Pinholism…

Summer is here, so if you are a person who likes summer, please don't let me encounter you on any platform! It's just the 2^nd week of June and temperatures already getting to, if not exceeding, 50^oC! I had some pleasant short vacation away from work but going back now, after such a holiday, with such heat (and AC problems from time to time) is just so exhausting. Meanwhile, I'm sort of idle with my camera but I'm busy with other things. Might talk about them later. But as promised in my last post, I will talk about another photo which I've created some weeks ago and I didn't want to jam my previous blog post here about it, so I kept it for this week.

Pray

المُقْرِئْ
The Reciter

Some time ago, months ago in fact, I've made a shot with my pinhole cap (or pinhole lens as some like to call it)  picturing myself reading or reciting Quran, opposite to a shiny window. The image is much of a conceptual fine art work instead of the typical expressive sharp image that we, mostly, would expect. This shot was done in a time when I was really working on enhancing the pinhole imagery and trying my best to get it to be as sharp as possible. However, with time, I realized that this is kind of impossible to be done (scientifically) and it would be rather better to work on using this specific look which is created by the pinhole to express a specific mood, and culture. Since the make of The Reciter (it is also one of the rare occasions in which I do name my photos in Arabic actually, because of its nature), I've thought of doing another shot depicting the praying practice (as a Muslim of course) but for one reason or another I really didn't get the time to do it until Ramadhan (and being off with my little vacation) this year. The main problem, though, was to find a suitable location for the shooting; I needed a place with glass that allows so much light to come in, and must be in some good angle in relation to the sun. I guess I've found that good spot in the guest room at home.

المُصَلّي
The Praying

In this room, I had to shoot in the early morning. I did check the room several times but I thought first about some obstacles (some gypsum board wall ) that might block the view if I want to perform the shot in front of the main entrance door to this room. However, all went well in the end (with some tiny bits of cropping and fixing perspective in post-process). Then, we have the problem of the perspective, which was easily solved with my new L-Bracket, which I've attached to the camera body and it allowed me to place the camera considerably stable in portrait position on the ground. The main issue though was the nature of the shoot itself. Metering and taking test shots revealed that I need about 64 seconds. Doing some math and dividing these seconds over the various parts of the typical movements which one do during the prayer, it was about 12 seconds for each. Anyway, I was counting on my own without a timer or anything and the thing didn't really work as some movements were not recorded clearly on the sensor apparently. Thus, and again, I've found myself forced to use the power of blending to merge all the movements - I did several shots with various movements and gestures, and each in 64 seconds. Blending these shots was not an easy task as well and my typical method of blending using Lighten or Darken did not work here. I simply had to change the opacity for various shots and even canceling some shots as well to get the final look as you see it in The Praying. Another critical post-processing point here is trying to make a difference in tones between the prostrating pose and the kneeling-on-the-ground pose, but keeping both gestures or images reasonably "black". It might be noticeable better when the image is enlarged though.
Now, after finishing this image, I'm thinking, again, of a third images for this series even though in the beginning I was thinking that this would be a two-image sequence only and no more; But my mind is still playing tricks and still thinking what I could add to this series (and it must be related to the Islamic practices of course) - Didn't get an answer myself but we'll see. I've been idle with my camera now (specially after some failures) so it would be a good push to get active again.

Finale

Well, I can't emphasize enough how much I'm sick of summer already and it is still June. Sometimes I'm really hating myself for being born in August. I'm already doing project indoors as it is, and now summer is here, then just the thought of going out to shoot anything, day or night, is a No-No.
Meanwhile, despite stopping the astrophotography trend in my brain, there are some good signs, like finding a relatively-cheap equatorial mount or tracker that I can work with but I'm not ordering this now. This would allow me to take longer spans of exposures and get some proper light to the sensor in order to process them properly and show features of the deep sky objects; As all my trials before were nothing more than some constellations and dots in the sky! On the other hand, working with these images was beneficial despite the failures. I've learned new techniques on "stretching" the data out of my images which I might use any time with other types of images and not necessarily with Astro-shots.
Hanging by the ideas, I'm still looking for inspirations among the Andalusian folk songs and I do indeed have some ideas, but when thinking practically, I just get back to "normal" and abandon the whole thing and start thinking again for and about something new. This is is beside thinking about using the pinhole again for a third image to the sequence of Islamic nature, which includes the two images above.
On the other hand, with all the mental struggle here, there is a struggle inside of me trying to push myself and force myself to travel for real despite the hustle and overthinking. It might be a tiresome thing to do but it is essential to get a break before the engine of my mood and my brain breaks down in this place I'm living in. My fuse is getting shorter and shorter. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get myself busier by adding on to my to-do-list, like learning more languages beside Irish on Duolingo. I've added Turkish, German and Russian - and who knows, I might add a 5^th one too! I really wish I can learn many languages with ease; They fascinated me since I was a kid, and now there is some good chances.
Anyway, as I won't be posting in this blog by next week, I'll be busy actually typing a post for my Arabic blog instead about "extracting" gradients from photos and apply them to other photos, and if it is interesting enough I might as well talk about it here. I hear a lot about people selling and others buying such gradients to ease their workflow and such, yet I'm not sure if this is worthy of my time but I'm experimenting and having some artistic fun as well!

