All Eyes On Me...

It was one of these weeks that I could call busy. Yet, however, I'm not so satisfied about it because I've found myself too lazy to do a single thing. Seems it's the effect of summer. I've just realized that I had been in almost continuous activity for around a year, without real vacations. Summer had its toll on me and I'm seriously growing sick of it. Temperatures are going down slowly, yet it is still hot. For example, instead of being 46^oC (~115^oF) at around 11:00 a.m., it is now in the range of 41-42^oC (~106-108^oF) around the same time. Where are you winter; I need you badly.
Anyway, after some struggles, I was able to do some work with my camera this week, trying to do more experiments with the IR Filter which I didn't use much. This time, however, not outdoors, but indoors.
I've discovered last week that I've completed (unintentionally!!) the 3^rdalbum for images from Staten Island. I didn't work for some time with these images. At the end of this post, I'll post a slideshow of this album.

All Eyes On Me

Source Amazon

 Seems reading some of my old books did not go in vain after all. Going through Portrait Photography and The Photographer's Guide to Making Money by Karen Dórame did inspire me a bit to do some experiments in combination with the IR filter, and with car windshield's shade. Yes. Car shades.
The tip for using a car shade as a reflector is taken specifically from Karen's book, but I've developed this idea further for my own needs. I will explain stuff later in this post. So, what's going on here? A book, a car shade, and IR filter? This life is filled with silly stuff, no?
The first idea was to use the shade as a reflector, specifically for the hair light. Well, partially inspired by reading into portrait photography for a while. However, in this venture, I've tried to accommodate this the infrared filter for some "toying" around. Remember that portrait photography is not my cup of tea, and I must add something to it that excites me to some extent, and IR filter was the solution!

Side View of the shade on tripod and speedlites on monopod pointing into it.
Don't ask how I balanced this monopod.

Frontal view of the set.
Hope you don't mind the mess!

The first trial to try the shade was to take a head shot of myself (as usual). Because of this, I have to stay a bit further away from the camera, making holding a cable and checking a portable monitor a bit of a hard task, and with IR filter it is just awesomely... difficult. Thus, for this reason, most of the shots taken in this trial are soft and out of focus a bit. Increasing the depth here (i.e. f-number) would result in darker images. The speedlites here are reflected and not directed, making their task harder even with IR filter on lens. However, some poses were fine and I might consider doing the whole set again if possible; some people did like those shots despite the soft focus.

Infra Me I
Canon EF 50mm, f/4, 0.5sec, ISO500

Infra Me II
Canon EF 50mm, f/4, 0.5sec, ISO500

There were other shots of course but probably these 2 were the best of them. The differences in the tones here is majorly because of the different approaches in dealing with IR images. I've tried to process these images in DPP (Canon's software) and also Photoshop (or the ACR) but I have to say that it was such a hard task because of the darkness of the images relatively. In outdoors shots I was able to get some bright areas and correcting the white balance was an easy shot somehow with DPP, as Photoshop didn't do a good job in that manner. However, indoors proved to be something totally different for IR shots, and I had to surf further looking for answers and tips on how to process these images digitally, specially for camera that are not converted for IR photography (i.e. with normal unmodified sensor). This step, anyway, was looked upon after my next trials for eye shots.

Second set for eye shot trial, with car shade torn in the middle.

I've been dreaming of having a ring light or ring flash for a while. Anyway, an idea struck me again since I've got a car shade of two circular sides. I've cut through the middle and divided the shade into 2 parts: the first would act as a reflector, and the second would act as a ring light. To do the ring light job, I've made a hole in the middle of the shade part (as shown above) which would be suitable somehow for a Ø58mm lens. This cut was done in a haste without much measurements like I usually do, but seems it worked fine! The idea is to reflect the speedlites onto this reflector and the light should reflect back on the subject, which is in this case, my eye. The close distance between the subject, the speedlites and the reflector, made it possible for me to use a high f-number and ensure the shot is sharp despite the slight movement of my body. Remember: the LiveView or what you see in the viewfinder is always the scene at largest f-number. Thus, it is kind of hard to judge the sharpness as the body moves in front of the lens but with high f-number, all is OK and a slight shake won't hurt a bit!

