Looking for the lake

Posted on November 2nd, 2015

It once upon a time in the summer…
When I called my friend Koni, whether he want to come to the mountains for a short trip at friday night. I mean other guys are going out for a beer, meeting friends in the bars, but we decided to drive up to the alps for a nice photo night.
We meet us half way at a shopping mall, so we can share one car and while we parked one car, it rains like hell. Okay that starts already well… But we are tough men and so we drove ahead up to the grimsel pass. It was the idea of Koni to go there, because he knows that secret spot with a small alpine like, where the mountains are mirrored in.
Because of the rain and the traffic, we reached our destination, as usual, too late and it was already dark. But we are real men and as mountaineers as we are, we walked from the parking lot straight ahead through the meadow and over some hills to this secret lake. Koni knows where to go, he was already there and has a lot of experience in the mountains. And so I walked after him and we talked about the nice images we will do in a few minutes.
After half an hour or so, he was no more so sure, where this lake was and in his mind, it was much nearer as we walked already. After another ten minutes I took out my smartphone and asked the GPS-map where we are and where the pond is. And what a surprise, the pond was not far away from car but we where not close by. Okay, with the help of the map we walked offroad across the meadow back to the place where it should be.
Now, we were really late and it was close to midnight now, but the good thing was, the sky was as good as clear now. And after few minutes I could recognize a small red dot in front of me and a bit later some white beams of headlamps. Hmm, there were already some photographers at work at his secret place in the middle of nowhere, near the parking lot.

Two galaxies

Posted on September 18th, 2015

Two meteors, the andromeda nebula and the milkyway.
Well, every good story comes to an end and so will end this trip with this amazing image of the galaxies. The milkyway is obvious and if you’ll look closer, then you can, in the middle of the left image part, see a smeary spot, this is andromeda.
After I packed all my gear into my rucksack, I started to walk down to my car. In the middle of the way I was observed by bunch of glowing eyes, which were a herd of sheeps. But it’s always a bit friable, when you see glowing eyes in the middle of nowhere.
At the end I reached my car in one piece and I could visit another interesting spot in another amazing night, between the mighty alps.

Grimselworld

Posted on September 16th, 2015

At midnight on the top of a mountain.
You ever took a funicular up to a mountain, enjoyed the whole panoramic view from the peak and took a refreshing coffee, before you entered the funicular again on the way down?
Well, this will not happen, if you stand at midnight on the peak. Even if there is a funicular, it will not run at this time. And if you want something for your thirst, you need bring up by yourself, all restaurants ar closed now.
But at this particular spot, you have to walk anyway, there is neither a funicular nor a McDonalds on the top. Maybe some ghosts between the cairns, but else you are alone and you can enjoy the silence of the mountains. Except the loud noise of the wind and the rattle of your teeth, because it’s below zero degrees.

Cairns on the top

Posted on September 14th, 2015

They always hang around and do nothing, except cover the light.
It’s the same on every alpine mountain, motionless and useless are the stone men (german for cairns) sitting on the top and annoying me. And nothing can bring them to a move. I shouted, I asked it and I threatened them. But no, they moved not an inch.
Okay maybe it was the wrong view and they have another reason to stay there. It’s maybe an ancient try to increase the total height of a mountain. Ah yes, like all the tall antennas on the skyscrapers in the big cities around the world, to increase their height, a few extra meters.

Lake Grimsel

Posted on September 11th, 2015

Another shot from the top.
After the galactic firework last time, a silent view to the west with the glaciers and the high mounts. This image was taken with 12800 ISO, but I took two shots and stacked it to reduce the noise. And it’s really amazing how less noisy it is.
Okay, there is noise, but the only thing I saw was a bit of the horizon, nothing more, it was so dark.

Lightshow in da house!

Posted on September 9th, 2015

A pure and clear view to our galaxy on 2800m at midnight.
As I promised, let me present to you, the Milkyway. An hour earlier, I thought, that I’m again watching the famous movie “The road was in vain”. The clouds were so thick I saw the clouds flying by in the beam of my head lamp. And after I was on the top, my backpack was wet from the clouds, although it was not raining.
But now, within minutes all clouds were gone and I realized the cold air. I started around 30°C and I thought, damn I’m a pantywaist, if I’m cold in the middle of the summer, what would it be in the winter. I walked back to my rucksack to grab my second pair of gloves, when I saw that my backpack was no more wet, it was now frozen!
Okay, it must be very cold and this is good, because the air is getting very clear to see the Milkyway.

What shines through the fog there?

Posted on September 7th, 2015

Within minutes the weather has changed.
Where had I ended? Ah yes, … and I turned me around and it blows me away! While I was taking a few photos to the northern direction, all the clouds are gone and only a thin fog was left. And what can we see there? A brighter band of light, that’s maybe the Milkyway.
Because I was walking the wrong way, it was nearly midnight, when I reached the peak. If I were earlier on the top, then I had seen nothing and because of the cold wind, I certanly left the top frustrated a few minutes later. But so I was at the top, nearly to the best time to see the Milkyway. What a moody image and within seconds all the fog was dissolved and I could take one of the most intense shot of the Milkyway which is possible in the centre of Europe, but stay tuned and see it in my next article.

Blue hour above Grimsel lake

Posted on September 2nd, 2015

Still windy and still clouds in the sky.
A few minutes later I had a good view over the Grimsel barrier lake. And because it was still windy I was full of hope that the clouds will disappear in the time until I will reach the peak.
So I was hiking further along the panoramic road to the left. But wait! Can you see the line over the lake on the right part? It’s the cable of the Sidelhorn funicular which comes up from the Hospiz. You know, the Sidelhorn funicular! Where did I want to go? Yup, up to the Sidlehorn. If I had read my map correctly, I had to know a few minutes earlier, that this way leads me not to the Sidelhorn peak.
But Mr. Fear needs another few minutes until he realized, that this way can’t be the right one and with some nice words on his lips, he marched back to the point, where the steep part begun.
Read the next time about my way up through the clouds to the Sidelhorn peak.

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…

Gantrisch

Posted on Juni 12th, 2015

Watch this panorama in full resolution of over 5000 pixel width.
On the left side you see the town of Thun with the lake of Thun and the light pollution in the clouds. Behind it, if you zoom in, you can see three peaks, the Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau. The large mountains of the midground is the Gantrisch region with the Gantrisch in the center which gives this region the name. The light on the right side came from the Fribourg region and the moon which is coverd by clouds.
Because it’s more easy now, to take starscapes with modern cameras, I need more challenge. And so I took this horizontal HDR panorama of 3×3 images. I made 3 times a bracket serie of 3 images.