Fantaisíocht…

The Eid came and passed already, with typical wishes to see the holiday go longer already! Meanwhile, I enrolled in a 3-day workshop with some members of the group in portraiture & fantasy.
I've stated through this blog all the way that I'm not a portraiture person and not into this kind of art (mainly because it needs a good contact with people or models to achieve a good expressive portrait shot). Anyway, I've found it somewhat obligatory to get along with such workshop with the founder of our group, Mr Bahaadeen Al-Qazwini, to move my imagination a bit and break the dullness and idleness regarding the work with my camera. I didn't touch it for a real project since my work with solar shots for more than a month.

Short coverage from the last day of workshop

Probably the most fascinating thing about these workshops is the team work involved and exchange of ideas, specially when the number of participants is small. I took the chance opportunity here to try out some real infrared and UV photography on human subjects. As can be seen in the coverage above, we contacted a model for a number of hours in the last day of the workshop, but prior to that we did some "training" shooting on a friend and a fellow member in the group.

Anger Halfie
Click to enlarge

Training with a friend did ignite some ideas about poses and facial expressions but yet it was hard to think of something. Many did argue that shots like Anger Halfie are not really "fantasy" but it is mainly a regular shot helped out by the fact of using a filter on lens (UV-pass leaking IR) to make the image look different. Anyway, since I'm not into portraits, I did really like this shot, and the colors produced here are simply made by fixing the white balance in RAW file.

Skullptonite

However, I tried my best to get out of the ordinary even though the shots were taken with my converted camera and some kind of filter. In Skullptonite, I've imagined a jaw bone and a row of teeth, and thus I've rotated the image. I have to say that the pose itself did force me to think in that way already because the facial expression was not appealing to me and I cropped a lot already. I loved the tones in Skullptonite, so it was hard for me to even think of disposing it. Both shots, Anger Halfie and Skullptonite, were taken with UV-pass filter fitted on Voigtländer 20mm lens. 

I wasn't using a tripod in this training, and Voigtländer 20mm lens is manual (except for the controls for the aperture), hence just imagine the hard time I had focusing in a close-up using an opaque filter like B+W 403! Luckily for me, the studio strobes were strong enough to light the subject while using this filter with high f-number. Without such a high f-number, I doubt the subject would have been in focus like that without seeing anything in the LCD of the camera.

Player

When it was the last day, it was the day of the "real" work with a "real" model. Frankly, I didn't even think of anything specific prior to that day, but everything happened at the spur of the moment. I had some x-ray slides in my car for my chest so I decided to use that, and then I thought of some dice to do a Hi-Speed shot using Profoto studio strobes. 

Each participant had 30 minutes to apply his or her vision and ideas and I was last (mainly because I had to use Profoto's instead of Bowen's like the others). Initially, my shot and idea with the X-ray slide failed dramatically; using infrared here was a grave mistake! Generally speaking, The idea was to fit the X-ray slide into the black t-shirt of the model standing against a black background, and I thought that the infrared technique and filter would actually create a good contrast for a black and white shot at the end; but all my calculations proved wrong, when the black t-shirt turned white! After that I started working with the dice as it can be seen in Player. 

Player II

Initially, my idea was to blow the dice from below, but the founder found it much easier to drop the dice from the top. The founder and I had the same idea for a concept in mind and he pretty much liked it; it's about someone playing with others like puppets. The culprit behind the scenes. 

Many shots were taken and it was hard to rhyme. In Player, one flash didn't go off and that caused a dramatic low-key effect. I didn't count for this in mind but this is one of the "happy" malfunctioning stories! While processing, I was fluctuating between colored and B&W versions, but seems I like the two above in that manner. I made even a "soft" version, but probably Player wouldn't benefit much of that, since the sharp look required harsh skin somewhat as well (softening too much might turn a male subject into something girlish).

After many, many trials for trying to catch the dice in front of the model's face, I passed my 30 minutes limit already, and thus had to stop. Probably, however, that we might be doing this again after a while.

Finale

This has been my life for the past 2 weeks almost, and now waiting for the news come about the participation of my group in an event abroad. Meanwhile, my health is getting low back again with unstoppable cough, and seems I have to check it out with the doctors again. 

As I'm canceling my plans for any vacation this year, and with the bad economy and corrupt in this place, I'm trying hard to enjoy myself in this short holiday of 9 days; a holiday spent at a home like mine is not really considered anything but a torture, but to a lesser degree. At least I had the chance to sleep as much as I like in some days, beside not going to work to check-in for attendance.

I'm working currently, as I'm typing this, on some vectors (or something like it in fact) by doing art by hand and scanning. It will be taking me a while to complete the task. Probably one thing I'm regretting in this holiday is my inability to dedicate some of my time to work with Geltani (and other conlangs I've set some plans to before). But as the degree of boredom and mentally-low status increase, I find myself eager more to play games non-stop, and I'm hoping that working with some art projects like the one I'm doing right now would take my mind off of some of my troubles…

Snap!

Ta da! Over with high-speed workshop just by the new year's eve! And now I'm looking for cooperation with my colleagues in the club, specifically those who had the workshop with me, to work further on to hone our skills and come up with some more interesting ideas. Moreover, I've decided to finally purchase a "power pack," which is  a power supply specifically made for flashguns (or speedlites and speedlights). No time to place an order for stores out of the country so I got it from a local store with a relatively reasonable price (in fact, it is a match for the price listed in US stores but in Kuwaiti Dinars). I hope this new addition would push me further on using my flashes for more projects (specially tabletop). Also on the rack, some tiny project within my room waiting to be... examined so to say!

Snap!

Last week I've posted about the book I've just finished which discusses workshops done with speedlites. During that time, I was also involved in HSS (or High-Speed) photography workshop. In order to keep up with my trials, I've purchased (as mentioned above) a power pack to feed the flashgun better and give a longer lifetime. The power pack is Nissin PS-8.

Source

This pack comes with relatively good price relative to the other more advanced packs like Quantum and Bolt. Even though I've purchased it locally (from AAB World stores) but the price is almost identical to the one found on B&H stores. Still wondering how these guys make a gain really! Anyway, I'm on the task now to find an extra power cable to run a second flashgun (the pack supports 2 flashguns at a time). Unfortunately, checking all possibilities around, there is no chance to get this cable locally as it seems and hence there is an order to placed in the horizon (which also means I have to pack more stuff to make the charge worthwhile!). Thus, in the meantime, I'm trying to build up my mind as to what to add. One of the things that I will be adding soon is some extra 3D (anaglyph) glasses (made of paper), and probably another photography book.

