simon-a.infohttps://simon-a.info/2024-03-02T14:00:00+01:00The Gelände, the Schwammerling & vkdt2024-03-02T14:00:00+01:002024-03-02T14:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2024-03-02:/posts/2024/03/02/the-gelande-the-schwammerling-vkdt/<p>So, another month has passed, again!</p>
<p>A few weeks ago I made another hike with Mr. H. We went up <a href="https://www.komoot.com/de-de/tour/143533">to the Geländehütte from Grünbach am Schneeberg</a> and back down to Grünbach on a different trail. This hike is correctly marked as intermediate in the book "Wiener Hausberge Nord". Approximately …</p><p>So, another month has passed, again!</p>
<p>A few weeks ago I made another hike with Mr. H. We went up <a href="https://www.komoot.com/de-de/tour/143533">to the Geländehütte from Grünbach am Schneeberg</a> and back down to Grünbach on a different trail. This hike is correctly marked as intermediate in the book "Wiener Hausberge Nord". Approximately 1 km before the Geländehütte, the trail gets quite uphill and rocky, and the beginning of the Eselsteig down to Grünbach is similar, so it is definitely necessary to put the camera into the backpack. Otherwise, a very nice hike with some great views.</p>
<p><img alt="gelaende_schneeberg" src="/images/gelaende_schneeberg.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="gelaende_gruenbach" src="/images/gelaende_gruenbach.jpg"></p>
<p>And a few days ago I made the hike <a href="https://www.ausflugstipps.at/oesterreich-tour/detail/100400/naturparkweg.html">Naturparkweg Mühlviertel in Rechberg</a>. This is also a highly recommended, easy and not too long hike. However, the problem is that you can only get to Rechberg with public transportation on weekdays, and even on weekdays, apparently the trains and buses in Upper Austria have become unreliable. Actually I had to pay 42 Euros for a Taxi because the train from Linz to Perg was delayed by 9 minutes and the bus in Perg did not wait 5 minutes for the train to arrive. Well, that was that.</p>
<p>But Mr. H. did not come with me this time. Either he thinks that he can make himself more interesting if he does not always say yes, even though I think that he loved our first hikes, and actually wanted to come to this one as well. Or he is disappointed because last time we only walked and talked. Or maybe both?</p>
<p><img alt="schwammerling" src="/images/schwammerling.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="rechberg" src="/images/rechberg.jpg"></p>
<p>Well, and I guess an important news is that I have <a href="https://github.com/hanatos/vkdt/commits?author=blitzgneisserin">several commints in vkdt</a>.</p>
<p>As you can see, the last pic looks a bit different. That's because it was edited with darktable. The others were edited with vkdt.</p>More memories and two hikes2024-02-09T10:00:00+01:002024-02-09T10:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2024-02-09:/posts/2024/02/09/more-memories-and-two-hikes/<p>I found more good shots among the old Tenerife photos. This one is quite popular on Pixelfed:</p>
<p><img alt="roquesdegarcia3" src="/images/roquesdegarcia3.jpg"></p>
<p>This is one of my personal favorites:</p>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="/images/barrancodelinfierno.jpg" alt="barrancodelinfierno" height="850"/>
</div>
<p>I made two more hikes in January. One of them was <a href="https://www.wieneralpen.at/a-winterwanderung-am-fusse-des-schneebergs">this one</a>. A highly recommended hike, especially combined with <a href="https://www.wieneralpen.at/a-winterwanderung-mit-herrlicher-aussicht">this</a>. I think I need to …</p><p>I found more good shots among the old Tenerife photos. This one is quite popular on Pixelfed:</p>
<p><img alt="roquesdegarcia3" src="/images/roquesdegarcia3.jpg"></p>
<p>This is one of my personal favorites:</p>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="/images/barrancodelinfierno.jpg" alt="barrancodelinfierno" height="850"/>
</div>
<p>I made two more hikes in January. One of them was <a href="https://www.wieneralpen.at/a-winterwanderung-am-fusse-des-schneebergs">this one</a>. A highly recommended hike, especially combined with <a href="https://www.wieneralpen.at/a-winterwanderung-mit-herrlicher-aussicht">this</a>. I think I need to go there in summer as well. The view from the Almreserlhaus/Edelweißhütte is very nice...</p>
<p><img alt="losenheim" src="/images/losenheim.jpg"></p>
<p>During the descent I slipped on the ice and fell, and had a bruise on my hip for a few days. But it didn't hurt, it happened very suddenly. The way down was not dangerous at all, actually I think it's possible to go up to the Almreserlhaus by car, but it was icy. Ok, I forgot to mention one important thing: I started in Losenheim/Schneeberg Sesselbahn, climbed up over the Dürre Leiten to the Almreserlhaus/Edelweißhütte and went back to the point of origin over the easy direct way which is the second trail. I think I saw the footprints of a wolf in the snow. There is one short part which is rather uphill and a bit rocky...</p>
<p>Approximately two weeks later, I made another hike close to Wöllersdorf, this time together with a gentleman. The hike is marked as highly recommended in the book "Wiener Hausberge Nord", but I was a bit disappointed. The only more or less interesting thing during that hike was the Steinerner Stadl, which is a cave:</p>
<p><img alt="steinernerstadl" src="/images/steinernerstadl.jpg"></p>
<p>By the way, the last photo was edited with vkdt. I am running out of photos again, I need to go hiking soon, but during the next days I have to work, and after that the weather won't be good I think.</p>Memories of Tenerife2024-01-06T10:30:00+01:002024-01-06T10:30:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2024-01-06:/posts/2024/01/06/memories-of-tenerife/<p>Not much news during the past weeks, not many new thoughts either. But it's time for another post. I only made one hike a few days ago through the Höllental with two friends. I had to look through old photos because I was running out of them, but I discovered …</p><p>Not much news during the past weeks, not many new thoughts either. But it's time for another post. I only made one hike a few days ago through the Höllental with two friends. I had to look through old photos because I was running out of them, but I discovered quite a few nice pics of my journey to Tenerife in October 2022.</p>
<p><img alt="roquesdegarcia2" src="/images/roquesdegarcia2.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="losgigantes" src="/images/losgigantes.jpg"></p>
<p>I did not sleep much, but it was such a great journey!</p>
<p>And one pic of my last hike:</p>
<p><img alt="hoellental1" src="/images/hoellental1.jpg"></p>
<p>However, the snowy hike in the Wienerwald in December produced more nice pics, in my last post I only shared two of them. This is the most popular one on Pixelfed:</p>
<p><img alt="badvoeslau3" src="/images/badvoeslau3.jpg"></p>
<p>Since a few weeks, KDE Plasma is my new desktop environment. Well, actually since a few months, since I installed Bookworm, but I only learned to really love it recently. I also had a quick look at Plasma 6 in KDE Neon Unstable. The most important new "feature" is the fact that it's in Qt6. Color management with Wayland looks awesome at first sight, desktop icons are not oversaturated, but photos in larger color spaces than sRGB are displayed as sRGB. It would be great if this worked properly eventually.</p>
<p>I have this dual graphics laptop from 2019, with an Nvidia Geforce MX250 I think, and Nvidia Prime hybrid mode kind of does not work with it. The battery is almost dead, but I don't like the fan whining all the time. Currently, Kubuntu with Prime Select works best, this can really switch on and off the Nvidia. Bumblebee/Debian 12 is broken, Optimus Manager/Arch is broken. Apparently, EnvyControl does work on Arch and derivatives, but not on Debian 12. The only disadvantage of EnvyControl is the fact that restarting X11 is not enough, you have to completely reboot the system. So that's why Kubuntu works best. I'm a bit excited about Ubuntu 24.04, Mint 22 and KDE Neon.</p>
<p>I bought an external 480GB SSD, currently there are I think 4 partitions on it with 3 different Linux systems. One of them is KDE Neon Unstable. Arch derivatives like Endeavour, Garuda or Manjaro are also very interesting, I am going to install one or two of them today and try to use them as my daily driver. I think Arch (derivatives) are more usable than Debian Testing/Sid. But the broken Optimus-Manager is still in the repo. Manjaro would be sympathetic, the devs are German and Austrian, but apparently it has acquired a "bad reputation" during the past years, and the vkdt appimage does not work on it. I think I have to check if the vkdt issue can be fixed.</p>
<p>I finally updated my publication list.</p>Servus d*signweek, Python & the first snow2023-12-08T09:00:00+01:002023-12-08T09:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-12-08:/posts/2023/12/08/servus-dsignweek-python-the-first-snow/<p>Another month has passed and it was a very busy month. I only had time for one hike.</p>
<p>At the end of November I sent a short book/exhibition review to Munich (but the exhibition catalogue was not so short), a few days ago I sent a 25.000 character …</p><p>Another month has passed and it was a very busy month. I only had time for one hike.</p>
<p>At the end of November I sent a short book/exhibition review to Munich (but the exhibition catalogue was not so short), a few days ago I sent a 25.000 character IT article to Munich, I had Python class the whole month, and I still need to send two IT articles to Munich by mid January. Also, there was a little bit of work with the Delta Chat article that just appeared in c't, but most of the text was written a few months ago. And I had/have to do sports regularly (almost daily) for my blood pressure.</p>
<p>Well... the Python class was more difficult than I expected, in the beginning we were 11 people in the group I think but 2 or 3 people gave it up and did not come to class any more after the first two weeks. I did not give it up but... I am not sure how much I learned. I don't know if it would make sense to sign up for a more expensive beginner class at WIFI with a male teacher. Or should I try to teach Python to myself afterall? Yesterday evening I talked about this with two IT pros at Libre Graphics Vienna and their conclusion was that the teacher was not good. Basically there were about 3 people in the group who had no problems but all of them had a professional backgrould in maths, economy and counting money. So that was the Python class.</p>
<p>And yes, of course, I forgot to mention that on November 25 I hosted a darktable workshop at Servus d*signweek. I think it went well and I am sorry that I only had time for one day at this conference. Servus d*signweek is basically a mini Libre Graphics Meeting on a national or regional level. I met a guy who had been to the Libre Graphics Meeting several times. There were not very many participants but the atmosphere was great. Also, most people were rather young. So Servus d*signweek is a highly recommended event for people interested in art and free software. The current organizer is a very nice Italian guy. Did I even mention this in my previous posts here? Of course, this did not fall from the sky but was planned since September I think. Somehow the organizers found our new Libre Graphics Vienna user group and invited us. I think it is worth mentioning that there were approximately 6 participants at my darktable workshop, none of them had a backgrould in IT but were absolute beginners in photography and raw editing. I kind of wasn't prepared for that and I forgot to mention the advantages of raw editing. Also, there were many international participants at my workshop and the whole conference, so all the talking was in English. In my workshop, there was a young gentleman from Taiwan and onother one from South America. Sadly, there are very few ladies who are interested in darktable. I think there were no ladies at my workshop in Linz and since LGV exists only one lady came to our meetings, that was on the day when I was sick and could not go the meeting.</p>
