The Office…

Alright! I think I can literally say that I'm officially retired now! I didn't go to work for more than a week now (or by the time this is posted, it would be 2 weeks), and as I'm writing this, some papers need to be signed and completely detach myself from that workplace (and it is vexing me off).
I have to say though there are some bitter-sweet moments involved here but I'm trying not to gaze upon these for a long time now and just keep going. I'm not sure where I would be going from here, but the joy of not having to drive the car daily to and from a specific place routinely is just overwhelming!

Last Encounter

As I've mentioned in my last post here, in which I was updating about my life, I've already made some shots in my workplace, specifically for the office where I used work. This is like a tribute and a farewell. Honestly though, I do wish of shooting other buildings around my workplace as they are more interesting (architecturally), but I'm not sure how to be permitted to do so. I might ask about it later.

The last Meeting

So, I've posted The Last Meeting in my last post and I didn't go about the technicality here. Originally, this shot was taken using Hα filter fitted on Voigtländer 20mm lens. The shooting was bracketed but I picked the darker frame of the three to process as it yields the mood better. The colors look almost natural after fixing the WB, and this is typical for Hα filters when used in this manner (the effect is exaggerated way more when doing it outdoors and shooting plants). In the process, diffusion was added on purpose as well to add more to the mood. There is a building showing from the left window, thus it was yellowish.

The Dark Meeting

And because of the number of these shots taken with Hα filter, I've decided to process one of them without adjusting the WB just to see the look and mood of it, as seen in The Dark Meeting. I think not bad for something to give dark vibes. Interesting though to see Blue/Cyan/Green tones are somewhat preserved (though faintly) in this dark version.

Workplace

Then of course we have some words with panoramas, but the big talk about panoramas will be left for later for the time being. After doing the main panorama in the office (which was faced with some struggles), I've headed out to shoot some handheld panorama for the building in general. It was quite an opportunity because things were quiet and just my car is there to add some element to the building. Probably you've guessed it already that Workplace was shot using Hα filter, fitted on Voigtländer 20mm lens. Actually, I've shot it more than once, as the sun didn't allow me to judge the proportions correctly from the LCD (and in fact it was a bit soft and needed to be sharpened). In fact, I did shoot in brackets in order to merge images into HDR slides and tone-map them later after stitching, but turned out that it was not quite needed as not much can be yielded (or let's say, not much drama could be deduced from the scene). 

Workplace II

I made 2 versions of the same panorama by swabbing the Red/Blue channels (quickly by using the Invert layer trick) and in fact I've liked the swapped version, Workplace, more than the original one after stitching, which happens to be Workplace II. Such swapping is common in such images taken with special filters, in order to turn the red sky into blue and give some mixed sense of normalcy and surrealism. Anyway, for me at least, I judge by the overall looks and I do prefer Workplace to Workplace II. Probably the proportions are not quite fit as the ground occupies more space than the sky (and I consider it a bad thing really) but I couldn't ask for more in such a handheld panorama.

The Office

Now, the big part of that "session" in my workplace was a panorama for my office, and I got all my gear for that; Well, most of it… I'm not a picky person when it comes to the gear that I should include when visiting a location.
Anyway, I've already set some basic ideas to set the mood or the general looks for such a panorama:

• Dark mood, so the panorama would be shot with lights switched off.
• Reflecting my life in the office, so most of the things in the office should be untouched and not re-organized (except for few items of course).

With these in mind, I've started to settle down with my tripod in that narrow space between my desk and the meeting table (my office is originally a meeting room).

The Office

The shooting went relatively smooth and it was my luck that I got a mix of yellow and blue lights (or warm and cool) from the door and the window respectively. In this shoot, I've tried to capture the nadir point as well in hope that I can stitch it as well with the rest but things didn't go well in that perspective. I was hoping to do that to increase the space at the bottom if possible and not make things look quite close to the edge of the frame in this panorama.

The Door Upward

Of course, the shooting went bracketed for HDR merging later on and I had a peculiar problem there when some specific slides  (and for a reason I'm still not sure of) where the bracketed images were not aligned properly by Photomatix and caused quite a hassle when I tried to stitch them. I've discovered the reason later on, and it was some option in Photomatix for aligning the images; Everything should be off except for By Matching Features (or in fact, I might have turned this off as well!). Anyway, what puzzles me is why that specific set of bracketed images that was affected? I still have no answer. And for sure, one has to turn off the Crop aligned output option. This is designed for handheld panoramas and not a systematic one done with proper tools like this one. I found out all about this the hard way.

At The End of The Office

And of course, if you've known me for a while and my work with panoramas, you might know as well that I won't just satisfy myself with only one version of the panorama. Each projection style has a potential to carry on some kind of message or feeling (or mood) that has a big chance of being different than the original flat normal version. Now the difference of course is not to be understood as "diverse" but let's just say: Tweaked little bit.
So, the 2nd version I've made, The Door Upward, can be interpreted in 2 ways; Either as the door that lead my up (on a financial scale) or the door exiting from which would lead me upward. I'm appreciative toward my work, but I'm just not in harmony with the people in it or the system.
Then I made a 3rd version, which is based on the typical "little planet" projection, and actually I used to call such style "wide view" projection or style. In At The End of The Office I was lucky that the light from the door kind of met the light from the window (with a little help in editing). But this version, unfortunately, is not suitable for big format because of the mess in the ground from trials to remove the tripod remnants. This is one of the reasons that taking the nadir shot and stitch it altogether was a goal when doing this panorama; With such differences in light and tones on the ground, it's just not that easy to clone out the tripod/head remains in the image. I think this version kind of mimics going in a trapped environment and then freedom shows somewhere at the far end. You are free to read it as you wish of course.

