I’m back in Vienna, but I’m sick and at home. I’ve slept most of the day, and although I made a few images out of the window this morning, I’ll spare you the results.

These two images were both taken last week on the same day as “1237 – I’m Gonna Lock My Heart“. The first image is actually a failure. I probably should go back and try it again. The problem is, that I took two exposures with that walking man in the frame, one too early and the other, this one, too late. I’d have liked to have him a little bit more to the left, the scene less condensed, and then I would not have been forced to crop so much in from the left.

I’ve also played with some alternative crops, for instance a square that comes in even more from the left and that also cuts part of the scribble from the right, and although it is in some ways better, it does not satisfy me in the end. So this is a failure, but it is the kind of failure that interests me.

The Image of the Day was the other option from the same day, and I’m actually glad that I could finally use it. I would have forgotten it, but I really like the various strong lines in different directions, and the feeling of depth that they create.

Other than that, I’ve learned something. You know, here in the heart of Europe we have a political and social system that is very different from that in the US, and we tend to see the Republicans as evil, as being against freedom. Part of that is a fact that we’ve talked about often with Ted Byrne, namely that we associate completely different things with “left” and “right”, but especially with the political right. For me a Nazi is right, for him a Nazi fights for a system with tight governmental control, thus in his view Nazis are essentially left. Well, whatever. I guess in the meantime we have learned to appreciate each other’s positions.

But that’s something I had to think about, when I saw the recent TEDx talk by Lawrence Lessig. I really urge you to view this talk for three reasons:

First, I believe it carries an important message. I simply like what he says and I believe it’s true.

Second, it is enlightening on a completely different level, because it shreds some of my deeply ingrained prejudices. Unfortunately it also proves that politics are a damn complicated field. Well, and

Third, it is just an incredibly clever presentation. This man can really talk and this man really knows how to make a point. I heard it with interest and pleasure, hope you like it too.

The Song of the Day is one of my recent Sinatra acquisitions, the Johnny Burke / Jimmy Van Heusen composition “It Could Happen To You“. Hear it on YouTube.

It’s Sunday evening by now. I have whiled the day away and now I am in a hurry. As usual

This images is from a short trip on Saturday afternoon. Saturday was warm and sunny, eating the snow away at enormous speed. The image is a composite of two exposures, one taken at f5.6, the other at f2.8.

The Song of the Day is “Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence” by Bob Dylan. I have it on disc 2 of “The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991″. Hear it on YouTube.

Nothing ages faster than science fiction, and when I saw this image, when I tried variants and ended up with this toned B&W, it immediately reminded me of 1950s science fiction movies.

Speaking of sci-fi, I’m still reading Orson Scott Card, and while “Ender’s Game” did not overly impress me, “Speaker For The Dead” brought up some real clever questions, and now I am in the middle of “Xenocide”. Seems like I will read the next one as well.

The Song of the Day is “A Better Future” from David Bowie’s 2002 album “Heathen”. Hear it on YouTube.

This one would probably have worked in color as well, but then probably not. I didn’t try it for real

The Song of the Day is “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, the big hit from the soundtrack of “An Officer And A Gentleman”. I have it on a collection of love songs that’s unavailable internationally, although availability of the original soundtrack album is not so great either

Hear it on YouTube.

These are the images for Monday. Obviously I’m back in Vienna. Regarding posting blog entries, being late turns into a bad habit again. Sorry for that

The bicycle image was taken in the morning. We had light snowfall, and due to the cold, the snow would have stayed, but this time it was not even a centimeter.

I like the postures of the two bikes, I like the tight crop with the car approaching, and normally this would have been it for today, but then, in the evening, while I crossed a road, passing a man, a tramway train in the background, out of a whim I decided to take a shot from the hip and … what can I say? I liked it. It is not focused, it is not sharp, it is garbage in a way, but I still like it.

What you see here is a square crop from the bottom and a conversion to B&W. The noise has been added in Photoshop

The Song of the Day is “Ordinary People” from Conner Reeves’ 1997 album “Earthbound”. Never heard of the guy? Well, at the time it came out, I found the album by chance while being in a MediaMarkt store. I can’t remember why I decided to hear it or if I just bought it without hearing, for whatever reason. Fact is, that this album is not only excellent, it’s also strong evidence for the theory that being the most talented person sometimes is not enough for a big career. Hear the song on YouTube, and while you’re there, why don’t you also hear into “Something Beautiful” or “My Father’s Son“?

Done? And now please tell me that guy’s not good

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

Carinthia is covered in fog. Yesterday a look at the webcams made it clear: Italy was the place to go.

We started out late, and although we certainly enjoyed the sun, I didn’t make many usable images. I have some more, but definitely not of the “Sunny Italy” kind.

This particular image was taken under a highway bridge. The challenge was to both contain the tonal range and, on the other hand, to convey the sense of being blinded by the light. I finally ended up using black and white, with a combination of Photoshop’s “High Contrast Blue” filter for most of the scene, and “High Contrast Red” for some highlight regions, and I really like the result. It combines both the texture in the concrete (via the blue filter) and the dramatic contrast (via the red).

The color version is definitely more cheerful though, and because it better reflects yesterday’s mood, this time I leave you the choice.

The Song of the Day is “Under The Bridge” from the 1997 self-titled All Saints album. See a video on Dailymotion.

OK, I stop bitching about the weather. Let’s use it.

Here is another one of these low down shots, again with the camera set to the ground, this time in B&W. It’s not what I intended to use as the Image of the Day, but when I began working on it – just for fun – I soon began to really like it

The Song of the Day is “Dirty World” from the 1988 Traveling Wilburys album “Volume 1″. Hear it on YouTube. Just ignore the annotation overlay on the video. It’s not much of a video anyway

I’m on the train to Carinthia and this is the image for Wednesday. January 6 is a public holiday in Austria and I used the day for a trip to Stadlau, a part of Vienna where our company is supposed to move in about three years. This is the local cemetery, photographed though the gates.

The Song of the Day is “Cemetery Gates” from the 1986 Smiths album “The Queen Is Dead”. Great music, hear it on YouTube.

Oh yes, I’m really, really tired. No catching up for today. On the other hand, I had already thought I wouldn’t have an image for yesterday, and now that I see this bike, I think it has turned out pretty well.

I was more or less forced to go B&W, because this image was taken under the worst of lights, you know, these impossible sodium vapor lights that look orange even at a color temperature of 2000 K.

The Song of the Day? Well, I don’t know, something in the pose of this bike made me think that “Prizefighter” from the 2009 Eels album “Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire” would not be entirely wrong. YouTube has the video.