Erster Blick
Canon EF 50mm + Extension Tube, f/22, 125^-1sec, ISO500.

Zweiter Blick
Canon EF 50mm + Extension Tube, f/22, 125^-1sec, ISO500.

Despite the many shots I've taken, I thought that one was enough to be processed in various levels and ways. Erster Blick and Zweiter Blick are actually one shot but one with the Clarity option being low (soft) while the other was maximum (harsh). Of course there were some processing in between to adjust colors and clone out some overexposed areas before uploading but the general criteria here was the Clarity issue. In fact, this shot was intended as a test shot before attaching my infrared filter on the lens.
Intriguing as it may be, the reflection of the shade into my eye. This phenomena, despite its simplicity, it was something I never thought of. This reflection can open up a gate of other possibilities and art venues! We have to think about some stuff to do in the near future I believe.

Erster Blick (B&W)

Zweiter Blick (B&W)

As usual with any eye shot done before, I've went through the process of converting them to B&W as you can see above. In all these images, I greatly miss the NeatImage plugin which can do some job automatically somehow with some nice results. NoiseNinja, despite its nice work, it can leave a dilemma in the mind for what's right and what's wrong. I have to say because of these images now, the statistics of my Flickr reported nearly 900 hits that day!
Just before I leave it completely, I couldn't resist the temptation to "edit" this shot further instead of just enhancing colors and tones. That is, adding some features to the iris and doing some work with the colors. Some work was done, and Dritter Blick was produced.

Dritter Blick

The Dritter Blick is actually based on the Zweiter Blick but in this shot, beside lowering the saturation, a Curves layer was used and the black point was set based on the pupil color, thus adding some harsh contrast. As for the reflections in the eyes, probably if the speedlites were closer to my head, the reflection would be more even across the diameter of the iris.

OK. You might be wondering now where does the IR fit in all of this. In fact, all the images above were a result of a single test shot! After testing the light level, I've fixed the IR filter on the lens and started taking pictures (depending on the portable monitor in front of me) trying to find an adequate position and changing the distances of the speedlites and their angle of incidence.

Infra Auge
Canon EF 50mm, f/22, 125^-1sec, ISO500.

All shots were dark and I had a problem fixing their white balance in DPP and ACR. The main problem in fixing the white balance is, there is no real reference point to take the white balance from Usually, in a landscape shot, the white balance is majorly a matter of the green leaves on trees or the grass, or the sky itself. Here, there are no real reference point to depend on in setting the white balance.
I did a bit of surfing and I've learned some techniques not known to me before, specifically for working with digital IR images in RAW (majorly some method to expand the white balance range). What I discovered during my little research is the fact that, in general, the matter of processing IR images, either indoors or outdoors scenes, it is mainly a matter of art and sensuality. You have to imagine yourself to be a designer and work with your images in what you think is proper. There is no right method or a wrong one. There are just some basics and the rest is a matter of processing in Photoshop or other editing programs, after doing initial adjustments in ACR. IR do sound like a fertile soil for artistic venues.
As for the shots themselves, they were (naturally) too dark despite the fact that the speedlites were on full power. I didn't want to increase the ISO further as I know the annoying noise level would make a headache but probably I should have loosen the f-number a bit, say to f/16 or even f/11 instead of leaving it to f/22. Anyway, from all the shots taken, Infra Auge was probably the least in headache. Notice I said "the least." Generally, all of them were a headache!
The blue tone of the image is a result of channel swapping, that is exchanging the places of the red and the blue channels together. The noise level because of the ISO and because of the increment in the exposure level was beyond imagination, and despite the fine look in a small size image like the one above, the real image is not as smooth as it appears here. In fact, even the focus was smoothed out while trying to clean the noise of the image. Here also, to reduce the amount of the color noise (which was specially apparent on the pupil) I've used the Curves adjustment layer again and setting the black point from the pupil itself. The contrast increased and I had to sacrifice some tiny details in other areas which became darker. The iris was brightened out wit dodging techniques. Surprisingly, some say they like this one the most from the series! I'm not expecting such image to be accepted in stock agencies anyway.