Ethereal Opposites

And finally, the 4th version of this panorama and I would say probably my least favorite. In fact, this is one of the reasons that I've done a "wide view" version before the typical "little planet" version (and consequently the "tunnel view" version above). In fact, I've didn't make a little planet out of this panorama (so far) as I couldn't feel the aesthetics behind it. Not only that, but removing the tripod remnants from the little planet would also require a great deal of time (if it is possible to begin with). So in a sense, the tunnel view version, Ethereal Opposites, was quite easier to be done and be dealt with than the little planet version. I don't like the general composition formed by the inner elements of this version but I just like the way the light from the door sweeps through (and I've added more of it in the HDR phase) which somehow gives a sense of spiraling from the center going outwardly. Emotionally, well, I don't think I can feel much out of this version really.

Finale

Well, I've posted everything new that I've made lately in this post, but there are more which was done from old images, some of which do roll back in time to 2010. I'm not sure where to start with.
On the other hand, and as I'm typing this post, I'm still having problems with the management in my (ex-) workplace with the final procedures to get my "leaving certificate". Because of these delays, it is quite probable (or even for sure) I won't be getting any salary or pension for the month of November. Papers here, papers there, and then I've been told things are to be done online, and then after some told me you don't have to do a thing, things will be done automatically and all I have to do is to check my custody; Which is a burden worth a week of work I presume. I'm digging old files and documents to track these items AND I do need to find someone to transfer to. Otherwise, all of these valuable scientific instruments might go away for good with no return. For this matter, I'm officially retired, but I'm bond to go to work now and then to check things and to follow up. One of the jokes I've been told just lately, is that one of the critical websites that I need to complete some of the procedures, would not open from outside; It must be opened with a connection from my workplace. Did anyone laugh? No? Good…
 

Back to Abstract...

Sluggish and slow; this is how my life is going right now amid such heat and fast. Despite the fact that I do fast before Ramadhan itself, but Ramadhan timing and schedules always keep me far away from catching up with activities, as I try as hard as possible to keep my timings constant as in regular days.
I've also discovered that I do an appointment with the eye doctor in July 13^th. Naturally, I have to give up this appointment and plan for another date. I've been told to go and change it as of nowadays, but even that is hard to do; with my duties to care for Mom's dialysis trips and arranging and taking care of my own business with my own projects (which are really important for me now more than work itself), I find it hard to just go there - needless to talk about the "crappy" conditions in that place and the shifting in working hours during Ramadhan. I go to work in early morning as in regular days, which makes everything slow for my own pace with life; everything else would start hours after the regular working hours.

Back to Work

Because of the idle time with my camera lately, I've been working mostly on old pictures and experimenting with tone-splitting as can be seen in previous posts. However, I decided to take my camera to work for some days just in hope to capture something (beside the trash that decorates the entrance).
Nothing much to be expected from my work place except for abstracts. I believe the fact that I've been sick of this place lately makes my eyes really not responsive to the environment in that place, but I had to try anyway.

Raumzeit
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 500^-1sec, ISO200.

One of the places most visited around my workplace is one corner which I've shot many times, and even tried to do a vertical panorama in that place. This time now, I've tried to shoot at this corner with my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens at f/8. The distance to the wall from where I was standing was less than a meter, if not half a meter (~3ft, ~1.5ft respectively). Even though the shot was in portrait orientation, there is one option in Canon EOS 7D which enables the user to turn on and off the automatic rotation of images, and this option is turned off because it can cause me some problems when doing panoramas, specifically for the zenith and nadir shots. Thus, when I sorted out the images later on, it seemed to be that Raumzeit is better to be in landscape orientation instead. The term Raumzeit translates as "space-time" and it is a term used in physics in relation to the principle of Relativity. Without going deep into this matter anyway, the curves lines looked like a curve in space-time. coordinates as they usually picture it in scientific books. Probably the shot could have been better if only I could elevate myself to the mid point and thus making the left and right proportions almost equal in fading to the sides.

Ad Solem
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 40^-1sec, ISO200.

Walking away a bit and not changing the lens, I've noticed the trees on the front of the building - they have been always there but never noticed them in details like that before. The branches were twirling slightly and almost made an impression of a palm and fingers facing upward. With the sun lurking in between the branches, I thought that the best thing to do to emphasize the curves of the branches is to shot them with a fisheye lens like Rokinon's. To give an idea of how thick the branches were, just notice the reduction in the shutter speed (I was working in Av mode) between Raumzeit and Ad Solem. Stabilizing my hand and body wasn't a big a problem after all even with such a slow shutter speed.
Because of the close distance here, the base of the branches were actually out of focus (and it was hard to notice in the viewfinder anyway), thus, and beside the fact that the image needs some cropping, I chopped off the base and tried to center the sun in one of the power points of the Rule of Thirds. This image incited me to study the relation between the rule of thirds and the golden spiral rule. It needs some mathematical engine boost though.

Scanography II

Been some time now since my last experiment with my scanner. I have to admit that I felt a bit down knowing that the depth of field is quite shallow for my scanner; something a bit essential. When talking about a shallow depth of field, it is in fact something normal in scanners in general, but there is a new generation of scanners that uses LED and that calls for a thinner glass layer (to help on more compact design) and it is in such scanners that the depth of field is even shallower and not tolerable to a single millimeter. I assume the perfect depth of field for scanning (in arts) is something around 2mm - this helps on giving a 3D impression for the settings made upon the flatbed of the scanner.

Blasen

However, it occurred to me to try something with the glycerine potion I've got recently and didn't have much time to try it out. I was just trying to see how would a liquid look on the flatbed surface when scanner. Since glycerine has a stronger surface tension than water, it would retain a better spherical shape than water droplets. But first, I had to cover the surface with a transparent sheet for protection (kitchen wrapping sheet here) for protection, and remove the scanner door to avoid it being slammed down on the droplets. Also, I couldn't cover the scanner with a black cloth to block the light, thus I've just realized an easy solution that struck me as how I didn't think of it before! Simply, work with lights switched off!
Initially, I wanted to draw a Smiley with the droplets but the surface tension was so strong that a line of droplets could not be sustained. Anyway, it was a just a trial and I scanned that way. The end up result, Blasen, made an interesting abstract look, not from the droplets, but from the wrapping sheet itself. However, the droplets provided some interesting reflection as well and specially those tiny bubbles beside the large ones - I'm not sure of this is also possible too with water droplets. Another try is needed!

Finale

This is my humble trial this week to do something out of my mind. The conditions around me sound to counteract my efforts to be active. Yet, I'm on the go to try and try as much as possible despite my tired body. My schedule seems clogged with things to do - and at the end I end up doing a little of everything.
Looking forward to Ireland, to release some stress and have some fresh air into these nostrils and a slower pace of life. That, however, doesn't change the fact, that all will be done alone...

Σ...

This week started with a big slap with me falling sick for 3 days. The only good point here is, I've been off from work for 2 days. I'm not sure what happened, but it seems to be some intestines problem and it is relieving itself slowly right now (but the pain comes and goes suddenly). I had some minor plans to do long exposures still at night, but I failed.
In the meantime, I think I have to stop doing work outside as the temperatures are rising significantly now. I have to think more about indoor projects - and what else do I have except of macros! But let's see one last trial...

Secret Spot II

This was my last trial for a long exposure and for some reason I don't remember (!) I didn't post it in last week's post. Despite the many trials that night in that place, only this one was somehow successful probably because of the inclusion of city lights.

3:00 A.M.
Canon EF 15mm fisheye, f/10,
HDR, ISO100.

The WB here was set to Fluorescent (and adjusted a bit later). Despite having blue in my mind, but the general look became pink/violet, and I don't mind it either actually. Here, I've used the 15mm fisheye lens rather than (the typical) Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens to limit my vision and not to include much from the sides. The first target in fact was not to this angle of view, but rather 90 degrees to the left of this view. My main aim was to record some faint star trails but seems that the sky didn't help there. Also, I was planning to go down the rocky cliff like I did some weeks ago, but it was high tide time (and I thought the water level won't be that high!) - thus, I had to abandon all these ideas and work from the top on several angles.
The exposure took several turns for HDR, starting from 7 minutes and ending with 30 seconds. Usually I would work with f/8 in such circumstances; this is because the scale on the lens allows me to use the hyperfocus principle with relative ease at f/8 and f/16. However, after fitting the scale, I thought it is a good idea to make sure that things are indeed in focus (because the focusing ring might move a bit) and thus increased f/8 to f/10 (even smaller aperture). This is significant in that the exposure time which was supposed to be around 4 minutes, is now raised to 7 minutes (two thirds a stop between f/8 and f/10).
Processing the final image (after tone-mapping the HDR slide) was not an easy task as well, as there were some oversaturation cases and I had to use many layer masks to adjust some spots specifically. I'm still in doubt about the proposed guideline formed by the rocky cliff from the foreground to the horizon, as the image still do look tilted, with a cut in the elbow of the curve. Does it seem romantic though just because it is generally pink? Maybe!

Σ

Yes. This is the Greek letter sigma. Also, it is the name of my not-so-new lens, Sigma 70-300mm, which only few days back I had the chance to use it significantly (for artistic purposes). I have to say, I do indeed like the lens so far. What I really need to do right now is to test it with some action shots, like I did long time ago with my Tamron 70-300mm. I'm not sure about the speed of the focusing in this lens.

Source

It's weird though that I can't find the lens now on B&H website (because I got it from them in the first place) but this image you see on the right is from Opteka website (not sure where this store is located though!). I was reluctant to bring my camera to work that day but then I decided to do so in order to take some shots (with my tablet) for some menus for my Arabic blog. That day, I decided to try and shoot something around my place. But first, something happened as I was cleaning my camera.

Zwei Gesichter
Canon EF 50mm, f/11,
0.6s, ISO100.

I believe this is one of these contemplative moments that everyone was talking about in books, when I suddenly lost my attention from the task at hand and kept on staring on my 7D's LiveView screen which displayed a view for the chair on the other side of the table and the reflection of some portion of it on the table. A pure abstract shot, and I love abstracts! When editing the RAW file, I've changed the orientation to portrait as the main reflection line and the empty space that was on the right wouldn't make the shot balanced (to my eyes at least), and then some crop was due to make it concise and "sharp" so to say. As I've mentioned, the shot was completely abstract and out of blue, and I like it for this reason alone.

