1383 - One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

Sigma 28/1.8 No Responses »
Jul 282010

Remember my little riddle from Sunday, when in “1380 – I May Be Wrong” I suggested that my post-processing of that image from Rapallo had broken the laws of physics?

Sanatan commented

I think the sun wasn’t in the frame when you took the photo judging by the shadows. The street is in shadow, I think the sun was actually behind the building on he right.

And that’s correct. While post-processing, when I looked at the image, I had the feeling, that a little more sun would be beneficial. I used a masked Exposure adjustment layer, and with a soft brush I faked a sun behind the lamp post. I was prepared to remove it, I just wanted to see how it looks, but surprisingly it fit the mood and looked not even that wrong, so I kept it. Judging by your reactions, I may have been right.

Today’s image, for a change, is an image of, well, today. Like with most images of the last weeks, post-processing is on the heavy side, making use of Topaz Adjust 4 among many other weapons. In total this image is a 24 layer affair.

Strange: sometimes I have at least as much fun in Photoshop as I have photographing. Now is such a time :)

The Song of the Day is “One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell” from Morrissey’s 2009 album “Years Of Refusal”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 9:42 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

1382 - Mary's Of The Sea

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
Jul 282010

I was not in a photographing mood. I did take photographs today, a lot even, but almost all of them were textures. Walls, stone, cracking paint and the like. When I made yesterday’s “1381 – I See A Darkness“, I blended in a texture of cracks in a big block of wood, and while I browsed my collection for textures, I realized that they were not only poorly tagged in the database, but also that I don’t have as many as I thought. This averted my view today and made me mostly look at old walls :)

OK, that’s today’s excuse for why you get another picture from Italy :D

Here is Camogli again, same place as yesterday’s darkness, same time, only here I use the 17-50 and look towards “Santa Maria Assunta”, St Mary’s, the church directly at the beach.

The Song of the Day is “Marys Of The Sea” from Tori Amos’ 2005 album “The Beekeeper”. Only live versions float the net, so here is one on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:42 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1381 - I See A Darkness

Nikon 70-300 VR 2 Responses »
Jul 272010

I’m back in Vienna. And no, I didn’t take any images. I made one though.

Do you remember Camogli? This light-flooded dream of every photographer?

Don’t ask me what I thought, don’t ask me how I feel. I’m fine :) I just had the desire to experiment, and to be honest, I like what I got. Beautiful Camogli, cracking and molding.

The Song of the Day is “I See A Darkness” by Johnny Cash. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 1:30 am Tagged with: , , , ,

1380 - I May Be Wrong

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 4 Responses »
Jul 262010

It’s Sunday night, already past midnight. I am still in Carinthia because we were in Graz today, about 150 km from Villach, capital of the neighboring province of Styria. We were there for a concert and scenic interpretation of Claudio Monteverdi’s eighth book of madrigals. The “Combattimento” performed live, how much better can it get? Needless to say, it was fantastic.

There’s nothing new on the photography front. I made some images, though I have not even copied them from the camera yet. Maybe I would have had something anyway, but here is one more image from Italy instead.

The funny thing is, during post-processing I did something that I normally don’t do: I deliberately introduced an error. This image is not real. It can’t be. No, it’s not the processing style, of course the colors, the local contrasts, the partial blur, all that are not “real”, but then what is? No, I mean something else. Can you see it?

But then, even though I broke the laws of physics, this image looks exactly like what I remember. In fact it does much more so than all the images that I took in this district of Rapallo.

The Song of the Day is “I May Be Wrong” by Chick Webb and his Orchestra. I have it on Disc 132 of “The Ultimate Jazz Archive”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 2:06 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1379 - That's Your Red Wagon

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
Jul 242010

It’s Saturday, we had a cool, mostly cloudy day and I have done … nothing. Therefore I can only offer you another image from Italy, taken in Santa Margherita Ligure, and to be precise exactly here. Oh dear, Street View is probably one of the most useful applications ever :)

The Song of the Day, “That’s Your Red Wagon” by Anita O’Day and Cal Tjader, released on their 1962 album “Time For 2″, was not available online, thus I have uploaded it to YouTube. Great song, great album, and the latin touch harmonizes perfectly with Anita’s relaxed style.

Posted by andreas at 10:55 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1378 - You Gotta Move

Sigma 50/1.4 2 Responses »
Jul 232010

I’m still on the train, it’s still late Friday afternoon, I have just crossed the border to Carinthia. It’s raining, but towards Villach the sky is already blue again. Still, we seem to get some cooler weather now. In a way it’s welcome, but then, I love summer and I know I will hate seeing it end :)

Wow, it’s beautiful outside. You know how that looks, with dark clouds above you and the sun almost coming out near the horizon, with a very bright fringe on the clouds and a warm, indirect light coming from the west. Tolkienesque :)

This is really a snapshot. I saw the biker coming from the corner of my eye, I raised the camera, all within a split-second, no time to compose, no time to change any settings, but actually I like the result, or let’s say, for a Friday it’s OK.