<p>I will post two more pics that I took on my last autumn hike in the Wachau.</p>
<p>This one was rather successful on Fediverse:</p>
<p><img alt="weinbergmitsonnenstern" src="/images/weinbergmitsonnenstern.jpg"></p>
<p>This one, on the other hand did not get many likes and shares but I like it very much, the subject is not very spectacular but the composition is good:</p>
<p><img alt="bergern" src="/images/bergern.jpg"></p>
<p>And these shots are from my latest hike near Bad Vöslau:</p>
<p><img alt="badvoeslau1" src="/images/badvoeslau1.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="badvoeslau2" src="/images/badvoeslau2.jpg"></p>
<p>I don't remember ever having so much snow so early in this region.</p>
<p>Now that softproof is fixed in darktable, I am thinking about printing one of my shots at cyberlab.at or Fotospeed, on Baryta paper or something similar, and framing it with an IKEA frame with a passepartout, in 50 by 70 centimters. That will be a hard choice.</p>
<p>I miss the Canary Islands and the ocean so much! But there is so much work to do and so little money! My travelling plans for next year are: Libre Graphics Meeting in May, maybe one week in Lunz am See in summer and two weeks Canary Islands in October. In early 2025 I want to visit my cousin in Miami. I have never been outside of Europe. I hope that nothing or nobody will mess up my plans. Actually I think in May I will only go to the conference, I won't go hiking/shooting in Britanny, it's too stressful.</p>
<p>Oh yes, I almost forgot: I actually did get a dumb phone, a Nokia 2720 Flip. I am not sure if I should write down my experiences with it here, maybe I will write an article about it for c't or so. But good KaiOS phones are hard to get at the moment. Anyway, I think I like it. Google Maps works, Whatsapp works, Nextcloud calendar works, Nextcould contacts does not work but Google contacts does, and I disabled notifications for emails completely so it does not wake me up at night. Actually I wonder if I could survive with an even dumber phone, like a Nokia 225 4G. Since I have this phone, I noticed that I check my emails less frequently, it may even happen that I don't check them at all when I am meeting friends or family. I think notifications for emails are nonsense.</p>Wachau, geotagging, dumb phones etc.2023-11-05T15:00:00+01:002023-11-05T15:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-11-05:/posts/2023/11/05/wachau-geotagging-dumb-phones-etc/<p>I made several hikes during the past weeks. Yesterday I walked the Welterbesteig Wachau part 12 from Rossatz to Oberbergern. Easy hike, if not very easy, highly recommended though the landscape is not quite as impressive as around Spitz or Weißenkirchen, or Aggstein. I had to walk some extra kilometers …</p><p>I made several hikes during the past weeks. Yesterday I walked the Welterbesteig Wachau part 12 from Rossatz to Oberbergern. Easy hike, if not very easy, highly recommended though the landscape is not quite as impressive as around Spitz or Weißenkirchen, or Aggstein. I had to walk some extra kilometers since there is no bus in Oberbergern on Saturday, but the end was one of the most interesting parts of the whole hike. From Oberbergern I went to Unterbergern through the fields and from there to Hundsheim bei Mautern via the so called Römerstraße, which looks like this:</p>
<p><img alt="roemerstrasse" src="/images/roemerstrasse.jpg"></p>
<p>As you can see, it is a trail, or something like an artificial gorge that was cut into the earth very long time ago. And this is probably the best viewpoint of the hike right before the top of the Pemexel:</p>
<p><img alt="pemexel" src="/images/pemexel.jpg"></p>
<p>One week earlier I walked part 3 from Weißenkirchen to Spitz. Also easy, although I walked one part of this hike a few years ago and it seemed quite difficult.</p>
<p><img alt="spitz" src="/images/spitz.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="weissenkirchen" src="/images/weissenkirchen.jpg"></p>
<p>Before that, I made a hike around the Alte Donau with the analog camera, but the film is not digitized yet. And on one of the first days of October, I made a hike at the Untere Lobau, also with the analog camera. It's a really boring landscape, and I only took a few shots, but I am quite pleased with the result.</p>
<p><img alt="unterelobau1" src="/images/unterelobau1.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="unterelobau2" src="/images/unterelobau2.jpg"></p>
<p>Well, for this kind of landscape, boring is probably not the right word. I think modest or simple are better. And the result is a more simple, "meditative" kind of photography. I think I should make more hikes in "simple" or flat regions. It's probably not so easy to take good landscape shots in a "boring" environment, but it is easier to concentrate on the essence of landscape photography, the composition. The subject (content, icongraphy) kind of doesn't distract from the aesthetic form. It's the photographer who needs to create the beauty and not nature.</p>
<p>Finally, I tried geotaggig. It works, with both darktable and Digikam, but Digikam is definitely better. If you download the photos from this article and inspect their metadata, you will see that they have GPS and location data. The starting point was Media Library Assistant for Wordpress. I wanted to have the name of the location in the captions. I guess, in the end, I need to finally start managing my photos, if I want to display useful information about them on <a href="https://galerie.simon-a.info">galerie.simon-a.info</a>. And Digikam is really excellent for that.</p>
<p>I think I want a dumb phone. I recently met a young gentleman who uses an old Nokia phone. But I want a new one with KaiOS. A good one is not so cheap. But I don't know what to do with my Samsung smartwatch. I think in the long run, I will need to get a different watch that can be paired with my tablet. I am really curious about those feature phones. My mum needs a new phone, and we were figuring that I will get a new one for myself and give her the one I am using right now. But now the watch is really a problem... I mean I like the watch. I think the solution can only be that I put a new simcard into the feature phone and test it for some time. How dependent are we of smartphones?</p>
<p>Well, last but not least, I want to mention that I was going to give this article the title "Cold war propaganda". Another young woman I know got breast cancer. But I am too furious and emotional about this right now. Maybe I will write more about it another time.</p>Fresh air everywhere2023-10-04T18:00:00+02:002023-10-04T18:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-10-04:/posts/2023/10/04/fresh-air-everywhere/<p>Not much news during the past weeks. I think almost 4 weeks ago I made a hike on the Rax. I walked down from the Rax to the Höllental through the Großer Kesselgraben. According to <a href="https://www.rother.de/de/wiener-hausberge-sud-1.html">this book</a> it's an easy hike, but really it's a hike that has several easy …</p><p>Not much news during the past weeks. I think almost 4 weeks ago I made a hike on the Rax. I walked down from the Rax to the Höllental through the Großer Kesselgraben. According to <a href="https://www.rother.de/de/wiener-hausberge-sud-1.html">this book</a> it's an easy hike, but really it's a hike that has several easy parts. It's hike nr. 24 in the book. Of course, 1250 meters downhill cannot really be easy. The part between Wolfgang-Dirnbacher-Hütte and Gloggnitzer Hütte is quite uphill and a bit dangerous, and the last and very long part from the Gloggnitzer Hütte to the Höllental is downhill, obviously, sometimes rocky, sometimes stony and slippery. My knees hurt when I arrived at the end, but I kind of thought that this was the real thing. I think it was a Sunday, there were very many hikers on the mountain but from the Höllentalaussicht there was almost nobody. Landscape-wise... well... there is certainly more to photograph on the main trails on the Raxalpe. It's ok, but for an alpine hike, it's not super impressive. But I guess it's a normal alpine hike.</p>
<p>This is the Höllentalaussicht:</p>
<p><img alt="hoellentalaussicht" src="/images/hoellentalaussicht.jpg"></p>
<p>And this is the Großer Kesselgraben:</p>
<p><img alt="grosserkesselgraben" src="/images/grosserkesselgraben.jpg"></p>
<p>On the day when I became ill, I made a walk in the Wasserpark and the Donaupark (Vienna) and after a long time, I took the analog camera with a Kodak Ultramax 400 with me.</p>
<p>This is my favorite:</p>
<p><img alt="donaupark" src="/images/donaupark.jpg"></p>
<p>But this is the most popular shot on pixelfed.social:</p>
<p><img alt="wasserpark" src="/images/wasserpark.jpg"></p>
<p>This shot got I think more than 60 favs so far but I kind of think that it's not really good.</p>
<p>On the very same day, I got fever. I think I caught the Corona virus two days earlier. I went to a museum, a restaurant and a coffee shop with a friend, but I think I didn't get it from her. She had been sick about a month earlier. On the next day, I went swimming, and I thought that there was too much choride in the water because I had very mild throat ache while I was in the water. I had 39 degrees fever for two days or so, but the real throat ache only started a few days later. That was also a bit strange, because when you get a cold, or the flu, usually it starts with throat ache. Otherwise, it felt like a milder kind of flu. I think about a week after the onset of the illness, I couldn't smell anything and my wisdom tooth hurt. Meanwhile, the tooth calmed itself miraculously and I think I am starting to smell again. I could't imagine that not being able to smell is such a burden and extremely annoying. It's really like a disability. I could stand next to a smoking person without any problems. I didn't smell my own sweat, I did not know if I had to change my clothes. And it was really strange to not smell the food you eat. Clean fresh air everywhere...</p>
<p>I also want to mention that I am working on a new photo website: <a href="https://galerie.simon-a.info/">https://galerie.simon-a.info/</a>. I am using wordpress for it with the Activitypub Plugin, so it is also a Fediverse instance. I am also using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-library-assistant/">Wordpress Media Library Assistant</a> plugin, which, among other things, makes it possible to display all kinds of metadata like the name of the lens automatically. I think this plugin is not easy to use, but really awesome. In addition, I am using <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/imagemagick-engine/">Imagemagick engine</a>. With this plugin, photos that are not in sRGB are displayed and converted correctly. Too bad that there is no Fediverse plugin for Piwigo or Zenphoto.</p>
<p>Well, and last, but not least: I published <a href="https://www.arthistoricum.net/kunstform/rezension/ausgabe/2023/9/38507">a new exhibition review</a>.</p>Lunz, Litschau & Budapest2023-08-24T15:20:00+02:002023-08-24T15:20:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-08-24:/posts/2023/08/24/lunz-litschau-budapest/<p>In the beginning of August I spent a week in Lunz am See, but I was kind of unlucky: it was raining almost all of the time and the trail to the Obersee was closed, again. I hope I will be able to make this hike next year. Of course …</p><p>In the beginning of August I spent a week in Lunz am See, but I was kind of unlucky: it was raining almost all of the time and the trail to the Obersee was closed, again. I hope I will be able to make this hike next year. Of course, I did not have the chance to swim in the lake, either, because it was really cold. However, I made one hike on the second day I think. On that day, it was not raining heavily all day, only in the afternoon and the evening. I went <a href="https://www.ybbstaler-alpen.at/a-wanderung-maiszinken-almerlebnis-inklusive">up to the Maißzinken</a> which is famous for this view:</p>
