Rimming…

Well, that was a break! A break from blogging that is, but a forced one unfortunately. I was preparing a post for my Arabic blog about "rim lighting" and things started to build up as my work demanded some work which required some dedicated time. I even worked on that during the weekend! Can you imagine? Doing a work-related work in a weekend? Pfft… Just to add to my misery, a car accident occurred which actually wasted my whole day (I had it as an off-day from work).

Meanwhile, because of that article I was preparing, or even before starting with it, I did prepare some images and probably would be working in the future about some more. But first things first!

Split

It all started with a comb. Yes, a comb. And not just any comb. A comb which might be used with beards or baby hair (I guess?)... and it's broken into pieces. Probably, as an INFP myself, metaphors and symbols do play an integral part of my expressions; Visually and linguistically. Thus, when I saw this tiny comb, I think something inside had been moved…

580EX II Speedlite covered and
leaving a small slit on the top only.

Now to business: Lighting. I knew from the beginning that lighting this shot is going to be somewhat picky. It needs to be dramatic, as well as directed to the comb itself alone as much as possible. The situation was settled by using a black paper on the speedlite to block all the light except of a tiny strip. This tiny strip was also somewhat wide for the comb but it did the job after all, and an increase in f-number (to f/8 actually from f/2 I think) was required to give it that dramatic look. I had to, however, paint the background in black myself because the black surface I used had a texture and with lighting on its side it gives out quite a visible texture behind the comb. This little quickie shot, triggered more work later on in fact.

I could not resist the temptations for trying out this method (of covering the speedlite) with a selfie, and so I did. This time though, I've covered 2 speedlites with black papers and made a vertical slit in the middle (almost) about 1mm wide or so (tried to make it as thin as possible and yet passing some light). The results were... interesting!

I didn't have the time to fix the speedlites on tripods or anything and then level them up and down. I just held them both in my hands and extended my arms to the sides at full length. The looks are somewhat similar to the hatchet lighting style but with more drastic shadows I guess. Quite a strange look to me as if the light beam stopped at some limit on my face though! But the strangest thing was the black "hole" in my forehead is if my forehead had a bulge! I guess I won't know if this is normal or not until I have to shoot faces of other people (with the camera of course), and see the results for myself.

Rimming

A cylinder opened on both sides.
This is what I used for the next
few experiments with the speedlites.

These experiments with "slitting" the light beam reminded me of an old method which I've read in some books but didn't get the chance to apply it much. That method is specifically dedicated to shooting engraved flat objects, like coins or medals. Having a plenty of cans around (from consuming those delicious chocolate biscuit sticks!), I decided to go on and experiment further to see for myself what can be done with those. Thus, I picked one (and I have an arsenal of them!) and removed its bottom, and stuffed it with black paper (don't have a black paint). In the beginning, I thought of lifting the cylinder a bit with some coins but they were too slippery and shaky, so I used small paper clippers (and they would help holding the paper inside the cylinder firmly as well).

The first trial was with a decorated golden tray. We use it here for serving coffee (my favorite Turkish style!). It was tricky somewhat for a number of reasons:

• The tray was smooth and caused the metallic can to slide easily.
• The tray was polished and that caused some reflection problems.

This is beside the common problem of lighting inside the cylinder when the camera is placed on top (and turning the inside of the cylinder into pitched dark), but that was a minor problem somehow because light was still seeping through and I could even use the AF function of the lens sometimes. For those situations where light is critically needed inside the cylinder with the camera on top, I would be using some LED light placed near the speedlites. However, the critical problem with those polished surfaces is the reflections of my hand and the camera's strip (the camera's body is black so that was not a big deal). The best I could do about these reflections is to try to let them be on the edges of the frame as much as possible and then crop them later. Usually in such situations, specifically when shooting glass (like those in museums), we would place the camera and lens into somewhat large black paper or foam board (just big enough to cover the actual frame to be photographed) and in that way the black color is reflected off the glass or in other words: clearing the glass. This is beside using polarizers too sometimes. However, all of these techniques are for the "macro" world and not for the macro shooting we are doing here with a lens going inside a cylinder! Anyway, to keep things a bit interesting, I've created a "texture" made out of the repetition of Golden Curves, and it's now available exclusively on Dreamstime.

There is one thing for sure in such shots and that is cleaning is a must. By cleaning I mean working on Photoshop to clean the image. Here in Glowing 20, I didn't work on cleaning the image (except of replacing the background with black), and adding some sharpening to that and the surface of the coin got bloomed with these small dots like digital noise! Now, the challenge still did not begin, yet.

Shooting objects which are not flat proved to be difficult with such a cylinder. Mainly, of course, because the light is projected from below and we do need details of the top part. Thus, the light should strike at about the middle of the object or on its top (from the side to give a rimming effect). In Delicati above, I got desperate and I was back again to the black paper slits covering the speedlite head. For this reason, I've decided to "make" another cylinder with various slits on the sides, and holes as well. It's too early to talk about the results from these 2 as I didn't experiment with them much (and I would delay this blog post if I want to include the results here!), so I might keep this for another post. However, I did try a cylinder with slits with the same object in Delicati.

Cylinder with slits, the one I used
to shoot Argentum. Covered
some slits with black pieces of
paper with the help a rubber band
so the light from speedlites would
pass through certain slits only.

The looks of Argentum look pretty impressive, more than Delicati. Well, to my eyes at least. But the mystical look as I believe is greatly emphasized in Argentum rather than in Delicati. But one problem here remains: Flares. By flares here I mean the harsh highlights reflecting off the metallic surface. Probably to solve such issue I would have to place some kind of a modifier to soften the light as it enters through the slits of the cylinder but this is another issue I need to test with in the near future to see how it would work out; Though I have my own suspicions about the usefulness of this. In Argentum I've worked around such strong flares on the metallic body in Photoshop doing some magic with the "Blending" options for the layers. Just to note, Argentum is also available on the stock, in 123RF. 

