Cows on the mountain
Posted on Februar 20th, 2014
Like mostly we were too late and missed the sunset. On this hike I was testing my brandnew outdoor equipment, tent, sleeping bag and backpack. Damn was the mountain steep and the equipment heavy I was short before a heart attack and I could use my tongue as a tie!
On the half way up, we saw the lake and the last sunset glow at the sky, so we stopped for a photo session, probably this saved my life. The cows in the front are a really nice eye candy, but the couldn’t sit still and I get only blurred cows. But all together I like this image, because there is everything on it: animals, a lake, sunset, mountains and the stars.
The Bernese Alps
Posted on Februar 19th, 2014
Near the place where my wife was grown is a nice vista point. If the sky is clear and the moon is not in sight you can see a wonderful panorama. And if you go at night you can see this alp view panorama before an awesome starry sky.
The strong light pollution behind the mountains, you can see, is from Italy over 100km away. That’s the reason you can’t see the milky way in europe so bad. Even the alps are to small to get a pollution free sky. And check the exposure date, you know if the sky is good I’m always shooting ready 
A starry sky in the wood
Posted on Februar 15th, 2014
After starting to hike up the hill, the sky was getting clearer and clearer. So we had no choice to stop in the middle of the wood to take some photos. It was also a good opportunity to try something new. Because of the missing moon, it was very dark in the forrest and you saw only the border of the trees. So I took my super bright flashlight and lighten the trees up. For me it looks better than only a black outline of the trees.
Biting cold in Tschappina
Posted on Februar 14th, 2014
You know, Tschappina, the place who didn’t wants to get on an image. Before my second journey I checked the whole day the weather forecast and the webcams. And it looks good, very good. Not any cloud at the sky and the moon was also not in sight. Okay, I thought, go for it! Packed my gear and drove 2 hours up to the place of my desire. I parked my car watched the sky, perfect. It was damn cold, under -20°C, but hey no risk no fun. Packpack up and walked the steep hill upside. And you don’t believe, I was sweating, it was really steep. Then as I thought I’m high enough, I walked more to the east, to get a spot over the hill down to the valley. But what was that? FOG! The whole valley was full of FOG! NO, not again!
Sigh, the only view,without fog, I had was to a near Mountain. Okay, take some pictures and go home, frustrated…
Tschappina again
Posted on Februar 8th, 2014
Some of you will remember other pictures of Tschappina, which I have postet earlier. Well, as you know it was hard to get some shots with a view to the starry sky. But after only 4 times to drive up there, we had a chance to see some stars. And this is one of the pictures I could shoot at the short breaks the clouds get us. At the 4th journey was it mostly cloudy too, but not complete and we used our chances shamelessly
Boost up the Andromeda nebula
Posted on Februar 4th, 2014
As I promissed you last week; here is my 2nd try at the Andromeda galaxy. If you compare them both, you will see how much better this image is. I used a better camera, 5DmkII and I used a better tripod head for the Astrotrac. This time it was possible to use a longer exposer time, until the stars turned to lines. But I saw other images of the Andromeda, so I know I could do this far better. Be prepared for my next try in a while, because at the moment I can’t make good photos of andromeda, it is too near at the horizon.
A little bit winter
Posted on Februar 1st, 2014
After two hard days of working, I had to go out at night to came down. Not for drinking beer but for making Photos! I drove up to the sternmost part of Appenzell in hope to have at least a bit winter here. And yes, there was a bit, but only a bit. The sky was really clear, no clouds and no moon was disturbing and because of the Fön, so is called the warm wind over the Alps, it was very warm about 2°C. This time you see a nearly perfect nightshot from me. I used my new 14mm Samyang at f4 with only 800ISO on my 6D. And now look at this image how clear and noiseless it is. I like this technique! And think of it, there was no moonlight.
Andromeda
Posted on Januar 27th, 2014
Andromeda our neighbour galaxy. It’s the nearest galaxy to the milkyway and it’s only 2.5 million lightyears away, with a diameter or nearly 1 million lightyears. Andromeda is the largest object at the sky which you can see by your eyes in very dark nights. The surface at the sky is larger than the moon but less more bright.
This was my first try to get an image of Andromeda. And I’m not very happy with it. It should possible to get more contrast in the inner part of the spiral galaxy. I tried it one year later again and I’m much more happier with the other result, which I’ll show you next week. But still, there is more potential to get a better image.
I took 5 images with 300mm at the 60D by f/9 and 3200ISO, don’t ask me why f/9.
The enchanted castle
Posted on Januar 25th, 2014
There were rumors about a castle, deep in the wood, nobody knows exactly about it. Good reason to pack my gear and my boots for a hike thru the spinney. Armed with our tripods, we fighted against thick brushwood until we saw deep in the wood this beautiful castle. It was an especially night were you could see Venus, Jupiter and the Moon near together. It seems they were shining down to this enchanted place to set the castle in the right light.
For this image I needed 12 images with different shutterspeed over 6EV.
Fog over the lake
Posted on Januar 23rd, 2014
For another test journey, two of my friends and I were going to the Kloental. For this event I organized a Canon 5DmkII and rented some Lenses to test what I can expect from more expensive gear than my Canon 60D with the Tokina 11-22mm f/2.8. This shot was taken by the 5DmkII with the Canon 24mm f/1.4 by 800ISO and 4s 8 times. Short before I took this image, the fog was so thick, we couldn’t see the lake and suddenly the fog disappeared and the bright full moon set the valley in this moody atmosphere.
After this test shooting I ordered a Canon 5DmkII and a 16-35mm f/2.8 which I still use.