Set Back…

Been weeks now and my health still on a swing. Though better than 2 weeks ago when fever struck me, but the remnant cough is taking its toll on my lungs already. I've been thinking seriously of checking back with the doctors to see if I should take Seretide; a steroidal inhaling powder that I used to take 2 years ago when my lung was apparently damaged or something because of some renovation in the house when apparently so much particles got stuffed inside my lungs. The case is different here since it is a remnant of some fever (apparently for the weather change), so I'm kind of reluctant to ask for Seretide for the time being. All I've been doing for it is having a herbal cough syrup which helps a bit, and sometimes having a spray of Ventoline; though it is not a case of asthma.

Rolling

DR-655

Been a while now since I got my new filter, the DR-655 hot mirror from Kenko, which is supposed to block IR for good in combination with my B+W 403 ultraviolet filter. Ironically though, I couldn't do a real test for the filter yet, as I'm aiming for capturing faces and flowers. Around 3 weeks passed already now and I still can't do a real shoot, except for a quick check-up. I did make a video indeed just to compare between Tiffen's hot mirror and DR-655, but of course it's not a photography project with depth.

First: B+W UV pass filter alone.
Second: B+W UV pass filter + Tiffen IR Cut.
Third: B+W UV pass filter+ DR-655 IR Cut.

As I don't have a good UV source for indoors work with the filter, I'm forced to try and work under the sun; And here comes the irony: For 3 weeks, I couldn't work outside with the camera, either because of the timing, the weather (haze and dust), or because of my health issues. However, I've realized the point that DR-655 is indeed a good hot mirror since the exposure time doubles or even triples in comparison to Tiffen's hot mirror. This typically would call for a higher ISO as well, that's why I'm planning ahead to work indoors with UV sources, such as blacklights, or maybe we do have some hope with regular CFL lamps. I thought seriously of bringing my camera to work and try to do something with this filter as there is a nice garden around my workplace and could be a good target, but first we have the weather that does not come in terms with my aims, and then we have the hassle and the fuss around this place (I don't want to be walking around with my gear while everyone is looking). 

Thus, for the most part, my work involves mainly some edits for ignored images from the past, or re-makes for old images (specifically with the LAB technique edit), and for some of those, the results were astonishing indeed. One part the sets it back though is the hard bleeding (too much saturation that could not be put down, or could be but with lengthy work), and/or the noise level that raises significantly. 

Generally speaking, I find myself picking at those dark exposures (most of them were part of bracketed series to merge into HDR) and that explains, partially, the rising noise level when the exposure is adjusted in RAW editing and then in LAB technique. However, since I do not have any plans to print any of those and only for online displaying in small sizes, I didn't bother much on reducing these noise levels. But I have to say, though, that the idea of printing some of those newly/re-made photos does fascinate me.

Polladhearg

As I said earlier, my work with the camera now is minimal as I'm trying to do something about the newly-acquired filter, yet I did manage to take a "test" shot. This shot, Polladhearg, was actually a test shot during my work indoors with the DR-655; Taken before placing the filter on the lens. It is a macro shot using 50mm lens with a 35mm extension tube. The shot with the DR-655 filter turned into a fail since the image, which took 40 minutes to complete, was severely blurred and shaken. Not to go empty-handed, I decided to work on the regular test shots. Funny thing is that I didn't notice all those pollen dots on the petals when I was working behind the camera, but only when I was processing the image. No wonder my allergies are stuck to me still…

