The Banana Affair…

Breathing some air now and then with the schools being off, and yet trying to get my emotions ready for the stress and frustration with schools' return by next week. Temperatures here dropped down drastically and it was pretty cold, which I like! Unfortunately though, I didn't go out as I was hoping to take photos outside. I managed though to do my promise to myself and took the camera with me to work with Voigtländer 20mm lens and tried to snap some images. Well, I had to admit though that I did a bit of cheating here (if I can call it so) since I did take some accessories with me to help me out with the task. Anyway, this is not the main topic for this blog spot but let's see what I've managed to catch with this lens and camera combination!

20mm Fishing

As I've stated above, I did some cheating here (always in fact) when I did take the 20mm lens and camera with me to work. This cheat was to include, in the pack, some filters and the intervalometer. The filters were: Big stopper (10 stops) and a polarizer. Testing my eyes with this combination of camera and lens didn't happen in a single day in fact. I did take it with me wherever I went for 3 days. I couldn't touch the camera at work in the first day (got busy out of nowhere!), while in the second day, I was actually in a friend's workplace. Initially, I've wanted to shoot something but no one was there and I got bored alone and felt so tired so I needed that nap, until one friend came in and decided then to try something with him, as he was enjoying his breakfast on the desk!

An Taibhse Ag Obair
(the ghost at work)
Voigtländer 20mm, f/9, 10m, ISO100.

 Despite the dim light inside the office, yet the exposure time was not slow enough. Of course, if my desire was to show a motion blur in a suitable manner, I would have used that slow shutter speed and would have asked my friend to do some specific motion. However, this was not my aim. My aim was a complete abstract with a stable background (and for a bonus, a stable object as it appeared with the bowl of cereals!). To help lengthen the exposure time further, I've used (of course) my big stopper which ads 10 stops to the exposure time (and of course each stop is a double), so the total time happened to be 10 minutes. He was shocked at first, thinking how come he would remain stable on the chair for 10 minutes! Anyway, I've explained the idea for him and told him just to stay in the chair but he can move freely as he likes within the chair. I've placed the camera on a small tripod which I got years back (even before my travel to Ireland in 2010; I know because I used it there!) which was sturdy enough to carry the weight of the camera and lens, plus the lengthy intervalometer. It was cumbersome to straighten the image in-camera though, but it was good to some degree, yet I had to depend on the vertical line formed by the board on the wall (its edge) to straighten the image. The bulk of the work on the image was focused on turning the image into a dramatic and yet smooth black and white image; A combination of sharpening and smoothing the noise will always be the nightmare to achieve.

It's Changing
Voigtländer 20mm, f/13, 30s, ISO100.

The next day, in my workplace this time, I had another chance to try out the same camera and lens combination in addition to the same big stopper as well (with the polerizer as well but its effect was minimum). The cloudy weather was encouraging to some degree, even though to my experience, an overcast sky would not quite suitable to show clouds line in the sky with long exposures but I tried anyway and the result was It's Changing. I tried a longer exposure of 10 minutes but the image was so bright and the highlights could not be saved as I hoped. To make sure everything is in proper sharpness, and because the camera was to be placed on the ground near the pillar which did not allow me to see the LiveView or LCD, I depended here on the hyperfocus principle on setting the focusing ring and then I added one third of a stop (hence using f/13 instead of f/11) just to make sure that things are in good sharp level and enough depth of field. I placed the camera on the ground, on the box of the big stopper filter just to avoid scratches to the LCD, and that in fact allowed me also (when I did the 10 minutes exposure) to place a coin under the camera to see the reflection of the red light (which notes the camera is busy exposing the image); That way I was able to see for myself if the camera finished the exposure or not in case I don't hear the click sound when it finishes. Some might wonder why I don't just check the intervalometer, well, for some reasons I didn't want to move or touch the intervalometer: The camera was a bit shaky and easy to rotate on the box, so I kept the cable remote beside the camera, AND, it is better to check the light as I was having a walk in the garden instead of bending close to the camera to see the intervalometer. The red light from the camera's body is way clearer than trying to figure out the numbers on the LCD of the intervalometer. Anyway, I've picked the one with 30 seconds exposure here for processing and the rest of the game with this image, again, was to settle down with proper black and white tones. The highlights were a bit over but I was able to pull them down away from the cut-off region when processed. Strangely how this image was exposed for 30 seconds only at ISO100 with such a filter as the big stopper. I called this image It's Changing because it kind of gave me the chills in the spine for everything that is changing around me and in my life, from simple things such as likes and dislikes, to morals and priorities of people around me. It's changing.