After working on Argentum, I did continue to do some work and little projects with this method of lighting and some of them are on the stock already indeed, but let's keep that for another post maybe.

On The Side

Beside all of this fuss going on with my speedlites, I couldn't hold myself further from capturing and making some new 3D anaglyphs. The target this time was some fossils in the Geology department in my workplace. The department was renovated and the display cases had been changed or re-organized and I have to say some of those was really, really, appetite-instigating for some 3D work. 

Even though I've noticed those a month or two ago, but I couldn't work out with them except in recent weeks, and I had to do it using my Huawei Mate 9 smartphone, and there is a word I'd like to say but let's end this 3D talk first. It would have been better if I could have shot those using my DSLR camera but the situation is not on my side here specially that I go to that department in the final minutes before leaving my workplace (to do the fingerprint scanning for leaving). Moreover, I would have probably used a polarizer or some black board to hide the glass flare but with a mobile phone camera there was not much I could do. Thus, though the illusion is good enough for pop up (at least to my eyes), but the flare and reflections from the glass case makes it a bit annoying.

The case with the trilobite (if my memory serves me right here about the name) was a bit better but the probably the shit was too much between shots that it took me some time further to ensure that this illusion goes without ghosting effect. It is with this image that it was prevalent that higher pixel resolution does not mean necessarily a good image quality. The resolution for my Huawei Mate 9 is 20MP, while it's 18MP for my old Canon EOS 7D. Naturally, the file size for shots taken with a 20MP camera is larger than those taken with 18MP camera. However, the resolution when zoomed in at 100% proved to me that there is a critical factor related to the sensor and its size and not just its resolution which decides how clear the image can be. At close up, the shot for this trilobite was a bit muddy-like and not quite sharp. One might say it's motion blur or a focusing problem, but all that is (with time) can be quite easily distinguished when seen on the image. And that murky-looking details is absolutely a resolution issue and not anything else. Anyway, I'm limited with my options here and at the end, I do have to work with the mobile phone (I even look weird shooting several shots for these fossils with students roaming the place!). I still have some specimens in my mind and I might try to shoot them for 3D work in the coming few days!

Finale

Now, I was going, hopelessly, to write down a new poem but unfortunately, because of this busy schedule and pressed time and exhausted body, it was really hard to focus on the words and feelings I need to write, even though I do have a general concept in my mind about what I want to express. All I can hope for for now is that I would be able to do something about it in 2 weeks from this post!

The weather is getting down with its temperatures. Such a good tiding and announcement for the coming of winter. This summer really exhausted me as it is already. I can't believe how I'm coping with this for 3 years now without traveling. 

After quitting Instagram, I'm trying to focus my attention onto Twitter, as I'm using it as a platform to "advertise" for my stock images on somewhat a daily basis. Not sure how effective this is but this is the least I can do to publish my work. I am also publishing some weird panoramas (mostly planets) that I didn't think of uploading to the stocks before, but with a catch: Each stock website would be responsible (or exclusively offering) a specific type of images; From Malta, Ireland or even those tiny projects I do at home. Beside Twitter, I'm also publishing my work on Pinterest, even though it kind of feels weird and I'm not sure how it really works! This said, I'm also trying to cancel out my accounts in some stock websites as I deem them not useful at all. Who knows though, I might consider finding new venues as well.

Meanwhile, my time is passing in such a strange way as my life goes on. It is slow, yet so fast in the same time. Memories from the old days are frequently passing my mind and evoke emotions that I've been trying hard to hide in every single damn day that passes. I'm not ashamed to say even that some times I had to cry alone, but well, who cares after all. It's me, and it's my time and no one else's. The question remains though, how much time is left for me to live what I want to live, or maybe I'm not destined to live what I wanted to live…

Sorry, No Photo...

As the title for today's post says it. No Photos. Well, not exactly no photos, but I've merely tried something with my camera, while I've spent the rest of the week simply, thinking.
What I'm thinking of might be a long talk, and probably I would shed some light on that later on. But first, let me just talk a bit about one image I've prepared last Friday after many many trials with my speedlites (580EX II and 430EX II).

Das Licht:

I did take a picture of some light bulbs before and this time I was trying to do it again. This time, however, is a bit different because of my latest reading for Cyrill Harnischmacher's book Tabletop Photography. In his book, Cyrill described some aspects of shooting glass surfaces and what kind of background and props that might be needed, beside some tricks - all of that with concentration on low costs and some DIY aspects with the help of two speedlites only. Exactly my situation.

Das Licht
Canon EF 50mm, f/5.6, 4000^-1sec, ISO200.

Usually, I've been taking some shots for regular light bulbs before in different situations, and this time I did take some shots with a translucent (i.e. not completely transparent) light bulb. Unfortunately, the translucent was not good enough to show the filament inside the glass. Later on, I've decided to exchange this bulb with a typical spotlight which was half transparent and half dyed with some reflective silver-like material. The filament might not be so clear, but with Fluorescent WB, the color compo seems to be work in a surreal way!
I did take zillions (figurative speech of course!) of pictures but this one seemed the best (and it was the last in the series). I've tried to change the WB but Fluorescent WB kept showing up as the best for such situation. The critical change and test from one shot to the other is changing the shutter, aperture and the reflectors settings, beside changing the direction of the speedlites. Maybe a diagram would explain a bit.

Simple schematic diagram of the basic setting.