When I Was A Boy

It's been a while since I've written (typed) some poem, and lately there had been an urge besides some signs that I find along the way of my every-day that points to a fact that I must be a writer of some sort. Not sure how real or true these signs are/were, yet I did have this urge for some time and in on many occasion I've just dispersed the ideas for writing something, mainly because of my confused mind. Not long ago, I've written a little piece which I've called "The Ghost" and it was inspired mainly by one of my artwork with my photos in fact. This time, however, it is completely off my head. I've downloaded Verse Perfect again after abandoning it for a long time, in hope to help me with my writing. It is a good tool with many aids, yet I think it is better to sometimes "innovate" if I should call it so. The great thing about Verse Perfect is that it does provide a syllable count (or metric, whatever it is called), which somehow helps me on balancing the lines. I really didn't use such features a lot before, and maybe used another feature more; The rhyme code. Verse Perfect is actually implemented with a number of rhyming courses to help with the writing process.
Anyway, off with Verse Perfect, I've tried to write something completely out of the order here, in terms of rhyme or syllable counts. I called it When I was a boy, as it goes about my own reflections about my life and how complicated it got on as time passed by. Somehow melancholic, but I guess nothing new when it comes to my own writings:

Off by the lavender fields,
oh no mind for any needs,
And my winds set to sailing,
no time given to ailing,
Back in the day,
When I was a boy.

Those days Oh who remembers,
warming nights of those winters,
The wee heart that I had carried,
no thoughtful run ever rallied,
Such were my days,
When I was a boy.

Alas! my sails stopped rising,
under that moon uprising,
Had I not seek a clear mind,
but stabbed a stab in the hind.
Bye to those days,
When I was a boy.

Where are they and where is me,
beliefs stand as a lone tree,
Singing to the stars above,
the joy but for me thereof.
Gone are the days,
When I was a boy.

And when my days are over,
and the grains be my cover,
Someone, please, itch on my stone,
"Here lie the head and the bone,
of glorious days,
When I was a boy.

Writing this, I really wished to make it longer, but the words' generation just stopped, and to tell the truth: I even started writing the last verse first, then made my way up and down. The verses here are not connected in rhyme, but each one of them is made of (a,a,b,b,c,d), obviously with same d, or same ending line in each verse. I tried my best to keep the syllable count constant for each verse as 7,7,7,7, 4, 5. In fact, this count was mainly established when I wrote the last verse and somewhat I felt obliged to keep up that count for all other verses. Maybe it is the perfectionism in my blood still kicking. Just as a trial how does it go, I've enrolled this piece into a contest on Writing.com and it got some nice views, and even an honorary mention as well. Well, seems a good come back, if I can call it so. I think I should write more at this point since my urge for photography is kind of holding the brakes right now.

Finale

Linguistics
by Al-Husain Boum, PhD.

As my work with the camera is almost on hold for the time being, my mental processing is still pretty much active; Pretty much that it gets annoying in bed time specifically. Meanwhile, I'm trying to finish some of the books already, with one interesting linguistics book which a friend gave it to me (but I returned it to him after finishing it) for the lack of time for reading, as he said. The book is by the Moroccan author and PhD holder Al-Husain Boum [د. الحسين بوم]. My friend in fact got the book back in last November from the annual Arabic Book Fair from a Moroccan bookshop/store participating in the fair. The book delves so deep into simple matters (in the Arabic sentence structure) that things do not appear simple now when I see a simple Arabic sentence! Hope that makes sense. However, the most interesting part of the book is even at the end, when a comparison is made between some Indo-European languages (Latin, Greek, French, Farsi, and even Sanskrit) and Arabic concerning the concept of syntax and sentence building; Specifically speaking, the Nominal Sentence [الجملة الاسمية] as we call it in Arabic; that is sentences built upon connecting nouns without the verb (to be)! I didn't realize how complicated the matter is until I've read this book. In fact, with this text, I've got more insight on how and why Irish is the way it is as I'm learning it, and somewhat the real meaning of Copula, which is a widely used concept in Irish. I've been looking around for any way to contact Mr. Boum and send him something about Irish and check for his opinion about it. Unfortunately, no luck.
Finishing this book now, I'm trying to dedicate the same time and effort to other books which have been collecting dust here and there (at work and at home). I need to finish those ASAP, and most importantly, to find a way to store them as well. 
My life seems to be in a stalemate, with spikes of hope coming in and out of it. I wish if I can just leave everything behind me and fly away. I'm so tired and I'm thinking seriously of having a short vacation, for a week maybe, off work just to sleep properly and get some routine off my back. Yet, I tend to think about the coming Ramadhan, and how I might need every single day in my leaves' balance. Even my relaxation has to go through a complicated process of thoughts and math to check everything that fits in place. I can't help it even though I know it's not a healthy trait to try to fit everything in place and calculate for everything and every step. Sleep, at the moment, had become a frequent wish more than traveling is.

