1415 - Butterfly

Nikon 50/1.2 2 Responses »
Aug 292010

OK, this is the last post for tonight, promised :)

This is an image taken today, again with the 50/1.2. The butterfly was friendly anough to give me time to focus.

Btw, speaking of butterflies, don’t you feel that this is a funny name for an insect? But what is more funny, is that the names for butterflies in different languages are completely unrelated. Normally you see the same stem used in the romanic languages, sometimes English agrees with German, sometimes with French, but here it is all totally different: butterfly, mariposa, farfalla, papillon, Schmetterling. It’s rare that you see something like that. It is almost as if butterflies had suddenly appeared maybe a thousand years ago, when the peoples in Europe had already settled :)

The Song of the Day is “Butterfly” from Jason Mraz’s 2008 album “We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.”. Great album, great singer, and YouTube has the song.

Posted by andreas at 10:49 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1394 - Blue Again

Sigma 8-16 No Responses »
Aug 092010

I haven’t done much photography this weekend. On the one side there were the consultations about the apartment, on the other side I was very busy programming. This is an image taken today in the afternoon on my way to the lake. The sky was blue again, swimming was fine, it’s only that my head was buzzing with ideas. It’s pretty hard to empty your mind and to get creative, when you constantly worry about programming concepts :)

This is a place where I like to drive by. It’s not the direct way to the lake, it’s a detour that costs me at least half an hour, but I know the environment very well and there’s always an image to be had. I would have liked some more flowers to work with, but hey, I was already determined to use an image from Italy, so this one came for free :D

The Song of the Day is “Blue Sky” from Joan Baez’ 1975 album “Diamonds & Rust”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 2:36 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1354 - Give Me The Simple Life

Nikon 70-300 VR 3 Responses »
Jul 022010

On Monday I had business near our old home, in the country (not that it’s far from where we live now), and of course I had the camera with me and took some images.

There would probably be at least two more that I were inclined to use under normal circumstances, but excuse me please, I’m in a hurry to catch up :)

The Song of The Day is “Give Me The Simple Life“. I have it on “Twelve Nights In Hollywood”, the recently published collection of four CDs with previously unpublished material, those “Twelve Nights In Hollywood”, that were the first music, that I bought as digital downloads only.

YouTube has a later version from Montreux 1969, but it is very similar in phrasing, it won’t make that much of a difference.

Posted by andreas at 7:13 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1337 - La Vida Es Rosa

Sigma 8-16 No Responses »
Jun 112010

It has been hot the last days. Very, very hot. At the moment I am on the train to Carinthia, thankfully air-conditioned, tomorrow I’ll be in Linz to hear Bob Dylan, and Wednesday next week we’ll be on our way to Genoa, Italy. A few days in the city, and then down the Ligurian riviera for nature, sun, sea and a few relaxing days. I’ll have my laptop with me, the hotels were carefully selected for WiFi, thus I plan to carry on with this blog.

The Song of the Day is one of the most surprising cover versions of “La Vie En Rose”, the immortal song made famous by Edith Piaf. Ana Salazar sings a fantastic Flamenco version, and as it has not been available via YouTube, I’ve just uploaded it. Let’s see what happens, this is definitely not in the public domain, this is owned by Universal, and I hope it will still stay up anyway :)

Posted by andreas at 7:33 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1336 - Bed Of Roses

Tokina 11-16/2.8 1 Response »
Jun 112010

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 :D

The Song of the Day is “Bed Of Roses” from Bette Midler’s 1995 album “Bette Of Roses”. Hear a live version on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 6:51 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1332 - Hate And War

Sigma 8-16 2 Responses »
Jun 062010

This idyllic image was taken just around the bend from Peršman farm, a place where the police battaillon 13 and the SS, the Nazi elite troup, committed one of their last crimes against the Slovene minority in Carinthia.

On April 25, 1945, only two weeks before the end of that bloody war, they killed a whole farmer’s family, 15 people, grandparents, parents, children, aunt, nephews and nieces. They were accused of having supported Slovenian partisans. Most likely they did, but what could they have done? This was partisan territory, and then, the partisans were Slovenes as well, and most important, theirs was a just cause. They were fighting one of the most terrible and bloody régimes that have ever marred the face of the earth.

Today here, in the re-erected main building of the farm, is a museum reminding us of that cruel time and of how hate ruled a country.

The Song of the Day is “Hate And War” from the debut album of The Clash. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:15 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1325 - Delicate

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
May 312010

I’m back in Vienna, and although I’ve slept on the train, it’s insanely late by now.

Here’s one more image of Saturday. I’ve made some images today (well, yesterday by now), but even though I like the compositions, they utterly lack subject, so I’ll spare us the embarrassment and bother you with one more flower :)

The Song of the Day is “Delicate” from Terence Trent D’Arby’s 1993 album “Symphony Or Damn”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 3:53 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

1324 - Garden In The Rain

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
May 302010

Yesterday began with fair weather. I was even swimming, though I already heard thunder in a distance. This is an image from our garden by the lake, not exactly in the rain as the title suggests, but really shortly before. The flowers are two types of columbines, aquilegia vulgaris the blue, and aquilegia × hybrida the pink in the background. They were planted 40 years ago.

The rest of the day was shopping for ingredients, and then about five or six hours of cooking Filé Gumbo, complete with home-made chicken broth, roux and imported filé powder :)

The Song of the Day is “Garden In The Rain” from Diana Krall’s 1997 album “Love Scenes”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 9:45 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

1319 - I'm Painting The Town Red

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC No Responses »
May 242010

It came as I thought it would. I made a single image today, that I want to spare you. Thus we are back to yesterday’s trip to Croatia, this time to the ancient City of Pula, a city where you can still marvel at a Roman temple and arena, medieval churches and … Austrian architecture. Pula was the harbor of the Austro-Hungarian empire’s war fleet, and though the harbor has lost since much of its importance, it is still more industrious than touristic.

This is part of Pula’s railway station, once directly connecting to the harbor. I saw the poppies and the yellow flowers, and thankfully the area is not fenced off, thus I got the chance to take some images.

The Song of the Day is “I’m Painting The Town Red” by Billie Holiday. I have it on a collection that’s unavailable, but from what I see, “A Portrait Of An Artist 1935-1946″ with 25 songs for $5.99 is a decent offer.

The point is, all those early recordings are in the public domain now, thus it’s really important to look at the price. Remember my “Ultimate Jazz Archive”? This collection of 168 Jazz CDs that I bought for 99€? Well, it’s all public domain, but still, the price was more than OK.

On the other hand, I recently saw some of those CDs sold separately, in fact it were not even CDs, it were MP3 tracks, and I saw them for $9.99. Each. Not each track, but each “album”. Now multiply that with 168 and you get approximately $1680. Depending on the exchange rate of the Euro, this is a factor of roughly 15 – for the same thing, so, I can only tell you, try not to get shaved. There is no decency in the world.

YouTube has the song.

Posted by andreas at 8:57 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1283 – La Primavera III

Nikon 70-300 VR 4 Responses »
Apr 182010

As promised, instead of a rainy Sunday image, here’s another one of yesterday’s spring impressions, this time from a square in Villach where we had breakfast in the sun.

Again this has been taken with the Nikon 70-300 VR at 300 mm, only this time at minimum focus distance, and that always make for a good blur, even at f5.6.

The Song of the Day is “A Andorinha Da Primavera” from Madredeus’ wonderful 1997 album “O Paraíso: 14 Canções”. No swallows in this image though :)

Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 11:04 am Tagged with: , , , , ,
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