What I like here about Harnischmacher's book is how he used regular speedlites (not studio flash or strobes) and few tools to make perfect glass shots without the need to use any polarizers, but only reflectors. This is what I was trying to do however but seems my luck is not as good as Cyrill's!
I've changed the reflector position to many places trying to achieve a somehow gentle light streak on the glass but, as you can see above in Das Licht, the hard spots of light were there anyway but in that specific image, they were the slightest I could make out from this experiment. My teacher, after seeing this image, said I should have stroke the black background with the flash to light the edges of the bulb, which sounds somehow a weird advice to me (specially that the black paper gives a blue streak with flash strikes).
One of the problems when using a spotlight is the fact that because of the shape of the surface, the extension or plug under the bulb was reflected upon the glass of the bulb itself! At this point, I've cut a piece of white board and fixed the light base in it and connected it in hope that this white would help on illuminating the bottom part of the bulb. Well, it did, but unfortunately, because of the glass shape, it acted as a fisheye lens reflecting much more space than the white board itself. Thus, I have to give up the idea of reflecting more light in the bottom part, and get myself satisfied with suppressing light there by replacing the white board with a black one. The filament after all appeared merely as a line because it falls approximately between the transparent part of the bulb and the reflective layer. All in all, I do like the shape of the bulb itself but working with such types of bulb is a hard task and a regular bulb seems easier to work with. But, there is a lot of innovation in the spotlight bulb if you ask me. Who knows what I might think of next...

Give Me Wings!
Last Saturday was a time for one of our meetings in the photography group and we ran through the regular check ups for some updates and the usual complaint about the moderate efforts from the members. I think I will come to discuss this in details later but at this point I want to mention the Red Bull contest.
Almost at the end of the meeting, a representative of Red Bull arrived into the meeting to discuss a contest established by Red Bull company, and despite the fact that he mentioned it is specified for the group, a quick check up to the website made me realize it is not so and it is open to all various contestants.
The theme of the contest is Kuwait (not a weird topic in a country where most people are patriotic AND idiotic in the same time) but with a twist of a story - that is under the category of Series Photography. Every contestant is meant to give 5 images that tell some sort of a story, and I've began to think about it seriously. The deadline is the 20^th of May, which somehow gives me a little time to work. Eleven days are just not enough to create such a thematic approach unless you do have an arsenal that can make up a story, which is not my case here.
I've been trying to seriously brainstorm my imagination and get out of some theme for the story, but to no avail. Or let's say, not much advantage was there in such methods but I got out with 2 main ideas for the whole thing:

1. A Day in Kuwait: This theme should reflect a typical day in Kuwait, from the early hour of morning time up till the evening and then night time. I might have one or two images already under such story theme, but the rest needs to be worked out. Also, it sparked my imagination for some idea but unfortunately such an idea needs lot of work and probably a permission to do it near the Towers.
2. Progress: This theme would be more problematic and I would need to capture a glimpse of the past and present, and the destruction done by 1990-1991 war and then the re-building. 

After some reflecting, I think I would choose the first approach. I just need to work out what to present. Initially, I had an idea of representing 5 portrait shots, but I've changed my mind later when I realized that I can represent one of my panoramas as the opening of the theme.

Towers of The Rising Sun
The Opening?

One of the points that I'm thinking of taking care of while establishing such series is to include the sun in every shot when possible (of course no sun at night time!). My theme should progress as follows:

1. Morning time. This is reflected by the sunrise beside Kuwait towers. The only available image so far.
2. Rush time. This image should include the traffic jam that all Kuwaitis suffer from everyday. In fact, the rush hour can be significant for morning time, or (after)noon  time when people get back from work, but I don't want to duplicate images.
3. Afternoon time. This time is mysterious to me as I don't know what should be in there. An image of some nap? (typical in the life of Kuwaitis) or should I reflect on family gathering? Or maybe a stroll in some malls having lunch? That would require permission to take a picture in some public places!
4. Evening time. This time is more like it for a family gathering and visiting. It is also the time for visiting the typical Diwaniyas (beside late night time as well).
5. Night time. This shot specifically should reflect the peace and tranquility. I have a crazy idea but I would need a lot of help with it thus I'm reluctant to go ahead with it. This image is also a public one supposedly near the towers.

These are the main ideas and all what is left is work on them and even dig in my arsenal, as I might save some time with some shots (like the morning time shot). Here we go with one more burden to carry around!

Independence:
My mind had been strolling on some sensitive topics lately, specially those concerning the group that I'm supposed to work with. After Mom's problem, I've somehow lost contact except for few notifications and activities that keeps me updated from time to time. However, in the same time, I do hate being idle.
However, after our latest meeting, I've discovered that some members were "kicked" out for not being active and/or not paying their membership fees. The fees, however, are a flexible matter from the point of view of the group's management but the thing was, some of these members didn't give any explanations nor replied back to any inquiries. These events made me think for real about the validity and the usefulness of the group's activities.
From my side, I've tried to help the members a lot by trying to transfer my technical knowledge to the members (most of the members) to help them out with their images and produce a high quality images and files. A lot of the members are good photographers, but unfortunately, not so good in processing (developing) their own images, needless to say that some of them hold the point of view of Purests; photographers who believe in submitting and printing their images as they are and any editing would disturb the beauty of the moment, as some say.

The lack of such technical knowledge did already blow us into troubles with expos and other activities, and despite my work and recommendations, nothing was done in that field. It seems to me, my name is remembered when there is some job to be done, but not when my recommendations are considered. On the other hand, all what is asked is photos photos photos, work work work and contests contests contests, and boy how much do I hate contests. I had a vision for this group to be a scholastic star, but now it seems to me it is just a media player with economical revenue. I do miss those days when I was free to think and act with my own slow pace from week to week, rather than being rushed with some extra dose of hard work.