What The Heck?

What the hell is going on??? This winter is just a puddle of murky water which doesn't move! No activity, just a dormant life and busy busy mind and technically like a paralyzed person who can't reach out for his camera. There are good points however in this time of the year but still I didn't achieve what I was aiming for! I didn't go out to do some photography at night; my favorite time, in my favorite season of the year!
Anyway, in the meantime, I've been busy doing some other work here and there (mostly in front of the monitor here) and specifically working on posts for my Ayvarith conlang on Instagram. It's not only to spread the word about Ayvarith, but it is also for me to revive my memory a bit! Needless to say how much I did forget about the Bulughman and how the Geltani is on hold again after doing a tiny progress few weeks earlier. Also, I've been working on exploring some of the old panoramas, specially those from Ireland in 2010 from Cashel and Cahir in Co. Tipperary. There had been some inspiring results!

Manach ag Damhsa
(the dancing monk)

One of the first trial was the Hore abbey panorama from inside the abbey. I chose this specifically because of the architectural features and specifically the ceiling which had some Gothic-like or Celtic-like design and when stretched out it is more likely a resemblance of St Brigit's cross!
I had a theory before that places with ceilings specifically are more adequate for such twisted panoramas done in Mercator projection; I think Manach ag Damhsa proves this fact. This panorama got a lot of positive feedback and my group displayed it in the group's gallery account on instagram (@bpf_gallery). The pillars here really played a great deal in making a swift-looking movement. Without those pillars it would have been probably a dull twist. I've previously done something similar, a vertical panorama for this specific scene, but it was slender and the sides had to be chopped off.
Anyway, these panoramas were done in the beginning of my journey in photography back then and it wasn't really an easy to ask to "redo" them again. There were some awful mistakes and some "smudges" where something went wrong in the exposure for that particular slide or HDR image in that angle; some were treated, some were not, simply because I didn't know what the HELL was going on there!

Ar an Snámh
(afloat)

For example, in Ar an Snámh the already-stitched panorama had somewhat like a doppelganger! The abbey had virtually some shady building behind as if covered by fog. Looking closely, I've realized these were stitching errors. I don't know how it did happen, but I surely had no time to fix all of that. Thus, I've just stitched it and made a small size out of it for display here. it is a nice effect I believe; gives an impression of fantasy and surrealism. Could be a good option for some panorama maybe (specifically those with open top, or those which got no ceiling). Some panoramas, also, showed that annoying problem of color patches which I still don't quite know what causes it, and apparently I didn't have the time to redo all the HDR merging again and stitching again. Thus, the natural option was to convert to B&W.

Gairdíní Crochtaí
(hanging gardens)

I'm not so attracted to this one; Gairdíní Crochtaí in fact never was in other forms to tell the truth. Probably the best to be is just a flat spherical panorama for this scene. To get rid of those annoying colored spots, I had to convert to B&W (and even then I had problems with tones). It was a great deal of work here trying to show some details and hide some, keep some details dark and lighten some. Some patches or zones in the panorama had a smudging problem which was hard to resolve before stitching and after that, thus again converting to B&W was the solution.

Caisleán Seilide
(snail castle)

Further I went on and completely went out of my mind when I was struggling with Cahir castle. One of the panoramas done there (in the main yard of the castle) had a strange problem which could be related to a misalignment maybe: the edges of the castle itself were glowing as if it was a halo effect. It is not a halo effect as this white line is sharp and not fuzzy or soft like the halo effect. I'm completely blank about this problem. Anyway, the idea for creating Caisleán Seilide was inspired as I was moving around with the coordinate system under the planet projection (as usual) and notice how some parts of the castle are longer than the others. The only thing I regret about this panorama specifically, maybe, is that I tone-mapped it in Photoshop. It did a fine job but probably it was harder to make a drama out of this panorama specifically. All of the above panoramas were merged in HDR slides first using an older version of Photomatix, and I didn't bother to redo the merging again to see if these problems would just disappear.

Back to reality. It seems I'm left now with some of the final images I could be working with from my travel to Ireland in 2014. Mostly floral and I got to say, they are mostly cliché. But there was some promising venture in those.

