This is an image of yesterday evening. It’s 17mm, ISO 2000, f4 and 1/15s. I’ve used Noise Ninja against the noise and Topaz Detail to accentuate local contrast, mostly in the foreground.
Other than that I have made a change to my buying habits that was long due. My last three music purchases were digital downloads. Funnily enough this came totally by chance. While I installed software on my laptop (the one that I just use while being on the train to Carinthia), I wanted to download the latest version of JetAudio. JetAudio is the proprietary music player of Cowon, the company that produces the excellent iAudio players. I own one of them, because Cowon is one of the few companies who care to support the free OGG music format, and because I have originally started to rip my CDs to OGG, I currently have about 30.000 tracks in this format. OGG was originally superior to MP3, and it is a format designed and implemented as open source. Unfortunately Apple obstinately refused to support the format in their players. Well, so did I buying their hardware. I even filed a bug report and wrote them one or two mails, but of course I got no reply and nothing has changed.
Anyway. JetAudio was my preferred software player so far. It’s pretty OK but nothing special. Think of WinAmp or similar programs. Now, as I installed software recently, the download server for JetAudio was unbearably slow, so I decided to look for an alternative. I found Songbird, a Mozilla-based iTunes look-alike with similar functionality and all the usual Mozilla features like plugins and skins. I had looked into it at least two years ago, then it had not really impressed me, but in the time since it has really grown up.
Well, here I was with a new player, and like iTunes is linked to the iTunes store, Songbird has plugins for music stores. Here in Austria it offers integration with 7digital, a UK-based service and of course Jamendo.com and Magnatune.com. Integration of Jamendo does not even need a plugin, and in fact I currently hear the album “The Green Waltz” by “The Dada Weatherman“, an album released under Creative Commons, an album that I have downloaded from Jamendo for free. For 10€ I could also buy the album in WMV format, i.e. uncompressed full CD quality. I have no idea how many people do that, but I seriously consider it. It’s excellent music.
The three purchases from 7digital were Ella’s “Twelve Nights in Hollywood”, on CD available at around 50€, as 320kBit MP3 offered for about half of it, a Greatest Hits compilation by Blondie and the debut album of Melody Gardot. Well, it looks like my plastic buying times are over 
Regardless of the music that I’ve talked about so far, the Song of the Day is “Twisted“. Not the Annie Ross classic that we had in “578 – Twisted“, not Joni Mitchell’s respectable version from “Court and Spark”, but instead the completely unrelated song from Annie Lennox’ 2003 album “Bare”. Hear it on YouTube.
Today Michael and I have again worked in his apartment. This consumed most of the day, which was quite unfortunate, because it was sunny and beautiful, almost like Spring beginning. On the other hand we progressed nicely, so I really shouldn’t complain
I’ve taken the two daylight images in the morning. The obelisk is a monument for Dr. Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna around 1900 and anti-Semite extraordinaire. But that’s the way it is in Austria. I suppose the only reason why we don’t idolize Hitler is, that it would be bad for our image. But of course I may be wrong.
The other image is of a “Würstelstand”, one typically Viennese institution where you can eat hot sausages, Leberkäse and, as a concession to our internationality, Hot Dogs. They are hard pressed by McDonalds and all those Turkish Döner kebab stands, but so far they have survived. It’s probably not the most healthy diet, but the same could be said of McDonalds
The Image of the Day was taken at night when I went home. The church is the same that you see in the background of the image with the obelisk.
The Song of the Day is “Church On Sunday” from Green Day’s 2000 album “Warning”. Hear it on YouTube.
Hard to come up with a good image when you have none, huh? Well, this weekend I am in Vienna to help Michael with his apartment. Yup, still things to be done. In fact I’ve had no time to take photos all day, and when I went home at night, I was not overly inspired either. Let’s all just ignore this image, can we? I wouldn’t have thought it, but it’s the antithesis to my long-standing conviction that there is a good square in every bad image. I have to get out and to Michael’s again, I can’t afford to search any longer. Here’s a crop that’s not worse than any other
The Song of the Day is “It’s Saturday Night” from the 1988 Proclaimers album “Sunshine on Leith”. They were a two album band from Scotland, probably not well known in the US, but both of their albums were real good and this one was even real, real good
I can only direct you to Amazon’s sound sample, but just to not leave you without a video, let me recommend “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” from the same album.
