The King…

Well well well! Here I am after a little vacation away from blogging (and shooting!). Meanwhile, despite this vacation, which was supposed to help me calm down, I did have my own share of stressors away from the camera business; Work, house, personal life, you name it. Oh, mentioning work, I'm officially considered to be "working from home" though I'm not doing much really, but there is quite a mess in the management that leaves me wondering if everything is alright. Really; attendance record must be kept by my director (yes, though we are at home, don't ask me how or why) and other things.
On the other hand, I'm trying to get some "life" for myself. I'm processing old images in some new methods and techniques, I go reading in the morning in the yard to get some sun exposure (beside having some supplements as well with meals), I stroll through languages, and I water the plants almost daily as well; Well, though it's done under the harsh sun of 7:00 a.m. or so, still it has some refreshing feeling specially when you see those little buds grow bigger and bigger. On the side, I'm also having sleep as much as I can, almost whenever I want!
Meanwhile, I'm also wondering these days about the future of my Ayvarith conlang (which ironically this blog was supposed to be about it) after the Instagram account for it (@Ayvarith) had been hacked or simply stopped (just not sure what's going on there). Anyway I don't think I will be having another Instagram account just for Ayvarith, again. I'm done with this stupid platform. So, I'm wondering what's next on that plane.

The King

So, in this blog post (the first after some vacation here) I want to showcase some images that I've shot for a project that started by a coincidence, and ended (unfortunately) abruptly. I've talked about this little project in my previous post (or posts) I guess but didn't show anything from this series I guess. So, this post is for these images, which were done some months ago.

Quarantine Day 54
King of The Bathroom

The whole series started with an idea for a single shot back in the early days of quarantine (back in April). The idea struck me at the spur of the moment when I thought that maybe I should clean my bathroom after months of neglect (ahem). I had an eye for humor in this shot from the very beginning, so I was thinking of something artistic and funny away from the "contest culture" and the seriousness that I would usually work with, so I went on with shooting for HDR. The space in the bathroom was quite narrow so I had to take refuge in my Sigma DG 12-24mm lens (which proved to be one of my favorite lenses for shooting portraits!). I could have used my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens here which has a wider field of view and could have saved me here as well BUT such field of view will be problematic, as it will include so much from the surrounding area and eventually I would have to crop so much, and the image would become smaller and probably insignificant.

Quarantine Day 67

Soon, however, ideas from that single shot started to stem out and my mind started to create a story in fact. Ironically, a story that I've imagined its ending but not its progress so starting from this shot for Quarantine Day 67, I've actually started to fill the story gaps somewhat.The crown, the green robe, the toilet seat and the pipe all occurred to me as "trade mark" for this series starting from this shot. Also from this shot for Day 67, I've stopped giving titles, but rather captions right away. The caption for Quarantine Day 67 is: I don't get it, I should've been a superhero according to this...!

Just for the record: I didn't buy any astrology books in a long time. This book you see here is a gift from a friend.

Again, the shooting for Day 67 was done in a similar manner: HDR, Sigma DG 12-24mm, but the location this time is different. It was my brother's old bathroom (not used much and has less clutter and no bathtub).

Quarantine Day 73

 And so the story continues actually and another part of it was made, with Quarantine Day 73. By the way, in case you are wondering by now about the number of days here, I'm actually counting the days indeed (approximately) starting from February 25^th, 2020; around which the whole quarantine vacation started (and that was the National Day break). Now, Quarantine Day 73 was somewhat hard to do and I'm not quite satisfied with it as I think the ball with (my) face should have been clearer (and terrifying more). Anyway, the caption that went with this image was: I made a new friend. His name is Corna... Crona... something like that. He's nice.... I think?
Again, Day 73 shot was made in my bathroom and I did work quite some time to clone out stuff behind me and stuff on the ball itself and then add my face (which was shot separately in another shot and copied from there to the shot). I'm not including here the talk about the HDR rendering or tone-mapping as it is a basic process right now but worth noting that I do spend quite some time trying to find a tones that I like for each shot in this series; They are not tone-mapped under the same settings every time. Each one processed differently. In Day 73 shot specifically I've striven to tone-map the HDR slide in a way mimicking the ink sketches or comics as much as possible by brightening the tones and darkening the shadows while reducing the saturation of the skin tones a bit.

