Ag Dul (Going)...

It is a torn out vacation! Many things to do and so much little time, and sleep. I think I do need to organize my daily activity for now, as I have so much leisure stuff I "need" to do. Mom's sudden sickness and asthma got the bulk of my time for now, but I see things are kind of getting better (specially after buying an inhaling device to help her). Beside all of that, I do need to get back to the Arabic blog as well and talk a bit about my trip to Ireland. Where is time when you need it…

Ag Dul

Still working with the load of photos taken from Ireland this year. Well, not a surprise that I'm not able to work with lot of these photos. Not disappointing, for after all I had my vacation! But maybe I will find some ideas for some of these shots later on. Probably the most frustrating incidents are those related to infrared shots (specifically done with 8mm), as some of them are not sharp enough and I'm not sure if it was because of the focusing of the (manual) lens or is it because that infrared slide got scratched. This brings into my mind another topic, of how to fix a gel filter easily at the back of Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. I can use, of course, a little duct tape. However, this is not practical on location so to say. Still thinking!

Ag Dul (Going)
Rokinon 8mm fisheye,
f/8, 28m, ISO100.

Probably one of the most beloved infrared shots to me is Ag Dul, which was shot on the bank of the lake not far from the Waterfront. I did already a black and white version of this image and sent in a mass email few days ago. However, the new edit was done with the help of the IR profile I've already made for my ACR. This processes usually tends to shift the general tint from Red towards Blue. The only annoying part about it is the slightly out of focus aspect. Not a big deal in a small size but it is so when viewed at 100% (and of course would be so in a large print). As for the grain and the noise, it is a typical story in infrared shots. Unfortunately, stock websites do not comprehend the struggle here! Anyway, such shots, I believe aren't much of use for their line of commerce.
This bluish streak actually makes the infrared gel filter (Kodak's) more desirable than my B+W infrared circular filter (58mm) because of this effect when adjusting colors. Infrared filters have many varieties depending on the threshold value; i.e. the value of the wavelength after which photons may pass (high pass filter of some sort). However, there is so much to learn about them. I wonder now if I can adapt this gel filter even to those lenses which are supposed to be using the circular B+W IR filter.

Áilleacht Dhorcha (Dark Beauty)
Canon EF 50mm + ET,
f/8, 160^-1sec, ISO200.

In one of the weird incidents lately, one of the images which was easily discarded in my first group meeting here, was quite popular in other places. The main reason for the discard is the regularity of the shot I believe as it has nothing to add or no new attraction. This shot, Áilleacht Dhorcha, however, did gain some reputation in communities like Flickr, 500px, and Instagram. Áilleacht Dhorcha was mainly processed (and it is the lowest exposure in a bracket) in a way to mimic the effect of a painting. The main tint of colors was simply achieved by changing the white balance (the original color was pinkish). The rest is the usual job of layers in Photoshop. I do like it personally even though it was discarded from the main stream of reviews in the meeting; The shot gained some popularity in 500px too.

Panorama-wise now, I'm still working on flat versions of the panoramas and didn't start yet with QTVRs or any other projections. This is just a step to manage and control the pace of my work as to not scatter my efforts in various directions. I do believe that I made my mind now of the small "gift" that I should print and send to The Waterfront…

The Waterfront

Probably the blues should have been richer? Maybe. Anyway, I'm still working on the rest of the panoramas one by one and might add another target. The work with panoramas wasn't out of (bad) surprises and disappointments, somewhat. One of the panoramas that I was hoping for more vivacity in its appearance turned out to be hard to be managed and had to put (kill) it down. That is the inside of Inchagoill church panorama…

An Eaglais na hInis an Ghiall
Inchagoill's Island

I'm not sure where did things go wrong, and specially with the halo effect around the edges, but I've tried my best to make it better through tone-mapping but to no avail. Probably it would have been better to tone-map such a panorama using Photoshop, but the problem here the seamless edges; if I want to make a QTVR out of this panorama, the left and right edges must be equal in luminance and other aspects so that the QTVR would be seamless and smooth as one unique view (without any cut in the middle when wrapped). This feature is available in Photomatix when tone-mapping, but not in Photoshop CS5 (so far). I might come back to this panorama to make it better somehow, but not for now!

