Lurking...

Seems this winter will be over before I make a nice shot outside. This is how it feels for the time being, at least. I just hope this feeling won't extend further to the rest of this season.
I've been busy lately with chores here and there, and I'm relieved for now after finishing my car license renewal. Still though, the car is making me a headache with gear problems. I hate cars. I really do. I have to check this problem as soon as possible before something serious happens to the gear.

The skies are beautiful in the morning and for some time I used to pack my camera and tripod with me wherever I go just in hope to get something on the way, but with heavy sleeping and heavy clothes being needed now (yeah, I'm getting old), it is harder to do it. I don't take my camera with me everyday now. Despite the beautiful sky in winter wherever I go here (daily, as I go to work), it is harder to capture something because of the locations; cars, buildings on the way, unwanted trees... etc. It would be nice to take such shots with such skies in a cityscape format. For this reason, the only thing to think of is to get myself busy (with the camera) at home, for the time being.

What to do at home? Well, I've been experimenting little bit here and there, and since I allow myself some extra Photoshop editing unlike many other concrete or precise photographers that I've encountered so far, so I decided to take some snap shots and modify them later to suit my aim. My main assistant here is my younger brother, either as my model or as the cameraman when I'm in front of it. Yet, I guess one of the best shots that I've created for him so far (even he was surprised for the result himself) is when I turned him into a vampire. As simple as that!

Lurking

The image is not cropped. It was merely a concentration on one quarter of the face. In this shot I didn't use my flash unit, but instead, I've pointed my little LED light (key chain LED light in fact) to this portion of the face and taking the shot then. The idea was to take a shot of myself since I have longer canines (the longest in the house I think), but with him not being into cameras so much, it was hard to teach him how to zoom and focus and use the panhead (where you control the camera's direction with one and only one joystick or lever). Anyway, as a beginning, I asked to get in front of the camera and I will do the job.

In the beginning I was thinking of giving the picture a bit of a cold hue (slightly blue shade with slightly reddish lips), but I went along with the black and white version because I feel it gives more drama to the situation, and more of a sense of fear.
The "fangs" here were done simply with selection tool (I used the pen tool personally, anyway different situations require different techniques I guess) and, after selecting one of them solely, I used various transformations (wrap, skew, distort...etc) to elongate the teeth (a good idea is to copy the portion after selecting by Ctrl+J; this will move it to a new layer). Of course, some additions were required just to hide the width of the original tooth where it was required.

I'm tending now to take more pictures of this type. In fact I just did take some shots of myself and my brother (well, he took pictures of me of course) and I'm planning to retouch them in the same manner. My face is ugly already as it is without touching in fact, but well, I just want to mimic fantastical creatures when I touch! I was planning to put the pictures here today but unfortunately I couldn't because we shot late and such editing needs time (sometimes in days). I do think such tendency with my shots (or such way of thinking) do reflect something in me, and I do indeed look for answers for such tendencies about creating scary stuff.

I was talking for weeks now about a panorama? Well, still thinking of how to do it. As I said earlier, the chores and the bad sleeping times (mainly for totally exhausted body) render me motionless and mood-less for such work for now. I just hope things go as planned for the few weeks left of this year, and the car gets fixed with no problems... this is all what I'm wishing for myself with this year's end... no big hopes no big wishes, I just need these small stuff done. Projects await.

And The Battle Goes On...

Recovering from flu now and getting back to work, I'm trying hard (again) to complete the story of Alexander with its last part.
The story evolved into a battle between Alexander and the demon. There is no planning in the story, just going on with writing. For this reason, I'm stopping a lot and get many blocks where I cannot move further til I get some rest and get some time to proceed with the rest of the story. I reached line 300 so far, which is good I think!

In the meantime, I'm still working as well on my brother's website, and also I've created a blog for himself with a new email account in GMail. I think I shall take care of all these technical stuff later on even after finishing the website, because I don't think he can do all the advertising by himself and the blogging as well. I guess I will write the blog on his behalf. His blog now is:
fshamali.blogspot.com, Eye Image Designs blog.

Sickness...

Coping with my sickness while writing these words. For several days I didn't touch anything in the story and all what I do is sleep most of the time and yet I'm tired. I can't say I have a strong fever but it is coming and going.
In the meanwhile, working on with my brother's website is almost taking all my time when I'm at home and I don't do anything else. I'm trying to achieve something by reading a lot of Flash tutorials, because as it seems, this is the neatest way to do it.
The view is blurred about the site and its sections and this holds me back from doing many things about the text and some effects. I have to cope with it that way.
I'm a taking a break from all of that and play a game or two as well! Reading so much makes me eyes blur images...

Quenching...

This morning, I was going on writing and writing and writing... when suddenly something pulled me back and couldn't find appropriate words. I guess my brain is just exhausted right now?

I'm busy with creating some webpage for my brother, thus it is hard for me a little to write the story at home. Otherwise, if I'm not working on it, I would be playing around with some game! For the time being I'll spend my time reading some tutorials that might help me in doing my work for my brother.

I've started to get thrilled by the length and the effort needed to translate and do other stuff to this part of the story! I didn't estimate it that way! I've reached 240 lines til now and still the story goes on. My thoughts lead me (without previous planning) to make Alexander meet the killer of his father, a demon.

Note: drinking a HOT pepsi, is not a good idea, AT ALL.

Still Writing!!!

Trying to find more and more to write for the story and in the same time was busy fixing and uploading some photos to the net for my cat!
In the same time I'm getting things ready to make a simple webpage for my brother to help him out in his work and to be able to do an online business. I think he just wants a page to put his CV but I think of a bigger picture. We'll see what I can do.
Trying to find more elements to add to the story but I can't get the hang on anything yet. This is the bad part of hating to watch movies I guess... hope this block will go away soon... I am late in my work for Ayvarith already.

Slow Progressing...

After finishing major stuff for work and my online course I might have plenty of time in my hands (neglecting the fact that I didn't work on the Arabic poster that I always wanted to do), but still I can't work on the story... the mood swings take a large portion of my mind.
I tried to write down some words but the story is still in its beginning although I reached 70s in lines' numbers.
The list of games is growing and I can't play them too since there is no mood as well!!!
Thinking of doing a simple homepage for my brother to put his CV on it with some of his work. He might be able to work online as well.
In the same time, I'm still planning to visit the island of Failaka even though I never heard back from those people. At least just to visit the place and change some mood away from the city. I need to get the schedule. It is almost the end of March now and very likely we might go out in April if I was lucky enough! ..... no one is able to get the schedule of the trips to the island and I'm busy here in this office doing stuff and can't leave that long (and if I have the time, no mood too).

You might be surprised to see me talk about my mood all the time but, this is my main problem. Everything is controlled by my mood. I can't enhance that, and everytime I try to do so I just fail again and again! What to do if you have a noisy home in the first place and surrounded by people that look at you as an alien?

Well, Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig everyone, Happy St. Patrick Day (nope I don't celebrate it!).