Linguamechanic

This week, I've spent some more time (at work) with my Geltani and also reading more into the Turkish lessons. I'm trying to settle with my opinions of what features to take from the Turkish language to implement into Geltani. Apparently Turkish is complex (relatively speaking) and Geltani has to be simpler in form and expressions (and it is already logographic!).
Meanwhile, I'm still working slowly on phonic values for the sounds of Geltani and assigning more possible combinations of vowels and consonants. The progress is slow, and it made me delve (back again) more into the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), and trying to figure more about the sounds it includes. What I discovered here is, somehow, that the IPA is somehow too precise that it makes some confusion. When I checked the phonetics (or Phonology) of the Arabic language, there seem to be more than one representation for the symbol for the simple sound of [خ] (equivalent to Scottish and German "CH"). The only different is the amount of air probably and the friction position (I leave the anatomical names inside the mouth for doctors here!). I believe this is somehow unnecessary. Once you learn a language, the sounds should flow along even with some minor changes in the air flow - if this change was significant, probably our ancestors would have discovered that earlier and decided to make a separation in symbols for such phenomena.
Similarly, in Ottoman Turkish, when it was written with Arabic script, there was no real distinction between "V," "U," "Ü," "O," "Ö." Most of these sounds in modern Turkish were represented simply by the letter [و], and only when the diacritics were used in the body of the text some distinction is made between some of these sounds. I think the Ottomans back then didn't give much importance to these differences in vowels because the general speech was understood and the tonal values would flow depending on the surrounding vowels and consonants in the word. This is apparent in some Turkish words in modern Turkish in which the last letter would change according to the additions. For example, the "p" in [kalp] (heart) would change to "b" with some additions like [kalbım] (my heart). Just to note, "Kalp" is originally an Arabic word and in Arabic it ends with "B" [ب], and only in modern Turkish it would end with "P". Turkish is full of such words that change their ends from light to heavy sounding ones. The question remains though: is it necessary to write and document such changes? Probably a native Turkish speaker would, naturally, end such words with light sounds as "P" (and some others) because of the nature of the vowels and consonants the proceed this consonant, thus even if we wrote it as "B", a Turk would still say it as "P" because it is more natural to his native tongue. The philosophy of precision is under question: is it really necessary to add some complexion to the written words?
In the meantime, I had as well some crazy idea to make an Arabic-based script for Turkic languages, including Ottoman, but this time it would be more to be an alphabetic script rather than an abjadic one. The Uyghur script is already in that way but it causes much confusion, at least to me, because the laws of written Arabic are broken (concerning what letters to be joined at the end and which ones to not be so). Probably I would call it, UniTurkic. The idea is just at the beginning and I need more time to make it grow. For the time being I shall be busy with my Geltani, at least.

Finale

I need a vacation. This is the bottom line of my life in the current time. I do plan to have some leave from work but I'm hesitated. Such leave might give me a break from work, but I'm still faced with duties for Mom, specially after planting another valve in her arm for dialysis.I think this will be the situation for a really long time, so I'm trying to prepare for it psychologically.

source: B&H

One of the things that are on my list to be ordered after some time (after I finish some few debts) is the RoundFlash which is something cheap (compared to the ring flash) and works with the regular speedlite on camera. Probably this what inspired to make the experiment above with the car shade! Anyway, it's on the list with other stuff. I'm considering having another lens to my collection but the matter is still under consideration and I'm not really sure if I do need one. I have something for prime lenses for the time being and wouldn't like to add a zoom lens to my list. Also on my list, a new tripod. However, that would be another story for another post probably.

I need some time to recollect my thoughts about my private life for the time being. It seems to be more disastrous than before under the current circumstances. Scariest of all is the fact that, I don't know where the end of the tunnel lies.
I leave you now with a slideshow for images of the 3^rd album from Staten Island, New York.

Dancing Under The Rain...