<p><img alt="maiszinken" src="/images/maiszinken.jpg"></p>
<p>When I arrived at the viewpoint on the top of the mountain, a group of probably local hikers was already there. They were having lunch while it was raining. This hike is not exactly short and a bit exhausing but, all-in-all, it is not so difficult/dangerous. The most difficult part is between Rehberg and Seeau on the way back to Lunz, where it might be a bit rocky and downhill. Landscape-wise, it is really nice. Well and, since it was raining most of the time, it was kind of a really relaxing holiday.</p>
<p>About a week later, I made a day-trip to Litschau in the Waldviertel. I made the <a href="https://www.waldviertel.at/a-hoellgrabenweg">hike to the Höllgraben</a>. This is a really easy and not too long hike. The landscape does not seem to be that impressive while you are in it, however, the photos turned out to be quite ok, so it is indeed photogenic:</p>
<p><img alt="hoellgraben" src="/images/hoellgraben.jpg"></p>
<p>And, last but not least, after several years of break, I photographed the August-20-fireworks in Budapest. This time, I chose f/8 and 6 seconds, and used a variable ND-filter. The photos are ok, nevertheless, I think 6 seconds are too long, 4 seconds are enough. In the beginning I set the filter to ND 8 or so, but towards the end I had to set it much higher to prevent overexposure.</p>
<p><img alt="budapest2023" src="/images/budapest2023.jpg"></p>
<p>Well, the most important news is probably the fact that I just signed up for a Python class at the Volkshochschule. The idea is to continue with C.</p>
<p>At the moment, I am thinking about spending some time on one of the Canary Islands in December or so. But I don't know yet which island, and I don't know if I will have enough money. Thank God, next year the Libre Graphics Meeting will continue, and I will need money for that, too. La Palma seems to be interesting, but there is no direct flight from Vienna to La Palma. And I am not sure about public transportation on La Palma. Gran Canaria might be an alternative. Lanzarote seems to be the least interesting option, although there is a direct flight to Arrecife.</p>
<p>I hope I will be able to put my plans into action. There was a bit of trouble in my life during the past months...</p>Feeding blackbirds on 1782 m2023-07-12T17:45:00+02:002023-07-12T17:45:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-07-12:/posts/2023/07/12/feeding-blackbirds-on-1782-m/<p><img alt="anyarigo" src="/images/anyarigo.jpg"></p>
<p>The lady on the photo is my mother, what she is doing is obvious. As I had planned, we went up to the Schafbergspitze from Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut with the Schafbergbahn. It's probably the most spectacular viewpoint in the Salzkammergut. You can see several lakes from there. We had …</p><p><img alt="anyarigo" src="/images/anyarigo.jpg"></p>
<p>The lady on the photo is my mother, what she is doing is obvious. As I had planned, we went up to the Schafbergspitze from Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut with the Schafbergbahn. It's probably the most spectacular viewpoint in the Salzkammergut. You can see several lakes from there. We had lunch at the Haus Schafbergspitze, we were lucky that we found an empty table. As soon as the meals were there, several blackbirds gathered around us, three or four. They were very polite and did not take away our food, but I knew that they wanted to be fed. But they did not eat everything that they were offered, I think they like French fries best, but apparently they don't like salad and vegetables. They only visit tables where they see food they like.</p>
<p><img alt="schafberg" src="/images/schafberg.jpg"></p>
<p>This is also a view from the Schafbergspitze, I think this rock is called Spinnerin.</p>
<p>Originally we had planned to go there last week in order to use my ÖBB Vorteilscard Geburtstagsreise, but the weather was not good on that day. Instead we went to Hainburg which is also a very nice destination.</p>
<p><img alt="hainburg" src="/images/hainburg.jpg"></p>
<p>This photo does not actually look so spectacular but the view of the city and the Danube from the Schlossberg is really great. The hike is not quite as mini as described in "Kompass Wanderlust Österreich" though. Anyway, highly recommended, underestimated and definitely one of the best trips/hikes close to Vienna.</p>
<p>Göttweig and the Seegrotte Hinterbrühl are also on the schedule now. But I think I need to spend some real holidays, to relax, at least a week. Lunz would be a possibility, but maybe also Litschau? I think I don't even know what holidays and relaxing are. I am a bit afraid that relaxing could be boring. Do I even know how to relax? Or would it only turn out as another photo hunt? I think I really need to spend more time outside of this city in the countryside, but I still need to finish two projects and there are other obstacles as well...</p>
<p>By the way: I set up Matomo for this website some weeks ago and apparently there are a lot of Mac and iOS users among the visitors, like a third of them, not sure why.</p>Waterfalls and ÖBB2023-05-29T00:00:00+02:002023-05-29T00:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-05-29:/posts/2023/05/29/waterfalls-and-obb/<p>This month I made two trips I think. Right after the big rain, I made a hike in Kuchl/Golling near Salzburg. It was hike nr. 100 in the book "Kompass Wanderlust Österreich". It's a wonderful hike, impressive landscape, there are no technical challenges, but it is rather long and …</p><p>This month I made two trips I think. Right after the big rain, I made a hike in Kuchl/Golling near Salzburg. It was hike nr. 100 in the book "Kompass Wanderlust Österreich". It's a wonderful hike, impressive landscape, there are no technical challenges, but it is rather long and exhausting. I think my stepcouter conted approximately 35.000 steps, but one part of those steps was just in Salzburg Hauptbahnhof running around between the platforms. Anyway, the hike is considerably longer than stated in the book. The first third of the trail is pretty steep.</p>
<p><img alt="golling" src="/images/golling.jpg"></p>
<p>That day was very exhausting for me, mainly because of the chaos that happened at Salzburg Hauptbahnhof on the way back to Vienna. One train travelling from Munich to Budapest was delayed, and all other ÖBB trains were delayed too because they had to wait for it and then let it pass. Even the first Westbahn after the train from Munich was a bit delayed. Unfortunately I could not take the Westbahn because I already had a ticket for the ÖBB. For a long time it was not clear which was the first train to depart from Salzburg, the schedule kept changing. I did not want to take the first one because I thought that it would be crowded. But in the end I arrived home shortly before midnight. I never experienced something like this with the ÖBB, but I think on the Weststrecke this is not so rare because the trains from Germany are often delayed... Anyway, if you are going to or coming from St. Pölten, Linz or Salzburg, try to take the Westbahn because the ÖBB can be a catastrophe. Well, I arrived home not only exhausted, but also hungry and thirsty. I took a sandwich with me and ate it, I had 1 liter of water and bought 1/2 liter in Salzburg. I wanted to by some snacks from the machine on the platform but it was broken. And there was no restaurant on the train. I did make several short breakes during the hike but really there was no time to sit down at some Gasthaus. </p>
<p>Yesterday I made a hike in the Schneeberg region. I went from the Sebastianfall in Sonnleiten/Puchberg up to the Mamauwiese and back to Sonnleiten. It's a rather short hike, it's technically more challenging than the hike in Golling/Kuchl, but it's ok, so not really dangerous. The first part of the ascent is also quite uphill... After my journey to Corfu I realized that hiking in Austria is quite a bit more dangerous and exhausting than there... The landscape was not far as impressive as in Salzburg, nevertheless I was able to take some nice shots.</p>
<p><img alt="mamauwiese" src="/images/mamauwiese.jpg"></p>
<p>These are my plans for the next months: I am not sure yet, but maybe I should try my luck again and go to the Wasserlochklamm in Palfau, maybe there is more water in it now? There was a lot of water in the Golling waterfall, that was a few days after the big rain, but the Sebastianfall looked surprizingly "normal" - so apparently the big water is already gone? Then, in the beginning of July, I want to use my ÖBB Vorteilscard birthday ticket to go up to the Schafberg with my mum. After that, when the water is warm enough in the lakes, I would like to spend a few days either in Lunz am See, or in Großalm near the Langbathseen, but just for relaxing and swimming, with just one photo hike. Or maybe somewhere else, at some other lake. In August, as always, there are the fireworks in Budapest, and I think I also want to photograph the caves in Aggtelek. And I guess that will be it for this year, as far as the bigger photo projects are concerned. I mean in theory I could go to Tenerife again in November or so... but I think I like Greece better. Maybe Santorini, or Zakynthos next spring? Or maybe... it would be nice to photograph Rhodos town, for a change? I almost forgot: I should also go to the Waldviertel again, eventually. </p>Corfu (addendum)2023-04-30T18:00:00+02:002023-04-30T18:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-04-30:/posts/2023/04/30/corfu-addendum/<p>I forgot to mention a few things: every 5th or 10th tree on Corfu has no leaves. I only realized after a few days that those tress won't get any leaves ever: they have dried out and are dead.</p>
<p>Also important: I mostly used the 8-25mm/f4.0 lens, which …</p><p>I forgot to mention a few things: every 5th or 10th tree on Corfu has no leaves. I only realized after a few days that those tress won't get any leaves ever: they have dried out and are dead.</p>
<p>Also important: I mostly used the 8-25mm/f4.0 lens, which I possess since a while now but had not really tested before this jourey. It's my most expensive lens and I could only afford it because I "sold" the vendor 3 older lenses. But I think I can say that it's a great lens.</p>
<p>It's pretty macro. This is a tiny flower:</p>
<p><img alt="tinyflower" src="/images/tinyflower.jpg"></p>
<p>And the bokeh is not bad either. This was also a small poppy:</p>
<p><img alt="poppy" src="/images/poppy.jpg"></p>
<p>Oh, this reminds me: before the journey I also made a day trip to Hallstatt, on Easer Monday. The "prey" is already on Pixelfed. During this trip, I also used the 8-25. Just to show that it makes good sunstars as well.</p>
<p><img alt="hallstatt" src="/images/hallstatt.jpg"></p>
<p>Well and last but not least: this blog now also has an <a href="https://simon-a.info/feeds/all.atom.xml">Atom feed</a>.</p>Corfu2023-04-30T13:00:00+02:002023-04-30T13:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-04-30:/posts/2023/04/30/corfu/<p>So I am back from Corfu since a few days. It was a bit exhausting, but great.</p>
<p>Where should I begin?
I actually used my tripod and I also took quite a few good shots with my smartphone.
I think this is one of the best photos that I took …</p><p>So I am back from Corfu since a few days. It was a bit exhausting, but great.</p>
<p>Where should I begin?
I actually used my tripod and I also took quite a few good shots with my smartphone.
