Giving titles. Even (or because of) my habit of using song titles, it can be really hard.

Sometimes it takes me as long as working on the image. Here I had three of them to choose, none of them a clear winner.

In the end I decided for the one that gave me a Song of the Day. Actually I would have rather taken this one: a damaged bicycle with an infinitely twisted wheel, but really, among 34000 songs, there is exactly not a single one called “Infinity”.

Or the other one. I would have expected “Obscure” (at least that’s what I read: “Obskur”) to be a word that occurs at least once in 34000 song titles. Nothing.

Of course “Blue” was the cheap way out. 1557 songs, most of them Blues

The Song of the Day is “Perfect Blue Buildings” from the 1993 Counting Crows album “August and Everything After”. Hear it on YouTube.

Photozone.de has finally published a lab review of the Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC. It’s for the Canon version, but that should not make much of a difference. The review sparked off a thread in the Nikon forum of Photo.net, where the review was regarded as almost devastating. The original poster concluded with “If you value your photography, stay away from this lens!”

Well, regarding distortions at 17mm, yes, it distorts badly, and apart from the brick wall, this original shot, provided for you in all glory of its full size, is as bad as it may get. For the Image of the Day I have applied PTLens, but that could only remove part of the barrel distortion. I’ve removed some more with Photoshop’s Lens Distortion filter, cropped, and you see that what I’ve got is pretty perfectly rectangular. Just frame a little less accurate, leave room for correction. That’s for distortions.

The other thing is, that down in the Photo.net thread Eric Arnold tried to compromise:

essentially,it comes down to this: if you need corner sharpness but constant aperture isnt important, i.e. for landscapes, get the 16-85 VR.

if you need a fast constant aperture and want stabilization at the expense of losing some corner sharpness, get the 17-50 VC.

I think my answer is relevant, and I don’t want it to be buried in an off-site thread, so please allow me to quote it as well:

I think this is wrong. The reason to get the 16-85 VR can only be the extended range.

Yes, it is sharper in the corners at f3.5 than the Tamron at f2.8, so what? Would you take landscape images at f2.8 or f3.5? Most of the time I wouldn’t. And even if:

I’ve just tried the Tamron at f3.5, tried it with book shelfs (detail!), tried it with flash (it’s still night here), and I can see a subtle sharpness falloff, only in the extreme corners, and I can only see it because I look for it. Even at f3.5, you would have a hard time seeing it, and for the 16-85 VR this is still wide open.

No, I suppose with the 16-85 you would shoot normally at at least f5.6, and by that the Tamron is stellar across the range. We’re speaking of 50/1.8 sharpness here. And that’s only at 17mm. Think of 24mm: the 16-85 just begins at f4, from 35mm at f4.5, and by 50mm it is at f5. At none of these focal lengths and at starting aperture it is a match for the Tamron.

Now take it the other way: Imagine a situation where you do want to take a scenic image at f2.8, for instance because it is night. Let it be architecture, for instance in a city, or let it be within a cathedral. It’s quite a typical situation, and it’s quite typical for situations where you either have no tripod or may not be allowed to use it.

In such situations the shot is frequently repeatable, thus I may go down from my normal 1/15s (auto ISO lower speed limit) to 1/8s or even 1/4s. With VR I have a sharp image, it may take me two or three attempts though, especially standing without support and shooting portrait format. Even in low light I may get away with ISO 200.

With the 17-55/2.8 at twice the price I may be lucky to get the shot at 1/15s, but I suppose 1/30s will be more likely, especially in portrait format. We’re talking two to three stops, i.e. ISO 800-1600 here. Do you believe that the added corner sharpness of the 17-55/2.8 will still be there at these ISOs? And if were not talking extreme corners but center or off-center, for instance a typical “rule of thirds” composition? The Tamron will be much better than in the extreme corners. The Nikon may or may not still have a slight edge on the charts, but you would have a hard time seeing it, and, remember, that would be at the same ISO. But what with our fictual but not so unrealistic situation in the church or at night in the city? With an advantage of ISO 200 vs ISO 800-1600 across the frame and the main subject where main subjects typically are, don’t you believe that any theoretical sharpness advantage of the Nikon, even if it were there at that point in the frame, would be hopelessly buried in noise?

Now say you accept some added noise because you need depth of field. You go to f5.6. That’s two stops, we are at ISO 800 with the Tamron. We may need two or three attempts to hold the shot at 1/4s, but we would need the same with the Nikon at 1/15s or even 1/30s. Both lenses operate at maximum sharpness now. Under ideal light and in the lab, you may still be able to measure a slight sharpness advantage in the extreme corners for the Nikon. Our subject is not in the extreme corners though, and the light is low as it is. Where is the Nikon now? ISO 3200-6400, right? Forget about any theoretical advantage it may have. At that light it is severely hampered by sensor noise. ISO 800 vs ISO 3200-6400? This is an almost too easy win for the Tamron.