An Ghrian Gorm
(the blue sun)

Many of these shots did need a work in the focal depth; I had to mimic a shallow depth (using Lens Blur) to the background to isolate the foreground better (since my lens didn't do its job well in the very beginning!). It is a really hard work and a painstaking job, since you have to go around selecting the specific areas only that need to be protected (or blurred) before applying the blurring effect. For this reason I do expect many glitches in the original image despite the fine look when in small size like An Ghrian Gorm above. I see this radiating effect of blue and purple pleasing (despite being oversaturated at times), thus I decided to do another one.

Corcra chun Goirm
(purple to blue)

But the real catch was an architectural detail from Ashford castle (or its periphery to be precise). It began as a play, then developed into a serious venture which I'm trying to do over and over again whenever I get the chance for such play.

Stánóir an Óir
(gold gazer)

I have to say that from far away, Stánóir an Óir does look like a person with closed eyes. It started with a half face of the statue (which was on the top of the tunnel entrance leading to the walled gardens of Ashford castle). I did previous edit such a shot and wanted to do something different here but didn't know what exactly. Suddenly the whole "vision" started when I played around with the contrast if I remember correctly; then I thought this is a good chance to concentrate the light in specific areas and darken the rest to make a dramatic look. So it was, and the rest was a Photoshop game. Originally, Stánóir an Óir is just a half face, but then it was duplicated and the duplicate is flipped horizontally and attached to the rest to make for a complete face! Then there was a nose and lips job (yes like in cosmetics) to enhance the look a bit. The awkward point here is that the nose is actually somewhat out of focus but probably not that obvious after all. I had to do sharpening twice or thrice to increase the visual impact, while the golden patches were simply a result of adjusting the white balance in RAW before opening in Photoshop. Thus, a dull white statue was transformed dramatically, first by RAW editing, then by Photoshop. I'm looking now for more instances of this sort to work out my mind about it a bit. I think it is a good chance to vent creativity a bit instead of this dull winter season I'm having.

Finale

Things are going slow and sluggish, and I'm trying my best to enjoy my time as much as possible throwing back all the hardships. I'm trying to synthesize a feeling of carelessness deep within me, specially when it comes to conditions at work.
We had a meeting lately and I had to participate and the end result is a bit perplexing. According to one of the members of the committee that manages my workplace said that I did a pretty good job and I should participate more in such meetings when they are due (usually I'm not part of it). This is a good thing because it is encouraging and, well, someone expresses how valuable I am, but on the other hand there is a gloom lurking, as it means more responsibility and a careful venturing in that domain, in a time when all I'm thinking of is myself and my leisure, and doing what I like to do.

Source: Amazon

I'm in the process of reading an interesting book here, which I've brought with me from Dublin's airport, but didn't start reading it except of late. The book is by Daniel Kahneman, and as it says on the cover, Kahneman is a Nobel laureate. Kahneman is a psychologist and discusses many (logical) psychological issues, specially those affecting the general public. I had some ideas specifically about the media, and this man here, a professor, did explain exactly what I perceived in the media under his term: Availability Cascade. I advice everyone reading this now to get this book. Ironically as the title says, Thinking Fast and Slow, I do find myself reading it slowly; probably mainly because the language is English with long passages and entwined terminology, but after all English is not my first language - I guess I should learn fast-reading in English. Saying that, I'm doing some effort as well in learning Irish, at least in writing it for the time being!
I've been running errands in a continuous rhythm by now, every single day. Makes me think of a real vacation as well of doing nothing but sleep and walk somewhere nice. Alas, my duties are always calling for me…

i dTús (In the beginning)…

Well, I'll try to wrap up this quick. This is my first blog post after coming back from Ireland and so much to be done still to get back to my normal rhythm. I still have problems with sleeping pattern - well, I always do, but this time it is far more an upset pattern. I have some chores planned which must be done in the morning time, and because of that I'm kind of paralyzed and unable to do them; because I prefer to sleep.

In the meantime, I've been working with a slow pace through some of the images and panoramas. For the time being, I'm doing just flat versions of those panoramas, and later I will twist them around and make QTVRs out of them too. I'm now living a dilemma too, as I've downloaded some games that I need to play as soon as possible, before heading back to work in November! On the other hand, I do need to work on the photos I've taken in Ireland. Many things to do to spend the rest of the vacation with, but unfortunately my body is not helping.