I think this is one of the best photos that I took on this journey - with my phone:</p>
<p><img alt="corfuoldtown" src="/images/corfuoldtown.jpg"></p>
<p>I took it last Wednesday I think, when I was walking to the Byzantine Museum in Corfu Town.</p>
<p>And this is one of the pics that I took with the tripod:</p>
<p><img alt="paleokastritsa" src="/images/paleokastritsa.jpg"></p>
<p>I think I need a smaller tripod that I can always carry with me, and a backpack that has a tripod sling.</p>
<p>Corfu is a wonderful destination. Travellers are not tourists but guests. Maybe that applies to Greece in general. I had been to Greece before, but that was more than 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Corfu Town has a great mediterranean, (south-)european, metropolitan and rural atmosphere at the same time. Probably one cannot experience this during the high tourist season. There are hardly any immigrants, only Greek/local people and mainly Polish, French, German(-speaking) and American tourists. Everything is very original and regional. Though almost every local speaks English, there is/was only one McDonalds that is closed at the moment. There are very few big supermarkets, most of them are tiny, one of the "bigger" markets in the city is e.g. the Ionian Supermarket, which is also rather small and a regional company.
On the first day, I wanted to buy some food, I looked for sandwitches. But there are no ready-to-eat sandwitches at the supermarket. Instead, I bought bread and hummus with pepper taste. It was the only thing I knew and turned out to be delicious.</p>
<p>This was a real hiking journey for me. I was hiking almost every day, but mostly not difficult trails. I tried several hikes from the Rother hiking book Corfu.</p>
<p>On the first day, I walked from the New Fortress to Kanoni, which is a very nice hike (trail 20). Although this is a city walk, I recommend hiking shoes.</p>
<p>The Cape Drastis hike is not marked as a "top" hike in the book, but it should be. Easy hike and well marked.</p>
<p>I also walked the Porto Timoni hike, but only partly. I only went down until I reached the best viewpoint, after that I climbed back to Afionas and then I hiked to Arillas, where I took the bus back to Corfu town. The trail down to the viewpoint is rocky and quite uphill/downhill, but not really dangerous.</p>
<p>However, I cannot recommend the Cape Asprokavos hike for photographers, even though it is marked as highly recommended in the book. It is not possible to do the last part of the hike since one part of the beach is flooded. The book mentioned that this is possible, however, I think this is always the case. But even without the last part, this is a rather long and exhausting hike, and the landscape is not as photogenic as in the other hikes. Right before reaching the beach, I took the trail that was marked (as a trail, also in the map), and not the trail that is recommended in the book. This part turned out to be pretty downhill, but it was well secured with ropes. It was enough to give me sour muscles though. So I definitely don't recommend this hike.</p>
<p>I also walked most of the Paleokastritsa - Angelokastro - Agios Georgios Pagon hike, but I skipped the donkey trail from Paleokastritsa to Lakones, since there is a bus that goes directly to Lakones. However, this hike turned out as quite an adventure: 1,5 kilometrs before Agios Georgios Pagon, the trail ended because of a landslide, whose end I did not see, so this was a dead end, and there was no sign, warning or detour along the whole trail. So I had to go back (approximately 300 meters uphill) to Makrades. Luckily, I started the hike very early and there was enough time to catch the bus. But I was kind of prepared to such things, since I did not find any good info about hiking trails on Corfu on the internet. Also, on the way back, I met many other hikers who wanted to go to Agios Georgios Pagon, and I warned them. By the way, this happed on the very same day when I was flying home later in the evening. First I panicked a bit, but soon I realized that there was enough time. Anyway, save the number of the Corfu taxi company in your phone for such events. Else, this is really a great hike and I think I do not regret that I had to walk back.</p>
<p>What is really great about Corfu is the fact that there is a bus even to the tiniest village. However, sometimes you have to get up very early in the morning, because it leaves at 5 or 6 a.m.</p>
<p>One or two funny "events" that I witnessed:</p>
<p><img alt="lagrotta" src="/images/lagrotta.jpg"></p>
<p>I took this pic at La Grotta in Paleokastritsa. By the way, it was kind of cold the whole time, 18-20 degrees. So those people were two crazy Polish tourists. First, the guy climed up to the rock and jumped, and the woman just followed him without thinking. I think she won't follow him blindly any more, because when she was on the rock, she waited about 10 minutes before she jumped, she probably realized that climbing down was not really an alternative...</p>
<p>An the other story that I already mentioned on Hubzilla: On the third day, I made a day trip to Paxos and Antipaxos with a ship. Among the passangers was a group of American teenagers: even though it was really cold (18 degrees + stormy wind on the sea), they were running around in string bikins and with beer bottles on the ship the whole day. On Antipaxos, they also jumped into the water for a swim, and at the end of the day they were dark red because of the sunburn.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there was no time for the Pantrokratoras, and the Achilleon and it's park are permanently closed.</p>Ödensee, Wachau & the Libre Graphics Crisis2023-04-02T16:00:00+02:002023-04-02T16:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-04-02:/posts/2023/04/02/odensee-wachau-the-libre-graphics-crisis/<p>There is no doubt that the Libre Graphics movement is in some sort of crisis. The last Libre Graphics Meeting was in 2019, the darktable devs are estranged and I cannot make the local darktable users have a second meeting. And there is the darktable telegram group, where apparently mainly …</p><p>There is no doubt that the Libre Graphics movement is in some sort of crisis. The last Libre Graphics Meeting was in 2019, the darktable devs are estranged and I cannot make the local darktable users have a second meeting. And there is the darktable telegram group, where apparently mainly users whose mother tougue is not English have their discussions. I think I won't be able to publish articles about open source photography software anytime soon in c't. What is the reason for all of this? Is the situation somehow connected to politics? Or was the whole libre graphics phenomenon a GIMP thing? Clearly, GIMP is too old... I don't want to believe that because for real digital artists it is important to have a flexible "hackable" tools that can be modified, obviously this is more important for visual artists than for writers for example. A writer does not need sophisticated tools. A real artist makes their own tools and does not need pre-defined "fast food" effects from the supermarket. So in the long run our party should be on the winning side.</p>
<p>I think Aurélien Pierre is a bit desperate because he could not make more people use darktable who are less tech affine. Well, one cannot force humans to be happy. Also, we are not living in a dictatorship, but most people are just like sheep. They have no use for freedom.</p>
<p>I am curious what the future will bring, if our new user group will be successful etc.</p>
<p>But in this context I also want to mention that I created a new darktable fork: <a href="https://github.com/blitzgneisserin/darktable">https://github.com/blitzgneisserin/darktable</a>. The most important thing about it is the fact that a lot of old modules are completely removed and not only deprecated. So old edits cannot be opened with this program. I think I would like to add some presets to diffuse/sharpen but I have not tried to modify it's code yet, although in theory I know how to do that. The graduated filter needs to be rewritten, no idea how to do that, although probably somehow the code of the graduated filter, exposure and the graduated mask need to be combined. Btw, I have removed it too from my fork. Well, I would also have some ideas for simplifying diffuse/sharpen, but I definitely don't know how to do that. Probably someone who knows how to do it will have the same thoughts sooner or later. </p>
<p>Yesterday I made a hike in the Wachau, I climed up to the Josef-Gruber-Warte on the Buschandlwand from Spitz and then went down to Wösendorf. It's a relatively exhausting hike with a lot of elevation difference but there are no technical challenges, it's safe. In hiking guides it's often marked as intermediate but except for the fact that it's a bit exhausting it's actually easy. Only for the last meters before the view point I had to put my camera into my backpack. </p>
<p><img alt="buschandlwand" src="/images/buschandlwand.jpg"></p>
<p>I think the Wachau is one of the most beautiful regions of Austria. Even in an unphogtogenic season like right now, when there are no leaves on the trees, there is something magical about her. But even though I had been to this region many times before I think I only realized this yesterday. I think it's no coincidence that in German, the word Wachau is actually female. Maybe the round hills and mountains, and the curves of the Danube correspond to the forms of the female body? Maybe it's kind of the opposite of the Dolomites, for instance. I am no poet and it's really difficult to describe the magic of the Wachau with words but probably real poets have already done that.</p>
<p>Anyway, the hike to the Josef-Gruber-Warte on the Buschandlwand is a highly recommended hike, defintely one of the best hikes in the Wachau. </p>
<p>On the way up to the Warte I also met this little fellow:</p>
<p><img alt="wachaumouse" src="/images/wachaumouse.jpg"></p>
<p>First I only heared that something was moving under the leaves and stopped and looked. Then the mouse appeared, came really close and apparently she was not afraid at all. It was like she was expecting me to feed her or maybe she was just curious? </p>
<p>A few weeks ago I wanted to photograph the Ödensee in the Salzkammergut, but the lake was completely white and frozen. I only took very few good shots like this one:</p>
<p><img alt="oedensee" src="/images/oedensee.jpg"></p>
<p>On the way back, I saw the Hallstätter See with the white Dachstein and that was really awesome, although I have no photo of it. But maybe there will still be a chance to take photos of it during the next weeks. I had never seen Hallstatt before in the winter. </p>Fadensattel, Metalab etc.2023-03-09T13:00:00+01:002023-03-09T13:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-03-09:/posts/2023/03/09/fadensattel-metalab-etc/<p>I am running out of photos, currently I am uploading old pics to pixelfed. I don't know... lot of work and the weather is kind of not ideal. And I have no idea where I should go. Plus, the season is not so good, no snow but no green either …</p><p>I am running out of photos, currently I am uploading old pics to pixelfed. I don't know... lot of work and the weather is kind of not ideal. And I have no idea where I should go. Plus, the season is not so good, no snow but no green either.</p>
<p>I went for a hike in the Schneeberg region a few weeks ago. </p>
<p><img alt="fadensattel1" src="/images/fadensattel01.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="fadensattel2" src="/images/fadensattel02.jpg"></p>
<p>I climbed up to the Fadensattel from Losenheim. It was a sunstar day obviously, but there was not so much snow.</p>
<p>As I already mentioned on <a href="https://pleroma.s-a.at">pleroma.s-a.at</a>, exactly one month ago I went to the "Debienna Treff" at the Metalab. There I happened to meet a handsome young man who is also into photography, and we founded the Libre Graphics Vienna <a href="https://libregraphicsvienna.at">libregraphicsvienna.at</a>, a local user group for open source graphics software. It was him who approached me with the idea. The first meeting was a week ago, we were seven people I think and we talked about darktable. I think it was really nice, but several darktable users that I already met did not come. We also have a real darktable dev here in Vienna. Well, and of course we were kind of snow white and the six dwarfs or something like that, although there is at least one more lady in this region.</p>
<p>Well... I must say, from a female perspective, there is the typical darktable user/developer: he is between 30 and 40, 2 meters tall, a professional/former football player (= rich and athletic), has a Ph.D. and is extremely nice. Exceptions confirm the rule.