I may sound like being biased, I may even sound like being affiliated with Tamron, but that’s not the case. I just own this lens and have used it for three months in the darkest time of the year. Really, I wouldn’t so easily dismiss this lens

Here we are. The Image of the Day was taken at 1/15s and f2.8. The extreme corners of the original shot are about 10cm in front of the focal plane. They are mushy because they are clearly out of focus. If they were in focus, they might be still mushy but less mushy. That’s how bad it can get. Could be worse, huh?

And, given the example in the quote, had I taken my time, I could have gone down to 1/4s and ISO 200. With non-stabilized lenses you’d still hover at ISO 800 or maybe at ISO 1600, look at the noise and console yourself with the fact that it’s not the lens, it’s only the light that’s so bad

Oh yes, “Rahmen” means “frame” or “frames” in German. Thus the Song of the Day is “Framed” from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s 1972 album “Framed”. See them in a fine live performance on YouTube.

I’m back in Vienna. Remember when I said it’s only six days and then the days will get longer again? Oh my, time flies, from tomorrow they will.

Image #1 is a morning image. I was late and very much in a hurry. Hmm … how are these called? It’s not exactly graffiti, it’s more like someone’s tag, a signature. I guess “an annoyance” would Ted say But still: how do you call something like that in English?

Anyway. I focused on that orange something, waited a second or two until the man was just in the right position, and then I took the image. I don’t even have an idea what it is about. It’s just an arrangement that appeals to me – something that I do time and again. Must mean something, huh?

The Image of the day is one of those cases when I like to use Nikon Capture NX 2. I liked the colors and tones of the JPEG from the camera, but I wanted to crop the image slightly. In such cases I don’t crop the JPEG and save as JPEG again, no, I always use the RAW file. The problem is, that I currently use ProPhoto RGB as my working color space, thus the camera profiles in Adobe Camera RAW do not match as they are supposed to do. Capture NX 2, on the other hand, perfectly reproduces the look of in-camera JPEGs.

The Song of the Day is “Feeling Blue” from Eric Burdon’s 2006 album “Soul of a Man”. Hear it on YouTube.

One more image for today. Yesterday I felt slightly restricted by the Sigma 150/2.8 Macro. There were several moments when I missed images because I was always far too near and going so far back was not an option.

The problem with going back, even when there is space, is that the longer your lens, the more obstacles fit between you and your subject. In any case, I wanted something shorter for today. The morning was rather gloomy (it did get better though during the day), thus 1/200s, as I use with the Sigma 150mm lens, did not feel promising anyway. I really hate getting into high ISOs at daylight and even at f2.8.

Following that impulse, I decided to use the Sigma 50/1.4, one lens that I have not used in a long time. With it I took this image of a small copy of a greek sculpture. I found it in the window of a greek restaurant.

The Song of the Day is “Big Boy Blue” by Ella Fitzgerald. I have it on a 10 CD collection that I’ve got for 10€, but as that is not available elsewhere, I link to “The Platinum Collection”. Hear it on YouTube.

Of course it’s not allowed to make photos in a concert like yesterday’s “Porgy and Bess” in Graz, directed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Let me only tell you that it was very operatic, complex and technically excellent, although it may disappoint some expectations. Can you imagine that I sometimes was reminded of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”? Not by the melodies of course, but by the music’s complexity and its shifting layers. We may tend to forget it, but Gershwin did not compose Jazz, and he is well rooted in a long history of composers. Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it

Though I have no images from the concert, Gershwin fits nicely. Graz is the capital of Styria, the Austrian province to the east of Carinthia. We decided to skip the highway over the mountains and instead crossed on one of the old roads. I must admit, I have never seen so many Lupines in my whole life. All the mountains wear glorious blue.

The Song of the Day is “Rhapsody in Blue” from the 1994 album “The Glory Of Gershwin”, featuring Larry Adler on harmonica, accompanied by Peter Gabriel, Chris De Burgh, Sting, Lisa Stansfield, Elton John, Carly Simon, Elvis Costello, Cher, Kate Bush, Jon Bon Jovi, Oleta Adams, Willard White, Sinead O’Connor, Robert Palmer, Meat Loaf, Issy Van Randwyck and Courtney Pine.

There is one solo piece, “Rhapsody in Blue”, at the end of the album, featuring Larry and an orchestra arranged by George Martin. YouTube has a video of the shortened version from the B-side of the 7″ single of Kate Bush’s version of “The Man I Love”. A longer and more intimate version, featuring Larry Adler and his brother Jerry on piano, is also available on YouTube, although the sound quality is regrettably bad.

I have linked to the import version of the album, because the US version did not contain the two songs performed by Chris De Burgh. Btw, did I mention that this album is a MUST??

