First things first

Posted on Juli 22nd, 2015

What happend the last three weeks?
Until two years of bad weather, suddenly the summer was back. After I realised it, I planned my evenings in a new way. When other peoples were drinking an evening beer and watching tv the feeds lying high, was Mr. Fear already on the road to the mounains. Two hours until I reached a high position, then hiking up to two hours, making photos, walking back and took the way back home. Normaly it ended in the early morning hours, when the sun was coming back again.
You may think this is exhausting, yes it was, but it was also like little hollidays. I left my daily neighbourhood behind me and enjoyed the high mountains surrounded me. And while all the other peoples tried to sleep and sweating, I could enjoy the cool and fresh alpine breeze. And even when I was back at home, was the heat no more so bad.
The big thing was, the heat wave was not ending and so I was going again and again, who knows when the next time comes, with such good conditions….

Wrong way

Posted on Juli 20th, 2015

Sometimes the wrong way isn’t the bad way…
After I was walking about 20 minutes or so, along the panoramic route to the Oberaar glacier, I saw a piece of reddish, far away in the sky. It was a nice surprise, because although the weather forecast had said, there shouldn’t be any clouds, the whole sky was covered with them. I took the chance to shoot one shot before the sunlight was gone and the clouds covered the rest of sky.
Then I put my camera back and took my map out of my pants and had a look, how long I still has to walk on the road, until the steep trail is beginning, where I will climb up to the Sidelhorn. OH NO! I already missed it, darn! Now I had to walk back to find the right way and I was already late, as you can see, because the sun was setting right now.
But there is no other way as to walk back…

A last view

Posted on Juli 18th, 2015

With this image we say goodbye to the Val Bondasca.
It was an exhausting weekend, but with many interesting views and photos. I wish there were less clouds especially in the night where I couldn’t see any stars but I liked the journey anyway.
I write this text while I’m very tired. I was coming back in the morning at six o’clock after a long night of making starscapes. In fact this is also the reason for the few posts in the last three weeks. We had such a stable weather situation, I had to go as often as possible for night shootings into the mountains. But the good thing is, now you can expect many new starscape photos in the next few weeks.

Clouds in the sky

Posted on Juni 23rd, 2015

The sun was hiding and the clouds were coming.
It was the perfect moment for a starscape image with the Milkyway, if the clouds would disappear. But unfortunately the sky was more and more covered with clouds.
And so I had only an image of the lake before the night was coming and after 3 hours of driving around, I was back home without any nightly shots. Next time I will capture more stars, I promise you

Rhinefall

Posted on Juni 18th, 2015

The Water ist falling thunderously down over the cliff.
One of the must have points in Switzerland is the Rhinefall near Schaffhausen. Although I’m living only 15 minutes away, I was never visiting it for a photo shooting. But at this evening was the weather not bad and I thought why not visiting water instead of mountains.
And so it comes that I spend an evening at the Rhinefall. All the tourists take pictures with their mobiles and point’n’shoot cameras. And because the water is floating so fast and it splashes and so the image is very wild.
But there is an easy way to calm down the Rhine, take a long time exposure, longer than 1 second. If it’s not possible, because it is to bright, take sunglasses for you camera, an ND filter. E voilà the image is now very smooth.

An ordinary gear test

Posted on Mai 19th, 2015

Bought a new camera and went for a quick test to the nearby pond.
It was one of that day, the new camera was lying on the table and it itched me in my index finger to press the shutter. So I went for a short camera comparison to a near pond and pressed a little bored a few times the shutter.
At home I had the same shot about 100 times on my disk, because I setup all three cams with the same focal length and controlled that I had the same image part on the sensor. Then I took each time a bracked serie with all three cameras. The images where more or less the same, this one is from my Canon 6D.
It makes no sense to show images of all three cameras they look similar, so maybe someone is interested in this test image…

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.

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…