A smooth week, in some ways. Nevertheless, it was not out of minor troubles that I hope they would be resolved soon. One of these problems is the delay in recording the Ayvarith text for Alexander's story. I'm going to restart recording in 32bit format (or sometimes called "float-point audio"). I've noticed some glitches when recording in 16bit, and I thought I might better use the 32bit format now. However, the glitches are still there. Some weird stops occur in the middle of the recording out of sudden, as if the mic do not catch any sound at that particular moment and then back to normal. Seems it is another memory issue with this "lovely" PC. Please note the sarcasm! Anyway, let's hope I go on with this project as it is weighing heavily on my shoulders now. I feel dull sitting without doing something about it and the least I need now is, a technical problem like this.

I've not worked much with my camera this week, except of a tiny experiment that I will explain later. Seems the vacation session is on, but nevertheless, I'm still working on photos from Ireland. I've remembered for a moment that there were two albums that I needed to complete; the sixth album and the black and white album (for the images from the sixth album). The process was slow but since I'm not working with my camera, I worked on boosting the process till finally finishing them off, and been sent already in a mass email message. The idea here, I think, is to create a turmoil of emotions in the eyes of the viewer by sticking the black and white version next to its colored-likeness. The gap in emotions between a colored image and a black and white version of the same image can be a huge one; personally, I do think it can be from a happy top then down to a melancholic one. Usually, the black and white images (majorly of landscapes, architecture) make a sense of mystery to melancholy somehow, because black and white is usually linked to history and old times (thanks to the history of camera developments). Anyway, the creation of emotional turmoil was not an aim from my side, but in the early beginning it was simply a notification of some image that I had different feelings for it, when every theme meant something to me, and from the moment I decided to make a separate folder for the black and white images specifically for these images in the sixth album.

Realistic with increased blackish tone reflecting the dramatic death I suppose.

Mysterious. Desaturated just before being totally black and white. Gives me an impression of Egyptian tombs and secrets of the past. It adds a sense of antiquity.

Cruelty of death. The plain truth and end. Black and white, no other options available.

I have to say that all of the three images are originated from a single HDR image which was tone-mapped and then enhanced in Photoshop later on. Please, if you are a purest and see HDR simply a toy and not an art, then remove this blog from your list. I create what my emotions tell me to do. Left to say that this gravestone is actually old, but not antique. It dates back to 1800s era, and most probably from the time of the Irish famine. Maybe the change in colors would create some dating way before this era, so I have to state this. There are other graves around Cashel town, in Co. Tipperary, that date back to the 1700s and even 1400s. This town has a fermented history scent to it.
Finished now with these two albums (which you can check them out here and here), and started already a seventh album for pictures around Co. Tipperary. Frankly, I'm not sure what will be there, as it seems I've used all tricks in my sleeve. The choices I had in Tipperary are not as much as those in Galway in 2009. Probably because I have a passion to the water and the lake there more than simply farm lands. However, each one of them is fascinating in its own way.
The picture that started the album made a nice catch for me in two ways. Two things that I've achieved by coincidence with this image. Well, not really achieved, but noticed by coincidence.

Tower in Vane
A tower in Cahir castle in Cahir town, Co. Tipperary.

The story of this image can be listed in two points:

1. In the beginning, this image was merged into HDR. The bracketed sequence was not catastrophic and I've noticed some nice portions of each slide of the 3 images composing the HDR; mainly, the -3EV and 0EV brackets. It wasn't until later that I've realized that a bracket of -3,0,+3 does not necessarily make a good bracket for your HDR. However, I've tried in the beginning to set the images into layers and trying to substitute the layer masks around, trying to cover some portions of here and there to give a nice tone for the overall look. Didn't work. Tried merging into HDR within Photoshop, but as usual, Photoshop has the archaic problem with memory requirements when it comes to such operations. I had in my mind some manual tone-mapping because the image with its natural look is nice and I don't need to add weird tones to express my emotions, at least for the time being! Anyway, I had to merge in Photomatix and save the file into Radiance format (.hdr) and then open it back in Photoshop.
   After opening in Photoshop, I worked with an adjustment layer of Exposure and fixed some shadows and some highlights manually without harsh effects, and with a soft brush. After that was done, it's time now to the real manual tone-mapping and converting into a 16bit image. This was done also without grand breaks in the histogram curve, just darkening some portions and lightening some others a bit further and so on. Cool so far.
   The thing that I've noticed here is, the noise level is way below what I'm used to see when I tone-map in Photomatix. Does that means Photomatix is responsible for ADDING a certain noise level to the image? I was technically satisfied with the level of the noise when I zoomed to 100%, but for the sake of some sharpness, I ran NeatImage with "slightly blurred" profile in use, to make the image slightly sharper. This noise level notification makes me think further of how should I do things with HDR. This comes at a time that I'm indeed trying to reduce my "HDR intake" and depend on the best shot I can get within a bracket and adjust its RAW.
2. Then there was a surprise. The trick that might solve my problems with color spaces. I've always wondered about the difference between "Assign Profile" and "Convert to Profile" under the Edit menu in Photoshop. Seems this made it clear to me, somehow, or at least I know what to do next time I work in ProPhoto space and preparing an image to be uploaded to some website that doesn't identify such a color space.
   The whole thing started with me, by mistake, using the Convert command, instead of the Assign command. I've converted the space into Adobe 1998; the usual. I've noticed that the colors didn't change or coming dull as it usually happens. I've undone the command and used Assign this time, and the colors were put down. The sky you see above, literally, turned purple-like and the image was darker. I've undone this command again, and used Convert to convert the image into Adobe 1998, and there was no change. Now, checking the general space of the image yielded Adobe 1998 indeed, but the looks are those of ProPhoto space! Awesome! When the image was uploaded to some websites, there was no change in colors as it happens usually. Great! Now, I have to keep a mental note:
   Assign: moves the whole set of colors into the destination space and putting down those out of range to some specific limits.
   Convert: converts colors from one space to another (and tags the image with the space of the destination) while keeping its visual looks as much as possible.

Back now to my tiny little experiment with my camera. I did that yesterday in fact in a hurry, but the results were as I expected. I was able to turn the light on and off "digitally". I did this experiment before (in the bathroom) but the results were not so good for various reasons, but now I can say that I've did it.
This time I used a desk lamp, and I made sure that the light bulb was transparent and not translucent. I think the translucent characteristics achieve some kind of diffusion in the light coming out of the tungsten filament inside and that might give me hard times. However, after fixing the setting, I shot several bracketed sequences in the range of 2-stops only (-1,0,1), and then moving the sliders all the way from -7EV to the max I could get (6EV). Tedious, yes. All of that was to ensure a smooth transition in the luminance data when the HDR slide is to be done. With any sudden cut in the luminance (can be checked in the HDR histogram) then I can say my experiment would fail and I can't "turn on or off" the lights as I want.

The histogram after merging the RAW shots (Photomatix)

The shots were all taken in RAW format of course, since this format keeps as much data about the scene as possible. When merged there were some messages about a duplicate exposures (i.e. some files had the same EV value), so I had to drop down those and merge the different ones only. The histogram above is concentrated in the middle of the graph (a good sign) and without any severe cuts on the sides or in the middle, but there is a smooth transition. The thing I'm wondering about is, why there is 2 peaks in the graph? The only explanation I could think of is, probably, the right one is corresponding to the luminance level of the light bulb itself, while the left one corresponds to the luminance of the cone or the reflector around the bulb.
I've saved the HDR file and opened in Photoshop just to play around with the exposure and test the turning off and on of the light bulb myself, and I can say I've done it! All I had to do is play with the exposure slider at the bottom...

Recorded from my own monitor after a struggle! However, notice how the shadows form inside the cone around the light bulb, and also, when the brightness go extreme; it looks real on the monitor even though the real setting and scene did not have such view or level of brightness. Seems it is embedded within the HDR image the data to predict the luminance of a certain scene behind the real limits of the scene itself at the time of the shoot.
Don't you get the feeling that this bulb is dimmed by a real dimming switch and it's not an image on a monitor? Personally, I got that feeling. This is the power of HDR. Real HDR and not tone-mapping HDR images. This makes me think about possible and interesting uses for such criteria and if there is any way to simplify it. It is this tool that can make you a super visual artist. Visual digital artist, if I should say. You can control the light as you like, all what you need now is... imagination.
Of course in this rush of joy with such results, I couldn't resist tone-mapping and uploading such an image of this beauty bulb. The tone-mapping here though was a mix between the Photomatix and the manual tone-mapping in Photoshop (because Photomatix produced high noise level in the black area around the cone and I wanted to remove that). Add to tht, some few hue changes and contrast addition.