On the other hand, another discussion was opened for the third time and I have to say it made me a bit sick. A contest is sparked for the third time in, what it seems, apparent desperate trial to achieve something for someone, or so I think. The contest is one for the group members and after a weak participation from the members in the first round, it was recalled again and this time with some incentives: 60 K.D. and a patronage of a famous local coffee house; a coffee brand that I've realized later that it belongs to an honorary member and a critic in the group. In this second round, I did, or tried, my best, yet the result was a complete failure; the supposed judges announced that the level of images was way under the hoped or expected. This made me angry in fact because this is a contest among group members and the judges are also, group members - they do realize our capabilities in tabletop tools and studio instruments, don't they?
Now, it is sparked a third time with the same incentives and with a special discount for a workshop about coffee photography for those who attended the previous workshop (and I'm one of them). Besides, what is 60 K.D. (~US$210) in today's day-to-day living here in Kuwait? I know some people who recharge their calling card or pay their phone bills for such an amount. Is it possible that the group members are dragged for virtually free ad campaign, and the sponsors are dying to have a job done for free? The situation, in my eyes, seems like it. I had some time thinking about it and I've decided to not participate this time, and if asked why, I think I will have to steam off a bit. If you are a businessman and own a brand of your own products all over the country, I'm pretty sure that 60 K.D or $200 or even $1000 is not much of a big deal, is it?

Scriptures:

After finishing Cyrill Harnischmacher's book about Tabletop Photography, I've started directly with Lens Design Fundamentals by R. Barry Johnson. It is a heavy book with lot of geometry and mathematics and it seems even my background on mathematics is not quite enough while some parts need refreshing. Anyway, I'm reading on with somehow slow pace. It is not a book to finish that fast and I guess it is one of those that you must have a tutor to explain it for you - after all, it is an academic book.
In the meantime, as I've posted before, I'm planning to make a note ready for my conlangs and any additions to them. Frankly, I didn't do this so far, but my concentration now is dedicated less to this avenue, specially with the new books. I lay hope that these activities will be on my schedule soon. It's my life's problem: time management.

Now, I'm finishing this post with heavy eyes and hands, as I feel the fever creeping through my body... perfect timing...

Kämpfe der Maschinen...

And I thought this week I will have a nice vacation for 3 days for the National Day celebrations. I was wrong; dead wrong. Honestly, I had some plans for my own in this holiday - I wanted to clean my room which is now a real mess; a REAL mess.
However, my plans got altered severely and I had to go after some tasks for the group as Mawahb 3 expo is approaching in March and there are lot of things to do yet. I'm praying things go well with this expo; we've put a heavy load of effort on it, beside so much stress to be coping with - beside grumpy members to go along with (or to quit working with).

Re-Visited:

In the mess and the fuss I was trying to work a bit more on my previous arsenal of images that I've taken and didn't touch, but also I had some unfinished story with some panoramas.

Esfera Andaluza

And back to the Arab Organizations Headquarter (AOH) where I worked on more panoramas. It seems that it is just my luck that I can't be situated under the center of the ceiling every time I head for a panorama, and in our case in AOH, it is because of the fountain. However, it seems that Esfera Andaluza with its circular projection, is visually almost at the center; but it needs a keen eye to notice the nudge off the center a bit.

Planeta Andalusia

However, before working on Esfera Andaluza, there was one weird aspect that I had to be over with yet: The little planet projection.
The story here is weird because the final image is not a typical little planet like I used to do with some interior panoramas. Rather, it is a mix or something in between the two levels of a planet projection and the wide view (which highly distorts the sides and pushing the center deep backward giving more depth to the image as in a fisheye lens).
When I first applied the little planet projection in PTGui, the whole image was not to mz likings for many reasons, but the main reason was the unpleasant view and stretch in the wooden decoration. For this reason I've shifted the nadir point (bottom point) by changing the pitch (i.e. the tilt of the view) nudging the center of the planet panorama off the center down a bit. In a wide-view panorama, the nadir point should be closer to the bottom edge of the image but here, the nadir point is just nudged little bit off the center. What I really like here is the wings formation for the hall in such projection. Anyway, I couldn't find a name for such projection and I'm not completely convinced it is something totally new other than the wide-view and the little planet, I've named the image after Planeta Andalusia referring back to the little planet projection fact.
Amazingly, with some work and some cloning, the nadir point that I've taken before and did not work in the original stitching process worked easily here (specially that it was taken with a great distortion). I had to do some resizing for the nadir image after the stitch was over and like working with tiles in a new building, I've fitted it there and done some cloning to the edges and also some toning to match the colors of the marble surface and lines between the nadir image and the rest of the stitched panorama. All of that process had to be done in HDR format, hence I was not able to use the Color Match command that is normally available under 16- and 8-bit formats.
I think at this point, all my extractions out of this panorama is done completely. I might visit back in case I had a new idea in mind. I've already inspected the possibilities of a tunnel view projection for this panorama but the overall look didn't sound so good I presume, so I've just skipped stitching this panorama for now. However, I might do it later just for the fun of it!

Arbeitsplatz:

Last week (or even before) I've received a request from the department upstairs in my workplace to take some pictures for the building (and I assume the images they have already were not as good). The whole story began with Kuwait University's Cultural Festival, when the director of the Biotechnology department upstairs was one of the invited guests and she noticed me in the last ceremony for the TV band.

A shot from the festival

However, I was busy a bit with the group (and still) and most of my tools (and thoughts) were scattered. I thought it is a great thing that such request came in winter. I was hoping for some clouds to come in and make my life a bit easier. However, many technical problems occurred! (typical, isn't it?).

Rokinon 8mm, f/8, 0.6sec, ISO100.

As you can see in the image above, the clouds mainly accumulate in the morning and I had some idea for doing a long exposure with such a fisheye lens to have most of the building in view with clouds passing over - but things aren't easy yet. Even though I've developed some ND gels to fit into the rear end of Rokinon's lens, the floodlights won't turn off until the sky is brighter, and probably the clouds are gone.

Rokinon with ND filter in its rear.

It was apparent that my luck was not lucky enough! I've been going to work for several days trying to capture a glimpse of the building and the clouds without floodlights AND cars, but seems the two options just can't be together. However, I kept on trying day after day trying to capture some glimpse of the building at different times and I had to give up the idea capturing some clouds formation because this might take such a long time to deliver the images to the director.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @37mm, f/11,
25^-1sec, ISO100.