Kalbın Renksiz Renki
Sigma 70-300mm @300mm,
f/5.6, 250^-1, ISO200.

After that I went on to try out my sigma lens outside in the nearby garden with pale flowers. I didn't have the chance to test the focusing in details but I think I do like the quality of the images so far. Strangely though, the images had an ovesaturation in the Reds and Magenta tones. Well, it might be the WB that needed a fix? Maybe, but I didn't try to do so. Instead, I tried the splash color technique (or selective coloring) as can be seen in Kalbın Renksiz Renki (Heart's Colorless Color). The proportions of course are not the typical 3:2, as the crop was intended to remove unwanted parts rather than concentrating the view or adjusting the law of thirds in general. Of course, the black and white does not fit the greens and yellows exactly here so I added a pale touch of purple - it's like giving birth to the flower again under another color, while it was originally pink or magenta in color.
Here, I also made a rotation, as it looked more natural and more harmonic to have the lines on the petals to flow downward rather than from side to side (human nature and perspective?). I tried later to get closer (with the help of 12mm extension tube) but the images turned not so well, and I didn't want to lose more time on this experiment as I have more things to do (with sickness). Anyway, this image was good enough too to spark some imagination inside this skull.

Finale

Source: Amazon

My progress with reading is going pretty slow. My time is occupied with many stuff in the current time (including writing two blogs). This makes me think seriously of changing the rhythm of my posts two once every two weeks instead of once a week. But who knows, it might be just me for the time being with my fasting period prior to Ramadhan, which leaves me lacking power after all. My plans to manage my time are in chaos in the meantime.
I had the chance to do little try-outs to understand how we say some sounds in Arabic in order to enhance the IPA perception but I'm still not sure how to describe the movement of the tongue; I'll leave that for later. There are things to be done about Geltani as I didn't have the chance to record anything lately because of the sickness and my timetable. Lot of things to do and not enough time as it seems, but this is the only way to give my life some meaning after losing great interest in my workplace; it's a place to go to every morning like a school by now. After being part of the latest win in Austria's international photography contest with the group, I do see some future out of the box. On the other hand, there had been an announcement about a reward sponsored by His Excellency Mohammed bin Rashid, regarding achievements in the field of the Arabic language into many fields of arts and technology, which makes me think seriously of pushing my Arabic blog further. I've sent an email to those in charge (via the website) already asking for some consultation, but so far, no reply. But to all, at some point deep within my heart, it does feel like fooling myself in a trial to hide my own feelings from the world...

Snooze...

I think I'm reaching the climax of my endurance capabilities through the past 2 weeks. It is just the fact that nothing goes as planned, and more unexpected events.
People here (and everywhere) are happy for the arrival of spring. However, it is my weeping time. My nighttime photography had already ceased and almost no power is left for me to leave at night. I technically spent 2 weekends sleeping most of the days. With the arrival of summer soon, I'm left to do tiny projects at home, specially in the macro field.
In the meantime, I've already signed for a 2-week leave from work just to rest my nerves from the amount of stupidity that lurks in this workplace (and all workplaces in this country; let's be honest). Everyone thinks I'm traveling somewhere - my chances are slim. The best I might be able to do is to head to Failaka island, if possible, and maybe spend a night there. My leave should start on April 1^st and extends till April 17^th. The best part of a vacation is to see people go to work while you don't!
Anyway, despite the hibernating activity with photography, I still had some few trials with my camera (and flashes) and might be interesting to share...

Ego

Don't read it wrong; Ego here is the Latin form for I or Myself! For the past week (and also for the coming few days) I've been trying to test my flashes and light modifiers on a real subject this time and not against some slid subject: me.
The fact that I don't really do well with portrait with other people, and yet I don't have someone to help me with testing my gear, leaves me with me! Experts usually advise the photographer not to be the subject of their own self; this is related to the degree of concentration and the attention paid by the photographer to the light formation - it would be lesser in such situations. Anyway, I'm working with my own face here and I don't have much options. The funny part is, as it is supposed to be a check-up for my gear and lighting positions, it became also a trial for some Photoshop experiments.

With RoundFlash

All of the coming shots are taken with my Canon EF 50mm lens, not only for its sharpness or wide aperture (f/1.4, which in fact is not used or needed here), but for its perspective in regard to the distance available for me in the room, and for the scale on the lens' barrel which I used to adjust the focus range properly. The first thing to try out with my flashes is the RoundFlash, beside another flash for the hair light on my right and above my head, with a diffuser. The rest is a simple processing in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW). One of the fascinating aspects of using the RoundFlash is, like the ring-flash, creating an interesting catch light in the eyes. The post-processing included some simple fill light, contrast, vibration, and clarity adjustments.

After the initial (simple) post-processing, I couldn't hold my fingers from doing further editing like I usually do for some friends photos. I have to admit that the edit does scare me a bit! When it comes to black and white converting, there are two possible paths actually: Convert in RAW, or convert in Photoshop. Each one of those has its own benefits and limits in fact. The image you see above is converted in Photoshop (and it is just one image from the series of shots).

