1332 - Hate And War

Sigma 8-16 2 Responses »
Jun 062010

This idyllic image was taken just around the bend from Peršman farm, a place where the police battaillon 13 and the SS, the Nazi elite troup, committed one of their last crimes against the Slovene minority in Carinthia.

On April 25, 1945, only two weeks before the end of that bloody war, they killed a whole farmer’s family, 15 people, grandparents, parents, children, aunt, nephews and nieces. They were accused of having supported Slovenian partisans. Most likely they did, but what could they have done? This was partisan territory, and then, the partisans were Slovenes as well, and most important, theirs was a just cause. They were fighting one of the most terrible and bloody régimes that have ever marred the face of the earth.

Today here, in the re-erected main building of the farm, is a museum reminding us of that cruel time and of how hate ruled a country.

The Song of the Day is “Hate And War” from the debut album of The Clash. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:15 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1311 - After The Rain

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 4 Responses »
May 162010

It was mostly cool today, not at all inviting to go out. I used a few minutes in the afternoon though to take this image. It’s a series of bracketed exposures, sky and background taken from an HDR rendition made with Photomatix Pro, the foreground just being from one single light exposure.

The rest of the day I worked on my Java Enterprise Edition 6 tutorial for the other blog. More than 16.000 words, 51 screen shots, lots of program code, and still not done yet. I admit, I already hate it :D

The Song of the Day is “After The Rain” from Barbra Streisand’s 1984 album “Wet”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 9:30 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

1301 - Here Comes Sunshine

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC No Responses »
May 072010

One of the beautiful things in Spring is, how easily it takes you from rainy despair to sunny exaltation. Of course it can also go the other way round :D

Remember that I dropped my bag with the camera in it, the Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC mounted? Remember that the lens barrel broke and I sent it in for repair? Remember the tiny flaw of this lens, making the autofocus sometimes not reacting, needing a switch off/on of the camera?

Well, it’s gone! Obviously you have to drop it :)

Nope. Don’t drop it. Unfortunately I did not write down the original serial number. They may have not repaired the lens at all but instead exchanged it (that’s not what the shop said, though), or along with repairing the lens, they have made a firmware update. Fact is, I have used this lens for more than a week now and I have had no single problem with autofocus. It just works. Reliably. Precisely.

The Song of the Day is “Here Comes Sunshine” from the 1973 Grateful Dead album “Wake Of The Flood”. Hear a live version on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:28 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1297 - To Love You All Over Again

Nikon 70-300 VR 1 Response »
May 022010

Isn’t Spring a wonderful time of the year? And doesn’t it stay fresh, regardless how often we have seen it? It’s a preciously small number of times anyway, and there is not much hope that it ever may get big at all.

In a comment to the bird in the last post Ted said:

How do you manage to deal with the, “That’s a nice idea but I’ve done that” syndrome? There’s such an advantage to being a newbie or a tourist. I can come back with hundreds of images and realize I’m living in the world of deja vu. And yet, you find ways to stay fresh. Talk to us about that Andreas.

Good question. Of course I repeat myself. Everybody does. Nature does. But does one apple tree in blossom look less beautiful because you already have seen another?

I think it greatly depends on why you do what you do:

Some do it for money, but I don’t. To the contrary. I pay for it in time as in hosting costs.

Some do it for fame. Everybody does, I do, but only a precious few succeed. I don’t. Sure, some hundred people look at what I do every day, but there are 39,307 photoblogs at Photoblogs.org today. Mine is neiter “Hot” in their list nor is it in their “Hall of Fame”. And even if, would it make a difference? Yes, it would, but only gradually. It could still not answer the question of why I do it.

Some may even hunt for the one perfect image, but then, how do you ever know? The only sure way to know that you can’t ever do better, is to be dead, and I doubt that you’ll care much, if caring and knowing are even possible then.

Some do it for themselves, and that’s what I do.

I repeat myself. Everybody does. Nature does. And just as I suppose nature does not care, I don’t care either.

The Song of the Day is “To Love You All Over Again” from Madeleine Peyroux’s 2009 album “Bare Bones”. People say she sounds like Billie Holiday, so what? :)

Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 10:40 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1295 - Skateaway

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC No Responses »
Apr 302010

Just a morning image. More Photoshop than anything else, but what can I do, it’s Friday :)

I needed to be at work early and therefore took the tramway, but then it had a problem with a door that did not close, and instead of waiting on the train, I went the rest of the way.