Work Arbeit Obair

I'm preparing now to send a group of images from my trip already through email, as I usually do. However, these images were done during my stay in Ireland and most of them were posted here in this blog, in posts I've written during my stay. Most of them are in B&W as well. I do need some time now to organize the email and send it over.
Meanwhile, I've been working randomly somewhat with the new photos, and depending solely on strikes of inspiration. Taking a photo on location, even in a place like the Irish countryside, is not the epitome of inspiration still. For me at least. A lot of inspiration and work is to be done later in processing.

Áit an Leipreacháin (Place of the Leprechaun) - IR
Canon EF 15mm fisheye, f/8, 3.3min, ISO400.

Cosán na Síoga
(The Fairies' Path)
Canon EF 15mm, f/8,
6min, ISO500.

Here we have an example in the image above. Áit an Leipreacháin is an infrared shot taken in the gardens of Ashford castle in Cong, Co. Mayo. What was really inspirational to me is the composition and the geometry of the path, but it takes another dimension in processing, specially that it is an infrared shot, which makes the image float; i.e. no right or wrong about how colors are perceived. This fact, encouraged me to add my own touch further outside the environment of the RAW file, by adding some glamor and motion blur to have the image resemble what I presume as "mystical". With this, I can state that inspiration is not just one instance. One thing can attract you on location, but the completion of the story is when you edit it yourself (i.e. develop the negative). Yes, I know this approach might be quite a contradiction to the purists' views, but this is how my mind work; it is a split mind.

Sunken
Canon EF 50mm, f/9,
25^-1sec. ISO200.

In the case of infrared shots things might be afloat because of the nature of the shot itself, as infrared is no "real color" after all and sometimes you get the freedom of twisting the tones to your liking. In regular shots, on the other hand, the attack would be even fiercer and the opposition is stronger with any editing you might have to do (by purists that is). In images like Sunken, thanks to be given first to the polarizer here which made it possible to eliminate the top two tires (tyres). This image was shot in brackets to merge as HDR. However, one single exposure was enough to get most of the details out of it (remember to work in ProPhoto to get the maximal limits from the histogram). With this, there was something missing. Contrast. But I've increased contrast already, and nothing was interesting about the image still. What I admired on location was the composition (talk about abstract and contemplative approach), but this is not helping here with a dull image and apparently converting to B&W was not a choice. The way to do this was to increase the saturation instead and create a contrast of colors and not tones. The colors were there, they just needed a push in saturation. The result was a contrast between two complimentary colors: blue and yellow.
There are a lot of images done so far, and each one has a story of that sort. That's why my progress is slow for the time being; because I do talk to myself when processing each image.

As for panoramas, I've done a number of them and all in flat format so far. Later, I'd be doing the rest of the tricks on them and the QTVRs. The nadir point for some of these panoramas were easy to fix, but I did prefer cutting them out along with the tripod head in order to fix my own label later when I do the QTVRs. This would be better to show information about the scene for the viewer, I believe.

One of the best so far, in my opinion that is, is the panorama taken from the front of Kylemore Abbey (on October 8^th). It had some problems, but the centralization of the configuration on location paid well. And despite the fact that people were filling the place, I didn't have much problems in aligning the images, fixing vertical lines (by adjusting the pitch value in PTGui), and keeping the panorama tidy without any trace for any humanoids!

Mainistir na Coille Móire (Kylmore Abbey)

There was a minor fix to be done though, which is my shadow in the panorama. It was a simple cloning process and could have been done in the origin slide before stitching; but I was so much excited about this panorama specifically that I've decided to stitch first! I think a planet projection for this panorama specifically would be a great render!

The Waterfront (IR)

One of the painstaking processes with these panoramas is finding the control point specially in a panorama that combines outdoors, and infrared. Because infrared filters with uncoverted cameras (i.e. adjusted for IR reception) make the exposures pretty long even in a sunny day. The result is a blank sky almost even if it was a cloudy day. For this reason and after days of trying out my luck with The Waterfront (IR) I had to neglect the idea of adding the top and bottom rows of this panorama and get satisfaction with only the basic mid row. Story did not end at this actually, as some stitching errors remained and, later, much work was needed in Photoshop to add contrast with dodge and burn. It would be a shame to leave this panorama without any work; I've spent around one hour or more under the rain working on it on location! However, the weirdest of panoramas is still to come...