The Two
Voigtländer 20mm, f/16, 1/3s, ISO100.

I wandered a bit around while exposing It's Changing and did notice some good approaches to minimalism and abstracts in some spots, but unfortunately, later on I've found out that many of these images were shaky because I was trying to bend or take them in some hard angle without any help from any tripod or mini-tripod, so I had to forget about them from the time being, unless I can figure our some creative way to edit my mistakes in some form of art! However, I was able to capture The Two here which is, to me at least of some sort, gives and shines some hope in me; About good things that happen in desperate times without me being in control of anything yet make me grow and flourish. I hope. Again, in The Two, I've used the principle of hyperfocus and with even greater f-stop (f/16 this time). I've taken several shots at various distances and angles around these 2 plants but probably the best one was the very first shot I've made (with some re-alignment and crop). Taking such pictures with bent back has never been an easy job, and I wouldn't be lying down in this dirt! I still didn't upload all these photos to the stocks yet. Didn't have the time to keyword them. As for the time being, I need to think about my next challenge and what lens I'm going to use. Should I go with a telephoto this time? Or change the camera and move to my converted 7D? We'll see…

The Banana Affair

The bulk of the previous two weeks, on the other hand, was focused on another experiment done at home, and not a mere challenge with a single lens and camera combination for one day. This, in fact, is a process that took me 10 days to finish! Well, with professionals I'm sure a period of 10 days of shooting is nothing really. The experiment? Rotting bananas. And just for fun, I've called the whole thing "Operation Banana."

 Footage from the 2^nd day.

So, before delving into the details, I just want to talk here a bit about the idea, which was simply to document the process of rotting for bananas, and since I didn't know what the exact outcome would be, I've decided to place a peeled one and unpeeled one, side by side. To get some good contrast with the white banana body, I've placed the set on a black paper (then acrylic board). The shooting took place under black lights (UV lights that is) and, of course, used my UV-pass filter (B+W 403) and DR-665 hot mirror to block any infrared, and after fixing the white balance, the result was a monochromatic image.

In the beginning, as you might have heard in the video if you watched it already, I've set the timer to take a picture every 2 minutes, but then I realized this was a bit of an exaggeration to get a smoother transition when frames are merged into a video. Thus, by the 5^th day, I've changed the interval of shooting to every 5 minutes instead. There was some degree of disappointment though, mainly because I didn't realize some biological (botanical) facts, such as that bananas do not turn brown because of some bacteria of fungi, but it turns brown or black in time because of some enzyme. Also, after the 5^th day, I've decided to warm the set up during the shoot, so I placed a hair dryer not far from the set (which actually made the whole room warm and cozy in one or two hours!). Finally, the end result was actually a shrinkage in size for the peeled banana while the unpeeled turned into a "fluid" form, but I didn't dare open it! They were 10 days full of running around checking batteries and memory cards (used 2 memory cards in the process, exchanging one when it's almost full with the other one), and the total shots taken here were more than 4000 shots (yes, four thousands).

 The Banana Affair

The hurdles were not limited to the physical realm with the set, but also in the digital realm with the preparing of the photos. Shots were all done in RAW. You might see the video here is a bit shaky and cumbersome with some movement? Well, blame my clumsy movement which caused me to shake the tripod in the process many times. Anyway, the video above is the total one and it was adjusted later on. Originally, the video was 2m14s long but I've shortened that later on by increasing the fps (frame per second) rate. 

