I took a series of images here, most with some kind of tilt. Finally I ended up straighten this one. It gave me a tight crop, about to the view that I’d have had with the Tokina 11-16 
The Song of the Day is “Bed Of Roses” from Bette Midler’s 1995 album “Bette Of Roses”. Hear a live version on YouTube.
The olive tree is the most characteristic plant in the mediterranean. It’s the source of olive oil, one especially healthy and pleasantly tasty kind of oil, the liquid gold of the past.
I made this image after dinner in Fažana, Croatia. The sun was setting when I saw the light playing in the trees and the crops. Again I took a bracketed burst of images, and again Photoshop (and I, adjusting one layer manually) did a better job aligning the images, than my HDR programs.
I’ve got a coule of other images that I’m holding back. It’s 1:15 pm now, it’s wonderfully sunny and warm outside, I guess I’ll have to go swimming. No idea if I come back with anything usable, if not, you’ll see another image from yesterday’s trip in the evening.
The Song of the Day is “The Mediterranean” from the 2000 Beautiful South album “Painting It Red”. Hear it on YouTube.
In little more than an hour I have to leave for the train. It’s Friday, yesterday was a public holiday in Austria (well, Catholicism is not ONLY about old men and young boys, you know) and I used the time to get a little outside of town. Here’s one of the few usable images. Processing went along a little of its own, and when I saw what I got out of Photoshop while experimenting, I liked and kept it.
The Song of the Day is “Down The Road” from Marcia Ball’s 2005 album “Live! Down The Road”. Finally we begin to see more of her on YouTube. Here is the song, audio could be less muffled and there is indeed a version with better video and clear sound available, only it is not the same song 
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
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.
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.
What a poor guy, huh? Rather than a real tree, it’s kind of a projection of a tree
This is one of only four images I made yesterday. Today I had to take off and I write this, while I’m on the train to Vienna.
The Song of the Day is “Help The Poor” from the 2000 B. B. King / Eric Clapton cooperation “Riding With The King”. Hear it on YouTube.
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.
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.
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.
Behold! You look at one of the three images that I made yesterday, Friday. The day was supposed to bring snow, but instead it hung in limbo.
Imagine a day of snowfall, just without snow. Or try it this way: Imagine the moment just before snow begins to fall, only stretched out endlessly, filling a whole day.
The Song of the Day is “What Power Art Thou“, the song of the Cold genius from Henry Purcell’s “King Arthur”, made popular in 1981 by Klaus Nomi.
Looking it up on YouTube let me dicover some more interesting versions. How about this powerful rendition by Matteo, or maybe Harnoncourt’s production from the Salzburg Festival, hilarious (I was there, I’ve seen it and I have the DVD), but, judging from the comments at Amazon, obviously not so popular with the English crowd. Of course, for the purists I can always recommend John Eliot Gardiner. Enjoy.