One of the shots that I really liked is the one taken from the side aiming at making the pillars and wall lines parallel vertically. However, I was hoping to take this shot with my 50mm lens to reduce the distortion as much as possible but because of thel imitations in the space (another building at my back and some obstructions) I had to get back to my old EF-S 18-55mm; the lens that I hate so well!
After taking this image (on the left), I've first processed the image with DxO to correct the slight tilt and also to fix the barrel (typical for this lens even though not noticed) and then help on making the image more parallel (forcing parallel lines). After reviewing the image in Photoshop then, I've noticed a tiny part of the metallic shade holder popping out and it kind of irritated me because everything looked perfectly parallel but this line was sticking out.

The front and the metallic shade apparent here.
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @24mm, f/8, 8^-1sec, ISO100.

Cloning out the remnants of the shade was not a good option, thus I had to spend some time copying other parts of the image and sticking them into place and smoothing out some parts to hide the edges. It was quite a piece of cake, but if only I knew that this would work out like that I wouldn't waste my time working on cloning!
The image on the right here was also a riddle to be solved because, with the help of DxO, I tried to fix the horizontal lines and make them perfectly parallel, but when this is done, the vertical lines turn non parallel. And the situation is vice versa! I couldn't settle down with one thing after all the fixes so I just watched out for the horizontal lines, I think, to make them parallel and that's it.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @18mm, f/8, 84sec, ISO100.

Since we are at it, I've figured some experimenting with the IR filter won't be harmful, just in case this image or technique (despite being black and white) can be interesting to them. Originally, I've approached this image in different manners, in both, Photoshop and Canon's DPP, and initially I've created what it seemed to be artistically interesting photos (with red shades or with blue shades after swapping channels). However, I thought they won't be that interested in such artistic flow (specially that there is already a fisheye shot). This shot (above) was also subjected to DxO to fix certain parallel lines problems (with the usual tilt in the image because of my bad tripod!). Weirdly though, the right top corner of the building was skewed in a strange way and needed some special treatment!

Canon 15mm, f/16, ISO100.
HDR

Finally, I've decided to do a panorama outside and after the working hours. Since there are no clouds I might get out with something useful here like a high resolution panorama. The panorama is around 180^o initially, but lot of the sides was cropped. Probably the building itself occupies less than 90^o of the field view. I've done a previous panorama for the same building but it was done with a regular tripod and no VR-head and there were some stitching errors. Even though I wished for some sky here but lot of people are happy with the blue sky initially. The goal after all is just to give some printable material for the future uses; and in such cases, the bigger, the better. That way, resizing can be done with relative ease without any fear for loss of details (i.e. critical details).
The course of action was over a period of 2 days, and during that time, I was able to catch a glimpse of how spectacular my mission was:

Canon EF 50mm, f/2, 30^-1sec, ISO100.

 And yes, it was placed in front of my own workplace building. Had to crop here and there to emphasize the subject...
At the time of typing these words, the CD containing these photos is not submitted yet to the director and might not hear back from her soon. I know she's a busy person and probably won't have enough time to look at those few pictures thoroughly.

Nocturnal Nostalgia:

Nocturnal Abstract
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 400^-1sec, ISO100.

Before proceeding with the nostalgia part, I have to say that I barely found some time to work on with some of the images taken from Ahmadi around 2 weeks ago. After going over the images again probably I didn't find much, but there were some images that were saved in layered TIFF format but I didn't complete the editing process to be posted last week in this blog.
Some images were hard to be liked, but I thought maybe some cropping would do the job and change the image into something likable, like Nocturnal abstract. I've converted the image here to black and white to emphasize the looks of the light and neglect the importance of the colors (they were red, yellow and orange). I'm not sure this image would be liked by anyone but I like it after all for its simplicity of lines.

Counter Clockwise
Canon EF 15mm, f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

However, there were some images that I've neglected for some time, probably because of the pressure over me with the group's activities hovering over. One of those images was Counter Clockwise which was taken at a roundabout (before the arrival of some hooligans). I could've made the exposure longer than 30 seconds but the circumstances there made me stop at this point and I thought 30 seconds is just fair enough - all what I would have to do is time it with the arrival of some cars. Initially, I wanted to take this shot with Rokinon's 8mm fisheye lens but the view was so wide that the clock tower in the roundabout seemed so small and far away and this is exactly the opposite of what I wanted in the first place. My best choice was the 15mm lens (and better than my EF-S 18-55mm of course!).

Round Around
Canon EF 15mm, f/22, 30sec, ISO100.

Gates of Light
Tamron 70-300mm @119mm,
f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

Still with the 15mm fisheye lens when Round Around was taken and in this shot I didn't really care much about the composition as much as I cared for the simple movement of the merry-go-round. I had to crop a lot from the top to remove the black sky and I've darkened the triangular part near the top edge which so bright and shiny because of the floodlight behind me here. Not an image I would submit usually but it simply has some motion that I like. Some images however could not be fixed even after cropping hard. I like some movements in them like Round Around and Gates of Light, which stopped my cropping at a certain point because of gated lights, yet I have to say I simply like some aspects of the images and not completely like the images themselves. I think it is important to have some hope in every image you take even if you don't like or love the total aspect of the image. I've met some people so far that desire and wish to make a masterpiece of every shutter click, but this is simply not possible, and not even Ansel Adams would have dreamed of something like that! The point here, I do photography because I like it, not because I want people to be impressed with it - and when I share my images, I share my interests with the world. I'm not showing people how a good photographer I am, because simply, I'm not.

You might be wondering, where does the nostalgia part comes in. It comes from the fact that during this holiday (National Independence and liberation days), I've decided to visit the area that I've lived in for 23 years of my life. I was born and raised there and back then I've never imagined myself being out of this area. But life has its own measures and (bad and good) surprises for us. Things changed a bit since I've left this area in 2003, but the general plan and shape of the roads is mostly the same. 