To do such a massive and huge edit on these files (done in patches each time I would have to change the memory card) I had to dig out the old Digital Photo Professional (DPP), or namely the Canon's software which is installed along with the drivers long ago but I seldom use, if ever. Despite its controls, I managed to achieve the look on one image and generalize the "recipe" (i.e. the parameters of editing) on the whole set of images and then save all those edited as JPEGs with resize and changing the name of each file in sequential manner. All this process was to be so hard to be done in Photoshop - Maybe someone might say Adobe Bridge is the tool for this task? Not sure it would do so, besides, the controls and menus are some what complicated for me to dig out. DPP was much easier to work with and simple (and its simplicity sometimes is what makes not edit in it as well). Oh, and I could even change the color space to Adobe 1998 space along with the conversion to JPEG. 

This was the story of the Banana Affair, and guess what? It is now uploaded to the stocks and accepted exclusively on Dreamstime! It was hard at first because I don't know many aspects about uploading videos or footage to the stocks and they have special requirements, but I've done it after all with some trials, and now I'm up to do one more if I can! Let's see if it ends up well.

Finale

Well, as you can see I'm trying to keep myself busy with the camera as much as possible, but on the other hand I do have my moments of inspiration which I translate into some quote writing of some sort. I didn't write or think of words to pin a poem for some time now (since December if I recall) so probably my plan for the next coming weeks is to focus on this more, but more importantly, to focus on my feelings. 

Many things are troubling my mind; Life, work, future, as well as death in fact. I'm trying my best to stop my mind from triggering panic attacks and anxiety, and to keep thinking that it is all in the hands of God. This alone, is really leaving me tired to the extent of not taking care of what I'm supposed to take care of, or even indulge myself in. I think this exhaustion is even placing some love inside of me to hatred, to some aspects or some... people.

Some people do think that I do believe in horoscopes and the stars, but I'm really reading and checking those to ease things on myself and to feel the pat on my shoulder, not because I do believe in them (even though they are an interesting thing to study somehow because of my interests in occult in general). These things promise a happy and a promising new year; I'd like to keep that thought but I'm sure that the reality has another venture for me. Probably I'm due to a short vacation, not to travel, but just to stay home and sleep or do things and work with my camera without trying to manage the damn bedtime and the sleeping pattern…

Selfies Go Leor…

Well, seems my stalemate is still going on with my Scopa project on hold for the lack of resources (well, models). I'm trying to work on other projects as much as possible, but with the back of rush hours and schools, I'm literally drained out of power every time I'm back home from work and now I need to cope with afternoons naps mechanisms! Yet, this is not the only frustrating thing to deal with, more to come later below.

Schizophrenia

This is one of the ideas I've probably put in a list in my last post. Some idea to reflect the inner struggle, and I was turning around this idea in my head some time before even discovering that I'm an INFP-T type according to some tests. Yet, looking at it at some specific angle, it does look like reflecting on one side of that personality type. Anyway, I preferred to call it Schizophrenia. 

Schizophrenia

The blending work with this work was not a big deal and somehow done quickly (compared to what I used to do with the peeling effect). However, there are a number of mistakes that I've realized after finishing this work, and even after doing my final touches to this little project. But let's first see some aspects of "behind the scene:"

• Four speedlites were used here: Two reflecting from a cardboard below and two bounced off the ceiling. This system is often called the Clam shell lighting.
• To kill the ambient light as much as possible, I needed to use HSS mode to go over the sync speed (shot at 1/400s), at f/8 with ISO 160.
• Technically, my brother is the photographer but since I'm the one who directed everything and all he has to do is press the button, I think I have to say it's my own work ^_^ - Anyway, he is still having a problem with focusing properly!
• Shot using Voigtländer 20mm with B+W 092 Infrared filter. I definitely had to work with infrared here since it provides quite and interesting contrast and looks (and not just turning my eyes blue!).
• I had to satisfy myself in the beginning with the background, which I wished for to be completely black (and black substances are hard to work with in infrared as well).

After finishing with all the work with the camera, it was the time then for processing the images. It was here essentially that I've found out about my mistakes but it would be hard to go back and re-do the whole thing, but let it be a lesson to learn from. 