Quarantine Day 80

Then comes the only shot in the series where I used mt Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. I was forced because of the angle I wanted to use as well as adding a dramatic look, and of course the narrow space. I should have used my brother's bathroom again here but for some reason I can't remember right now, I didn't. At this stage, I've already broke many taboos: Editing in Photoshop, HDR unreasonable tone-mapping, and more. So, I've set my thought on doing a collage between two shots showing myself being sick of myself. The caption that went with this shot was: The whole kingdom went into total lock-down. Sitting by myself reflecting trying to find solutions, but apparently myself is... sick of myself.
The blend of the two images was not easy as well and actually I almost wanted to abandon the whole idea altogether or shoot again (and in the back of my mind I did envision this shot differently actually). But with a lengthy work with layer masks and cloning, I think I've kind of pinned it down, even though I wished for two separate heads sharing a neck (go ahead and imagine that!). Worth noting that it is at this image that I've decided to stop my Instagram account. Actually I've posted the image and barely received any likes for about 24 hours, so I realized that I'm really wasting my time with the so-called Instagram's Algorithm and trying to expose my work to others. Thus, I've completely abandoned the idea of posting to that platform altogether.

Quarantine Day 92

Despite stopping Instagram posts, I've still had some more ideas to work with this project, as I had somewhat a story going on in my head. The phase now is at the king is escaping his enemies. For this, I've made Quarantine Day 92 that you see here with a caption that goes: Escaping the enemy with the kingdom in total lock-down drove me to some unprecedented measures. Thank goodness, I kept some water supply.
This photo included more work than the previous 2 shots here. Two shots combined, and a lot of work with the wrap and puppet warp tool in Photoshop to fit my body inside the fridge (and adding some shadows to make it as realistic as possible). But probably the real struggle was to cut the head and lower it down without much artifacts. In fact, on a close inspection some motion blue is prevalent because shooting HDRs in such position is not something... I want to try again. A shaky body was inevitable. Another struggle here was matching the lighting conditions (to approximate the looks, I've shot myself in front of a window so the light would hit my back like the light inside the fridge). The rest was a work of toning and adjusting contrast. 

At this point, the series ended abruptly. I had more ideas, but I didn't have the power to pursue them further. I wanted to continue the story with the king escaping through various locations around the house (had an eye for the washing machine), but all that I had to stop as I didn't have more power to do all of that, specially that I'm working all alone. The mood swings and the conditions at home all had their toll on me that I seriously needed some peace of mind. In fact, as I'm typing these words, I didn't touch my camera seriously all that time except for few shots just days before I start typing these words, doing some macro shots in the yard, just out of curiosity. 

Finale

Nostalgia

Now, this is the series that I've talked about in previous posts. On the side, there are a lot of old images that had been re-edited, some of them were neglected and completely forgotten (and deemed useless), but suddenly with me learning new techniques and ideas in editing, I've started to check for possible chances, going back in time as far as 2011, like this Nostalgia shot taken on my way to work back then. Anyway, I don't want to proceed further or I might go on and talk about many past images that have undergone a re-make!
Work-wise, I'm considered "at work" as I'm working from home, supposedly. But not much to be done really (like in normal situation anyway). But I had to go to work for mundane tasks that, as I deem, just plain stupid and unnecessary since we are not going back to our offices any time soon. The tasks involved, simply, opening doors for the janitor to clean (in the beginning I thought that there would be a professional disinfection and sterilization process). I was asked to go again to run a test on some device which for some reason I was not told about when I was there, which made me mad and I've refused to go all the way just to do a 30 minutes work.
Strangely, during such a lock-down and being at home most of the time, and the recent incident, all that made me feel sick of work even further even though I'm not going to it. I've realized as well that there are some people who can be quite annoying when they are not around more than when they are around in fact. Strange how life works. 
Meanwhile, my feelings of isolation are growing; That is, inner isolation and not being connected to anyone, or anything (well, almost). The idea of having my own home where I can live as I like, without annoying or being annoyed by any, had been occupying my mind for almost every passing single day. Yet, I'm not sure how this is to be done specially in a place like this. Would it be that my dream cannot be here and elsewhere, away. If so, I just don't know how this is done either, nor how my finances would sustain such a leap… in God, I trust.
 

