501 - Ain't No Big Thing

Can you remember when Ted discovered European cars? The 2CV? And then the Smart, the car that fits in every parking lot?

Well, here in Austria even the Police drives them. Here is one in front of the side entrance of our parliament. Had it been a night shot, I surely would have chosen Jethro Tull’s “The Mouse Police Never Sleeps” as Song of the Day, but alas, it was right in the morning when yesterday I shot this image.

This is again the Sigma 70/2.8, this time, with plenty of light, at f8 and still at 1/400s. Some tiny enhancements in lighting after the fact.

The Song of the Day is “Ain’t No Big Thing” from John Lee Hooker’s 1997 album “Don’t Look Back”. That’s his co-production with Van Morrison.

And now? I guess I owe Ted some hundred answers to his questions from yesterday’s comment. I promised to answer little by little, and in fact I’ll try to answer one point per day. Is that fair? This should only take me the next 500 posts, at least as long as Ted stops asking 🙂

Ted, you asked what I have discovered “about the ‘if only’ cursing that happens when you see the results on your computer screen and wonder ‘if only’ you’d panned a tad more left, pulled a tad more back, grabbed a tad more sky, earth, chest, or leg?”. That’s an easy one for starters:

Most of the time it is no curse at all. 95% of my images are shot in everyday locations, locations that I can go back to whenever I like. 95% of my people images have the people blurred and in the background. It may be difficult to impossible to get another opportunity for a missed shot, but in most cases it is not. And then, when all the shooting is done, there is still Photoshop. Mind you, not as a means to rescue bad images, no, simply as another stag in the “making” of images.

No, I have no problem to miss a shot. I may create something different in Photoshop, or I may go back the other day and try it again. Or the other year. In fact, there is a shot that can only be taken within a short range of days, maybe not more than one or two, in January. I have partially missed an opportunity during winter 2005/2006, and since then I have forgotten every year, but one year I’ll get it 🙂