Alexander 6, V4.

TGIW. Thank God It's Wednesday! A phrase I missed typing or saying for a long time after changing the weekend system in Kuwait, making the weekend on Friday and Saturday instead; which sucks! We got a holiday here extending until next Monday. Woho! No work on a MONDAY!
I'm planning to go out earlier today, and that's why I'm writing my blog earlier than usual. After finishing 2 verses of transliteration from Alexander VI, I took sometime on writing a short little poem. Something to the memory of Oughterard and Ireland. I named it "The Path of Oughterard."

The images I took the day before yesterday were not so special or anything, without any sparkle or life in them, and also not sharp enough and somewhat blurry. Thus, I decided not to work on the tone-mapping for them and instead, I kept on working stitching some old panorama I made for my work place.


The stitching process takes almost half a day. I made this parnoama before and it is not a quite spherical panorama, because I didn't take pictures for the ceiling in complete sequences, but it was a 360 degrees one made on 2 rows. This is the second time I make a trial with this panorama, as I made it normal the last time. Here, I've made my mind to make it as a "little planet" projection (also called Stereo). The first stitching process stopped after it reached the end almost with some error regarding the creation of the JPEG file (I remember it was related to the damn RAMs), and I thank God that it was a sequence of JPG images only and not HDR! Anyway, choosing the final creation to be saved as a JPG was a mistake as well because I wanted to keep the transperancy as well. Thus, I had to stitch again and this time, the end-product is saved as a PSD (more than 500MB in size but only one layer!). I manipulated the image later on (this morning and in a hurry), making it more sharp and minimized it from its original size (close to 20,000 pixels height and width). For web purposes I decided to save the image in a GIF format to save the transperancy, but unfortunately the picture was sluggish and spotted for the low quality. Thus, I decided to put it up as a PNG, but of course the file size would be a bit larger than the GIF version. The JPG format of course, won't save me the transperancy in the image.
This is said and done, I might try to construct my own softbox in the coming days, as something to do for fun at home and also it would be useful in the future. I have in my mind many sizes to construct currently, and to begin with, I would do a flash-mounted little softbox, to reduce the glare of the flash on objects (since I suffered this sooooo much with my trials on my censer). Also, I intend to make out a light tent, or a light box, in which lights are projected from the outside and the object is in the middle of the box with a white background. I wanted to do some trials with my camera yesterday, but with the stitching process that took almost half a day and took over most of the memory in my PC, I neglected such idea completely!


__________
73. and Alexander was shaken by the speech
74. and could not imagine the age of the man
75. what is going around him and what is the logic
76. nothing seems to bear meaning to him now
77. then he gathered the power to ask the old man
78. "and how shall I get to the lands of Ayvars?"
79. so the old man answered: you shall answer my dear!
80. and with a strange look, Alexander gazed upon his face
81. and then he said: you are the grandson,
82. you don't know how to visit your ancestors?
83. then Náwi answered with sadness apparent in his eyes
84. "my dear friend, your question revives memories,
85. of long lost tribes and nations, wisdom and faith,
86. my ancestors went away with their secrets,
87. and here I am left alone with my sons away from them,
88. and it is mentioned in ancient books that we had,
89. about a the poor and rich man, whose name is Vuqurnún
90. who has light in his face and a spot on his forehead
91. and his red hair go down on his shoulders
92. and his teeth are white with bluish color
93. carrying his sword of the three points
94. and his golden shield of the sun's image
95. he shall know the road to the ancients
96. and by his hands the secret is revealed"

Alexander 5, V4.

 

This image, tells what kind of camping tools I was carrying with me up to the roof of my own house. Filters case, Camera and its tools, a book (under the filter case) and the chair is put up from the last session, flashlight and all is carried in this handbag (crushed beside the chair!). Ah, I forgot the tripod. It was a heavy load to carry and go up that ladder to the roof, and with my fear of height, it was unbearable.

I made out a square black card (from the large hard papers I bought yesterday) by the same size of my filters to be fixed within the filter holder to block the light when unneeded. Anyway, my trials were not successful at all to get a glance of the sun. I ran in buLb mode and minimized the aperture as much as possible (f22), and for all over the 30 minutes, the black card was covering the lens and I moved it for ONE second only and put it back and continued the counter above 30 minutes even. Yet, the image was so bright and features cannot be recognized at all, although I even fixed my ND8 and ND4 filters as well. One second of sun in its height made a fuss for the image. At the end when the sun was gone and I had nothing much to do up the roof, I decided not to leave it just like that, so I made this shot. After gazing for some time into the sun (not directly of course but almost), I did have problems concentrating on whatever I have in front of me. Thus, I was trying hard to focus the lens manually but I couldn't, and fortunately, the auto-focus capability worked just fine even though it was dark already.

