916 - If I Were A Bell



I have not used a long lens in quite some time now, and the Sigma 70/2.8 Macro not since September 25, 2008. Wow, that’s half a year!

For me the joy of using such a lens comes from the endless variety of things that it allows me to see. I can go very near as in this flower macro (and these are really, really tiny flowers), semi-near as in the Image of the Day, or I can use the same lens to record a street scene. Completely different worlds, all in one lens.

In fact, going to work took me much longer today. I took many more images (OK, I threw many more away as well), and I had a hard time stopping being immersed in photography and instead go working.

I seriously consider using this as my SoFoBoMo lens, or if not shooting all images with this particular lens, at least adhering to that style of changing between different worlds. Two other lenses that work particularly well in that regard are the Sigma 50/1.4 and the Sigma 20/1.8, the former for its creamy bokeh wide open, and the latter for its macro capabilities. All three lenses are particularly well suited to dreaming the urban dream.

“Urban Dreams”. I have used that title for my exhibition last year, and I am extremely tempted to use “Urban Dreams II” as title of this year’s SoFoBoMo book. Does that sound good? Well, to me it sound so good that I’ve just committed to the title and created my book page on the SoFoBoMo site.

In a way that will be easy, because it leaves me great flexibility. Dreaming of the City! That can be everything, can it? On the other hand, it is challenging as well, because this is not the jumble of a daily photoblog, this is the linearity, the cohesion and the order of a book. In any case this is very different from last year’s project, images of one afternoon’s walk through the canyon “Tscheppaschlucht” in Carinthia.

There the whole structure was given through the temporal order, and the only thing that I had to do, was post-processing the images to a consistent style.

Anyway, we can’t always do the same thing. Let’s see how it turns out this year.

As to the Song of the Day, it’s “If I Were A Bell” from “Guys and Dolls”. I have at least two versions of it, Ella’s is fantastic, but today we take Holly Cole on her 1992 album “Blame It on My Youth”. Thankfully her songs begin to appear on YouTube. Here is this one.


There are 5 comments

J. L. T.   (2009-04-17)

Lovely aspect this little bell! IΒ΄m not sure about the framing, but I love the aspect to see you in the handlebarπŸ™‚ Have a niccce weekend! Sunny greetings

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Ove   (2009-04-17)

Urban Dreams II sounds great to me. Looking forward too see more on this from you. good luck with the sofobomoing from another sofobomoer. πŸ™‚

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Glen Goffin   (2009-04-17)

You have a way of making your colors pop without them seeming unnatural. It's probably just your eye for tweaking ... it's a distinctive of your work.

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Ted   (2009-04-18)

Not sure I'm happy with the way the flowers have reproduced... the texture is lost. But given the potency of the lens with that lead image... well it has the ability to create texture that I could file my nails upon. Gotta admit that the street scene has a tad less contrast than I'd prefer. I rarely comment on the technical and apologize for doing it here... but since your content as usual sings... I was distracted in the street and flower shots by a softness in the lens contrast.... which seems absent in your intriguing handlebar capture.

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Andreas   (2009-04-18)

No problem with the flowers. As I said, they are very, very tiny, moved with slight wind, and at f13 and that magnification, I really should have used a flash. I've included them for a mood.

I also see what you mean with the street scene. I have just tried what it looks like with more contrast on the low end and a slight push in the mids ... but I don't like it.

It's interesting. The image as uploaded is very similar to what came out of the camera. It already has more contrast on the low end and slightly opened up mids, but it is identical in the mood. Opening it up further crosses a certain threshold, and suddenly it may even be a better image, but it is not the image that I was after. It has a different mood. Funny what sometimes constitutes an image in our minds, huh?

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