Speedliting…

I have to admit now that I've been slacking off. In my defense: It was a holiday. Thus, I didn't type anything here for 2 weeks (neither for my Arabic blog either). Speaking of which, I really need to find a suitable topic for the other blog to keep it active a bit. Not sure what to write about though.
Meanwhile, my activities with the camera had been low as well, and my promises to myself about working about a new pinhole stuff did not go well and stopped. I've taken the chance though to do other shootings and experiments with my infrared filters and also had the occasion of shooting a family gathering during the holidays. I made some tiny discoveries - well not really discoveries, but rather a mistake that was shown up clearly while shooting with these infrared filters. Thus, in this post there might not be much for you but I'm trying! In the end, I'm set to talk about a poem I've written some weeks back and surprisingly, it was "appreciated"!

Familia

I did talk in the previous post about my trials to use my infrared filters on the speedlite instead of the lens during the shoot. This procedure has its benefits, as well as its drawbacks as will be shown.
In the beginning, I've used a "weak" infrared filter, as I like to call it. And that is the Night Sky H-Alpha filter, which passes some bands in the red range. I really wanted to shoot in the regular fashion with the filter on the lens. However, it occurred to me that I might as well place it on the speedlite, specially with me using a heavy lens like Sigma 70-300mm (and the speedlite on the camera body). Thus, focusing using the LiveView was not a good option (not using a tripod here). I needed to use the eyepiece and using the AI Servo which somewhat proved to be quicker in focusing than the Single Shot focusing. The Servo mode is usually used for moving objects like in sports and it was the case here with my niece!

To add to my struggles, I had the power pack connected to the speedlite and on full power while hanging on my neck! I pointed the speedlite upward to bounce it off the ceiling which proved efficient with a bit of raise in ISO. The funny thing was, the red streak of light bouncing off the ceiling attracted my niece, and thus I've been taking a lot of shots for her as she was staring into the ceiling; Good poses I got to say!
Remember that I've been using the "weak" infrared filter, namely the Night Sky H-Alpha filter, and because of that, focusing was not a problem. The real problem occurred when I used higher and higher infrared filters on the speedlite. Not only because the speedlite can hardly pass through (which is expected) but also because the focus is shifted drastically, resulting in a soft image EVEN though the image was focused properly when looking through the viewfinder.

Despite the proper focus (with AF) the final shot here turned soft.
Shot with IR750 filter on speedlite and with vibrance increased.

This result is natural but it was really absent from my mind. Lenses are normally designed to be focusing under visible spectrum, and for this reason some lenses bear a red mark to note the focus shift for infrared (though I do believe that the shift might be more drastic as the wavelengths go higher). Here in the situation of placing an infrared filter on the speedlite and not the lens, we are asking the lens to focus for the visible and capture image with the invisible! Does that make any sense? Hope so. Anyhow, all this resulted in such soft images, like the one above (and others).

For several days after these infrared experiments I've been shooting normal shots for some family gatherings during the holidays. More like a documentation process for these moments and yet some good practice with my Sigma 70-300mm lens, since I didn't use much lately (and at all except for solar shooting). During these "sessions" the main play was with how to work with the speedlite(s). Most of these sessions were done with a speedlite on camera pointing upward to bounce the light off the ceiling. However, in the last session (or last day so to say), I thought why not make use of the wireless option, specially that the space is much less than 5 meters even, which means no problem (theoretically) is there when it comes to sending and receiving commands between the camera and the speedlite. Not to say, also, that such procedure would take off the burden of my neck with the power pack being hung on my neck or put in my pocket. Still, though, I had to deal with the problem of placing the speedlites because I need to put them in high places away from the reach of the kids who ran havoc around! This also would provide a perfect bouncing conditions somewhat since the speedlite would be closer to the ceiling as much as possible and this would enable me to make use out of most of the power of the speedlites' pulses. Finally, I've placed 2 speedlites opposing each other (almost) and moved around the place shooting. I have to say though that not all images would benefit from two sources of light, and there were moments when only one speedlite did fire (in fact providing a dramatic look for some shots). However, probably one of the most dramatic (and amazing) shots I've made was of my niece as she was struggling with her blanket (or maybe stole the blanket and running away?)…

أمل - Hoffnung

There are also lot of funny shots but I couldn't post them here actually. All the shooting was done at 1/250sec speed, with lowest f-number possible (which ranged from f/4 to f/5 depending on the focal length). It was a fun activity (and a tiresome one too) and maybe I do need to do some more of that. At some point in time, the core batteries of one of the speedlites did expire and needed to be changed with new ones which I didn't have back at the moment, thus I had to stop and examine the images at that point. If only there is a solution for these damn batteries…

Finale

I'll keep this post short and won't post about some other shots done for some flowers (probably not important after all) but I'll move on to this poem which, surprisingly, got me an award on Writing.com! I called the poem The Rosy; I was intending to change it but then made it the official one.

 Pour it down, reddish and swiftly,
like those passions, long have gone.
Fill it, friend, bitter and thrifty,
in sin, till the cries of dawn.
Drunkard, and lonely.
Clinking the one holy.
Fill me, with my laughter alone.

Pour the rosy and let us sip,
where my blood mixes with tears.
In ecstasy, smeared on this lip,
where merriness shied my fears.
Solid, shall be my grip.
No waste of a single drip.
Numbs my heart and so what it bears.

Leave me, O mate, to my sighing
How troublesome passion is.
Upon drunkenness, my relying,
for the ailing bosom's whims.
How a monk is doubting.
Solitude abiding.
Purgatory, within his sins.

Velvet, it settles in my glass,
showering my crimson heart.
To mend the gloom, from pass to pass,
and set this mind to depart.
Drunk by its shiny glance.
Set me to lose my stance.
Never, a love fiction has to start.

The poem had a 2^nd place in one contest, and also I was awarded a "Merit Badge" within the website itself for "Poetry." Previously, my poem Aman Aman did win the first place in one of the contests as well and now this. Somewhat I feel overwhelmed with emotions; Well, just a bit. As I am trying hard to dedicate some time to write poetry now and then, I'm really seeing with my own eyes the fruition of such efforts. They are not really something big for the time being but at least some people do appreciate these, and think of them as a nice work of art. 

