Music. Photography. Thoughts.
Just got back some black & white film and prints, and here’s a scan of one of these postcard-sized prints. Zuleikha was so friendly to take my picture using my Olympus OM-2N camera and one of my studio strobes:
As always, thanks for viewing, and for reading.
Took this today when coming back from shopping, using the Google Pixel 4a phone as a camera, the lens has an equivalent angle of view like a 27mm lens on 24x36mm film:
As always, thanks for viewing.
Mitchie got the new Pixel 4a 5G phone, so I was willing to buy for one shilling – her “old” and “normal” Pixel 4a. Which basically means that for the first time in my entire life I’m now the owner of a current smart phone (the iPhone doesn’t count since that belongs to my employers).
I had to test the camera of course, so here’s the obligatory cat picture, in the phone’s ‘portrait’ mode:
Not too bad what you can get out of these devices – both this Pixel 4a and the iPhone SE – without any further processing even. Without any doubt this is good enough to use it for blog posts such as this one, even if these pictures can’t reach the quality from a real camera with their much bigger sensors like the µ43rds ones I have…
But ok, fun anyway in a device millions of people carry around their daily lives anyway. No wonder the camera industry is struggling, and only the best of the best survive in that field.
I only got that phone yesterday evening but like it already.
As always, thanks for reading and for viewing.
Edit, in the evening of the same day:
Here’s another photo of her, this time taken with my Olympus camera and a 45mm lens, with using a studio strobe bounced over the ceiling:
Again, thanks for viewing, and for reading.
Second edit, from Sunday evening:
And here’s another photo of Tuna who jumped our bench, ready to steal whatever she might have found. That was in almost no light at all, the only light source was from the kitchen – and I took the photo from my computer using the same 45mm lens and camera as in the previous one. Converted it to black & white, and toned the greys more brownish as usual:
Again, thanks for viewing.
First of December, and first snow:
As always, thanks for viewing.
I’ve mentioned that I’ve got an iPhone SE 2020 from my employer, and I really like that phone – except that it doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack for headsets like the Google Pixel 4a which Mitchie has, and which is even cheaper than that Apple phone. And while I do have an adapter from the proprietary ‘Lightning’ plug to a 3.5mm socket, the cable is still at the bottom of the phone then – totally the wrong end, so to not damage the cable or adapter, you’d have to put the phone upside down into your jacket. How ridiculous, just to save Apple (and their shareholders) a few cents on an otherwise really nice product…
Apple’s solution to this is of course to also sell you their air buds or whatever they call them. Thanks, but no thanks – it’s not *my* phone anyway, and even if so, I’d never buy these.
But Mitchie has two different bluetooth headsets which I borrowed today to try them out, and these are the Anker SoundBuds Slim+
and the AKG Y50BT
So did Iike them? Well…
The Anker are light and small, and the first ones of that shape and size which didn’t fall out of my ears right away (ok, the Apple wired buds also stay in). They have a very clear sound, but with almost no bass at all – I tried with the Wikiloops Latest Jams Radio, and they’re really not good for music. Even the wired Apple buds are way better in that regard, I’d say the Anker are more comparable to some 10€ ones I have from Sennheiser (also with cables).
The AKG? A revelation against those Anker buds, but of course much bigger and heavier, and these are *on* ears, not *over* ears which I would prefer. Still, these sound really nice and even give you a bass. They also keep the connection if you change rooms for a short time, something I hadn’t even tried with the Anker. Cool. But do I love them? No way…
… even Mitchie is back to her Sennheiser ‘Sports’ headset *with* a cable – she can, because her phone (like the old Nexus 5 she gave me) has a headphone jack. And so this is what I normally use on the company’s notebook, and with an adapter also on the iPhone (and without, on that Nexus):
That’s my wired and closed Sennheiser HD569 headset for ~ 150€. It comes with two cables, a short and straight one (1.2m) which also has a microphone, so it’s perfect for telephony, for video conferences, and with its longer cable also for musicians who record with studio microphones – as a closed headphone it doesn’t “bleed” much into the recording mike.
But what I love even more is my open Sennheiser HD598SE which is just perfect for everything.
So, Bluetooth? Yes – in case you definitely can’t live with cables, don’t need absolute real time, and don’t mind that you just have to charge another device each day. For me, I love just the opposites, don’t mind cables, and I do need real time to make music, and no, I don’t want even more batteries… but who knows, maybe for just consuming music, videos, movies or such, maybe I’ll get used to one of these. If only the AKG was as good and as comfortable like my Sennheiser…
… which I later used again to work on a mix in my DAW, where I even correct these headphones with Sonarworks. And with using that (and you can use the program for the HD569 or other more professional headphones as well), they’re really flat which gives you some peace of mind while working on a mix for someone else:
By the by, as you might have mentioned, no ‘affiliate links’ around here. I write this for you, not for me to earn some pennies…
As always, thanks for reading.
Update, from Friday Dec 4th, 2020:
I’m slowly getting used to the AKG headphones pictured above – for the iPhone (or any other phone or device which has bluetooth but no jack), that’s the best solution I’ve seen and heard so far – so I’ll keep that on my desk for now.