Back-In

Now that I'm back, I'm trying to regain some foothold on some aspects of my life, specifically those related to "social" activities to some extent. The group I'm a member of is working on preparations for Al-Thani photo contest and the sorting process is still going on. I'm thinking of joining in some workshops within the group as well in fields that are, usually, not in my immediate interests; e.g. sports photography.
Meanwhile, after stopping for several months, I'm back to uploading 500px website. I'm not sure really how special or what is the deal with it, but within the circle of the group they do talk much about it (as if being a circle of professionals). The irony here is that some images that were rejected in the group, do have their own fans on 500px! This said, I got into the trap again of renewing my Flickr account again (to Pro) despite removing my Paypal info long ago from the website. Just discovered that the Paypal info were there (again) somehow. I do realize now that having such Pro accounts in any website of this type isn't a big deal after all. Statistics? Sure, they might be important for some to some extent, yet I do not think it is worth the money. If, however, it is a group of photographers sharing a gallery online, it might be worthy to pay for such services. This is what I think.

I've been also trying to get back to poetry somewhat. I still need something to leak my feelings into. The poetic engine is not as greasy as before when things come easily, but I'm planning to try from time to time, or at least put on a specific time on my schedule to think of some words to pen down. This is not how it used to work though. However, the initial result was The Red Leaf. The biggest problem, in my case at least, is that feelings are there, words aren't.

Finale

I'm here now, trying to fill my life with things I'd love to do before I go back to work in mid November. It is not an easy task though, I tell ya.
For starters, Mom got ill out of a sudden; probably allergy-related condition. At least this is what I hope for her, so that by time things get adjusted. I have to do inhaling procedures for her (and she feels better by now at the time of typing this).

Then, there are some of the chores that I have to do, specifically checking out what happened to the parcels sent from Austria, containing the catalogs of the members (of Trierenberg Circuit's contest) and my Luxury Edition 2014 (where one of my images is displayed). I don't know why they still send to my home address even though I've changed my address to my UK inbox; the post services in this country are down the drain. Beside these chores, I do have a plan to go back on educating myself with Gaelic (Irish) a bit. It is a hard language, even harder than German I'd say, but it would be fun to try maybe! This tempts me to talk about all my projects that are on standby! So, I better stop at this for now...

I've said earlier that I'm trying to get a foothold in my life; but until that is done, this heart is going to be swinging in between the matters of life. It does feel like walking a tunnel, with no light burst at the end. Sometimes, it is but a dream, to let someone know how you feel…
Anyway, better start cleaning my camera now.

Uaigneach 's Ag Fanacht
Lonely, and Waiting...

Ebb Me...

This is one week further, one week steps forward, one week rushing through summer with all its momentum and inertia (says the physicist!). The temperatures are going up, up even to 30^oC, and it is just the beginning of March. If you ask me, my photographic opportunities are waning. This week was turbulent somehow and I couldn't do much about it, but I did have some encounters that might be interesting.

Grill Me

In this week, I think I can consider myself lucky, and that I've encountered a miracle myself. This is because of a disaster that was avoided with minimum losses after all. Otherwise, my own camera would have been the price! Let's see the image below and then I will tell the story behind it...

Grilled!

Some people do know already what is this, and for those who do not know, I will tell the story in the following lines:

Source: B&H

I've tried, as you might have seen in previous posts, to take a shot of the sun with some gel ND filter. This time though, I was trying to take a shot of the sun with my Rokinon 800mm mirror lens, and two teleconverters, using infrared filter. Hence I don't have a proper infrared gel filter to fit in the front of the lens (for which the diameter is 105mm). For this reason, I've decided to deal with the matter like I've done with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens (as well as Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens); that is, to fix the filter at the back of the lens. To do this, I've measured the diameter of the rear end (the exposed lens portion only) of the mirror lens and cut out an equivalent square piece of my Kodak's infrared gel filter (which I already have and cut out a small piece of it for my Canon fisheye). Putting the filter there at the rear of the mirror lens, and connecting to the two teleconverters, and mounted on camera and the whole system was mounted on my Manfrotto telephoto lens adapter, and off I went to the roof to capture the sun.