The poem, The Rosy, was written (typed) using a rhyme scheme that I didn't find much equivalent to when I did my little research (I did the research after finishing the poem actually). The major rhyming scheme would: ABABAAB; A somewhat weird I'd say since I didn't see much examples of poems made by seven-line stanzas (but mainly Sestains: six-line stanzas). On the other hand, the syllable count was set at (8,7,8,7,6,6,8), except for the last line in the poem, where I allowed myself to go beyond (8) and made it (9). Let's say, I was forced!

After finishing this poem, I was on the go as well to make another one but after typing two lines only, my mind got congested with many thoughts and chores and time has been pressing on me. Hopefully, I will be having some more time to write it down, as I do need some time as well to make sure of my own feelings about it; That is, to type it down. Probably, I need some time as well to turn some of these poems into photos as well! For all of that, I just hope that I can do some of what is on my mind by next week as I've signed for 9 days off work to get some rest. People here are getting ready for Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar and the saddest for us as well, as it commemorates the battle of Karbala. My leave would expand this period till the 10^th day of Muharram (a.k.a. Ashurah). It is a time of sadness and listening to music is not welcomed, nor a polite thing to do. Thus, I really need to check on my attitude as music is becoming now an essential part of my life (I'm typing these words as I am listening to some as well). 

Set Back…

Been weeks now and my health still on a swing. Though better than 2 weeks ago when fever struck me, but the remnant cough is taking its toll on my lungs already. I've been thinking seriously of checking back with the doctors to see if I should take Seretide; a steroidal inhaling powder that I used to take 2 years ago when my lung was apparently damaged or something because of some renovation in the house when apparently so much particles got stuffed inside my lungs. The case is different here since it is a remnant of some fever (apparently for the weather change), so I'm kind of reluctant to ask for Seretide for the time being. All I've been doing for it is having a herbal cough syrup which helps a bit, and sometimes having a spray of Ventoline; though it is not a case of asthma.

Rolling

DR-655

Been a while now since I got my new filter, the DR-655 hot mirror from Kenko, which is supposed to block IR for good in combination with my B+W 403 ultraviolet filter. Ironically though, I couldn't do a real test for the filter yet, as I'm aiming for capturing faces and flowers. Around 3 weeks passed already now and I still can't do a real shoot, except for a quick check-up. I did make a video indeed just to compare between Tiffen's hot mirror and DR-655, but of course it's not a photography project with depth.

First: B+W UV pass filter alone.
Second: B+W UV pass filter + Tiffen IR Cut.
Third: B+W UV pass filter+ DR-655 IR Cut.

As I don't have a good UV source for indoors work with the filter, I'm forced to try and work under the sun; And here comes the irony: For 3 weeks, I couldn't work outside with the camera, either because of the timing, the weather (haze and dust), or because of my health issues. However, I've realized the point that DR-655 is indeed a good hot mirror since the exposure time doubles or even triples in comparison to Tiffen's hot mirror. This typically would call for a higher ISO as well, that's why I'm planning ahead to work indoors with UV sources, such as blacklights, or maybe we do have some hope with regular CFL lamps. I thought seriously of bringing my camera to work and try to do something with this filter as there is a nice garden around my workplace and could be a good target, but first we have the weather that does not come in terms with my aims, and then we have the hassle and the fuss around this place (I don't want to be walking around with my gear while everyone is looking). 

Thus, for the most part, my work involves mainly some edits for ignored images from the past, or re-makes for old images (specifically with the LAB technique edit), and for some of those, the results were astonishing indeed. One part the sets it back though is the hard bleeding (too much saturation that could not be put down, or could be but with lengthy work), and/or the noise level that raises significantly. 

Generally speaking, I find myself picking at those dark exposures (most of them were part of bracketed series to merge into HDR) and that explains, partially, the rising noise level when the exposure is adjusted in RAW editing and then in LAB technique. However, since I do not have any plans to print any of those and only for online displaying in small sizes, I didn't bother much on reducing these noise levels. But I have to say, though, that the idea of printing some of those newly/re-made photos does fascinate me.

Polladhearg

As I said earlier, my work with the camera now is minimal as I'm trying to do something about the newly-acquired filter, yet I did manage to take a "test" shot. This shot, Polladhearg, was actually a test shot during my work indoors with the DR-655; Taken before placing the filter on the lens. It is a macro shot using 50mm lens with a 35mm extension tube. The shot with the DR-655 filter turned into a fail since the image, which took 40 minutes to complete, was severely blurred and shaken. Not to go empty-handed, I decided to work on the regular test shots. Funny thing is that I didn't notice all those pollen dots on the petals when I was working behind the camera, but only when I was processing the image. No wonder my allergies are stuck to me still…

When I Was A Boy

It's been a while since I've written (typed) some poem, and lately there had been an urge besides some signs that I find along the way of my every-day that points to a fact that I must be a writer of some sort. Not sure how real or true these signs are/were, yet I did have this urge for some time and in on many occasion I've just dispersed the ideas for writing something, mainly because of my confused mind. Not long ago, I've written a little piece which I've called "The Ghost" and it was inspired mainly by one of my artwork with my photos in fact. This time, however, it is completely off my head. I've downloaded Verse Perfect again after abandoning it for a long time, in hope to help me with my writing. It is a good tool with many aids, yet I think it is better to sometimes "innovate" if I should call it so. The great thing about Verse Perfect is that it does provide a syllable count (or metric, whatever it is called), which somehow helps me on balancing the lines. I really didn't use such features a lot before, and maybe used another feature more; The rhyme code. Verse Perfect is actually implemented with a number of rhyming courses to help with the writing process.
Anyway, off with Verse Perfect, I've tried to write something completely out of the order here, in terms of rhyme or syllable counts. I called it When I was a boy, as it goes about my own reflections about my life and how complicated it got on as time passed by. Somehow melancholic, but I guess nothing new when it comes to my own writings:

Off by the lavender fields,
oh no mind for any needs,
And my winds set to sailing,
no time given to ailing,
Back in the day,
When I was a boy.