And then the question which phone to get is even harder:
I guess it doesn’t matter too much, just pick any of these, because both are good.
As always, thanks for reading.
So today I took the car and went to Aberystwyth, which greeted me with a friendly “Croeso!“. And that lovely little university town is also the home of the TV series “Hinterland“, which we Germans of course had to translate, because nobody here would understand a German word I guess – so here that series was called “Inspector Mathias – Mord in Wales“, followed by the names of the respective episodes which made the whole construct just ridiculously long…
No, I went to Kronberg im Taunus, and one of its partner cities is Aberystwyth:
I took a short walk there but then decided to drive a bit further to Königstein im Taunus, where I left the car again. It’s a wealthy area, with some nice architecture, so first I took a few photos of houses, like these:
Then I decided to walk up to Falkenstein Castle, and on the way up I saw that sign with explanations:
And although the castle itself was closed for winter already, you still have a breathtaking view from the top:
Some signpost in town said: walk 800m further and turn left, then take the way past the Catholic Church – and this is the church when coming back down from the castle…
Interesting side note: the step counters on Android and iOS count differently – I had these phones in the same pocket:
As always, thanks for viewing, and for reading.
I took today’s photos using the 14-42mm “kit zoom” lens mounted onto my Olympus E-M10 Mk2 camera. No music today – not until now, that is. Not even in my head…
I filled a roll of black & white film, so by now I’m back to taking colour photos using my digital camera(s) (both Olympus mirrorless, and iPhone). During today’s short Sunday walk I decided to leave the 45mm/1.8 M.Zuiko lens on the camera, which has an angle of view like a 90mm lens on 24x36mm film (what they now call “full frame”, for me it’s still “Kleinbildfilm”) 🙂 The reason to keep this short “portrait” tele on the camera was that with also carrying an iPhone SE I also have what compares to 28mm on film…
I walked in the direction of the airport, the infamous “Startbahn West”, and if you extend that route from our place then you’re heading pretty much into the direction of Wales and Ireland – turn slightly right, and it would be Scotland instead. So this is what I call ‘The route of the Celts’, it’s where they went. Some stayed in France (think Asterix for the general direction), but cross the channel and you’ll end up there after a couple of a million steps…
And because the light was nice and the sun was low I saw some pretty colours as well, so have a look:
Oh – and no music in my ears this time but a poem. As always, thanks for viewing and reading.
P.S.: we went out together later, to our “Müllberg”. And now I have more than 10.000 steps and my muscles are a bit sore…
Again, thanks for reading…
I’m quite happy that I could get my camera working as usual again, without having to send it in for repairs and such – so today I thought about using a studio strobe again, haven’t done that in a while (since the photo shoot for school in early spring).
And I was just finished setting everything up and measuring the light intensity when my favourite model decided to relocate – so I’d had to turn, measure again, and live with a not-so-optimal kind of light. I’d loved to having added a second one of my studio strobes, but that one also didn’t have a power cable attached, and I would have to climb to reach it on its higher stand… so…
That’s what I came up with. Much better and sharper than yesterday’s photo using the incandescent room light of course; all measures are better once you’ll get a flash or studio strobe into the game – lower ISO, much better colour accuracy, shorter times (the camera is on 1/160th of a second, but the strobe was way faster than that which really freezes any motion), and you can close down the aperture a bit (here I was using f/4), all of which would give a better picture. Really, having a flash or strobe which you can bounce over a wall like here will make more of a difference than having a 1k€ lens vs. a 300€ one… (I was discussing that with a friend recently).
It’s hard to get the light just as you’ll want it and then have an animal sitting still at the exactly right place, these are rare moments. But it’s still fun and good practise to also try with not so optimal conditions, all of that will make you think, and see, and if you’re honestly judging yourself and your results, it will make you a better photographer in the long run… or so we hope… 🙂
Anyway. As always, thanks for viewing.
This one’s a hit. And it never needed me, it’s complete as it is, with everything in place just where it belongs to. Evocative, and haunting- and like so often I wonder how this girl comes up with thoughts so deep… and even twice, that sweet contralto voice going down a fifth really gets me here…
Oh, and as some commenters on #131549 (the vocal track of this) said:
“007 is on his way… too good”
“for a 007 movie”
True. And I think with a real orchestra like always, her majesty’s secret service (film & music production crew) should consider themselves lucky and honoured to have this singer in one of the Bond movies:
Enjoy. And then please, my dear ones, go and hurry to the ‘loops and give a few thumb-ups to those who sing and play here, as long as they can still see your positive feedback. Until silence falls…
I’ll never forget this one, thank you my dear friends.
Thank you for listening.
Oh wow. I complained too fast, before doing all necessary tests (which hadn’t made a difference with my old camera, but with this one it did):
Strange. But I’m glad that the camera still works, don’t really need a newer and/or better one…
Edit, from the same evening:
I just took another photo first of my ColorChecker (for the room light white balance), then of Tuna. Here are two versions of the same photo I took of her:
As always, thanks for reading.