RAW Edit

I've picked one of the many shots and this time tried to convert it to B&W in ACR alone without the help of Photoshop. The results, to me, were astonishing. Te image you see on the left is completely edited in RAW without any enhancement in Photoshop. The difference here is, while in Photoshop you can convert to B&W using the Black and White adjustment layer, which in return has specific tonal ranges to fix the black and white tones depending on the colors - in ACR, the tonal ranges available are varied and more delicate than the simple black and white adjustment layer in Photoshop. For example, in the adjustment layer we have tonal sliders for Reds and Yellows; However, in ACR, there are tonal controllers for Reds and Yellows, with another one for Oranges in between. This latter addition can prove very useful. in specific situations, like my selfie here. Usually, in Photoshop, raising the Reds tones to brighten the eyes would brighten the eyes and the face altogether, calling for a need to use layer masks. In ACR, however, the two zones are somewhat easier to control by the Reds and the Oranges tones (and with some fill light increment). At this level, it all looks normal. For more eye-catching bright eyes effect, then, of course, Photoshop is needed again.

The second experiment with the flashes was to light the face from top and bottom, in something like the so-called hatchet lighting. Usually, a hatchet lighting is when lights are used on the left and the right of the subject, but here it's on the vertical plane. To achieve this, beside the head light above my head (with bulb diffuser), I've placed a white cardboard on the ground and bounced the flash from it.

Selfie #4

After many trials to check the position of the lights, I had some nice shots. It seems that this hatchet method is good to show the details of the muscles of the face; though it might not be so pleasant to look at! In Selfie #4, most of the editing is done in ACR as well, including desaturating. However, some editing was needed in Photoshop to boost the eye of the color. Also, some drama was added by sharpening the image excessively.

Unblinking

And there is a big benefit of having some high resolution to your camera; It is some way to make an abstract with suitable resolution out of the general image, like it is in Unblinking. Probably it won't be a good image for a large print after all, but nice to see online! In Unblinking, the image was converted to B&W in Photoshop (except of the eye), and was given a tint to have some drama.

There is a method of manipulating images that I've read something about, in a long time, and back then I really didn't pay much attention. Probably because the talk was technical more than artistic. However, now with the ACR, it seems that this method is opening a new window for the world of Black and White manipulations. This is the method of tone-splitting. The idea is simple: give one tint to the highlights, and another tint for the shadows. The result was somewhat perplexing I have to say!

Selfie #5

I applied this method to one of the selfies taken with the hatchet technique and the results appear interesting. After converting the image (and adjusting the tones accordingly) in ACR, I've applied the tone-splitting (also in ACR) giving the highlights a tint of violet, and the shadows a tint of green. There is in fact no limit for the choices as you can control the tints and their saturation and also the balance between the shadows and the highlights in general. However, it seems reasonable and more appropriate to work within the circle of the laws of the Hue Circle. The method is simple, after adjusting the tint for the highlights by picking a specific hue and adjusting its saturation, I picked a tint for the shadows then after by adding (or subtracting) 180^o from the hue value of the highlights; For this reason, it got to violet highlights, and green shadows. I've adjusted the Balance control in ACR towards the highlights simply to reduce the weird look of the hair and black areas of being too green. Also, to add more luster to the eyes, I had to sacrifice the contrast for the whole image, and yes, I could have done it in Photoshop editing later on, but my goal was to produce an image edited in RAW only without much editing in Photoshop; and I think I've done it. This in fact taught me a lesson for the time being: It's not all about pronouncing the tones by adding contrast, but contrast must be added carefully in regard to what features of the image I'm willing to express and show more than the rest.
A note as well I'd like to add: it is a common advise when printing Black and White images, it would be a good idea to add a slight tint (most probably a yellow tint) even in a small amount just to give a color to the image and show some of the details that might be lost in printing. This is because in printers' language, White is almost synonymous with "do not print a thing here". Thus, it is advised to have a slight tint to give some color and life to the image. Anyway, experimenting with your images is always the rule I presume!.

Heaven is Watching

Out of the desire to break my daily routine and also to try to produce something before the summer is finally and completely here, I've decided to do a panorama near my workplace. I have to say though that I was in a fighting mood as well; I was willing to fight anyone who would be interrupting me and try to stop me from taking photos near my workplace. Anyway, at the end things went smooth, but I wish if I can say that to what happened later when processing the panoramas.

Heaven is Watching

That day, I've decided to have lunch near my workplace and head back when the road is less congested. I've walked up to the roundabout which overlooks my workplace (and specifically the building where I work) and started to shoot there, even though it was congested little bit but the road was giving way and getting easier. That was not a big deal for me in fact as the whole thing was an experiment and I'm not looking for perfect conditions, but I did some mistakes later which became both: a regret, and a lesson. Anyway, I was astonished for the clouds hovering over the place and reminded me of the time I spent in Failaka 4 years ago when I had some marvelous shots under clouds of the same type. Bad thing though that I couldn't (for time limitations and capabilities) do any long exposures in that location. Anyway, after shooting the first panorama, I've moved the tripod manually for few centimeters and started to shoot again. I've measured previously the distance between the centers my eyes, which was 7cm, but here I had to do things blindly and I'm sure I've displaced the tripod for no less than 10cm - can produce a big problem, and it did indeed as you will see...

WARNING: DO NOT STARE WITH 3D GLASSES FOR LONG TIME.