Those days Oh who remembers,
warming nights of those winters,
The wee heart that I had carried,
no thoughtful run ever rallied,
Such were my days,
When I was a boy.

Alas! my sails stopped rising,
under that moon uprising,
Had I not seek a clear mind,
but stabbed a stab in the hind.
Bye to those days,
When I was a boy.

Where are they and where is me,
beliefs stand as a lone tree,
Singing to the stars above,
the joy but for me thereof.
Gone are the days,
When I was a boy.

And when my days are over,
and the grains be my cover,
Someone, please, itch on my stone,
"Here lie the head and the bone,
of glorious days,
When I was a boy.

Writing this, I really wished to make it longer, but the words' generation just stopped, and to tell the truth: I even started writing the last verse first, then made my way up and down. The verses here are not connected in rhyme, but each one of them is made of (a,a,b,b,c,d), obviously with same d, or same ending line in each verse. I tried my best to keep the syllable count constant for each verse as 7,7,7,7, 4, 5. In fact, this count was mainly established when I wrote the last verse and somewhat I felt obliged to keep up that count for all other verses. Maybe it is the perfectionism in my blood still kicking. Just as a trial how does it go, I've enrolled this piece into a contest on Writing.com and it got some nice views, and even an honorary mention as well. Well, seems a good come back, if I can call it so. I think I should write more at this point since my urge for photography is kind of holding the brakes right now.

Finale

Linguistics
by Al-Husain Boum, PhD.

As my work with the camera is almost on hold for the time being, my mental processing is still pretty much active; Pretty much that it gets annoying in bed time specifically. Meanwhile, I'm trying to finish some of the books already, with one interesting linguistics book which a friend gave it to me (but I returned it to him after finishing it) for the lack of time for reading, as he said. The book is by the Moroccan author and PhD holder Al-Husain Boum [د. الحسين بوم]. My friend in fact got the book back in last November from the annual Arabic Book Fair from a Moroccan bookshop/store participating in the fair. The book delves so deep into simple matters (in the Arabic sentence structure) that things do not appear simple now when I see a simple Arabic sentence! Hope that makes sense. However, the most interesting part of the book is even at the end, when a comparison is made between some Indo-European languages (Latin, Greek, French, Farsi, and even Sanskrit) and Arabic concerning the concept of syntax and sentence building; Specifically speaking, the Nominal Sentence [الجملة الاسمية] as we call it in Arabic; that is sentences built upon connecting nouns without the verb (to be)! I didn't realize how complicated the matter is until I've read this book. In fact, with this text, I've got more insight on how and why Irish is the way it is as I'm learning it, and somewhat the real meaning of Copula, which is a widely used concept in Irish. I've been looking around for any way to contact Mr. Boum and send him something about Irish and check for his opinion about it. Unfortunately, no luck.
Finishing this book now, I'm trying to dedicate the same time and effort to other books which have been collecting dust here and there (at work and at home). I need to finish those ASAP, and most importantly, to find a way to store them as well. 
My life seems to be in a stalemate, with spikes of hope coming in and out of it. I wish if I can just leave everything behind me and fly away. I'm so tired and I'm thinking seriously of having a short vacation, for a week maybe, off work just to sleep properly and get some routine off my back. Yet, I tend to think about the coming Ramadhan, and how I might need every single day in my leaves' balance. Even my relaxation has to go through a complicated process of thoughts and math to check everything that fits in place. I can't help it even though I know it's not a healthy trait to try to fit everything in place and calculate for everything and every step. Sleep, at the moment, had become a frequent wish more than traveling is.

Moody Philosophy

Been a really messed up week. Busy and time flying by without control. Ramadhan is going to be next week (not sure which day I need to check the calendar). It is not a big deal for me as I'm used to fasting now, but because of the time shift in general, and because of the traffic jams that are just unreasonable, I would be getting tired more often.
Today's post will be somehow a long one, generally because I had some mood to do the experiments and things I wanted to do for some time now. Yet, I didn't include everything of what I did this week (like pictures I took from my work place!). Hope you find this useful anyway.


I. Beacho-sophy:
Been to the beach in early hours of Friday after a sleepless night, despite the tired body I got then. I really was not in the mood to drive but I didn't have anything better to do, so  I went there one hour after the sunrise time, and it was annoying indeed. You would think people have been spending their time overnight on that beach, and needless to say how the many annoying barbarians do act when they see someone with a camera. My main fear was, though, that some of families there might cause me a headache thinking I'm taking pictures of their kids. Very annoying.
The sun already rose above the horizon with some angle at that time. The light is not as warm as I wanted it like when it is at sunrise time, but it did make enough elongated shadows for my use. The problem with summer, and I believe it is something general and not only in this region, is that the sun doesn't give that warm yet not so harsh light quality in the morning or by sunset, and this is related to the relative inclination of the sun's path from one point of the horizon to the other. In winter, the qualities of light of the early morning or at sunset times are the best for more interesting play of light and an interesting play of colors (think of mixing the white cover of the snow with the coming warm light rays of the sun at sunrise or sunset making a balance between warm and cold into some interesting composition; alas, we don't get snows in this part of the world!).

I think I've went into some state that opposes the general trend of thought, or maybe this is what I think. I roamed the beach after breakfast in BK aimlessly in fact. The high tide didn't make any good spots for me. A low tide timing is the best to discover the rocks beneath, and those are the ones that do give an interesting look, like the old shot called Silent Observer.

Silent Observer

However, under the light of the book that I've finished lately, Harald Mante's Serial Photography, I kept my eyes open for different and ordinary objects that can make up a theme after all. In fact, thinking about it now I do have a lot of photos that can be grouped into some unique themes of themselves. After all, however, I rated the book for 3 starts out of 5 on Amazon. I think it needs more order and organized writing, but nevertheless, it is a source of inspiration!