The Song of the Day is “You Gotta Move” from the 1971 Rolling Stones album “Sticky Fingers”. Hear it on YouTube.

Oh, and the light is totally unreal outside. No chance to take images though :D

Posted by andreas at 8:29 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1377 - Door Peep

Sigma 50/1.4 4 Responses »
Jul 232010

I’m on the train to Carinthia, it’s Friday afternoon, these are the images for yesterday, and these are also the images that I meant, when I commented on Markus Spring’s blog. For his NotSoFoBoMo book (just as I, he failed the deadline this year), he had taken images in Budapest, Hungary, and a good part of them were doors.

I found it really funny when I saw his book on a day, when coincidentally I myself had photographed almost nothing but doors.

Here are only two of my images. I had many more of the same, nothing really outstanding, so I spare you the rest. Nevertheless, it made me chuckle :)

The Song of the Day is “Door Peep” from Sinéad O’Connor’s 2005 reggae music cover album “Throw Down Your Arms”. I have used it ages ago in “392 – Door Peep Shall Not Enter“, here it is one more time, this time with a music sample on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 8:02 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1376 - Peace Of Mind

Sigma 50/1.4 2 Responses »
Jul 232010

This image calms me, and – honestly – I need it. I had a rather hard two days. I’m teaching the technology that I wrote my recent programming tutorial about, Eclipse / GlassFish / Java EE 6, and whenever I do that, teaching something that I’ve already written about, I find that the the two kinds of knowledge transfer require slightly different orders of presentation, especially with small groups and an arrangement, where you accept questions at any time. Not that anything went wrong, to the contrary, but it is very stressful, accordingly I am behind with my posts as well.

This is the post for Wednesday, actually made that day, and this is not what I wrote about in a comment to Markus Spring’s “Not a SoFoBoMo” success post. Here we have a house entrance as well, but in that case it was the only one that day. The multiply entrances post will be the next one.

As I said, I find this image calming. I have no idea who the guy with the flute is, there is a woman in the same style over the next door. Greek or Roman mythology I suppose, and I am notoriously bad at both.

Anyway. What this image induces in me is some “Piece Of Mind“, and that is also the Song of the Day. You hear it on B. B. King’s 2000 album “Makin’ Love Is Good For You” (which is certainly true), or else in a wonderful live performance on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 5:04 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

1375 - Our Favourite Shop

Sigma 50/1.4 No Responses »
Jul 222010

Tuesday. For months now I have watched the new Sigmas, especially the new 17-50/2.8 OS HSM, and Tuesday afternoon it suddenly became available. Just as I had done with the Sigma 8-16, I stopped working, went to the bank, fetched the 666€ (no joke, the number of the Beast!), and then … started thinking.

I didn’t buy it. Not yet. I may, when it turns out that the Tamron, currently sent in for repair, turns unreliable again. But now? Sure, from the review at Photozone.de (for the Canon version) it looks as if it were even better than the Tamron, but then, when the Tammy works at all, it is absolutely excellent. So what?

Btw, I am unfair. The Tamron has been used in 189 posts since November, a second to only the Nikon 18-200 VR with 220 in almost four years. Thus, not only has the Tamron brought me through a long and dark winter like no lens before, it also has been by far my most used lens since I bought it.

Of the 12791 exposures that I made between November 6, when I bought it, and July 12, when I last used it, I’d estimate at least 8000 were made with the Tamron 17-50/2.8. I have lenses that are in perfect shape but have been use by far less. Who knows?

These images were made with the Sigma 50/1.4, a lens that I have not used in a long time and that is just a pleasure to use. Not only does the focal length feel so natural, but it’s the magic of its creamy bokeh that I like so much. Look at the bicycle or the “balls of steel”: absolutely sharp where necessary, dreamy creaminess in the background. As I said, I may come back to the Sigma 17-50/2.8, but at the moment it is probably time to use some of the lenses that I already have :)

The Song of the Day is “Our Favourite Shop” from the 1985 album Style Council album of the same name. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:26 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

1374 - From Both Sides Now

Sigma 8-16, Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC No Responses »
Jul 212010

It’s Tuesday night, this is the entry for Monday. It’s the same image as in “1346 – Someday After A While“, processed differently, along with another image of the same house, taken the next day at noon. I suppose I will use these two images together on a spread, and while the first one was always meant to be on the title page, I think the second would be nice for the back cover.

Hmm … well, maybe it’s a bit premature to talk about covers, as long as I don’t have an idea what to put in between :D

Have you ever searched Amazon’s MP3 search for “Both Sides Now”? Can you believe this? This Joni Mitchell song may easily be the most covered song of all times, and if it is not, it can’t fall short :)

The Song of the Day is a version from the 2003 album “Undercovers” by Maria João and Mário Laginha. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 1:21 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,
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