Today was a beautiful day, but for various reasons I couldn’t manage to get out photographing before 3pm, and it was clear that the sun was not going to last until sundown, that it would vanish in dense clouds very soon.

I know I didn’t have more than one chance, and I was already taking risk by trying a new road, one that I already have driven, but not with the intention to take photographs.

There were two reasons for it: When I set out, that was the direction that looked most promising, and the road would take me up to 1000 m above sea level, 500 m above Villach, to a height where probably all precipitation of the last two days would have been snow.

In the end I took two series of bracketed images, and one of them I processed as HDR. It was long before I reached the highest point of my route, but it was literally the last moment. Only minutes later the sun had gone, and it did never come out again today.

The Song of the Day is “This Moment” from the 1970 Incredible String Band album “I Looked Up”. See a live video on YouTube.

Photography has always been expected to say something about reality.

So, you want reality? I give you some reality. That’s how it looked here today. All day. Really

The Song of the Day is “Real Life Hits” from the 1981 Carla Bley album “Live!”. See a video 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.

It took me a time to figure out whether I have an image for Friday, or if I need one of these two for the next post. Turned out I have one, here’s both Thursday images in one post

I have already shown images of that place, some even from the same vantage point, it’s of course Mount Dobratsch again, the mountain that broke apart, because it couldn’t stand seeing people die, then in 1348, the year of the great plague.

I like both of these images. The choice is only because I had to choose. The one with the sun in the frame is an HDR again, again of the more subtle kind. The Image of the Day is of course from a single exposure.

I haven’t been up there for very long, and in fact when I reached the upper end of the street, 450 meters below the summit, the sky was already veiled.

And the rest of the day? Installing software, what else? That’s why I am in Carinthia after all

The Song of the Day is “Solid Rock” from the 1981 Dire Straits album “Making Movies”. The Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler, obviously their label tries to get all their music off YouTube (how stunningly clever!), but I have still found at least some live versions. Here’s one from 1992.

It’s Friday night by now. No, I haven’t fallen into a hole and I didn’t vanish from the face of the planet. I was just a little busy.

Remember that I came back to Carinthia on Wednesday? Well, this is an image from Wednesday afternoon. When I arrived in Villach, it was a wonderfully clear, sunny day, and I just checked what the most likely cause of the computer problems would be, decided to buy a new system disk and a copy of Windows 7 Home 64bit, and then spent two hours drivinng around and photographing. What you see here is another HDR, the image was processed today, already on the new system.

The Song of the Day is “When Sunny Gets Blue“. Among other versions I have it as part two of a medley on Sheena Easton’s 1993 album “No Strings”. Of course it’s not available on YouTube, but maybe Anita O’Day’s version can console you. I don’t have it, but it’s, well, Anita

On the other hand, I wouldn’t easily dismiss Sheena Easton. She is not usually associated with Jazz standards, but this album is different. Very different. And not bad at all.

It’s Wednesday morning, surprisingly you find me on the train back to Carinthia. Our computer there has failed yesterday, and while I only use it for image processing and gaming, other work done on it pays the bills, thus I travel down to fix the damn thing.

From what I’ve heard, it seems like the system disk has crashed, and if that is the case and the operating system is gone anyway, I will use the opportunity to upgrade from 32 bit XP to 64 bit Windows 7. But of course I’ll need to re-install all software. This should keep me busy for the next two days

The image is from yesterday evening. You’ve seen that street a few times, but I really love the curved line of the street lights. As to the technical data, I have really done what I wrote in the last post, I have set the limit for when auto ISO sets in down to 1/4s. This is f4 at 40mm, ISO 360 and 1/4s. And it’s sharp.

Conventional wisdom says that for a sharp image you need one over the effective focal length, and that would be 1/60s. That are four stops! Sure, although this was sharp at the first attempt, it is not always so. I am clearly on or even over the limit, but nevertheless it is possible. Let’s have a look: One stop would be ISO 720, two stops are ISO 1440, with three stops and at ISO 2880 we already scratch at the limit of what this camera can possibly do in color, and with four stops, with ISO 5760 we are clearly in a range where only black and white is feasible.