At the moment I’m on the train, trying to get this post done, in order to begin working on my JEE6 cookbook again. Oh dear, Andreas, I tell you, this is not a job, this is a hobby :)

Last night Ubuntu 10.04 came out, today I have it already running in a VirtualBox on my laptop. Well, actually it’s Xubuntu, the XFCE variant. Small, lean, elegant, works like a charm. And if you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, why not have a look?

The Song of the Day is “Skateaway” from the 1981 Dire Straits album “Making Movies”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 6:14 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1288 - Swift As The Wind

Sigma 150/2.8 Macro 4 Responses »
Apr 242010

This morning I found a twig with blossoms in front of a lamp outside a shop. Everything was moving in the wind. Not much, but these blossoms are pretty small and I had to come very near with my Sigma 150/2.8. It took me about 50 exposures until I had one with the desired framing and the sharpness where I wanted it.

Apart from that, I called my camera dealer, innquiring about the Tammy. It is in repair and it’s suppose to be back by mid-week. I don’t miss it that much on the streets of Vienna, but it is incredibly handy on weekends. After all, weekend trips, that’s what I bought it for in the first place. Anyway. I’ll await it :)

The Song of the Day is “Swift As The Wind” from the 1968 Incredible String Band album “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter”. This was the first ISB album that I ever heard and bought and it’s still one of my favorites. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 1:26 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1286 - Cherry Pink

Sigma 150/2.8 Macro 2 Responses »
Apr 222010

It’s two weeks now that I brought my broken 17-50/2.8 VC back to the shop and they sent it in to Tamron. No news yet.

On the other hand, not having this incredibly versatile lens has an advantage: I began using my other lenses again.

And why not? Today for instance I used the Sigma 150/2.8 Macro, a lens that I rarely use, but when I do, I thoroughly enjoy the experience.

It’s a big lens, a heavy lens, but it feels good on the camera and it’s really a fantastic lens. All three images here were taken at f2.8, and wide open this lens is really critically sharp. You won’t be able to appreciate it fully at web sizes, but especially the image with the vines on the wall is razor-sharp.

The Song of the Day is “Cherry Pink”, aka “Gummy Mambo” or, in the version of Austrian brass superstars Mnozil Brass, “Gummimambo”. It’s from their 2004 album “Wenn der Kaiser grooved” and YouTube has it.

Posted by andreas at 1:29 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,

1283 – La Primavera III

Nikon 70-300 VR 4 Responses »
Apr 182010

As promised, instead of a rainy Sunday image, here’s another one of yesterday’s spring impressions, this time from a square in Villach where we had breakfast in the sun.

Again this has been taken with the Nikon 70-300 VR at 300 mm, only this time at minimum focus distance, and that always make for a good blur, even at f5.6.

The Song of the Day is “A Andorinha Da Primavera” from Madredeus’ wonderful 1997 album “O Paraíso: 14 Canções”. No swallows in this image though :)

Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 11:04 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

1282 - La Primavera II

Nikon 70-300 VR No Responses »
Apr 182010

Yesterday was warm a warm, beautiful Spring day. A little hazy, but I was not doing landscapes anyway. Today it rains, thus you’ll get two Saturday images. Hope you don’t mind.

The first one in this post was taken in mid-afternoon in a park in Klagenfurt. I have used the Nikon 70-300 VR at 300 mm for the compression. I like those daisies. They remind me of the illustrations in a book of fairy tales that I had as a child. Now that I think of it, they were all spring pictures. Funny how images from childhood linger on, huh?

The Song of the Day is “Primavera” from Cristina Branco’s 2001 album “Post-Scriptum”. Unfortunately I can’t give you even a sound sample, thus I have to refer again to Mariza and her “Concerto em Lisboa”. Different, but of course fine as well. YouTube has it for you.

Posted by andreas at 10:16 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1278 - The Song Remains The Same

Sigma 28/1.8 No Responses »
Apr 132010

Some days ago I told you about a certain tree that I want to catch blossoming this year. Well, here it is, dripping wet from rain. Processing-wise, this image is just the same as yesterday, and this time I like the result even better.

The Song of the Day is “The Song Remains The Same” – well, it’s actually a lie – by Led Zeppelin. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 10:04 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,
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