It’s a typical Friday. I woke up early and had a little time in the morning, but that was it. Now I sit on the train to Carinthia, and from the few morning images I could use at least this old Puch motorcycle.

Btw, this image and yesterday’s have something in common. Both of them were created from two images each. In both cases I had two versions, one a little too tight on the upper edge, the other on the lower edge. In both cases Photoshop’s “Align Layers” did a fine job and allowed me to cheat nicely.

Normally I like to frame tight and as exact as possible, but sometimes tight is too tight. Having more than one exposure can make all the difference then.

The Song of the Day is “I’m Still Here” from Tom Waits’ 2002 album “Alice”. Hear it on YouTube.

Today I set out to meet with my father in Klagenfurt. We needed to fetch a piece of furniture that had just arrived, and then to do some work in Villach that we had let come together. I expected us to be done with it by 2pm, and had planned to take him up on a mountain, most likely Dobratsch again, as he seems to like being with me while I take photographs.

Normally when I go down to the garage, I take the stairs or sometimes the elevator, but when I bring down the garbage, I enter through the ramp. Today I was about to do so, and just as I rounded the corner, I saw this poor little hydrant standing among all the dirty snow. Light was poor, the sky a solid cover of dense fog. Heck, I thought, I’ll be up on the mountain and shoot grand landscapes, but I can just as well start photographing here.

I did so, and just as I did, one neighbor, German by sound (many Germans work at the Infineon plant just 500 meters away, thus we have an unusually big share of Germans here on the block), brought out some garbage as well and said to me “Oh, no need to photograph this hydrant. Drive up the mountains. The weather is gorgeous up there. I just saw it on the Internet. You’ll get much better motifs there”. “Thanks, but you never know”, said I.

It remained the only image I shot today. We spent much more time in Klagenfurt than expected, and when we were done with work, it was 3:45pm and just that tiny bit too late. I’m glad I didn’t dismiss this image for a grander future

The Song of the Day could have been “Little Boy Blue” just like in “682 – Little Boy Blue“, at least that was my initial impulse, but then I found “Little Blue” from the 1996 Beautiful South album “Blue Is the Colour” (hear it on YouTube), and I’m glad for that as well, because I learned two things:

Paul Heaton has a new album (old news, it’s been out for 7 months, but I didn’t know), and the Pound Sterling is on an all-time low, about parity with the Euro.

The album costs £12.98 at Amazon.co.uk, while it’s €17.95 at Amazon.de. That gave me this kind of buying frenzy, you know, and I ordered it along with all those James albums (the band from Manchester, we’ll get to that, sooner or later) that I had assembled on my waiting list at Amazon.co.uk, but never dared to order

I suppose you know the view from my study by now

We had this view in two very different morning images, “755 – That Moment“, two weeks later, “767 – Frosty Morning Blues I“, and today it’s an evening image. I fully recognize that this series will eventually have to come to an end, but I guess one or two more can’t hurt

Today we had the antithesis of typical photo weather. It was raining all of the day in varying degrees, but it was still cold enough that the rain only managed to compress the snow. You know, I am not picky when it comes to going out with the camera, but sometimes even my ambition has an end.


This image was shot from the tripod through the open window. I have shortly tried to post-process it, but quickly found out that there was not much that I could contribute after the fact. This is the JPEG straight from the camera.

Funny, I had already chosen the title, looked up all the videos and the other links, when I recognized that I have used this title just recently. Anyway, I’ll keep it at that, the Song of the Day is again “Night Comes On“, originally from Leonard Cohen’s 1985 album “Various Positions”. Hear it on YouTube, either Cohen’s version or nice cover by “The Avalanche Quartet“. Their version is from the album “Leonard Cohen Songs“. Very recommendable for sure.

This is a house in Vienna’s Lerchenfelder Straße, and composing this image was more than awkward. What made me try it was the red accent of the flowers. Immediately above there was white, bright sky, just to the right of the flowers a “For Sale” sign, and my position was restricted because I couldn’t possibly stand in the middle of the street. Apart from that I had the Sigma 50/1.4 mounted and did not want to change for one shot. Under these circumstances I am quite satisfied

The Song of the Day is “Blue House” from Marcia Ball’s 1994 album of the same name. The Rolling Stone has a review of the album. Sorry, no lyrics. Rhapsody has a Marcia Ball page, but it is US only. I suppose you could hear it there. For the lesser among us there is always the sample on Amazon.

I made these images in the morning, using the Sigma 30/1.4, a nice lens, slightly on the big side, but still a tad smaller than the Sigma 50/1.4 that I bought today. I guess you will see more images at 50 mm soon

The Song of the Day is “Runnin’ Blue” from the fourth Doors album “The Soft Parade“, without doubt by far their least popular album, for a reason, but I have a hard time trying to be objective when it comes to The Doors. They were simply so good. Hear the Song on YouTube.