The net effect of image stabilization being ISO 360 vs ISO 3200+, I don’t know how you see it, but for me that is a clear indication that stabilization is useful even in those focal ranges where so many people deny its usefulness.

The Song of the Day is “Night Falls” from the late Willy DeVille’s 2003 album “Live in Berlin”. Hear it on YouTube. I’m not sure if it is really the version from this very album, but I believe so. Beautiful!

Photozone.de has finally published a lab review of the Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC. It’s for the Canon version, but that should not make much of a difference. The review sparked off a thread in the Nikon forum of Photo.net, where the review was regarded as almost devastating. The original poster concluded with “If you value your photography, stay away from this lens!”

Well, regarding distortions at 17mm, yes, it distorts badly, and apart from the brick wall, this original shot, provided for you in all glory of its full size, is as bad as it may get. For the Image of the Day I have applied PTLens, but that could only remove part of the barrel distortion. I’ve removed some more with Photoshop’s Lens Distortion filter, cropped, and you see that what I’ve got is pretty perfectly rectangular. Just frame a little less accurate, leave room for correction. That’s for distortions.

The other thing is, that down in the Photo.net thread Eric Arnold tried to compromise:

essentially,it comes down to this: if you need corner sharpness but constant aperture isnt important, i.e. for landscapes, get the 16-85 VR.

if you need a fast constant aperture and want stabilization at the expense of losing some corner sharpness, get the 17-50 VC.

I think my answer is relevant, and I don’t want it to be buried in an off-site thread, so please allow me to quote it as well:

I think this is wrong. The reason to get the 16-85 VR can only be the extended range.

Yes, it is sharper in the corners at f3.5 than the Tamron at f2.8, so what? Would you take landscape images at f2.8 or f3.5? Most of the time I wouldn’t. And even if:

I’ve just tried the Tamron at f3.5, tried it with book shelfs (detail!), tried it with flash (it’s still night here), and I can see a subtle sharpness falloff, only in the extreme corners, and I can only see it because I look for it. Even at f3.5, you would have a hard time seeing it, and for the 16-85 VR this is still wide open.

No, I suppose with the 16-85 you would shoot normally at at least f5.6, and by that the Tamron is stellar across the range. We’re speaking of 50/1.8 sharpness here. And that’s only at 17mm. Think of 24mm: the 16-85 just begins at f4, from 35mm at f4.5, and by 50mm it is at f5. At none of these focal lengths and at starting aperture it is a match for the Tamron.

Now take it the other way: Imagine a situation where you do want to take a scenic image at f2.8, for instance because it is night. Let it be architecture, for instance in a city, or let it be within a cathedral. It’s quite a typical situation, and it’s quite typical for situations where you either have no tripod or may not be allowed to use it.

In such situations the shot is frequently repeatable, thus I may go down from my normal 1/15s (auto ISO lower speed limit) to 1/8s or even 1/4s. With VR I have a sharp image, it may take me two or three attempts though, especially standing without support and shooting portrait format. Even in low light I may get away with ISO 200.

With the 17-55/2.8 at twice the price I may be lucky to get the shot at 1/15s, but I suppose 1/30s will be more likely, especially in portrait format. We’re talking two to three stops, i.e. ISO 800-1600 here. Do you believe that the added corner sharpness of the 17-55/2.8 will still be there at these ISOs? And if were not talking extreme corners but center or off-center, for instance a typical “rule of thirds” composition? The Tamron will be much better than in the extreme corners. The Nikon may or may not still have a slight edge on the charts, but you would have a hard time seeing it, and, remember, that would be at the same ISO. But what with our fictual but not so unrealistic situation in the church or at night in the city? With an advantage of ISO 200 vs ISO 800-1600 across the frame and the main subject where main subjects typically are, don’t you believe that any theoretical sharpness advantage of the Nikon, even if it were there at that point in the frame, would be hopelessly buried in noise?