Source: B&H

On the roof, even though sitting on a chair and working with the camera, I did have hard time to focus and at the end, I couldn't focus at all. Once I get a glimpse of the sun disc, sharpening the image by rotating the focusing ring simply turns erratic and everything goes blank. I gave up after many trials and decided to head to my room and see the results on my monitor to better judge what I was doing.
As I stepped into my room, the aroma of some grill filled the air! Following up the smell a bit, I've found out that it is emanating from my camera! Quickly, I've disconnected the lenses, and smelled the camera up close, but the aroma wasn't there almost. To further check it out, I've connected my Canon EF 50mm lens, and did some check up and everything was fine and the camera wasn't damaged. Back to the lenses, I've gone thoroughly with each part of it, until I discovered the image you see above: a grilled IR gel filter!

Gracefully, no serious damage occurred here except of some blackening of the rear element of the mirror lens because of the soot. Some cleaning was enough. On the other hand, losing a piece of an infrared gel filter is somehow a considerable loss because this 3x3 inch gel filter is not cheap after all! I could have used this square gel filter for my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens in the future! I wonder if it had been better putting some ND in front of the lens like before in a clumsy manner and using the IR filter? For me now, I might never know as I don't want to sacrifice further!

Enlighten Me

With the lack of venting and activities in general from my side (for various reasons), and because of my experience mentioned above with "grilling" the infrared gel filter, I've got a spark of an idea for some experimenting. Macro shot of a light bulb, with infrared filter on. The situation isn't easy because of the heat of course, but the filter in front of the lens generally provided some protection.

Coil Me
Canon EF 50mm + 68mm Extension, f/22, 0.25sec, ISO100.

The experience was merely an abstractive one in general. Probably I can even state that macro shots for non-living objects can be almost categorized into an abstract class - unless, of course, it was for documentation; that would be another story.

Cold Heat
Canon EF 50mm + 68mm Extension, f/22, 0.25sec, ISO100.

Despite trying several angles around the bulb, also changing the length of the tubes, it seems that Coil Me and Cold Heat were the only somewhat attracting shots, in abstractive sense of course. In the beginning, I didn't try any extraordinary processing for the image in Coil Me but changed my mind with the second one, Cold Heat, and decided to do a channel swap.
In my schedule I had a plan for an infrared panorama, which would require lot of time, effort, and sun! However, no chance was delivered to my door steps...

Finale

I'm resisting an ebb. An ebb reaching almost everything in my life right now. Many setbacks on the domestic front. I even envision a violence outcome in the near future - probably that would be the only way to show or emphasize some respect to some people.
The question is, if home isn't home, and work doesn't feel like paying respect, where would one go?
I do have the urge to move elsewhere. Far away. Yet, I can't simply forget about the people I care for in here. All I can do is dream of a vacation. Isn't amazing how foreigners can know you (and appreciate you) more than your close circle?

Back to my plans. My mind is sparked for a revival for the idea of a 3D panorama, beside doing a 3D project for my work place (specially after receiving a set of 30 anaglyph glasses red/cyan). The idea I have in my mind for a 3D panorama requires patience and lot of work (in time aspect). Thus, I might try to do a simple 360^o panorama instead of a full one.

In the meantime I've been working with the group as well to sort out some images for Austria's international photography contest. As per the leader's opinion, 8 of my images are now on the queue for the final sorting trial next Saturday, March 8^th. I leave you now with the sorted images so far...

Click To Enlarge

Blank...

Long time ago, I've stated that a vacation is not a vacation if you don't travel out of Kuwait. This week specifically, life demonstrated for me (again) why is that.
I couldn't do much with my own projects the passing week. My car is still not working and that kind of put me up with hard times. The problem that I thought was simple got complicated and the car won't start all. I'm waiting for the electrician and his solutions in hope. During this time, I'm using my brother's car and I really hate to drive it. I just use it for necessities. This situation makes me drop my plans for visiting Failaka island as I planned prior to the vacation. No car, no photography; the perfect vacation...

Bubble I
Canon EF 50mm + Extension tube, f/4, 25^-1sec, ISO500.

I've taken 2 images before I start my vacation, specifically at work. I wasn't going to post them actually but since there is not much for this week, I'm putting them here. These two images were hard to take because they are macro shots (with extension tubes rather than 100mm macro lens) and without a tripod. The actual process took actually 2 days, one day to notice the texture (on the inner side of my hibiscus mug), and the next to take the picture! Probably this is not how the contemplative photography is supposed to work as I'm currently reading, but I guess some details for such abstracts are nice - somehow gives me some confidence that I do still have an open eye for details!

