Linearity…

Well, I'm typing this a little bit late so I hope I can finish this post in time to be posted. Thus, I think I will keep it short.
Been some busy week(s) lately. Last week I was busy preparing an Arabic blog post explaining a technique that I've been using lately to make some linear art out of some of my images, and I think I'll talk about it here. On the other hand, my mood swings been severe lately as well as periods of fatigue. And, of course, work is there which occupied my time for nothing else but frustration as well as exhaustion from driving to and from the workplace.
All that made me postpone creating this post and I was almost going to skip the post for this week actually but I changed my mind then and thought: Well, maybe I can make it short with few samples of what images I've been editing lately.

Editing

I'm still not active much with my camera (ahem, planning to), but on the other side, as usual, I've been editing old photos. Recently, also, I've been using a technique that I've developed myself and I've used it in one of the images uploaded to Mostphotos, but I didn't do much about it back then. Now, though, I'm exploring more about it. This is exactly the same technique which my Arabic post for the last week was about. Anyway, since my Arabic blog is dedicated to beginners, I had to do it in details (with illustrations) there. Here, I guess, it would be enough just to say that the whole technique involves stacking images and changing their blends to Difference and then nudging each layer few pixels in a specific direction. This would create some sort of a colorful line-art. Of course, more editing is required to enhance the image.

The Shining Kisser

The Shining Kisser (Line art)

I'm still experimenting with this technique actually, and apparently not any image can produce such a neat result; So, one has to be picky about what to convert into linear art like this. Along the way, I'm already planning to do a collection of such images and upload it to the stocks and see if they attract something. Apparently my bubbles series which I've uploaded months ago is not doing much lying there *pout*.

One of the images that didn't work out well I guess with this technique

Anyway, beside all this editing, I'm trying to use my phone from time to time though it is limited in choices and techniques but it has some cool features that I would struggle to achieve with a DSLR camera (e.g. long exposures with trails); Thanks to the AI in these phones (and my phone is considered old by now: Huawei Mate 9). Despite that, though, when it comes to shooting RAW images, things can be a bit awkward. 

Birds and Bird
Processed from phone RAW

Shooting RAW on Huawei Mate 9 disables the capability of zooming. I think that proves that in other modes in the camera where zooming is allowed, it is all done digitally. There are apps to edit RAW on phone of course but, as always, I usually prefer editing those on my PC with ACR and then Photoshop. The lens being about 4mm or so in focal length and not changeable of course would require me to crop a lot sometimes. Of course there are accessories for such phones to change the focal length but they are not in my mind right now. I'm still not giving up on my DSLR! Besides, it is better to be creative as much as possible with whatever is available at hand.
Aside from these difficulties, it seems also that the dynamic range for such sensors is still quite low; At least in my case as I worked with Birds and Bird (and few images in the past). When working with the phone's RAW files on ACR, the choice of colors seem to be limited somehow and not vivid enough despite working, as usual, in ProPhoto color space. Anyway, away with the RAW capabilities of the phone, it is a good catch for some crazy ideas to be done in a whim, like the other day when I thought of doing a selfie at work while rotating the phone, and picked the long exposure/water trail option for that task. All editing was done in-camera.

 

Finale

I'm typing this blog post mostly at work. Despite the "vacuum" in this place, yet it stresses me out. I'm waiting for some official documents to be issued from the Agency of Special Needs here to specify, officially, what is the level of my handicap (i.e. Retinitis Pigmentosa and sight level). It's been 2 weeks already now and no news is coming over. Which means I must be going to check with them again. I need this paper so bad right now to get started with my retirement process. Every second I spend in this place is like a ticking bomb. With my more-experienced colleague out of the place, the load now is pretty heavy on my shoulders and I can't bear with it further. Needless to say, moving to the new campus which is further away from home and in an area which I've never been to before at all (with bad planned roads as I heard) makes my feelings about it even worse. I lay it all in God's hands.

With that, I'm already racing my mind through and thinking about the future and what I could be doing after I get my "rest" from all of this. I think I would have no excuses to work further with my camera! I must! That brings also some thoughts for conlangs that I've forgotten about already. On a side note, I'm getting some reasonable positive feedback from some readers about my own writings and poems on Writing.com, which kind of sparkles some ideas; Some of which have been delayed since 2020 actually. 

