1417 - That's How I Feel Today

Nikon 24/2.8 AI-S No Responses »
Aug 312010

It’s still supposed to be Summer, only it ain’t. People here in Vienna wear autumn clothing, which I refuse to do, but at the moment, while I sit in my living room, writing this post, my heating is turned on. This is a first for this season, and I feel comfortably warm, while outside the winds are howling.

The image that you see here was made with the new Nikon AI-S 24/2.8, and it was taken from under an umbrella. I guess I was not the only one who felt uncomfortable :)

The Song of the Day is “That’s How I Feel Today” from The Little Chocolate Dandies. You find the song on many compilations, depending on the member of the band you look for. Among others that includes Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and Fats Waller. YouTube has a version from 1929.

Posted by andreas at 11:11 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1409 - Canzone Della Strada II

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC No Responses »
Aug 242010

Again I had precious little time yesterday, with no photographic results worth mentioning. It may even go on like that for a few days.

Here’s another image from Italy, taken in beautiful Camogli. For lack of time and a better name, the Song of the Day is again “Canzone Della Strada” from the 2004 album of the same name by Quadro Nuevo. Here’s it on YouTube, and they have other pieces from the same album as well.

Posted by andreas at 9:21 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1399 - Train Fare Home Blues

Sigma 50/1.4 No Responses »
Aug 152010

Here’s a Friday image. Friday 13th it was, but nothing bad has happened :)

I was more concerned with programming than with photography, it shows, but I can’t help it. It’s just the way it is. Still, it’s better than Saturday and Sunday, because I have no image for them at all :D

The Song of the Day is “Train Fare Home” by Muddy Waters. It’s on many collections, “His Best 1947 To 1956″ is one of them, and YouTube has the song as well.

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1383 - One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

Sigma 28/1.8 No Responses »
Jul 282010

Remember my little riddle from Sunday, when in “1380 – I May Be Wrong” I suggested that my post-processing of that image from Rapallo had broken the laws of physics?

Sanatan commented

I think the sun wasn’t in the frame when you took the photo judging by the shadows. The street is in shadow, I think the sun was actually behind the building on he right.

And that’s correct. While post-processing, when I looked at the image, I had the feeling, that a little more sun would be beneficial. I used a masked Exposure adjustment layer, and with a soft brush I faked a sun behind the lamp post. I was prepared to remove it, I just wanted to see how it looks, but surprisingly it fit the mood and looked not even that wrong, so I kept it. Judging by your reactions, I may have been right.

Today’s image, for a change, is an image of, well, today. Like with most images of the last weeks, post-processing is on the heavy side, making use of Topaz Adjust 4 among many other weapons. In total this image is a 24 layer affair.

Strange: sometimes I have at least as much fun in Photoshop as I have photographing. Now is such a time :)

The Song of the Day is “One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell” from Morrissey’s 2009 album “Years Of Refusal”. Hear it on YouTube.

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1382 - Mary's Of The Sea

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
Jul 282010

I was not in a photographing mood. I did take photographs today, a lot even, but almost all of them were textures. Walls, stone, cracking paint and the like. When I made yesterday’s “1381 – I See A Darkness“, I blended in a texture of cracks in a big block of wood, and while I browsed my collection for textures, I realized that they were not only poorly tagged in the database, but also that I don’t have as many as I thought. This averted my view today and made me mostly look at old walls :)

OK, that’s today’s excuse for why you get another picture from Italy :D

Here is Camogli again, same place as yesterday’s darkness, same time, only here I use the 17-50 and look towards “Santa Maria Assunta”, St Mary’s, the church directly at the beach.

The Song of the Day is “Marys Of The Sea” from Tori Amos’ 2005 album “The Beekeeper”. Only live versions float the net, so here is one on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:42 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1378 - You Gotta Move

Sigma 50/1.4 2 Responses »
Jul 232010

I’m still on the train, it’s still late Friday afternoon, I have just crossed the border to Carinthia. It’s raining, but towards Villach the sky is already blue again. Still, we seem to get some cooler weather now. In a way it’s welcome, but then, I love summer and I know I will hate seeing it end :)

Wow, it’s beautiful outside. You know how that looks, with dark clouds above you and the sun almost coming out near the horizon, with a very bright fringe on the clouds and a warm, indirect light coming from the west. Tolkienesque :)

This is really a snapshot. I saw the biker coming from the corner of my eye, I raised the camera, all within a split-second, no time to compose, no time to change any settings, but actually I like the result, or let’s say, for a Friday it’s OK.

The Song of the Day is “You Gotta Move” from the 1971 Rolling Stones album “Sticky Fingers”. Hear it on YouTube.

Oh, and the light is totally unreal outside. No chance to take images though :D

Posted by andreas at 8:29 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1377 - Door Peep

Sigma 50/1.4 4 Responses »
Jul 232010

I’m on the train to Carinthia, it’s Friday afternoon, these are the images for yesterday, and these are also the images that I meant, when I commented on Markus Spring’s blog. For his NotSoFoBoMo book (just as I, he failed the deadline this year), he had taken images in Budapest, Hungary, and a good part of them were doors.

