Alexander 4, V6. Last.

Ugh! Another failure!
Doing the experiment with filters and fixing aperture and time was not a good choice, despite the fact that I got some nice images with differences in exposures and lighting. The main problem is that, I never though of the consequences of the EXIF data that would be attached to the images, and which are used primaily as a source to calculate the exposures relations. Hence, both softwares, Photoshop and Photomatix, had a problem with setting the exposure values to the images even though the images are clearly different in the light level.
In photoshop it was even harder to set up the values manually (even though it gives you the option to do so), but Photomatix, was a bit more flexible in changing the values.
The other problem was that changing the filters is not a practical mean at all, specially when the lens are on manual mode (auto-focus mode is hard to work with in such darkness if not impossible at all!). When moving the filter in and out of the filter holder,  there is a great chance to change the focus of the lens a bit after fixing it (and for someone clumsy as me, it was one hell of thing to fix the camera in the first place!).
There were two methods of shooting that I followed, and hence I made 2 series of shots related to each other (but when combining I felt somehow free to combine some elements from this series with others from the other series). The methods were like (of course with a flash pointing somewhere):

1. Stacking the filters altogether and start the shoot. Then, remove one filter and shoot again, and doing so until all filters are removed.
2. Shooting each filter alone without stacking them altogether.

However, with putting and removing, I tend to move the lens lil bit and that made the focus get corrupted and the image was little bit blurry. Tone-mapping, was another disaster.

One of the series, tone-mapped with Photomatix

One of the series, tone-mapped with Photoshop

As you can see from the previous examples, the image was blurred and not sharp enough, and as for the second tone-mapping with photoshop, it is a complete disaster! You might say "I have the choice to not tone-map it to that level," but actually it was hard. This is the most reasonable curve I could get. By the way, it was one file saved in Photomatix as OpenEXR (PIZ compression), then tone-mapped in both programs.

The reflection of the flash is still annoying despite the fact that it was pointing downwards toward the ceramic floor (but in some shots I made it point to my back and up and to the other direction away from the censer).

I'm not sure I will do other experimenting today, as I am out of ideas really, but I might work a bit on some photos from Ireland, as I stopped for some time for the time being now.

I finished yesterday one of the hardest images that I encountered so far (because of my memory problems). It is the Aughnanure Castle Field again (360 panorama) but, in another projection;

The colors are not so accurate since I saved it as a GIF to preserve the transperancy. Anyway, the ring shape is not what I was intending to have really, and I was aiming more at a perfect sphere, and that's why this type of projection is called commonly as "The Little Planet Projection." However, because of the large size of the image and the hardships for making such a texture to fill up the middle area, made me neglect this idea. The image was originally around 20,000 pixels (height and width almost like a square). Yes, twenty thousand. I've reduced the size after tone-mapping to ~9000 pixels, but that was not enough still for my sick memory, so I settled down to ~6000 pixels. Of course the final output was also converted to 8-bit to work on some other adjustments, as it was also hard to work in 16-bit with such memory. I'm thinking seriously of changing the whole system, but after the difficulties I had yesterday with my connection and setting up my router back again, I was thinking "no man thank you not now."

It's TGIT time!

__________

121. and when the events calmed down
122. and Alexander was back again to normal
123. the prisoners of Zimúrá were taken away
124. to stand in before Alexander, the hero
125. and there they told him their secrets
126. their tongue and their strings of writing
127. and how are they born and buried
128. some of them are burned when they die
129. and some others are buried in trees trunks
130. and Alexander commanded the wisemen
131. to record everything they see and learn
132. and when all documents were recorded
133. he ordered the beasts to be cleared out
134. and their bodies shall be hung on the trees
135. for they are children of sinners and beasts
136. and no use of them in this life and this world
137. and thus Alexander wanted to make them a lesson
138. for the other beasts and cruel hearts in the place
139. and then he ordered what had remained of his men
140. to dig up graves for what is left over of the bodies
141. and the mourning for three days started
142. and he cried with a saddened heart
143. for the lost of his beloved, and the lost of loyalty
144. while injuries were handled and supplies were taken

   

New US Mailbox!

My US Mailbox had been activated finally! I can order anything I want at any time!!! ... providing that I have the money...
With my camera away from me, I started to work on some photos from Ireland again, but this time I was trying to be more systematic in my preview and work with the images, that is, I check the folders ascending according to the dates of the taken photos and I check what best fits and what I did not do before, and then I work with it in HDR way or any other way possible. Hence, I made 2 new samples into my collection yesterday;




These two photos were from the earliest and first snaps I shot in Ireland after reaching Galway. They were taken directly in the next morning for my arrival (which was by night and hence, a very tiresome time!). I'm not sure though that I would be able to complete a set of 30 images to send over by email however, but I will see what I can do, but this is going to be a slow progress.
In the mean time, I'm supposed to pick up my camera by tomorrow, and let's hope it's finished this time for real. I went on yesterday (because the guy there told me it would be finished by Monday) but it wasn't finished yet. The other guy who, as it seems, works in the workshop itself said that it will be over by Wednesday, and he advised me to call before going there. I'm ready to go, but not make a phone call!