The image you see above is not a perfect anaglyph (or as I called it before: panaglyph), but it is one its kind and I'm hoping to do more experiments with this kind of panaglyphs; Because it is a full panorama and not a simple horizontal panorama turned into an anaglyph as I did some weeks ago. However, I've tried hard to give a good alignment for this panorama but it never worked - needless to say the stitching errors that plagued me in between the two panoramas for the left and the right scenes. Without going into details of the stitching errors, I shall discuss here the points that made this unbearable to look at!

• The distance of the displacement of the tripod seems too large which caused the difference in between the two scenes, visually, large. This would cause hardships when aligning the two scenes at some points.
• The center of the panorama should have been one of the palms, and this is a misjudgement from my side. Centering the panorama around the center of the roundabout would have produced a more interesting scene like above. This also played a role in the bad alignment between the two scenes - the scene should have been aligned around the palm that was my zero point (and to which the movement of the tripod was parallel), but I was trying hard to align the two scenes to a new point (which was theoretically parallel as well but not quite accurate).
• The ground on which I was standing was not even. This produced a change in the elevation of the tripod and the camera configuration after the displacement, and henceforth, another problem was added to the alignment process.

With these problems in mind, I'm hoping that these can be avoided in the future for another experiment like this. I just need the good location with interesting architecture or landscape to work with.
There was a plan to produce and work with a planet projection of this same panorama, but because of some internet problems in the current time I decided to delay this research to be posted in a later time. This would give me also more time to investigate the matter and the other possibilities to produce an adequate panaglyph out of this panorama. Just remember please: DO NOT STARE AT THE ANAGLYPH ABOVE FOR A LONG TIME!

Finale

I have to finish this quick and post it. I'm living a life now where I'm expecting a problem wherever I turn and wherever I go. My only escape would be a vacation outside, which I'm already planning for, hopefully to be in September of October. But I have to wait and see the circumstances. Day by day, I feel my luck is draining, and needless to say, my home is throwing my out. What is home, if you just don't feel the respect you need in it? Would it still be called home?
Everyone is telling me that I need a vacation. Everyone is seeing my bent back and my burnt eyes, and they are advising me of some vacation, far away from home and the work environment. But what can I do with added responsibilities? The least to be done now is to have my short vacation for 2 weeks just to rest my body from the everyday traffic, as well as spend some more time with my camera, and if possible go to Failaka. So many hopes I have for such a short vacation in the homeland, but let's see what is going to be achieved after all...

Kämpfe der Maschinen...

And I thought this week I will have a nice vacation for 3 days for the National Day celebrations. I was wrong; dead wrong. Honestly, I had some plans for my own in this holiday - I wanted to clean my room which is now a real mess; a REAL mess.
However, my plans got altered severely and I had to go after some tasks for the group as Mawahb 3 expo is approaching in March and there are lot of things to do yet. I'm praying things go well with this expo; we've put a heavy load of effort on it, beside so much stress to be coping with - beside grumpy members to go along with (or to quit working with).

Re-Visited:

In the mess and the fuss I was trying to work a bit more on my previous arsenal of images that I've taken and didn't touch, but also I had some unfinished story with some panoramas.

Esfera Andaluza

And back to the Arab Organizations Headquarter (AOH) where I worked on more panoramas. It seems that it is just my luck that I can't be situated under the center of the ceiling every time I head for a panorama, and in our case in AOH, it is because of the fountain. However, it seems that Esfera Andaluza with its circular projection, is visually almost at the center; but it needs a keen eye to notice the nudge off the center a bit.

Planeta Andalusia

However, before working on Esfera Andaluza, there was one weird aspect that I had to be over with yet: The little planet projection.
The story here is weird because the final image is not a typical little planet like I used to do with some interior panoramas. Rather, it is a mix or something in between the two levels of a planet projection and the wide view (which highly distorts the sides and pushing the center deep backward giving more depth to the image as in a fisheye lens).
When I first applied the little planet projection in PTGui, the whole image was not to mz likings for many reasons, but the main reason was the unpleasant view and stretch in the wooden decoration. For this reason I've shifted the nadir point (bottom point) by changing the pitch (i.e. the tilt of the view) nudging the center of the planet panorama off the center down a bit. In a wide-view panorama, the nadir point should be closer to the bottom edge of the image but here, the nadir point is just nudged little bit off the center. What I really like here is the wings formation for the hall in such projection. Anyway, I couldn't find a name for such projection and I'm not completely convinced it is something totally new other than the wide-view and the little planet, I've named the image after Planeta Andalusia referring back to the little planet projection fact.
Amazingly, with some work and some cloning, the nadir point that I've taken before and did not work in the original stitching process worked easily here (specially that it was taken with a great distortion). I had to do some resizing for the nadir image after the stitch was over and like working with tiles in a new building, I've fitted it there and done some cloning to the edges and also some toning to match the colors of the marble surface and lines between the nadir image and the rest of the stitched panorama. All of that process had to be done in HDR format, hence I was not able to use the Color Match command that is normally available under 16- and 8-bit formats.
I think at this point, all my extractions out of this panorama is done completely. I might visit back in case I had a new idea in mind. I've already inspected the possibilities of a tunnel view projection for this panorama but the overall look didn't sound so good I presume, so I've just skipped stitching this panorama for now. However, I might do it later just for the fun of it!