Back to the workshop now. The work with HSS is not something new with me as I used to work with sensors triggered by sound or infrared beams, like Savings on the left. This shot though was made by a triggering mechanism connected to the flash and not camera (and the work had to be done in a completely dark room). In the HSS workshop, however, no triggers were used and there was no plan to use them. The founder of our group (and the one giving training in the workshop) was trying to teach us 2 major aspects: a) team work, b) timing. I believe these are the core of the whole workshop, as I personally am no stranger to the field of HSS but didn't do much of it. Team work proved to be a fun-activity and quite necessary for complex ideas somehow (away from sensors). As for the timing, I think it was a great practice for aligning mind, eye, and hand in the process of capturing that specific moment.

Splash
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/22, 2500^-1sec, ISO100.

There were trials on falling salt grains, balloons filled with water, falling objects into water, and many many more! I didn't do all of these experiments with the participants actually, yet the results were often interesting. Upon closer inspection, sometimes, it seems faster shutter speeds were needed. Shots like Splash were partially fine but some droplets were blurred (and in fact I did a major cleaning work to focus only on interesting droplets.

Explosion
Canon EF 50mm, f/13, 2500^-1sec, ISO200.

The balloon experiment was the most promising one I would say (and I was the first to time it right, then others followed!). Looking back at previous attempts to capture this, and also in the previous day, I've decided to raise the ISO for one stop (to ISO200). As stated in some texts, for cameras with cropped sensors like mine (Canon EOS 7D), it is safe to raise the ISO up to 400 at least without having major noise problems. It is hard to get enough light onto the sensor despite using 3 powerful Canon's 600-RT flashguns. The distance from the flashgun to the subject plays a major rule here of course (and no modifiers were added) and we kept them a bit away from the table and covered with transparent plastic bags for safety.

Juicy Heart
Sigma 70-300mm @135mm,
f/10, 2000^-1sec, ISO400.

One of the interesting shots (and the last in the series, and on the last day of the workshop) was a splash of juice which was then edited to make Juice Heart. I noticed the resemblance of the splash of the juice mix to a half heart and the idea came about right away! I tried to make a "seamless" duplication by cloning some parts off. The splash, though, does look a bit out of focus or with motion blur. Here too, a faster shutter probably was needed. I doubt that a handshake has any effect with shutter speeds that high! Following these splashing juices, capturing broken glasses was next but I didn't get involved in that activity. A colleague got his hand injured because of a tiny mistake in hand movement while breaking the glass. This proves how safety procedures are highly needed with such type of photography, beside the, somewhat, much necessities needed as well to produce a good-looking image (backgrounds, flashguns, props, ...etc).
The thing I will be trying to do next is to improve my skills with this type of photography, specially trying out capturing a bubble during its termination! We tried to capture that moment but we failed. Even my tiny trial (below) was not up to the ambition level I had in mind.

Bubble

Finale

Well, many plans are here in my mind, in addition to the HSS training. A new idea for a panorama, evening classes, and what not. Probably my inner mind is trying to keep me far away from home as much as possible despite the tiresome daily chores. With every new year, people mention stuff about hopes and dreams, but I can't see stuff like that coming. They say these stuff every year, and things get worse and worse.
Anyway, I'll try to keep my mind busy for the time being, as much as possible. My health issues right now don't give a chance to go out at late night and find some good scenes to shoot at, this is beside the shaky security issues in the area which might make a night journey a suspicious venture. Just wish this coughing would go away and this tired lung would get some rest…

Stranded...

This week took off with some busy rhythm going on. Not enough sleep and time seems slipping away. Ironically, the first thing that takes over my time (and power) is my work itself. If I can grant no rushing on the roads every morning, I would have slept more and went to work like the others do, but no, I have to be awake before everyone else.

The past week was a week of showers. Kuwait received some nice amount of rains and some areas were even flooded. It's weird for such a dry place like this to get flooded in such a way! Lot of people though get melancholic feelings for winter time, but all it takes for me is something green, and a window with some rain pouring outside.

Halb Grün, Völlig Grün
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/11, 8^-1sec, ISO 100

It rained one night heavily and the next morning the sun was shining outside but with some damp feeling in the atmosphere. I couldn't resist the green that shows from my window (which is covered with a green curtain as well) so I decided that I must do something about it. The result was Halb Grün, Völlig Grün. The image had been tilted for around 10^o to fix the diagonal line to be dividing the square evenly when being cropped. The image itself is in fact a compound of two shots of different focal points: first image with curtain in focus and trees out, and the second is the reverse. Some cloning and fixes were needed later to adjust the not-so-perfect blend from Photoshop itself. 

Starting from Monday I've started my new workshop with the group, entitled Philosophy of Light, which will discuss supposedly the creative aspects of controlling the light in images. I'm not sure how many days it will take, but I think I heard them say it's 5 days long. My teacher had been inactive for some time because of his daughter's illness. Pray she's alright by now.

My Teacher Mr Bahaa Al-Qazwini in first day of the workshop

In the mean time my mind is empty of any ideas to photograph, but on the other hand, I'm sitting here waiting for some new toys to arrive at my hand. Let's call it my own gift to myself (since there's no one who would give it to me anyway). This time my toys are of the light (weight-wise) type.

Source: B&H

My first toy would be the B+W 58mm IR Dark Red (092) Filter. In the beginning I was going to order a Hoya Infrared filter first because it was cheaper, but then I've noticed the specs which say it is for infrared films

, and since I'm new to this with my digital camera, I decided to head to another filter. The B+W is almost double the price but seems to be working with digital as I've figured from little research online. It is not expected to be working extremely good because, as I've reckoned, it would be better to convert the camera by removing the protective layer on the sensor to receive IR radiation. Even though it is said to be an easy process and harmless, but I'm not into any risks right now. I did a simple test with my Canon EOS 7D and a remote control and found out that the remote's LED was blinking while I press its buttons, so I assume this filter will work with my camera for infrared photography to some extent.