Having this book in my mind, you would see things in a different way somehow, or in fact you might just begin hunting for pictures of things that people usually don't care about: mob, rocks, chairs, doors, rags... etc. This is exactly what I noticed myself when I came across some large stones and rocks that lay on the beach, but I have to say that HDR helped me here to emphasize the idea that I wanted to deliver. The image was edited first in HDR mode in Photoshop just to change the saturation and add some adjustment layers to fix the exposure and other color casts. Gave it a try with the manual tone-mapping, but, as usual, I've failed with an honorary degree! Anyway, I realized that a sharper look can be achieved when tone-mapping this adjusted HDR in Photomatix after all.

Rock and Rocks

Despite the fact that this image is already rejected from some stock sites, but I'm satisfied about it because I have an idea behind it. It is maybe a matter of Philosophy, or simply Psychology. If you are sure of something and expressed something in a way you are satisfied with, it wouldn't matter, maybe, if others refuse it after all. Of course this can't be general, as we have matters in life that enroll under "etiquette"! 

My idea is uniqueness and being separate from the rest. Being with others and being alone in the same time. In fact, I did take images from Ireland and from here that can be put under such theme. I'm thinking seriously of making a "tableau" or a large image that contains smaller images or thumbnails of images that go under the theme of Uniqueness, Alone, or Different. Good thing though I didn't dip myself so much into the water while taking this shot, as my feet were going down into the mud and the sea water was tickling my feet as well!

But if the previous image was done in a thoughtful way, this was not in fact the whole story. There are times when the concept comes later after the visual aspect. I like to call it a Reverse Philosophy, as it is simply a reflection on what did you take a picture of, and trying to find a philosophical meaning for it AFTER taking the picture and not while or before taking the picture itself. I think it is simply put: being the photographer and the viewer in the same time.

This happened as I was walking on the beach and found out a grating of some sort that I just don't know what it is used for, and apparently it was a really old piece because of the corrosion. The idea in the beginning was purely systematic and abstractive. I planted the grating in the sand to try to make a shadow the curves with the sand ripples. I thought it is a good thing to have an image where straight lines, make curved shadows at the same time...

Grated Shadow

Tried hard to make some interesting geometry or illusion by moving around and pointing in several directions toward the grate, but I guess this one was the best. It seems that I'm in the process of making my own style in shots, where I tend, automatically, to play with the visual lines of the object and swallow up the object to make it simpler or illusional. My spell-checker doesn't approve "illusional" so I'm going to say: tricky!

Another shot was made from the back in portrait to give some depth to the essence of the image. The sea water was included in the scene but was cropped out later, leaving the grate and the sand.

Beach Remains

The picture above followed the rule of thirds originally until it was cropped. Both of the images of the grate were actually processed from RAW files, but when I shot them, I did take bracketed sequence to prepare the scene for HDR processing. However, I deemed that unnecessary to do as I liked the colors and the exposure in one of the slides for each scene, and started from there trying to adjust more of the colors. It is dramatic enough as it is. I didn't clean the above shots from the litter dropped on the beach intentionally, as I wanted to add some "motion", specially in Beach Remains, to simply show for real, Beach Remains! It is the message of what we do to nature. Everything on this planet is beautiful, until we arrive in it. However, Grated Shadow specifically was a point to stop in my thinking. The meaning that I give to this image was simply added AFTER the shot and the processing and on location I really didn't have such thoughts at all. I can see it now as a show of how straight people in the apparent, do have crooked personalities at the back. Are we what we say we are? Are we straight (in manners) indeed, or it's just a bubble we are living? When the sun shines over, our shadows will become clearer to the observer, but in the same time, we might be indeed straight and good, yet the background makes us look evil. In the second picture you can see that the bent grate is actually forming a full circle despite the bend in its structure from the top. Go on and think about it. How would you interpret that with yourself?

Walked off from that location to hear a rumble on the road in front of the beach, to see that an accident just happened before my eyes! Two buses crushing each other's sides. Anyway, while everyone was looking, I prepared my tripod to shoot one last image. The shed. It is a common target for my camera on the beach but this time my thought was aiming at making a play out of it. An illusion that I was not aware of before. You can visually make the shed stand on 3 legs instead of its regular 4 legs!

Geometrical Play IV

This one too was processed from a single RAW even though I did take bracketed sequence, and guess what, I didn't notice the clouds in the horizon behind the shed. Things were like washed out in the location but the details started to show up when being processed. With adding some adjustment layers to fix colors and luminance, some banding in the sky appeared and I had to use some blurring techniques to render it smoothly with other areas of the sky.
I did try making a 3D image out of this scene but seems that I swung my tripod head so much, thus making the final 3D image containing a strong visual ghosting effect. However, my aim was to change my procedure somehow when I work on creating 3D images out of HDR slides. It is another story to tell, maybe on another day...

You might be reading the title Geometrical Play IV and wonder where was III? The fact is I didn't put Geometrical Play III in any posts on this blog. But just to make a good sequence (a new series?) I might as well list them here accordingly...

Geometrical Play I

Geometrical Play II

Geometrical Play III

As you can see, Geometrical Play III is only a merge between I and II. I had to overlap the two and manually blending the middle area to make it look like one pillar after all.

II. What Stop Are You?:

There was an experiment that I wanted to do some really long time ago, but since most of my work and inspiration comes essentially from a spark of a mood, I didn't really feel like doing it until this week arrived. This experiment is just to know how many stops does the welding glass (got it from ACE few months back) put down. The settings was not easy to work with and in fact I started in a wrong way in the beginning, because I was using a halogen light source.

I was thinking of a halogen source in the beginning because I thought having a strong light is essential, since I'm going to use a glass that is almost opaque. Yet, my measurements using the camera metering did not work quite well because of the hard light and the shutter speed went far beyond the speed of 8000 (max shutter speed for Canon EOS 7D), and that was with the highest f-number (smallest aperture) that my Tamron lens could give (f45).

I had to re-configure the set and use a less intense light source, so I chose a regular tungsten lamp of 60W. The camera was set on Av (Aperture priority) mode so that I would change the f-number and the shutter speed would be shown up by metering. The ISO was fixed at 1600, and this high value is just to make the sensor more sensitive after putting the glass in front of the lens, and of course this value must be constant before and after putting the glass.

