Early morning

Posted on April 8th, 2015

Empty streets in Lucerne when the night comes to an end.
You know, the best time for shooting city lights are not in the middle of the night. The best time is during the blue hour. Unfortunately during the blue hour are many people around, but you have a second chance. There are another blue hour, before the sunrise.
Okay, dudes, I know it’s hard to get up such early in the morning and during the summer you have to stand up earlier than in the winter months. And you know, I don’t like to stand up early, but look at this image. Not a black or sodium vapor lighted sky, no, a smooth blue sky. And even this small amount of light is enough to brighten up the houses, so you won’t have this yellowish look of the artificial light.
On the opposite part, you have only a half or in maximum one hour to shoot the images. So be prepared and check out the location at the evening before, but the light is amazing and all other tourists are still in their beds

April weather as usual

Posted on April 6th, 2015

Looking for great spots and planing interesting tours while you stay in the mountains.
But *sigh* like the last few times I spent a few days on holidays, the weather luck was not with me. I drove with heavy snowfall up to Sedrun and the snow was falling the whole night. In the morning, the landscape was covered with beautiful fresh snow and the sky was still covered with clouds. Time to go for a walk with Bubu, while I was walking the sun was coming out and burned down on the snow. Hey, I thought, the weather is getting better and my mood was getting better too. But then the clouds are coming back again and before the sunset light was colorizing the sky, the sky was vanished again.
This image from the Oberalppass, I could take short before the clouds covered the sky completely. You can see the trail of the path up to the mountain I would take. But more than this image I couldn’t take.
The only thing I could keep was my sunburn. Because there was no sun, as I started with Bubu and I forgot to use my sun blocker cream. And well, I could tell you, this was a real burner, during the afternoon I become more and more reddish and at the evening I was red like Hellboy from Marvel.
So the only colorful thing I could take home, from this holidays, is my face, therefore: Happy easter :/

Vesuv without lava

Posted on März 31st, 2015

The bernese alps seen from the Vesuv.
Well, don’t ask me why they called this small hill Vesuv. But you can check this point on the official swiss map: http://s.geo.admin.ch/639c156b2d . And indeed they called it Vesuv.
Anyway on this day I set my alarm clock to 4:30 in the morning to see the sunrise at this spot. It was the only short break on a cloudy weekend. And I used it to enjoy the sunrise on the mountains. This spot is maybe more spectacular for a sunset and if it is, then I will show you an image in the near future.

Rigi sightseeing

Posted on März 29th, 2015

If you stay in Lucerne then you should visit one of two mountains.
And no ‘Fear’ you can use a train to both of them, you don’t need, but you can. One ist the home mountain of Lucerne, the Pilatus and the second is the Rigi.
I visited the Rigi which the marketing people are calling ‘the queen of the mountains’. Anyway the weather was not the best, so unfortunately I have to go again . The Rigi is more a region, the whole foreground is called Rigi, meanwhile I was on the highest point the ‘Rigi Kulm’.
Also very popular is a stay overnight on the Rigi, there are several Hotels, for watching the sunset and the sunrise. So I put it on my bucket list.

Grosse Scheidegg

Posted on März 26th, 2015

You are walking and walking, it goes upwards from curve to curve and when you think it will never end, then you reach the top and you will rewarded with this amazing view.
I was already late, because of the weather, the sky was completely covered with clouds until 4 o’clock and then, while I was driving to my starting point, my car stuck in the snow mud, the snow chains where a hell for mounting, then they cracked after I started and and the end I couldn’t unmount it for a whole while.
But after all I reached the Scharzwaldalp, the last point you can drive to with your car and started my nightly hike to get dreamy winter wonderland images. First it comes the work and I had to walk over 500m altitude difference up to the Scheidegg. I reached the top after about 2.5h. First I saw some huts and then I could peek over the ridge down to the Grindelwald valley.
And what a stunning view does it present to me, all the sparkling snow, bright and white illuminated by the moon. Down in the valley the lights of the village and at the slopes the lights of all the snowcats and overall the blue sky with all the sparkling stars.

