Quickie Note…

Well, this is a quick post and I wasn't sure about typing it really but I thought maybe I should so I won't stay another week without a post.
Things had been a bit busy in my life lately, and with fatigue that leaves napping often, and let's not forget the turbulent sleeping schedule (now that I don't have any work to go to!). Anyway, I thought maybe I should post something now as I might not be able to post for 2 weeks ahead from now, since I'm planning to work a bit on a new Arabic blog post; and such posts require more time than the English ones because I usually include tutorials on how to do things and many pictures and explanations are involved.

Not much has been going on on the camera-front really but I'm trying. I've been mostly busy editing old photos merely for the sake of keeping a strike on YouPic. However, I've been also trying techniques here and there and experimenting with "artistic" ventures in Photoshop. I've also started applying some color-grading techniques to copy colors from one image to another and the results are amazing so far.

Cóipeáil

So, I've learned an old technique in copying or applying the colors of one image onto another, and it involved applying Curve adjustment layer and reversing the curve, and it's a long story. I've made an Arabic blog post about this technique. Now, however, I've learned a new method which, presumably, is easier and quicker to be done and somewhat more accurate. I won't go on with the details here, since Google or any other search engine are full of such tutorials for "copying" colors or applying colors from one image to another. Anyway, here are some results:

In the two examples above, grading was done manually by picking specific colors from one image as I deemed them bright enough to be a "highlight" or dark enough to be a "shadow" beside of course the mid-tone. The results were fine here but it was not always possible to do the manual job, depending on the complexity of the image and other factors. Anyway, I needed something more "systematic" and I've found what I need here by exploring the "Save for web" option in Photoshop, as I've learned from some tutorials online. I won't be going into details here and I'm just posting this here to show what I've been doing lately! Anyway, as for this second method, here are some results:

 

 

So, these 2 examples above were done using the "Save for Web" feature in Photoshop. I thought of doing a blog post in Arabic for this technique and for this I'm going to need some time to do things. 

 

Camera-Wise

 

Camera-wise, I've been trying to work a bit on minor things, and I also have some ideas that I want to work on for February, Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness month. Winter is passing by already and I didn't get the chance to do any shooting outside like I did back in 2021 in November, mainly because of the fatigue and the turbulent sleep.

Anyway, I've been working with a little macro project which I'm not finished from yet and still trying here and there, but here is an example:

 

 So, in case you didn't realize what the image above is about, it is just a combination of 2 macro shots of the same screw. The left one is at about 3.2X and the left one is at about 6.5X. I've gone extreme here and the images surely needed lot of sharpening. It seems that even at 6.5X, and for such a slender object like this screw, one would need to do focus-stacking. Anyway this is something for the future. I'm still working on this.

Finale

So, this is a quick post just to list what I've been doing lately and to announce that I'll be away for 2 weeks at least to finish my Arabic blog post, hopefully. As of typing this, I didn't even start it!

A lot is cooking in my head right now, and specially for February and my RP project as usual for every year, yet my body is just not cooperating. Now that I'm retired, my mind is more active at night, as if I'm back to my origins as a nocturnal creature. Bad news is, I do have some stuff to do now and then during the day. In addition to that, I'm not driving my car much now (naturally) because of my eyes condition, which kind of leaves me deprived of many things, and I'm reluctant to break the rules of RP right now.

Speed Gambling…

Somebody, anybody, just tells Winter to come over, please? PLEASE!? It's officially the fall season, so they say, and it is actually worth than summer itself even. Stinking humidity, allergies everywhere, and the worse of all, malfunctioning ACs and cars. Aaand let's not forget the boiler's problem at home where everyone still thinks that the water is "hot" while my body shivers violently when I take a shower and they refuse to turn it on because they think the weather, or the water, is still hot.
Anyway, I was going to post a bit about some photos I've shot from the Geology department, in my workplace, and I've edited these photos later on my PC. However, I think I'll skip that. It's just one photo which I've uploaded to the stocks already (you can click the stream at the end of this post to check my stock), and another one which I've turned into a 3D anaglyph. Not sure if I'm going to upload or do anything with the latter though. Anyway, Let's jump right into the experiment I talked about in my previous post.