Source: B&H

My second toy would be a polarizer. Finally. A polarizer, with no sheet cutting and fitting in front of the lens, but a 58mm polarizer that fits the lens perfectly. The B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer MRC Filter is, according to the specs, said to be made of a special type of glass and a special polarizing technique. I'm not sure how that works anyway, but the circular polarizing as they say works with autofocusing more than the usual linear polarizers do. I believe this piece specifically would do me wonders with long exposures. I need it badly right now!

Source: B&H

My third toy is one of the funniest as I believe. The General Brand 58mm Macro Coupler
is a ring that enables you to connect two lenses in reverse. It is an old technique for achieving a macro level. Maybe you wonder why all my stuff are in 58mm range, it is simply because 3 out of 6 lenses I do have, have this diameter. In fact, I was able to simulate this procedure but I will come to that later.

Source: B&H

Finally, we have here a set of toys. The Kenko Auto Extension Tube Set DG for Canon EOS Lenses is a set ot tubes to help with macro shooting by shifting the focal plane further away from the sensor, thus allowing for a closer approach. I believe combining these with my Canon EF 100mm Macro lens would yield great results. These tubes are supposed to support AF functioning as well but even with my 100mm macro lens alone, I do have a problem sometimes with focusing and I must resort to manual stuff. However, better have AF capabilities after all rather than manual; 2 are better than 1!.

Reversing lenses experiment at home.

I've mentioned before that I've ordered one cheap macro coupler where two lenses are attached in reverse order and connected to the camera allowing for closer shots. I've done already some time ago and also this week but with my Tamron 70-300mm which has a diameter of 62mm. Since I have only one 58mm adapter ring and one 62mm (and one 52mm) I can't reverse two lenses of the same diameter (like two 58mm lenses) - hence, I've decided to reverse two of different diameters: 50mm lens, and 70-300mm lens.
I've simply connected the adapter rings that I use to carry the ND filters, and then combined the lenses in reverse as you can see above and held them together with hard paper clips. Tried an experimental shot with a tea spoon and it was sort of hard to adjust anything but merely the distance of the subject.

The result: the handle of tea spoon

From this simple experiment I've drawn some conclusions about this process, but I would still need to do further experimentation with this method - and it would be easier with a macro coupler.

• This method would do better when applied to manual lenses rather than auto-lenses, because then, you can control the aperture on each lens solely.
• I still don't know if extending the zoom of the Tamron lens would increase the magnification factor. The image above was done while Tamron lens was set to 70mm.
• Because of the bulky setting, it is better to move the subject rather than the camera and lenses, but then it would require some guessing somehow if one person is operating the whole thing. In my shot above, I asked my brother to hold the spoon (and he was shaking as well) and I moved the camera back and fro as I was shooting on high-speed. Later on I've filtered the images and luckily I got this one.
• Maybe it is better to fit Tamron lens to the camera and Canon 50mm reversed on that. I think the circle of light or harsh vignette is caused because 50mm has f/1.4 max aperture, while Tamron's is f/3.5, and because of that the smaller aperture of Tamron is projected into the Canon 50mm and then into the sensor causing a peek-effect or whatever it is called!
• Focusing is somehow something to forget about. You have to depend solely on the distance to the subject.
• I'm not sure that increasing the f-number on the main lens is useful to increase the depth, but I'll try it later when possible. 

All of these procedures now are somehow tempting to go deeper further in the field of macro photography. Maybe we don't have much of a wild life around here but of course it is not confined to such field. Macro could be done to almost any subject when inspiration strikes. I'm more into architecture and panoramas, but yet into abstract as well, and macro photography gives a good hand in this.


It feels now a bit like stranded now. I'm not sure what's my next move, and I do have an urge to increase my income somehow but I don't know how. In the same time I'm outraged for many things in my life. I feel my work position is not respected by the admins there, and flashbacks are visiting my mind often lately to remind me how much I suffered for others but then left alone. I have a firm belief now, or maybe I have to believe, that one day, all of that will pay off in some way - the least I'd be asking for is, a peace of mind.

10K...

Thank you all regular visitors and passer-by's for 10K views for this blog, and also my Flickr!

Here we go with another hectic week. Despite the fact that I've finished my Techniques (2) workshop, I've been struggling still with its last attachments. A homework and an image for a contest. Since the last week there had been a load of images that I've been working with from various experiments and trying to do some homework, and lately been to some ice hockey training session with the group on some training for panning and motion freeze; the sort of stuff you see sports photographers do. Not my thing, but I did it anyway and tried to have some nice time.


Before going to all these details and images, I might as well mention that I've been almost wrecked with my last order from B&H and Amazon. Since last Thursday, my package has been in my US mailbox, and I couldn't pay for its release for some credit card rejection. Finally, and only on next Sunday, I was able to pay and after contacting my bank. Turned out (seemingly) that they locked my credit card for suspicions, as I placed an order in B&H that's worth around KD160! Pay attention please that I've been dealing with this store in the past 3 years, and I've placed orders as high as KD700 before, and NOW they are suspicious for KD160!!!

Anyway, these are the new toys I'm waiting for and I'm really, really, urging to see them between my hands...

Source: B&H

The first item that I'm dying to see is this babe. Perhaps I do have 50mm covered in the range of some of my lenses but here the case is different. This lens works in USM and with max aperture of 1.4 which makes it perfect for isolation and bokeh effect. I'm not into portraiture as you know by now, but this one could push me on trying, and not necessarily with people; I could even use it for some street photography on the go! That's why I want to have it urgently before my travel on October 10^th. I was hesitated in the beginning as I was wishing for Voigtländer 80mm f/2, but keeping in mind that my camera is a APS-C type, then 50mm is better than 80mm in the matter of field of view (wider) and we have the f/1.4 case of course!

Source: B&H

The other item from B&H is the ExpoImage Rogue Master Lighting Kit. A special kit to aid with speedlites usage as it includes gel filters and flags (to block the light against certain areas) or snoots and other stuff. I'm not sure though I would take such kit with me when I travel, as I try to make my pack as light as possible, but in all conditions I'll be taking at least one speedlites just in case I would need it for some scenery, and my Vello cord for off-camera speedlite usage. ND filters are a must of course.
Currently, I'm putting all the speedlites kit along with the filters kit in one case (my old 350D camera bag) but I might have to change this soon as well. A new headache on the way!