Blue hour between the mountains

Posted on März 24th, 2015

Yes, the color blue is the main color in the winter time.
So the illuminated hut is the real eye candy on this image. Even in such a beautiful winter wonderland can a bit of tungsten light a most welcome piece of variety be.
While the people inside this hut enjoyed their fondues and warmed up their feet, I just started to my nightly adventure up to the ‘Grosse Scheidegg’ where I enjoyed a wonderful view over the whole valley of Grindelwald. But let us first savor this image of a real blue hour…

Wintertale

Posted on März 12th, 2015

The bright moon was shining on this valley of silence in the middle of the alps.
It was only half moon but the night was so bright between the snow captured mountains, you could walk without any additional light source. It was really enjoyable to use the new camera. A whole new feeling, I could walk, stop and shoot. No stacking nor any astro tracking was needed. One single shot with 10 secounds apperture and this with astonishing 200 ISO.
The reason was the bright scenery and the fast lens which I used at f/2 and therefore I could easily take this panaorama with four quick shots. Zoom into this image and enjoy the noiseless landscape.

Yeah! Spring is coming!

Posted on März 5th, 2015

Actually I wanted to edit another image, but then I saw the sky and I had to go for a quick photowalk.
So this image is really fresh, it’s still wet. The sky was one time more really impressing and I found some early crocus on a nearly meadow. And what should I say, it was still cold, but this signs can only mean one thing: SPRING IS COMING!!!

Alpine glow

Posted on März 3rd, 2015

The sun sets, the moon rises and the mountains glows, in the winter wonderland.
After a three hour hike with Bubu the dog, we reached our starting point right on the time to see the alpine glow. It was an amazing walk through the deep snow, lonely with my dog.
Here in this valley is no winter sport available. You can only hike with snow shoes or touring skies, but there are no ski lifts. And therefore you can enjoy a very silent nature were you hear only your footsteps in the snow and some barks from the impatient dog, who has to wait for his slow human. And you know what’s the best? Bubu was not running away from the trail, because the snow was too deep for him

On the road

Posted on März 1st, 2015

After a stressful week I missed the deadline for my blog for several days. At the beginning of the week I had a bunch of work to do and I thought I could write a new article on wednesday. But on that day, I was working too long and at the end there was no time to write one.
Then we left our home for a longer weekend and drove to Meiringen, deep in the bernese alps. And what should I say, as we arrived our destination the sun was shining on a wonderful blue sky. So I grabbed my dog Bubu and went for a walk to the Rosenlaui. Wow, that was really awesome! The whole valley was covered with deep powder snow and there is not one ski lift or any other funicular. I could walk on my snow shoes nearly three hours to this absolutely beautiful winter wonderland.
And so I missed the next deadline… But friday, on friday the weather forecast predicted bad weather and so it was. The whole day wet snow or rain. But, my car was broken, the back door was no more closing, darn. We had to drive one hour to a service point to fix it and it cost me 600 bucks, darn again. After a very fine dinner, I was getting sick with my stomach, at my birthday! And so I spent the rest of the afternoon in the bed and missed the deadline again.
Okay saturday, the car is working, the weather is bad, but it should get better at the afternoon. I was lying in the bed and checked the foggy clouds through the windows. Nothing happend, the clouds were thick and the weather forecast guys told not the truth, for one more time. But! At half past four I saw the first blue spot in the sky, okay I was up faster as if a bee stinged me, packed my rucksack and drove again up to this wonderful valley and this time I left my dog at home, so I can shoot at night. You know, he doesn’t like to wait especially at night…
Half way up, my car stuck in wet snow, darn one more time. After much curses I had a snow chain mounted and came free, but darn the snow chain ripped. With much more curses I tried to mount the other one and missed. I tried to dismount the first one and missed too. I used a car-jack and it slipped away and stuck between the car and the floor AARRGHH  #@#&! After about an hour I could drive again. And I saw the burning sky through the forest *sigh!*.
But at the end I could shoot a few images of the alpine glow and I reached the Schwarzwaldalp as the dead end of the road. From here on, I had to walk 500m altitude difference until I reached the Grosse Scheidegg.
What a wonderful view! The moon was so bright and the snow reflected the light. Deep below me I saw Grindelwald and at the horizon I could see the Kleine Scheidegg and the starting point of the famous ski race of Lauberhorn. On the left hand I had the near wall of the Wetterhorn and the Eiger north face. Wow, how impressive to see this at night with a stunning sky above me. As you can assume I missed the deadline again and I don’t regret it, for this time

PS: If you want to see more impressions of this journey, then you have to wait until I processed it…