Strobogenic…

February! It really exists! If some other month like January is to be visiting us any time this year I'm kind of sure that half the population of Earth would be begging on the roads for their bread. from my side, I just hope that this month becomes an active month for me somewhat. I've been taking shots already and having some ideas here and there, and as usual, I won't put the eggs all in one basket in this post, but I'll be talking about a specific series of shots that I've done about 2 weeks ago; All by coincidence! Anyway, beside the series I'm going to talk about, there are some new editions made out of old shots and I've been posting some of those on my Instagram. I'm not sure though if I'm going to post about them here but there is one specific old shot that I need to post about here in relation to the series of shots I'm going to talk about.

Chain of Events

As I was looking at my images from 2018, and looking specifically for some photo that I didn't post before to my Instagram, I've encountered this shot, which is a selfie, but a regular one somewhat. The special thing, though, about this selfie, that it was an experimental one, taken with 2 speedlites holding them by hand on left and right, and each one of them had a black cardboard with a thin slit opening only. And that what made the shadow line at the center of the face. Since a selfie like that might be a bit "regular," I've decided to work a bit on it and transform it to something else.

Nach Mitnacht

Naturally, my first choice or the first thing to think about in such instances is to examine the B&W possibility and what it would yield. Tweaking the sliders around and voila! Some weird creature was created here, in addition to the eyes brightening. This was the beginning.
Some days later, as I was testing the stroboscopic (multi) flash properties with one of my 580EX II speedlites, I've decided to take a selfie or two. I was actually lazy; I was just there sitting on my recliner and taking shots. My aim was actually to make out some sense for the relation between the shutter speed, and number of flashes and the final outcome. I really did not have any aim about creating an image at this level; It was all still some testing only.
Anyway, without  going deeper into much technical details and talk,I was up to a surprise later on; I'll come to that.
As I went through the photos, I've started to filter and delete some of them which had no significant move. There are some with some good hand gestures. I kept those and started to work with them in Photoshop.

Avoidance

Typically, my first step when converting to B&W in Photoshop, would be using the Infrared preset from the list and start adjusting from there. Usually this preset do get to my taste in some way so I find it appropriate most of the time to start adjusting the tones from there. Surprise surprise, and as I was trying to suppress the background using the tones to turn it to black, weird things started to happen and I've remembered Nach Mitnacht right away. This was the spark that initiated the series, started from Avoidance and ending up with The Weekend Selfie. Some of these shots, like Avoidance, did require a significant crop (using cropping guides as much as possible). Despite the movement of the hands in some of these images, like, again, Avoidance, yet, the focus might be scattered away and I thought it might be better to ensure the focus and guide the viewer to the eye, and that required a great deal of a crop.

De-Focus

Not all images, though, did require such a big deal of cropping as I've stated above, but there was something to be done about some lines in the corners or the edges and such. For such instances, I tried to place the eyes exactly at the center of the image, as it sounds it is the natural placement for them, specially with moving ghosted palms, right? And let's not forget the horizontal placement of the eyes which I've tried to place on the upper third line via crop.

The Multi-Takser

Personally, I do like the brightness of the eyes in De-Focus more than their brightness in The Multi-Tasker but strangely, and this is the surprise, this image got popular on YouPic and even gained a star for being "inspirational". Not only that, but YouPic also published the image to their Instagram feed for the B&W category! I didn't know about its existence before. On Instagram itself, the image did gain some likes, but typically not much (yet better than other images I post daily now). I take it that this surprise might have been caused by the movement of the hand which is clearer and denser here than in De-Focus, and they take a bigger portion of the image in general.

The Weekend Selfie

This "liking" and push in (some of) the social media did give me a bit of "hype," if I can call it so. It did really make me think of future work using the stroboscopic flash often (which I did later, but that's for another post). But maybe the most important moral here which I need to remember, and keep remembering, always is that: Just grab the camera, and shoot, even when you are lazy. You wouldn't know what will be the results. In addition to this, I might be adding one extra point to my "style" with such processing, which makes portraits dark in a somewhat UV Photography style. Could be something to venture on a bit further. But probably shouldn't exhaust it to the limit of turning it into a cliché!