And then we have the books. I'm going insane at work for not reading any book. I've tried to read some of the old books but I couldn't even concentrate further (because I get bored easily) and I do have a concentration problem already! I've decided to add two more books to the stack and probably take one of them with me when I travel abroad to pass the time.
With this order I've put some pressure on my budget (and credit card) a bit. However, in my work place they have some weird system when it comes to salaries and leaves; they would give the salary for more than a month ahead of time - I couldn't understand this system even though I've been working here for 7 years now. Anyway, hopefully with the next pay, I'll be reducing some hunch from my credit debt hopefully and would be better prepared for the travel. Let's just hope my bank won't decide to lock the Visa card again!

Splash Splash Splash!

It was about time to try out my 2 speedlites for some high-speed photography, but this time without any sound trigger. In fact, I might as well try it out with sound trigger and see if 580EX II can work as a master even off the camera and connected with the trigger. However, before reaching there, the beginning of the whole story is not a trial for high-speed, but a homework I had to do for my Techniques (2) workshop.

Refreshen
Canon EF 100mm Macro, f/22,
38min, ISO 100

As I've mentioned in the previous post, our teacher assigned to us to take a picture of a glass in any one technique of what we've learned in this workshop. After thinking a bit, I've decided to do 2 main ideas: thawing ice, and dropping water.
As for thawing the ice, it was relatively easy to set-up. I was hesitated to light a candle under the set-up (in a specific setting of course) to fasten the thawing a bit, but then I've realized that the blue floodlight setting on top of the glass and somehow close is producing some heat and might work in fastening the process. With the help of 6 stops and a dark room, I've managed to make Refreshen as you can see. In the beginning, I've tried 20 minutes, but I was not happy with the results so I've increased the time further to 38 minutes and changing the aperture accordingly to yield the same exposure.

Lust of Hell
Tamron 70-300mm @161mm, f/36, 30min, ISO 100

The second idea was to have a long exposure of dropping water. The idea was somehow hard to do because I need tools I don't have; some stuff to hang a bottle or something to drop water slowly into the glass. However, this was somehow solved later with some innovation if I should say, with the help of a pierced plastic bag!

Setting for Lust of Hell
Hope you don't mind the lousy shoot!

Later on though, the plastic bag was out of water in a time of 15 minutes approximately, so the rest of the long exposure ran almost static. At the end, and with some contrast enhancement, the glass retained the red color and yet looked as if it was empty, except for the droplets on the outside. I was hoping to record more movements on the surface of the glass. One of the things that still annoy me is the flare on the edge of the glass because of the floodlight. I couldn't use any polarizer here because of the space and the heat from the floodlight (and I don't have a frame to hang the polarizer).
At that point, the idea sprung up to do some high-speed photography - with the help of an eyedropper. It took me around an hour or even more just to settle down with the positions of the speedlites, and I would say that 3 are even better than 2 in such experiments!

Tröpfchen

Kollision

Aufruhr

Hängend

From the hundreds of trials I guess I got those 4 as the best. In particular, Hängend and Tröpfchen were closer to my first aim in the beginning; to have hanging droplet in the air. However, the droplets were caught closer to the water surface rather than being hung in the air in front of the black background. I've used green gels to change the color with the help of Custom WB and biasing the WB to green (i.e. giving a green tint).
One of the hardest aspects in this shot is to decide on a proper f-number and a focus point. After trial and error, I've decided to focus on the front edge of the glass, and then increase the f-number for one stop (to f/5.6), and try to drop the droplets closer to this edge to ensure they stay in the focus range. It is quite a tiresome trial and error process, specially when done by one man alone. This said, there is a lot to be hoping for: C-stands or something similar, umbrellas, a third speedlite - but I'll keep my dreams for now, and I don't even have the space for all of that!

Architectura

Friday is the family gathering day in my house, and for me, it is a nightmare that I just wait for it to be over all day and night. Last Friday however, I've ran away for lunch in the Marina Mall and keeping my camera bag with me. I didn't take any tripod with me as I was planning for fast session for anything I might see; it is just nice to feel free for once with no heavy tripod dangling over the shoulders!
After lunch however, I didn't know what to snap as taking photos from inside the mall or its surroundings is prohibited (I guess the whole thing is just a private location?). Thus, after lunch I've just started my engine again and went out of the mall, and there on the other side towards the seaside, I've discovered what I call now a secret spot.

Architectural Oasis
Rokinon 8mm, f/11, 250^-1sec, ISO 200.
Corrected with DxO

This secret spot is in fact just a tiny portion of a beach with a diameter of around 5 meters only while the surroundings of this spot is majorly made of rocks. It would be dangerous to get down that slope of rocks to reach that spot but it is tempting and I'm planning ahead for some panorama there if possible. Not far away from that spot, with little walk, I reached a place which seems to be a public rest place and a fountain. The design was intriguing so I had a walk around with my fisheye alone and snapped pictures like Architectural Oasis. Even though all my shoots in that location were bracketed, as usual, but only one image after all was picked for processing.

Über
Rokinon 8mm, f/11, 200^-1sec, ISO 200.

The place itself is also intriguing for some panorama under the dome in Über. The problem is, in Über I was standing at the edge of the fountain's well (the fountain is not working when I was there), making it a thought-processing task for how to set up the tools over this well, or keep it on the edge of the fountain - and also at what time I would shoot this panorama? Lot of questions and so little time...

Am Zentrum
Rokinon 8mm, f/11, 320^-1sec, ISO 200

Unlike Über which was corrected in DxO and the color rendering was fixed to Fuji Velvia, Am Zentrum was fixed for other issues but maybe the colors turned dull as I didn't fix the rendering to Velvia as well. However, I like the composition and the shadows play. Tried to fix the distortion in DxO for more intriguing looks but I didn't get the effect that I was aiming for, so I've decided to keep this one.

Puck Me!

Just as I was waiting for it, the day had come to watch one of the hockey teams we have training on the skating ring, as it was promised by our teacher. My teacher is an expert and an official photographer for the Asian League - and his expertise in such field is superb.
Now, action and sport photography are not my field nor I do have the appetite for such type of photography, but it was something to do after all. It was somehow a relief when my teacher said that in sport photography, it is allowed and accepted to raise the ISO level to some crazy levels!, and flashes were not allowed.

