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.
I can’t say that I’m very interested in modern, flawless, untainted architecture, but you can get me anytime with a little decay. Why? Inorganic things somehow get organic when they age. By falling apart, the lifeless begins to breath life. Funny, huh?
The Song of the Day is “A Long Time Ago” from David Byrne’s 1994 self-titled album. YouTube has a video for you.
OK, this is a strange format for a post, but it’s a strange format for an image as well 
Yesterday morning I took the tram for work. It was one of those old trains that I sometimes take images of, and while I was in there and wondered at which station to get out, I took some images from the same position. Some were not sharp, but some were, and they were easily aligned in Photoshop. At first I wanted to do some trick with masks, but when I tried simply arranging them vertically, I liked the result.
The other image is a night shot. I stayed at work until 8pm and, regardless of the temperatures, had this winter feeling while walking home 
The Song of the Day is “Time Passes” from Paul Weller’s great 1995 album “Stanley Road”. Hear a live version on YouTube.
This is the image for Friday, obviously not made on Friday. It’s Rapallo in Liguria, Italy again. I like Rapallo, because it is big enough to have a population not working in the tourism industries.
We are in the process of searching for a a more permanent abode in Villach, and I arrived one day earlier, because we had a meeting with a very competent woman from the construction company. We are looking for an apartment, but of course nothing fits just right. Thus we spent three hours in front of AutoCAD, and now we are quite confident.
The Song of the Day is “Canzone Della Strada” from the 2004 Quadro Nuevo album of the same name. YouTube has it, I suggest you give it a try. Quadro Nuevo are an Austrian band, but this feels real Italian. More than real I might say
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.
Two images for yesterday. It was a rainy day, dark and brooding (and so begins today). These are the days when I begin to search for colors
Shops are good places for that mood, even when you’re not buying anything.
The colorful clothes hung outside of a shop in Neubaugasse. The image is straight from the camera. The other image, the triptych, is from a small shop in Kaiserstraße.
Did I ever say that I like lenses that can focus close? Yes, it may induce technical compromises that otherwise take away from ultimate image quality, but really, do I care about a lens that, for instance, has lower distortions or CA, but can’t take my picture? Hardly
The Song of the Day is “One Of The Three” from the 1993 James album “Laid”. Hear it on YouTube.
If you need something, without a doubt a shopping mall is a good place to go. Interestingly enough this holds true for Images of the Day
When I arrived in Vienna I was in a hurry, and besides, the weather was real bad, which was a letdown after sunny Carinthia. It even drizzled slightly and I thought, well, the ultra-wide was perfect on Saturday in that shopping mall in Carinthia, why not try to pull the same stunt here?
So I went there for shopping, in the hope to come back with food and a nice B&W image, but this time color won, and that’s just another good point for not discarding color early.
The Song of the Day is “Shoplifters Of The World Unite“, originally from the 1987 Smiths album “The World Won’t Listen”, but as that’s not available for digital download in the US, I have also linked to “The Sound Of The Smiths”, a collection of 45 songs including 15 out of 18 of “The World Won’t Listen”.
The video on YouTube seems to be from some TV show: obvious playback and not even a halfhearted attempt to cover it. I have no idea how TV stations ever got away with that
Having lost the stabilized 17-50/2.8 feels … exciting. I almost have not used any other lens since November 6 when I bought the Tammy, and now that I must, I begin to change frequently again. I absolutely love it.
This is a still-life from the window of some esoteric shop here in Vienna’s 7th district, the only place in Austria where the Green Party rules. In a way this is the most impossible place in Austria, our very own San Francisco
The Song of the Day is Paul Heaton’s “The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death“. Heaton was then, in 1987, lead singer of The Housemartins, the same Paul Heaton who later was The Beautiful South. It’s not the first time we had him, it won’t be the last time. YouTube has the song.
Didn’t I tell you there’s a pawnbroker in Josefstädter Straße, just for all those photographers in need? Well, yesterday I looked there again, and as always I found something. Lush and oriental. It’s not Easter yet, but the eggs are on the table
While I yesterday wondered if I should link to CDs or to digital downloads, today it is terrifyingly simple: I must take what I can get. In 1999 XTC, one of the best English bands of all times, returned with the album “Apple Venus Volume 1″, to be followed a year later by “Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)”, two extraordinarily good albums. When you look at Amazon today, you can get both via the marketplace, but both albums have been discontinued by the manufacturer, none can be had as digital downloads.
Believe me, I’m not at all communist, I am not against private property, I am not even completely against intellectual property, but what we desperately need, what the world, what our culture needs, what society, what our species needs to further advance, is a return to the premises: Intellectual property is not property at all. You can’t own songs once they’ve been sung.
You can have a right to get paid for the publication or even the performance of these songs, that’s all well, but we need a system where you waive your rights by refusing to publish. I remember all those years when it was not possible to buy David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks”. Someone kept it in his safe and waited for a time when he would make the most money by publishing it. That’s simply not acceptable. We can’t tolerate paintings by Van Gogh and movies by David Lynch to be locked away in safes.
Not publishing music was excusable in the age of vinyl, in the age of plastic, but now, with digital downloads, there is no excuse. Publish or give it up. You stifle our culture.
“Easter Theatre” is the song, YouTube has it.
Nothing ages faster than science fiction, and when I saw this image, when I tried variants and ended up with this toned B&W, it immediately reminded me of 1950s science fiction movies.
Speaking of sci-fi, I’m still reading Orson Scott Card, and while “Ender’s Game” did not overly impress me, “Speaker For The Dead” brought up some real clever questions, and now I am in the middle of “Xenocide”. Seems like I will read the next one as well.
The Song of the Day is “A Better Future” from David Bowie’s 2002 album “Heathen”. Hear it on YouTube.
