At the glaciers

Posted on Oktober 23rd, 2015

After a few curves, I reached the top of the Sustenpass.
The sun was already gone now and I was preparing me for the night shooting. The angle was not optimal, but to my right side was only a large stone field and I was not in the mood to climb another hour over all the cairns. So I stayed here, where I could see, the glaciers, the lake and the snowy mountains.
And it should not take long and the stars where visible in the sky. I could image how beautiful this must look, with all the sparkling stars in the sky. The only thing I had to do, is a bit waiting until the last light of the sun was disapeard.

Red damp

Posted on Oktober 20th, 2015

Always a bit late can give you an unexpected view.
It was a heavy traffic jam at the beginning of this trip and so I was again a bit late. Too late to be on the top for the sunset, but early enough in the mountains to get this colorful shot.
The plan was to be on the top off the Sustenpass before the sun sets and take some sunset images of the small lake there. Because of the delay, I had the chance to take this image a few minutes before the destination. Better to stop on the way and take a sunset image, than beeing at the desired point without light.
After I took some images here, I drove ahead to the top with the glacier and the lakes.

Tellsplatte

Posted on Oktober 16th, 2015

On the road again, up into the swiss alps.
After a few weeks the weather was still stable and I had to go back to the mountains for another exciting night. At the half way, I stopped at this beautiful point on the Vierwaldstaettersee called Tellsplatte. Who knows which story is behind this point about a character of an old german story teller.
But anyway, the light was very nice, while the sun was setting and the first reddish light was in the air. After a few minutes I was already back in my car and on the road towards deeper into the high swiss alps.

A cloudy sunset

Posted on August 31st, 2015

Thick clouds on the top of the Grimselpass.
As usual the weather forecast predicted a cloudless sky, but the reality differs a little bit. Okay, they said, the clouds should be gone at this time and the Grimsel area is difficult with clouds, because of all the glacier there.
So what, I told me, after a 2.5h drive I am here and therefore I should go up to the mountain. There was a strong wind of about 40km/h and I thought, the wind will blow the clouds away. I have anyway to walk about 800m of altitude and I will reach the peak around midnight, so there is much time for the wind to do his work.

Tremola

Posted on August 28th, 2015

The view over the old Gotthard pass road, called Tremola.
This is a piece of the old road over the Gotthard pass. It leads down to the canton Tessin and this part is called Tremola. There is a wider road behind me, where you normally drive with your vehicle. But this older part is so wonderful curvy. And if you think, wow, that’s cool I will drive this way with my motor cycle, think twice. Because it’s curvy but it’s made of cobblestones and if you drive it, take a piece of rubber hose in you mouth to protect your teeth.
With this image I close the trip on the Gotthard and next week we will see some very nice images from my next trip up to the nearly 3000m high Sidelhorn.

It clears off

Posted on August 17th, 2015

Back to the trip at the Gotthard pass…
The sun is gone, the light is dwindling and the clouds are blowing away. Good, it seems this can be a good night for starscape photos. After the rainshower and all the clouds, was it the right decision to continue walking up into the mountains.
Now it’s time to pack together and walk further, because it will now getting dark very fast. And so was it, after the next two curves I had to turn on my headlamp…

The barrier lake

Posted on August 10th, 2015

After a half hour of walking, I saw the moon coming up from behind the mountains.
I throw my backpack on the floor, built up my tripod and mounted my camera… and the moon was already half hidden behind the clouds. I tried to change the lens for more focal length, but then was the moon fully covered.
As you can see, the clouds are covering still nearly the whole sky but it’s early in the evening and only ten o’clock, so I have enough time to walk ahead and see the stars between the mountains.
And while I was climbing up the hill, the sky becomes brighter and brighter…

The rain magnet

Posted on August 8th, 2015

The only rain cloud over whole Europe, was exactly above me.
Yes that’s true, I found it again. After driving two and a half hour until I reached the top of the Gotthard pass, it beguns to rain. And with a check on the rain radar app, I had the certainty, it was the only one, a small one just a bit larger than the spot which marks my position on the map.
Darn, I thought I could walk to a lake and take photos of a clear night sky and now it rains. But wait! It’s only a small cloud and therefore it is a chance the rain will stop soon, because the cloud is passed by.
I waited a half an hour and yes it stops to rain. The clouds where still there but I thought I have a good chance that the clouds will disappear too. And so I started hiking while the clouds covered the most part of the sky and walked into the darkness full of hope…

Brake

Posted on Juli 27th, 2015

Some people use their brakes too often, good for the photographer…
After I was driving twice over, because the hiking trail was still covered with snowand well hidden, I took another way from a higher point. And as I was walking to my favored shooting point, I saw down to the valley and I could see the whole pass road. Good for me, there was a car already started to drive down to Gletsch.
Hurry up, mounting my tripod and setting my camera for 30 seconds shots, pressed the shutter and waited. It tooked 10 minutes until the car was down in the valley and I had a bunch of photos. Well now I had only to blend all images together to get a nice light stream.

The cooling down

Posted on Juli 25th, 2015

Enjoying the last sunrays of the day, is just the beginning of the adventure….
It was hot and I was glad to enter my climated car to drive for the next two hours up to the mountains. As late as always I missed a good part of the sunset. Sometimes I saw behind a mountain an interesting light or a peak illuminated by the sun. But deep in the valley and between high mountains, it was not the best view for a photo.
And so I was driving, without any stop, all the way up to the Furkapass. I was coming around the last corner, when I could see down to the other side of the mountain pass. Wow, how cool is this? If I was there a few minutes earlier, I wouldn’t stop, because the light wouldn’t be that great.
I stopped the car and jumped out, holy crap! I was standing there with my short pants, it was around 30°C when I was started, and there was a cold wind blowing me nearly away. Before I could shoot an image I had to put on my long pants, and a jacket, what a difference to the rest of Europe, where the people were sweating to death. But hey, this was a very welcome cooling down.