The set after re-configuration

Of course the experiment was carried out in a dark room (almost dark as the time was day), and I used my Tamron here mainly for two reasons: A) it has a macro mode so I can fill the lamp within the viewfinder completely and put the filament of the tungsten lamp in the center (for spot metering), and B) this lens has the highest f-number among my other lenses (can reach f/49, but in the experiment that maximum was f/45). After obtaining the results and putting them into spreadsheets, I managed to get the Stops from the simple equation that I usually use to measure the time required to take long exposure shots: T = S * 2^x, where T is the time after applying the Stops, and S is the shutter speed at metering, and x is the number of Stops. Simple algebra turns the equation for number of Stops as: x = [log(T) - log(S)] / log2.

Results of the experiment

The time here (or shutter speed) is in seconds of course. F-numbers below f/14 were neglected because the shutter speed required was faster than 8000 (that is 1/8000) and such measurements can't be considered for comparison. The maximum shutter speed for Canon EOS 7D is 8000. The average Stop number from all these values yields: 11.6635808068826; Of course I'm not going to include this number in my future calculations!! Thus, I can say the Stop of this welding glass is 11.7 as an approximation.

Another problem arise with using this glass, which is the tint. Welding glasses are usually tinted with some color, but fixing the WB might fix the problem as I did in this little experiment with the halogen lamp before. I'm not sure though how it would when it comes to a real scene with various colors around...

Halogen lamp with tint from glass

Fixing the tint with WB in RAW editor (added a bit of yellowish hue myself)

Now with such experiment, I might be able to use various materials and not necessarily glass to make up for filters! However, I'm stuck now trying to cut the glass piece to the size of Cokin Z-Pro filters so I would be able to fit it in the adapter as a regular filter. I'm lucky too that the thickness of the glass is acceptable and fits in the adapter, so all what I need is to cut it. So far, I couldn't find a shop to cut this piece and one shop told me already that I need a special type of shops that make glasses for cars' windshields and the like because this glass (the welding glass) is a special variety and might not be cut properly with regular methods! I might end up having to make up the holder myself in some DIY-way! Even with that though, I'm waiting for the release of new quantities of ND100 filters from Cokin which put down 6.6 stops. I read on some websites that the product was called for from the manufacturer for some reason. However, I'm waiting for notifications to my email from B&H whenever this product is available.

Finishing off this camera-trend with long-awaited writing capabilities. I've been busy with work lately. I have to do an experiment with some apparatus and take some readings, and I prefer to do it by early hours of morning so I would be able to do other things the rest of the day (at work). I really need to work on hard brainstorming on both fields: photography, and writing. Not an easy task at all.
I'm spending my time reading the last of the three books, which talks about the basic of the digital camera and photography, even though it would feel like I'm coming late to the class, but I'm learning new things still even if I know how to use my camera. Well, I can use the basic functions in the camera but still there are lot of things that I need to work and sort out and read about.
However, I've been trying hard to put some lines that were roaming around in my mind into some verses, and I had to sacrifice my time at work that I would specify for reading this book, to write what I wanted to write. I think I suck at time-planning, as usual. I need to sacrifice more for my Ayvarith projects and the sound-recording that I'm still not able to do. Anyway, my new written piece (call it a poem or a lyrics, as you like) is called Of You, All I Need, and maybe I should say, it is a dedication...

Of You, All I Need

Thinking of you till it hurts,
six thousand miles to fray.
Mimicking actions of love,
passionate dreams as they may.
Wondering about,
Searching around,
All what I envisioned seems untrue.

Seven seas or lands,
staggering winds won't stand,
for a peek into these eyes.
A signal is all I wait,
a heck of improbable fate,
watchin' it goes on by, by my eyes.

Through the distance,
I've burned my fire,
in hope of a glancing heart.
Through the silence,
I sought the patience,
when my world was fallin' apart.
Just a glance, though,
just a glance, now,
of you, all I need...

In the matter of the fact,
whether dead or alive I stay.
My mind is a conquered,
and my soul went astray.
Wondering about,
Searching around,
for something without a clue.

A flame of desire,
driving me to the higher,
to something ever untouchable.
If only this hand,
expands to stand,
some of this worried collectable.
I'm into pieces...

Through the distance,
I've burned my fire,
in hope of a glancing heart.
Through the silence,
I sought the patience,
when my world was fallin' apart.
Just a glance, though,
just a glance, now,
of you, all I need...

O my saviour in the gloom of troubles,
my smiler when my frowning doubles,
how did you leave me,
at a broken heart?

Alexander 6, V88.

I would say it is fair enough to say, it was an awesome weekend. Not for any gift or present or any good events happening in it, but merely because I slept for 12 hours! Yes! Twelve hours! I rarely do such a thing but it is true and it is indeed there! I could do it!

Anyway, back to business. Despite this 12 hours of sleep kind of wasted my time that I've planned to spend in front of my PC working on some issues, but anyway it was a nice venture. During this weekend I worked on the 2 panoramas that left for me; the office, and the gamma lab.
The first to be mangled with was the office panorama. The main challenge here was that I've shot myself in several positions (with the help of the timer in the camera of course), and my aim was to make a QTVR out of it. Unfortunately, I had to give up this dream for many issues that I've encountered while stitching and I've discovered that I made many mistakes in the location itself!

Me, Myself and I

The mistakes I've done here were sort of many, but in brief, I was not careful when I moved in the scene and caused some chairs to move here and there, which later on proved fatal for the stitching process. Also, I discovered that in my middle picture on the sofa, the original shot did not include my right feet on the ground! Hence it was impossible to recover this at all, and I was not in mood for Photoshop tricks really. For this and that, I've decided to put down the idea of a spherical panorama with this trial, for the time being. I don't know if there will be a second time. The theme and colors of the tone-mapped image here is to give some drama or action to the boring lighting conditions in the office. Some people told me it looks nice, so I hope.