Amid this fuss, I'm working on some images for some people who wanted to make out something out of them, but the results weren't always good in fact, and that depends largely on the composition of the photo and how large it is already. Hope they like what I do, because me, myself, don't like it all the time! I'm working on a brochure for my work place as well, and this one is taking a great deal of time, specially with the hardship when it comes to work with Arabic text. I had to use old versions of Photoshop just to get the text done and yet I was not totally free of troubles.


My happiness with the new Mailbox is not complete yet, since there some items that are not available in one site and I might have to roam around and collect them and send all over to my US box. I hate this already before trying it!


The yield for today was 3 verses, and although I had the power to go on with a fourth one, but I preferred to stay here and check my new mailbox and write this blog, and read my book.

Oughterard

Today, I had breakfast in the Waterfront as usual and went on a long long walk to the nearest village to get some cash and buy some stuff as well for my stay. The way took me one hour of walking to there or more a bit and one hour to get back or so... in total I think I spent 3 hours of continuous walking, so much that even now, 3 hours after my return to the Waterfront, I still feel my feet burning and aching. Trying to fight though not to sleep now or else, I'll be awake by night time with not much to do and so on.

On my way, although I didn't want to take much pictures and stared down most of the time, but still, I couldn't resist snapping some pictures. Anyway, they were not as much as yesterday though. One of the funniest thing that I've found on my way, is some sign that was planted on the earth, upside down!

Maybe this is how Gaelic is supposed to be? Who knows!

After checking the maps that I got from the hotel some days ago, I think I need to go back to the main city (Galway) to go around and get some gifts for the family... and myself as well if possible although I don't have much to buy for myself! Well, maybe a memorial for myself of this stay. Yet, I collected some pinecones from the ground the day before yesterday and intending to keep them for a memorial. Hope the airport check won't think it is a bomb or something!

Fáilte go hÉireann - The Beginning...

Here I am after a tiresome traveling from one country to the other and with "somehow" troublesome time, I got finally to my final destination... The Waterfront - Oughterard, Galway Co. in Ireland.

I took off from Kuwait Airport around 2:20 a.m. at the 29th of September. The destination was Istanbul, Turkey. The flight took around 4 hours or more a bit, and generally it was a nice one since I didn't have anyone sitting beside me at all (there was on guy who left to some other seat as it seems). I didn't expect the number of people though. In the plane I was trying hard to sleep a bit by flipping my head left and right or leaning my head against the window and so on, till I reached Istanbul. In in Istanbul, all I had to do is go on with the rush wherever it goes and follow the signs and ta-da I was in the transit zone. I had to wait for 4 hours there for my next flight to Dublin. It was a great waste of my time really. I was coping to keep my eyes open all the time, and I found some people sleeping there already but no place for me... thus I decided to take some Espresso from the Starbucks café in the transit zone. I guess that café was the only thing that I wouldn't really miss from Kuwait at all! However, the expresso effect wasn't effective enough. Finally the time was up and I had to go on to my plane. I was surprised to see the number of people traveling with me in the same plane! I thought tourism time is over and people don't travel at this time of the year, but most of the travelers with me were actually Irish people returning home! Thus, it was a crowded place and I was stuffed like a sardine in my seat.

My seat was another story. In this flight, the curse of children started to follow me like if I was at home. Children crying and children kicking my legs... why don't these guys use glue? However, I was seated, and 2 old people sat beside me then suddenly (as it seems) they discovered that they made a mistake and they must sit at the back and not in my row. That was a relief for some time till the stewardess came to me to ask nicely if I can change my seat to give a chance for a lady with her 2 children (african, and her kid was kicking and crying all the time) because they got separated in seats. Thus, I had to go to some other seat, with 2 people sitting there and I had to stuff myself... at that moment only I was thinking of a diet indeed.

After reaching Dublin, I ran around looking for a taxi and I got one to pick me to Heuston Station where I have to collect my ticket. Unfortunately, I missed the train and the lady on the information desk told me I can get on the train of 10 O'clock, which meant that I have to wait for more than 8 hours!