Bubble II
Canon EF 50mm + Extension tube, f/4, 25^-1sec, ISO500.

On the other hand, I've decided to place an order for some stuff despite the squeeze in my financial situation because of the car. In fact, I was more pushed to place such an order because of the family. Some of them needed some stuff from outside and I thought it is the time to place an order for the time being.

Source: Amazon

My first order is on Amazon for some new books (finally). My habit was to order 3 books, 2 of which are photography-related. However, this time I've ordered only 2 books beside many other stuff for the family members here. The first book is The Wild Side of Photography by Cyril Harnischmacher. I own another book for the same author dedicated to tabletop photography. This book, with quick inspection to random pages and the table of contents, would hopefully give me some insight into some tricks - ticks in the sense of special effects or probably simple solutions for some problems.

Source: Amazon

The second book is dedicated to Product Photography. It might sound a bit like tabletop photography but probably I would find more advices dedicated about commercial aspects of such photography and more information about light formations and settings. I thought maybe I should check out this field a bit in depth (specially after the Coffee Contest that was sponsored by the group). In here, it is one of the common fields of photography that people would ask about (with some gains) beside Portraiture Photography.

Source: B&H

Away from Amazon, I've ordered some items from B&H stores (typically). Even though my wishlist contains a long sequence of lenses as I'm dedicated to have some new wide angle lens with flat perception other than the highly distorted fisheye lenses that I already own. However, I think I didn't make up my mind yet about such lens, beside the narrow budget for the time being. Thus, it was better to delay such an order. Instead, I've placed an order for the RoundFlash which is a product that would help in macro as well as in portraiture. It might act as a beauty dish; a common accessory for portraiture lovers. I just hope it fits my speedlites. This cheap solution came to me like a gift in a time I was thinking of having a ring-flash to help me with my macro shots. Concerned about the high prices for such flashes, I've started to look up cheaper solutions or DIY methods, when I received a newsletter from B&H containing this product. I'm having my hopes up, let's hope my hope won't be without hopes... wha?

Source: B&H

The next toy on the list is the Tote Vision HS-1 Hot Shoe Mount for Tote Vision LCD Monitors. A small gadget just to place my portable monitor on the top of the camera (in the Hot Shoe). This is generally to help me in situations where I need to shoot myself, but that doesn't mean it doesn't help in other situations. This simple gadget would give me a great relief from using one extra tripod or monopod just to hold the portable monitor, or holding the monitor by hands while shooting at critical angles.

Finally on the list is the Kodak 3 x 3" #87B Opaque Infrared Wratten Gel Filter. I'm not sure if the size would suitable for cutting, but anyway I'm having plans to apply this to my fisheye lenses; specially the Canon 15mm because it is the one I use commonly for panoramas. There were many varieties of IR gels with codes like 87B and 87C and I'm not sure what's the difference between them. Most probably the difference is in the range of wavelengths after which waves are allowed through the filter (i.e. the threshold); but how to know this from the code is beyond me and even if I knew, I wouldn't know which one is the best for my own uses! So, let's see how it feels to do a panorama on infrared. I'm pretty sure the exposure times will be exaggerated in a ridiculous way!

Now all I have to do is wait for this delivery and pray for some good luck to "enjoy" my vacation, or whatever remained of it...

Force x Force

Exhaustive week. Not a single day passes without having to go out of work and back to my work again, and sometimes doing this twice or thrice, beside the work-related work, like preparing the samples and changing the samples for measurements. I've even napped in the office by the end of one day which made me leave late that day! There is a time crisis.

Source: B&H

However, I've finally got my shipment from B&H and still trying out my new 5" LCD portable monitor, and yet I have to try out the polarizing gel. The monitor alone was a problem and I think it will get somehow a bad review from my side, as the plastic is shaky and the cable was hard to get (and I lost 10 K.D for getting the wrong cable), while the hotshoe mount can be attached to the monitor, but not to the hotshoe!

All week I was trying to force myself to record more vocalization for Alexander's story. I'm close to the end, yet I do feel so down and so tired that I've skipped some days without recording anything. Anyway, there had been a large gap since the last time: from 2016 to 2736. With this now, I think only 10 verses are left. With a pace of 6 verses a day, this should be finished in two days!!!