Now say you accept some added noise because you need depth of field. You go to f5.6. That’s two stops, we are at ISO 800 with the Tamron. We may need two or three attempts to hold the shot at 1/4s, but we would need the same with the Nikon at 1/15s or even 1/30s. Both lenses operate at maximum sharpness now. Under ideal light and in the lab, you may still be able to measure a slight sharpness advantage in the extreme corners for the Nikon. Our subject is not in the extreme corners though, and the light is low as it is. Where is the Nikon now? ISO 3200-6400, right? Forget about any theoretical advantage it may have. At that light it is severely hampered by sensor noise. ISO 800 vs ISO 3200-6400? This is an almost too easy win for the Tamron.

I may sound like being biased, I may even sound like being affiliated with Tamron, but that’s not the case. I just own this lens and have used it for three months in the darkest time of the year. Really, I wouldn’t so easily dismiss this lens

Here we are. The Image of the Day was taken at 1/15s and f2.8. The extreme corners of the original shot are about 10cm in front of the focal plane. They are mushy because they are clearly out of focus. If they were in focus, they might be still mushy but less mushy. That’s how bad it can get. Could be worse, huh?

And, given the example in the quote, had I taken my time, I could have gone down to 1/4s and ISO 200. With non-stabilized lenses you’d still hover at ISO 800 or maybe at ISO 1600, look at the noise and console yourself with the fact that it’s not the lens, it’s only the light that’s so bad

Oh yes, “Rahmen” means “frame” or “frames” in German. Thus the Song of the Day is “Framed” from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s 1972 album “Framed”. See them in a fine live performance on YouTube.

OK, here’s the second post of today’s series. After the plain modesty of the last post, here’s some pompous HDR for a change.

In fact, this image is not without some serious imperfections. I had made the seven bracketed images in high-speed continuous mode, meaning in only a fraction more than a second, but if you look at 100% (which I won’t let you), you see that Photomatix Pro can’t eliminate the subtle displacements of the twigs’ reflections in the water. The program has a box that you can check, and it’s supposed to be able to cope with water, but in fact it can’t. It’s easy to understand why, because the problem is insolvable in general. There may be cases where it works, but in general it does not.

Anyway, I’d say for web presentation it’s good enough, in fact it is good enough when viewed on screen at 50%, so I prefer to ignore the fact. Still, it’s important to know that you still can’t really depend on such algorithms. They invariably let you down at times.

The Song of the Day is “River” from Natalie Merchant’s 1995 album “Tigerlily”. Funny, I always thought that gal sounded like the singer of the 10000 Maniacs

Hear the song on YouTube.

This and the image of the next post (that I’ll write in a few minutes) were both taken today, Sunday, on a short walk down along the river. I have made a few images on Saturday, but that was such an exceptionally dreary day, with fog, high clouds and then in the afternoon snowfall, that I really beg you to excuse me: I can’t possibly find a single usable image from Saturday.

I could have driven up the mountain for some spectacular images, but sometimes it is just fine to take a short walk in the neighborhood and look out for the more silent beauties. I like this way along river Gail, just before it joins river Drau. The fallen trees give you all sorts of interesting angles. I could probably have fiddled with local contrast in the foreground snow, but instead I chose to simply upload the JPEG from the camera. I guess there’s nothing really wrong with it.

The Song of the Day is “Winterwood” from Don McLean’s 1972 release “American Pie”. Hear it on YouTube. Sort of fits my mood today

Here’s one more post for today. It’s Friday afternoon, I’m on the train to Carinthia and this image was taken in the morning. This was more or less an experiment. I focused near and then just held the camera over a snow-covered flower bed.

When I later looked at the image, I really liked the delicate lace. Making it black and white and cropping to a square even increased the effect.

The Song of the Day is “Tenderly“, this time not sung by Billie Holiday, this time it’s Anita O’Day on her 1957 album “Anita Sings the Most”. Online I’ve found this version only in a somewhat mutilated video on YouTube. It’s a “duet” where some guy has mixed his own voice into the song. Fortunately he leaves her alone until 1:30. Just switch off at that point and no harm will be done to your inner peace