Electric Sakura

Glowing Kuwait

Smiley Lighty

I won't be discussing the matters of these images and how good or bad they are (and I think most of them aren't that good), but I just wanted to say that that night sparked some memories about places that maybe I was supposed to be in till this very day if not for legal and financial problems that the family had been through. 
They told me the light decoration in the area is magnificent and they were to some extent but not as brilliant as the light decoration and miniatures in Ahmadi. Yet, I tried to enjoy my time taking some snap shots. A lot of the light decorations were raised up high and were regular in patterns making shooting them with a camera a bit of a hard task and monotonous.
I didn't write up any technical details on each image here. All what I want to do personally is just stare at these images and remember the old days. Who cares what lens I've used in these shots?

Finale:

Had been a time of stress lately. Not only for the numerous activities that I have to cope with, but also for matters of the heart - which I'm trying to have a foundation of.
In the mean time, I'm keeping some thoughts to myself after the pressure over members of the group and myself. To me, I don't care much about contests and expos (or let's say my interest is minimum), but to some other members it seems not so - specially after what seemed to them it is a harsh judgement over their images. With me, being responsible for the printing process and following-ups in this field, I've realized many hardships that members face. I have a list of points that I'm keeping for myself right now but probably would expose them at the right moment:

• Neglecting expos and contests and stop pressurizing the group's activities. If you want to bake a cake, quick baking is not the way.
• Giving a period of time for free activities for the group and not putting stress on their shoulders for some months.
• Opening up a discussion on a weekly basis for the pictures taken randomly by members every week. We have to emphasize the emotional connection to the images and not only to think in an abstract manner about beauty itself. This is not sorting out by critics, but a discussion.
• We must drop down the spirit of competition inside the members of the group; photography is a philosophy, not a fight. Won? good, lost? I'm happy about my pictures.
• A workshop to produce images would not necessarily give out the results right away. Mastering a technique after a workshop or a chain of thoughts (if the workshop is about certain field of photography) can take up to months of hard work - this is if such field is really appreciated and rises curiosity inside the photographer.
• Judgements and criticizing images should be done under the light of the available gadgets and knowledge of the photographer. A beginner photographer should not be criticized up to the same level as an advanced photographer. In Kuwait, landscape photography is a pure example of such differences in creative powers in such field of photography. It's hard to make out an astonishing image from a landscape in this country; why would I ask so much from the photographer for things out of his or her control?
• The activities should be divided in between the group members. In other words, not all (or most) group members should get involved in contests or expos, but the load should be divided and shared. Moreover, it would be better if the leader of the group picks certain members to submit some of their images for certain contests, since the leader knows better about the capabilities of certain members. I think this is far better than trying to seed ideas and waiting for the plow by all members.
• Technical advices concerning working with RAW format and color spaces is a must.

Ironically, I wish if I can make out some ideas to organize myself as I'm trying to organize some aspects of the group.

I'm not sure where am I heading, but from time to time some dreams tickle my heart and mind. Age seems to be something not to be forgotten - or not so easily I would say. Walking alone, working alone, and sleeping alone. Wondering still if my life is appreciated by anyone. In the meantime I'm digging hard and trying to grasp my poetic abilities back again. Wrote something but might keep it for the next post, next week. It was an image that inspired the whole piece, a short one though, with hardly squeezed words out of my mind. Would I be able to use photography and photos to inspire for poetry? Who knows... I need something to steam off the anger, the melancholy...

Gelb und Weiß

Infra Me, Infra You, Infraday...

Things are getting busier and busier! Not sure how long it will last but seems that January is a season for many events locally. The photography group seems to be chasing lot of butterflies in all directions, which makes me fear a bit for its well-being. However, I'm not forced to go to all of these events, but I do have my own share of load of things to do for the group already.
Kuwait University (Kuniv) presented a personal offer to me to represent myself with some of my photos in a special expo dedicated to the youth with the beginning of the second semester at January 27^th. However, I've informed the organizers that I'm a member in a group, and it is better to have a group of photography presenting itself rather than a single photographer; that will provide a high potential and provides a greater number of photos. On Tuesday we paid a visit, the group's leader, the chief organizer and myself, to the place and the leader seemed to like it and we are in already. What's left now is a burning engine work to filter and provide photos (and print) - and who knows, maybe add some digital media since there were some usable flat TV sets hanging.
The location is awesome in architecture and I'm really considering doing a panorama inside when possible.

Infra:
It had been almost 2 weeks since I got my infrared filter and I'm still doing experiments on this venture. The experiments done so far were mostly... silly, if I should say.

InfraCandle
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 5sec, ISO 100.

One of the simplest trials was just to light a candle and try to snap it. My aim was generally to see the type of patterns, if any, that a flame might produce under infrared. The image was later converted to black and white and some adjustments followed. Probably a significant attitude for such images when converted to black and white is the abundant of the gray tone - and sometimes a fuzzy feeling to it related to the focusing shift when doing infrared photography (did you not notice a red dot on the focusing ring on your lens?).

InfraCoal
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/5.6, 30sec, ISO 100.

Long story short. When talking about infrared filters (with unconverted cameras), then we talk about tripods as well. One night after coming back home I've encountered the family gathering around a typical coal tray and grilling (or frying) chestnuts and hamburgers and sausages. Since it's hot, I've directly brought my camera and fixed the infrared filter and tried to capture something with it. The view is abstract of course and my aim was to try, and not to create art by any means.
You might be wondering why 100mm macro lens, well, simply put, this is to stay away from the coal and its heat and also to frame the coal only. I've tried the 50mm but I couldn't achieve the same framing, while it kept me close to the coal and its heat. After uploading the image, first thing was to settle the white balance to the completely red image. After doing some reading online (specially at www.infrared-photography.co.uk), I've started to formulate some workflow aspects for such type of photography. After the white balance is set (which sometimes doesn't change much) I've reduced the red saturation which left some areas as white while some as magenta or orange. Contrast and Vibrance were added slightly too.
In Photoshop I've tried to swap the channels (red and blue) to create a look that is similar to those colored infrared landscape shots, but here, with no sky or anything, the red was simply replaced with blue, and I didn't quite like the new look, so I kept the original as is.