The image above is Pseudo-HDR by the way and not a real HDR. Despite the fact that I took 3 images already but I was so careless about the settings of my camera that evening that I did't fix anything, but shot the image directly, and hence, I had to make up some effect with one of the RAW files (i.e. one image only). Some manipulations and noise removal were used as well, but the original image was way worse than it appears here in this small version.

I've really started to like to sit there on the roof. Quiet (despite some children noises from neighboring houses), and fresh, although it is tiresome already to climb to there; specially carrying all these tools. I spend the time there reading my ghost book that I got from Ireland. I'm just afraid that some of the neighbors would reckon my position there and ignite some problems, claiming that I've been spying on other homes. I know the mentalities of my surroundings, trust me.

In some weird spark of thought, I find myself (again) attracted to astrology and the calculations involved. I realy can't say whether I'm fascinated with its history, concepts or its calculations and usage for the human beings, but in general, I'm just chasing after it. Specifically for the time being, I'm running after what is called the "Arabic Parts (Lots)". I found some calculator for these parts (as they are not heavenly objects) but, the main part is, what do they mean when found in some place? The calculator can be found here.

Despite the name, Arabic Parts, these aspects of astrology were actually much older than the raise of civlization in Arabia, dating back to Egyptians, Greeks and Babylonians as well. They are mainly named like that now because Arabs made an extensive use of them and because of the Arabian scientist back then, Al-Biruni, who derived many parts of those. I'm not a keen lover of prediction, but as an Arab, the topic attracted me as well to see for myself where and what is that. I used to read a lot of astrology and palmistry book before for my interests in occults, but now, seems my scientific brain occupied the most part of my life because of my studies. However, I go back to these for fun from time to time... there are certain degree of occuracy within such things and within some limits that would make you surprised sometimes...

__________

73. Alexander's hair stood up like pikes when he heard of Zimúrá
74. because he tried it wityehnot h his men and he knew the pains
75. and he told the old man his story from Caqobia
76. up to until he reached this strange village of the old people
77. the old man then shouted: you are the promised then!
78. Alexander was surprised for the answer and opened his eyes
79. and asked the old man about the other stories of the village
80. the old man continued the stories of this strange village
81. and he told him that this village is called Hoshea
82. and his name was Nertus, the elder of this village
83. no one rules them and all of them are equal
84. they plant together and eat together and trust each other
85. their graves in the homes to remember death always
86. and no doors to their houses because no thief exists
87. and one day their prophet long time ago foretold them
88. a yellowish warrior will come and save the village
89. from the beast of Tawyátá, the bird that eats humans
90. and in every year the bird eats a young man or woman
91. or eats what they plant for food or drink their waters
92. and only when one man and his faithful nobles come
93. they will save the village from the claws of this bird
94. and their names and numbers are mentioned in the books
95. the old books of the village of Hoshea
96. and the talk of Nertus the old was over

Alexander 4, V4.

It sounds that however and how much ever sleeping I get, it is always hard to get up for some reason! I slept almost 10:30 p.m. yesterday and this is considered an early time for me, but yet, it was hard to get up this morning. Anyway, it was not so late to stuff around the house before I leave.
Still working on my experiment for working in the darkness and taking pictures of my censer (or scenter as I called it before). Still not so-good results. For this reason I went over the manual again and I think I would need some extra tools that I have to put them on my wishlist for the coming months to be purchased, and these are some tools to trigger the flash remotely (wireless or by cord). I went to check Canon store near by, and unfortunately for me, I think I came earlier than usual (as usual) and the store was closed. Anyway, I think they wouldn't have such tools, and if they do, it would be triple the original price. As for the time being I would continue to use the mounted flash as it seems.
Pointing my flash to the roof was not a bad idea, but yet, it did not give the results I'm seeking. More to that, the flames inside the censer just vanish as if the censer is turned off and no candle is burning inside. Here and there, I've summed many images taken yesterday into HDR, and the usual hard noise appeared;

Tone-mapped image of the censer made by several shutter speeds (~5 shots)

The image looks neat (somehow) when it is small, but in reality it is like my face; full of moles and pimples! The colors look smooth and nice and you wouldn't guess it was taken in a dark room (a completely dark room except of a LCD monitor in the far corner). Yet, unfortunately, the noise covered the whole area. It would be nice if I have the knowledge on how to trigger the flash as desired and when desired, and I'm still working on it, but the thing is, Auto-bracketing for exposure is not available when you connect the flash (or even when using the camera's flash itself). I think I read some where that I can separate the functioning (from Fn functions in the flash itself), so I will have to try again today and see for myself if this will allow me to use auto-bracketing.