Speed Gamble

In my previous post I've talked about some idea, using all my speedlites in a high speed photography set, like in the sketch on the left. Well, things weren't easy at first because, as usual and typical, I ran into a battery crisis and I had to give up on most of my rechargeable batteries that I've stocked for such work and got myself a new set of alkaline batteries, which are not rechargeable but hopefully more reliable. Another trouble was to set the table and stack the speedlites side by side and pointing at a specific point. It's a minor problem but it was quite vexing specially with connecting 3 out 7 speedlites with external power-pack (I have three 430EXII and one 420EX and these models do not accept external power sources unfortunately). All along the work process, I've changed the height of the tripod, the angle and few other settings; Most importantly from all these settings, maybe, would be the shutter speed, the ISO, flash zoom, and the flash power.
Now, flash power (for all speedlites of course) was set to manual and was controlled via the main speedlite which acts as a trigger as well (the one on the camera). I have to do this, since this is the only way to work with HSS mode AND control the rest of the speedlites wirelessly. I don't have a special trigger for that purpose. I lowered the power down, in hope that I can shoot in burst mode continuously (as this would reduce the recharging time). However, I was wrong. It didn't work that way and technically, I was limited to one shot. Anyway, I was also limited in raising the power too high up for the speedlites, because it might make my work with post-processing harder than it should be (by eliminating unnecessary parts from the metallic black tray I was using for my set).

Slow motion during a session.
For some reason I'm not sure of, the image turns black
when the flashes burst out.

As you can see from the video above, I had to work manually as usual. I've tried to set up my laser gate later on in fact but till this moment, it didn't work quite well. I'll explain the reasons below but first let's see some of the results that I've got in this way (and remember, all was manual, nothing was automated). The following images were, of course, edited and adjusted like a regular photos and they are not right out of the camera. So, there are adjustments and cropping involved; This is beside changing the lens from 100mm macro to 50mm:

The Falling One
Canon EF 100mm Macro, f/3.2, 5000^-1s, ISO200

Fallen Luck
Canon EF 100mm Macro, f/2.8, 4000^-1s, ISO160

Левитация
(Levitation)
Canon EF 50mm, f/6.3, 8000^-1s, ISO200

 

 

Let It Go
Canon EF 50mm, f/6.3, 8000^-1s, ISO200

This is a sample for some shots. Some of them had reflections on the water surface clearly and some (well, most) did not. I've used my polarizer to enhance such reflections (and also to protect the lens front). If I remember correctly, there were around 347 taken (the majority were dark frames) and been sorted down to 91 or so, and the process out is still ongoing. At the moment of typing this, the editing is still ongoing and I didn't check all images. Out of the camera, many of the images were dark in fact and did need a push in exposure while editing in RAW; Sometimes +1 and sometimes +2. Not much editing was done in RAW beside setting the exposure and controlling the highlights and shadows in various manners, including Fill, Black Point, and Contrast. As can be seen also, the shutter speed was fluctuating between 4000^-1 and down to 8000^-1 of a second, trying to freeze the water motion as much as possible. I've also changed the flash head zooming for most of the speedlites here, and in the final stages of shooting, I've settled down with 14mm (by pulling down the diffusing panel over the speedlite head) in order to spread light as much as possible on the tray, as it was hard to point the heads down at the water surface.

Not Enough Speed

Now composition-wise, I was not very happy, and probably using the 100mm Macro lens was the perfect solution, but still then I do think using 50mm was a good choice to add some elements around the action and fill the space with something; But my arrangement was a bird absurd! I did indeed try to fix that in some shots but recomposing, cloning, and cropping. At this moment, I think using 1/8000s is the perfect speed (and it is the maximum allowed by the camera).
After finishing a session or two with the manual work, I've decided to try and use the laser gate (from Ubertronix), which I got long time ago and I've seldom used it sucessfuly; In fact, never used it successfully! And this time, was no exception. I've tried at this point though, and according to some old advice from a professional, to connect the trigger to the speedlites instead of the camera because this will reduce the lag time significantly and would yield better results. This method, though, requires opening the shutter for second and allowing the speedlites to be triggered and then close the shutter (either by using timed shutter or using Bulb mode and a remote, which I kind of prefer in fact). That means, working in a dark environment. The location I was in gets considerably dark actually, but I'd have to wait till evening to have a darker atmosphere. Anyway, a quick glimpse at it (after hard work trying to align the laser beam to the receiver to form the laser gate) - told me that it's not going to work; Not the way I like it at least, for a number of reasons:

• The distance between the laser and the gate is wide across the tray (even after changing the orientation of the tray), making it almost impossible to precisely drop the dice across the beam. Thus, the gap must be narrower to drop precisely.
• The height to which I was able to set up the laser gate was relatively higher than required, as I guess. We are talking about microseconds here if not nanoseconds, thus things should be properly close to the water surface as much as possible without showing in the lens's field of view.
• Without finding a mechanism to adjust the level of the gate, it might be a quite troublesome way to use such a gate to capture the moment. If for instance the dice is captured in motion before touching the water surface, then adjusting the height of the gate is required to capture the perfect moment; Otherwise, all shots will be similar. 
• Part of fore mentioned points, I think this keeps us at the level of macro shooting.

Personally, now, after checking the situation and how things work, I think I do indeed prefer using the manual method despite its drawbacks. I think it also gives various results and unexpected results that makes the work amusing to some level. All that hassle with the laser gate is really not required unless I need to work with something quite delicate (like droplets) in the future. Otherwise, I think I will stick to this manual method for the time being. Now, there are a number of things that I think I want to try (planning to but didn't have the time before typing this blog post in fact):

• Try to merge my workflow with stereoscopic flashing, if possible.
• Use variety of lenses if possible other than 100mm Macro and 50mm.
• Try different angles as much as possible.
• Increase the power of the speedlites and use single shot method since the burst mode doesn't work here.
• Maybe change the container or the set to something smaller to give out a better composition and background, and have better control.

Finale

Now, this is it for now. Let's if I can post more about the new trials that I'm going to do with this experiment of high speed photography. Let's hope I get the time and the mood to work! This week has its toll on me already and I'm trying to hard to slow down and simplify my life.

Lately, and after closing down some settings on Duolingo website which makes me theoretically out of the "leaderboard" or whatever they call it, which is about contesting and doing more exercises for more points - after closing that down, I think I'm having more time to myself to do more useful things, specially in the Arabic section of that website. Beside that, I'm thinking of typing a blog post for my Arabic blog about this high speed photography experiment. So, my next week will definitely be busy, but I'll try to manage my time here and there - Let's hope!

Is it weird that I'm fascinated about astrology these days? Well, I had my interest in that but it's been a bit more than before nowadays. It's all just some trials to re-discover and understand myself further. Maybe forgive myself for some things as well? Well, absolutely not wasting much of time with this though (otherwise, I wouldn't be typing this blog post right?). I think all of this condensed work and thought is part of my efforts to forget about my pains and disappointments. Nevertheless, it leaves me just exhausted… Now, if only I can jot down these words that roam my heart into some poem hmm…

Touch Down
Canon EF 50mm, f/6.3, 8000^-1s, ISO200

Quickie Quick…

It's getting busy at work (mainly related to reasons of stupidity) as well as an expo to attend to, so I'm not supposed to be typing this right now actually. I barely have the time! But anyway, just a quick stroll through things I've been doing lately.

First to mention is the project for July which seems I'm quite behind with. Despite my trials to create something but, so far, nothing is good. To me at least. The project for July is about Motion and Splashes. As I did splashes before (and it's messy) I didn't want to get into it right now (despite the fun!) and instead headed to try and shoot something for Motion. My first target was my watches.

Static

I was approaching this idea from various philosophies (past and present, old and new, stable and changing, you name it) but unfortunately the set itself was not appropriate and the watches were not as well it seems. The main technique was to use the Multi (Stroboscopic) properties of my speedlites to record the movement of the seconds hand on one of the watches (by flashing every second) but that never worked. My thought was that the size is not proper for this mission. Thus, after many failed trials, including Static above, I had to abandon this set and try it out with something else. Something bigger.