Well, mayble this a little bit exaggerated but suriously: a darktable user is not an average Linux guy, but considerably taller, better looking and nicer.</p>
<p>By the way: RawTherapee users/devs are similar, but they are a bit older and they like to smoke.</p>
<p>Last but not least - another pic from the Semmering hike - my most popular photo on pixelfed so far (more than 150 favs):</p>
<p><img alt="semmering2023_0-3.jpg" src="/images/semmering2023_0-3.jpg"></p>Smartwatches, analog photography etc.2023-01-26T10:00:00+01:002023-01-26T10:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2023-01-26:/posts/2023/01/26/smartwatches-analog-photography-etc/<p>Finally I have got new photos! Yesterday I went for a hike in Semmering after almost 3 months of "break".
It was no sunstar day and the 20-Schilling-Blick was in the fog but instead there was a magical misty white mood.</p>
<p><img alt="semmering2023" src="/images/semmering2023_01.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="semmering2023" src="/images/semmering2023_02.jpg"></p>
<p>This time I barely edited the photos and I …</p><p>Finally I have got new photos! Yesterday I went for a hike in Semmering after almost 3 months of "break".
It was no sunstar day and the 20-Schilling-Blick was in the fog but instead there was a magical misty white mood.</p>
<p><img alt="semmering2023" src="/images/semmering2023_01.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="semmering2023" src="/images/semmering2023_02.jpg"></p>
<p>This time I barely edited the photos and I also used the batch processing features of darktable. I set exposure to +1, sigmoid to 1.5-2.5, activated the lens correction, and added a little bit of sharpening with diffuse/sharpen. To some photos I added a bit of saturation with color balance rgb. And with others I had to pull down a bit the highlights with the tone equalizer.</p>
<p>I wonder why snow makes most people happy. You step from the train and you are in a magical white world...</p>
<p>One or two weeks ago I finally digitized an Ektar film that I shot at the beginning of November in the Kurpark Oberlaa. I am quite pleased with the results.</p>
<p><img alt="semmering2023" src="/images/oberlaa01.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="semmering2023" src="/images/oberlaa02.jpg"></p>
<p>Converting negatives is difficult but fun. There is something unique about film, even though it has lots of drawbacks compared to digital.
I still have quite a few films and honestly I don't really have time to use them. I think they will expire but then I will use them expired.
And shooting film is really a lot of work. But it's worth the effort.</p>
<p>I have a smartwatch since almost a year now. I like it. I recently started to track my sleep with it. I would not say that the sleep tracking feature is completely useless but it is very unprecise. However, during the nights after swimming it usually shows siginficatly fewer awake periods. It recognizes that I am asleep very late after longer awake periods, usually I am asleep apporximately 30 minutes earlier. Interestingly it shows that I have fallen back to sleep quite soon after short periods of awakeness. I also think that it shows fewer deep sleep periods than I really have. And very often it thinks that I am asleep even though I know that I am just resting.</p>
<p>The fitness and sport features are very handy though. The watch shows that your results and your fitness are actually impoving if you do sports regularly. When I re-started swimming in spring after the Covid "break", the first time I swam less than 50 lengths in one hour. If I remember correctly, the second time it was approximately 50 lengths. After that, for some months, it was a bit less than 60 lengths. But since autumn it is 60 or more lenths. So 55 lengths was apparently not my physical limit. And every time it's one or two lengths more. Of course there are days when my body is not as strong as on most other days. This is a very interesting phenomenon and I wonder what the reason is. Sleep seems to have little effect on this. In fact there are days when I get little sleep but the results are very good.</p>
<p>So a smartwatch is actually like a coach. Too bad there are no useful open source smartwatches yet. Probably it would be quite easy to tweak the sleep tracker and calibrate it to a person's unique sleeping pattern.</p>Memories & Sigmoid2022-12-27T10:00:00+01:002022-12-27T10:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-12-27:/posts/2022/12/27/memories-sigmoid/<p>Another month has passed but not much happened in the meantime that is relevant for this blog. I am digesting some private experience, and there is a lot of work to do, so there was no time for hiking since the end of October.
I don't even have hiking plans …</p><p>Another month has passed but not much happened in the meantime that is relevant for this blog. I am digesting some private experience, and there is a lot of work to do, so there was no time for hiking since the end of October.
I don't even have hiking plans at the moment but I hope that I will be able to go to the Alps eventually during this winter, at least once.</p>
<p>Yesterday I finally played around with the new Sigmoid scene-to-display tool in darktable, and I find it quite wonderful. I found some more nice capures in the photo series that I took during my hike on the Rax in August.</p>
<p><img alt="rax" src="/images/rax.jpg"></p>
<p>But as I look back to Tenerife from some temporal distance I must say that it was a great journey. Especially the Teide and the Roques de Garcia are really one of the most extraordinary landscapes in Europe.</p>
<p><img alt="roquesdegarcia" src="/images/roquesdegarcia.jpg"></p>
<p>By the way, I did set up a virtual Fediverse server with Yunohost, but apparently Pixelfed is broken, and importing account data to is greyed out, so moving accounts is not yet possible. But on the other hand it looks like dansup fixed pixelfed.social.</p>Time flies!2022-11-20T17:00:00+01:002022-11-20T17:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-11-20:/posts/2022/11/20/time-flies/<p>So another month has passed again!</p>
<p>On one of the last days of October I made a hike in the Südburgenland, from Bad Tatzmannsdorf to Stadtschlaining. Nice hike, nothing spectacular, but that time of year is spectacular even with boring landscapes.</p>
<p><img alt="suedburgenland1" src="/images/suedburgenland1.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="suedburgenland2" src="/images/suedburgenland2.jpg"></p>
<p>I don't know why, there was nothing special about …</p><p>So another month has passed again!</p>
<p>On one of the last days of October I made a hike in the Südburgenland, from Bad Tatzmannsdorf to Stadtschlaining. Nice hike, nothing spectacular, but that time of year is spectacular even with boring landscapes.</p>
<p><img alt="suedburgenland1" src="/images/suedburgenland1.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="suedburgenland2" src="/images/suedburgenland2.jpg"></p>
<p>I don't know why, there was nothing special about this hike, yet I was able to take so many good photos...</p>
<p>By the way, I have decided to rent a virtual server. The main reason is Fediverse, I want my own Pixelfed and Mastodon instance. I am annoyed because pixelfed.social only shows very few photos from other servers, I don't see the photos of people that I am following. And on mastodon.online I am not seen by many people. I wonder if exporting and re-importing follower lists really works with Pixelfed.</p>
<p>However, I probably won't do that today or tomorrow, I am very busy with articles at the moment... although that might be a topic for an article as well. Besides, I think I need to buy more domain names. But I think I will leave my current email and this website on my old provider's server.</p>Abstract Expressionism2022-10-29T18:00:00+02:002022-10-29T18:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-10-29:/posts/2022/10/29/abstract-expressionism/<p>Yesterday I visited the really impressive exhibition "Ways of Freedom - Jackson Pollock to Maria Lassnigg" at the Albertina Modern. The exhibition is remarkable for several reasons. First, there are also works of female artists between 1947 and 1970. Second, the curators are demonstrating that Abstract Expressionism is not something that …</p><p>Yesterday I visited the really impressive exhibition "Ways of Freedom - Jackson Pollock to Maria Lassnigg" at the Albertina Modern. The exhibition is remarkable for several reasons. First, there are also works of female artists between 1947 and 1970. Second, the curators are demonstrating that Abstract Expressionism is not something that was born or invented in the US. Rather, there were artists in all parts of the "western" or European world who started to produce paintings in this style, around 1950. In this exhibition, the best examples are probably the Austrian artists who painted abstract expressionist paintings at the same time as Jackson Pollock. There are even works of an abstract expressionist female artist from eastern Europe (Hungary). Post war abstract painting in eastern Europe is only being discovered since a few years because the communists rejected this style and claimed that such artists did not exist in "their" world. But they did, from the very beginning. I think I had never seen orignal Pollocks before this exhibition, but there are quite a few of them in this exhibition. There are some really impressive and expensive loans, also from the US.</p>
<p>But I wonder: real freedom, does that exist? Or is it just an illusion? I think it does not exist today, but maybe it was possible right after WW2 in the western world. Maybe at that time, the Americans were really the good guys. This exhibition makes me really think about... well I am not sure what's better, I really don't know which system is "better". The present capitalist systems has doubtlessly lots of flaws. As far as today is concerned, I have no idea who are the good and the bad guys. But I think the communists were not wrong about everything.</p>
<p>One more thought: abstract painting was not really "modern" or "revolutionary" after WW2. To me it seems to be more like something that was interrupted by the two wars. Makes one wonder about stylistic and cultural "evolution" and "surviving" images...</p>
<p>I am not adding any photos of the exhibition respectively the exhibited works because of copyright issues. Instead, I am sharing some more pics from Tenerife. I think the more time passes the more good photos I find.</p>
<p>A photo from the Barranco del Infierno:</p>
<p><img alt="barranco" src="/images/barranco.jpg"></p>
<p>And me on the Pico del Teide:</p>
<p><img alt="me" src="/images/pico.jpg"></p>Tenerife2022-10-15T15:00:00+02:002022-10-15T15:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-10-15:/posts/2022/10/15/tenerife/<p>So I returned from Tenerife two days ago.</p>
<p>I had been on research trips for several weeks alone before, but not really on holidays, and the destinations of those earlier trips were usually cities. Although, this was not really planned as holidays either, but as a photography trip. But I …</p><p>So I returned from Tenerife two days ago.</p>
<p>I had been on research trips for several weeks alone before, but not really on holidays, and the destinations of those earlier trips were usually cities. Although, this was not really planned as holidays either, but as a photography trip. But I think it turned out more like holidays.</p>
<p>But before I start, I want to add one thing to last month's article, where I decribed my mini trip to Lunz am See: I had never really been on holidays in Austria before. But I discovered that Austria is actually an excellent holiday destination. You have great landscapes, clean and comfortable accomodation and excellent food. And last but not least great public transportation. Although, compared to other countries such as Spain, Austria is a bit more expensive, but I think the quality is also a bit better.</p>
<p>Puls, I want to mention two funny but annoying events before resp. at the beginning of my journey:</p>
<p>First: I allowed my mother to track my Android devices through my Google account. Guess what happend: she deleted everything from my phone. I drew the conclusion that this is something like a bug in the find feature of Google/Android: before reset is executed, Google should ask for the password, which I did not tell to my mum. But obviously this is not the case.</p>
<p>Second: in spring a thief stole my wallet and used the contactless payment feature of my bank/credit cards. Of course I reported this to the police and got the money back from the bank. However, the Police caught the thief and on the day when I returned from Lunz, I found a letter in which I was "invited" to the thief's court hearing as a witness. And there was that threatening tone, stating that I have to pay up to EUR 1000 punishment if I don't go to the hearing, unless I have a good reason such as severe illness. Originally, the hearing was scheduled for September 29. At that time, I had already bought the plane ticket and the flight should have been on September 29. Luckily I was able to reschedule the fight for October 1. However, a few days before I few to Tenerife I got an email from one of the lawyers, informing me about the fact that the court hearing was postponed to October 10. So I rang them up and fortunately they told me to send them a copy of the plane ticket go on holidays.</p>
<p>So, what did I do on Tenerife?
