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: , , , , , , ,

1268 - Reaching for the Moon

Nikon 18-200 VR No Responses »
Apr 032010

It’s Easter weekend. Here in Carinthia it’s cold, compared to Vienna. Morning temperatures around freezing. It was beautiful today though.

Remember that I told you about the box of the now broken Tamron lens and that I have it in Carinthia? Well, that’s right, it was here, and when I took it in my hands, I was surprised about its weight. Something had to be in it …

Imagine my surprise when I found a lens inside. My good old Nikon 18-200 VR. It had had it on the camera when I bought the Tamron. Of course I had put the Tammy on the camera, the Nikon in the box – and there it had been for half a year. I had not even missed it. Boy, I have way too many lenses :)

Today’s image was taken using that very neglected lens, set to 200mm. The view is over the neighboring buildings towards Mount Mangart, a snow capped peak in the Julian Alps, directly on the border between Slovenia and Italy. I didn’t even see the moon until I found it in Photoshop :D

The Song of the Day is “Reaching for the Moon” from the 2007 self-titled Holly Cole album. Wonderful rendition. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 11:28 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

1254 - Log Cabin Home In The Sky

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC No Responses »
Mar 212010

Saturday was warm but hazy. We decided to make a trip up one of the more remote valleys in Carinthia, Lesachtal, a very rural part of the country, known for big amounts of snow.

I have no idea what this hut really is for, maybe it’s for storing dry hay, maybe for something completely different. It’s situated on the south-facing side of the valley, so even though it’s still deep winter on the other side, here it is already spring.

The Song of the Day is “Log Cabin Home In The Sky” from the 1968 Incredible String Band album “Wee Tam”. See Robin Williamson perform it live in 2009. Charming, even despite those squeaking children. Or maybe just because of them. Love it :)

Posted by andreas at 8:52 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1244 - Alone On A Mountain

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 3 Responses »
Mar 102010

I’m still at home – and I can’t even begin to tell you how fed up I am. I have made no single image since when? Sunday?? But anyway, I’ll stay home tomorrow, and on Friday I’m back to work and then in the evening back to Carinthia.

Speaking of Carinthia, this is an image that I took more than a month ago on Mount Dobratsch. I didn’t use it, because I had more than enough images for “1210 – Solid Rock“, but today I am thankful for it. It’s also fitting in a way, because while the sun shines in Vienna, there was snowfall in Carinthia during the whole day, and it is predicted to go on until tomorrow. The weekend may see some sunshine as well. We’ll see. Let’s hope I’m fit for photography :)

This wooden sign is by the side of the road, almost at its end, at a height of about 1700 meters. I really liked the texture in the snow. What you see here is the result of a series of experiments, directed at conserving the highlight detail and the general feeling of depth, and at the same time showing a kind of blinding brightness. Thus I had to be careful: too much local contrast would have pushed the whole image into a medium gray, and that’s far from what I experienced while I was there. All in all I think the result is OK.

The Song of the Day is “Alone” from the 1996 Beautiful South album “Blue Is The Colour”. Hear it on YouTube. Not exactly related to the image, but a great song like almost all of Paul Heaton’s :)

Posted by andreas at 8:11 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1210 - Solid Rock

Tokina 11-16/2.8 2 Responses »
Feb 062010

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 :D

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.

Posted by andreas at 11:17 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1192 - It's Easy To Blame The Weather III

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 12 Responses »
Jan 172010

And here’s the last of the three catch-up posts of today. Again the image was taken on mount Dobratsch, the mountain that broke apart in 1348′s catastrophic earth quake. That quake and the begin of the black plague in Europe, all in one year, you can’t really blame people for their superstition :)

The Song of the Day is one last time “It’s Easy To Blame The Weather” by Billie Holiday. I have it on a 10 CD collection that isn’t available via Amazon, thus I link to “The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.7: 1938-1939″. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 10:56 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1191 - It's Easy To Blame The Weather II

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 4 Responses »
Jan 172010

Here we are, one more image of today’s bunch, this one is for Saturday, although, as I’ve explained in the last post, it was taken today.