Waiting

My next approach was to set my wall clock with a withered rose (no worries, it's artificial one and burnt a little to mimic the effect as much as possible). In Waiting, my idea of motion got a blend of my passion for Sabah Fakhri [صباح فخري] and was inspired from 2 lines from one of his songs. As the title depicts, it is about waiting someone in vain. Here too, unfortunately, my speedlite's stroboscopic option failed to get the movement. It seems that the hands must and better to be in white for better reflection. Anyway, as I was working on this, and because of using a wide aperture (f/2, to blur the background), the lowest power in the flash were overloading the scene with highlights. Thus, I had to fix my B+W 092 Infrared filter on the lens (50mm) to lower the power down. Since the stroboscopic option didn't work here either, it was inevitable to mimic the multiple exposure effect using several shots taken in a periodic manner (using intervalometer); as Canon EOS 7D does not have the option for multi-exposure. The final image though, Waiting, is composed from some of these images (total 20) and not all of them since I wanted to make some more spaces between the movements of the minutes hands from one image to another. And for some reason there were some shots where the flash did not fire, probably because the speedlite (which was off-camera and triggered wirelessly) did not get the signal properly from the master on camera. Anyway, I'm still not so satisfied about this blend for the images and I might re-do it again with proper, shallower depth of field if possible and better blend.

However, in this mess with this project, in the last few days remaining of July, I suddenly got the urge to perform some new 3D anaglyph, starting with a selfie (well, no need to post it here anyway) and a video; since I do have two cameras already! But there were some preparations to be made for my converted camera of course, mainly using a hot mirror filter to block IR as much as possible as in normal cameras.

It was a sluggish work though but it is a beginning. The settings for the two camera were kept identical as much as possible, but for the white balance I had to use my WB Disk to calibrate both cameras to the same degree of color correction even with hot mirror filter being placed on the lens. I used here my Canon EF 50mm lens on my converted camera, while placing my very old kit lens (18-55mm) on my regular camera. I did shoot various videos after the first video (above) but seems the first one was the best. In editing phase, though, I had to minimize the size of one of the videos to fit the other one; quite a tedious task for me since I don't know much about video editing, but well, learning still. The 3D anaglyph video above is not that good though and it comes to me that it is probably better to use wide angles to record such videos at the moment, and lenses with focal length of 50mm and more would need closer spacing between the two lenses to have a good quality 3D anaglyph video. Just a thought and applying this would come later hopefully. Meanwhile, these spintops did indeed flip my brain back to the Motion project as I will try to do some experiments again with them, for the project this time. Yet, I guess I need to wait for the weekend to arrive as I'm busy with many things during weekdays now. See you later!

Retina…

Exhaustive week and actually I could barely find the time to type this blog down. Many activities (and mishaps) are going on and to add to the load, some photos need to be re-done. Anyway, I will try to go through this quickly if I can (and maybe have nap? well...). I was busy before this week with the writing for an Arabic articlefor my Arabic blog, for beginners with some lighting methods and names (specially to Arabize some technical terms). For this reason, I was not able to post any thing here.

Awareness Month

February of every year is named as Awareness Month for Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disease that I suffer from already (beside an older brother and an older sister). I did one shot last year which took a lot of time from me but the result were not to the level I hoped for, but well, it was something done with gratitude.

Despite
February, 2016.

This year, I've remembered the fact by coincidence (via @rp_hub on Instagram), and decided to do something quickly because I had my load of work to be done already. Since the most significant feature about Retinitis Pigmentosa is the tunnel vision and the loss of peripheral field of vision (slowly to complete blindness in extreme cases), thus I've decided to depict that.
I've used here a small snoot (by impact) made specifically for speedlites. I had to unscrew the back of the snoot and fit my lens there. It was a matter of time to balance the camera, but as the problem prevails here, it was hard to center my eye (working alone as usual). In the beginning I was working with Voigtländer 20mm lens, but it occurred to me that since the lens will inside the snoot already, why not go big with a real fisheye: Rokinon 8mm; which it was.

Peripheral Damage
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/16, 100^-1sec, ISO100.

Despite the hard conditions here (everything is dark and light hard to reach inside) but I had to work with f/16. I've used all my speedlites here (3 of them), putting 2 close to my face and one at the back in hope it slips some light inside the snoot. Did many shots and probably this was the best, and I've discovered that the dramatic impact can be improved (and also eliminating some color problems) by simply switching to B&W. At the final stages of processing, I've sharpened the central circle only. The leader of our group liked the idea but he preferred the eye to be at the center, and that's why I need to re-do it!

