2027 – Night And Day

 Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R, Panasonic Lumix G 14/2.5 ASPH  Comments Off
May 062012
 

It was a mostly rainy weekend in Vienna, but on Saturday I could pick out some sunny hours. I did not go swimming like last week, but at least I got some material to feed into Lightroom.

Admittedly the Image of the Day is much more noisy than it should be. In the early evening I looked out of the window and there it was: a wonderful moonrise, a yellow moon in dark blue clouds. The correct action would have been to go for the Sigma 150/2.8, shoot wide open and use base ISO 200. Instead I took the 40-150 (that was nearer) and just took the image, even without looking at the aperture setting. From the sunny afternoon session it was still at f8 and there I had it: ISO 800, deliberately underexposed for the bright moon, most of the picture made up of the inherently more noisy blue channel.

Do I regret it? Not at all. Had I hesitated even seconds, the image would not have been taken. It was just a fleeting moment.

The image is a tiny crop, because I had to get rid of the roof of the next building, but still, I like it and I have it as my current wallpaper. If you like it as well, the image links to the full size and without the white border.

The Song of the Day is Cole Porter’s “Night and Day“, taken from the 1959 album “Anita O’Day Swings Cole Porter With Billy May”. Typically Anita, sooooooo good, but hear for yourself on YouTube.

2014 – Cherry Pink III

 Uncategorized  Comments Off
Apr 222012
 

Haha, just minutes after I made my “back to normal” post, Ken Bello commented on “2012 – Happy“, saying that

the pressure is on now to produce great images

No, it’s not, at least I don’t feel it. I just make the same pictures as I made with the Panasonic LX5 or with the Olympus E-P2, only that the new camera does some tricks that so far only the D300 could do. Exposure bracketing for HDR is such a thing.

Well, in “2005 – Cherry Pink II” I said that “you can find thousands of images with pink blossoms on a blue sky background”. Here’s one more :D

The Song of the Day is again “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”. Hear it on YouTube.

1963 – Shine On Brightly II

 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45 mm f/1.8  Comments Off
Mar 022012
 

We had lousy weather this week and only this afternoon the sun came out. I took this image when I left work today.

I’m still a little bit slow with the 45/1.8, but then, I have hardly taken any images during the last days. Apropos slow: I really look forward to the OM-D, because the E-P2 focuses extremely slow with this lens. It works, but it is not a pleasure.

Like in “1261 – Shine On Brightly“, the Song of the Days is “Shine On Brightly” from the 1968 Procol Harum album of the same name. Hear it on YouTube.

1950 – This Glass World

 Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R  6 Responses »
Feb 192012
 

It was a sunny day and my Olympus 40-150′s first day out :)

This is a slow lens. Winter mornings and evenings in Vienna are not her style. She craves bright light and that’s what she got today.

This lens is cheap and I bought it cheaper. I’ve already mentioned it, it has a plastic mount, a first among my lenses, but optically it’s top notch. In the morning I’ve made some mountain test shots from the terrace, at f9, and they are critically sharp even in the corners. Wide open it is sufficiently sharp as well. If you remember the cupola in “1946 – It’s Been So Long“, that image has been taken at f5.6 and it sharpened up nicely across the frame. I have certainly no complaints.

Today’s images are of a more abstract nature. Often that is what long lenses do to me.

The Image of the Day has been taken through a very dirty window of a car, at 150 mm (an equivalent of 300 mm on the PEN), at f6.3, at almost the minimum focusing distance, with the “circle” being the a reflection on another car.

I’ve pushed contrast, and as it is, the image looks more like a weird kind of moon than anything else.

I like abstract details like this, because they allow me to push the image wherever I want it. The subject is not recognizable anyway, thus all my inhibitions fall :D

The Song of the Day is “This Glass World” from Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens’ 2009 album “Roadsinger”. Hear it on YouTube.

1921 – Fingernail Moon

 Nikon 85/1.4 AI-S  4 Responses »
Jan 212012
 

I’ve been in Carinthia one day earlier today, because I had to bring the car to a car repair shop.