On the other hand, there are some nice images taken with a single shot without the necessity of combining into HDR (although HDR is supposedly to have wide range of EVs), but there is always a problem with such shot, specially with my flash mounted on the camera and not placed in some angle;

The Censer taken in a single shot with flash

As you can see, it is somehow OK, but it's lacking lot of aspects that I want to put in this image. The flames inside, as a beginning, are not so bright and pale somehow. The shadows on the right hide some details and do not reveal a unique shape for the censer (as a whole). Finally, there is the annoying reflection of the flash from the lusterous body of the censer. My camera was in portrait position and for this reason, the flash would shoot on the side of the censer and drop a shadow to the right. However, even fixing the camera into landscape position, that would give off a reflection on the main body. The colors and shadows are somehow enhanced with RAW editor of Photoshop, yet, the reflection of the flash is annoying and hard to be cloned out (if not impossible).

I sound a bit lazy now for trying all these experiments and forgetting to continue the work on my collection from Ireland. Anyway, I think 3 photos to be added to the collection and get it ready is a matter that can be done in a matter of 30 minutes to one hour. Thus, I'm postponing this for the time being.

I let go of my imagination about today and wrote another poem and named it after my "beloved" image that I snapped some weeks ago, "The King of Chairs". This picture reminds me (and intended to be so) of the situation that we live here almost everyday and all the paper work that one has to do to even pick his nose off. No offence, but I started to hate administrative people by every passing day. However, posting the poem in some forums here and there seems indeed a hard task (specially if you want to link it to some image!). All these codes started to bug my heads and I had to work on 2,534,599 tabs in my Firefox.

__________

73. with some courage did the men stand up
74. and waiting for what they will be facing
75. and the march into the black heaven started
76. and Alexander viewed strange strings over the trees
77. some of them were tied and some of them were loose
78. and some of them were long and others were short
79.  some of them were made of animal hair
80. while some of them were made of plants
81. and the black birds stood on the branches
82. watching the men of valour going to their fates
83. while the silence was heavier than metals
84. a shout appeared out of no where
85. while one man went missing
86. and the screams of agony hammered
87. and men went missing one by one
88. then one villager shouted with a full mouth
89. "Dogs and Cats! Attacking our backs!"
90. the army turned to the back in a surprise
91. and found out it was in a circe of doom
92. made out by hoards of mutants
93. some of them were like cats and dogs
94. and some of them were like pigs or boars
95. and the shock paralyzed everyone
96. while Chidhwárthí mumbled "I knew it!"

 

Alexander 3, V4.

Today was a semi-idle day for me. Not so much work done to the transliteration of Alexander's story VI, but yet, I've been moving here and there in work-related issues.
I was out to submit some items for calibration to the RPD (Radiation Protection Department) and I was thinking of going back home just to check my PC which I left it operating last night. I was stitching a 360 panorama view for the castle of Aughnanure and its field (again), and since the operation was so, so, so slow, I decided to leave it like that and eventually slept earlier than regular days. Only 3 images are left to complete the next packet of picutres from Ireland, but yet I'm scattered here and there and barely completed the work on one image yesterday, which actually, I don't belive it is much of a good one!





In my office, despite this idle behavior, I was busy reading and reading about the medieval Middle East in Wikipedia. Specifically about the Abbasid dynasty. So much there to be read that I was so amazed of that time and how much cruelty was involved. The decline was not any better however. As a Shiite Muslim, I can't say I'm so very fond of these dynasties that took the role of guiding the nations before, but mainly, reading such stories and history makes my mind burn with imagination as to the events that took place. There is a movie in the story of every Abbasid Caliph (or even in the revolutionists at the time of any of those caliphs). Sometimes I do ask myself even, "did those people have time to smile even?".

Yesterday was a Monday as you all know. Yes. And you know how much I like Mondays... NOT! Right after arriving at home and before I even complete half of my lunch, I got a phone call to release the poor cat from a pest-glue that got stuck to his legs. After fierce shouts I was able to remove the glue in hardship, as the wild animal was jumping here and there thinking I'm going to hurt him, although I used to serve him food on a daily basis. His beautiful fur now is corrupted with spots of dirts all over since he escaped to the mud and sands in the house after being released from the glue. Poor guy.

__________

73. Carnúg went with his horse racing the winds

74. until he reached a place between the two tops

75. where Dágh, the red, lied over his right side

76. and on his left side lied Daghíl, the white

77. he took a look over the valley of Malúnet

78. you can see from afar he was paralyzed in his place

79. his legs got frozen and his voice got trapped in his throat

80. it was some time until he got his power again

81. then he got back to his camp sweating like a waterfall

82. everyone gathered around him waiting for his tongue

83. but his tongue was stuck like a piece of wood

84. Alexander passed his hand over his head gently

85. and with a smooth voice asked him to go on

86. Carnúg shouted then: Blood! Blood!

87. everyone looked to the other in amazement

88. Carnúg continued: the valley is full of blood,

89. and there are creatures from other lands

90. another lands not similar to us by any way

91. they eat whatever comes their way in any way

92. barbarians with no one like them

93. some as tall as trees in the forest

94. and some as dwarf as rocks of the desert

95. nude never heard of a cover for their bodies

96. and their smell is that of the fresh blood

Alexander 2, V4.

