The Big Green Bee and Photographing Quick Moving Subjects

A few days ago, I spotted an unusually coloured green bee out of the window.  So, obviously, I went running out with my camera to try and snap a shot of it.  It seemed to be hovering round and round a certain tree so I tried to stand in one place and wait for it to come around again, but it was pretty hard since it was moving so abruptly and quickly.  This one came out quite well, though, I think.  I like the way the motion of the wings shows with the sunlight shining through them.

Satisfaction – and exhaustion

Yesterday, I finally submitted my article on translation to a journal in the UK!  It has been an intense few weeks.  My article was initially an extension of my Master’s dissertation topic, but when I received the style guidelines for the journal only a few days before the deadline I realised what I had written didn’t fit in with the journal’s target readership and content expectations.  So, I had to change my topic and start from scratch!  Luckily, I had an essay I had written (also for my Master’s!) and was able to build on that.  Anyway, it’s all over now!  I hope it is accepted for publication; that would be very exciting.

Of course, the work doesn’t stop coming just because you’ve been slaving over one project for a while and could do with a break!  Nonetheless, for the next couple of hours at least, I intend to just take some time to breathe!  And maybe finish reading I was born there, I was born here by Mourid Barghouti, which I seem to have been reading for an eternity!  I really like that title and the stories it tells.  Titles are my weakness when writing a story, but this is the kind of effect I always hope for!

Freelancing can be tough. An hour and choco-banana crepes may well help.

I’ve been working quite intensely on my article for some time now and, while the main issue with freelance work might be considered to be self-discipline, I have found that another issue is being smart enough to give yourself a break now and again. I didn’t realise at first and was following the same work, work, work schedule every day (including weekends) for quite a while for fear of losing momentum and the collapse of self-discipline that was sure to follow. One day, I realised I hadn’t had a break or weekend (i.e. time off) for at least a month (probably two)! So, I finished any particularly urgent projects and dedicated a day to doing anything I wanted that wasn’t work and wasn’t on the computer. I ended up doing the weekly shopping for half the day, but that’s ok! Despite that moment of clarity, I found myself suddenly reaching that overworked stage again today. With three deadlines fast approaching, I couldn’t take a day off again, but sometimes all you need is an hour not thinking about anything and a satisfying treat. It worked for me, anyway!

Photo taken using an iPhone 3GS, iOS 5.1.
A great chocolate sauce recipe can be found here: Homemade chocolate sauce

Translation: theory and practice

It has been a year and a half since I posted my last regular update on this blog and a lot has changed. When you’re studying for a postgraduate degree everything is exciting and inspiring, it’s hard to contemplate the ensuing not so inspiring unemployment prospects. I’m working as a freelance translator and editor though, and still find delight in translating, even if it’s predominantly unpaid and under-appreciated!

I’ve also updated on the photography front since my last post, I now own a dSLR camera and couldn’t imagine using anything else! It certainly took some time to get used to, but it’s certainly worth it. I’m looking forward to posting some of my photos here and hope to get some feedback.

I’m currently working on an article discussing the translation of a particular genre of humour and made an interesting discovery that hadn’t occurred to me before: translating from a multilingual source culture to a monolingual target culture introduces a fascinating new dimension to translation. Imagine the effect of the assumption of multilingualism in the source culture on a text. That in itself is food for thought, but when you consider transferring such a text to a monolingual culture, the implications are multiplied. That’s without going into the way the source audience approaches such a text.

I’m already enjoying having this blog back. It’s wonderful to be able to put my translation, photography and writing ideas and discoveries down in writing; it’s an efficient way to process and develop them too.

A Fresh Start

I’m considering returning to this blog. It’s nice to have somewhere to share little creative bits and bobs without any pressure. It’s also been nice to get the odd comment now and again on a blog I haven’t written on for so long! So, hopefully this is a new beginning for Qissas in Progress! Thanks to those who commented.

Photography: insects enjoying the summer

The final push for my dissertation is underway, hence the absence of new posts on this blog, apart from the previous post, which I’d like to point out, I wrote while falling asleep!  However, I’ll leave it since one of the aims of this blog is to practise, so I can’t expect every post to be quality work!

I haven’t abandoned my photography though, of course.  This moth seemed to take a liking to the washing hanging outside:

Spoken word poetry? First attempt

Deadline Pressure

My dissertation is awaitin’
Like a patient with inflammation.
I keep on writing, but it’s fighting.
What? Is it inciting
Me to give up? Call it quits?
Tear my piled up notes to bits?
Just because it’s throwing fits?
I won’t surrender to the calls
That fall on the walls
Of the library’s study halls.
Tempting me away from work,
Do they think that I’m a berk?
I can see them where they lurk,
And I’m not giving in.
I’ll see this through right to the end,
Around that final bend,
When I will send it off at last,
And relief will come,
Great and fast.
Oh, I’ll be glad when it has past!

The reign of the dissertation continues…

I do apologise (if there is indeed anyone reading to apologise to! – but I always hope there is since that is my main motivation for writing, but whoa!  We’re getting a bit off-topic in the brackets so early in the post!) for my lack of posts recently.  I have, I am proud to say, been working on my dissertation – or at least, attempting to, which is better than walou!  I seem to have found myself in a vicious article-reading circle.  I have around twenty articles to read, with an average of twenty pages each, which is good – articles are good.  However, the problem is that occasionally, when I reach the end of an article, I start reading the bibliography to see which articles the writer of that article used for their article and then start searching for that article on the internet.  Then, while searching for that article I come across related articles that look equally promising.  And so, my list of twenty articles to read continues to multiply and I never seem any closer to reaching the end of them!

I think that was an extremely confusing, if not meaningless, paragraph, and so I shall move on to – yes, you’ve got it – photography!  My photograph of the day reflects something I love about England:

I know, they’re just photos of the sky, but that’s the point!  The sky here is always so beautiful, subhan Allah.  It gives me such a sense of peace, alhamdu Lillah.  So, there you go!  Also, I’d like to point out that for the first photo I changed the exposure (I think it was +0.7 or so), which created a nice effect, I think!

Tired. Late.

An attempt at the previously mentioned challenge and more Photoshop experimentation:

This seems to have become a photoblog…

I might as well get it over with.  I didn’t do it.  The mini photography challenge I set myself yesterday, that is.  I tried, but my camera can’t focus that close up.  I know, that’s a feeble excuse because I suppose I could have taken the photo a bit further back and then edited afterwards.  It was raining a lot today though, so most of my time spent outside was either hurrying (well, to be honest, I like the rain so “hurrying” is probably not such an accurate choice of words – let’s say “wandering”) from one building to another or, if it wasn’t raining, sitting on a bench trying to get work done.

Anyway, despite the fact that I have not yet succeeded in that challenge (I will try again tomorrow in sha Allah, I haven’t given up, don’t worry), I did take a couple of photos today that I am rather happy with, so I will share them.

I took this while waiting at the bus stop.  It was a messing around/experimenting type of photo, but I like the way it turned out: the brightness of the colours and the way it is focussed (there must be a technical term for that, anyone?).

Long live Palestine!

I took this one while trying to do the challenge!  This bee seemed to spend ages on the flower – it was almost as if it was saying “come and take a photo of me!  What are you waiting for?”.  I’ve attempted bee photos before; they’re always disappointing.  This one is not so bad though, at least it’s in focus!  It probably would have turned out better if the sun had been shining on the flower in question and not the one behind it though!

I thought I’d play with the above photo a little on Photoshop – just for fun!  I haven’t really ever tried using Photoshop for such purposes; I usually use it to create collages and that type of thing.  Here’s the result of my experimentation: