1389 - Step By Step

Sigma 28/1.8 6 Responses »
Aug 042010

This is one of Vienna’s more famous places, “Strudlhofstiege”, known from the novel “Die Strudlhofstiege oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre” by Heimito von Doderer. We are currently in the process of reorganizing our company, and I had been nearby for a workshop.

This piece of architecture must have been photographed to death, so can you really make photos here? Does it make sense? It’s a a situation that is a bit like Yellowstone. You may have read Mark Hobson ranting about people photographing there and taking all the well-known images, the Ansel views. Of course Mark mostly rants about those who go to Yellowstone (or Zabriskie Point, Antelope Canyon, etc) exactly to take just those pictures from just those views. Here I came by anyway, and being there I made an image. But still, the question remains: Can we do that? Should we do that? Can it possibly do any good? Can it even be satisfying to the photographer?

Well, claiming ignorance, I prefer not to care. Why should I? All of Europe is full of such “famous views”. If I were to avoid those places or only to try not to take pictures taken before, I could as well give up photographing at all. I know there have been taken photographs of those places, but I have not taken them. Whatever others have done, my photos are my views. If sometimes they happen to be someone else’s views as well, I can live with it :D

The Song of the Day is “Step By Step” from the soundtrack to “The Preacher’s Wife”. See a video on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:21 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

1166 - Cold II

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 5 Responses »
Dec 242009

It’s a lie. It was not cold yesterday, but it was cold three days ago, and that’s what I want to talk about.

Today there was a discussion on Photo.net (in this thread) about problems with a Nikon D80 camera sometimes not recognizing a mounted Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC. The original poster mentioned having had the problem in cold weather, and that immediately reminded me of my own experience during the last few cold days.

What happens is, that the Nikon D300 suddenly displays an aperture of 1.2, just like with unrecognized, unchipped lenses. I suppose that it really is the cold that makes the metal on lens and mount shrink slightly. This could possibly lead to bad contact. Or is it just the cold affecting the lens’ internal electronics? I don’t know. What I do know is, that I have already seen this with a Tokina 16-50/2.8, with my Sigma 10-20 and also with my Nikon 18-200 VR. I can only remember the circumstances with the Sigma: it was on a mountain in winter, and it was extremely cold.

I can’t look into this issue at the moment. Out temperatures have risen considerably during the last two days. Does anybody of you have similar experiences?

The Song of the Day is “Cold” from the 2009 Maxwell album “BLACKsummers’night”. I have added the numeral II to the title, because we had it once in “859 – Cold“, although with a completely different song then. YouTube has a video.

Posted by andreas at 12:13 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1160 - In The Cold, Cold, Night

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 3 Responses »
Dec 182009

Michael is in Vienna now. Yesterday we had a look at his new apartment. On Sunday I will help him move his things from Salzburg to Vienna. It’s going to be a short weekend. Sigh!

It was very cold yesterday. I made this image while I went from work to Michael’s prospective apartment. In my imagination I had made lots of good images, but when I saw them at last, most were flawed in one way or the other, but that’s OK. It saves me time processing :)

The Song of the Day is “In The Cold, Cold, Night” from the 2003 White Stripes album “Elephant”. Can it be that Michael gave me the CD? Would be a funny coincidence :D

YouTube has a live performance.

Posted by andreas at 2:24 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,

973 - Un'altra vita

Tokina 11-16/2.8 2 Responses »
Jun 132009



This trip to Italy was a test. The idea was, to find out if it’s viable to drive down to the sea, spend a day swimming, stay a night at a hotel, and return the next day, just in time for me to probably catch the train to Vienna. Thus, although we did it on a long weekend this time, we wanted to find out if it can be done on a normal weekend. The result is a resounding YES!

We stayed at the Hotel Riviera & Maximilian’s in Grignano, just north of castle Miramare, the sea residence of the ill-fated later Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. See the hotel on the map.

The road along the coast runs high above the sea. From street level you see no more than the top of a medium sized early 20th century building, but below there are gardens, parking areas and, built into the steeply falling terrain, the actual hotel wings.

There are two ways to get down to the beach, maybe 50 meters below. The first is a tower with a lift, standing freely, connected with the hotel by a bridge.



The other one is a long flight of stairs, winding down to the base of the tower. The Image of the Day and the next image, as well as the sundown, were taken at the bridge and from the tower, the others on the stairs and down at the bottom.

I mostly used the Tokina 11-16 on this trip, and really, this is where it works very well. Of course it has quite substantial barrel distortion at 11mm, but PTLens got rid of that easily.

You’ll see more of it tomorrow, when I’ll try to wrap it up with some images taken at Miramare.

The Song of the Day is “Un’altra vita” by the great Italian composer and songwriter Franco Battiato. I first heard it in the version on Alice’s 1985 album “Gioielli Rubati”, but here it is from the master himself. Hear it on YouTube.

I have linked to an obscenely priced three CD “Platinum Collection”, because the collection that I have seems to be unavailable.

Posted by andreas at 9:45 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

883 - Postcards From Italy

Sigma 10-20 2 Responses »
Mar 152009



These are two images from a short trip to Italy. The Image of the Day, more or less a type of postcard shot, shows the view to the north, against the Austrian border.

This is a rural area north-west of the small town of Tolmezzo. I have added a map that shows the trip. There are two placemarkers, one for my home in Villach and one for the village of Sutrio.

The Image of the Day was shot just before I reached Sutrio, the other image, the church with the stairway, is the church of Sutrio.

Both images were shot with the Sigma 10-20. The church is an HDR merge of two bracketed exposures. The perspective was corrected in Photoshop, at least for the church itself. I have left some distortion on the stairway. Looks more interesting that way.

The Song of the Day is “Postcards From Italy” from the 2006 Beirut album “Gulag Orkestar”. A fabulous piece of music from a truly fabulous album. See the video on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 12:34 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

871 - Down, Down, Down

Nikon 24/2.8 AF 3 Responses »
Mar 042009



Monday. Weather in Vienna was – and still is – rather uninspiring. That’s always a good time for some B&W architecture shots. You may recognize the tint, it’s the same tri-tone as in “867 – The Perfect Couple“.

I left work early and went down to Mariahilfer Straße, one of the most important shopping streets in Vienna and at the same time the border between the 6th and the 7th district. For those of you who don’t know Vienna, I should note that the 7th district is on top of a hill and the 6th is where the hill falls down to a small river. The difference in height is not dramatic, maybe 50 meters, but it is enough that you see stairways all along this line south of Mariahilfer Straße.

One of the more elaborate stairways is at the beginning of the street, going down to Rahlgasse.

I stood there for quite some time and shot a series of images, always in search for a single person on the stairs, in a dynamic place and pose. I got nothing spectacular, but these are the two shots that remained.

The Song of the Day is “Down, Down, Down” from Tom Waits’ 1983 album “Swordfishtrombones”. See a strange video on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 9:06 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
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