Rotundum

In a moment of boredom, inspiration seemed to strike me out of nowhere. Now I'm wondering how come I didn't think of it long ago!? The whole thing started with a cup of Turkish coffee on weekend. I've always wanted to take pictures for the inside of the cup, since I've been hooked to this type of coffee. The purpose? Well, cup reading. My silly thoughts lead me even to do a panorama in some way from inside the cup in some way, but with time, the idea died out in my mind. However, with my new mobile phone and its camera, I was ready to play around and got some good results!

Turkish Coffee

I have to say that I didn't expect such result from playing around with Photoshop. Probably, however, that the object (or cup) should be curvy and does not form a perfect cylinder from the outside to have some sufficient details as in Turkish Coffee. Anyway, the method was simply that of changing the the coordinates from polar to rectangular, and that way a circular object would be flattened. Yet, I had to experiment with other circular cross-sections.
This method, now, sparked me mind for more ideas as I'm looking around for circular objects to be shot from the top (and in fact this is not the first time for me to be fascinated by the Circle). On the list I have mugs of various liquids as well as ordinary objects, like a pack of coloring pencils!

Pencilorama

I'm not stopping at this limit though. I've been trying already to see if any QTVRs are possible or could produce some interesting results. The view was surreal...

Peripheral Damage in QTVR.

Source: Amazon

This technique is not something new in fact; it is indeed one of the earliest methods to establish panoramas and fake-planets (fake-planets as in a planet formed from a single image instead of a real stitched panorama). The thing here is about reversing the technique and converting the circle into a rectangular. The original technique involves shooting a mirror ball from various angles to form several images of the place and then converting these circular shots to rectangles. Such technique was discussed with some detail in Christian Bloch's The HDRI Handbook; I have an earlier edition but there had been updates to the book! Even though such technique for panoramas seems to be obsolete by now (not sure) but still such things and techniques are worth learning!

Finale

Now I've been busy with the arrival of Austria's International Photography contest (Trierenberg Circuit) and many things on my table, beside the monthly project. I had some ideas to shoot but unfortunately the time slipped out of my hand and I couldn't submit some of these ideas to the specific sorting meeting for images of members for this contest. Ah well... 

I still have things to be done and some images to be re-made in hope that they will pass the second sorting process. Working alone in this gives me many back pains. I can't wait to have some proper sleep. But seems I won't be having that until I travel out for some time…

Quick Snap…

Been a while now since I posted here. I was actually busy with my other Arabic blog with two successive posts about filters and some of their various types and properties; all for beginners. With my time limitations and stress, and the lack of subjects or work with my camera, I couldn't have much to post here. This is just a quick wrap, hoping that I will get back to work with my camera soon.

One of the major reasons for this time stress is the work with my group as we are preparing for a great event outside of Kuwait, which will be announced soon during September hopefully.

They have been hectic two months but August was the worst, for being the month just before the event. We had some delays in the printing jobs and some awkward moments, but all is to be resolved by now hopefully.
After this event I'm willing to get my own rest and peace of mind. The economical situation in this country is getting below the ebb level and yet, despite being single, I just can't leave everything behind me with responsibilities hung over my shoulders. All I can do is pray for a better future, for those I care about. I need to work more on my photography as well as my other projects, like Geltani, which gathered mountains of dust by now. No traveling for me this year, but man I just need it so. I miss the Irish countryside and the cold breezes…

Black-Out…

It's been some tiresome 2 weeks, so this is just going to be a quick wrap. I'm still enrolled in some workshops which I'm trying to get over with. Unfortunately, for some reasons related to the lecturer (the founder of our group), things got to be delayed a bit. Anyhow, my Abstract Photography workshop is over, yet no concrete results yet. I tried my best trying to make up some ideas but to no avail. I usually shoot abstract which already exists, but this workshop was about "creating" abstract and play with ideas; and let's not talk about how hard it was to make up an idea from scratch! In fact, I've never made up an idea; I was solely playing with techniques. Afterwards, there is an ongoing workshop about the philosophy of colors, which also required some assignment to do. Anyway, things on hold now for some private matters.

One of the abstract shots of marbles.
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/7.1, 400^-1sec, ISO200.

Meanwhile, I've abandoned my idea for shooting a bursting bubble. It seems to be a pure team work needed with this one, and for someone like me, it is hard to be get it at that. Add to that, I cannot yet get the right mix or tools to have good bubbles production. Thus, I want to invest my time doing something else for the time being, beside the assignments for my workshops. Also, I do have some specific projects in my mind. All that will be done with the help of flashguns.