• Initially, I wanted to show each face on its own, but then I've found myself attaching the eyes together as it looked more proper and smoother in transition in blend between the different faces. This issued the problem with the expressions: facial expressions are not clear for the lack of the eye compliment.
• Among the faces, where I tried to mimic fear, anger, sadness, and absence of mind, I've found myself forgetting about one of the basic expressions: Happiness and smiling.
• Using a wide-angle lens was a grave mistake. I was aiming at cropping the images from the beginning and this is why I used a wide-angle lens (to have more space to cut). However, looking at it now, probably I should have used my 50mm lens for this project. The final finish is actually such a small image that would be barely suitable to be printed on A4 size!
• Despite using ISO 160 which is proved to be my native ISO, yet the noise frequency was somehow higher than the usual unlike the tests I've done! Could it be because of the sensor being overheating? Not sure.

The background here had to be done in a special process, since I wanted to add a dark atmosphere to the scene. I used Lens Blur for the background and added some vignetting to the whole scene as well. The eyes, specifically, needed some push in exposure as well so I dodged them a little to let them shine. This little work now in fact gives me further ideas to think about doing later on as well. Maybe I could have done something extra to this same project, like taking more images and find a way to merge them, with more mouths and more eyes - but then it wouldn't be much about Schizophrenia probably!

Che

I've been fascinated for some time by the portrait done for Che Guevara (the portrait, not the person). I've been dubbing this type or form of art or effect as a Seal Effect, as it resembles somehow the shape of the wax seal when stamped. However, I'm not aware if there is any good name for this, and probably I should just called it the Che Effect! In my previous post, I've posted a selfie which I've edited in a similar way somehow. I'm aware though that Che's portrait is most probably a work of art, meaning not a manipulation for some photograph of him; I'm not really not sure. Anyway, I tried my best with that selfie of mine to mimic the effect with whatever tools I have available for me in PS. 

Selfie Seal

Generally speaking, I think this effect would do better if the selfie is shot with one flash or speedlite; In other words, one-directional light. Techniques like the Low-Key would do better here. It's all about the play of light and shadows, and the dramatic look. However, this is just my own notes about it, and in fact I've tried to work with another selfie (part of the Schizophrenia project above) which was lit on two sides instead of one, and I still did get some reasonable final result as will be shown in few.

Original selfie, which was in fact a
screen capture rather than a saved
file from the original shot!

The Ghost

 I've taken this selfie and with some clicks and effects I've ended up with the desired result. I've found myself forced to use excessive sharpening as well before doing the whole work to provide some enough grains to be merged later as black areas of some sort. Anyway, after finishing the image, I felt there was something missing. Without much feeling about it, I've got into the Liquify command in Photoshop and just started splashing things randomly and the result was something more of... a Ghost peeking at me. Doing such work with my selfies does in fact inspire me to do more ideas with myself, since it's hard to find anyone willing to work with me, even for few minutes. Some suggested to hire a model, which it possible of course. However, under the current circumstances and finances, it is better to be off away from this option for the time being, and needless to say, I do not consider myself a professional portrait photographer and not even someone who has a keen interest in this subject. It is just random ideas kicking in and out of my head and I feel myself compelled to do them. What is amazing about this last work, The Ghost, it did in fact kick in some desire for poetry back and without knowing it I was there typing a poem. Though random probably with scattered feelings, but it was something to be done.

The Ghost.
-
There he was,
and there he is.
A gazing figure,
an apprentice.
-
Pale in horror,
a figure of shame.
Terror, he served me,
by terror, him I tame.
-
Friendly Ghost,
and black is the color.
Timidly a Ghost,
fierce in angst and valor.
-
Opposites rhyme,
only in his caress.
Touching my heart,
set me in abyss.
-
Awful, how he looks,
such a beauty in misery.
Gazer I was upon that,
Alas, in that mirror,
That Ghost was just me.

The poem was also posted on Writing.com, which I didn't use in a long time now. There is a great urge to go back to writing, specially after reading how my typical INFP-T personality would act and react, which I find 95% of it is correct indeed. That personality report did give me some confidence which I was lacking, and restored my image of myself to myself, after believing that I was abnormal in some aspects. But this is who I am indeed...

