I was rather uninspired today. I had a late breakfast, did yesterday’s Image of the Day and left at 14:15 for Klagenfurt to get another 2GB, this time for the Carinthian PC. I’ll tell you one thing: if you can possible manage it, stick to one PC. Keeping two up to date is rather expensive 🙂
Anyway. I got it and then began to wonder where to go shooting. Rather half-heartedly I decided for Ulrichsberg, a mountain north of Klagenfurt, infamous for the yearly commemoration of the referendum that ended the 1918-20 occupation of southern Carinthia by Yugoslav troops. The referendum decided that southern Carinthia should stay with Austria, and I think that was a good thing, but the problem is, that the commemoration on Ulrichsberg attracts all sorts of right-wing people, ex-Nazi soldiers as well as young neo-Nazi, and it is rather unpleasant to see how Carinthian politicians of all parties mess about with them.
The weather was, hmm, interesting. The northern sky was clear and wonderfully blue, but in the south where the sun was, there lurked clouds that moved, and I yet had to figure out the direction. I deemed it possible to get some sun up there, but as I was about to leave the car and walk up to the summit, it became clear that the clouds would stay just in front of the sun for some time. Disappointed I got back into the car and drove down again and to Karnburg, just at the southern foot of the mountain.
In the middle ages Karnburg once was an important center of early Carinthia, but now it is only a small village. It has a nice old church nevertheless, and I decided to take some images there. I did so, albeit in very flat light, drove back to Klagenfurt, took some images there, and finally drove to the supermarket to get some provisions.
At home I found no clear candidate for an Image of the Day. One of the Karnburg images was sort of OK and so was one from Klagenfurt. I don’t tell you what an insane amount of time I spent, trying to make one of those images something that I would be proud to post. Alas, Photoshop is one thing, and the quality of an image is another. Sure, I did make them look better, but whatever I did, they still failed to impress me.
Luckily enough I had bought an orchid for just such cases. At about 3am I gave up riding dead horses, mounted the Sigma 150/2.8 macro and gave the orchid a try. Well, I guess I could have had that earlier 🙂