Probably the best single bubble shot I've made so far.
Used Dark Field technique: white background, black sides.
Sigma 70-300mm @70mm, f/16, 4000^-1, ISO400.
Used three flashes on HSS mode against the background:
2x 580EX II + 1 x 430EX II

I'm having some weird issues with my flashguns and cables; specifically, the 10m (~33ft) long cable, and my newest 580EX II flashgun in particular. Researching the issue a bit, it seems that 580EX II does indeed have some glitches and that's why it was hard to find (and it's discontinued already). Anyway, I can always rely on making it a slave after all. It is just a matter of time before converting completely to radio systems though (which is more expensive). Till the utmost need urges so, I'm not going to get into the radio systems for the time being. However, I'm gonna have some hard time because of that long cable.

Source: Amazon

On the other hand, I finally got my new "toys" but I still could not try my new lens for real. I don't have the time, yet! I also got a new book, which I'm not sure how to start reading, but for the time being I've read 2 pages or 3 in bed along with some other (thick) book which I'm supposed to read since last year!! Yes, such a stuffed schedule, and mind. The book is about the so-called Visual Design. Something I think I do need indeed in the current time specially that I want to work on converting ideas into photographs and kick in some creative work. I'm not sure if it is just a temporary black-out for my brain or it is indeed a basic problem with my own imagination trend, but I feel paralyzed and unable to achieve something unique with my camera away from the panorama trend and landscapes. Well, not portraiture as I completely have lost interest in that field specifically. In addition to this book, I've also ordered a stack of 3D (anaglyph) glasses (100 pieces) which I'm planning to put to some good use when circumstances allows it!

Now, I think it is time to add a bit more to my forgotten website, and check out more for chances to add artwork to stock sites as well. I think I can call this as a real work since I'm not doing any real work (or gaining real respect) in my own workplace. If only I can have my enough of sleep…

Schnell…

Messy, messy, messy. This is how my life is right now. Thus, this post won't be going long for the time being. Good thing is I'm doing some new experiments with my camera and trying to capture some still life, applying some ideas out of imagination so to say.

In the air there is a chance for another commissioned work, to be gotten via a friend. On the other hand, I'm surprised that the client of my first commissioned work (back in October) doesn't want me to spread my own work. The agreement first was until the calendar they are going to do is produced, I have to keep custody of the images. Now, however, the calendar is made and the client doesn't want the images to get spread. I'm wondering about the legality of such action since the rights of these images are not taken. I'm trying to consult some people in the "know" but yet no reply so far. In the meantime, I decided to make a glimpse about one the panoramas done for my first client! Well, this wouldn't count as spreading the image, would it???



This is one QTVR only (and there is a larger version for it). I'm planning to do more from this location on QTVRs, but it would need further work with composing a nadir stamp or logo. A somewhat lengthy task.

Kbir Qaddis Ġużeppi - BW

On the other hand, I've started the process of converting some of the new panoramas into B&W; mainly those from Oman and Malta, but the start was with panoramas from Malta, as it can be seen with the first one to experience that: Kbir Qaddis Ġużeppi. Under this impression, it struck me with a surprise that I did not even think or tried before, to do a QTVR out of a panorama in black and white! Most of the QTVRs Ive made or even those I've encountered personally online, were in color. Panoramas in black and white would probably give an atmosphere of what I like to call now: Jonathan's Style, in reference to Jonathan Boakes and his famous game "The Lost Crown." Probably the only problem here would be with the seam line between left and right edges of the panorama; because this was usually done by Photomatix in the tone-mapping process for the original HDR panorama altogether. I'm not sure I've turned this option on when processing most of these panoramas (if not doing them in Photoshop already instead of Photomatix).

My mind now is so busy with many ideas. Visiting some art events like the famous Den Gallery (here in Kuwait) and the 16^th Theater Festival - these visits did spark my mind a bit and this what made me turn on the camera and work on bits of ideas (while abandoning some old ones). I wished to spread the results here today, but there is much to be done still and a long sorting process must be made to these images. I'm trying to extract every bit of possible angle for the set.

