a topic I like to read into from time to time) is something usually old, or frozen in time, and BW images reflect this idea better, or sepia tones as well. First, I have to settle down this project on paper. I shall write notes about what I do want to tell, and what aspects of my life I'm talking about. Definetely, there would be some rebull in it!!! This is one undividable part of my existance! My plan is to create 10 images to tell the course of my everyday life. Why I shall be doing this project, is something behind my comprehension yet. I think merely to talk about my life but I'm shy to say it in words, so I left pictures talk about me. I shall try as well, to make them as much as possible fit into one image only and no panoramas.

The words about concepts and ideas of Briot in his book, also made me think about some aspects of my life and what do I think about them or what is the philosophy I hold for them. One of these things were actually women. Well, I'm a man so I guess it's natural to talk about women, and photographing women. I'm not a portrait person as yet, but I think, or let's say, I made a belief for myself here, that the first thing I would look at in a woman is her face. To me, this is the center of her emotions. I believe also that 50% of the woman's nature is held in her face, and the rest of her body holds the other 50%. Maybe some men like the aspect of sexuality in a woman and her body, but to me as a man who got raised big time under the presence of a mother more than a father, I do believe that the face tells the real emotions; the passion. Whether than a passion for a man or simply a mother's passion to a child, I believe it is there, in the face. More specifically as well, the eyes of a woman are the first catching factor to me, hence I've been editing the eyes as the first thing, always, when people send me their photos to "enhance". Maybe I had hard time in college days with females, but I always considered those as merely, out of the line or bad products and should not be considered females really. Maybe my next book shall be something about portrait photography...

__________
2713. and Alexander awaited for the words from Agdalán
2714. thus Agdalán started his speech: listen O good king,
2715. it is the time when everything should over and finish,
2716. for my life for now, until the day of the great judgment,
2717. tell me O Alexander, do you know how everything started?
2718. Alexander replied with a weak voice: no knowledge I have
2719. and Agdalán went on saying: In the beginning was the mind,
2720. from the mind the lights were created,
2721. then God commanded the mind,
2722. go! He said, and so the mind went
2723. come! He said then, and so the mind did
2724. thus, God announced the Mind His beloved
2725. thus, He shall judge by it and command,
2726. and by it He shall reward and punish,
2727. thus by glance of the light of the Mind,
2728. He made a burning sun, and a ground,
2729. He called the sun as Sun, and the ground as Earth,
2730. thus He started the life with the bless of fourteen lights,
2731. and He made various peoples to meet each other,
2732. and among those people there was the Ayvar,
2733. a man who conquered and ruled over the world,
2734. and he called the world as Daynur as he wished,
2735. while people lived in wisdom and riches in his time,
2736. until the time had come for him to die, like everyone

Alexander 6, V100.

Relatively a busy day, with some bad surprises along the way. With me starting to fast again, it feels dull. I now realize that eating for me, in the first place, is a psychological need rather than a nutritional one. My eyes are so tired of reading and I cannot have some rest in the office as usual because of some visitors. My room is the meeting room.
On the other hand, there had been some routine work with samples preparation, which was going fine, except when I discovered that one of the motors connected to some device, is broken. Most probably, it had been like that for many days before I discover it, and the first suspect is, of course, Mr Dirty Janitor. I'm trying to push my luck further and try to make the admins or whoever responsible for those guys change this guy with another one. At least someone who doesn't spit too much in the bathroom!

I've been reading further in the usual book, made by Alain Briot, and now I've been enjoying it even more. It is a discussion about life and nature. Well, maybe the dominant style of this book is landscape photography but for sure it works with its concepts in other areas of photography and life. It had a brief discussion as well about some astronomical aspects when it comes to catching sceneries under the moon or sun lights, and that was amusing for me. Beside that, I've figured that I was doing some of the aspects explained in this chapter without me "studying" those in deep. Like for example, I always preferred winter to take photos here in Kuwait, not because of the weather change, but also because, simply, the light and colors of nature are better and look more interesting, and this point is exactly explained in this book! Well, maybe in more details and precise better terms. Well, I guess photography is a mix of logic and feelings altogether, you just need to think about your "feelings".

One of the aspects that "awakened" me really was that the concept of light and colors and how to make the photo interesting. In these lines, I've realized, or more like remembered, that I've been capturing most of my photos for HDR merging and then tone-mapping to give some interesting results of the light conditions. Been really long time since I did represent a single photo. I should work more on this side if I would want my photographs to be "real".

Under this influence, I've began digging again in my arsenal of RAW images from Ireland. I've picked up one image that was not really interesting in composition and I dont remember putting it in my collection before (could be once only when I was writing this blog in Ireland still). I worked extensively in the RAW Converter fixing many values in there without thinking of merging into HDR, and the result was...

 The porous rock from Lough Corrib (Loch Coirib), Co. Galway, Ireland.

I'm fond of the composition though. If I was to shoot this again, I would pick a lower angle, but I know it would be hard that way, because I was already standing on the rocks (and partially soaked up!). However, it was an interesting rock. I should thank here the ProPhoto gamut (or color space). After finalizing my settings, I've changed the space in the RAW Converter into sRGB and Adobe RGB systems, they were not as brilliant as this one, and also naturally, kept the histogram in the middle, not touching the max highlight level or the max shadow level. This harmony is absolutely corrupted when it is converted into other space systems. Love you, ProPhoto! Unfortunately, it is not a very common work-field.

Talking about Ireland again, maybe I should do some re-checks now. Well, more than 2 months ahead, but I guess it is useful to do it now and then and also print out the description of the location(s). You really don't want to get lost in the countryside!

__________
2377. then, the farmers made a celebration for the hero
2378. the night was lighted with torches and three moons
2379. and everyone was happy and merry with laughters
2380. except of one man who was in deep thought ahead
2381. who else it could be except of the poor Alexander
2382. then a farmer whose name was Juvvál approached
2383. and he put a hand on the shoulder of Alexander calmly
2384. Alexander was startled in the beginning and looked back
2385. Juvvál said: calm down O hero! I see you are busy!
2386. the people celebrate for you and you do not join them?
2387. Thus Alexander sighed and looked up to the sky
2388. Juvvál then smiled and said: smile O hero and calm down,
2389. what life is worthy of when we spend every day with worrying?
2390. the burden of the mind do not go by thinking all the time,
2391. but the burden of the mind goes with a laughter,
2392. come O hero and join the singing men for your glory
2393. Alexander smiled back but it was a yellowish smile
2394. and this he said: O good man, it is not easy to be happy,
2395. specially when you are in a dilemma about your existence,
2396. who am I? what I am doing in here? I cannot know myself!
2397. I lost the track of time in here, no days no years,
2398. can you tell me O good man what is the purpose of life?
2399. can you tell me O good man what is my destination?
2400. and Alexander's speech was over with heavy silence