I found it really funny when I saw his book on a day, when coincidentally I myself had photographed almost nothing but doors.

Here are only two of my images. I had many more of the same, nothing really outstanding, so I spare you the rest. Nevertheless, it made me chuckle :)

The Song of the Day is “Door Peep” from Sinéad O’Connor’s 2005 reggae music cover album “Throw Down Your Arms”. I have used it ages ago in “392 – Door Peep Shall Not Enter“, here it is one more time, this time with a music sample on YouTube.

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1375 - Our Favourite Shop

Sigma 50/1.4 No Responses »
Jul 222010

Tuesday. For months now I have watched the new Sigmas, especially the new 17-50/2.8 OS HSM, and Tuesday afternoon it suddenly became available. Just as I had done with the Sigma 8-16, I stopped working, went to the bank, fetched the 666€ (no joke, the number of the Beast!), and then … started thinking.

I didn’t buy it. Not yet. I may, when it turns out that the Tamron, currently sent in for repair, turns unreliable again. But now? Sure, from the review at Photozone.de (for the Canon version) it looks as if it were even better than the Tamron, but then, when the Tammy works at all, it is absolutely excellent. So what?

Btw, I am unfair. The Tamron has been used in 189 posts since November, a second to only the Nikon 18-200 VR with 220 in almost four years. Thus, not only has the Tamron brought me through a long and dark winter like no lens before, it also has been by far my most used lens since I bought it.

Of the 12791 exposures that I made between November 6, when I bought it, and July 12, when I last used it, I’d estimate at least 8000 were made with the Tamron 17-50/2.8. I have lenses that are in perfect shape but have been use by far less. Who knows?

These images were made with the Sigma 50/1.4, a lens that I have not used in a long time and that is just a pleasure to use. Not only does the focal length feel so natural, but it’s the magic of its creamy bokeh that I like so much. Look at the bicycle or the “balls of steel”: absolutely sharp where necessary, dreamy creaminess in the background. As I said, I may come back to the Sigma 17-50/2.8, but at the moment it is probably time to use some of the lenses that I already have :)

The Song of the Day is “Our Favourite Shop” from the 1985 album Style Council album of the same name. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:26 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

1365 - Runaway

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
Jul 092010

Today I left home very early, at least compared to my usual habits. It was about 6:15 am, and the sun stood at an angle that I went almost the whole way in shadows. The other thing is, it’s Friday, traveling day, thus I didn’t expect to have an image at all. This one just happened at the last crossing. I saw the runner take over, saw the blinding sun, and without looking through the viewfinder, while walking even, I took two exposures.

Of course with that much light, even at f8, the shutter speed was high enough to freeze any motion, and when I looked at the image, I really liked what I saw and decided to work on it.

Regarding SoFoBoMo, I really don’t know if I can do it within the remaining week. At the moment I suppose rather not, but this does not mean that I strictly rule it out. Let’s see.

The Song of the Day is “Runaway” from the 1999 “MTV Unplugged”
album by The Corrs. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 5:59 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1359 - Wicked Game

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC No Responses »
Jul 062010

Allow me please to make an indecent proposal.

As we all know, fame and fortune are a direct and automatic consequence of merit, right? Just work hard, be good, and it will be recognized, yes? No?

Well, probably it is not just that automatic, probably at times we need to help Fortuna along, take her by the hand, lead her in the right direction. I suppose this is such a time :)

Yesterday night (yeah, yeah, this is supposed to be the blog post for Saturday, and now it’s already Tuesday morning again, I’m late, I know), after only about three months, I have finished my Eclipse / GlassFish / Java EE 6 Cookbook, a blog post on my Programming blog. Being here for photography, most of you won’t be interested in it. Still, it’s a damn fine tutorial about a topic that is not broadly covered. It’s comprehensive, well researched and would print to about 80 pages. That’s not shabby. It needs exposure though.

May I make an indecent proposal?

Could we perhaps play a game together? The wicked game of creating public interest? Even when Java programming is probably the thing that interests you the least, may I beg you to go to my tutorial, scroll down to the very bottom and use one of those icons, to share my tutorial on Facebook, to digg it, to stumble it, set bookmarks on Google, Yahoo or Delicious, whatever you use, whatever you happen to have logins for. It would drive users from those social bookmarking sites to my tutorial, some may return later, and that would greatly help in building an audience for this fledgling blog of mine.

Of course this is a little bit dishonest, this is tricking the game, but on the other hand, this is just what advertising does to us all the time, and I don’t even sell something, to the contrary, I’m giving away a compendium of my experience … for free. Thanks a lot for considering.

The Image of the Day is from June 20 and was taken in Lavagna, Liguria, Italy, just the next town north of where we stayed. I didn’t take any images on Saturday. The Song of the Day is of course “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 4:35 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,
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