Arbeitsplatz:

Last week (or even before) I've received a request from the department upstairs in my workplace to take some pictures for the building (and I assume the images they have already were not as good). The whole story began with Kuwait University's Cultural Festival, when the director of the Biotechnology department upstairs was one of the invited guests and she noticed me in the last ceremony for the TV band.

A shot from the festival

However, I was busy a bit with the group (and still) and most of my tools (and thoughts) were scattered. I thought it is a great thing that such request came in winter. I was hoping for some clouds to come in and make my life a bit easier. However, many technical problems occurred! (typical, isn't it?).

Rokinon 8mm, f/8, 0.6sec, ISO100.

As you can see in the image above, the clouds mainly accumulate in the morning and I had some idea for doing a long exposure with such a fisheye lens to have most of the building in view with clouds passing over - but things aren't easy yet. Even though I've developed some ND gels to fit into the rear end of Rokinon's lens, the floodlights won't turn off until the sky is brighter, and probably the clouds are gone.

Rokinon with ND filter in its rear.

It was apparent that my luck was not lucky enough! I've been going to work for several days trying to capture a glimpse of the building and the clouds without floodlights AND cars, but seems the two options just can't be together. However, I kept on trying day after day trying to capture some glimpse of the building at different times and I had to give up the idea capturing some clouds formation because this might take such a long time to deliver the images to the director.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @37mm, f/11,
25^-1sec, ISO100.

One of the shots that I really liked is the one taken from the side aiming at making the pillars and wall lines parallel vertically. However, I was hoping to take this shot with my 50mm lens to reduce the distortion as much as possible but because of thel imitations in the space (another building at my back and some obstructions) I had to get back to my old EF-S 18-55mm; the lens that I hate so well!
After taking this image (on the left), I've first processed the image with DxO to correct the slight tilt and also to fix the barrel (typical for this lens even though not noticed) and then help on making the image more parallel (forcing parallel lines). After reviewing the image in Photoshop then, I've noticed a tiny part of the metallic shade holder popping out and it kind of irritated me because everything looked perfectly parallel but this line was sticking out.

The front and the metallic shade apparent here.
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @24mm, f/8, 8^-1sec, ISO100.

Cloning out the remnants of the shade was not a good option, thus I had to spend some time copying other parts of the image and sticking them into place and smoothing out some parts to hide the edges. It was quite a piece of cake, but if only I knew that this would work out like that I wouldn't waste my time working on cloning!
The image on the right here was also a riddle to be solved because, with the help of DxO, I tried to fix the horizontal lines and make them perfectly parallel, but when this is done, the vertical lines turn non parallel. And the situation is vice versa! I couldn't settle down with one thing after all the fixes so I just watched out for the horizontal lines, I think, to make them parallel and that's it.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @18mm, f/8, 84sec, ISO100.

Since we are at it, I've figured some experimenting with the IR filter won't be harmful, just in case this image or technique (despite being black and white) can be interesting to them. Originally, I've approached this image in different manners, in both, Photoshop and Canon's DPP, and initially I've created what it seemed to be artistically interesting photos (with red shades or with blue shades after swapping channels). However, I thought they won't be that interested in such artistic flow (specially that there is already a fisheye shot). This shot (above) was also subjected to DxO to fix certain parallel lines problems (with the usual tilt in the image because of my bad tripod!). Weirdly though, the right top corner of the building was skewed in a strange way and needed some special treatment!

Canon 15mm, f/16, ISO100.
HDR

Finally, I've decided to do a panorama outside and after the working hours. Since there are no clouds I might get out with something useful here like a high resolution panorama. The panorama is around 180^o initially, but lot of the sides was cropped. Probably the building itself occupies less than 90^o of the field view. I've done a previous panorama for the same building but it was done with a regular tripod and no VR-head and there were some stitching errors. Even though I wished for some sky here but lot of people are happy with the blue sky initially. The goal after all is just to give some printable material for the future uses; and in such cases, the bigger, the better. That way, resizing can be done with relative ease without any fear for loss of details (i.e. critical details).
The course of action was over a period of 2 days, and during that time, I was able to catch a glimpse of how spectacular my mission was:

Canon EF 50mm, f/2, 30^-1sec, ISO100.

 And yes, it was placed in front of my own workplace building. Had to crop here and there to emphasize the subject...
At the time of typing these words, the CD containing these photos is not submitted yet to the director and might not hear back from her soon. I know she's a busy person and probably won't have enough time to look at those few pictures thoroughly.

Nocturnal Nostalgia:

Nocturnal Abstract
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 400^-1sec, ISO100.

Before proceeding with the nostalgia part, I have to say that I barely found some time to work on with some of the images taken from Ahmadi around 2 weeks ago. After going over the images again probably I didn't find much, but there were some images that were saved in layered TIFF format but I didn't complete the editing process to be posted last week in this blog.
Some images were hard to be liked, but I thought maybe some cropping would do the job and change the image into something likable, like Nocturnal abstract. I've converted the image here to black and white to emphasize the looks of the light and neglect the importance of the colors (they were red, yellow and orange). I'm not sure this image would be liked by anyone but I like it after all for its simplicity of lines.