Finale

The Weekend Selfie
Sketch effect

Well, it is February already and the time has come, as in every year, to make up some photo shoot for Retinitis Pigmentosa. Believe or not, I did already make this shot and it is published, but I'll leave it for another post in another week or so. The shot was relatively simple and I tried to apply some elements from the designing tips I've re-learned lately. I'll come to that in time then, though.

Some variety of flash cords

Meanwhile, I'm hoping and wishing to get more time to work with my camera, specially with schools starting here and we are back to the cycle of traffic jams and the extremely-tired body. I have some ideas out there and yet I need to think them through and think on how to apply them. To add to my hardships already, my flash cord (which allows me to trigger the flash off-camera) seems corrupt and is not functioning well lately. It fell off. Is it time to get a wireless trigger? I mean one that can work under HSS and Multi or Stroboscopic modes, as well as 2nd Curtain Sync? Even if I got one, I'm not sure I would be able to trigger other speedlites that way unless I get a receiver for each one of them; A lengthy and an expensive task. I'll need to do more research in that venue.
I would be going on and on with my mood swings already but maybe I'll keep that, too, for another post. I'm so tired of everything here, literally, so much that I find it hard to chew the food I eat sometimes. January is over already but probably we are not over yet with the bad news still. In the meantime, I'm considering meditation (which I'm not sure when to do) in hope that it would teach me how to focus again. I miss writing poetry; I was supposed to write one for my late friend, Paula, who departed last November, but I couldn't find the mental power yet to compose. Maybe I should make this a priority over my work with the camera. As for now, it's time to close my eyes a bit…

Pinholism…

Summer is here, so if you are a person who likes summer, please don't let me encounter you on any platform! It's just the 2^nd week of June and temperatures already getting to, if not exceeding, 50^oC! I had some pleasant short vacation away from work but going back now, after such a holiday, with such heat (and AC problems from time to time) is just so exhausting. Meanwhile, I'm sort of idle with my camera but I'm busy with other things. Might talk about them later. But as promised in my last post, I will talk about another photo which I've created some weeks ago and I didn't want to jam my previous blog post here about it, so I kept it for this week.

Pray

المُقْرِئْ
The Reciter

Some time ago, months ago in fact, I've made a shot with my pinhole cap (or pinhole lens as some like to call it)  picturing myself reading or reciting Quran, opposite to a shiny window. The image is much of a conceptual fine art work instead of the typical expressive sharp image that we, mostly, would expect. This shot was done in a time when I was really working on enhancing the pinhole imagery and trying my best to get it to be as sharp as possible. However, with time, I realized that this is kind of impossible to be done (scientifically) and it would be rather better to work on using this specific look which is created by the pinhole to express a specific mood, and culture. Since the make of The Reciter (it is also one of the rare occasions in which I do name my photos in Arabic actually, because of its nature), I've thought of doing another shot depicting the praying practice (as a Muslim of course) but for one reason or another I really didn't get the time to do it until Ramadhan (and being off with my little vacation) this year. The main problem, though, was to find a suitable location for the shooting; I needed a place with glass that allows so much light to come in, and must be in some good angle in relation to the sun. I guess I've found that good spot in the guest room at home.

المُصَلّي
The Praying

In this room, I had to shoot in the early morning. I did check the room several times but I thought first about some obstacles (some gypsum board wall ) that might block the view if I want to perform the shot in front of the main entrance door to this room. However, all went well in the end (with some tiny bits of cropping and fixing perspective in post-process). Then, we have the problem of the perspective, which was easily solved with my new L-Bracket, which I've attached to the camera body and it allowed me to place the camera considerably stable in portrait position on the ground. The main issue though was the nature of the shoot itself. Metering and taking test shots revealed that I need about 64 seconds. Doing some math and dividing these seconds over the various parts of the typical movements which one do during the prayer, it was about 12 seconds for each. Anyway, I was counting on my own without a timer or anything and the thing didn't really work as some movements were not recorded clearly on the sensor apparently. Thus, and again, I've found myself forced to use the power of blending to merge all the movements - I did several shots with various movements and gestures, and each in 64 seconds. Blending these shots was not an easy task as well and my typical method of blending using Lighten or Darken did not work here. I simply had to change the opacity for various shots and even canceling some shots as well to get the final look as you see it in The Praying. Another critical post-processing point here is trying to make a difference in tones between the prostrating pose and the kneeling-on-the-ground pose, but keeping both gestures or images reasonably "black". It might be noticeable better when the image is enlarged though.
Now, after finishing this image, I'm thinking, again, of a third images for this series even though in the beginning I was thinking that this would be a two-image sequence only and no more; But my mind is still playing tricks and still thinking what I could add to this series (and it must be related to the Islamic practices of course) - Didn't get an answer myself but we'll see. I've been idle with my camera now (specially after some failures) so it would be a good push to get active again.