These are the images for Monday. Obviously I’m back in Vienna. Regarding posting blog entries, being late turns into a bad habit again. Sorry for that
The bicycle image was taken in the morning. We had light snowfall, and due to the cold, the snow would have stayed, but this time it was not even a centimeter.
I like the postures of the two bikes, I like the tight crop with the car approaching, and normally this would have been it for today, but then, in the evening, while I crossed a road, passing a man, a tramway train in the background, out of a whim I decided to take a shot from the hip and … what can I say? I liked it. It is not focused, it is not sharp, it is garbage in a way, but I still like it.
What you see here is a square crop from the bottom and a conversion to B&W. The noise has been added in Photoshop 
The Song of the Day is “Ordinary People” from Conner Reeves’ 1997 album “Earthbound”. Never heard of the guy? Well, at the time it came out, I found the album by chance while being in a MediaMarkt store. I can’t remember why I decided to hear it or if I just bought it without hearing, for whatever reason. Fact is, that this album is not only excellent, it’s also strong evidence for the theory that being the most talented person sometimes is not enough for a big career. Hear the song on YouTube, and while you’re there, why don’t you also hear into “Something Beautiful” or “My Father’s Son“?
Done? And now please tell me that guy’s not good
It’s Wednesday morning, surprisingly you find me on the train back to Carinthia. Our computer there has failed yesterday, and while I only use it for image processing and gaming, other work done on it pays the bills, thus I travel down to fix the damn thing.
From what I’ve heard, it seems like the system disk has crashed, and if that is the case and the operating system is gone anyway, I will use the opportunity to upgrade from 32 bit XP to 64 bit Windows 7. But of course I’ll need to re-install all software. This should keep me busy for the next two days
The image is from yesterday evening. You’ve seen that street a few times, but I really love the curved line of the street lights. As to the technical data, I have really done what I wrote in the last post, I have set the limit for when auto ISO sets in down to 1/4s. This is f4 at 40mm, ISO 360 and 1/4s. And it’s sharp.
Conventional wisdom says that for a sharp image you need one over the effective focal length, and that would be 1/60s. That are four stops! Sure, although this was sharp at the first attempt, it is not always so. I am clearly on or even over the limit, but nevertheless it is possible. Let’s have a look: One stop would be ISO 720, two stops are ISO 1440, with three stops and at ISO 2880 we already scratch at the limit of what this camera can possibly do in color, and with four stops, with ISO 5760 we are clearly in a range where only black and white is feasible.
The net effect of image stabilization being ISO 360 vs ISO 3200+, I don’t know how you see it, but for me that is a clear indication that stabilization is useful even in those focal ranges where so many people deny its usefulness.
The Song of the Day is “Night Falls” from the late Willy DeVille’s 2003 album “Live in Berlin”. Hear it on YouTube. I’m not sure if it is really the version from this very album, but I believe so. Beautiful!
Here’s another series of updates, posted while I’m on the train. It’s Friday by now, this is an image from Wednesday. Not my best image, but as I had been working for 11 hours, there was not much to choose from
The Song of the Day is “This City Never Sleeps” from the 1983 Eurythmics album “Sweet Dreams”. Hear it on YouTube.
That’s more of the same and I like that. More of the same is fine for me if it’s more of what I like.
Both images were taken at ISO 200, both with ISO automatics turned off, both with the camera firmly held against a wall, both without looking through the viewfinder, both at long exposure times, the Image of the Day even at three seconds.
Now that I think of it, I didn’t heed my own advice. Basically these were tripod situations, just without the tripod, and I didn’t turn image stabilization off.
