So, it's 2014. 2013 was not the best of years. Ups and downs were quite high. On the positive side, this year I finally did something about a job I really didn't like at all any more. I made a move to a different job that will allow me to work less while still earning the same amount as I was at B+N full time. With that comes a management team that shows respect and caring and which seems genuinely interested in helping me do a good job, something which is very important to me. I do NOT like doing things half-assed (except when it comes to promoting my art; at that I am decidedly sitting on one cheek). I also got to travel to a part of Europe that I've never seen and which I didn't think I might ever see. Mom, Val and I went down the Danube on a rover cruise that will last me the rest of my life.

That being said, the downside of the year was tragic enough to weigh down both those things. The loss of my mom is a wound felt keenly every day. I nearly reach for the phone to call and talk to her quite often, having to tell myself over and over that I can't. She lived her life her way, never gave an inch she didn't want to give. Few people can say that. If she left this world with any regrets, I think they were very few.

But this blog is about art. Something I rarely post or even think about is photography. Yet whenever I go on vacation, I take a lot of pictures. Up til now, I've collected the best and made hardcover books of them, giving the books to my mom for gifts as it's usually her that's taken us abroad. This year I didn't get the chance. As such, the photos have been sitting in a folder, waiting. I'd made a rough pass of them, initially thinking that they weren't as good as the ones I'd taken in Italy. I went through them a little more slowly yesterday and have changed my mind. I don't think my outlook on how I take photos changed, I think I adapted somewhat to the place I was in. Italy had details EVERYwhere, little things I focused on that told the story of the past living in the future. Eastern Europe seems to have been more about the big picture. I still shoot a lot of closeups and zoomed shots from afar but there are also some shots of the farmers; market in Vienna or the view above Salzburg that say just as much but in a different way. Below are some of the few shots I pulled from the pile and sized down to post. I will say this; Hungary in particular has some wonderful statuary. Note, too that these photos have only been resized. One of them has some minor darkening and contrast shifts, but otherwise I haven't retouched them much yet. So be kind. There are also a good few selfies. I think the one in the mirror of me on the boat is perhaps one of the best composed self portraits I've ever made.