Of course, above all, I wanted to take photos. There is a lot of marketing for the Canary Islands, and indeed there are some epic landscapes, however, you need to know this: most of the time, you can't really see those landscapes, because there is too much water in the air. So if you really want to see something, you should probably spend there at least several weeks so hopefully there are some days when the view is better.</p>
<p>I spent almost 2 weeks on Tenerife. This was the schedule:</p>
<p>day 1: swimming in the ocean and botanical garden in Puerto de la Cruz<br>
day 2: Los Gigantes and whalewatching<br>
day 3: Pico del Teide<br>
day 4: Loro Parque<br>
day 5: hike from Playa de Martianez to Café Vista Paraiso<br>
day 6: Icod de los Vinos<br>
day 7: Roques de Garcia hike<br>
day 8: Barranco del Infierno<br>
day 9: trip to La Gomera<br>
day 10: swimming and shopping<br>
day 11: Punta del Hidalgo </p>
<p>So I actually climbed up to the Pico del Teide, but really this was just a waste of time, beacuse of the reasons I already mentioned. This was my highest "hike" so far, and going uphill at such an altitude is indeed exhausting. I had very slight muscle pain on the next day. And on the way to the Pico there were a few minutes when I regretted that I signed up for this climb.
Really, I don't recommend going up to the Pico, and not even to the end of the cable car. There is much more to see in other parts of the island. I guess I only did this beacause I am a bit ambitious.</p>
<p>I think the most impressive thing during this journey was the Loro Parque. I think it's wonderful what they can teach those sea lions, orcas, dolphins and parrots. The sea lions stood on their hands. I was so busy with watching that I did not manage to take any photos.</p>
<p>The Los Gigantes cliffs were also in the fog. But I cloud take photos of some whale families. There were lots of baby whales. I actually did not see them, although the guide said that there were babies. I just saw that there was something, but the camera saw them better.</p>
<p><img alt="baby" src="/images/babywhale.jpg"></p>
<p>On the 5th day I made the hike form the Playa Martianez in Puerto de la Cruz to the Cafe Vista Paraiso. I found the trail in the Rother hiking guide Teneriffa. In the book it's marked as easy, however, the climb from the Playa del Ancon to Vista Paraiso is not for everyone. At the lower end of the climb, the dager sign was put to the side, but at the other and there is a clear sign stating that the trail is dangerous. It's a really nice hike and the view from Vista Paraiso is great but the end is comparable to the Taubenbachklamm.</p>
<p><img alt="baby" src="/images/vistaparaiso.jpg"></p>
<p>Those white areas are banana plantations I think, unfortunately they destroy the beauty of the landscape.</p>
<p>The Roques the Garcia and Barranco del Infierno hikes are both highly recommended, but they are also more difficult than stated in the book. The Roques de Garcia hike is not so short and you have to climb approximately 300 meters up and downhill. For me, they are both intermediate hikes, they are a bit but not extremely exhausting and there are no technical difficulties or really dangerous parts.</p>
<p><img alt="baby" src="/images/teide.jpg"></p>
<p>Two more pics:</p>
<p>La Gomera:</p>
<p><img alt="baby" src="/images/gomera.jpg"></p>
<p>And Punta del Hidalgo:</p>
<p><img alt="baby" src="/images/hidalgo.jpg"></p>
<p>I have no photo of the Barranco del Infierno yet, but there I had a little "adventure": I took the bus 460 to got there. According to Google Maps and also the local bus station signs the bus was supposed to go into Adeje City Center, but instead, it stopped 3 kilometers after Adje. So I had to walk 3 kilometers uphill to the barranco. And I almost had to run since my time slot was for 10 a.m.</p>
<p>To sum up: I think I took fewer good photos than I had planned. Maybe one really needs more time to become part of the nature and the landscapes. Or maybe just more experience with other kinds of landscapes? Nevertheless I had a great time. My next destinations might be somthing like the Azores or Lanzarote.<br>
Yea, one more thing: I put my tripod into the suitcase but I did not use it - I guess I need a tripod "slave" but I would be too lazy to use it anyway.</p>
<p>Finally: I am wondering how much a bus driver on Tenerife earns. I think they are great guys, they are totally aware of their resposibility because it's really difficult to drive on Tenerife. There are lots of curves and a lot of the driving is extremely up- or downhill. On the contrary to Austria, on Tenerife, the drivers need to wear a mask, and they always remind people of wearing a mask if they see someone without it.</p>Lunz am See, Arch and Optimus laptops etc.2022-09-19T15:30:00+02:002022-09-19T15:30:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-09-19:/posts/2022/09/19/lunz-am-see-arch-and-optimus-laptops-etc/<p>At the end of August I spent four days in Lunz am See. Excellent holiday destination. However, the trail to the Obersee was closed which I knew before I arrived there. On the first day, I made a walk around the lake. Basically, it was raining all day with breaks …</p><p>At the end of August I spent four days in Lunz am See. Excellent holiday destination. However, the trail to the Obersee was closed which I knew before I arrived there. On the first day, I made a walk around the lake. Basically, it was raining all day with breaks, nevertheless a lot of people were walking around, even without umbrellas or rain coats. On the second day I made the Lunzer Bahnerlebnis-Wanderweg hike which was not ideal for taking photos. It's long and many parts of the trail are a bit exposed. But of course, if you want to do sport, it's an ideal hike...
So I will have to go there again when the trail to the Obersee is open - I heared they won't open it this year probably because lots of trees fell down during a storm. Next time I will also walk up to the Maißzinken.</p>
<p>I took this photo on the Bahnerlegbnis-Wanderweg though:</p>
<p><img alt="lunz1.jpg" src="/images/lunz1.jpg"></p>
<p>I had my tripod with me, and I even carried it with me once, but I don't know... apparently I am not a tripod photographer. I hope I will use it more often on Tenerife.</p>
<p>About one week later, I made a trip to Hannover and had a chat with some editors. I must say, the Heise empire is really impressive... it's a modern palace, surrounded by a park, and there are even fountains... But I was told that Heise bought the building from an insurance company.
Before I went to Hannover, I had to do something for my mom in Budapest. So on Monday, I went from Vienna to Budapest, on Tuesday back to Vienna, Wednesday Vienna Hannover, and finally Thursday Hannover Vienna. Obviously, I was a bit tired after that.</p>
<p>I am trying to prepare my laptop for Tenerife. I managed to deal with dual graphics on Arch (Garuda Linux and Endeavour OS). I find it works best with the Optimus Manager, however, it's a bit tricky to make it work on Arch and similar systems, especially Garuda since it uses the Zen kernel.
In addition to the Optimus Manager - I used the package optimus-manager-git because it works better with Qtile - you also need to install bbswitch. You need the package bbswitch-dkms since only that one is compatible with "exotic" kernels. After you installed both packages, you must edit optimus-manager.conf and replace switching=none with switching=bbswitch.</p>
<p>Finally, another shot from Lunz:</p>
<p><img alt="lunz2" src="/images/lunz2.jpg"></p>Rax, Google, Raspis usw.2022-08-24T00:00:00+02:002022-08-24T00:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-08-24:/posts/2022/08/24/rax-google-raspis-usw/<p>I went for two nice hikes during the past weeks. A few weeks ago I made the classic hike on the Rax. From the technical point of view, it's easy, however, there were several parts where I had to put my camera into my backpack. But it's really ok. A …</p><p>I went for two nice hikes during the past weeks. A few weeks ago I made the classic hike on the Rax. From the technical point of view, it's easy, however, there were several parts where I had to put my camera into my backpack. But it's really ok. A bit long though. Unfortunately there was no time for the Höllentalblick. Highly recommend hike, very nice views. This is one of the best captures:</p>
<p><img alt="raxalpe.jpg" src="/images/raxalpe.jpg"></p>
<p>For elderly people or people with little kids I would recommend from the cablecar to the Ottohaus and maybe the Höllentalblick, and then back to the cablecar.</p>
<p>After that I went to Hallstatt and walked around in the Echerntal.</p>
<p><img alt="echerntal" src="/images/echerntal.jpg"></p>
<p>This is also an easy hike.</p>
<p>A few days ago I purged Google from my tablet. It's possible without problems. I am now also using Nextcloud. I replaced Chrome with Bromite and Firefox with Fennec. Onlyoffice and OpenDocument Reader are interesting, too. And Simple Gallery Pro.</p>
<p>I also met a gentleman who knows Linus Torvalds, and he warned me of using use Facebook, Whatsapp, and even Signal. But obviously, my plan to photograph the Budapest fireworks did not work. At least I could capture some butterflies at the zoo.</p>
<p><img alt="heliconius.jpg" src="/images/heliconius.jpg"></p>
<p>Last but not least, I am thinking of getting a Raspi. I wonder if it's any good for RawTherapee. I have two unused screens in the cellar but not enough space for another computer.</p>March-Auen, Bärentrail etc.2022-07-23T19:00:00+02:002022-07-23T19:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-07-23:/posts/2022/07/23/march-auen-barentrail-etc/<p>So I think in the last days of June I made a hike to the March-Auen near Marchegg. Well, as far as I remember, the trouble was that Marchegg and the March-Auen is several kilometers from Marchegg Bahnhof. It's completely flat, there are lots of birds, especially storks, but the …</p><p>So I think in the last days of June I made a hike to the March-Auen near Marchegg. Well, as far as I remember, the trouble was that Marchegg and the March-Auen is several kilometers from Marchegg Bahnhof. It's completely flat, there are lots of birds, especially storks, but the landscape is not really interesting. And there are lots of flies and other insects as well. Ok, I remember, this was only an afternoon hike although really it's a day hike... I did not take many photos.</p>
<p><img alt="marchauen" src="/images/marchauen.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="widderchen" src="/images/widderchen.jpg"></p>
<p>I took both of these pics with the M.Zuiko 12mm f/2.0. Quite a nice bokeh.</p>
<p>And I think after that I did not make any hike for almost a month. A few days ago I went to the Waldviertel and walked the 5th part of the Großer Bärentrail from Rappottenstein to Pretrobruck. It's a really nice hike, the landscape in the Kamp valley is very relaxing and perfect for exhausted nerves. I did take photos in the Kamp valley but they are all broken. I only took the analog camera with me and in the beginning a Velvia was in it. I think Velvia is really terrible. I exposed it as an ISO200 film on purpose because I thought that I could brighten it up while digitizing but that turned out to be a mistake. Obviously, ISO200 was not enough in the forest, and I had to underexpose it even more. The result was... well most of the picures were in general way too dark, almost black, although the shadows had a very strong blue cast, well and the brighter parts of the pictures were almost white. Apparently Velvia has a terrible dynamic range. In addition, it is curved and it is very diffucult to flatten the film. Consequently, reflecions cannot be avoided while digitizing. Provia is also very firm and curved, by the way, but the colors are not so sensitive. This is one of the very few photos from Velvia that are not borken:</p>
<p><img alt="velvia" src="/images/velvia.jpg"></p>
<p>When the Velvia was full, I put an Echtachrome into the camera, underexposed and pushed it by 2 stops and those photos turned out to be ok.</p>
<p><img alt="ektachrome" src="/images/ektachrome.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="lohnbachfall" src="/images/lohnbachfall.jpg"></p>
<p>I was too lazy to change the lens so I took the macros with the OM Zuiko 21mm f/3.5.</p>
<p>I also want to mention that I got a Samsung tablet as birthday present. I like it, but apparently there are no usable open source photo tools for Android. It is possible to run Linux software on Android with the help of Andronix, but that's not the ultimate solution. However, Photoshop Express and Lightroom mobile made a very good impression. Unfortunately...</p>
<p>Ok, so here is a list of my favorite open source apps for Android:</p>
<p>Open Camera<br>
Delta Chat<br>
Termux<br>
Collabora Office<br>
Jitsi<br>
Signal<br>
Tusky<br>
Firefox<br>
OSMAnd<br></p>
<p>I tried Krita, but the raw importer does not work and I don't know how to use the clone brush. I am also testing the Simple Mobile Tools.</p>
<p>I reserved a room on Tenerife and of course one of my next shootings will be the fireworks in Budapest.</p>BergeSeenTrail, shutter shock, etc.2022-06-16T14:00:00+02:002022-06-16T14:00:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-06-16:/posts/2022/06/16/bergeseentrail-shutter-shock-etc/<p>So I have been wandering around during the past weeks...</p>
<p>Yesterday I went to Frankenfels and explored the Taubenbachklamm. But it's not worth the risk and the effort. It's a relatively short hike but it's a bit dangerous - although, there is a plate at the beginning and at the end …</p><p>So I have been wandering around during the past weeks...</p>
<p>Yesterday I went to Frankenfels and explored the Taubenbachklamm. But it's not worth the risk and the effort. It's a relatively short hike but it's a bit dangerous - although, there is a plate at the beginning and at the end of the trail stating that the trail is only recommended for experienced hikers. Anyway, it's intermediate to difficult. You need to climb uphill at least 250 meters. And there is really nothing to photograph.
