No moon, no snow
Posted on Dezember 30th, 2014
It was a short trip to the Seealpsee in Appenzell. It was for a test shooting with my Sony A7s.
The reason for this place was the darkness. Between the narrow and steep mountains it was no light left from the cities. It was unbelievable dark, I could only see the horizon and the red light on the Säntis. Under this conditions it was not possible to get a useable photo with my Canon 6D, even when I was shooting up to 8 minutes, was the image too dark.
But look at this, one single shot, no stacking, no long exposure only a 10 seconds exposure. Okay it is a bit noise in it, because of the used 12800 ISO, but it is still a pretty nightshot under the hardest conditions I know. I’m really excited about this camera, it will make the night shooting so much easier for me.
Where is the snow?
Posted on Dezember 24th, 2014
This year is it more worse than the last one. No snow in the mountains.
Therefore I was driving up to the mounains and asking mother nature, ey, yo – where is the snow? I was also performing my famous snow dance in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. Now we will see, whether my performance has appeard. If the snow is falling in the next few day, think about me and my dance.
This image was taken with my brandnew Sony A7s with a 24mm f/1.4 Samyang lens. Shot with 6400 ISO, only 13 seconds apperture at f/2. It is really amazing how good this setup works at night.
The Shire
Posted on Dezember 22nd, 2014
One night, I was hiking deep into the wild mountains, I found the place where the Hobbits are living.
Just before I took the image I saw Bilbo walking up to his house, you can see the lights shining through the windows behind the trees. Only a bit earlier and I cached him, but so I could take an awesome image of the setting moon. Two minutes later was the moon hide away. It’s amazing how bright the moon is, if you shoot images with 3200 ISO. If you can shoot with more ISO you will probably see through the stones 
Pragelpass
Posted on November 21st, 2014
It was in the late 2012 as I started a test series with some lenses and bodies. For that we drove to the Kanton Glarus, into the Kloental.
Until then I used a Canon 60D and for this night I borrowed a Canon 5D and some lenses for a test run. And what should I say, after this weekend I ordered a 5DmkII and a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 lens. It was one of the first shot with this combo and it was really hard to find the focal point.
The night was clear and crisp without clouds and a bright fullmoon, so it looks a bit like a daily shot. This image was stacked with Fitswork out of 4 shots for less noise.
The Orion behind the clouds
Posted on November 12th, 2014
It was the day, when I met the midnight paragliders. Yes, you heard right. I was lying in the snow, when the crazy guys were coming up to the peak and begun to unfold their parachutes and started into the nightly sky.
It was the day when I realized, nope, I’m not the biggest madcap in the nightly alps. But anyway, short after I took this image, the sky was completely covered with clouds and no stars were visible. But I could take this dynamic shot of the fast moving clouds with the good visible constellation of Orion.
Therefore I stuffed my gear in the rucksack and walked back to the top station of the funicular. The good thing was, the funicular was working until late night, for night sledding, so I didn’t have to walk down to the car.
But after I left the valley station, I looked up in the sky and what did I see? A clear sky! :-/
A breath of the Milky Way
Posted on Oktober 17th, 2014
As a central European is it not easy, if you want to take some pictures of our galaxy. First it is often cloudy and if there are no clouds, then the moon is shining.
But if at newmoon are no clouds in the sky, then you will recognize how strong the light pollution is. Here in Austria near the village of Warth, from the right is pressing the light of a settlement into the image and the interessting center of the Milky Way, where you can only see between May and the end of July, is at the beginning of August already hidden behind the horizon.
After all you can see the Milky Way very clearly and despite of a pitch dark night, I succeeded to get the surroundings visible on the image.
Bright moon at the Melchsee
Posted on Oktober 10th, 2014
It was summer and the days were warm, but at 2000m at the Melchsee, I was getting real cold.
We reached our photospot about midnight and we were shooting until the sun was visible. Eventually we found some wooden logs for making a small fire. But since then I have always a pair of long drawers with me, thereby I won’t get some frost boils even while the summertime…
Cold and hot in Valais
Posted on Oktober 9th, 2014
There was a small breeze and the temperature was at -15°C. But at the upwards stumping with my snow shoes through the snow, I was sweating anyway.
At the top on the ridge, while waiting for the camera, to take all the shots for one image it goes up to 20 minutes, I was getting a little cold. Nevertheless I would do this always again. The nightly images from the Alps are inspiring me everytime a new.
Stars in the sky
Posted on September 19th, 2014
It was a lot colder than it looks like on the photo, beliefe me. But also when i get cold feet, it was worthwhile.
I could take some amazing nightsky image here in Thyon. But that was it, the rest of our short vacations over the easter weekend in the Valais, was more or less defined by clouds and fog.
Therefore, if there is a bright night upcoming, grab your gear immediately, because you’ll never know, whether the next night would be photogenic too.
Moonlight valley
Posted on September 12th, 2014
Nope, this is not a daylight shot, the sun was already hidden behind the horizon. Only the fullmoon was glowing at the sky and bathing the whole landscape in bright light.
I was lucky, because at this evening was nightly sledging announced, so I could, after the photo session, take a ride with the funicular back down. However I couldn’t stay behind the camera as long as I would, because thick clouds where coming up and covered the whole sky. Therefore I bundled up my gear early and was gone back to the valley again, where I could discover, that the clouds are gone again. 