Some enhancement with the mood, but I had to receive some bad news from the press with my model for the brochure that I made for work. I have to make the fonts smaller and blacken them out just to fit their machines. Anyway, this is supposed to be some "easy" task to do... if only I would find the original PSD file of this brochure.
I couldn't believe my eyes when Fotolia rejected my 2 images of the dome, claiming that they have aesthetic problems. I just can't understand what those people are asking for? Anyway, Canstockphoto accepted the 2 photos and that's fair enough. I'm waiting for a reply from Bigstockphotos as well. They surprised me indeed when they accepted 2 of 3 from my shots from the parking lot in Soog Sharg!

Rejected

Accepted

 Accepted

After accepting these 2 images, I revived my hopes in them. And I used to think that they are worse than Fotolia in their conditions! Pah! It would be somehow a disappointment if they rejected the dome photos... and since no luck is my friend, then they would reject them eventually!

Back to the images from Ireland now, and as I finished the folder of 1-10-2009, I'm checking the special subfolders that I usually keep for panoramas taken on that specific day, and they were a lot. I'm hesitated on wether should I spend more time fixing the errors in these images or just do the easy stuff and move on and come back later one day to these! Apparently, the noise problem that I just noticed a month ago and picked my camera for sensor cleaning for it was apparent in the photos taken back then, but for some reason I didn't notice them at all. But with the new panorama that I've made, I've noticed how much spots were there...

The previous image was cleaned from spots and noise with cloning stamp in HDR state before the tone-mapping. Also, I added layers of hue and saturation adjustments to make the colors more bluish and fanciful with some greenish hue for the trees. Honestly, the image looked perfect to my eyes just like that without tone-mapping. However, I made the tone-mapping with Photomatix and not in Photoshop, because in such abundant details and wide image, I tend to make lot of mistakes with the manual job. I was surprised though with the amount of noise that appeared after the tone-mapping that neither NeatImage nor NoiseNinja did any good in removing it! For this reason, I kept this image for myself. It looks better in small size, but in actual size, it is horrible. Thus, I did not submit it to Canstockphoto (and that's why I didn't put any watermarks on it). If you want to use it, please go ahead, just give the credits, please.

I'm trying my best to sharpen the image in the HDR state before tone-mapping, as I read and learned from Mr Christian Bloch's book about HDR imaging, but this option seems not so very useful to do, at least for my images. When I sharp and watch the sharpening artifacts show up (by checking the higher EVs of the image in HDR state), I do reduce the amount of sharpening and the radius and they become so low that, eventually, you see no sharpening effect in front of you at all! Thus, why use it? I guess doing the sharpening after the tone-mapping is better in my case. Sharpening too much without taking care of the artifacts and the color noise at the edges in HDR state, would make tone-mapping later on a bad experiment with weird spots of colors showing every where.

My work with transliteration today would be limited to one verse only I guess. I've discovered some confusion in my present tense make-up (the last syllable of the 4-letters verb). For example, "to leave" is (ğaţbaš), now to make the present for 1st person - I leave - it would be (ağaţbiš), but then some verbs I wrote like (ağaţbaš) and that made me some confusion in the matter. It is a serious mistake that makes me think of all the previous writings and transliterations that I did before. I might have to check them seriously and see any corrections that appeal. I hate this when it happens. Moreover, it might make me record some stuff again, which I thought I've finished already.

For the time being, I'm going to check what I transliterated already from Alexander VI story, and hope no mistakes would show up in the future. At least in grammar that is.

For today, we have Alexander 2, verse 4.

__________

The tidings of the ill omen travelled like lightning
the king killed the messenger for no right or wrong
Thus, Alexander raised his eyes up to the sky and prayed
with tears on the cheeks for the poor man he sent
"O Lord, what to do, I obeyed and listened
but the devilish ones accepted nothing but evil
By Your might I come and go, live and die
guide me through this and do not let me go astray"
Then the voice came down to Alexander
and only he could hear it in his ears from above
"O Alexander, by My power you shall succeed,
and with the light of Mishdárá you shall go on
We know what happens, and happened and what will
go and victory is yours, this is a test for you and your men"
Thus, Alexander got down from the mare and bowed down
to the Almighty, the Giver of life, the Giver of might
Then to his soldiers he looked and organized
and spread the twelve generals across his eyes
Chinchán, Ishkán, Chírán, Érán to his right
Dómí, Tólímí, Kahrímí, Gehámí to his left
Then Shakrashom, Dartalom, Keríhom come
along with Galgolom, they were in his front
While the bugles of war screamed so high
for the blood scattering and for men's valour