It all sounds but like pink-tinted dreams and views of life for the time being, but surely I'll be able to breathe once I'm over with that place. Or so I hope, and pray…

Huaweific IV…

I'm typing this post in a short notice of time. I was really going to skip this blog post and call it off to have my "own" vacation, but then I re-considered. Maybe I will give myself a longer vacation from blogging for my birthday, on August 17^th. For now, I wanted to post some of the things that I've taken just in time and like one or two days before the deadline of Huawei's contest which happened to be on July 31^st and not the 29^th. That was some sort of good news to me actually and I did have the time to consider some ideas. Luckily, I did a punch of ideas just in time, even though they were not what I had in mind, but they sprang out of my mind at the spur of the moment.
I've been taking some random shots around me in hope to make some good abstracts, like this one for wafer sticks (my favorite!) but at the time of the upload, it did sound a bit normal and nothing much about it. Still, my eyes were open for any chance out there. The bathroom never failed me...

Where To

However, this shot from the bathroom, Where To, was a bit problematic to do because of my phone's lens limitations. Might have done it with considerable ease in framing the scene with my DSLR. Anyway, the idea was to make a B&W image so I've picked the Monochrome option on my phone camera. With some special arrangement with my monopod, I've managed to stabilize the phone on the monopod and hold it by hand around my shoulder's level to shoot the sandals on the bathroom's floor. Working in the dark though was not my cuppa tea! However, this was not the real catch yet.

Anxiety (remake)

The real catch was getting my brother to model for me once more (as usual) and I was lucky also to have some nephews visiting to help me out. I had some various ideas in fact but the ones that were suitable to be done at that moment was the idea of a re-make for a shot that I've made with my DSLR some months back, Anxiety. However, the situation is different here as I'm limited in editing options as well as the lighting options. Again, I had to work in a dark room here but with 3 nephews to help me out with my brother, and instead of using collage to cover the face with hands, I used the hands of my nephews (and brother himself) to cover the face. The not-so-good point here though is that my brother was like if he was looking away from the camera and did not direct his eye to the correct angle. For lighting here, I've used a hand-held LED torch or panel (small panel) which probably should have been diffused using some paper but all work was done in a haste and didn't have the time to think about such solutions. Unlike Where To, the remake of Anxiety was converted to B&W in the phone while editing and not while shooting.

At Night

I did have another idea which I still wanted to do with my brother before releasing him from my clutches and that was to have a half-lit selfie with a somewhat devilish smile. Things turned out unexpectedly wrong and funny, and horrific, all in the same time! You can see that clearly in At Night. What happened here is that I've set the phone on Light Painting mode (something similar to long exposure technique) and I was going, indeed, to paint my brother's face with the LED torch. But because of the shake in the monopod as well as my brother's movements a bit things turned awry. Instead of re-doing it, I've actually quite loved it that way and I did upload it already to Huawei's contest!
In fact, this is one of the things that I like about shooting with the phone (specifically my Huawei, don't know about other brands) despite the limitations in many things. The long exposure technique. There are various modes under this category in the phone's camera and each one of them does provide a specific look to the motion and the image in general (thanks to AI I would say). Moreover, you are able to see the results forming in front of you as you are shooting (as it happened with At Night). The negative side is, again though, the limitations; Such as not controlling the time (like when working with the intervalometer on DSLRs) but the user has to press a button or tab the screen to turn start and finish the shoot. There might be some special apps to help with that but it would have been better if they were on the phone by default as well.

Sweeping Time

Just before leaving the dark room, after shooting the two shots of  my brother above, I've noticed the new wall clock which was shining in the dark. It was a clear call to shoot! And, of course, I couldn't refuse. I think at this shot, Sweeping Time, the power of AI revealed itself. Because I do not think that my phone does indeed have an image stabilizer like DSLRs or Mirrorless cameras do, or like some expensive lenses do (does it?). During the 10 minutes (or close to that) shoot, the monopod was literally jumping up and down like a spring because of the air current from the AC above, or because my steps even though I tried my best to stay away from it and walk slowly on the floor. Yet, the image was usable and stable beyond my understanding. It was dark indeed, but I could see the monopod shaking up and down! In the post-processing phase for this image, there were some annoyances reflected off the glass facade of the clock (ahem, mine) so I had to use the mediocre capabilities of Pixlr on my mobile to edit those and eliminate as much as I can. Still not satisfied about it though. To reduce the confusion, so to say, I've applied a splash filter or more technically selective coloring on the image keeping only the green tones and eliminating some of the other colors (though in tiny amounts) reflecting off the glass. I'm really happy with this experience!

