Collective…

As a starter, I'm really not sure how am I typing this blog post with my continuous sleeping problems which are adorned with marvelous migraines from time to time during this week. Anyway, since I don't have much material for this post, I think it will be somewhat a quickie one.
In a continuation for my previous post, I'm still working on my project of shooting profiles (side shot) in infrared using only a candle. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in my previous post, but I've decided to call this project The Candle People. Things are now out of the profiles section as well, and I've started to shoot some face-front shots as well, upon request.

Abdullah A. (profile)

Abdullah A. (halfie)

So far, there had been only two requests to re-do the candle shots and change the profile look to the face-front look. Both from nephews. My first nephew did not like the look of his nose in such profile. Well, I guess many people are displeased with their noses nowadays (me included but I don't tend to hide it). However, I'm not expecting from people to understand the artistic values the way I see it through. In profile shots, I do appreciate the contour and the dramatic light and look of the face rather than the "beauty" of the person. Personally, beauty has nothing to do with this little project of mine. It is about evoking emotions via light and contour with no or little facial expressions. However, I've complied to the request and I still like the results. My first trial with him was to shoot a "halfie", but this halfie is not exactly done by cropping the face (even though it is a little) but by implying heavy shadows to half of the face (mainly by editing). This halfie might have a strange effect on the size of the eye here; I didn't change the size of the eye while editing, but it seems to me that is kind of large. Might be my imagination?

Abdullah A. (front)

Anyway, the other frontal shot here for Abdullah A was not exactly a halfie. Too bad though I had to crop a little too much here to balance the image because while shooting (using burst mode) the head was moving and one of the ears did not show completely in the image, which in turn forced me to crop a little from the other (and that meant cropping from the whole image and just from the side because I tend to keep the aspect ratio). On purpose here, I told my nephew to look up which I think gives a better emotional expression (at work with the forehead lines). To have some dramatic look (or to increase it so to say) I've resorted to an old technique which involves the usage of the High Pass filter in Photoshop. This of course exaggerated the noise level as well but I didn't bother to clean much of it here because the image in the first place is not intended to be "soft" in looks. This look, upward, seems to be a "hack" on its own to have a dramatic look. I've applied already with my other nephew who requested a re-shoot and seems to be OK. As I'm typing this there are still some from this series that needs to be processed yet.

Collective Ideas

Meanwhile, as I'm trying to work on the Candle People project, a flow of ideas somehow ticked my mind lately. At some level, I think the Candle People is one of these projects that just doesn't have a dead line. But it is ongoing whenever the chance shows up. Anyway, meanwhile, I think I will be back to one of my old passions, and it is a tiresome one actually, and that is: High Speed photography.
I didn't formulate a concrete idea about the subject but I'm intending to use the full set of speedlites in my arsenal (7 at the moment). I didn't make up my mind yet about how to set them up, but I think there would be two main methods or sets: a) Manual, and b) With an external trigger.

General scheme for the setup

First of all, sorry for the bad sketch here (and the bad scanning, done with my mobile in bad lighting conditions). As you can see here, this is the intended general setup that I'm thinking of for method A; the manual shooting. What I mean by manual shooting here is that I would control the camera manually with a master speedlite light on it to control other speedlites on the set. Meanwhile, the master will not shoot, but only responsible to give out the command to shoot to the slave speedlites. What I'm intending to do here is (and let's hope it works out well), is to use a very low flash power (if I can, lower than 1/32) and try to shoot using burst mood in hope that the low power consumption at this level of power would help on quick recycling and re-shooting quickly. I wouldn't know if this will work until I try! It would be a shame if it doesn't work that way though because with such number of speedlites, things could be balanced out somehow. Of course the position of the speedlites and direction is subject to change accordingly when the practical work is ongoing.
As for method B, the same schematic above applies, but the master speedlite is placed on the set as well and would be connected to a trigger. A laser trigger (which I failed using before). In previous times, I've used this trigger in connection to the camera itself but researching a bit and asking some professionals, I figured that the lag time (the time for the signal to travel from the trigger to the camera) is considerably long, making capturing the exact moment quite hard. Most professionals, as it seems, connect the trigger to the speedlite and not the camera and thus reducing the lag time considerably. I can connect one master to be triggered in that way and set others to slaves and all should (theoretically) shoot about the same moment. However, in this method, I'm supposed to leave the shutter open and work on the subject and speedlites with the trigger. For this, such method must be done in a dark environment, or maybe some ND filter on the lens would do? Not sure. We'll see about that. And like the situation in method A, the power is supposed to be set low for a quick recycling time and low power consumption.
Thinking about it, just theoretically, it seems that method A is favorable, despite my wish to get my old trigger working again since I failed using it many times. But if the burst mode works well in such setup, then things are set and I don't think I will try method B. The hardest part though remain: To setup my gear to work!