Tone-mapped tungsten bulb

On the other hand I'm busy reading my books and Amazon is waiting for a review. Writing a review for something I have is like a duty to me, and that makes me stressed little bit. However, the two books are bout portrait photography (which has loads of technical information about light and tools), and the other is a book by George Barr; Take Your Photography to the Next Level. I have to say that this book made a jolt to my mind somehow. I'm walking around places and trying to figure out patterns of lights and lines that usually don't get my attention enough. The book has practices on how to THINK as a photographer and what to SEE as a photographer. The book is also fun to read as the author has his own sense of humor!

I've been pushing my mind so hard to write something. It is a damned feeling to have a lot of emotions to talk about yet, you can't express or write them. I was thinking of some lyrical form but anyway, I created a simple thing just to get myself satisfied, thinking that I did something at least. I called Dance Under The Rain. Maybe it's my way of saying "Screw up the world." Who cares anyway...

 

Crazy Me, Crazy World...

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

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

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

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

Some of the options.

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

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

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

In Terra Gigantum

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

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

Lord Time.

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

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

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

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

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

Forgotten Grace.

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

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

Life goes on... but till when?

Aspergers?

A Quiet week, sort of, and thank God it's Thursday! I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since I got back to work, because it feels already like I'm here for the past 6 months already. Not because of work pressure, but because stupidity pressure around me. Sometimes I feel if I eliminated the stupid people from my periphery the population on land would count as much as 12 persons only.

I feel a bit of relief now as well, because my friend made an interview in my work place and technically he passed it without my intervention but the only thing left now is the paper work in the administrative office, which takes in an optimistic season, 3 months. After all, sooner or later he will be here eventually, I hope.

Camera-wise now, I've been doing things slowly here and then and trying to fix some of those bad ones I made already. I've already sent a collection of 20 images so far by email to several people, and it is the second mass email if I should say. I decided to change my practice of making a batch of 30 images and send them in one email. Instead, I will be making folders inside my Photobucket for each batch of images, with 20 images only inside each one of them. After that I will be sending a link to the album itself instead of putting the images in my email composer, which takes really long time to fix. The link to the album of the first batch can be checked here:

First Album

The work after that started with a panorama for Hore Abbey. Specifically, for the main hall or it seems the place where masses were held probably. I call such places with different names really and most of the time, I call them "Yards" mainly because now, they are either filled with grass or pebbles like a yard outside any house, but I'm quite sure that such places were once roofed and had many facilities and chairs or benches and the floor was tiled in most cases I believe. Probably I should call them "courts". However, Not much troubles, gracefully, in this panorama except of some chromatic aberrations that tend to show up strongly because of the fisheye lens usage with a strong sunlight.

Hore Abbey, Cashel. The main hall (court).

Of course after doing this flat spherical panorama, I wouldn't miss the Little Planet projection as well:

Hore Abbey, little planet projection.

Despite the geometrical shapes here with little planet projection I do feel it's not quite well specially with the cut out wall on the far left side of the image. However with a QTVR, it was a nice view specially to see the ceiling with its unique geometrical design; a fingerprint of medieval art, and probably this is what is to be the gothic influence.

It was until I made the QTVR, I realized that the left and right sides of the panorama are not coherent in tones, and hence a thin line cut through one side of the QTVR because of this. I did all the process again all over, but in a haste and maybe made the QTVR look paler and sharper with white sparks. However, I do keep a larger QTVR with higher quality, and in case I need to do it again I would do it slowly. No need for the rush. I will try now to concentrate on more single images to process.