By Force:

An interesting article by one of my favorite photographers, George Barr, did describe a lot of the mental process that I (and maybe most of the photographers) indulge in when I go out trying to shoot something. By coincidence on that very day as well, I was out in such a bad dusty weather trying to catch something... anything. I was just pushing to do anything with my camera, and it was indeed like some sort of a puzzle or a hunt - and processing the image itself was a puzzle itself too.

Dusty Zen
Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro. 1/5000, ISO500.

Pardon the high ISO, as it shouldn't be there in fact. I've simply forgotten that from my last session (which I've totally forgotten what was it!). The above shot was a test shot in the beginning, but then I've realized it is the one to be adjusted. The conditions were sort of harsh on the beach when the image was taken: staggering wind, dust in the air, and my intestines didn't stop giving me hard time.
The puzzle in the process is yet to come, when we try to turn a "boring" image in terms of color, into something interesting, beside some interesting framing. Just for a comparison, you can check the following before-after image:

The framing (cropping) after all was a problem since I didn't know how to give nice edges to the cropped image. However, when I shot this image my concentration was on the sand on the top of the rock (which settled down despite the harsh wind on the beach!). The major adjustments were done by means of a "trick" that I call the LAB method. It is an old method that I've used before, but not so often, specifically for a picture from Failaka island when, suddenly, the dust occupied the island despite the good weather in the morning as we set sail on the ferry from the main land.

It was a great time and great waves striking the rocks back then! However, what is the LAB trick?

• First the image would be in RGB mode (regardless of the color space or the depth).
• The image is then converted into LAB mode.
• In the channels of the LAB, channel A is picked and the EYE icon is turned on for the main (first) channel to see the effects of our adjustments.
• While channel A is picked, increase the contrast and/or the brightest to whatever level needed (and it can be done in various ways).
• Same procedure is done to channel B.
• Channel L can be adjusted in same way, and it can be used to sharpen the image, or reduce the noise as well.
• When all is finished, convert back again into RGB mode.

Now, some people argue that this conversion from and into RGB will cause some loss in data (and I believe this is natural anyway in any conversion or any transfer of data) but I'm not sure how this loss occurs or what does it affect. Yet, the results can be promising for reviving an image!

After shooting this image, I've changed the lens (yes, in that weather, and it's dangerous) and tried to set and pose in some way to shoot another image of the rocks, however, the situation then proved to be a disaster. The shoot ran for HDR, but at home, even the HDR technique did not rescue the image and the blown highlights coming from the sun beams.

Ansin (there)

After the many problems in this image (tilted horizon, blown highlights, framing...etc) I've decided to crop with no respect to the original aspect ratio. The result is a small image after all, and not applicable for submission.
Because the lens was my 18-55mm, with minimum f/4, the desired shallow depth was not perfect for me. For this reason, I've resorted to the Lens Blur effect and blending down with a layer mask. Sharpening was done by NIK, and again with Noise Ninja. Some cloning was a must, when I've discovered some trash in between the rocks!

Books:

I have now some list of books to finish; a fresh delivery from Amazon.  I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish them but I hope all is over by August already. I do have plans to run after by September but I'm keeping it all to myself right now. I've started out with the Exposure book for now, as I think it is an important topic even though I do have a not-so-bad idea about all the exposure measurements, and so far, the book looks interesting indeed (with lot of fancy images too). Another book awaits about using Speedlites, and another which I try to read before going to bed concerning some psychology topics. I think I do need that a lot for now.

So much is going on in my mind. More than what's happening in my own life right now but nevertheless, it is a headache on all levels. I can't wait to have a vacation. Just slowly, my mind is retaining some of its ability to collect words and phrases, and I ended up writing Teal Eyes. Why or what made me write this piece, this is something I'd like to keep to myself for the time being. But it was a real hard work to squeeze my brain. Something went wrong inside this mind; maybe it is the too much business of thoughts that made it dull. I do miss writing poetry... it feels like being left out...

 

Laboriosus

Something went wrong this week. I don't know what is it exactly but all I know is that I've been idle and unable to perform well, with my mind or my camera. Well, at least I did something last week (after my last post) with my camera, otherwise, the week was vague. I'm trying to push myself to do some work out, even simple ones, just to activate my body somehow but even that was a fail. Anyway, in the "good news" department we have a new recording available, this time for chapter 4 of Alexander's story. You can check the English version (text only) here, and the Ayvarith version with sound clips here.
Now, let's hope I don't lag behind with chapter five.