Finale

Beside the idea mentioned above, I'm thinking of other things as well but no need to put all the eggs in one basket. There had been also some simple shootings with my mobile for some geological stuff around my workplace and I've even uploaded one of the images to the stocks. I didn't upload to them in a long time.
With me now putting the contest on Duolingo behind my back, after some incidence of cheating as I've discovered, I've realized now the big mistake I've done in using this platform. I'm now trying to be more at ease and back to learn the language on my own pace instead of trying to gain more points and be leading the "score board" (or whatever they call it). In fact, I've had more time to post some articles in the Arabic forum after deserting the forum for quite a while. I've realized now how people do appreciate these posts which have some delicate matters and tips about Arabic that Duolingo is not providing for those who really want to learn the language. This made me think: What is really made for me? What I'm really supposed to do? I think this appreciation and this enthusiasm is the answer. Thinking about it, what did I really gain from being #1 on these leaderboard contests or whatever? Nothing but stress. While the solution was quite easy but I didn't see it back then; To leave these contests and focus on education and learning, and teaching those who need to. After turning off the "public" settings on Duolingo (which removes the leading board and all these scores stuff), I do feel such a relief. I have no more time and more organization capability for my time. I won't regret this.
Now, it's time to post this and go and figure my next move. A poem, or a new photo, or maybe a new article for the Arabic Duolingo forum. I can't believe it is weekend already. I'm perplexed as to whether I should sleep more, or work more on the things I like to do. or maybe play more. Two days for a weekend are just not enough… Not enough to forget what I need to forget out of my life…

Hearts With You (Japan and free nations)...

Well folks, it is a sad week all over the world. I don't think I'm able to write something here for the time being, so I've decided to give some space for some humble effort from my side to help with the catastrophe in Japan.
I've tried hard to imply here some links for donations and I've emailed some donation websites to provide me with some clues, unfortunately none did reply, except of PayPal, which actually guided me to put my own icon and I then, should transfer the funds to donating organizations, which is a responsibility I'm fearing to take care of. One of the trusted websites as I believe must be the Red Cross, you can start from there if you really want to give donations and help give a life to someone on this globe, and surely one of these would be The Red Cross, or The American Red Cross here, as well as similar Red Cross bases all around the world. Also, PayPal's blog got interesting information if you are willing to help in some other way.

君が代は
千代に八千代に
さざれ石の
いわおとなりて
こけの生すまで

Looking up the Japanese national anthem to post it here, opened my eyes on interesting information and history behind the shortest national anthem in the world.

Maybe my words are not eloquent enough to describe the sympathy with the Japanese after such a disaster, but I tried to write something, and hope the overall meanings of my words reach to their ears and hearts as well. You are not alone...

The Rising Sun

Oh land of the fury,
the past shame and glories.
The happy moments,
and the animated stories.
On the edge now,
passing the train off by.
Like the world stumbles,
for a rage down from the sky.

Through the hardships,
through all sorts of pain.
The light kept shining,
so it will be again.
Raise a rainbow,
flip up a frowning face.
Time is a healer,
this courage I praise.

Devastation,
mounts of desperation,
unconscious sensation,
several might knock you down.
Trust me,
the world looks down so humbly,
and just crying so simply,
for a smile at dawn.

Kneeling, while I'm praying,
begging and praising,
amid the cries and keening,
to the Grace of One.
Look over here,
over this shoulder,
a caress in a finger,
just watch, the rising sun...

Losing your faith?
I understand...
The tears are down?
just take my hand.
Is it blowing?
not a damn.
Feeling cold?
here I am.

Crazy world,
evolves so fast.
No respect,
not a simple heart.
Just who cares,
when you smile?
Innocently,
from the pile.

And then,
if you have to mention,
all about this tension,
that goes in your heart.
Then know,
I am in here also,
for sharing a rainbow,
that won't depart.

Kneeling, while I'm praying,
begging and praising,
amid the cries and keening,
to the Grace of One.
Look over here,
over this shoulder,
a caress in a finger,
just watch, the rising sun...

Oceans of troubles under your feet,
Shakes and shakes, nothing to be feared.
Just like the world's king,
eternity seeking.
you are,
just like a rising sun...

Please note that there are some fake organizations that do take donations under such circumstances, so please, check into it more and make sure they are official.

Our hearts as well go along with the peoples of Bahrain, KSA, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Oman and probably Syria on the way. Just like how the Tunisian poet ِAbu Al-Qásim Al-Sháby [English here] (1909-1934) said in his poem (and how ironic his own people started the flare of freedom in the Arab world as well):

إذا الشعب يوما أراد الحياة *** فلا بد أن يستجيب القدر

ولا بد لليل أن ينجلي *** ولا بد للقيد أن ينكسر

If the people one day desired life *** Destiny then must obey

And the night must clear out *** And the chain must break

The morning sun, will rise, definitely...

Up To Some Point...

It was a quiet day... up til some point when all the paperwork started. We are trying to get a damned fingerprint machine into our building to avoid running here and there by morning and by the end of the day just to do this silly thing. The responses we are getting give some indication that the administrative office here is reluctant with doing this. I really don't know what's the problem with those guys... sometimes I do feel like they are sadists and just like to make us suffer.

I didn't write anything today and didn't do any translation work, but organized a bit in my profile in www.writing.com. Hopefully I'll get the spark to start the new chapter soon. I spent my day chatting instead and getting new nice photos from people... nice people!

As you can see in the profile below, Canstockphoto.com accepted my last submission (but still more files are on the list), while fotolia.com rejected one of my photos (typical) and the reason was "overabundant category." Well, at least they didn't complain about the resolution or the noise in the image... somehow makes me feel satisfied about the work I did.

Time to pack and get back home now....

Yes. I'm A Single...

It was a quiet day... although I had to get lost from my office for some time so the new applicants make their interview for a job position in our center. I spent my time going through the buildings and passing through old memories as well. Well, I can say I achieved something this day at least.

The yield for today was 2 verses only. I was aiming for more than that but I had to stop and do other things. Strangely enough, although I used to type my poems on computer, I felt myself urged to write one poem on paper today. I called it, The Thing. In the same time I had an idea of scanning this page and post it for some handwriting analysis. I've always been fascinated by such analyses.

It had been some days and I didn't touch my story. There is so much to take care of right now, specially that I might have to rebuild my Ayvarith page again. GeoCities sent an email already that they will close down by the 26th of October, I will have to download my files OR I can pay some monthly fee to make my own domain (which is something I don't want to do!). It seems quite a time til then and I can do it slowly but I really hate to delay this one thing, specially that I don't know yet whether or not I will be travelling to Ireland on October. Damn, just thinking about it scares the crap out of me! I might even need to do things in Flash again! Oh my God! Not in mood for it at all.

My thoughts were stirred around a bit because of some words that my friend said to me last Thursday. He applied for some job with another friend but they didn't accept him while they accepted the other. They gave out some grading but it was not convenient for our understanding. My friend said that it is probable that they accepted the other friend because he is married already while he is a single. It is in fact quite logical and might be very true as well. I've heard about some places that prefer married people over singles because of the stability of life, or more like the desire to stable their life for the sake of their marriage status and to maintain their homes. It is a discrimination if you ask me! I don't mean to banish the rights of my married friend in that job, but we singles got also a life to live I suppose... if every well-paid job in this country is to be occupied by married people only just because they need it, then why do I bother to study and get a certificate of some sort? I can simply then get married to anyone just to get a job. Ah! wouldn't that solve the problem of singles in this land?
It is just frustrating. Either you get looked upon as some loser and a careless person just because you are a single, or get married and be respected and also get in troubles of debts and money like all married are in this country. I'm not against marriage, but to spend half of my fortune just to be married is something completely illogical and I will never understand it. What you get at the end? People talking about women's rights in this country while you have the broken back... Salute!