The appointment was for 8:00, thus I started out early and also made some images. The Image of the Day with its perfect alignment of moon and the mountain Mittagskogel was one of them.

I used ISO 640 and by accident I kept ISO at that for the whole day. That’s the kind of stupidity that you end up with when a camera does not have reasonably intelligent auto ISO :)

Oh, by the way, you may remember that I wished Nikon would implement auto ISO in a way that takes focal length into account. Good news: wish granted. Bad news: so far only on the D4 :D

The Song of the Day is “Fingernail Moon” from Annie Lennox’ 2007 album “Songs Of Mass Destruction”. Hear it on YouTube.

1897a – The Mirror Conundrum

 Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/2.8 Pancake  4 Responses »
Dec 292011
 

My image database has some keyboard shortcuts that I rarely use but sometimes inadvertently activate. It happened today, and the effect was, that I mirrored the image in the last post.

It really struck me. I had liked the image for its light, but nothing more. Somehow it was lifeless. It was just an image that I used for lack of something good, nothing I would have ever again thought about.

And then this mirrored image was suddenly completely different. I went back to Photoshop and reversed the number 30 in the traffic sign, the one obvious hint that the image had been manipulated. I guess I’d get away with everything else, the tiny number plates on the cars and the bus sign on the lane that’s heavily distorted and cut anyway.

For me this is an entirely different image and a much better one. This is obviously due to the fact that all action happens on the (now) left side and that I read the image from left to right.

Now the question is, is this connected to the fact that I read texts from left to right? Would an Arabian viewer prefer the original image? Or is it already impossible to find someone on the Internet who has not been so much exposed to the (supposedly) dominant left-right aesthetics of the West that he is not forever spoiled?

I have no answers. I am sure there is literature about it and I suppose there may be an answer. Any idea?

As this is an addendum to “1897 – Something Magic II“, the Song of the Day is still “Something Magic” by Procol Harum. Hear the original 1977 version for a difference.

1897 – Something Magic II

 Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/2.8 Pancake  Comments Off
Dec 282011
 

There’s something magic in sunny winter mornings. Well, of course it’s not real winter here. No snow. But then, the light is winter light. The direction of the light at this time of the day is a winter direction.

Things look different in winter because, because … they are.

The Song of the Day is “Something Magic” by Procol Harum. Hear the version from the 2009 live album “In Concert with The Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir” on YouTube. We already had this song in “1266 – Something Magic” but today I’m reckless :D

1883 – Arriving

 Panasonic DMC-LX5  2 Responses »
Dec 142011
 

After the posting spree early in the morning, I laid down and slept for the rest of the ride. When I woke up and the train was already rolling into Vienna, I was greeted by a bright, sunny day.

It’s hard to explain how this feels. The last few days were gloomy, rainy and depressing. I had not read a weather forecast and I didn’t expect anything but another drab day. Then I opened my eyes and it was like, like … an explosion of light!!!

This should really have been part of my “Fast Train” series, but I couldn’t resist the lure of Jacques Brel’s “J’Arrive”. Hear it on YouTube.

1880 – Searching III

 Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC  Comments Off
Dec 132011
 

Interesting: from memory I would have considered the Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC a better performer when it comes to shooting into the sun. Still, I like it.

Photoshop again.

The Song of the Day is “Soul Searchin’” from the late Solomon Burke’s 2002 comeback album “Don’t Give Up On Me”. See a live version on YouTube. Wonderful!

1860 – Further On (Up The Road)

 Sigma 28/1.8  Comments Off
Nov 202011
 

Funny, I couldn’t remember what a lousy performer the Sigma 28/1.8 is when the sun is in your frame. It’s such a wonderful lens otherwise, and of course such an incredibly useful focal length on APS-C.

Here’s an HDR with the green reflexes edited out (mostly), and the result, while vastly different from what the sensor with any single exposure records, looks remarkably like what I believe to have seen. Same workflow as yesterday.

The Song of the Day is “Further On (Up The Road)“, and of course it’s the spectacular version from Springsteen’s “Live In Dublin” with the Sessions Band. Enjoy the video on YouTube.

 Older Entries