I. More Geltani:

The progress with the new conlang and conscript is slow, yet I'm trying to work around it as much as I can. I'm settling my mind here and there about some aspects of syllables and seems I will be deriving a syllabic system out of the original Geltani script which will be dedicated for writing foreign names in Geltani. Ironically, I'm not sure how to write down "Geltan" in the Geltani script! Most probably I would make a name completely different in pronunciation.
One of the real problems that face me right now is some of the ambiguities encountered because of the abjadic nature of the Arabic orthography and script. Abjadic systems (like Arabic and Hebrew) tend to record the consonants alone and add only signs for vowels (in Arabic case, short vowels only are represented with signs and long ones with letters). Just an example from Arabic to elaborate this idea, the possibilities branching from the letters MLK.

MLK [ملك]

Mulk [مُلك]: Kingdom/Ownership.

Malik [مَلِك]: King

Malak [مَلَك]: (he) ruled/owned (Also "angel" in some context).

Mulik [مُلِك]: (he) was owned.

All of these versions of simply 3 letters (and the Arabic language is full of such examples) makes it hard for me to think of a way to go around it when forming words in Geltani based on Arabic. The original idea is mimicking the Arabic letters in form of lines in the first place, but I didn't plan for mimicking the vowels and their signs as well. I'm not sure how to go around such a problem yet, but maybe it lies somewhere between inventing new shapes and symbols and/or creating more sounds for them, or maybe exchanging short vowels for long ones to make the original Arabic word more like alphabetic in nature rather than abjadic. I have yet to think about it.

Another problem on the line is the packing of strokes and whether or not to allow one word to be written into 2 diagrams (or characters). Most probably I would try to fit all in one character as much as possible, because for the time being, and adding some grammatical twist to the whole language, I've decided to let preposition articles to be placed after the word in one line (while the sentences are written vertically top to bottom from left to right).

I'm running to simplify the grammar as much as possible (and that might be awkward when expressing some moods and modes). One of such cases is the conditional (if statements) and the habitual (would statements). So far, I've created a special character for regular and passive tenses, plus the conditional "should". Who knows, I might as well add to the already established characters for verbal words.

The initial design for verbal characters and their divisions. The tense is designated by the number of dots (not the placement of the dot).
Studying possible combinations of both divisions, regular and passive, in order to express more moods and modes.

Other variations of the same characters

II. In Slow Motion:

The beach area was a target, again, to my camera. This time though, although close to McDonald's area where I usually shoot, but it is the first time I land on the sand. I have to admit though that I went there in a hurry and didn't completely equip myself properly (specially with flashlights). The wind was strong and chill but I was determined to work with my lenses AND my ND filters as well. The ND filters caused me another problem but this time I had to investigate after this problem and I discovered that it is something reported widely for Cokin's ND filters. More details will come later on.
The clouds were nice. Not scattered much like cotton balls as I wished but they had nice shapes after all. The first thing was to try my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens with some long exposure before the sunrise above the horizon. The timing here is critical since I don't have any filters to fit fisheye lenses, so I have to time my work with darkness. The best I could get was within the range of 2 minutes exposure after all, and more than that proved to be problematic somehow. To add to my problems, as the time was a morning time and the sun would rise abvoe the horizon, then once you calculate the time required for the shutter, you have to expect that you might get blown highlights because of the gradual increase in the light level in the atmosphere.
However, it did work out well with me in the beginning with my 8mm, and made two shots; vertical and horizontal one.

Racing Heaven
~100 seconds

Race of Heavens
~120 seconds

The clouds' race is more obvious in the landscape orientation (naturally since it shows more and wider view of the sky), while the first one probably is good in the contrast between the sky and the sand.
Both images were fixed from distortion by DxO Optics Pro. This software got the option to fix the distortion without cropping (to keep the aspect ratio of width and height) and hence it gives more stretching effect on the sides and I think it is a good thing for long exposures of this kind. Notice in both shots here, the sun didn't rise yet and it was relatively dark on location.
After being done with my fisheye lens, comes here my EF-S 18-55mm lens, which is the widest thing I have right now which I could use filters with. The sun here started to show a bit, or let's say the sun rays, but the darkness was diminishing slowly. For now, although I do use metering by camera to judge how many ND filters I would need, but I got somehow a grab of sense on it. Not firmly, but a bit. I directly used 3xND8 filters (that is 9 stops: 3+3+3). One minute exposure was enough but as time was progressing, it came down to 30 seconds exposure which made the scene that I want. However, I got the same weird problem again, which eventually I've discovered that it has nothing to do with the white balance, but rather it is the make of the ND filter itself.