A Trial With Panning
Tamron 70-300mm @148mm, f/5,
60^-1sec, ISO 2000

The main aim of training there was to gauge our levels for panning and freezing the motion. It is cool to talk about it or see it in other photos, but to do it, that was one heck of a struggle, specially with the lighting conditions in the arena. I was changing between Tv and Manual modes, and changing the lenses between Tamron and Canon's 100mm macro, but I've settled finally with Manual mode and Tamron 70-300mm.
The key features or the guideline to stick to during such session is to use AI SERVO focusing mode, and High-Speed drive mode. Meanwhile, the ISO is to be fixed accordingly whether you would be using Tv or Manual mode. One of the first advices from our teacher is if you are going manual, meter the shirt of the player and start fixing your options from there. This is mainly because of the way that reflective metering in the camera works, and how white spaces trick such meters into pulling the whole scene into the shades.

Ice Hockey Field
Rokinon 8mm, f/8, 1sec, ISO 500

Frankly, I didn't even know we have a hockey team in the first place, but anyway as I was going there for the first time in my life ever, I've decided to take most of the gear, specially the VR-head in case I would be doing a panorama there. The location, however, as you can see from the image above was not much suitable for such panorama. As I told my teacher, the most proper place for a panorama in this place would be in the middle of the field! Which is unthinkable of course. Anyway, I had to rejoice myself with some fisheye shots like the one done above and I've slowed the shutter down to 1 second to record some movement in the field and make it plain white. These movements however were more apparent when I started to fix the contrast by Curves in Photoshop and the field, originally, was blown out.

Hockey or Fresbie?
Tamron 70-300mm, @168mm,
f/4.5, 1600^-1sec,
ISO 6400

Maybe one of the hardest aspects of working here is to hold the camera in portrait and try to do some panning or freezing the motion as well. Needless to say of course it is even hard to expect in which corner the action would be! In a regular game play, you would know that the action is where the play-item is (.e.g ball or puck), but in a training like this, the players were moving randomly to my eyes (not necessarily random to their own order).
Now after all of this, I've came back home with more than 800 images and I have to sort through them, as, of course, not all of them would be good to be published. These images with high ISO are always good to look at when small in size, but I would not think or imagine of one of those images to be in a large print at all!
The astonishing part in this experience, however, was the ability of my Tamron to focus relatively fast under AI SERVO mode. I've always put my Tamron lens behind and I would call it only when desperately needed and usually I'd work with manual focusing (even in this event I did do that for some time). However, when I turned it on Auto-focusing (as I was using Servo), I was expecting the typical delay in response and in focusing, but that didn't happen. The lens coped well in following the players' movements and adjusting the focus accordingly with relative ease. Anyway, I don't completely neglect the "luck" factor, or maybe the focusing distances are close together that the lens had no problem changing between the focal planes.

Thoughts

Some time ago, specifically in last Ramadhan if I remember correctly, I was invited to attend a seminar by a photographer who works for National Geographic. He was Iranian and I beg your pardon because I don't remember his name right now, but his first name was Reza (or Ridha, both transliterations are valid [رضا]). He talked about his experience all over the years and how he went through all of these war zones, like the Soviet-Afghan war, Balkan war and so on, and he did variety of other types of photography. You can check out more about him in his website: www.rezaphotography.org; if you do get an error, please refresh and hopefully you will be there.Now, during the seminar, one of the audience asked about the methodology, or how does he work with his camera and does he try to append to the common rules of art and photography (e.g. law of thirds). His reply sparked something. Reza said (not word to word):

"... we think about these rules as the only way to do art because we studied and brought these concepts from the West. Thus, we tend to think this is the only way to do it. Actually, it is found out that we as orientals, we tend to see things around us in terms of loops and not thirds as artists in the west always suggest. However, I just tend to capture the moment and make an image and I don't think about the rules - it is like second nature..."

These words opened my eyes to two things: First, most of the books I've been reading are from authors in the west, which makes their styles and aesthetics under an oriental perspective, questionable. Not something about right or wrong at all, but about effect and look and am I not supposed to do things differently? Secondly, what are the loops he was talking about, and how come loops can be a guide for composition!?
After questioning my teacher about it, and digging out some information myself, I've introduced myself to the new concept (to me) of the golden spiral. Well, for artists, I believe, this concept is nothing new. To me it is and I was wondering how it works. In fact, checking back on some of my images, probably I've been using this rule unconsciously!

Golden Spiral

So, I've decided to check further of my possibilities with this rule. You see above a typical golden spiral. When composing an artist is supposed to put the point of interest in the center of loop or the spiral. By the way, without going into much details and mathematics, this type of spiral is also connected to the Fibonacci series (for further information check out wikipedia here).
Since the spiral can start from any corner then we do have 4 distinctive positions (just like it is with the law of thirds).

Four spirals combined

Now, what if we combined the points of interests together with the law of thirds and check for a comparison, to see what are the main differences in spaces between the two?

Points of interest in the spiral system (in red dots) against the points of interest of the thirds system (green squares).

It can be a bit of philosophy in work here. As to why both cultures do see things differently, this is something hard to answer. We begin our studies and our comprehension of the space around us in terms of the Cartesian coordinates (i.e. the XYZ system), and boy didn't we have horrific days in physics because of this! Then we upgrade our view of the world around us gradually as we encounter more shapes and more situations when the XYZ doesn't work or doesn't make things simple; thus we came out with ideas for other systems, like the cylindrical and, the more general, spherical coordinates. At least this is what we have learned in schools here and this is how we started to measure the volume and the mass, starting from XYZ up to spheres.
But now imagine, there is a system that gets you directly to a curvatic world without passing through the hassle of the XYZ or the Cartesian coordinates (or rectangular coordinates as it is called sometimes). Can we say that the orients did indeed understand the complexity of life forms in earlier stages before the West did? I'm not sure, but it is worthy to stand still and think about it.
Notice, how the points of interest in the spiral system (red dots) are pushed closer to the corners of the frame. Does that signify a look to life? Spatial freedom? Is it possible that such mental attitude to the arrangement of the surroundings is a direct consequence for the type of living conditions? Europeans usually were packed in cities while in the orient people were more rural even when they lived in cities and in proximity to each other. Or was the whole thing related to the elements available in each culture in the surroundings and nature?
Personally, I've noticed myself being more inclined to nudge things to the corners further thinking of applying the law of thirds, while the law of thirds stays in the vicinity of the center point (i.e. closer to that point). I generally don't see an effect on the arrangement or the composition alone, but also in the shape or the general move in the image. There are certain images when applying the law of thirds is more applicable, probably because the scene is generally arranged in a rectangular way, or rectangular layers, or rectangular shapes. In other instances, the spiral rule might be more applicable mainly because of the pose of the model for example, or the shape of the subject (imagine an image of a rose!). Anyway, I will try hard to enjoy my photos without thinking much about these rules; they got a time of their own in the future, I hope!

