Approaching Approaches...

Well, I'm not so sure how to describe this week. One thing for sure though: it is exhaustive. What a way to start the 33^rd year of my life. Sometimes I do wish if my birthday was not in summer. However, I've managed to do one experiment at least but it took me around one full week to work with the results, as I was trying to do the peeling effect again for the good ol' censer which I've used to photograph smoke before. I like this one censer specifically; lot of details, great color and design. This time, the effect is done solely by hand, or should I say, the blending of the different layers was all done manually, with no help from PTGui.

The shoot for this censer was done with the help of a speedlite (580EXII) which was fixed with a diffuser to the top of the censer. It was controlled in wireless since I was really, really, not in the mood for cables and wires hanging around. I didn't even use a literal arm to dangle the speedlite on top, but simply raised it up high on a regular tripod and put it extremely close to the tripod carrying the rotating plate.
As I've mentioned above, the process to blend the layers was done manually and took me the whole week but I have to say, I'm still not satisfied, and the whole matter is just as if it ia study for the technique itself.
After the shoot was over, the images were processed in DxO to correct for tilts and distortions (even though the 50mm shows minimum distortion, if any). Yet, it seemed that the tilt was there after all even after correction!

Approach Eins!

First Trial

In the first approach, I've tried to stitch only 180^o using shots at 45^o distances. The total was 5 images only to blend together. Easy, but not so accurate as the base was not coherent at all and showed the usual fan shape. I've tried to straighten the image by PTGui, but to no avail. Anyway, after seeing this, I've decided to work again, and this time using around 36 layers, composing a full range of 180^o.

Approach Zwei!

Second Trial

In the second approach, I've tried to blend layer by layer manually, starting from the far left portion of the censer. However, after working for some time, I've realized that the center of the censer is not exactly centered in that way, and it is more like if it is looking to the right, and I've figured that if I continue in that manner I might have just one large censer with a handle on the left. Not bad though, but I was planning on having double handles on both sides instead of one. After realizing this, I had to stop in the middle of the process and start all over again!

Approach Drei!

Third Approach

In the final approach, the look was relatively better but still it had lot of blending errors (or I would call them stitching errors as well). At this point, I've started with the middle portion of the sequence, which shows the frontal face of the censer, then worked my way with blending to the left all the way to the handle, and then the same thing was done to the right. I would say this is the best that could be done if only I could handle the blending more delicately. The base suffered some problems as well and I'm not sure if this because of the tilt or simply a bad blend. Lot of things to be learned still at this point, but I have to say that the 45^o approach (first one) sounds promising if it wasn't for the fan shape! Without perfecting this technique, I wouldn't be able to upload those into the stock sites.

Approach Geltani

The work with Geltani is slow, as usual. I've started now to assign phonetic values to the leading part of the alphabet and try to test it with some words. Reading into Turkish language and grammar made me formulate a lot of ideas and recall some things that I've forgot before. The Geltani phonetic system is going to be rich I suppose, which might be a bit frustrating. It would be a weird combination between Asian-typical sounds, and Indo-European sounds, with a bit of Semitics.
One of the critical things now is to add more to the vowel system and in fact, I've been assigning some consonants a vowel-value when it falls as a leading part. So far, the "D" would sound as "ü" (as in German or Turkish) if it is in the leading part of the syllable. I can't of course work all consonants in the same manner but it is just a beginning and more thoughts about this to come. The letter "C" was also done but it is so vivid in its phonetic values given in the leading part of the syllable, and at this point I've added Semitic sounds like Ayin [ع] and Chet [ح] (notice I'm using the Hebrew name but the equivalent Arabic letter for such sounds), and some few others were added as well.
Finishing the phonetic system is important at this point because without it, it's not possible to send a brief case about the conlang of Geltani to Omniglot for publishing. Later, we would have to talk a bit about the hard time doing a specific HTML for this conlang!

Approach Finale

Source: Amazon

Now, with the lack of new books, I've been going through some old books from here and there (including some old language books like the Turkish language book). I've been going through the Portrait photography book as well, since I didn't comprehend much of the info inside it back then because, unfortunately, most of the explanations lack visual aids. This is one the negative things about this book, and probably the new editions of it are better, I'm not sure. I'm still not into this field, but I thought having more stable feet when it comes to the formation of light, metering, poses and studio equipment would as well be useful for other fields of photography, as well as being prepared just in case I need to do this kind of photography for any occasion.
For the time being, I'm just dying while waiting for summer to be over. I don't care what people usually say about it - most of them here like it because it is the only time when they can travel (and in fact they do a good job in making my life calmer in summer). Yet, I'm so sick of the heat, and I do feel as if it is killing my brain slowly. Lately, I've been thinking of going back to poetry since I didn't write anything for such a long time but, as usual, there are some words but I can't find the proper stitching form between them. I do pass occasionally on some of my old writings and just wonder how did I write those?
My 33^rd year starts off with some hope inside me... but I'm cautious as well for the slaps of life...

Alexander 6, V124.

The stuation is sarcastic. 11:00 p.m. and suddenly you get a trip and the AC won't work in such humid weather, and yet you can't check the fuse on the roof because it's dark already and so damn humid. This is what you get after 4 nights of continuous nightmares.
Not much can be said for today except some work I've done on one image only, and I've tried hard to make some way to let the heavy dumbells hang freely (to the door) and snap it, but no use. I'm out of ideas now and I'm afraid to rely on so many threads or ropes for fear of sliding down and smashing the porcelain tiles. Beside working with the dumbell, I did spend some time with my printer and "glossy" papers that I got for a cheap price. I put the term glossy in quotations here because when I print using a glossy setting in the printing dialogue, the ink would be smudged easily on the surface. On the other hand, when I tried printing on these papers in Matte settings and even in normal print out settings, the print was perfect on these papers!