The scene directly from RAW file.
30 seconds exposure.

As seen, the scene is reddish and I used to get this many times in my trials with long exposures. They say a good ND filter would NOT give such a result and the colors should remain with no change, at least virtually. However, some mending process did the job to some extend the scene was recovered; but the question is, is that useful every time I take a long exposure with those filters?

Coming

I have to say though, despite the apparent "malfunctioning" of such filters, I do like the reddish look indeed. But maybe not this time.

III. Re-Visited:

The panorama taken 2 weeks ago from a deep point on the beach was something hardly can be done again (although I'm thinking about it seriously). For this reason it was hard for me to satisfy myself with what I've done before about this panorama. I felt there is more to be done.

Nox Salmiyah

Planeta Ignis

In the previous formations done with this panorama particularly, the white balance was not changed when the HDR was made out of the shots. The white balance was Daylight back then. However, with me having RAW files, I have the flexibility to change the white balance significantly.
From previous experiments with the night sky on the roof of my own home, I've realized that Tungsten white balance works better with such atmosphere. It simply adds some magic. But first, I had to recombine the whole set of images into HDR slides and setting the WB to Tungsten. It was then time to work with PTGui again, which was not an easy process (spent around 2 or 3 days trying to fix some images in their places).

Topmost

Personally, I did like it better than the previous two. In this shot however, which looks like a single shot with a fisheye lens, I've used the Mercator projection in PTGui; a projection style that I don't use much and to me, it doesn't differ much from the cylindrical projection except in some stretch in some areas (the height specifically). However, I think the Mercator projection here helped on curving the horizon upward and forming a shape of Earth's surface from outer space.
Hence we conclude, a change in WB can change the mood and feel of the image completely.

IV. Waiting...

Finally, I've placed some orders for some books and simple stuff for my camera. Things I've delayed for long until now and I think it's time to have them. This year will be starting with some heavy debt on my credit card but I need to. My plans for a vacation seem to be delayed for now and I'm not sure I will be traveling this year even. Traveling to me is more than a vacation in fact; it is a time for photography.
One of the most important items I'm waiting for right now, is something that would supposedly can solve the matter of long exposures with my Canon 15mm fisheye lens: Gel Filters.

Source B&H

Supposedly it is a pack that contains four  1-, 2-, and 3-stops filters of each. Frankly, I'm not sure it will fit in the place of the filters at the back of the fisheye lens, or would I have to cut it (as I've been told before) but I'm going to try something new after all. The thing now is to try to use such thing, if possible, with my other Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens.
Another set of gels was ordered but not for lenses this time. They are supposedly to fit my flash head in case I need to change the color cast of the flash head. No plans for using them now, but they would expand my options and might create new ideas in the near future.

Source: B&H

Finally, on the "tools" section, we have a bracket that will help me to place the flash a bit away from the camera or on the side, while still carrying it along with the camera.

Vello CB-500 Dual Shoe Bracket
Source: B&H

Now to the books section. I'm waiting for 3 books, but one of them is not about photography, but about some old passion inside me that is still burning; Archaeology.
I've stopped reading about archaeology for some time, but I felt that I have to get back now and kindle this passion again. Too bad I couldn't study this field in my early days. Anyway, the book is entitled: Forensic Recovery of Human Remains: Archaeological Approaches.


On the other hand, there two photography-related books:
1. The Photographer's Guide to Making Money: 150 Ideas for Cutting Costs and Boosting Profits.
2. Mastering Canon EOS Flash Photography.

As you can see I'm sort of dedicated to understand the flash unit more and how to control the light. Let's hope this field is digested with this little mind of mine, because I did find it difficult before to "paint" an image with light in my mind. Quite an essential capability if you want to deal with portrait photography in the first place.

Well, I've put so much in this post for now. Hope you didn't get a headache going through all of this. It's time for me to put it down, and hit the sack. So much headache involved in doing this blog... gosh!