Time to post this and head to bed now… I'm not sure I want to see tomorrow though, but the only thing I want to do for tomorrow is work with my dear camera…

The Rant…

This is a quick wrap as I'm having a break from working on a new set of panoramas, in what is supposed to be my first commissioned work!
I got the job via a friend, but I will tell more after the whole thing has worked out. It is an interesting place and I'm already having the typical technical problems which accompany panorama-making usually. The work is needed by next Sunday, thus I'm trying to invest every second of my time, and every available space in the memory of my PC! As I'm writing these words the job is not over yet (that is the photo shoot) and probably more to come.

Architectural Anatomy

Meanwhile, I've been trying to dig more into previous panoramas, specifically those from Oman and Malta.One of the interesting projections I've "discovered" so far can be seen in Architectural Anatomy. A friend wondered why I didn't put the huge circle (originally an arc) down; the reason behind this is, when I formed this projection (planet projection), the view seemed to be like a head (and some did indeed comment that it looks like ET!), and hence the name. To imply this vision, I had to keep it that way as can be seen here.

Backbone

Also, there are the panoramas taken from Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque still awaiting for their turn of projections (even though I did extract most of these). One style that was favored by a number of people was Backbone, which for me does somewhat give a sense of Gothic architecture (despite the purely Islamic nature of the architecture in normal format). I guess maybe that's why it was liked by many westerns? Who knows! It was done in 3D as well (and it was liked mostly in 3D anaglyph format). In this specific vertical panorama, I've decided to go with the typical spherical projection instead of the Mercator which I've been using lately for vertical panoramas specifically. For some reason not so clear yet for me, it seemed that having an elongated vertical panorama with this one adds more strength (and probably this is what increased the Gothic effect).

L-Orizzont

My timing is a mess lately because of many preparations with the group (and I really hate it when this happens) - always jobs done to the last minute. Surprisingly, some of my accepted panoramas (in sorting) for some contests, was later discarded (but I'm uploading it anyway), namely L-Orizzont and some others. My experience tells me that some judges are way too much of a burden for no right reason. Same judges did already exclude some of my most renowned panoramas, like Easnacha, which is not displayed in Trierenberg's Luxurious Coffee Table Book Edition (which is printed in a limited number of 500 worldwide). For this reason, I'm giving a deaf ear to these comments and judging, and to some limit, I'm uploading what I see appropriate.

Easnacha

This coincides with my e-mail to Bruce Barnbaum, an author or 2 great books about the art of photography (and currently in the process of reading the second). It was great to have him reply to my e-mail. I asked him about his ideas about Panoramas, and Photography contests. Somewhat, it didn't differ much from my view (excluding the panorama part). Here's his reply directly from my email:

TJ,

I agree with you about panoramas: it seems that most people are doing them today simply because the CAN do them. I've seen virtually none that excite me.

Photography contests are utterly useless: It's much like asking, "Who is better, Rembrandt or van Gogh." The question, itself, is stupid.

Thank you for your nice comments about my book!

Bruce Barnbaum

I tried to let him judge some of my work with panoramas despite his disinterest in them, but he apologized about it for his busy schedule. No wonder. I do consider this man one of the cores of arts! Not only at the point of contests do I agree with him, but also in other stuff mentioned in his books (like he does not do much portraits and does prefer abstracts and landscapes). I'm greatly happy that he did answer my e-mail, and also having something in common with him somehow. Ironically, after sending this e-mail, I continued reading his book and I did read exactly what he expressed in his e-mail about photography contests.

I'm emphasizing this point because I do feel like I'm doing a job for others with one exception: it's not commissioned, but quite the opposite. I'm paying for these contests. Why? I know it's all about the reputation in the field and that makes a way for other relationships and revenues, but looking at the limit of the stress and the efforts done to get a single acceptable image (by the members of the group or myself), makes me feel that it is just unworthy and far from "art." We are, literally, spending hundreds of dinars every year just for such contests. Things are worse my way, since not much of them does understand or have some support to the art of panorama. They say you should do (or photograph) what you like most because it makes you indulge easily and get creative - and this is what I'm trying to do with my panoramas; yet, those who are supposedly to be the art-patrons, do not understand or simply neglect this art. That's it... ranting over.

Triq tas-Sema (road of heaven)
طريق السماء