An Taobh Istigh an Waterfront
(Inside the Waterfront)

The weirdest of problems occurred with a panorama taken inside the Waterfront. It was apparent from the beginning that I surely need a model for control points (made from JPG files) in order to apply it to the HDR slides and make HDR panorama. However, to my surprise, the JPG panorama itself was a mess and the computer could not stitch it properly. It was one meatloaf of images! After some work on analyzing the mistakes (and using the "mask" option for the first time for me), it appears that the patterned carpet had a great say in this mess, where the computer merged 2 far and unrelated images on the basis of the pattern in the carpet!
Things began to become easier when I used the "crop" tool in PTGui itself to restrict the generation of control points on the mid zone of each image. In the final result there was still some work to be done to correct some broken lines, but this is a daily soup by now!

I'm now in a dilemma and thinking which of these panoramas I must print and send as a gift to my host, Mary Welsh. Probably I shouldn't decide by now until I work on all panoramas from the Waterfront.

Finale

Medieval Etiquette

Now, my sole burden and work in real life is to get back to the humdrum of the daily life in Kuwait, with all its nerves burning. When I go out in a vacation like this and come back, it usually feels lonelier deep inside, and estranged somewhat - like I see the things for the first time; needless to say the mood swings that hit with every encountered problem. Probably that's why I do feel Ireland to be a second home? One thing I do miss from here is the food actually! Not say the food is bad there, but I can't eat meat outside. Anyway for the reasons mentioned before, as soon as I arrived, I did deliberately drive into some jams trying to get my engine greased and ready to work. This is beside my chores.
Probably you've noticed that I'm using Irish to entitle my images this time (which is a practice I've been following for some time). This actually awakened in me the love for the Irish language (Gaeilge) again, after stopping teaching myself for years. Now, things are easier I presume; the language is wide spread and many people know about it and the resources are available. Probably I should give it a try once more.
Wish I can do the same with matters of the heart though…

Alexander 6, V20.

It is a tiresome morning indeed. I had to run with my camera here and there just with my arrival to the work place, in order to finish some stuff for my friend before the arrival of my colleagues and, the security people. Maybe I have to do some extra later on, if my friend requires so!

Been trying to find a suitable location to dump my files for the Ayvarith website as a beginning, but none was there. Angelfire and Tripod were not available for free as it seems (both under Lycos). Homestead had some good choices, unfortunately it is not completely free. I did that some days ago, and I shall continue later. There are some websites that I really cannot tell if they are good or anything, since I didn't hear of them and, some of them seem a bit awkward just by looking at the website address! I need somewhere, with no less than 15 MB space, for the time being. After all, I think I've settled on Fortunecity, it has a free service and it offers 1GB! Too good to be true to me!! But well, We'll see what will be going later. Right now, I'm doing nothing, just will dump the files whenever I'm having some time for this.
Afterall, I think I'm going to design the whole thing again and maybe do some sounds clips again, hoping that they become clearer than the other versions before that required the RealPlayer.

I think I've underestimated the abilities of Photomatix. Last Thursday I was out with a friend by night, and I liked the view of that restaurant by night, and when no one was around, except of few cars of course belonging to the night bats like my friend and myself. It was funny though how we tried to set up and shoot; we went around the parking lot that was far away a bit in circles around just to find a nice spot. Finally, we got that spot but with the tree in front, but it was OK to me, since other angles were worse, far worse, than this one.

 Our favorite icecream place

I had to sit at the back just behind my friend and turn off the lights of the car, just like spies snapping photos of their prey! It was a hard shoot; no tripod and no stable hands, plus to that that I had to use my telephoto. As a rule, if you have a telephoto and worked on a zoom, then any simple shake to your hand will be apparent in the shoot later on, and needless to say that even the mirror inside the camera (which clicks up when you press the button) do shake the camera a bit. That's why there is an option in these cameras to "lock up the mirror".
Hence, you can imagine how it went while I was sitting in the backseat trying to snap the building with that telephoto. I tried to sit in many different ways just to stabilize my hands without using the tripod, yet my trials failed. At least, I got 2 shots of different exposures that were fine.
Back home when I downloaded the images, I decided to try out the 3 main shots, with the brightest being the shakiest (since it is the brightest which means a longer time for the shutter to close and open again, i.e. more shake). With Photomatix, it was almost like magic; most of the shake is gone. Some noise would be apparent in a 100% close up look for sure, and I think this is even obvious in what so-called, "stable shot". But this time, the shaky part is indeed like almost gone with no trace. Could it be that, somehow, the exposure information are extracted from the RAW file and fixed up to the general image without having to adapt the features of the image itself? I wonder. Afterwards, cleaning and contrast boosting was done, as usual.