Now, these are the major photos that I've uploaded lately to the contest, beside some others done before (posted in the previous posts here). There had been some shots that I would consider just simple and not special actually, so I'd leave them out for now. Now this stress is over, let's bring another stress and think of something to do with my DSLR, and my time in general!

Finale

Well, I'm glad I was able to do it in time. I was really rushed in time. I think though that I will be taking a vacation from blogging for the next 2 (or 3?) weeks to come, specifically for my upcoming birthday. We'll see. In hope that I might produce and make something with either my DSLR or phone. My time currently have been occupied pretty much with Duolingo, beside some chores at home. Since Duolingo started the Arabic language course, I've been hooked to it to correct and help learners. Probably I should be a language teacher one day as a second profession (though I don't bear any certificates for that!). I really got some words of praise for my work with explaining and posting some long articles detailing words and some tips on grammar (all about Standard Arabic or MSA). Some users also are more eager to connect directly outside Duolingo through some of the social media platforms but I'm not sure I do have the time for this right now as I'm occupied already with many things. I do want to help out, yet I feel awkward and cuffed. All I can do for the time being is post some articles and helping tips, as well as helping others who are wondering about some sentences in the course (and many of them do bear some mistakes from Duolingo's system itself in fact). On the other hand, Duolingo does not offer a proper social media platform to connect people, but barely a public forum. I hope the moderator or admins do consider upgrading such capabilities (unless they are available only for paid members, this is something I don't know about actually). This made me think really whether I would be a good language teacher or not, giving my short fuse and losing the handle often. Anyway, it is just some ideas and an imagination for the time being. The real question for me now is, whether can I make it this year and travel, or not.

Huaweific III…

Frankly, I was hesitant to type this post really. My life here is completely out of order and at some point I was thinking that maybe I should take a vacation from posting here as well (even though I'm posting every other week). The past week had been a rigorous one with my insomnia and I've been going to work without sleep or barely with 2 hours sleep maximum, almost daily. This post will be a quick wrap.

On the other hand, the time is ticking and the closure time for Huawei's photo contest is approaching (on the 29^th) and till this very moment, I really didn't take a shot that I'm satisfied with completely. Possibly right now I have to neglect the idea of uploading a portraiture or a self-portraiture (a selfie but in a higher artistic level so to say). Meanwhile, I'm still trying with everyday objects trying to find anything that would spark my creativity but not much was there to be done. I've worked a bit to extend my usage for the panoramic options on my Huawei, and worked inside the elevator at home, but technically that was an unpleasant experience, and the image was way too dark to be edited. One of the problems here is that once you work on a special mode with the phone's camera, your options get limited with other settings. Professionals apps exist of course but, of course, I would have to pay for those (most of them). I'm really starting to question the profit of chasing such photography issues with my phone, since as per day, it seems that things push me to "own" some of those clip-on lenses for my mobile just to control the focal length and have the vision i want to, but I know there is no use of that; I'm not going to spend my time doing phonography all the time and buying such lenses is a waste of money. So, I might still give out some little trials before the deadline, but I'm almost sure, I won't be adding much to my arsenal. Thinking of uploading some of my photos that I've done with my mobile long ago for some Facebook challenge, but I'm not sure if they would be accepted since the editing was done on PC rather than on the mobile itself. Anyway, who knows, I might even just give it my back walk away altogether.

Well, I didn't bother my images here so I will try to talk about them one by one (3 of them here). The image above here is taken using a candle and two mirrors with a play of angle. One thing I regret about shooting this is not using one of the filters I've got from a friend to create stars (I would have to find a way to fix them on the phone though). This actually makes me think of re-shooting and try my luck and maybe with more candles rather than just one.