The second panorama to deal with then was the Gamma Lab. In fact it was already finished with some days ago but I didn't work on fixing the image an removing the unwanted bottom (tripod legs) till yesterday. There are some noisy part of the image which were not related to the noise of the camera itself, but because these slides were dark, and I think it was a mistake from my side, when I was not careful to track down the exposure reading. Finally, I fixed it and made into a QTVR, which I hope it makes everyone happy to look at!

The Gamma Lab, at CRER, Kuniv.

However, the resolution of the QTVR was put down to 80% to reduce the size as usual. They usually say 80% quality is good enough, specially for such a small window.

Now after all this work with several panoramas, it is time to take a look a bit at what I got earlier that day (after shooting these panoramas). They were several single shots that I need to examine closely and decide whether to upload them into stock sites or not. The snaps are taken from the front space of my working place, for some pile of bricks that they dumped there (and causing some annoyances for me when I park my car!).

Good news arrived today. The DHL called and told me that my passport had arrived. It is due delivery at 3 p.m., but I know these guys will deliver it earlier when I'm not at home, as usual. I've just forgot what's my application number so I can check online about the status of my visa request. I just hope it got accepted and everything is right.

I've decided today to place an order as well. This time an order on Amazon. I thought it is better to get everything at once instead of placing everything separately. This time I had to some research of my own about what kind of monopod do I need. I just figured that a monopod is more practical than a tripod, but the real challenge is, is it possible to do a panorama with it?
After many look-ups and checking, I've decided that I might need this specific one:

 

Benro MA-96M8

There were many good monopods out there, with several specifications that can fit any purpose almost. But I picked this one specifically for several reasons:

1. It has suppostive legs to turn it into a mini-tripod.
2. The maximum height is around 173 cm, around mine.
3. The maximum load it can take is around 20kg, and this is exactly what I need. Why? Because I'm planning to try it out with my VR head.
4. Relatively, cheaper.

There were even some monopods made by Manfrotto, same brand as my VR head, but they were sometimes almost double the price of this one. Now, I'm quite sure that I will have problems when I decide to try this out with my VR head (weighs 2kg), but I'm up to it and will see if I can overcome this problem by some trick. The problem here is that, no real reviews for this monopod were available, not in Amazon nor in BH websites. Thus, I had to rely heavily on reviews made by customers for another, somehow similar, tripod.

Benro MA-91M8

This tripod is almost the same, but different in weight, and height and the maximum load it can take (18kg). The height is 163 cm and that's shorter than my built, so I preferred to go to the longest one. I was hesitant first because when it is folded, it might not fit in my backpack whenever I want to move here or there, but anyway, it is an easy stick to carry on. The real challenge is to make it work with the VR head. The reviewers, however, decided that it is a great tool, but with shaky base when it comes to a tripod, and here you go with your expected problems!

The work with VR head and a monopod would be awesome indeed. I had many hard time erasing and fixing the images with Photoshop after taking my panoramas with a tripod. The three legs and the panning handle gave me a great deal of hard work in Photoshop to remove, and not completely in a good way. A monopod would ease the problems, considerably!

Finally, I do need a tripod for easy snapping without the need for my usual heavy tripod wherever I go!

Along with the tripod I placed as well 2 books in the same order, and decided to let the other books wait for the time being now!

 

Now, it had been some days that I didn't write anything in my notes, and it makes me a bit annoyed. I don't want to stop writing ever. I must get myself busy, either behind the camera, or on a piece of paper, or of course gaming around! I've changed my working time starting from today, for I found out it is really useless to stay here till 2:30 p.m.. That's way too much for such a place I would say. Thus, my time has changed from 7:30 to 2:30, to 7:00 up to 2:00. That's why I have to plan to write my blog earlier than I used to before, maybe. I'm sort of used to blog while at work more than at home!

Now, it's time to wait for the events to come along...

__________

2089. Alexander sat down on the grass and was tired
2090. and asked Aramramátáníth: am I allowed to ask?
2091. Aramramátáníth replied: go ahead O warrior of goodness
2092. and Alexander asked his first question
2093. "who are you?"
2094. and the mother of nature replied: I am Aramramátáníth,
2095. I am whom God made to guard the health of the land,
2096. I am the guardian of farms and valleys, meadows and hills
2097. then Alexander asked his second question
2098. "what are you?"
2099. and she replied: I am the Light beyond the sight,
2100. I am the voice of conscious inside everyone's heart,
2101. I am the breeze, I am the wind, I am the storm
2102. then Alexander asked his third question
2103. "what is Mikanazzar?"
2104. and she replied: my fierce enemy on Uhir Daynur,
2105. the bringer of sickness where it goes and comes,
2106. he is the damned one, who seeks not the Mercy
2107. then Alexander asked his fourth question
2108. "why you did not heal the tree yourself?"
2109. and she replied: I was not commanded to do so,
2110. and to heal it, we needed a brave heart,
2111. and to fight Mikanazzar in it, that is dangerous,
2112. thus we were ordered to wait for you, and teach Kaliván

Alexander 6, V20.

It is a tiresome morning indeed. I had to run with my camera here and there just with my arrival to the work place, in order to finish some stuff for my friend before the arrival of my colleagues and, the security people. Maybe I have to do some extra later on, if my friend requires so!

Been trying to find a suitable location to dump my files for the Ayvarith website as a beginning, but none was there. Angelfire and Tripod were not available for free as it seems (both under Lycos). Homestead had some good choices, unfortunately it is not completely free. I did that some days ago, and I shall continue later. There are some websites that I really cannot tell if they are good or anything, since I didn't hear of them and, some of them seem a bit awkward just by looking at the website address! I need somewhere, with no less than 15 MB space, for the time being. After all, I think I've settled on Fortunecity, it has a free service and it offers 1GB! Too good to be true to me!! But well, We'll see what will be going later. Right now, I'm doing nothing, just will dump the files whenever I'm having some time for this.
Afterall, I think I'm going to design the whole thing again and maybe do some sounds clips again, hoping that they become clearer than the other versions before that required the RealPlayer.