Afterwards I wanted to see the Nixhöhle, but it was closed. It is open from April to October but it has strange opening hours. I think the Nixhöhle only is enough for a day trip. From the train station to the entrance of the cave you need to walk at least 2-3 kilometers, the last part being easy but quite steep, so it is exhausting, especially in the summer. And I think the cave itself is also quite long.</p>
<p>However, on May 26 I walked one part of the end of the classic BergeSeenTrail and that was a really great day. I walked up to the Grünberg from Gmunden Seebahnhof, and from there I hiked to the Laudachsee and back to the Grünberg. And finally I took the cablecar to go down to Gmunden again. The trail up to the Grünberg is long, steep and exhausting but technically not so diffucult. So it's a good exercise. Of course, before I went down with the cablecar, I visited the Baumwipfelpfad Salzkammergut which is also really awesome.</p>
<p>This is the view from the Baumwipfelpfad:</p>
<p><img alt="baumwipfelpfad" src="/images/baumwipfelpfad.jpg"></p>
<p>I also made two hikes in the Nationapark Donauauen, the first one near Orth and der Donau and the second one around Stopfenreuth. They are ok, but they would be nicer if there were more water in the Danube. They are ok afternoon trips.</p>
<p>I took these photos with my new M.Zuiko 12mm f/2.0 near Stopfenreuth:</p>
<p><img alt="stopfenreuth1" src="/images/stopfenreuth1.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="stopfenreuth2" src="/images/stopfenreuth2.jpg"></p>
<p>Since this is a really lightweight lens, the camera does suffer quite a bit from shutter shock. I have this camera since almost two years now and I have been suffering from shutter shock since quite a while now. Unfortunately, I only found out after this shooting that my camera actually has an anti shock setting. My previous camera did not have a hibrid shutter, not even an electronic shutter. However, since yesterday's hike was kind of a flop, I could not really test this setting yet.</p>Welterbesteig Wachau2022-05-01T14:30:00+02:002022-05-01T14:30:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-05-01:/posts/2022/05/01/welterbesteig-wachau/<p>So far I walked I think four parts of the Welterbesteig Wachau: the first, from Dürnstein to Krems, some years ago with a group; the second, from Hofarnsdorf to Rossatz, about a year ago; the third, from Dürnstein to Weißenkirchen, about two weeks ago; and the third, from Melk to …</p><p>So far I walked I think four parts of the Welterbesteig Wachau: the first, from Dürnstein to Krems, some years ago with a group; the second, from Hofarnsdorf to Rossatz, about a year ago; the third, from Dürnstein to Weißenkirchen, about two weeks ago; and the third, from Melk to Agssbach Dorf, yesterday.
In general, the Welterbesteig hikes are not easy. The most difficult one so far was Hofarnsdorf to Rossatz, which goes up to the Seekopf and the Seekopfwarte. The descent from the Seekopf is quite steep, rocky and a bit dangerous. As far as I remember, Krems to Dürnstein is relatively easy, that's the only part which I walked at the end of October - highly recommended! For the most part, yesterday's hike was easy, too, but about 500-1000 meters of the descent, towards the end of the hike, is quite steep, and there is a part of 3-4 meters which is so steep that I had to move on my butt - clearly there should be a handrail or something like that but there isn't and I'm not sure if walking sticks would help. I mean, it would not be the Welterbesteig if everything were 100% easy.
The part from Dürnstein to Weißenkirchen is also quite difficult for various reasons. Technically a bit difficult is the descent to Weißenkirchen, but above all this part is really long - much longer than stated on the website. According to the website, it's 16 km but my phone counted more than 20 km or 36000 steps. But I think there is really no place where you could spend the night between Dürnstein and Schildhütten. Well, I'd definitely recommend to spend a night in Schildhütten, right before Weißenkirchen, because - otherwise it's more than 20 km. But the really great view comes after Schildhütten.
As far as taking photos in concerned: there are some really nice viewpoints, but there should be more. For the most part, you don't see the Danube because trees are blocking the view. But if there were no trees, the views would be great. Maybe a drone could be handy for this particular long distance hike. But there should definitely be more lookouts.</p>
<p>This is a photo that I took from the Seekopfwarte, I think:</p>
<p><img alt="Seekopf" src="/images/seekopf.jpg"></p>
<p>This is Schloss Schönbüehl, I took it yesterday:</p>
<p><img alt="Schoenbuehl" src="/images/schoenbuehl.jpg"></p>
<p>And this is the loop between Dürnstein and Weißenkirchen:</p>
<p><img alt="loop" src="/images/loop.jpg"></p>
<p>I want to mention two more things.</p>
<p>First, I am trying to build up a community on pixelfed.social. I am uploading one photo per day and it looks like it's a real alternative to Instagram. It is possible to get followers, likes and attention in general. And above all, Pixelfed does not manipulate anything, there is no algorithm, so it looks like it's really the good photographers that get more attention and followers. I think in a few months, I will have enough followers on Pixelfed to leave Instagram, but it will not be easy to leave a community that I built up for several years. I am still uploading photos to Instagram but I am becoming more and more "passive" - I only look into my photostream every few days, so I can't like all of my follower's photos. Apparently there are already quite some interesting photographers on Pixelfed, at least many more than two years ago. For people who just started with photography, I would definitely recommend Pixefed as it is easier to get follwers than on Instagram. Instagram is just wasting time.</p>
<p>Second, I switched to Delta Chat as email client for my smartphone. I think I still need to fix one or two things but all in all, it looks like a really nice piece of software for smartphones.</p>
<p>Well, finally, I will not travel to Luxemburg anytime soon - something unpleasent came up. Instead, I am planning to spend some days in Lunz am See at the end of May or later.</p>Slavonic emotionality2022-03-14T10:00:00+01:002022-03-14T10:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-03-14:/posts/2022/03/14/slavonic-emotionality/<p>First, an addendum to Bruegel's <em>The return of the herd</em>: The key to the interpretation of the painting is probably the fact that the herd is coming down from the Alm too late: the trees have no leaves. In reality, the Almabtrieb happens much earlier - in October or even at …</p><p>First, an addendum to Bruegel's <em>The return of the herd</em>: The key to the interpretation of the painting is probably the fact that the herd is coming down from the Alm too late: the trees have no leaves. In reality, the Almabtrieb happens much earlier - in October or even at the end of September. Because the Almabtrieb happens too late in the painting, a winter storm is approaching and threatening the herd. I think the subject of the painting was inspired by the antique story <em>Daedalus and Icarus</em>. The story is translated to the reality of the 16th century.</p>
<p>Second, I finally digitized my first slide film. It's a Provia that I push precessed by one stop. I shot it during a really long hike in the Wienerwald I think in December. First I thought that I did not capture any good pictures during that hike, but after I looked through the photos three or four times, I found at least two nice ones:</p>
<p><img alt="P2271126" src="/images/P2271126.jpg"></p>
<p><img src="/images/P2271100-2.jpg" alt="P2271100-2" height="900"/></p>
<p>I think this is really the film look and a really nice color effect that is probably impossible to reproduce digitally. However, lots of captures are broken because I could not remove the reflections on the film. I think I should try again with a polarizer.
I also quite like the mood of these shots. It's difficult to describe with words.
I edited them with RawTherapee after digitizing. I think I did not do much. I increased saturation a bit and added some local contrast, and probably also used the highlights-shadows-module. It's really nice what one can achieve with the combination of analog and digital techniques.