Next, there is this failed attempt to shoot a panorama inside the elevator at home. The funny thing here is that I didn't imagine that the elevator is actually filled with mirrors (an absolute nightmare for panorama shooters I believe!). Thus, I wanted to make it as a conceptual shot by shooting at lower level but apparently it didn't work as I wanted. The one above here is the best of many failed attempts. I've fitted the phone holder into my L-Bracket and then onto my monopod, and I held the monopod upside down and rotated it manually to shoot the panorama. The shake and the lack of controls made it a somewhat miserable experience. Editing the panorama above with Pixlr on the phone did not make it any better as a hideous amount of noise is introduced here.

The final shot here was taken in my workplace just before I start my breakfast there on my own desk. I'm yet to convert this to B&W and try to make it contrasty a bit. I remembered that time when I've actually shot a similar shot (sort of) for that 7-day challenge on Facebook (maybe last year or before) and I thought, why not again? One thing that makes me reluctant about this image is the presence of these brand names. I'm not sure if they would cause any problems or not. I've already tried to convert it to B&W using Pixlr and doing the work with the contrast but still, I didn't really like the results.

These three were some of the trials I've done and there were many others that I've just simply deleted. Do I still have the time to shoot more or think even further of something to shoot? That I'm not sure of. With my sleeping problems lately, and my increased "obligations" towards Duolingo (as they added the Arabic course and I'm trying to help people and contribute to the forums), I'm not sure I will be getting the time enough to complete this task. But, I will try. If only the weather cools down a bit... that would definitely cheer me up a bit. Soon I guess, I think I will give myself a break from blogging here just to recollect myself and maybe get something done with my cameras, and phone. Not sure when though…

Huaweific…

Coping with this weather, still. And yet, people don't call me a superman or anything. Ah well. On the other hand, I'm kind of running out of ideas with my camera; Well, I do have ideas, but no time or power to do them still. Specially after adding more languages to my Duolingo and taking my time in doing the exercises daily. I'm somewhat taking it seriously here, and if I have the power I would have added more languages as well. Well, who knows; I might, one day.
However, away from the bulky camera and such, I've found a vent (or maybe you want to call it a breach) in that photo-shooting activity by sorting things out with my phone. Don't get me wrong though, I still love my camera; Yes, the very bulky camera. However, there are times when we have to do things that we are usually not into just to get what we want to! (Did I say that right?)

Huaweifying

Well, away from all the fuss about Huawei and the crappy politics (and lies), I have to say that I do like my phone. I would also like to try their upcoming operating system but probably since I have a working phone here I would have to wait a bit to see how things develop in the near future.
Anyway, I'm here about art. I've discovered that Huawei do have a photography contest which is on the run for some years now. Luckily, the deadline for this one will be by the end of July (and I thought it was by the end of June actually) which gives me some time to try stuff. Of course, as you may have guessed already, the first and utmost important condition is that the photos must be taken with a Huawei phone. And that is part of the challenge for me, in fact.
I was reluctant to participate first, and with the nearing end of June, I thought "Ah well, I have no ideas to shoot anything and maybe I should pass this," but then Ta Da! I've realized it's the end of July not June! So, my engines got to work again and I'm really trying to shoot with my phone, even though I kind of never liked this process (used to the more versatile options of a DSLR) but it proved to be a fun-activity, and the main key-point that may push me to shoot further, or at least try to, is the light-weight and the easy movement with the phone. But there are limitations of course which I will try to brief out after a while below.

Macro Feather

Being creative and having a variety of options with phone-photography would somewhat require some special sets of lenses (to gain broader aspects and view, as well creativity potential). However, I've always believed in innovation. One of the most common tricks to do macro photography with your phone is to use a water drop on the lens (after covering the lens with some transparent protection like tape for example), and this is what I did here with Macro Feather shot. I've saved this feather to shoot with my DSLR in fact, but since we are at it, I've decided to work now with my Huawei. Of course it is a normal shot and not very special and I'm not expecting it to be that "attention seeker" in the contest, but after all it is a good engine grease; My engine greasing that is.

The first trial

In Macro Feather, I had a problem with my choice of crop because there was some black space all around the shot. In the beginning I've left the shot in its original orientation (portrait orientation), and cropped all black spaces leaving just vertical lines standing there, but then I thought maybe I should leave a cue or a hint about the object instead of being just completely abstract, so I re-edited the shot again and cropped some black space and left some, beside tilting the image 90^o to the right. This is just to give a hint of the edge here. However, seeing how (somewhat) the camera app on my phone is limited and looking for some more editing capabilities, specially with RAW images which my Huawei can shoot, I've looked for some alternatives and so I've found and picked Pixlr, which can get some work done, and in fact, Macro Feather also underwent Pixlr for some sharpening and contrast (and I think some Hue and Saturation fixes). But there are other options in this app that got me interested a bit further, like the "double exposure" option.