I think I've underestimated the abilities of Photomatix. Last Thursday I was out with a friend by night, and I liked the view of that restaurant by night, and when no one was around, except of few cars of course belonging to the night bats like my friend and myself. It was funny though how we tried to set up and shoot; we went around the parking lot that was far away a bit in circles around just to find a nice spot. Finally, we got that spot but with the tree in front, but it was OK to me, since other angles were worse, far worse, than this one.

 Our favorite icecream place

I had to sit at the back just behind my friend and turn off the lights of the car, just like spies snapping photos of their prey! It was a hard shoot; no tripod and no stable hands, plus to that that I had to use my telephoto. As a rule, if you have a telephoto and worked on a zoom, then any simple shake to your hand will be apparent in the shoot later on, and needless to say that even the mirror inside the camera (which clicks up when you press the button) do shake the camera a bit. That's why there is an option in these cameras to "lock up the mirror".
Hence, you can imagine how it went while I was sitting in the backseat trying to snap the building with that telephoto. I tried to sit in many different ways just to stabilize my hands without using the tripod, yet my trials failed. At least, I got 2 shots of different exposures that were fine.
Back home when I downloaded the images, I decided to try out the 3 main shots, with the brightest being the shakiest (since it is the brightest which means a longer time for the shutter to close and open again, i.e. more shake). With Photomatix, it was almost like magic; most of the shake is gone. Some noise would be apparent in a 100% close up look for sure, and I think this is even obvious in what so-called, "stable shot". But this time, the shaky part is indeed like almost gone with no trace. Could it be that, somehow, the exposure information are extracted from the RAW file and fixed up to the general image without having to adapt the features of the image itself? I wonder. Afterwards, cleaning and contrast boosting was done, as usual.

By coincidence, I found out that my poem, O Shannon, was published in www.writing.com in some newsletter sent to other users for St Patrick day. I received a message in the websites internal email system about a review made by a reader. Judging from the rank (a number beside the nickname of the user) I can say it was a high ranked user. They liked the poem and told me it was in the newsletter, which I usually delete. How embarassing. He forwarded the newsletter back to me and found it under "Editor's Pick" column. I think being published in a newsletter is awesome, somehow it means like your poems are read by "high ranked" people, i.e. those who make out these newsletters in the website itself! The funny thing is, although it is about something Irish, but the newsletter was about Romance and Love. Is memorizing the childhood considered something romantic? I really don't know, but anyway, it got published that way!

Still in Ireland and its stories, I've finished the first book from a list of books that I got from Ireland last October. The Irish Ghosts book, by John Dunne.

The cover of the book I have is different by the way. Now, after unpacking the other books and some of them were just TOO much to read, I realized here that I have another ghosts book, this time by Geddes & Grosset. I don't know why I bought two already, but well, this should be fun I guess... I hope! This one looks fatter in contents, and maybe that's why I did take it in the first place! There are books on Irish music and Irish dancing (or a story of the Irish dancing) and a book about the Irish myth. This last one is a tough one to read. SO FAT.

__________
457. the hero got ready for a hand combat
458. then he tried to view clearly the face
459. and he found out it was but a human like all
460. while the stranger approached with a smile
461. and from under his cloak he grasped something
462. then said with a harsh slow voice like a nomad
463. in a weak Caqobian tongue
464. "is this what you are looking for?"
465. and the stranger showed the Charnagút
466. then the stranger continued the speech
467. while Alexander was checking his dear Charnagút
468. "you suffered so much from the desert,
469. and fever attacked you like locusts on green leaves,
470. then you fainted near our place"
471. and Alexander praised God for His grace and said
472. "thank you O generous one, but you speak Caqobian,
473. how did you know I am a Caqobian?"
474. and the huge man laughed and said with a smile
475. "you think we do not know the Charnagút?
476. the sword of just that was once for Pilippánút,
477. the fair king of Caqobia, who protected us long ago,
478. and this tongue is spoken around by the literate
479. along side with other ayvaric tongues of other tribes"
480. then Alexander forgot his pains when he heard of the Ayvar

Back to Normal?

Today was not quite a busy day... but I spent lot of time chatting in some rooms. I miss going there for some time so went on to try my luck again and get some new "friends" if I should say. Although I dedicated this day for translation, but I couldn't do more than 2 pages til this very moment, and since the time is close to when I leave this place, I guess I won't work on more of it. It was kind of an active day at work however; watching over devices, and answering phone calls like a secretary.

I'm back to fasting again. I got my 2 nieces 2 gifts yesterday... some "sand coloring." Hope they'll like it.

Maybe I reached a deal with myself concerning how to plan for my writing progressing... I guess I will make one day for translating and the next one for writing my story, and so on. As for poetry, I shall pin it down whenever inspiration strikes again. Some words are hovering around my mind but still I can't collect my thought and write something. I guess it would be something about the Dandelion.

We have a religious holiday tomorrow and that makes this weekend made of 3 days instead of 2! Must use them somehow, but I just can tell how! If only I can go to Failaka island for more photos to snap. Well, I might try as well to do some photography around my place somehow, or try to catch the sunrise as I used to do in the old days... but the sunrise nowadays is so early that I'm not sure I'm going to catch it. Sometimes you get so frustrated about your holiday that you just can't think of what to do in it until it's all passed out!

Well, time for me to pack my stuff and get back home and have a nap... I might do some mischief tonight!

Yikes!

Another discovery of missing numbers! This time 4 lines are missing between 374 and 378. The story is not missing but only the numbering is messed around. Under the light of the new event here then the total lines of the story is 2993.

Today, I translated only one verse (which was started yesterday but completed today) as I was sick of the place here. I had to do adminstrative job and translate 3 pages typed by my colleague before his travelling to his vacation. The contents were highly scientific in terms, and sometimes I had to leave them as they are, untouched, leaving the document look half Arabic and half English. I had also to drive to some computer stores to buy a converter piece (USB to 9-pin) with the money I had from the adminstrative office (purchase department here) as we need for some laptop connectivity. I barely had time to translate my own project with Alexander's story. In fact I had no mood at all. I was planning as well to write some words into my diary which I brought with me today, as I had some thoughts and wanted to pin them down on paper, but I guess this won't be for now since most of the ideas are vaporized by now. I'm trying now to write down something for my story as I didn't write down a thing yesterday and was trying to think of some way to fabricate the events.