Finale

Now, in the coming weeks I'm supposed to prepare for my travel - of course that means buying stuff, and printing stuff and, plan some stuff. It is common for workshops within my photography group to be finalized with some contest for the best photo taken with one of the techniques taught in the workshop.

Untitled
Tamron 70-300mm @300mm
f/36, 90sec, ISO 100

Unfortunately, I was not prepared properly for this contest so I had to work fast the day before sending the image to the group's organizer. Of course my pick of technique for this was the long exposure since I'm already in love with it. I had many ideas but unfortunately most of them require working at night time, and by then it would be too late (and exhaustive). Thus, I've decided to work in the afternoon that day, in the secret spot that I've talked about before. I did some trials for 5 minutes but unfortunately the noise and the water movement made the images taken inappropriate, thus I had to take the least effort and do something about it at least - thus I've zoomed into some rocks in the corner of the spot and recorded an exposure for 90 seconds, with the help of 6 stops (2xND8 filters). Typically, the filters gave out a tint, and it was fixed when RAW editing later. I think I should think of calm water instead of raging one if I want a cotton-candy effect!
I've sent the image already to the organizer and no news so far.

Now, after all the fuss, I'm hoping for a period of tranquility. As my travel time comes near, I'm becoming wary of it. The stupidity in the world doesn't stop to astonish me with new events. Makes me wonder, why do we respect all, but none respect us?
At home, I'm becoming more and more isolated. Sometimes talking to myself is the only break from isolation I could get, beside daydreaming. I've realized keeping your sorrows to yourself is far better than letting them out and get a face-turn - because then you will be shocked to the fact, the none did care...

The Dewing Dew...

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas. I'm running out of ideas I guess. However, my time is consumed gluttonously. All what I'm waiting for is to have to a break from my workshop to be able to organize my thoughts.
We had been working on some homework in this workshop and there had been some trips that I've felt obliged to go along with. Lately, we've been to the Scientific Center, again, and it wasn't my first time either to take photos from inside. Despite the chances of doing some photography in low light conditions, yet I've lost my appetite for it - needless to say that it was a busy time and visitors kept rushing in, and when we talk about visitors, we should mention as well, kids. They are blessed; because I didn't carry a machine gun back then. Anyway, I'll be back to this later.

One of the things that I'm suffering from is amnesia as it seems. As I've been preparing for one homework about long exposures to be done on the beach, I've forgot to wear my vest, in which I kept the remote and the calculator. Anyway, wasn't a big problem after all - the problem was to slide down the rocks and slipping down!

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @24mm, f/22, 30sec, ISO 100.

In the beginning, I was afraid that the waters won't splash against the rocks as it should be because the high tide time already passed 2 hours before the shoot. However, that wasn't a problem. Another problem occurred when a man and his kids settled down beside the rocks to take a dip into the sea; I was planning to take a long exposure with my Tamron 70-300mm as it gives larger f-number and it will help me for sure to increase the shutter time significantly - but now with this man in the path, I have to go closer to the rocks as I didn't want to give an impression that I'm snapping pictures of him! Isn't that annoying?

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @53mm
f/36, 30sec,
ISO 100

As I settled near the rocks and closer the water's transgression line (and after slipping off the rocks), I didn't know how to really begin doing the exposure. At night, you settle, fix a composition, check the histogram for a good distribution and from there you start the calculations and how much needed time.
Here the situation is supposedly easier but with the lack of a remote and a calculator, all what I did is try different compositions first - I tried to take a shot from above the rocks but the tripod could not be stabilized there. On the ground though, I've put on 2 3-stop ND filters and the time was significantly raised to 30 seconds, and I was able to focus (with the help of the live-view). I didn't think about it then but all what I needed was one more stop and make it one minute! Is it that important? I don't think so. The nature of the water movement is vivid and active, and probably even 10 seconds would do the job perfectly.
All shots were tinted (typical for Cokin ND filters) and I had to adjust the WB and Tint while RAW editing. The image above was sort of overexposed, while the one on the left was my teacher's favorite. There is a tiny problem with these two shots; a plastic bag was roaming the beach and I didn't notice till later.

Cotton Waves
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @38mm
f/22, 15sec, ISO 100.

As for the last shot, which took only 15 seconds, I didn't eliminate the tint completely and kept some purplish hue in the scene giving it some dreamy effect. Even though I like this one because it is clear and no plastic bag roaming! Yet, my teacher prefers the one above. I have to agree though that the previous shot was more vivid and active because I've zoomed in more and the action is visible clearly. I think also, that the elevation of the camera played a role here, where in the previous shot the camera were lower and closer to the ground, while in Cotton Waves shot it was higher, probably to my chest level.
Up to this level, I'm preparing to do some new experiment with long exposures which involves doing some sort of "double" exposures in one scene by applying ND filters to part of the image. This move, I presume, would divide the scene into 2 or more divisions and hence it would require an exposure calculation for each division and, at the end, the exposure value for each division must match as closely s possible. This is only my theory for now, but all should be clear in reality when I work it out on location. The location itself is another story that I have to think about.

Now back to the Scientific Center. As I've said before, It was hard to find out something new to my eye or to spark my imagination. Anyway, if we say that I was being paid for such a job of course I won't mind doing all of the cliché again and again!

