Could you tell me how you're installing it? Ergh, This seems to be becoming an issue. I'm re-re-editing my initial post with install instructions. Edit: I think you running as root and then running the ansela.py file directly, with python ansela.py?! ui/resources/Ansel-A-Default.jpg is a default image, (the black-eyed-susan photo), that exists so that if you have no photos you can load something. It by default lives in /opt/ansela/ui/resources/Ansel-A-Default.jpg and far as the system sees it's a relative path of ui/resources. (to find that file, I use the python call os.getcwd()+"/ui/resources/") If you are running as root then your getcwd directory would be /root not /opt/ansel/ as set by the .desktop file. I'm not sure why you're running from the command line, but try cd /opt/ansel and run from there. otherwise just click on it in the menu/shortcut