The image used for prints: The Forest Cove.

The prints were darker than what the image appears to be on screen, but after some time, the ink dries eventually and the image stands out a bit more, but still not as bright as the monitor itself. I was changing the settings of the color management and other rendering options in the print dialog box trying to make the print as bright as the monitor. Now, I think the only way is to compensate for this by brightening the image itself already before the print. My brother, an expert designer and deals with the press a lot, told me that the glossy papers tend to darken the colors eventually, and that's why I think changing the management or the rendering is not a solution. There were some variations of course between each print but they are merely visible to the untrained eye. Mainly they were tiny variations in saturation and contrast.

This said now, I'm trying to understand more the relation between the weight and the quality, but anyway seems there is no relation since the weight (which is usually designated by "gsm" for gram per square meter), does not significantly mean the coating is good. I've noticed though that HP gloss papers that I've used before for my panoramas were 280 gsm, while the papers I'm using now are of 165 gsm. With simple search, I've noticed that many types of HP glossy papers were in the range of 200-300 gsm, which makes sense that a good coating will add to the weight of the paper, although logically speaking there might be no direct relation between them. By coincidence, I've discovered that my printer, HP PhotoSmart C4783 Wireless All-in-One Printer, supports a maximum of 280 gsm, which was exactly the weight (or index) of the panorama glossy papers. More than that, the glossy paper might harm your printer instead!

 

At work, although I have one book on PDF (and a really large one; 400+ pages), but still I don't feel like reading at all. I think I'm used to my daily coffee while reading or must drink something while reading it. Also I got words floating on my head to be written down but still I'm so scattered that I don't know what I'm doing with my life itself.
Posting for Alexander's story is almost finish now, and tomorrow is supposed to be the last verse. Afterwards, I think I will not post on a daily basis, merely whenever I have the material and time, or maybe simply for fun!
Since tomorrow is my birthday, I'm thinking of taking one day off just like that, or maybe what they call it a "duvet day". Nothing special to do though. Just sleep as much as I can despite the nightmares and the bad weather. I knew my birthday could not pass easily just like that...

Sunrise over Lough Corrib

__________

2953. Alexander took the stones with some tears in the eyes
2954. he felt the passion of the father that he missed long ago
2955. then he said: it is verily hard for me to give up those stones,
2956. but I shall keep them with me until the day I am not here anymore,
2957. and if I was to live as a nomad, this is how my life had been now,
2958. no burdens in the heart and no worries for tomorrow
2959. then Alexander put the bluish stones in his small pouch
2960. Agdalán then let go of a deep sigh from his lungs
2961. he then moved to the chest again and took out a garment
2962. it was bright and shiny garment made of the finest threads
2963. as if it was woven by gold and the sun light and mixed with silver
2964. he gave the garment to Alexander and this he said to him
2965. "take of these old garments now and wear this one O son,
2966. you are better having a better look among the people,
2967. for you are a son of nobles, and you are my great son"
2968. Alexander then changed his garments and washed his hands
2969. and Agdalán then helped him wash his head and hair
2970. then Alexander felt strong back again and ready
2971. he felt that he can face the whole world alone by now
2972. then Agdalán said to him: go down, dear, for now,
2973. and get back to the farmers and Juvvál, my assistant,
2974. let him teach you how to plant the lands and live,
2975. and now it is the time for me to give up my life I guess
2976. Alexander did not get surprised by all of this anyhow

Murjal...

Almost overslept. Despite the feeling of boredom with the early hours of the morning, I went directly to my office without my usual route to pick up something to eat first. I picked tiny stuff from a shop near my place.
In the office, I was a bit active and moving here and there, yet I didn't feel the urge to get into the lab (except by the morning to open up the Liquid Nitrogen valve). I spent most of the day (beside working on stuff for my WORK) translating and reading successively. Seems this method of flactuating translating and reading is working and I bypassed 2-verses-per-day limit. I was able to finish the translation of 4 verses today, and boy I did get muscles in my fingers. All of that, while also doing some other things and reading in between. Seems reading changes my mood a bit so that makes me able to work more on my translation.

Since I'm easily bored when I concentrate on a single thing (as always), seems this is the only way I would get my life going when I want to do something so bad. The question is now, how to use this mentality to accomplish the story that I stopped writing long ago before my travel to Ireland? I don't know!

For the fact that I have translated many verses today, came along some new words that I had to bypass by some twisting in meaning, or by making new ones already. One of the words was "Morjal" [Ankh: morQjul], meaning "Sandal" (as a footwear). I made another word for "sandal" as wood as well, and it was "candaldal" [Ankh: cunQdulQdul]. I noticed that I have the urge always to make the first syllabe of such words, specially long words, to be a slender mostly with "i" sound. For this reason I decided to break this rule and make the first syllable in this word as "ca" instead of "ci."

After sending the pictures of Ireland to many people for some days now, I decided to put them here. Each one of them will open a link with some description and a larger image. I've been taking some break from photoshop and all that work with photos, and spending more time with games on my queue list. Now, it might be the time to get back and resolve some old issues that I didn't finish yet.