Interesting. I have made many similar images in the last few days, and I didn’t get anything like the anomalies that I showed in “1177 – Shake Away“. The same is true for “1170 – By The Rivers Dark“, and that WAS taken from a tripod. You see me confused
Still, if I ever manage to remember, I’ll most likely turn stabilization off in such situations. Or maybe not, because now I’m interested
The Song of the Day, “Blues In The Night“, is probably my favorite on one of my most favorite albums of all times, Ella Fitzgerald’s 1959 release “Ella Swings Lightly”. Very recommendable, but check for yourself on YouTube.
Today I was tired. I had had some technical problems and had hunted for explanations all day, and although I had nothing original, I had little hope for inspiration on my way home. One should never give up though. In a way it is routine. Do it as long as I do, and you do it almost automatically. It does not need much consciousness.
I fooled around, switched ISO automatic off, held the camera firmly to a wall or a shop window, this way exposed for about a second, looked what I got, adjusted, repeated. I must have stood there for minutes, concentrated, experimenting, and suddenly all the day’s troubles were past. I was whole again.
The Song of the Day is “Night Life” from the 2008 album “Two Men With The Blues” by Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. Fine album, we had it a few times, but not this song so far. Hear it on YouTube.
Weather forecasts are funny. We got maybe a third of the predicted amount of snow, and thankfully so far nothing of the predicted rain. Today there’s even the potential for a partly sunny day, at least I can see some blue sky from my window.
Anyway. This is an image from last night, we were at a corporate Christmas party that had been delayed to actually after Christmas, and when we returned to Villach, it was around midnight. I had not made a single image on whole Saturday, and when we came up from the underground garage, I decided to try a few shots in the corridor. The corridors in our building are open to the outside, only protected by a glass facade, and that fact has already served me well last winter.
Technically this image was taken 33 seconds past midnight, but I still count it for yesterday. It’s a JPEG, straight out of the camera.
The Song of the Day is “‘Round Midnight” by Thelonious Monk. I have it on the 1989 soundtrack album “Straight No Chaser: Music From The Motion Picture”. See a video on YouTube, and while you’re there, why not see another live version, this time sung by noone less than the great Ella Fitzgerald?
I always say, follow your impulses. Today I had the impulse to make images from a very low perspective. You know the drill: do what you normally don’t do and see what happens. It’s one of those exercises that are often done to stimulate creativity, and it’s one of the things that are really fun to do. I should really show at least two more images, but it’s late and they definitely need processing. Maybe another day, maybe next Sunday
Talking about creativity, one of the most frequently given advices is to use one lens on one camera for an extended period of time. Mike Johnston most radically recommended it, Paul Lester does it, and now Ken Rockwell has written an article about mostly the same topic. There was quite a discussion about it on Paul Lester’s blog, and the general consensus of the comments is, that it is a good idea to just use one fast prime.
Simplicity.
Funny, I recently went the other route.
You know me, I have used different primes, not religiously, though at times almost exclusively, but my most recent acquisition, the Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC, is one incredibly useful zoom. Again, it’s not religiously, but it has been on my camera almost exclusively since I bought it on November 6. And for me the argument is just the same: Simplicity.
This lens covers a big enough range to be very useful, it is fast, at least compared to other consumer zooms, it is sharp, its other quality characteristics are very well “good enough”, and finally the stabilization boosts its usefulness in low light tremendously.
Where is the simplicity, you ask? In not having to change lenses and still being able to hold images that I could hardly hold with the fastest prime.
This does not take away from the beneficial effect that primes have on one’s creativity, but shooting with primes is always kind of a challenge. There is some tension. It’s always the question if you can turn what you see, into the image that you want, given the lens that you have. This tension can force you into unexplored territory, thus sparking off creativity, but taking away that tension does not automatically turn you uncreative. Thankfully it works mostly one way.
The one camera / one lens routine teaches you to think about your photography. It raises the level by making photography that little bit harder, but really, what you learn that way, is not automatically unlearned when you change to a zoom. Once you’ve acquired it, you keep it, regardless of lenses. Just something to think about.
The Song of the Day is “Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down And Out)” in one of the best versions that I know: Nina Simone on her classic 1965 album “Pastel Blues”. I have it in the collection “Four Women: Nina Simone Philips Recordings”. Hear it on YouTube.