Finale

There is an increasing feeling of leaving everything and just isolate myself, there in my room, and preferably doing nothing. I'm literally getting tired of everything. As for my Scopa project which I need to finish, and it should be finished with because some people are waiting for the results, I'm so tired for chasing after some people to shoot for this project. Re-doing any shot is a catastrophic aftermath as well, if there is any need be. This rest might include blogging as well; I have to admit that blogging does indeed put some stress on me to finish it in time. Probably I would invest all that time in shooting photos and sleeping! If only I don't have to go to work anyway...
One of the disasters that I've found out lately, as I'm planning to do my Retinitis Pigmentosa Month project, is the fact that in this country NO blind stick or cane is to be found any where by any vendor!!! I was advised to call major pharmacies for some private hospitals and clinics to check with them, but seeing how things did go with some major companies of medical supplies here, I'm not optimistic that I would be able to find any. I have now 2 options, and as we say in Arabic: "The sweetest of them is bitter." Option one, is to mimic the looks of the cane or maybe use a regular cane instead. Second option, is to change my whole idea for this project and try to find some other idea to implement which requires no cane. I'm inclined to pick the second option but I have to think quick. Not sure if brainstorming would do here either. Can you imagine a country with no blind-canes around?! I can, of course, order these, but I really have no time to waste waiting for such a shipment, so I've neglected this idea. However, I might indeed order such a cane in some other time as I find it interesting to train myself using it. After all, I'm a person with some eye disease, and not sure when all that is visual simply stops working for me…

Casper...

A sort of an idle week. Been trying to figure out some ways to use my camera here and there and totally forgetting about my Ayvarith projects COMPLETELY. There were attacks of fatigue, maybe because of my long gone fasting, I'm not sure really. However, it didn't go out completely idle as I was able to reach my camera somewhat, but most of the time I was working on old pictures from Ireland, dating back to 2009! Simply, I just felt like paying a visit to these pictures and having some rest myself, and tried my best to touch the RAW files only, without creating HDR.

Done an experiment just to test how it is to do some long exposure. If I remember correctly, the longest exposure I've done before was for 5 minutes on the roof on my house, when I was testing my new (back then) lens, Tamron 70-300mm Macro lens. I was pointing at Saturn if I remember correctly and made a little trail.

Trail of Saturn. Two trails imposed on each other.

This time the experiment was a bit different, and with me reading the new book I got about Night Photography (a great book, makes me want to try my luck with film cameras instead of digital ones), I'm getting inspired as I read, but unfortunately lot of my dreams need some nice landscapes and some nice people to be surrounded with. I went into trouble with cops before and I'm really not intending to have more at the current time.

My little experiment was to use a longer exposure time, but not outside. Simply in my room. I got the idea as I was reading the book (as usual, in my bed time to help me fall asleep more easily). The process to measure for the required time was somehow long, and I had to use a ND filter in an awkward position, because I was using a Fisheye lens, and in Fisheye lenses you need to a Gel filter to be placed at the back of the lens and not in the front of the lens, but I did it anyway and I stuck it with a duct tape even though it fell down later on because of the bad quality of the tape! That didn't affect the result much. It is an experiment after all and the results were not to be published in stock sites.

Night Photography by Lance Keimig

 

In the beginning I've fixed the camera in one corner and turned off the TV just keeping my PC monitor on (need it). I mounted my Fisheye 15mm lens to get a bigger portion of the room and went on configuring the setting that I would need. In fact I was aiming to expose for one hour but with all the mess in the mathematics the maximum I could achieve was 44 minutes, theoretically. I wanted one hour to give chance for more blur as I would lay in bed later on and, as usual, I would flip all over the place.

I've fixed the mode to Av (Aperture priority) and pushed the ISO to the maximum value "H", which counts for 12800. This is just to take the reading for the time needed at this level at 0EV. The time reading was about 20 seconds, taken while setting the metering to Center-Weight. I used this metering because, logically, I want the whole area to be measured and averaged and not only one spot of the scene. However, with some calculations and keeping in mind that going up and down in ISO in stops, will increase or decrease the time in doubles or halves accordingly (a stop = 2^x), all what was to be done is multiplication (20 seconds X 128, or 2⁷, that is 7 stops) and the result was around 2560 seconds (i.e. 43 minutes approximately). The ND2 (one stop) was stuck to the front of the lens hoping to increase the time of exposure and keeping the exposure as it is but seems I've done some wrong calculations here and there was no need for it. With my intervalometer remote control then I've fixed the exposure time to 44 minutes, and changed the mode to Bulb of course for such long exposures (and had to change the battery to be on the safe side).