I googled some sites for tips on writing a mystery and some views contradicted somehow, so I guess every author has his or her own unique way of thinking and approach. One of the authors in his tips actually suggested the same thing I did in the beginning, which is a random start and the story would go by itself as you go writing, but with an exception that the end must be well established and outlined already for the rest of the show.

Starting as well now to play "Still Life 2." A thrilling game I've been waiting for. It's about some serial killer that practices his rituals in US. The story is a continuation for the first part, thus it is better to play that one first and then the second. It is a detective game with some vulgar language (so check out your age rank) and some unpleasant views and violence... but hey, I'm not intending to apply these in real life... or ... ?

Celtic...

Been working on my writings for some days, and doing several things. My mind is kind of scattered, but one thing is assured, I have this weird urge to write poems like.. Lynn. I'm trying to chase after beauty wherever it comes, where it goes.
I've started to stay in the office all the day (I mean all the working day) instead of going back home and then come back here to do a fingerprint. My colleague is not helping when it comes to giving a helping hand with this!
However, I'm getting myself busy with so many things that I know I wouldn't be able to do them when I get back home or just get lazy about it! The only bad thing is that some stuff need a better PC than this laptop which I take with me to work. During working in that manner, I just keep the music rolling on everything Irish. Time passes so fast, specially when you play the same song or music again and again and never get your enough of it! It has been some time since I listened to Celtic music. It helps also to spark some ideas for writing the story of Alexander, and poems as well.

Weird toothache! I can't locate the pain, and even my dentist said everything is OK. I'm on antibiotics for some time now until next Saturday to check back for any changes. The pain comes specially when I have a raise in my blood pressure.

Planning to go to Failaka next weekend but not confirmed yet. Hope to get more and more nice photos from there! And, less seasickness.

Writing...

Things are going slowly since the last time I made an entry to this blog. Although I made a scan for the Betenic alphabet but I didn't pick up the forms that I would need and settle it down. Writing and writing and writing, this is what I'm doing at the current time as I'm trying to elevate my writing skills to a higher level via involving in www.writing.com.

This is the new born kitty in our yard. Been feeding them for some time now. S/He was so weak and almost lying on the ground without moving much, but things are getting better.
In work, I'm sick of some things but for the time being I got somehow numb... I do not feel a thing. Like, what the heck... why should I work? What am I doing here? After some thought into it, I did discover that my existance isn't really necessary there... all what I need is the money from there. Needless to say the annoying blabbering you always get.
I wrote a new poem and called it Mother Hugs Daughter. The words for this poem were revealed to me when I was looking at a picture of a friend, from US, hugging her daughter. Sometimes, simple things just let you get into a wave of emotions... for no real obvious reason but because it is what it is.
Let's hope I will be able to push things forward as soon as possible. I hate to leave things unfinished, otherwise I'm going to forget everything about it, and forever.

Experiment war Erfolgreich!

Today's topic is in German. You might ask what the hell is that or why it is like that! Well, first of all it means "the experiment was successful" and why it is in German, this is because I appreciate the guys who were spreading tutorials about cracking the fingerprint scanners.
I'm not going into details here, but it's enough to say that I made an experiment to record my attendance on the fingerprint machine and it worked out, so I can give my copy to anyone to do it for me. You might think I'm a bit like a criminal, well, to my ethics I am not... and that what matters to me. I'm not attending to hurt anyone anyway.

On the other hand I've been trying to find a place among the writers and some other sources of income and that kept away for some time from writing my own story of Alexander. For this reason, I registered in www.writing.com under the pen name "SeanFear." Some people there liked my poem called Insanity. It makes me relieved a bit to see some people do like it. I'm going to write other things as well. I did already write a short article (with a bad sense of humor) about my life being a physicist and a physics student.

Just today I made a scan of the proposed characters for the Betenic script (finally!). Lot of work is involved because I have to settle down and neglect some shapes as well.

Some shapes proposed for vowels (left) and consonants (right)

I need some time to reflect on those shapes and pick the best I like, then I'm going to write a short note and design a basic scheme for the grammar and the sounds of the language. The writing of Betenic goes from bottom to top, starting from the lower left corner of the page, and when you reach the end of the page (top), you'll have to rotate the page 90 degrees CounterClockWise and continue writing. So on you continue until the writing ends to the center of the page.
Betenic is an ayvaric language and it has this specific character of aspirations for some letters and might add a vowel specially made for aspirations at the end of some words.

Well, that is a relief for now. Somehow, breaking a system and the law makes you happy sometimes! Don't get me wrong please, I do not attend to hurt anyone or like to be a criminal, it is but the sense of freedom!

Geocities got bad news for me! Yahoo! systems want to close the Geocities system completely... thus, I have to find another place for my page(s). Not only that, but maybe I have to recreate everything. Now this news will delay my publishing for the chapters of Alexander's chronicles, but it might give me time to finish the 6th final part and also make a translation and a transliteration. I hope the transition of the data from there would be easy, but still there are some stuff that I need to change completely, specially the Flash animation.

Stress

Trying to compensate and to manage between the various stresses I had about work, so I'm concentrating more upon poetry and writing, and trying to find a career within that field. Many people advised before to find a place in that domain since they read my poetry before.
In the time being I just finished writing my newest poem, Take Me. It is weird how one, or me at least, writes a poem. you don't feel anything... only words flow through your fingers. You smells things are not there, and see things you never did see before. A world of imagination and dreams (not necessarily happy ones) and then, tata, you are finished.
On the other side, I'm thinking also of stepping into the designing world, specially in the field of educational posters. I made some posters already for work, I believe I can handle that... all what I need is materials and ads.

Still writing on the story of Alexander and might as well soon finish, or let's say, get into the last scenery or last patch of the story. In the same time, I'm working on with my previous recordings to add some effects and change the pitch of my voice. Although I previously decided to do everything in Flash format but, seems I'm not gona use it completely... and I'm gona add the contents of the chapters one by one.

I think it is the time to prepare for my vacation in October now. I should start filling my visa application!