Finale

Well, I can't emphasize enough how much I'm sick of summer already and it is still June. Sometimes I'm really hating myself for being born in August. I'm already doing project indoors as it is, and now summer is here, then just the thought of going out to shoot anything, day or night, is a No-No.
Meanwhile, despite stopping the astrophotography trend in my brain, there are some good signs, like finding a relatively-cheap equatorial mount or tracker that I can work with but I'm not ordering this now. This would allow me to take longer spans of exposures and get some proper light to the sensor in order to process them properly and show features of the deep sky objects; As all my trials before were nothing more than some constellations and dots in the sky! On the other hand, working with these images was beneficial despite the failures. I've learned new techniques on "stretching" the data out of my images which I might use any time with other types of images and not necessarily with Astro-shots.
Hanging by the ideas, I'm still looking for inspirations among the Andalusian folk songs and I do indeed have some ideas, but when thinking practically, I just get back to "normal" and abandon the whole thing and start thinking again for and about something new. This is is beside thinking about using the pinhole again for a third image to the sequence of Islamic nature, which includes the two images above.
On the other hand, with all the mental struggle here, there is a struggle inside of me trying to push myself and force myself to travel for real despite the hustle and overthinking. It might be a tiresome thing to do but it is essential to get a break before the engine of my mood and my brain breaks down in this place I'm living in. My fuse is getting shorter and shorter. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get myself busier by adding on to my to-do-list, like learning more languages beside Irish on Duolingo. I've added Turkish, German and Russian - and who knows, I might add a 5^th one too! I really wish I can learn many languages with ease; They fascinated me since I was a kid, and now there is some good chances.
Anyway, as I won't be posting in this blog by next week, I'll be busy actually typing a post for my Arabic blog instead about "extracting" gradients from photos and apply them to other photos, and if it is interesting enough I might as well talk about it here. I hear a lot about people selling and others buying such gradients to ease their workflow and such, yet I'm not sure if this is worthy of my time but I'm experimenting and having some artistic fun as well!

Projectoid…

Hectic weeks, and winter is finally here! I'm trying to absorb every single atom of this cold weather into my skin, as much as I can, before the arrival of the not-to-be-mentioned. Meanwhile, I was hanging on the tails of some of the last projects I was going on with, but I have to say the results are not what I've exactly expected; sort of disappointing. Thu, probably this would be a quick wrap about the latest. I didn't post anything last week since I was busy preparing and article for my other Arabic blog, so things here are a bit old stuff already that I didn't get the chance to post last week.

Heartoid

First of all, I wanted to redo the whole idea of essay photography (or photo story); just the first series of shots taken on the staircase. However, for some reason, things went erratic with my speedlite flashes beside having problems in positioning and managing the speedlite, while the location itself was not helping much really. The idea for redoing this was to stabilize the camera tilt and apply some of the notes after a critique from the founder and tutor (of the photo story workshop). I had to give up at the end, and rather quickly this time, because I had other plans in my head and also because of the frustration for working in this limited space! Needless to say, I had to return some of the items I've borrowed for long just for this project.

After finishing up with that project, I turned back to an old project which I've stopped temporary for the sake of the photo story project. That was about shooting transparent hearts and color them using Popsicle sticks.