Meanwhile on The Moon
HDR

The journey with my infrared filter continues when I tried to combine it with the polarizer and also do HDR on the beach one morning. Sometimes I would face hard time focusing so it is time to raise the ISO to max, focus and measure the exposure and push it back to ISO 100 and do the calculations, but in early morning hours when the sun did shine already it won't be much a hassle after all - yet it is considered a long exposure of some sort.
When processing Meanwhile on The Moon, I've tried different approaches to the RAW files taken in brackets to produce the HDR:

• Merge the originals into HDR and tone-map them then.
• Convert each RAW file in a similar way as it was done to InfraCoal, and save the files into TIFF, and merge into HDR from there.

Seems, however, that the second approach is more feasible and more pleasant. I have to do more research on this aspect. That session from the beach still has some (normal) images that I didn't process yet - I've just remembered that while typing these words!

Blind Me!
In some effort to create some new images, specifically as a homework for the Philosophy of Light workshop, I've tried to create something; anything.
Many ideas raced through my mind and eventually settled down with an idea of a light bulb and a water drop. I had my plan for the water drop specifically to make it hanging in the air but I ran out of possible capabilities to make it so, and hence I had to drop it for the time being.

InfraLight
Canon EF 50mm, f/11, 0.5sec, ISO 100.

Since I'm at it, I've decided to take a picture of the light bulb with infrared filter. It was not much of a design or anything, and when I tried my 580EX II speedlite, it didn't quite effect the lighting drastically. I had to work a bit with dodge and burn in Photoshop to emphasize the edges of the light bulb. Significantly though, the infrared filter reduced the halo around the filament of the tungsten bulb without the need to use a high-shutter speed, as it was done later in Lighting Through.

Lighting Through
Canon EF 50mm, f/3.5, 8000^-1sec, ISO 100.

After playing around with the infrared filter, it was time to get serious a bit and start my speedlites: 580EX II and 430EX II. In the beginning I've tried to use the manual mode, but I've realized it is hard to control it in such conditions, specially with such high speed. So, directly, I've moved to E-TTL. mode. The 580EX II being master and 430EX II being wireless slave, I've tried to change the power of the speedlite by controlling the aperture, after finding that a slight change in the shutter speed had some catastrophic effects from both, the speedlites and the bulb itself. The location of the 580EX II was fixed on the right side of the bulb while 430EX II was carried by hand and always changed while taking many shots and trying the polarizers to reduce the flare on the glass. In the final result, Lighting Through, I've cloned out some flare as well. Using the polarizer filter with flashes is hard specially that it does not have an indicator of the direction of polarizing, while using the polarizing sheet on the flash head while not on-camera, it is even harder to judge to what angle the polarizer on the lens should be. Anyway, the final image was emphasized in contrast in Photoshop by setting the Black Point in Curves layer to eliminate some light noise around the bulb (and had to use layer masks to confine its effects). Dodge and Burn were used again to emphasize the edges of the bulb. In this final image, the 430EX II was on top (and close) to the bulb and tilted little bit toward the camera's direction (to avoid casting light on the black board as much as possible).

Lingua Aevarica:
In the meantime, I'm trying so hard to organize my time but to no use. I think I should probably finished reading some of those books before I get my time re-ordered in order to work more with Geltani and Ayvarith. As for Geltani, it is a not-yet-finished business with its syllables and some basic grammatical structure of the language and its script, while for Ayvarith, there is always the matter of establishing a website capable of holding my media files (images and sounds) and also working further on creating something new out of it. My love for fantasy and conlangs is almost a match for my love for my camera and photography - it is the first thing why I've created this blog in the first place after all! It is just sad that I can't do much about it for the time being. I have to make some plan, but how, I'm not quite sure. I think photography did suck me in greatly that I've paralyzed other areas of my life, like the conlangs and the poetry. Now imagine how my life would be if I was married already. Simply, dead.

Crazy Me, Crazy World...

Finally I can say we got winter. The weather is getting chilly a bit in the morning, and sort of nice at noons. I want to spend more time in the outside but then, with my life pace and the tiresome body and mood, I don't think I can do that in the current time.
I'm struggling to get back to my writing habit, writing and joining some words from here and there and calling these stuff a poem or lyrics. The latest was done yesterday and called it Alien. It is about my feelings in the current time. Just lost in space and time nd I don't know where or what I'm doing really. All I know is, I need to be alone. I'm using now a tool that helps on pushing my thoughts about the words a bit, or brainstorming if I should say. The website generates a random word and asks you to provide some words related to that random word then you should make sentences linking the idea of these keywords to the main idea you want to write about! It is so random that I like it really. Some people say that Alien is nice, but I'm not yet sure it is that good. The website can be found here, Creativity Tools (check the left panel). I think it is mainly for story writing but it serves everyone right I guess.

I've started to work a bit on a new facade for my webpage and I've made a general graphic representation then divided that into several parts using Photoshop and saved it as HTML. somehow piece of cake but yet, this is just the tip of the iceberg. A load is coming and I need some time to do the rest. For the time being, all I need to do is stick links to these cut out pieces, and the race with time begins on finishing various stuff. The dictionary that I've made for Ayvarith will be one big headache. My mind is already shattered and scattered that I've forgot that I'm supposed to go on a field work this morning and must, again MUST, go tomorrow, Thursday.

Camera-wise now. I've managed to take some pictures of myself in order to work around with them, even though I'm not quite satisfied with them. I need to study the light more AND I would need more tools to control the light. A desktop lamp will not do any good and a flash source is not always adequate in such situations. I've started morphing the image already in Photoshop but stopped now for some time doing some other things. The process of morphing my face to apply the idea I have in my mind is quite challenging for me, because I've never done such a thing before. I was looking forward to see if there is a plugin that can spare me some of the tiresome tasks I need to do, but no luck. I guess I need to do all by myself.