I think my next films will be a Velvia that I will also push process and an Ektachrome that I will cross process.</p>
<p>I made two hikes during the last weeks: first I went to the Wolfsschlucht in Bad Kreuzen and last week to Ramsau am Dachstein. I hiked a short part of the Donausteig from Grein to Bad Kreuzen. The part is really easy, but you should walk it from Grein to Bad Kreuzen and not the other way round like in the hiking books resp. on the Donausteig website. And it's also enough for a day, it's more than 10 kms, the whole hike form Waldhausen to Grein must be way too long for a day. Nice hike.</p>
<p>I did not take many good photos in Ramsau although it was a nice trip. I think the war is affecting my creativity.</p>
<p><img src="/images/wolfsschlucht01_0000.jpg" alt="wolfsschlucht01_0000" height="900"/></p>
<p><img alt="P3031267" src="/images/P3031267.jpg"></p>
<p>Well, I also want to mention that I bought a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 LTE - I don't even know why. Battery life of the 44mm watch is ok - I need to recharge it every 2 or 3 days. I heared that the battery of the 40mm watch only lasts a day. But, what is a bit disappointing is the fact that the LTE watch cannot really exist without a phone: the remote connection between the watch and the phone is disconnected after some time, usually after 2 hours, sometimes even less. I am not sure what the reason is. Maybe it's a bug in the Samsung Wearable app, or maybe it works with the most expensive Galaxy phone which I don't own.</p>
<p>A few days ago bought a refundable plane ticket to Luxemburg.</p>
<p>I wasn't sure about the title of this article: first I was going to choose "irrationality", but I think that is too negative because really it comes form emotionality. One could also say crazyness.</p>
<p>By the way: EndeavourOS with Qtile is really nice.</p>
<p><img alt="endeavourosqtile" src="/images/endeavourosqtile.png"></p>January update2022-01-29T23:38:00+01:002022-01-29T23:38:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-01-29:/posts/2022/01/29/january-update/<p>On Monday I went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in order to see the Tizian exhibition. There are some notable loans at the exhibition, however, the painting that I was most impressed by was <em>The Return of the Herd</em> by Bruegel.</p>
<p><img alt="Bruegel" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Pieter_Bruegel_%28I%29_-_The_Return_of_the_Herd_%281565%29.jpg/1920px-Pieter_Bruegel_%28I%29_-_The_Return_of_the_Herd_%281565%29.jpg"></p>
<p>There are at least two interesting things about this painting …</p><p>On Monday I went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in order to see the Tizian exhibition. There are some notable loans at the exhibition, however, the painting that I was most impressed by was <em>The Return of the Herd</em> by Bruegel.</p>
<p><img alt="Bruegel" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Pieter_Bruegel_%28I%29_-_The_Return_of_the_Herd_%281565%29.jpg/1920px-Pieter_Bruegel_%28I%29_-_The_Return_of_the_Herd_%281565%29.jpg"></p>
<p>There are at least two interesting things about this painting. First, the artist depicted an event that does not exist in his home country: in the Alps, the cows spend the summer on the mountain, the Alm, and in autumn they return to the valley. Bruegel knew about this because he crossed the Alps on his way to Italy, although it is not known where exactly he crossed the Alps.</p>
<p>The second interesting thing is the landscape: as most Old Master's paintings, this work does not show an existing landscape, it's a fantasy landscape. However, it is clearly visible that Bruegel knew how mountains actually look like. I think only a person who paints or photographs landscapes can truely understand how creative it is to invent landscapes. It is difficult enough to depict an existing landscape. Many landscapes on Old Master's paintings remind of existing landscapes somehow but they hardly ever really show existing landscapes. It's a different kind of realism. <em>The Return of the Herd</em> is a very realistic painting in the sense that Bruegel probably acutally saw a similar scene on his journey through the Alps. But he did not see this exact scene. I think the landscape in this painting reminds me of northern Italy.
E.g. the landscape in the background of the <em>Rolin Madonna</em> by Jan van Eyck - it was probably inspired by the Oberes Mittelrheintal rather than the Wachau because the Oberes Mittelrheinral is closer to the Netherlands.</p>
<p>On Tuesday I made a hike in the Semmering area. I went up to the Hirschenkogel with the cablecar, from there to the Sonnwendstein and then I walked down to Semmering. The hike is recommended as a winter hike on the official Niederösterreich/Wiener Alpen tourism website. It is marked as easy but... well... it's easy in the sense that it's not rock climbing but quite a few parts of the way down are rather exposed, and, of course, it's pretty steep. Although, well it is mentioned in the description of the hike that one should save the number of the Bergrettung in the cellphone. And it is also quite long for a winter hike. The snow froze on the legs of my trousers. I think I need Gamaschen. But I was able to take some nice pictures. </p>
<p><img alt="Sonnwendstein 1" src="/images/semmering06.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="Sonnwendstein 2" src="/images/semmering09.jpg"></p>
<p>Anyway, my recommendation: buy a return ticket for the cablecar, go up to the Sonnwendstein and then back to the cablecar on the same trail. There is not much to photograph on the direct way down from the Sonnwendstein to Semmering.</p>something's wrong2022-01-29T21:00:00+01:002022-01-29T21:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-01-29:/posts/2022/01/29/somethings-wrong/<p>there is something wrong. all browsers but Brave show a deprecated version of blog_index.html, a file that actually does not exist any more on the server</p>November-December update2022-01-02T10:00:00+01:002022-01-02T10:00:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2022-01-02:/posts/2022/01/02/november-december-update/<p>So not much news in November and December. I was working.</p>
<p>In the beginning of December we had some snow. Luckily I was able to do a hike before it melted.</p>
<p><img alt="wienerwald20_0000" src="/images/wienerwald20_0000.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="wienerwald07_0000" src="/images/wienerwald_0000.jpg"></p>
<p>I edited these in vkdt. I took them just outside of Vienna, in the Wienerwald near Breitenfurt.</p>
<p>Well, I …</p><p>So not much news in November and December. I was working.</p>
<p>In the beginning of December we had some snow. Luckily I was able to do a hike before it melted.</p>
<p><img alt="wienerwald20_0000" src="/images/wienerwald20_0000.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="wienerwald07_0000" src="/images/wienerwald_0000.jpg"></p>
<p>I edited these in vkdt. I took them just outside of Vienna, in the Wienerwald near Breitenfurt.</p>
<p>Well, I guess the biggest news is that during the last lockdown I bought a new cameraphone and so far I don't regret it. It's just a Samsung A52, but the camera seems to be really good. I think with this cameraphone, I am more spontaneous as far as taking photos is concerned. E.g., the day before yesterday, I did not plan a shooting in the city, but I had the phone with me and so I was able to take these captures:</p>
<p><img alt="IMG_20211231_184552" src="/images/IMG_20211231_184651-1.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="IMG_20211231_185119-7" src="/images/IMG_20211231_185119-7.jpg"></p>
<p>I am planning to make two journeys this year. Maybe in spring I will go to the Eifel/Mullerthal. And in September, hopefully I will be able to fly to Portugal. I have not seen the sea since 2018. But I have not decided yet.</p>
<p>Oh - I almost forgot: I created a <a href="https://simon-a.org/spectrwm/live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso">Debian spin with the SpectrWM tiling window manager</a> as desktop environment. Actually I created it yesterday and today. It does not include non-free firmware but it should not be a problem to install it offline and add the firmware after the installation. I found out today that I needed to add the package grub-efi for the offline installation to work. It should be functional on amd64 systems that use (U)EFI. Of course, it's based on Debian 11 (Bullseye).</p>
<p>Ah - this is a screenshot of the desktop:</p>
<p><img alt="2022-01-02-185910_1920x1200_scrot" src="/images/2022-01-02-185910_1920x1200_scrot.png"></p>
<p>You can start the installer by hitting Windows key + Shift + Enter and then typing "sudo calamares" in xterm. Before the installation you should partition your SSD, that's why gparted is included. Have a look at man spectrwm and /home/user/.spectrwm.conf for the keybindings.
After the installation, you need to configure the power manager (xfce4-power-manager) and the screensaver (xscreensaver).</p>October update2021-10-31T22:43:00+01:002021-10-31T22:43:00+01:00annatag:simon-a.info,2021-10-31:/posts/2021/10/31/october-update/<p>So I made the first big journey "after" Corona. I went to Frankfurt and from there to Karlsruhe, Berlin, Neckargemünd and Utrecht. I met two developers and one curator. All people that I met were really nice. It was great. I am full of positive energy. But I also caught …</p><p>So I made the first big journey "after" Corona. I went to Frankfurt and from there to Karlsruhe, Berlin, Neckargemünd and Utrecht. I met two developers and one curator. All people that I met were really nice. It was great. I am full of positive energy. But I also caught a cold. Unfortunately there was not much opportunity to hike and take landscape photos.</p>
<p>And so far I did not have much luck with analog photography either. The first film that I left at a local drugstore was destroyed because of technical issues. And my camera broke after the third film (I got my money back though). On the same day, I pulled a tic out of my belly. Meanwhile, my "new" camera is lying downstairs in the postbox, but the code that should open the box is broken.</p>
<p>I think this is one of my best analog captures so far:</p>
<p><img alt="Laxenburg" src="/images/PA061011_02.jpg"></p>
<p>This is digital - took them a few days ago:</p>
<p><img alt="Naturpark Sparbach" src="/images/PA310204-1.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="Sparbach" src="/images/PA310325.jpg"></p>
<p>And this is in the Neckar valley:</p>
<p><img alt="Neckargemünd" src="/images/PA151365.jpg"></p>September update2021-09-30T22:44:00+02:002021-09-30T22:44:00+02:00annatag:simon-a.info,2021-09-30:/posts/2021/09/30/september-update/<p>During the first days of September, I did two hikes: the first one was in the Waldviertel, the part of the Bärentrail between Arbesbach and Rappottenstein. It's a nice long hike, like really long, approximately 20 km. There are few up- and downhill parts. It's nice but not so photogenic …</p><p>During the first days of September, I did two hikes: the first one was in the Waldviertel, the part of the Bärentrail between Arbesbach and Rappottenstein. It's a nice long hike, like really long, approximately 20 km. There are few up- and downhill parts. It's nice but not so photogenic. The Große Kampschlucht is quite short and really difficult to photograph. I did not take many photos.</p>
<p><img alt="Paradies" src="https://simon-a.org/gallery/_data/i/upload/2021/09/28/20210928090923-e30b109a-xx.jpg"></p>
<p><img alt="butterfly" src="https://simon-a.org/gallery/_data/i/upload/2021/09/28/20210928091215-cf9006d5-xx.jpg"></p>
<p>The second hike I made with my mum on her birthday. We went to the Almsee. We walked form the Seehaus to Habernau on the east shore of the lake, but it is best from the other direction.</p>
<p><img alt="Almsee" src="https://simon-a.org/gallery/_data/i/upload/2021/09/28/20210928090835-21d35c24-xx.jpg"></p>
<p>Two new articles appeared:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linux-community.de/ausgaben/linuxuser/2021/10/filmsimulationseffekte-mit-open-source-software/">Filmsimulation</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.linux-community.de/ausgaben/linuxuser/2021/09/debian-11-bullseye-im-test/">Debian 11</a></p>
<p>I also bought a "new" camera: an Olympus OM 2. My first film is ready and I can fetch it from a local drug store. I shot it at the Schlosspark Laxenburg two weeks ago, it's an Ektar. The second film, a Portra 400, I used at the Schmetterlingshaus in the Burggarten. Another one I used at Heiligenkreuz in the Wienerwald. So I am very curious... and a bit nervous...
I did shoot and even develop black and white prints more than 25 years ago. Back then I was still a child and had no idea about films etc.</p>