Qtar 4

After successfully capturing some droplets from corn syrup with colored sticks reflected off it, I decided to work on a more meaningful idea instead of spreading droplets in a random way. Typically, for me, the object was a heart-shape; a transparent heart. I've tried hard to "draw" hearts using corn syrup itself, but that was not stable and could not be done technically. Then, tried ice (using heart-shaped molds for ice), but that way too fast to melt down. Freezing the corn syrup itself too was not good at all (it didn't freeze at all). Later, I tried mixing water with corn syrup and freeze the mix, which was a bit resistant to melting but still the mix was white and transparency was not enough. Finally, I've managed to work with gelatin and I have to admit that I made a little mistake here for freezing it after it was completely hardened, but the white layer on top was easy to break down with my finger and pushed away to get a relatively transparent heart but with some yellowish shade. This last solution was exactly what I need, since gelatin doesn't melt fast under room temperature. The problem with gelatin was its softness and it needs extra care to be extracted from the mold.

Single heart made by mixing water and corn syrup then frozen.

Instead of using one heart, I thought it is meaningful more to use two. Thus, I've completed a series of 6 shots for two hearts, each with a different color. I have to say though that some surplus on the sides of the hearts made it a bit awkward, but I didn't try to remove these additional parts in Photoshop (except for the purple hearts).

Two hearts made of gelatin. The red tones here are more flexible when suppressing the highlights reflections, unlike the water+corn syrup combination.

The purple hearts were cleaned on the left side removing some of the unnecessary parts on far left.

The final "product" was a cropped and cleaned (also darkened the background) hearts. For some reason I'm not sure of yet, it seems that the double gelatin hearts were stuck together even though each heart was a piece on its own! Anyway, all were uploaded to various stock sites, but to add some flavor to the process, I've made a collage of the 6 shots in a smaller size and uploaded to Canstockphoto website, only. Unfortunately, the status for all these images is pending for review. Things were faster on Canstockphoto. Some other stock sites, however, such as Dubistock (which is relatively new for me) did accept the series of hearts, but I didn't upload the collage there yet.

Hearts Collage

Mandaloid

I've been following some trend for mandala art on Instagram lately and I have to say that my love for symmetry (and probably my OCD-ish tendencies) pretty much like such art and shapes. It needs serious patience I suppose; something I disastrously lack. However, I tried my luck with such patterns digitally, once by converting some planet panoramas into line art (with specific technique) and once by working with typography, or doing art by letters. There is also one idea that I still didn't try yet which is drawing shapes by hand, scan them, and then repeating them in geometrical shapes digitally.

One of the doodles
turned into a vector

Scanning sketches and turning them into vectors is something I used to do from time to time, as I surprised myself for some of the doodles I used to do almost unconsciously in boring meetings and classes. Some of these are uploaded already to Canstockphoto (the only stock site up to which I upload vectors).

JOHN

The whole thing started when I was doodling in fact, and noticed how I can draw a heart by merging 2 J's, tip to tip. From that moment, I started to work digitally in Photoshop on combining letters, which later became full names combined in a complicated texture. The name "John" was first, then "Jesus." Well, I was thinking in advance here since Christmas season is coming and such vector might catch the eye and become trendy. Who knows! Finally, a whole complex design with the letter "J" alone. However, my real wish is to do an arabesque design some day, all out of geometry, just like that!

J
colors inversed

As for the time being, I'll try to think of more designs of that sort, with different names probably. All of the previous designs are converted to EPS, which should support vectors; it is the only format accepted by stock sites usually. Still, though, I think I'm doing something wrong here and I do need to re-check the processing of such files. I have to consider to if I should upload these vectors elsewhere, since Canstockphoto exclusive option had been removed, i.e. no special consideration or pricing for exclusive images, it seems.

Finale

I'm trying to push myself further with my camera now, trying different things other than my tendencies for panoramas, which, truth be said, I miss so much. Meanwhile, I still feel there is so much to be done with the music and songs of Sabah Fakhry (صباح فخري) and I keep having visits of thoughts and ideas by the lyrics of his songs, but the lot of them would be hard for me to do, specially those that might need a model. The only model I feel comfortable to work with, so far, is me. As for now, and finishing the experiments with gelatin, I've packed up my stuff which annoyed some people a lot for being there in the guest room spreading all over the place. Until I get another trend of thought and an idea to work, I might as well get my stuff down again... but I'll try to do it first in the small space available in my condensed room.
As days pass by, the mention of travels comes in my face wherever I go and head. People talk about it, even my horoscope talks about it, as well as tarot cards. Where to? Can I afford it really? Would I be able to manage things with Mom and the family before I go? Many things to think about before giving a concrete answer.

