Camera is dead! Long live new camera!

As you don't know, because I didn't tell you, my trusty camera companion disappeared under suspicious circumstances last June. After a long and valiant struggle through the postal systems of Norway and Sweden, camera was thwarted in its attempt to return to me at the last minute by some unknown worker in the austrian postal system, who removed camera from its packet and replaced it with a bottle of (decidedly less useful) vinyl cleaner. Thanks, postal worker. I wish camera the best of luck in its new life!

Now though I can reveal to you, the people of the world, that we have a NEW camera! As new camera is much more expensive than old camera, it is capable of taking nicer photos, though only if the person using the camera actually has any skills. Also owing to new camera's expensiveness, I feel it should be put to some use. What is the point of storing all these photos if nobody else looks at them? Furthermore, I think posting photos on the internet is a good way to encourage myself to actually use new camera.  Plus, I figure you invisible presences out there might like to see some new images of this very photogenic country in which I find myself (plus guest appearances from other countries!).

SO, I shall be posting links from time to time of things I have photographed, which you may peruse on Picasa. These images have been uploaded at high resolution, so if you want to look closer at one you like, don't forget to click on the magnifying glass at the top to load the high res version! I have already stored up a number of different sets of photos, so there should be material available for a while.

I am trying to take 'better' pictures, so these galleries tend to be slightly less good at documenting the appearance and interesting features of a place I have visited as if you were visiting it yourself. There are less travelogues and more unconnected details. Nonetheless I hope that through them and the captions you will get an impression of the sorts of places I hang around in and what my life is like at the moment.

It is difficult to write easily and often about my time in Vienna now everything is so normal to me. I don't mean I don't spend most of my time marvelling at how good we have it here. My friends will tell you that I still manage to do so almost daily. Nonetheless, there is only so often that one can blog about perfectly ordinary comings and goings in different restaurants and cafes before it becomes rather routine. Hopefully by letting the pictures of the interesting things do the talking, I can more regularly introduce you to my life here without repeating myself, and maybe get better at photography in the process!

The first set of shots are selected from a bunch taken as I wandered around the immediate neighborhood of my house in the 1st and 8th districts of Vienna very soon after I got new camera. They showcase a few of the beautiful things one can see in the central districts of Vienna almost without trying, as long as one rembers to look.

Bis bald ('till soon)

Der Tom