Counter Clockwise
Canon EF 15mm, f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

However, there were some images that I've neglected for some time, probably because of the pressure over me with the group's activities hovering over. One of those images was Counter Clockwise which was taken at a roundabout (before the arrival of some hooligans). I could've made the exposure longer than 30 seconds but the circumstances there made me stop at this point and I thought 30 seconds is just fair enough - all what I would have to do is time it with the arrival of some cars. Initially, I wanted to take this shot with Rokinon's 8mm fisheye lens but the view was so wide that the clock tower in the roundabout seemed so small and far away and this is exactly the opposite of what I wanted in the first place. My best choice was the 15mm lens (and better than my EF-S 18-55mm of course!).

Round Around
Canon EF 15mm, f/22, 30sec, ISO100.

Gates of Light
Tamron 70-300mm @119mm,
f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

Still with the 15mm fisheye lens when Round Around was taken and in this shot I didn't really care much about the composition as much as I cared for the simple movement of the merry-go-round. I had to crop a lot from the top to remove the black sky and I've darkened the triangular part near the top edge which so bright and shiny because of the floodlight behind me here. Not an image I would submit usually but it simply has some motion that I like. Some images however could not be fixed even after cropping hard. I like some movements in them like Round Around and Gates of Light, which stopped my cropping at a certain point because of gated lights, yet I have to say I simply like some aspects of the images and not completely like the images themselves. I think it is important to have some hope in every image you take even if you don't like or love the total aspect of the image. I've met some people so far that desire and wish to make a masterpiece of every shutter click, but this is simply not possible, and not even Ansel Adams would have dreamed of something like that! The point here, I do photography because I like it, not because I want people to be impressed with it - and when I share my images, I share my interests with the world. I'm not showing people how a good photographer I am, because simply, I'm not.

You might be wondering, where does the nostalgia part comes in. It comes from the fact that during this holiday (National Independence and liberation days), I've decided to visit the area that I've lived in for 23 years of my life. I was born and raised there and back then I've never imagined myself being out of this area. But life has its own measures and (bad and good) surprises for us. Things changed a bit since I've left this area in 2003, but the general plan and shape of the roads is mostly the same. 

Electric Sakura

Glowing Kuwait

Smiley Lighty

I won't be discussing the matters of these images and how good or bad they are (and I think most of them aren't that good), but I just wanted to say that that night sparked some memories about places that maybe I was supposed to be in till this very day if not for legal and financial problems that the family had been through. 
They told me the light decoration in the area is magnificent and they were to some extent but not as brilliant as the light decoration and miniatures in Ahmadi. Yet, I tried to enjoy my time taking some snap shots. A lot of the light decorations were raised up high and were regular in patterns making shooting them with a camera a bit of a hard task and monotonous.
I didn't write up any technical details on each image here. All what I want to do personally is just stare at these images and remember the old days. Who cares what lens I've used in these shots?

Finale:

Had been a time of stress lately. Not only for the numerous activities that I have to cope with, but also for matters of the heart - which I'm trying to have a foundation of.
In the mean time, I'm keeping some thoughts to myself after the pressure over members of the group and myself. To me, I don't care much about contests and expos (or let's say my interest is minimum), but to some other members it seems not so - specially after what seemed to them it is a harsh judgement over their images. With me, being responsible for the printing process and following-ups in this field, I've realized many hardships that members face. I have a list of points that I'm keeping for myself right now but probably would expose them at the right moment:

• Neglecting expos and contests and stop pressurizing the group's activities. If you want to bake a cake, quick baking is not the way.
• Giving a period of time for free activities for the group and not putting stress on their shoulders for some months.
• Opening up a discussion on a weekly basis for the pictures taken randomly by members every week. We have to emphasize the emotional connection to the images and not only to think in an abstract manner about beauty itself. This is not sorting out by critics, but a discussion.
• We must drop down the spirit of competition inside the members of the group; photography is a philosophy, not a fight. Won? good, lost? I'm happy about my pictures.
• A workshop to produce images would not necessarily give out the results right away. Mastering a technique after a workshop or a chain of thoughts (if the workshop is about certain field of photography) can take up to months of hard work - this is if such field is really appreciated and rises curiosity inside the photographer.
• Judgements and criticizing images should be done under the light of the available gadgets and knowledge of the photographer. A beginner photographer should not be criticized up to the same level as an advanced photographer. In Kuwait, landscape photography is a pure example of such differences in creative powers in such field of photography. It's hard to make out an astonishing image from a landscape in this country; why would I ask so much from the photographer for things out of his or her control?
• The activities should be divided in between the group members. In other words, not all (or most) group members should get involved in contests or expos, but the load should be divided and shared. Moreover, it would be better if the leader of the group picks certain members to submit some of their images for certain contests, since the leader knows better about the capabilities of certain members. I think this is far better than trying to seed ideas and waiting for the plow by all members.
• Technical advices concerning working with RAW format and color spaces is a must.

Ironically, I wish if I can make out some ideas to organize myself as I'm trying to organize some aspects of the group.

I'm not sure where am I heading, but from time to time some dreams tickle my heart and mind. Age seems to be something not to be forgotten - or not so easily I would say. Walking alone, working alone, and sleeping alone. Wondering still if my life is appreciated by anyone. In the meantime I'm digging hard and trying to grasp my poetic abilities back again. Wrote something but might keep it for the next post, next week. It was an image that inspired the whole piece, a short one though, with hardly squeezed words out of my mind. Would I be able to use photography and photos to inspire for poetry? Who knows... I need something to steam off the anger, the melancholy...

Gelb und Weiß