JESUS

Phovel…

Been sort of a busy week and hence I didn't have the time to write a post for last week. The busy life is mainly about going to work and spending the day coping with tiredness (which usually becomes a fail). Weather is getting colder (perfect!), which means also more need for sleeping hours; seems I'm still stuck in the 5 hours range and that's barely enough!

RIP
Note: I don't own the image.

This week started off with some sad news; well, for some that is. One of the giants in the world of Cinema and TV passed away: Mahmood Abdul-Aziz [محمود عبدالعزيز]. Probably people who know me very well know pretty well that I don't spend my time in front of TV and didn't go to the movies in ages, not to say spending time watching them on TV. However, this man specifically had me hooked in most of the characters he played. I feel sad indeed, though I don't have a connection to him really or anything; I suppose it's the charisma he owned, and will own even when he is gone from our world. May he rest in peace, Amen.
As for me on the other hand, I had some tasks hanging in the air and was trying to make a good compromise between doing them and coping with life itself…

Phovel!

I was involved in the past weeks in a workshop with our group's leader about the so-called Photo-Story (a.k.a Photo Essay, Essay Photography, Serial Photography). In a nutshell, it is the making of a story from a series of photos (usually ranging between 5 to 12 images). Two weeks passed since the last day of the workshop (which was composed of 2 days with about 3 hours to each). At the end of the workshop we were supposed to give some results or samples of our work with this issue, which was something that took me around 2 weeks to complete. Not because I was lazy alone, but also I needed some accessories from my sisters to complete the idea I had in mind.
The main theme of the idea I had in mind was: a girl's life. Not sure why I picked this topic though but probably it was the first thing that struck me specially after observing some samples in the workshop; it sounds that chronological stories are somewhat the easiest. As per the leader's notes: it is not necessary to include a human in the photo, but it is enough to add a sign of that person. Thus, from that point on, I decided that I should work around it in this way, since I don't like portraiture much. Also, one of the basic instructions was to form the story and the basic elements for the shots and ideas by noting them down; everything should be in writing before catching the camera and starting to work right away. I have to admit though, I was lazy at this point specifically but I've formed all the imagery and ideas in my head and all I needed with the accessories. Meanwhile, I've developed another string of thoughts on implying this idea, and at the end, I've decided to shoot one series in regular camera, and the other to be done in my converted camera and IR filter on lens.

Photo Story One

Series One

This series was shot with a regular camera. My idea was to stabilize the background and keep moving the elements on the steps of the stairway, but unfortunately, because of the lens choice (50mm, which I picked mainly for its f/1.4 capabilities) and the narrow space which I have to work within - all that made it impossible to not tilt the camera upward as I continue shooting the series and going up the steps. Probably I needed something around 40mm or even 30mm, but such a choice is not available (and connecting a teleconverter to my 15mm was not a choice either). Anyway, it seems I was wrong in picking up that lens or even to have a concern about shooting at f/1.4. I guess, now after all this work done, that f/2 ~ f/4 would suffice as well, which makes me consider doing the whole experiment all over again with another lens!

Source: B&H

It was during this session that my Nissin power-pack fell down and got damaged, and now it is fixed with the help of my brother with gratitude. It is a reminder not to attach these stuff to my pants ever! Anyway, I continued to shoot regularly using the regular AA batteries inside the speedlite. I wanted a spotlight effect on every scene, and I've achieved that without attaching any light modifiers to the speedlite, but simply zooming the head to its maximum length (105mm). Remember: Light spreads out in a conic projection, and since I'm too close to my subject here, the cone is going to be short and hence it would act as a spotlight. Carrying the speedlite by hand or a lateral arm and pointing it down was a hassle though.