In case you are wondering now about the title here, Aspergers?, well, that might be some false alarm, but nevertheless, got me interested in the subject. Asperger syndrome is like a special case of Autism, and with some cases of Autism in the family, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I do have some degree of this. I don't have quite the information about it, but one simple test called the "The Autism Quotient Quiz," which I did online, yielded some high score. Some friends said that such tests conducted online cannot be really taken seriously but they are only screening tests, and they are somehow, culturally dependant. I did the test two times, and the results were 36 and 38 respectively. 

I've been reading some texts online and figured out some people do some things that I do: cleaning shining objects, untidy room, sleeping problems and hard time waking up, repeating things, listening to a song all over again several times until all words are memorized or so, routine and feeling disturbed when something changes with some specific routines. All of the signs above had been partially diagnosed for some people as Asperger Syndrome symptoms. Now this makes me more thoughtful of visiting a professional to do what it has to do to know myself better. I might solve an everlasting problem of mine, that is the inability to focus for long time (only in rare occasions).

Bét Harrá...

Been some days away from work and away from most of the activities in my life and for the day of Ashura (which I took a single day leave for yesterday), but today, which happens to be a Monday (yes, a Monday) is a day that should not be considered in a life time. For some reason, I did not hear the alarm and thus, naturally, woke up late at 7:15! Moved out in a hurry and I joined the road's carnival! Almost around 45 (or more than 30 minutes a bit, I really lost my track of time), just to reach my work place, with all that pain in my feet! Now after arrival, I need to find something to eat!
Lot of people mix up between the term "Ashura" and the month of Moharram (first month in the islamic calendar). Thus, just to elaborate a bit about it: Moharram is the first month of the islamic calendar, and Ashura is the term used for the 10th day of Moharram ONLY. It is the day mostly remembered for the Battle of Karbala, where the grandson of the Prophet was massacred with his companions and his household, and the women of his household were taken like prisoners of war. Some people call this month "Ashura" which is wrong.

During the last few days I was busy with scanning some old photos that belonged to mom's collection and most of them were in black and white. I didn't finish though but I finished the majority. I just realized how beautiful mom is. I think by now, I want a girl that looks like her, in everything! I had a problem though after scanning that huge amount in TIFF format; I can't covert them back to JPG. Should've scanned them in JPG in the first place but I was thinking of some "compressing" that might make some data loss here. I hope there is some way around this problem! There is no way I'm going to scan 47GB back again in JPG! Never!
I discovered also that if I scanned the negative form (those negatives from the analog camera exactly as they are), I would be able to flip and inverse the colors back and I would have the original image just by scanning the negative! But, this is not a complete experiment... I need to do further investigation because flipping the colors produces a very bright image which needs some corrections in color to make it normal looking. Let's see what we can do later on!

It had been some days now without snapping anything, and mainly because I'm concerned about the dirty spots that I get in my images. It is clear that I need sensor cleaning. So much to spend on for now and just remembered some promises I made for some people, to lend them some money. I guess I have to rely back on my visa for a while, again. I might try to go to Canon's headquarter for services, and ask them to clean the sensor, but I just hope that doesn't take a day or two, because I'm totally out of mood for such a task.

I was doing some surfing the other day and I've discovered that I might indeed have what's called "ADHD" or the (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). I don't know if it is that bad, although according to some "screening" test (that should not be taken seriously), I do have some of this ADHD. Maybe this is obvious in my lack of patience specially when it comes to focusing on doing a task for a long time.

The yield for today is 3 verses, reaching line #2232. Can't wait to finish all of this! However, the word for today is "bét harrá" [Ankh: beyt hurWa] as you can see, which stands for "sail" (of a ship). The literal meaning is "house of air" and it points out to the mission of the sail of collecting the air to push the ship. Beside this word, I had to make out a word for "sail" as a verb, which I modelled after the word "sea" and became (baħam) [Ankh: buxuM]. Notice that the word for "sea" is (bħím) [Ankh: bxyM]. Also, the noun form of "sail" was modelled after "sea" and became (baħámah) [Ankh: buxamuH].
I can't imagine the amount of words that I've made up so far by translating this last part of the story of Alexander, and that makes me think of the hard work needed to put them down in the dictionary!
Please, shoot me...