Cold Sophie and her fellas

Posted on Mai 17th, 2015

Driving 400km to the mountains and all I got is this.
Can you see the mighty peaks of the Wild Emperor Mountains in the background? Neither I could see it, all my five holidays long. It was really a bitter frustration to be the second time in the same area and again all days are covered with thick clouds or more better it rained.
The plan was to climb up to the Feldberg stay there in minimum the half night to shoot the impressive skyline of the ‘Wilder Kaiser Gebirge’ and the time was also right to see the milkyway, but the weather was planning it otherwise.
You know, the hope will die at least and so I will try it again.

Glacier water

Posted on Mai 12th, 2015

Surrounded by stony walls you can find a lake full of cool glacier water.
At an exceptional sunny weekend last year, I decided to go for a hike to the lake of Oeschinen in the Bernese Alps. It was a beautiful day with nearly no clouds and it was much to early to get sunset or nightly shots. This is because my little friend Bubu doesn’t like to stay on a peak in the night and therefore I could only go at day. But for an exploration tour I have to say, this landscape is really impressiv.
Maybe I should go for a nightly tour to get more moody images, this destination is definitely on my todo list.

Moonshine valley

Posted on Mai 10th, 2015

When the moon rises, the milkyway fades out and the landscape begins to shine.
At the beginning of the night I could see a very intense milkyway behind a dark landscape. But with the rising moon the landscape got more light and shadows. This was my last image of the night on this day. On the eastern sky I could already see a silver lining, time to pack together and go the long way back to home.
As we started our way back, was the landscape still very dark, but soon I could turn of my headlamp, short after I pulled off my rain pants and another night in the mountains was over. Before we reached the car, we crossed the first hikers on their way up, well they didn’t know what they had missed.

If the yellow light is gone

Posted on Mai 8th, 2015

First was the outerspace yellow moody light and then this.
After I thougth, so the show is ending I can go home, then the phase two was starting. The yellow bulb was replaced by a purple one. Sometimes you have the camera with you and everything is right and sometimes you can wait and wait and nothing happens.
Today there is also a thunderstorm coming, but the light is only dull and grey, therefore I can write this text without regret to stay inside the house.
Enough words, enjoy the image and the weekend

The picnic is over

Posted on Mai 5th, 2015

If the light is getting yellow and more yellow, then you better pack your goods together and looking for a shelter.
It was one of this evening when the light becomes a strange color. It was so intense I beliefed I was on another planet. Everything had a yellow color tone. First I run outside for one or two cool pictures, but this strange mood stays until the sun was set.
And so I could shoot nearly half an hour and the light becomes better and better. It was really impressive to shoot on a planet with a different sun.
At the end I reached my home still dry and shortly thereafter the heavy rain shower was pattring on the roof.

Star noise

Posted on Mai 3rd, 2015

Is there no moonlight and less light pollution, then you will see, how many stars are in the sky.
Unless the last pair of images I published, on this image you can see a very dark landscape. You may think, this landscape isn’t so dark at all, but watch the sky, compare it with my last images and see how many stars you can find on this image. The landscape is so bright, because I used the best gear I know for nightscape photography.
And now a bit technical information, this is a night HDR panorama image, boah! Yes it was veeery difficult to fix it together, that’s the reason, I published it one day later, it took me too long to fumble it together. First, it’s not possible to use an HDR software for a starry sky, you will get only dirty stripes. And then, 24mm was also not the best choice. Photoshop was not able to construct a pano, but with Kolor Autopano, which is now part of GoPro, was it possible to stitch it together. Also you have to fix all the manually parts, like the light trails of the car on the pass street, before you stitch it, because every stitch run will give you another, not compatible image to the other runs.

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!