6 - Series One

Now among all these shots in the series, probably the last shot (6) was a bit philosophical and could carry on many meanings depending on the person who views it and his or her psychology. Personally, my idea with this shot was however a child grows, it remains a child in the view of the parents, and losing them will bring it back to childhood again however old the person is. Some people though might interpret that differently like being an orphan or the child is the king of the house at the end (since the little shoes are at the very topmost step), or even the cycle of life. Not sure if the variety of interpretations is a good or a bad thing, as opinions (as I read before) differ in this field: some say a good shot is the one that picks the right idea for the viewer and that is a sign of a thoughtful photographer, while others argue that the variety in interpretations for a single shot is a sign of creativity (given that composition is executed well). However the opinion is, it seems this series is liked by the leader more than the next one, but he stated it needs a bit of extra work, which I will try to do in the coming weeks!

Photo Story Two

Series Two

This series was more disastrous. It was done in one day and in a haste and had to change many ideas because I couldn't get the proper help back then. The idea for this essay or series is similar to the previous one but expressed differently, and shot differently. Submission of the final results was due the next day so I had no time. This series was done with a converted camera, and because of my haste, I did several mistakes:

1. One image is not similar to the others in orientation, which somehow made it awkward when presenting and showing the series.
2. Some of these images were taken with IR filter on lens, and some were taken without (because I simply thought it is there but it wasn't!). 
3. The shoot was not organized and were not taken in chronological order (and that can cause confusion in the workflow, for me at least). 
4. Not being able to find a young model made the second shot in the series even more awkward. 

When checking the series, the leader pointed out that he feels there is a gap in the story. Probably it is somewhere between (4) and (5), where (4) symbolizes marriage, and (5) symbolized old age, and probably I should have added something symbolizing Motherhood.

1 - Series Two

The hardest part of shooting with my converted camera is the fact that I can't focus using the viewfinder in a normal way because the IR filter is (typically) opaque, and I can see through only using the LiveView, and in LiveView, focusing was somewhat hard to be done for some reason. All that, was done handheld and without a tripod. Probably the toughest one to be done was 1 - Series Two, where I asked my brother to put his pinky finger into his daughter's hand. The quick movement of the baby and the troublesome focusing with the LiveView had me really, really exhausted. As for some of the shots which were taken without the IR filter on lens, things were fixed using Photoshop to mimic the IR look a bit; these shots after all were taken with a converted camera (i.e. with a full range of spectrum including visible AND infrared). Notably, a friend commented on this series, saying it is more likely to be related to a healthcare topic (e.g. hospital) rather than the life of a girl!

Conclusions

This type of art is promising and probably had more expansion in expressing moods and stories; because not everything should be fit into one picture. The leader of the group says it is one of the most desired fields in contests (but that's not really my concern for now).
It is necessary to write down the ideas and sections of the story (in points if possible) in order to organize the work. From the overall evaluation for the two series above, it seems that a stable background would give and serve a better story line, but of course that depends on the type and nature of the story after all. Also, it seems that a set of images with a constant orientation is better in presentation, or if there must be a change in orientation, I guess it is better to be done in a specific organized manner (e.g. landscape-portrait-landscape... and so on). I'm not sure if there is any generally accepted rule for the orientation in such field of photography, but this is my own observation after all.

Finale

So, this post is mainly dedicated for one of the workshops I've been involved in lately. Now with me being back to work it seems a bit harder for me to go further to more workshops in the future but I'll try, with this exhausted body.
There were other experiments but they failed and I'm still looking for a chance to repeat them but with different materials, with hopes that it might be better next time. Meanwhile, I'm getting my probes out trying to sense more and get inspired more for achieving further projects with my camera, indoors.
I can't keep my mind off the idea of having a vacation and travel. I seriously need it with a "great depression" era passing through this country, and yet ironically I can't take the risk just like that under such circumstances. It's like a going on cycle. All I can do for now is indulge in games and camera as much as I can.
Now, I'm sitting even a new goal for myself, after the death of the star, Mahmood Abdul-Aziz. I guess I need to sit for some long hours in front of Youtube and follow up with whatever episodes and series for him posted there (the last series he acted in were published on Youtube as well as being played on TV). May he rest in peace.
Would that be enough to keep my mind off my nostalgia, panic, and depression? We'll see…

The Magician
A Homage

Sorry, No Photo...

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

Das Licht:

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

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

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

Simple schematic diagram of the basic setting.

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

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

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

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

Towers of The Rising Sun
The Opening?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scriptures:

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

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