Escape the fog

Posted on November 30th, 2014

Time to get winter images. While here in the lower parts of Switzerland the gray autumn is covering the landscape with fog, the mountains are now covered with snow and often the sun is shining over the fog cover.
Now I should take more time to escape the foggy area and climb up to a mountain to see the sun again. And it’s cool to take sunset images because the sun is going down early now. But on the other hand, you have to wait very long for the sunrise if you stay on the mountain during a long, cold, winter night. Mostly it is difficult to go down, because the funiculars are not working at all or only until the sun reaches the horizon. And if you think, no problems, there are slopes and you can skiing down – nope! It is forbidden to skiing on the slopes during night time.
And probably that’s better so, because there are snowcats at work and sometime they are using steel cables on steep parts. If you crash into a snowcat or such a cable, well that will hurt.

Pragelpass

Posted on November 21st, 2014

It was in the late 2012 as I started a test series with some lenses and bodies. For that we drove to the Kanton Glarus, into the Kloental.
Until then I used a Canon 60D and for this night I borrowed a Canon 5D and some lenses for a test run. And what should I say, after this weekend I ordered a 5DmkII and a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 lens. It was one of the first shot with this combo and it was really hard to find the focal point.
The night was clear and crisp without clouds and a bright fullmoon, so it  looks a bit like a daily shot. This image was stacked with Fitswork out of 4 shots for less noise.

Fall 2014 – job done

Posted on November 20th, 2014

It was a hard piece of work, but now everything is done and all leaves are dropped. Except some sqatter are still hanging around.
Therefore everything is ready for the winter and the snow can come now. It was not easy to suck all the chlorophyll back to the main storage. And to coordinat all the undocking maneuvers was this year real stressy. After I thought this summer was way too cold and all my fruits were anyway crippled because of the missing light, and I have to prepare for a long winter with too little saved energy.
But then the autumn was way better and I stopped the pre programmed undocking process and worked hard to suck as much sunlight as possible. But at the end, everything was finished early enough for this winter. So folks, I’m going to sleep, see ya next spring!
– Your Tree

Liquid sky

Posted on November 19th, 2014

It was an interesting sunset today. Nearly the whole sky was covered with clouds, but not the ugly November clouds, no the sky was well structured.
The sun was shining through the clouds, at some places more than at others and this gives this stunning structures. I took this image with a 3 images bracket series and made an HDR. But this time I didn’t use my heavy Canon 6D, I used a lightweight Sony RX-100 III.
And I’m really excited about the good quality of this camera. I think the noise is a bit stronger than on the full format sensor from Canon, but this camera is a point’n’shoot size gear. I will do more tests in the next days so I can say where the Sony has to be sort in.

Let’s get pink

Posted on November 16th, 2014

The reward after a steep climb and short night was the view to the red painted mountains by the very first sunrays of the day.
I was reaching the peak after the sun was setting behind the horizon. I took some shots built up my tent and took a short nap. Because of the clouds I couldn’t take starscapes. But later this night the clouds were gone and I could take some amazing shots, but more on this another time. After another short nap and this time I was up early enough, I could see the sunrise.
And it was amazing to see the very first rays with the red light and the long shadows over the valleys. Between some shots, I always saw another interesting light scene, I was packing together. And then, sometime while I was running around, I must lost my tent pegs. I was searching like crazy, but in the high grass I didn’t found it anymore. Darn, after this sunrise such a mistake, I picked up my backpack and was walking frustrated back home. But what a surprise! Then I saw the tent pegs lying in the grass, the day was saved!

The Orion behind the clouds

Posted on November 12th, 2014

It was the day, when I met the midnight paragliders. Yes, you heard right. I was lying in the snow, when the crazy guys were coming up to the peak and begun to unfold their parachutes and started into the nightly sky.
It was the day when I realized, nope, I’m not the biggest madcap in the nightly alps. But anyway, short after I took this image, the sky was completely covered with clouds and no stars were visible. But I could take this dynamic shot of the fast moving clouds with the good visible constellation of Orion.
Therefore I stuffed my gear in the rucksack and walked back to the top station of the funicular. The good thing was, the funicular was working until late night, for night sledding, so I didn’t have to walk down to the car.
But after I left the valley station, I looked up in the sky and what did I see? A clear sky! :-/

First light over the Melchsee

Posted on November 7th, 2014

After a long, cold night there was a silver lining at the horizon. We had nearly no clouds the whole night long, but now at the beginning of the day some clouds were coming up in the sky.
And this was a good thing. Already now you can see a slightly reddish glow at the clouds and this was at the beginning of the blue hour before the sun was rising. If there are no clouds in the sky during the sunrise, the sky is only yellow and the red color is gone when the sun will be visible.
But this time I was to the right time at the right place. Okay, I was the whole night there, but you can still miss the sunrise if you are not watchful.

The moon at sunrise

Posted on November 4th, 2014

After a long and cold night, I unfortunately didn’t wear long underwear, the sun was lighten up the mountains again.
It was at the Melchsee-Frutt on 2000m altitude and after the good shoes I have now allways long pants with me.  The night was very clear with bright moonlight and therefore the temperatures were falling down although it was summer. With the sun came the clouds and I could take some interesting images while the sun was rising.
And so it was possible to combine the mountain glowing and the moon together on the same picture.

Daily fog

Posted on Oktober 29th, 2014

It’s autumn now, and we are in a foggy area here. And why not take some foggy images? I like this image with the fog fumes which are floating between the hills here in the Emmental.
Yes, it was not a sunny day, but in my opinion this is more interesting than a boring blue sky without any clouds. Okay this means you are a photographer. For sun fans isn’t what they want to have. Therefore if you want to take some images and it’s not a sunny day, don’t give up, you can take some interesting images anyway.

A dull autumn day

Posted on Oktober 28th, 2014

Last weekend I was near the bernese alps, where I wanted to take some sunrise or sunset images. Unfortunately the only day with clouds was exactly this day.
So I beg your pardon, I can only show you this boring image of a dull, cloudy day without sun. It was not a warm, sunny autumn day with all the amazing colors you can imagine. No the fog was covering the landscape while the clouds in an upper layer also covered the blue sky and our mother sun.
Therefore the only mood I can show you is this image of a dark, dull and colorless autumn day…