Waiting for sunrise

Posted on April 29th, 2015

To be ensure not to miss the sunrise, you have to get up early.
You also have to calculate the way until you are on your desired spot. But sometimes it happens, that I’m so early, that there is no sunlight and instead there are some strange light points in the sky.
Normaly I’m hanging boring around but this time I was playing a bit around with my camera. I was clicking here and clicking there, fiddled and fumbled on all the useless knobs on my photontrap and at the end I had this useless image on my memory card. Only the strange noise in the sky and hard shadows of a dull moon.
I have to plan my journeys better to be at the right time on the place, so I don’t have to waste so much time with waiting for the sunlight…

Blue hour over the Rigi

Posted on April 27th, 2015

After a hard climb up to the hill, you can enjoy the natures best.
When you are out in the nature and you reach a very impressive viewpoint, don’t go home before the sun sets. Go not even when the sun is gone, because the lightshow has already begun.
You can first enjoy the sun reaching the horizon and the shadows are getting longer and longer. Then the peaks become a reddish glow and if you are lucky there are some clouds and they will also light up with a deep red. Then you can see all the yellow lights from the cities deep below you while the landscape will cover with a deep blue color. Now you know, why the dusk is also called the blue hour.
But wait, don’t go home now. If you wait more longer then you will see not only the lights below you, you will also see more and more lights in the sky, the wonderful starry night has begun.

The sun disappears

Posted on April 23rd, 2015

Only for a short time is the sun visible, before she is hiding behind the mountains.
Now it’s no more far until I reach my destination and the sun is already nearly hidden. Always the same thing, I’m short in time and I need to hurry to see the sun on the top.
So I took not the path, instead I choose the direct way upwards over the ski slope. Well it was certainly faster but also much steeper. My snow shoes had a very good traction but I realized the steepness when I tried to breath and at the end I reached the top without a heart attack.
For the way down I choose the hiking path around the hill, because I learned my lesson, downwards is the traction of the snow shoes much worse and If you loose your traction, you will only stop until you reach the bottom of the hill…

Hiking weather in sight

Posted on April 21st, 2015

Before you get some dreamy alpine images, you have to hike to the photo spot.
It was a nice, warm spring day when I was walking to the Rotenfluh and I could still use the snow shoes. I like to walk with my snow shoes through the white mountain landscape.
Okay, I had the snow shows mount and unmount several times because not every part was still snow covert. But I was really pleased that I had my snow shoes with me. The snow was already wet and grainy and without my feet extensions I was always sliding on the ground. But what could be more nice as an awesome sunset in spring with green grass and snow together? Pure nature!

Night HDR

Posted on April 19th, 2015

A classical 3 images HDR shot with 2EV steps, but I did it during a moonless night.
Normally I can’t take a bracket series at night, because of the durage of the exposure time. But with the Sony A7s and the Samyang 24mm 1.4 I take the image with only 8s exposure time and this gave me possibility to take a 2EV bracket serie because +2EV is about 30s which is the maximum exposure time of all system cameras I know.
For the first time I could take a night image with only one click on the shutter button and the thing was eaten. If the nights will be more dark, when the snow is melting and 3200 ISO with f/2 is no more enough, I can use the huge reserve of this body and go up to 12800 ISO or use one stop more at the aperture. The only thing you can’t change is the maximum of 8s exposure time, if you still want to have stars instead of stripes.
Btw, the light you can see on the floor and at the mountains and at the clouds, came from the cities down at the valley.

Star gazing

Posted on April 16th, 2015

Last night I was for a short evening trip on the peak.
Just decided, because of the clear weather, I was for a few hours on a night tour. This time I visited the Rotenfluh near the Mythen, the mountain behind me. I drove to the Ibergeregg and walked about an hour to this viewing point. Good I had my snow shoes with me, there was still snow covering the ground and the snow was very slippery, but with my snow shoes I walked easily a steep red ski slope upwards. Okay easy with the traction but I had always be careful not to step on my tongue.
Anyway, I spend a few hours on the top with a spectacular starry sky and a good view to the near mountains. But for the moment is this the only image I processed to see what you can expect

After the blue hour

Posted on April 14th, 2015

If you are visiting a city, then do it right!
You have only one night? No problem, first study the internet and ask Google for the best photospots. Then when you arrived the city, check out the best places. And at the end of the day you will get only a small time window to shoot your best pictures. First the sun sets and the sky is getting colorful and after the sun is gone, the show begins during the blue hour, when the light is still there, the sky is blue and the lights of the city gives you the orange color contrast.
And if you think, after this stressy time, you have done your work, then you are wrong. The next blue hour is coming in a few hours before the sunrise. Be prepared and know, where you can find the best spots. And still after the blue hour in the morning has finished, you can shoot such amazing images like this one.
So use the best time to take your images, and skip your lazy mood. You can sleep again, when you are back in the office

Midnight sun

Posted on April 11th, 2015

A clear sky, the bright moon and sparkling snow.
Next winter, if you spend some nights in a snowy area, like a winter resort, you should go for a walk in the night. And do this not only between the bars, go through the forest and enjoy the silent night.
Someone asked me, whether I had photoshoped the sprinkels in the snow, because she couldn’t belief to see it so clear. But I can confirm that you will see the sparkels and it glittering all around you while you are walking.
It’s like in a fairy tale to walk nightly through a winter wonderland, you have just do it.

Early morning

Posted on April 8th, 2015

Empty streets in Lucerne when the night comes to an end.
You know, the best time for shooting city lights are not in the middle of the night. The best time is during the blue hour. Unfortunately during the blue hour are many people around, but you have a second chance. There are another blue hour, before the sunrise.
Okay, dudes, I know it’s hard to get up such early in the morning and during the summer you have to stand up earlier than in the winter months. And you know, I don’t like to stand up early, but look at this image. Not a black or sodium vapor lighted sky, no, a smooth blue sky. And even this small amount of light is enough to brighten up the houses, so you won’t have this yellowish look of the artificial light.
On the opposite part, you have only a half or in maximum one hour to shoot the images. So be prepared and check out the location at the evening before, but the light is amazing and all other tourists are still in their beds

April weather as usual

Posted on April 6th, 2015

Looking for great spots and planing interesting tours while you stay in the mountains.
But *sigh* like the last few times I spent a few days on holidays, the weather luck was not with me. I drove with heavy snowfall up to Sedrun and the snow was falling the whole night. In the morning, the landscape was covered with beautiful fresh snow and the sky was still covered with clouds. Time to go for a walk with Bubu, while I was walking the sun was coming out and burned down on the snow. Hey, I thought, the weather is getting better and my mood was getting better too. But then the clouds are coming back again and before the sunset light was colorizing the sky, the sky was vanished again.
This image from the Oberalppass, I could take short before the clouds covered the sky completely. You can see the trail of the path up to the mountain I would take. But more than this image I couldn’t take.
The only thing I could keep was my sunburn. Because there was no sun, as I started with Bubu and I forgot to use my sun blocker cream. And well, I could tell you, this was a real burner, during the afternoon I become more and more reddish and at the evening I was red like Hellboy from Marvel.
So the only colorful thing I could take home, from this holidays, is my face, therefore: Happy easter :/