By coincidence, I found out that my poem, O Shannon, was published in www.writing.com in some newsletter sent to other users for St Patrick day. I received a message in the websites internal email system about a review made by a reader. Judging from the rank (a number beside the nickname of the user) I can say it was a high ranked user. They liked the poem and told me it was in the newsletter, which I usually delete. How embarassing. He forwarded the newsletter back to me and found it under "Editor's Pick" column. I think being published in a newsletter is awesome, somehow it means like your poems are read by "high ranked" people, i.e. those who make out these newsletters in the website itself! The funny thing is, although it is about something Irish, but the newsletter was about Romance and Love. Is memorizing the childhood considered something romantic? I really don't know, but anyway, it got published that way!

Still in Ireland and its stories, I've finished the first book from a list of books that I got from Ireland last October. The Irish Ghosts book, by John Dunne.

The cover of the book I have is different by the way. Now, after unpacking the other books and some of them were just TOO much to read, I realized here that I have another ghosts book, this time by Geddes & Grosset. I don't know why I bought two already, but well, this should be fun I guess... I hope! This one looks fatter in contents, and maybe that's why I did take it in the first place! There are books on Irish music and Irish dancing (or a story of the Irish dancing) and a book about the Irish myth. This last one is a tough one to read. SO FAT.

__________
457. the hero got ready for a hand combat
458. then he tried to view clearly the face
459. and he found out it was but a human like all
460. while the stranger approached with a smile
461. and from under his cloak he grasped something
462. then said with a harsh slow voice like a nomad
463. in a weak Caqobian tongue
464. "is this what you are looking for?"
465. and the stranger showed the Charnagút
466. then the stranger continued the speech
467. while Alexander was checking his dear Charnagút
468. "you suffered so much from the desert,
469. and fever attacked you like locusts on green leaves,
470. then you fainted near our place"
471. and Alexander praised God for His grace and said
472. "thank you O generous one, but you speak Caqobian,
473. how did you know I am a Caqobian?"
474. and the huge man laughed and said with a smile
475. "you think we do not know the Charnagút?
476. the sword of just that was once for Pilippánút,
477. the fair king of Caqobia, who protected us long ago,
478. and this tongue is spoken around by the literate
479. along side with other ayvaric tongues of other tribes"
480. then Alexander forgot his pains when he heard of the Ayvar

Alexander 5, V2.

I'm almost sure now that a Sunday, must be a bad day regarding anything related to driving. I had to pick up my brother from a garage and yet, I was going to make an accident as I was going to pick him up! What is left for Monday as a typical bad day? I don't know!
This said, and beside some tiny lab work, made me exhausted somehow to complete the usual translation of 2 verses. I made one so far only.
I spent a big portion of the first hours at work trying to organize and figure out a way to send over the pictures from Ireland to many contacts. The HTML work and the copy-paste routine was exhausted and yet, I had to flip from one program to another trying to figure out the best fit and how to copy contacts. After all, I settled this down in FrontPage and sent it over from my Hotmail account. An option that I don't like so much, but most of my contacts are saved there.
However, since I did not do much of experiments yesterday with my camera and not new stuff are to be put in here, and since I don't make this post plain, I decided to put the images here. This is packet 4 (IV), and I don't think it would be the last yet. Some folders are waiting to be processed yet!

Click any thumbnail to view a larger version of the image, and to read a comment or description for the image.

__________
25. in the morning he was still thinking
26. how to come down to people like this?
27. and who are they and where do they live?
28. he remembered then the word Ayvar
29. some where it was in the middle of Earth
30. should he turn back or head to the south
31. when suddenly a light arrived from heaven
32. and stroke down the earth and made glass
33. and when Alexander wanted to take the glass
34. the glass moved further away from him
35. and he kept moving after it with his men
36. until it disappeared before an old village
37. it was so old that like time forgot about it
38. and the fence barely stood up in face of winds
39. and the hero thought that God drove him here
40. amid the adversities he did not lose his faith
41. he went to the wooden great gate of the village
42. so huge that it counted the length of thirty men
43. and its width was the count of fifteen men
44. then he kocked on the gate by the knocker
45. so heavy was the knocker that it needed ten men
46. and they knocked several times but no answer
47. and they almost gave up hope for a living there
48. and when they moved away, the gate was opened