2030 – I’m Still Here

 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45 mm f/1.8, Panasonic Lumix G 20/1.7 ASPH  2 Responses »
May 092012
 

Am I faster using Lightroom? Faster than with Photoshop? Yes. Slightly. Not as much as I have hoped for.

Why? Because the main time eater is not the actual processing of an image, it’s the thinking about it. It’s doing something, looking at it in detail and in overview, it’s the work of correlating what I see with a steadily emerging vision of what I want the picture to be. No program in the world can speed that up :)

I have often said I enjoy post-processing, and when I think about it, the joy is not in pixel bending, it’s in developing an image in my mind and in seeing it come to pass.

All three images are from today, the view from the tram window down on the street and the bike are morning pictures taken with the 20/1.7, the light on the fence is evening light.

The Song of the Day is “I’m Still Here” from Tom Waits’ stellar 2002 album “Alice”. Hear it on YouTube.

1999 – Railroad Song

 Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45 mm f/1.8  Comments Off
Apr 072012
 

It’s again cool and rainy, again I serve you leftovers, and this time the theme is “railway”.

And the first image is already an exception. It’s one of those pass-along images that happen when I suddenly see a pattern, a light effect or whatever. People may have wondered why I take an image of the side of a truck, but really, wondering what people may think is the direct way down the drain. Just don’t do it :)

Well, at least the truck stood in front of Villach’s main railway station, thus I’ve decided to include the image.

The small bridge over the railway track is outside of Villach, the image was taken two weeks ago on one of my trips to see the doctor. Since then it has been waiting and today is the day :D

Both the Image of the Day and that of the red locomotive have been taken from the same road bridge across Villach’s main station area, the one with the locomotive facing east into the station, the Image of the Day looking west, into the late afternoon light.

All images have been taken with the Olympus 40-150, except the Image of the Day, that was the optically much superior 45/1.8.

You may have noticed that I haven’t used my Nikon F mount primes in a long time, and in fact the Sigma 150/2.8 Macro is a much sharper lens than the slow 40-150, but in this case there was plenty of light and I was not out for subject isolation. To the contrary, both the locomotive and the railway tracks cry for depth of field.

Still, I expect to use the Nikon F lenses much more often with the OMD, once it’s there, and that’s because focusing and composing with long lenses is much, much more convenient with a stabilized preview/viewfinder. That’s what the OMD has and that is one of the features that I await most eagerly.

The Song of the Day is the “Railroad Song” from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1975 album “Nuthin’ Fancy”. Hear it on YouTube. Hmm … probably not the refrain, but the rest of the song could have been by the Stones as well :)

1981 – Spring Is Here III

 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45 mm f/1.8, Panasonic Lumix G 14/2.5 ASPH  3 Responses »
Mar 212012
 

It’s mid-week, I’m in Carinthia, not on vacation but as a nurse. This leaves me time to make one or the other picture, and today you’ll see both :)

The pictures were taken while I went to see the doctor. You know, you change places and we did so twice during the last four years, but you probably don’t change your doctor.

Of course what once was near is now 25 kilometers away and going there I had to cross familiar territory.

I glimpsed the flowers, Helleborus niger or “Schneerose” (“Snow Rose”) here in Austria, while driving eastward through a forest. Normally I don’t take the same way back, but this time I had the feeling I knew what those white specks below the trees were, and really, on return I was rewarded plentifully.

The Song of the Day is “Spring Is Here”, this time by Charlie Haden and Kenny Barron, to be heard on their 1996 album “Night And The City”. YouTube has it for you.

1956 – As In A Mirror

 Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R  8 Responses »
Feb 242012
 

I’m on my way to Carinthia again. Until I left work, I had exactly zero images for today, thus I left some minutes earlier than usual, and in the end I had a handful to choose from.

In the meantime I have finished Asimov’s “The Currents of Space” and I’ve learned that his own chronology from the foreword to “Prelude to Foundation” is wrong: “The Currents of Space” is really the second “Empire” novel, “The Stars like Dust” is the chronologically first. Oh well, thankfully and in contrast to the Elijah Baley novels, the order in “Empire” seems to be not so important.

By the way, I’m on the train and we just cross the eastern alpine ridge. As so often there is an incredible sunset outside and not being able to make photographs is really, really irritating to say the least :D

The Song of the Day is “Li Ma Weesu (As In A Mirror)” from Youssou N’Dour’s 2002 album “Nothing’s In Vain”. Hear it on YouTube.

1923 – Traintime II

 Panasonic DMC-LX5  Comments Off
Jan 232012
 

My time was extremely limited today. I spent countless hours with Google Sketchup, and when I realized that time was running short, I grabbed the LX5 and took the car, venturing into the unknown parts of Villach.

By all means, this image is stretching the dynamic range of the LX5, and yes, there is some noise coming up in the shadows, but then, this is, among other techniques, a composite of two versions from the same RAW, two EV apart, thus I was surprised by how well it turned out. And, by the way, did I say this camera is light :D

The Song of the Day is the Cream classic “Traintime” from “Wheels Of Fire”. Enjoy it on YouTube.

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.

1865 – Darkness, Darkness

 Panasonic DMC-FZ150  Comments Off
Nov 252011
 

This is a difficult time of the year with such a camera. The FZ-150′s image quality is pretty much the same as that of the LX5. Slightly worse but not much, at least at its base ISO 100. The only problem is, that at this time of the year in foggy Vienna even daylight is gloomy. Consequently I used the FZ-150 at ISO 200 mostly (for the images that I deleted by accident), and then later, when I went to the train and when I finally waited at the station, I had to resort to ISO 400 and -1 EV.

Nevertheless, this image was taken at around 550 mm, hand-held at 1/8 s and its quality is at least acceptable. It looks like the camera’s stabilization is up to its job :D

The lesson learned is, that a superzoom camera is no panacea. You have an enormous zoom range, but as soon as you use it in current light, you end up in ISO ranges and / or with shutter speeds that threaten to impede image quality. This should be no problem in summer, but in winter even the LX5 with its slightly better image quality and its considerably faster lens is challenging. The FZ-150 is definitely borderline.

The Song of the Day is “Darkness, Darkness” from the 2004 Cowboy Junkies album “One Soul Now”. Hear it on YouTube.

1829 – Chance Meeting III

 Panasonic DMC-LX5  1 Response »
Oct 212011
 

One moment, two trains, both waiting for a few seconds in the same station, one heading north, one heading south. Two people, one with a camera, one not, eyes locked. We won’t meet again, will we?

The Song of the Day is one more time (see also here and here) “Chance Meeting” from the phenomenal 1972 self-titled Roxy Music debut album. Hear it on YouTube.

 Older Entries