TC-80N3 intervalometer (remote control)
Image Source

Snapshot from ACR (Adobe Camera RAW editor) with the time of exposure circled.

The histogram above is not a good histogram under the light of what I've read recently in Keimig's book. It is better, as mentioned, to have a histogram pushed toward the highlights (to the right that is) as much as possible (and clipping would occur most of the time) and it's just a rule of thumb, as this would grant a good exposure for the shadows. The histogram above was adjusted to avoid clipping from both sides. Few minutes after fixing everything and after opening the shutter (with a timer to give me time to go to bed first!), I've heard a sound of something falling down, and no wonder, it was the ND filter. I knew it would fall down with this bad quality of tapes! I didn't try to fix it but rather left it like that to see the results later on and the fact is, it didn't change much of the exposure.

Sleeping Ghost
general view

Sleeping Ghost (cut)
zooming into the blur movement

In fact during the exposure I did indeed get up to do something with my PC and get back to bed but such movement was not recorded in this long exposure because I would need to stay more into one position and then move to record my image on the sensor. My movement to the PC and back to bed was fast so it was not registered on the sensor, but instead all what there is to see was my flipping in my place. A nice experiment that makes me somehow confident about my approach to this matter. Hope I can target the sky soon.

Another trial took place, with my little gift to my niece for her birthday. Well, I have to say it is a cheap one but I guess she wouldn't mind :). The take was to take a picture of it with a candle light, simply because I was sick of using that softbox I've made myself. It's clumsy and bigger than it's supposed to be I think. The shoot was done with Tamron 70-300mm Macro lens, as I wanted to get a closer look on the stones.



Juveler (jewels)



Juveler means "jewels" in Swedish. Why I chose Swedish? I don't know. Probably because I have now many Swedish online friends via MostPhotos, anyway the sound of the word was appealing to me. Yu-ve-ler. Has a sense of Turkish if you ask me (plural article in Turkish is -lar or -ler)!.

Despite its simplicity, the white balance here was hard to pick up and I had to adjust it by the RAW editor. Anyway, I preferred the hot tones to reflect the goldish hue (gold is attached to money and jewels and richness in general) even though the bluish hue when using Tungsten WB was appealing as well. Many ideas were crossing my mind just to shoot this simple bracelet, like long exposure (but there was no need for it really) and focus stacking. Focus stacking was probably more reasonable to do, because in such macro lenses the shallow depth is common and it depends on what kind of effect you like to achieve. If you want to increase the depth of field, then, focus stacking is the solution (and more work awaits) to include the whole subject into the depth. After looking at this result here, I think I can say I'm satisfied. The blurring effect at the back is nice enough. One thing I'm not satisfied about is, the luster of the stones. I wanted them to sparkle but I think I should have changed the angle of the light or the camera. I need to read more on this topic specifically.

Still working on some vertical panoramas and trying to understand more about the looks and trying to make a decision what would look good or bad about them. I can say that I've discovered that not all locations might be suitable for this. Naturally! Not all structures are suitable for such panoramas (or for other types of techniques as well). This is nature I believe. There are often times though when flipping (rotating) the point of view (the roll) would be better, but you might sacrifice some aspects. This is exactly what happened to me.



Alice in Thornbrook

Considered, by me, one of the worst panoramas I've ever made. This panorama can't be stitched directly in HDR, but I had to go around and tone-map, then stitch. However, what I like is the light lamp in the ceiling which gives an illusion of a tilt while the ground is straight still, and the window on the right which gives a depth to the inside. The image is for the dining (or breakfast) room in Thornbrook House (B&B) where I stayed for 14 days. Miss those days.
Another panorama, which was a bad too, and even worse than this one because of the shake and shifts of the tripod and the VR-head rotating my camera. This panorama even got severe stitching errors even after stitching the tone-mapped version instead of the HDR version.




In Terra Horologiis (in land of clocks)



I like the tones, and the window on the left, which like the previous vertical panorama gives some depth into the inside, but the bad part is that it has so much distortion in the chairs and clocks, and other furniture pieces. Unlike the previous one, which was a simple room, the lounge was filled with objects making distortion in such locations appear so severe. Conclusion: Always check the location and see if you can re-arrange objects in case you would think of doing such vertical panoramas. Also, don't forget the roll part, which can be a good trade between good features (like a window in perspective for example) and the good looks (not much distortion in vital parts).