The New Past
Rokinon 8mm fisheye
f/8, HDR [5], ISO 100

However, the imagination sparked as the sun was setting outside. This is the main difference between being inside in the aquarium, and outside in the hot weather while the sun is going down!
In The New Past shot, I've used the magical recipe for dawn or dusk: switching to Fluorescent WB. Despite the nice light but it was still so bright and the luminance range was extremely varied; a call for HDR. I've taken this shot in different angles and in different lenses and the only barrier for me to change my point of view was the fence circulating the old ship. However, it didn't matter to me as I'm pleased with the result after all, but the problem of the noise remains. I had to do some Photoshop magic to get rid of those hard crisp noise pixels that no plugin can remove.
Usually when we talk about sensor noise and how it does escalate under the effect of the heat, this noise is recognizable by its chromatic appearance or simply red hot dot in the image. This is not the case here and frequently, it is only a product of HDR merging, which makes me ask myself if there are ways to enhance my workflow with HDR rendering - More experimentation needed!

Historical Transition
Canon EF 15mm fisheye, f/8, HDR [5], ISO 100

Historical Transition was even more disastrous than The New Past. If you enlarge the image you can notice the blue line roaming the edges of the ship. I'm not sure why does that happen but most probably the culprit would be the chromatic aberration which gets exaggerated by the HDR rendering. I tried to reduce the effects by some effects yet it didn't work perfectly after all. The idea behind Historical Transition (and it was shot first), is to combine the modern buildings with an element from the past making a contrast between the old and new. Surprisingly though, some people didn't get the idea directly, not even from the title itself!

وطن النهار
or
Hiding Sun
Tamron 70-300mm @259mm, f/8, 125^-1sec, ISO 400

The Hiding Sun was one of the earliest shots done outside in fact, but I don't put much weight on it, and as you can see I didn't even watermark it. Taken with Tamron without a tripod and with manual focusing, it was indeed a struggle. Even though I did plan for HDR merging here yet a single RAW edit was enough to pin point my view, and I do predict a disaster if done in HDR. It was really hard to be convinced about this image, but I've taken it merely for the composition itself. Was I to take it again, I would definitely use another lens (probably Canon 100mm) and a tripod!
One last funny shot (taken before I get outside) that I have to mention here I guess...

Infinitarium II
Rokinon 8mm fisheye, f/8, 13^-1sec, ISO 800.

As you can see, Infinitarium II is a shot taken at ground level after a long journey inside the aquarium. In the beginning I've taken 2 shots standing up in portrait position by the same lens, but I've figured such angle of view is not interesting much. Luckily, I was carrying my calculator in my pocket just in case, so I've laid it flat on the ground and rested the lens on it. With the help of the timer (2 sec) I've managed to balance the camera gently with both hands and shoot.
What I like about this shot is the little sparkle in the lights caused by f/8 aperture. If I was to use a smaller aperture like f/16 or f/22, then the sparkle around the light sources would have been severer and probably, as in most cases, would cause a flare and ugly sparkles covering large portions of the image causing distractions.

Mortuus
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @44mm
f/5, 13^-1sec
ISO 500

Now Monday was the last day in Techniques (2) workshop, and I'm sort of relieved so I can have the afternoon time for myself and my preparations for the travel. However, there is one weird assignment left that to be submitted on Thursday, the day in which this post is to be posted! Our teacher asked us to take a photo of a glass (or a cup). As simple as that, and as weird as that! Up till this moment at which I'm typing this, the idea is roaming my mind still and I just don't know how to do it yet. In hope that I will find something soon. Beside this, we are waiting for some training on action shots and panning with, supposedly, the hockey team in here. Though I'm not much interested in action photography, however, it might be a chance to try out my speedlites IF I was allowed to.

If you are wondering about the image above, Mortuus, it is just a shot for a dead bush branches that caught my eyes before going out of home heading to my workshop. I liked how the light on the wall is reflected. Metering (in spot mode) was a bit hard but at a certain point I've started to reduce the shutter speed (faster) to avoid shake and give more saturated look. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and I used my 18-55mm which doesn't give a shallower depth of field more than this. There is no philosophy behind it, but simply, a shot!

The Dewing Dew
Canon EF 100mm Macro, f/2.8, 100^-1sec, ISO 800

Let's face it. I'm not a flower photography fan, and I don't have much of that romanticism in my life, nor do I feel it. Yet, this shot specifically taken from the Scientific Center was a bit inspiring. When I took it, I wasn't aiming at a specific idea - but simply to work out something because my mind was dull and no ideas were going through. At home, however, this image inspired me to write something after stopping for ages - The Dewing Dew.

Now, I'm going to post this (or schedule it to be posted) and turn around to work on some traveling issues and organize my life before traveling. The vibes are telling me that there are big changes ahead; good or bad, I don't know. I just know I have to do it. See you next Thursday...

The Race Begins...

Well, first week after Eid now and my engine is still greasing. I've enrolled myself in a workshop with the group now concerning the Manual mode and the Bulb mode techniques. Even though I've been using these two for some long time now, but I need to know where am I standing, and most importantly, my teacher would slip some info here and there that I would pin them down in my notes. That, and I'm still trying to figure out some concrete method to cool down the sensor during long exposure. The temperature is going down gradually here in Kuwait (but I think it is still too hot for people outside!); instead of 38^oC at around 6:00 a.m., it's becoming 25^oC~28^oC around the same time! This might give a good indication for some "safe" long exposures at night. Also, I'm considering the typical and traditional methods for long exposures, or should I say Segmented Exposures, where many small exposures (20sec~30sec) are taken successively and then blended. This method would of course reduce the noise dramatically (reduce, not eliminate), however, some aspects would be lost like clouds movements at night (which I happened to capture once only but was severely affected by noise).

Rosco Polarizing #7300 Filter
17x20" Sheet
Source: B&H

However, there is this one experiment that I've tried using pieces from the polarizer sheet that I've ordered some weeks ago. I've done this experiment at work during Ramadhan but I've completely forgot to put it down here.
The setting was simple: on-camera Speedlite, and pointed directly along the camera's axis (i.e. camera and flash pointing in same direction), pointed at the window in my office with its metallic frame.
I've took turns in putting the polarizing sheet on the Speedlite once, then once on the lens, and then on both of them. Notice that the polarizing axis for the Speedlite and the lens must be perpendicular (i.e. one is horizontal, while the other is vertical). Shooting was done in AV mode, at f/16.