The Song of the Day is still “It’s Easy To Blame The Weather” by Billie Holiday. I have it on a 10 CD collection that isn’t available via Amazon, thus I link to “The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.7: 1938-1939″. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 10:42 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1190 - It's Easy To Blame The Weather I

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 4 Responses »
Jan 172010

It’s easy to blame the weather. It had been cruelly dull, but to be honest, the reason why you haven’t seen anything since Thursday is much more trivial: I was completely uninspired and uninterested in this world. I spent all my time in Morrowind :)

Morrowind, for all of you who don’t play computer games, Morrowind is a computer role playing game, and in fact it is one of the best RPGs of all times. I’ve played it seven years ago when it was new, I’ve started over some weeks ago, and at the moment I am again in a phase where I’ve technically beaten the game.

It’s always the same in Morrowind and in its successor, Oblivion: I can’t resist the temptation to use Alchemy. You know, walking around, collecting flowers and brewing potions. It’s really the most powerful skill in these games. Once you are advanced in Alchemy, you can boost your stats to insane levels, making it possible to create powerfully enchanted armor and weapons. I really had intended to resist the temptation, to just play a humble wizard, but then I got drawn in again. Well, I’ve become pretty good over the weekend. Not yet god-like, but I’m getting along :)

It’s Sunday night now, I’m on the train to Vienna, and I intend to cheat, at least according to my rules. You’ll get three posts with a total of four images, one for Friday, one for Saturday and one for today, but all images were taken today. On Friday I was too much in a hurry, I didn’t manage to make a usable image, and on Saturday I took no single image at all. Morrowind.

Today was sunny and I forced myself to go out, drive up mount Dobratsch, and indeed I came back with enough usable material to bridge the gap. Hope you don’t mind.

The Song of the Day is “It’s Easy To Blame The Weather” by Billie Holiday. I have it on a 10 CD collection that isn’t available via Amazon, thus I link to “The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.7: 1938-1939″. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 10:36 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1178 - Alone With The Moon

Nikon 70-300 VR, Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
Jan 052010

One of the nice things in winter, don’t laugh, it’s that the days are so short. Even a lazy sloth as I can see a sunrise.

Here we are with Sunday’s images. It’s late, I won’t make a second post with today’s, I’ll try to catch up tomorrow.

This weekend we made the second attempt at Michael‘s migration from Salzburg to Vienna, and this time we succeeded. Weather was with us. You may remember, the first attempt two weeks ago was thwarted by heavy snowfall.

Again I fetched the car, a Fiat Ducato Mark 3, on Saturday, left it over night in Villach, and at 7am I was already on the highway north, towards Salzburg. I had to cross the mountains, that’s where I made two short stops, not necessarily in the best places, just where it was possible, took some images in bitter cold, and then drove on.

I really wish I could have stopped wherever I wanted. I saw some absolutely breathtaking vistas, the snowy castle of Werfen in front of the most majestic snow-capped mountains, some winter dreams of magnificent beauty, but alas most of the time I was speeding along at 130 kmph with no chance to stop.

You have to take my word and the few images I was able to capture. I wildly enjoyed driving across the mountain range of the Alps, seeing all that beauty and even being able to snap a few pictures.

The actual migration took us till the evening, and there’s still a lot to do in Michael’s new apartment. Tomorrow night we’ll re-assemble his furniture, but most of the grunt work is done. Now, when I think of it, maybe I won’t be able to catch up tomorrow :)

The Song of the Day is the hauntingly beautiful “Alone With The Moon” from the 1998 Tiger Lillies album “The Brothel to the Cemetery”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 1:43 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

1094 - Foot Of The Mountain

Nikon 70-300 VR 5 Responses »
Oct 112009

Alien Skin Snap Art painting effects in B&W??? What the Duck did I think?

Well, surprisingly this is the only variant of that image that would even remotely work.

It’s an image taken from the balcony of our apartment in Villach. Although the day was beautiful and it would have been the last chance to go swimming, I could not afford the time. If you’ve been here yesterday, you may see quite some changes to the sidebar. I have converted most of my categories to tags, there is a tag cloud, the blogroll is back again, and these are only the changes that are visible.

The Song of the Day is “Foot Of The Mountain” from Paul Weller’s 1994 live album “Live Wood”. See a video on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 8:42 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
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