It's Thursday, finally. I'm praying for some rest now after a week of unexplained fatigue. Words are stuck in my mind and can't put them on paper or on monitor. A sense of panic and fear occupies me from time to time but I don't know why, and my daydreams are having a great toll on my mind with negative thoughts. I'm going to hit this Post button and try to forget the world while reading a book... by the way, did you know that I hate Internet Explorer? Yeah...

Alexander 6, V14.

Somehow, an active day. Yet, in the middle I felt so tired that I can barely open my eyes and still, till this very moment of writing this.
I've placed an order just few minutes ago new tools, and this time the order was expensive indeed. But what to do? I really need these stuff. For someone with a budget like mine, yes they are expensive I believe. The placed order almost was going to hit the limit of $1000.00. No problems with visa anyway. Hopefully I shall be able to zero this down in two or three months with careful payments.
The order placed contains ONLY 2 items. One item was the Canon Fisheye EF 15mm f/2.8 Autofocus Lens;

This lens however, has a fixed focal length. I don't know how does it feel to have such a tool really. I'm kind of used to zoom in and out but this one here has a fixed focal length. According to a friend of mine who is more of an expert than I do, he said that such lenses with fixed focal lengths are better in quality and in stability. Well, the lens does not have an IS system, otherwise the price would be even more than it is already.

The other tool is actually a set or a kit for cleaning the sensor. It is made of brushes only and no liquids included as I read in the description. Maybe I can get some liquid later on after the purchase of these brushes, or maybe these brushes are enough to clean the sensor already? At least to the level of dust particles. I hope it goes well with that, because there is no way I'm leaving my camera for 5 days in the workshop.

Visible Dust SD-800 

In the mean time, I've made no further snapping around with my camera. I'm spending my time playing a game or doing a work-related work. It is supposed to be a simple work, but you might know already how things go with Microsoft Office stuff. It's worse than studying physics, trust me.

I'm thinking of starting a "hobby" or a project let's say that I had in mind long time ago; Photographing haunted or deserted houses. 

It is funny though how the concept of "Ghosts" is quite different between the west and the orient. Mainly you see in western culture, the "ghost" is to mean something, some apparition, with the shape of someone (who is usually dead). This is of course not the case in all occasions, like the poltergeists (noisy spirits, الأشباح الضاجة) for example. In the oriental cultures, I've rarely encountered "ghosts" with the meaning of shaping someone dead. Most of the literature go by talking about paranormal events and paranormal creatures. The main talk in Middle East, is about demons or the Djinns, who are part of the faith as well. Just an explanation for none-M.Easterns, Djinns are believed to be creatures just like human beings, but no one can see them unless by practicing some specific spiritual "sports" as they call it. There had been some events that happened to me personally related to that topic, like seeing some smoke going here and there for no occasion or fire and some other stuff and stories that had been told by others. Anyway the main point is, Ghosts in the west, are not exactly the Ghosts that are meant to be in the eastern world.

It's Thursday and time for TGIT...

__________
313. as Kadmún ran to the shepherds with rage
314. Alexander put his leg and obstructed him
315. and Kadmún fell down on his face to the ground
316. while the shepherds wanted to take his soul out
317. but with a gesture from Alexander's hand they stopped
318. and then Alexander said: it is not an honorable act,
319. to kill a creature lying on the ground defenseless
320. get out of his way, unless he attacks you
321. if he made me dead, then he wins
322. if I got him dead, then I win
323. and if I was dead do not hurt him
324. if you believe in God, He shall take my revenge
325. and if you did not believe in God, it is my sorrow
326. and the hero finished his speech with the shepherds
327. while Kadmún praised his bravery in the field
328. and asked him to stand up again and fight back
329. thus, Alexander, stood up again and raised the sword
330. and the sounds of iron deafened the ears again
331. while the rains of the north started to pour
332. but the rain did not stop the might of the two
333. and the fight was between equal powers
334. until the time when Kadmún stroke the leg
335. and the hero seemed to fall on the ground
336. it was then, by a trick, the hero took the head

Alexander 4, V3.

