565 - Miss By One

It’s late Friday evening, these are the images for Wednesday. Let’s see how far we get tonight. This first image is of a view that I’ve seen thousands of times in 24 years. Morning light falling through my living room window in Vienna. It’s a tad on the yellow side, isn’t it? Uuhh … yes. This is the JPEG from the camera, and I had left it set to “cloudy” white balance from the day before. You know, normally I’d have corrected the white point, brought in a tad of color variation, increased contrast, etc, and I shortly tried, but … it completely ruins the shot. Some images are not meant to be “optimized”.

Wednesday was traveling day, and when I am packed with my big camera backpack and an extra bag, I normally use public transport and most of the time that means the Underground. Not so this day. I decided to ride by tramway for some stations, and then go the rest of the way to work. When I left the tramway in Josefstädter Straße, the sun was shortly gone. I used the light for some images of tulips and came up with this. Did you know that all tulips originate from Kazakhstan?

Later on, at work, I used the opportunity for another portrait of Erich. He was very concentrated and left me the time to focus the 50/1.2. Never be sloppy with this lens, because, when using the focus indicator LED, it is crucial to set the focus point to exactly where you want it. At f1.2 the plane of sharpness is so thin that it becomes apparent that it is no plane at all. It is curved, just like the lens. Forget any focus-and-recompose technique, it won’t work. You’ll never get sharp images.

The last one, the Image of the Day, was taken shortly after the tulips. The sun had come back and I used a polarizer to get rid of the reflections on the peeling paint.

Now, why is this a “miss by one”, you ask? Well, the thermometer shows 18 degrees Celsius, which is quite nice for 8am, but I had hoped for 17. Missing it by one made me reconsider the title. You know, I really had to have “17 Again” from the 1999 Eurythmics reunion album “Peace” as Song of the Day one time 🙂

I absolutely adore Annie Lennox. She has such a wonderfully powerful voice and the end of this song is … special. If I remember well, they have performed the song to an overwhelming reception in the morning of New Year’s Day 2000 at a concert in London’s Trafalgar Square. I really would have given a lot to not only see it on TV 🙂

There is a remixed version of the album, that’s what you currently get if you don’t care, and nobody seems to like it. I can’t tell, I have the original, but you are warned. See the video on YouTube.