Eye On Coffee

To be honest, I didn't think of using the "Double Exposure" option in Pixlr until my attempts to shoot reflections off a mirror covered in coffee did fail drastically (and I don't have cooperative family members to help out with the work). Thus, I thought "why not shoot separate images and combine them and see what we can do then?" And do I did! It took me a bit to figure out how to use this option in the app, but the delicacy of the work is not a match for the typical mouse and Photoshop work with layers on PC or laptop. But I think it is somewhat an acceptable degree here. There were some filters (outside the app if I remember) that I did use to enhance the looks as well, and of course there was the cropping all things related to that. The thing is, I'm not sure if this is considered legal for Huawei's contest or not! They did mention that the image MUST be taken with a Huawei phone, and it is fine to use a third party app on the phone to edit the photo, but no mention about merging photos and montage or collage! There is only one way to know, and that's to upload it!
This is it for now with my Huawei photo-shoots, and I'm still trying to do more ideas in that venture as I'm typing these words, but I got swept away with many things so I didn't have enough time to try many things yet.

Thoughts and Finale

I've mentioned earlier that I had my own thoughts about this trend of phone photography. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages here, but probably the cons overwhelm the pros for my case here. Nevertheless, it is a source of juicing ideas out of my brain somehow. Probably the biggest and sole advantage of phone photography is the mobility and the relative ease in which one can handle it. Probably, to me, this is the sole and the only advantage that I can see in using the smartphone to take photos (on an artistic level and not merely documenting).
Now, to the disadvantages, there are a number of them on my list, and probably I've always argued about the size of the sensor relative to the number of pixels and how that affects the clarity of the image and the print size in production later on (if there is need to be for printing), but I won't go to that right now as I'm speaking here solely about the "operation" of photo shooting by the phone.
Probably the prime disadvantage for me here, is the cumbersome controls and options. Like, the resolution would change by changing the mode of shooting in the camera (Max is 20MP, but it comes down to 12MP for maximum in some modes). Shooting in RAW is, also, a matter of mode changing (only allowed in the PRO mode). Ironically as well, the PRO mode does have a shutter speed control, ISO control, EV control... etc, but NOT aperture control. To control the aperture alone, one must use the Aperture mode which controls only the aperture without any other controls. It's a mess of options and I'm not sure if this is only in my Huawei phone or in other phones and models as well.
Another thing that makes it such a cumbersome operation is the flash control. One might be able to control the flash in the phone itself but usually in a "higher" level of photography we tend to move the light source away from the camera to add depth to the image. I know that there are probably some innovative lighting solutions that can be controlled with smartphones but of course I won't be venturing into that yet. Not now, not in the near future. For this reason, I've been using some external light sources (LED torches) when shooting, as in the case of Macro Feather and Eye On Coffee.
There are a number of stuff that I still didn't get a hang of them yet, like how long exposure works (there is a special mode for Light Painting) and a number of other options (and panoramas as well) but I'm sure they are not as "trendy" as a real DSLR or camera in general would be. There is also no remote control, so the timer is my only choice to take selfies if need raises. There is no "time fixing" to do long exposures, but probably there are other apps that are specialized in this process, and I do believe that most options are controlled via AI and simulations rather than real "light painting" or "long exposure" effects and looks.
Still though, I'm still trying to have fun and try as much as I can with this phone. Currently, I've been working on a pinhole made out of cardboard fixed on the lens. I didn't take any serious shot yet (otherwise I would have posted it here already), and still, I'm trying to watch videos and surfing Pinterest to get inspired, if possible!
All in all, I won''t be optimistic here at all of course. It is my first try to enter a contest based solely on phone photography (a.k.a. Phonography) and I'm trying to have fun as much as possible. There are of course those add-ons that can be added to the lens to extend its capabilities but I'll keep my approach simple and more into DIY. I would be wasting money on that ONLY if I'm taking it seriously, and that won't happen in the near future. Let's see what to shoot next now…