Quiet day relatively, despite the fact that it is Monday! Well, not quite quiet, since I had to pick up back my sister's laptop from the damn workshop. The filthy technician requested extra 5 K.D. for installing the "right" Windows XP, which he did not do in the beginning. He installed an Arabic version and yet, a non-genuine one and I could not do an update. He was acting like beggar really. He made me angry again after I made a decision to calm myself down, but he is a rude one indeed.

Back to work, I had to prepare some samples of tuna and sardines to put them in the freeze dryer;



Believe me guys, with all due respect, the guy who invented sardines is an idiot! What's wrong with flexible cans? My can opener did not work and I made such a mess (and a horrible smell) all over the lab just to get these samples out into some plastic bag. Sardines ARE rocket science guys!


I spent the last night on doing an experiment in a dark environment with only my censer lit (can burn aromatic oils and candles). Well, it was a chance as well to try my filters out and try some long exposures, however, generally speaking the experiment did not go very well (specially with lot of noise in long exposured images). I tried to take images of the lit censer as well in several shutter speeds and I also got my flash involved (and that was an awkward move). The flash's problem is, I can't work with it solely without being connected to the camera (I can, but the control is cumbersome since it is not designed to work that way). This matter is a problem for me now since I want to give some instant light to the objects I want to take a picture of, but from a different angle other than the camera's direction (specially the sides). I will think about it and see if there are some cables or so. My camera is old and do not have the wireless control over the flash, thus, it must be done by a cable of some sort. Combining the images later on was awkward as well, in Photoshop and in Photomatix. Lot of noise and doubled or tripled EV values. All of this, as I believe, is for the lack of my understanding for EV concept. Anyway, I'm looking forward to make out something from these images already.

For the time being, I've finished reading my HDRI handbook, the one written by Christian Bloch (he is apparently a nice guy please visit his page, and, don't forget the credit as well!).

It is a magnificent book, specially for beginners. Before reading this book, I used to tone-map my HDR images down and I thought this is the core of the event, but now the whole concept had changed in my mind and there are lot of things that I could have fixed in old images that I made (specially those from Ireland) if I was to read this book before this time! However, there is no solution for any blured images!
As for now, and beside working on the translation work for Alexander VI story, I'm starting to read the books that I've already got from Ireland (from a souvenirs shop!). They had been in the dark corner for long now, and I think this is the right time. But, I will still think of some photography books to purchase, specifically from "rocky nook" series. As for the time being, I picked a little book entitled "Irish Ghosts" by John J. Dunne.

 

The cover is different, but the title and the author's name are the same, so I would say they are the same book. By the way, I might be fascinated by ghost stories, but I didn't say I like to meet one, ok?

I've forgot already how many books I've purchased from J.P. Keogh & Sons shop, but I remember I've purchased something about the Irish dancing and something about Irish music with music sheets (or notes) in it.

This one here is a small book, I shouldn't take much time to finish it all! I hope! But the most important thing for me now is, to burn my writing skills back as I did stop for a long time now in favor for photography and experimenting with my camera.

Words got beauty in my heart.

__________

49. and by arriving there the villagers shouted
50. "Alexander O Master, let us get back
51. the lands is not ours and shall not be!"
52. thus Alexander was surprised and wondered
53. "what is that you are saying O good people?"
54. then a villager named Chidhwárthí advanced
55. and with a weak voice full of fear he did say
56. "O Master of the good, you never heard of Zimúrá,
57. the land of mischief and the heaven of mutants?
58. the forefathers were sinners and so they were after them
59. like animals they live and hunt, and mercy left them out
60. cannot you see how black is their place?
61. cannot you smell how it is full of bad scents?
62. cannot you feel how gloomy this place is?
63. come on O Master, let us not waste the lives
64. there are so much good can be spread elsewhere"
65. then in a humble voice did the hero say
66. "O good man, I was not ordered to retreat,
67. did you not follow me asking for glory
68. did you not forsake the justice to be all over
69. what is the value of your lives amid the fear
70. and what is the value of your deeds for no good
71. who is afraid to come let him be back to his wife
72. and I am not leaving this, until God commands me!"