The window without any flash

The window with direct flash

The window with flash and a polarizer on flash (horizontal)

The window with flash a polarizer on the lens (vertical)

The window with flash and polarizers on flash (horizontal) and the lens (vertical)

As you can see, the flare and reflection from the metallic frame of the window just vanishes as if by magic! Now, of course this is not a practical solution when it comes to shooting in open air, like a lake for example, but it would be a good trial for a studio I'd say. Cheap solution, and it works!

One of the weirdest problems that I've encountered a week or two ago, was to frame a side shot of my brother's eye. Well, might not be so weird for some people but for sure it was weird for me. I'm used to frame lines and shapes when it comes to abstract and industrial shots or landscapes, but faces? This is something I've never encountered before and proved to be challenging a bit for me.

Gaze To Future
Canon EF 100mm, f/2.8, 400^-1sec.
ISO 800

Well, pardon moi he is not Miss Universe but, oh well. The space in the image allowed me to crop it in a squared frame, and I was free to move it around in such a way that I might put the eye and nose on the left side (and showing more cheek skin) or, as you can see it above. Particularly, the shapes of lines here amazed since I'm not used to study the human face in terms of abstract lines, but here it is sort of obvious - we have the eyebrow which shaped almost a flipped check mark, and the eye which naturally forms a triangular bracket (>), beside the nose of course which forms a curve. The struggle was to decide whether should I make the nose tip touch the left side, or should I let the upper right corner being touched with the eyebrow line. As you can see I picked the latter, because it serves a clearer idea better - the future. Well, he was watching TV but it doesn't matter, does it?

I'm into some activity now with my photography group, and as we have finished already a meeting on Tuesday, it is officially announced that the coming period will be somewhat intense and serious. The plans for now are to get pronounced work and to get involved in more public activity with our photography. It does feel like a burden somehow and scary, but what do I have to lose? I don't know yet...
On the other hand, I've enrolled myself in Techniques workshop within the group which discusses topics like the Manual exposure mode, and the Bulb mode with other things. On first day, our teacher, and after some talk about the ability to see, he had assigned a homework to us to take one image only and bring it the next day.
It was hard to decide what to snap with my camera but in the next day I've taken my backpack with me at work and suddenly I got the urge to shoot the hypothetical shade which I've shot before - but this time in different angles.

Triangularia I
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @28mm, F/6.3,
250^-1sec, ISO 100.

I did take many shots in fact but I think only two that got my Likes at the end. The sun was harsh and I had to pick up some specific angles to hide the sun. In Triangularia I, for example, the sun was up and behind my back, but blocked by the building side, which I was leaning on to support my body as I was bending my knees and going down while pointing up. I've used here the on-camera flash just to put on some light into the shaded areas. The background behind the pipes is not to my liking but I think it is one of these situations where and when you simply can't help it out. Just click, and go! I've tried to use the minimum f-number as possible with keeping some sharpness to the bottom triangles since they are far away from my point of view, yet that didn't help much with blurring the background after all - notice that the f-number would also control the amount of fill flash.

Triangularia II
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @24mm, f/4.5,
250^-1sec, ISO 100.

On the steps of George Barr here, I've tried to wander my head around me taking the subject from different angles and trying some tricks of illusion, if I can call it so, and came out with Triangularia II. The semi-hexagonal formation is in fact formed by two layers of pipes but I've tried my best to align them in a shape of a hexagon. Some fill flash from the on-camera flash was added too, and I should thank the ProPhoto color space for providing such blue sky, since the original image was dull. Well, some people liked it already, but I do prefer Triangularia I despite its distracting background. Maybe because of the complexity of the design. This is intriguing as I also do believe that simplicity has the priority in the photographic design. But there are shots, however, that do serve certain ideas, like Apocalypse.

Apocalypse

Apocalypse is not particularly a single shot, but the devastation in the location served the idea (and hence the name of course!). Some people did make a note for me that the view is disorganized, and I've made it clear that the idea is about devastation and collapsing. Now, to have an organized image that expresses devastation, THAT is a challenge indeed. Worth a while of thinking. Triangularia I might be complicated, but yet it is organized, and maybe that's why I like it more despite its complexity. I guess I can draw a conclusion here and say: Simplicity, is not a priority. Order is.
Now, after these simple shots, I suddenly got the urge to do a panorama from that location... but the time is critical because of the sun's movement so I have to think about it for a while, and make some notes about it!

One of the notes that brought a new concept to my attention is what my teacher said about one of my images, as we were training inside the meeting room.

Stalking...
Rokinon 8mm, f/3.5, 0.8sec, ISO 100.

The image was taken as our teacher asked us to take pictures within the room itself and not wander outside. It was a training for the eyes and to come up with an interesting look and view that a regular person would, usually, not think of. After taking several shots from some corners, I've found this gap between 2 chairs appealing and with my vision with the fisheye effect, I've shot from there, in between the 2 chairs. What my teacher said when he viewed the images later was alerting, if I should say.
He said about some of my images (well most of them in fact) that they are a product of Lens Capabilities, while the image above, it is better because it is a product of Photographer Capabilities. The surprise for me here is that, I always thought that the two are complimentary or united together. When I work with a lens, ain't I supposed to know its capabilities, hence what view it can provide and that would aid me in visualization for the next shot? I need to check more on this concept. The image above, for example, occurred to me because I know how the fisheye distorts the view and automatically I thought this angle is more suiting for such a view and more expressive. I don't think I would take it with another lens. How would I separate the two? Do they work alone in some instances? It needs some deep thoughts here. Maybe the deciding factor is: which thought comes first - what lens to use, or what angle to shoot?

Well, beside all this fuss now, I've been re-discovering my shots from Ireland specifically and I do have some fondness for Black and White (tinted and not-tinted) and I can say there had been awesome shots that I've never thought of before in black and white (and didn't like them in color). Just for example though, I will post 3 images here of the same image, and I do like all of them...

Junglaria - B&W

Junglaria - tinted B&W

Junglaria - color

This is just a sample from the many many images that I've been re-processing in order to upload them into Flickr. The statistics from the committee of the group stated that I'm the number #1 contributor to the group's photo pool on Flickr, so I have to keep on the trend until the time of my travel.
One month is left and off we will go in a long journey - and a tiresome one too! Wish me luck...