After all, I got sick of waiting and then after asking again some other lady, she told me I can go on the next train to Galway. I had only 15 minutes to catch it and I did. We moved at 7:20 p.m. and the train kept on stopping on several stations until we reached Galway station at 10 p.m. . The train though was a bit miserable inside and stuffed, and with my heavy luggage and backpack it was tideous. I found a place later with 3 other people who accepted me. The funny thing was that later on the way to Galway (but before stopping in some station before Galway) , we heard some cracking and it was a scary sound indeed, and the train was shook a bit. We stopped for 10 minutes almost and then moved again, and they informed us that it was a sheep that lost its way! Few minutes later we heard the same sound, and I said to the lady in front of me "hope it's not a cow this time, this sound looks stronger!"

After reaching Galway finally, with tiresome body, I got a taxi and asked him to pick me to the nearest hotel. He delivered me to Carlton Hotel. I remained there till the next day for breakfast and then made a confirmation for one extra day in the Waterfront, the place where I'm going to stay most of the vacation.

The owner of the place, a very nice lady, didn't expect me because they did not tell her about the update (i.e. the agency did not tell her), but everything went smoothly. The road from Galway to the place in a taxi was like 45 minutes.

I spent my first day in the Waterfront in phototaking first (until the owner prepares the place for my arrival) and then once I got into my room... I fell asleep one time after the other.

Today, my second day at the Waterfront, I went to the side of the lake, which is called Lough Corrib (Gaelic: Loch Coirib), I wonder about the meaning though. After that I had some rest and headed to the Aughnanure Castle (Caisleán Achadh na nIúr) which belonged to the Flaherty's in medieval times. I got dozens and dozens of images all the way to there and from the castle itself. It was like a dream. However, I will work on the photos later to put on here. I'm just so tired to type this entry even!

Blackened Image

After being absent yesterday, I tried my best to come early today, as usual, although I've slept almost like none hours. Today, I decided not to bring the big envelope where I keep the papers for Alexander's story and its translation. By this, I'm trying to dedicate more time for my story. Things been slow... so damn slow. I decided to stop fasting for the time being, trying to get more of my energy re-collected hoping that it would help me in the process of writing.

Nightmares of car accidents had been chasing me all the week, and today was no exception. Even though with such dreams, I don't like driving "more safely" at all! Today even was an extra exception, when suddenly I felt the rage inside of me and kept on pushing the accelerator to the max, and if it wasn't for the speed cameras I wouldn't have used the brakes at all. Although it is usual for me to be mad like that in the early hours of the morning because of the stinky drivers I meet daily, but today it was something else that I couldn't understand... a rage like for no reason... or maybe it is a direct effect for my bad sleeping habit. I think I'm going insane soon if I didn't go on vacation soon. The diarrhea is another story as well. I think it is connected to my sleeping. I think my digestive system is not working well because it doesn't take the break it needs while I'm sleeping. I feel just so weak! Well... I'm weak already...

I think I had put the final touch for the first chapter of the story right now. The name I settled for right is "Blackened Image," but yet, this is subject to change later on. Then I think I shall name the first chapter as "The End Begins..." where the "end" here denotes death itself. I don't know yet if what I wrote is long or short, but I think I will write more to it later on when it comes to reviewing again and again. Writing is indeed not an easy task at all... this is a word from a beginner like me.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to work on a new poem... I got the title which was inspired out of nothing... yet, I can't tell what the topic of the poem would be! The title is settled for "Over The Dandelion."

I can foresee some hard days coming work-wise. My colleague is announced to be in a 60 days leave without any notification. In fact, there is a notification. The notification arrived by post from the admins office today, announcing that my colleague is indeed on a leave starting from 18th of July. If she is supposed to be on a leave (automatically) and not attending work, then how she's supposed to be reading the post? Would it be delivered to her house? Come on... this is Kuwait. Talk about Stupidity and it comes right away to your door! :)
The consequences of such matter is that, I have to handle the matters in the center alone. The most behated part in all of this is, answering phones and dealing with papers which she took the burden of. As for me, it was OK for me to go under this sun to any desired destination (almost), but I just hate answering the phone. I think I have some kind of a phobia against it, specially after the many trials that I passed regarding my hearing abilities. Ah well... life goes on... .

I got happy news today! The DHL service called me to re-collect my passport back from the Irish embassy. Can't wait to get back home and see it. I have to pay something like KD20.800 as fees for the Cash-On-Delivery service, but who cares now. I'm almost done with everything. All what I need to do for now I guess, is pack and get prepared for some tiny details. It's going to be a tiresome trip just to reach Dublin. I think I have to book some tickets as well from now, to take a plane from Dublin to Galway, or might as well do it whenever I arrive into Dublin by the Metro. The return of the passport now is not necessarily an indication that I was accepted a Visa, but I don't think I'm going to be refused one!