Alone in the dark – part 6

Posted on Februar 9th, 2016

The sun comes and the stars are going.
Accomplished, I reached the peak and I’m early enough to see the last stars are going. And I was right, it would be too bright to still see the milkyway. But look at this! How beautiful are all these Bernese mountains in the very early morning glow. Although it will take more than an hour until the sun will reach the horizon and you can already see the reflecting light at the peaks of all the high mountains.
I build this image from four shots to a pano, so you can see the whole lake of Brienz and on the left the city of Brienz and on the right the city of Interlaken. On the horizon you see all the famous mountains like, Eiger, Moench, Jungfrau, Wetterhorn and so on.

Alone in the dark – part 5

Posted on Februar 6th, 2016

I can’t stop doing that…
Even the time is short to reach the peak, I had to stop and take some pictures from the way I came. On the bottom left you can see the lake where I took my first images. And the grass below me, is the gap I took the last images.  The light at the horizon should be the Titlis, another famous mountain.
These views are the reason, why I’m always to late at the top, I can’t resist to take images. Okay, maybe I’m also not walking fast enough

Alone in the dark – part 4

Posted on Februar 3rd, 2016

At the gap, 800m altitude difference are done and another 300m before the peak.
Since the short glance to the milky way, I was walking between rock faces and then suddenly my view opens and I could see the whole, beautiful bernese alps.
Down in the valley the city of Brienz at the shore of the same named lake. The city lights illuminating the rock walls on the other side of the valley and behind, all the mighty 4000m mountains. You see the Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau in the center of the image. At the ridge left of the peak from the Eiger you can see the light of the Eiger hut, where you will stop before you climb the peak, except your name is Ueli Steck and you take the shortcut over the northface in approximately 2 hours. On the right side you can see the lights from the Jungfraujoch, which you can reach by a train, an expensive train.
But now hurry up, the time is running and I should reach the peak before the morning lightshow begins.

Alone in the dark – part 3

Posted on Februar 1st, 2016

A few steps further, another stop was necessary.
Actually I wanted to walk ahead and maybe take some milky way images from the top. But I was already late and probably I will reach the peak too late for nightshots. So I decided to take an image of the milky way, even the bright part is hidden behind the mountains and I was really shure I will not get another chance for an image of the galaxy. Because the way will leads me along the slope which will cover this side of the sky until I will reach the top.
But now I had an image for shure and I walked ahead to the peak as fast as I could, until I had to stop at the next interesting point to shoot another image…

Alone in the dark – part 2

Posted on Januar 30th, 2016

After a short stop near the Eisee, I was going forward.
I had two turbulent weeks and I found now time again to write the next part about my trip to the Rothorn. I hope next days will be more silent and less stressfull, so I can write more blogs again.
But back again to the mountains, this image is very similar to the last one. Except it’s not a panorama, but it is a HDR like image. Especially for moonless nights in dark regions is it a good idea to take some extra bright images for the foreground.

Alone in the dark – part 1

Posted on Januar 18th, 2016

The first climb is already done.
You can see the lights of Soerenberg down in the valley, where I was started two hours ago. It was not so steep but I climbed now already 700m altitude. You can also see an overview of the the UNESCO world heritage of Entlebuch.
I’m on my way up to the Brienzer Rothorn and with some luck I will reach the top before the sunrise. But I have to stop many times to take images. It’s not possible simply to walk without making photos.

The daily thunder

Posted on November 20th, 2015

Every night around eleven o’clock, they are coming over our home village.
It’s the time, when I go for the last walk with Bubu the dog, first I hear it and then short after, they are thundering directly over my head, on their way to a far away destination. And they are so deep, I can see all the details on the planes and they are using the landing light all the time until I can’t see theme anymore in the sky.
So how to get an image of this planes? Planning is everything and I thought, it could be looking good, if the landscape is lighted by the moon and when is more light from the moon as in a fullmoon night? And it should also be a clear night, so I can see the stars and the planes. So the time comes, when everything was right and I left my home and hiked to the nearly hill for a good overview.
Okay, some parts are not as expected. The planes are not flying directly over the village and they are much higher as I thought. Also the moon was coming over the horizon, short before the planes were coming, so two days earlier would be more light. But on the other hand I have more sunset like, long shadows. Because I shoot this image in June, the sun setted not long ago and we can see last glow at the horizon and not only the light pollution.

Steel wool

Posted on November 11th, 2015

Bring some movement into the image.
As I told you, after our trip around the pond until we found it, there were already two photographers at the secret place. Well after we chatted and shooted for a while, they decided it’s time to unpack some fireworks for enhanced nightshots.
And after a few tries, I had also a nice image on my card. Okay in fact, this image is made of 7 shots. Three for the foreground, three for the stars and one for the steel wool acrobat. Because of the different light situations I needed for each part different exposure times. 60 seconds for the foreground, 25 seeconds for the stars, so we don’t have stripes and because the steel wool was so bright, I took it with 3 seconds and 800 ISO instead of 3200 ISO.
At this point a special thank to the other guys, to bring steel wool to the nightly alps.

It’s not the sun

Posted on November 9th, 2015

This is light pollution and not the rising sun.
Often the people congratulates me to shoot such an intense sunrise or sunset. But I can tell you, if the sunlight would still be visible at the horizon, you wouldn’t see the milkyway. To say it clear; if you see an image with the milkyway and a sunset glow at the horizon, it is surly a composition. It is also not possible to get an image of the milkyway, if the moon is shining. Maybe you can see a gleam of our galaxy but surly not more.
What you can see on this image is the light pollution from Italy which comes over the alps. And because of the rest of the clouds on the horizon, it glows so intense. In central europe is nearly no place anymore where you don’t have a strong light pollution. Even here in the middle of the alps over 2200m you still can see the city lights of the towns and villages.
But as you can see, light pollution doesn’t have to be bad in all cases. Because you will get this nice orange glow as a contrast to the green and blue tones of the nature. On the other hand, more milkyway you wont see in Europe, if you want to see more of it, then you have to take a plane.

Milkyway in the mirror

Posted on November 6th, 2015

Yes, you can see the milkyway mirrored in the pond.
After I turned my position to my left, the far mountains are no more visible in the mirror of the lake. But therefore I could see the beauty of the milkyway. And with a closer look, you will see the mirror of the milkyway in the water.
This is realy nice not even I could see the milkyway but I could also see it in the water of the pond.
For this image I need to take eight shots to catch not only the mirror lake, but also the milkyway in the sky. I took four images with 8 seconds and four images with 30 seconds for a brighter foreground.