On the other hand I'm looking forward to order some stuff for my camera, and most importantly, a macro lens. The options are wide open, but to keep it under a certain budget, I've decided to go for something else other than Canon. Also, and because I don't seem to need a macro lens very often like I do with a fisheye lens in snapping architectural features and panoramas, I've decided to take one with a range of focal length and not a fixed one. The thing about this feature is that a lens with fixed focal length usually gives a sharper image. Besides, a lens with adjustable focal length tend to have some "creeps," that is when the sliders tend to be easy to move with a slight shake or movement. The main aim now is for a Tamron, or Sigma lenses.

Some of the options.

Along with these lenses I'm thinking of getting a new backpack to hold my camera stuff and lenses. As with a new lens to the group, my current case will be stuffed, ridiculously. Then there is the matter of the moving ball head for my monopod, and who knows, maybe a whole new tripod even? I'm not sure yet. Expenses. I'm trying to hold my horses back a bit and forget about my credit card. It already has unpaid amounts hanging on.

I've finished my fourth album recently for pictures from Ireland, 2010. For the time being, I'm taking a kind of a break. I don't upload images to Mostphotos.com that often right now. I used to upload around 3 images a day, in average, last month. My rank stepped back a little now because of my laziness, but until the end of the month I will be in the front page as the photographer of the month. I'm working somehow on uploading one image a day and give more space for comments and "likes" in the website, because too many images at one time might cause some chaos and people might not know even that there are new stuff in your profile.

One of the images though, that people seem to like it a lot, was one image I called "In Terra Gigantum," or "in the lands of giants"...

In Terra Gigantum

This image was taken with a mini-tripod that I think it is supposed to be used for webcams (since I got it from a computer store from here before going to Ireland). I went wild with it for some reason, I think that was my mood with the saturation of the image. I didn't like it much. It was too much reddish and I don't remember I was that cheerful that day. The best thing I could find in my mind was to make a vivid image with weird settings (typical for HDRs). This image at this angle really revives my hopes of a panorama on a low level to the ground. The technical problems are there but hey, here comes innovation. I think I should think of something but before this, I need a location. Imagine looking at a scene from the perspective of a smurf! Voila! I would some sort of high support to fix my VR-head on the top of this small tiny tripod on the ground. The tripod already flips over when I attach it to my camera and lens, be it my Canon 7D (heavier) or Canon350D (older and lighter somehow). Now imagine putting the weight of something around 2kg (around 4.4lb) on the top of that WITH a camera. The only good point about it is, once fixed the balance, you just need to rotate the head of the VR-head itself and not the tripod. I need to think about it and try it technically to decide what to do about it and how to balance.

Again, gone wild. With Mostphotos you really got the chance to show the world how crazy you are. This time, with a simple golden clock antique that was in the lounge of Thornbrook House. Most of the crazy part here was done in Photoshop after the tone-mapping, with many adjustment layers...

Lord Time.

Maybe you can call it an emphatic image about the importance of time, as for me, all I wanted to do is pronounce this clock and show its details. Along with my work I've found myself radiating the blue part and so it was. The main reason to do all of that was the position of the clock with that wall at the back. I was not free to remove all the distracting elements. It was hard to do so. Hence, the only solution that came about in my head was to simply, attract the eye by colors and their contrast as if the subject was hit by a spot light.

Now away from my crazy mind, there are moments that are crazy by themselves, e.g. my life. Last week and in a day like this, I was out in some sort of a secret mission if I should say (yeah and I'm talking about it here) with a group from the military. We were supposed to go to Boubyan island again, but then suddenly and when we were there, the plans changed. They decided to go to some where in the middle of Kuwait. Some area that was a junk yard for destroyed military vehicles and weapons. We checked 3 locations generally and in the first, I was surprised for that tank, that after we finished the general check-up work there, I snapped several images for it and made then back home several versions from HDR slides.

A series I called "Bellum et Pax" (War and Peace).

The junk yard is always a good spot for HDR images, with all the red and yellow hues of the corroded metals. The funny thing here is that the gun of the tank is missing as you can see from the images. Been told by the soldiers with us that some Asian workers come here put a tent over the junk and by night they come back to work and weld off the parts they need away from the eyes of patrols. I really don't know what they would do with it, but it sucks!

Our next stop was in an open area where some containers used to be collected, but nothing was interesting for my camera there (despite maybe the barbed wire that I wanted to snap but didn't find it attractive enough for my eyes). The third stop was the one that really made me hate such field trips once and for all and wish I wouldn't go there anymore. We drove into a field of junk ammo that didn't explode, with my own eyes I saw a huge bomb, obviously it's not a tank's or a normal gun. It got to be an airplane's. We stopped thinking about the matter (or I should say they were thinking and I'm stuck in the car) but then they decided to retreat backward and went around that junk, but yet, we were still surrounded by ammo, maybe lesser in amount than the location before. One of soldiers told us that this area was a mine field before as well (and who knows if it was cleaned in a proper manner or not!). We had to walk in a straight line following some traces of car tires on the ground to make sure that the land where we step is safe. At the end of our work, I picked the camera and snapped only one scene for the horizon, where the clouds where gathering in what was somehow a sunny day...

Forgotten Grace.

I called it "Forgotten Grace" because, maybe, for some time, we really don't know how lucky we are that we are alive still. After these moments in a mine field amid the ammo that can explode at any minute, who knows what or when or why your life might be taken. It is just a flick of an eye sight, and you're not here anymore. Praise it, as long as you can...

The image here was bracketed (i.e. for HDR) but I merely used the technique to show the details of the clouds and pronounce the more. Nothing crazy about this as the feelings and the situation, were not adequate for such a crazy mood.

Life goes on... but till when?