Newsblog

Streams of relaxation part II

Thursday, 30 November 2017

Hello everyone, let's continue with the second series of some of my unpublished creek and stream images from the last couple of months. While I was out there enjoying and photographing these little treasures, unfortunately once more I found myself confronted with even more demolition, restrictions and lots of just ugly and unnecessary facilities. Unknown hidden gems are save as long as there is no one who comes up with the idea of making profit and money (with visitors) or people start to realize that the location is an important selfie spot and gets you noticed on instagram. As soon as financial/touristic interests rise, there will be public promotion (the banner at the parking area in front of the Erlauf Canyon in Lower Austria is almost as big as the canyon itself) and if the promotion succeeds the place will be crowded. And when there is a big crowd, there will be more and more destruction and there will be more and more facilities (to reduce destruction (e.g. trash cans, barriers, restrooms, ...) and to make the area accessable to more and more visitors (e.g. trails, road, parking lots, stairways, handrail, bridges, elevators, ...) and also access will become more and more restricted (to avoid to much demage and to save the value of the place). And to maintain and service these facilities the visitors will be charged. So, actually a great deal for the owner(s). And of course the majoritiy of the visitors appreciates these "comforts". Finally these facilities make it more easy to get your selfie ...

Streams of relaxation part I

Saturday, 18 November 2017

In this blog entry I would like to share some pictures of creeks and streams I took during the last year in Upper and Lower Austria and which haven't already been displayed in any former posting. As often also this series will be split in two sets of images and I decided to completely mix them up. Usually the best time for this kind of photography is spring and autumn. In both seasons the colors are very lively and especially on rainy days they really start to pop up. So my preferrd months to photograh creeks are actually May and October.

Final mix part II - Patagonia final part XVI

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

Similar to the first part of my final Patagonia set of images, which you can find below, also this one here will mainly show kind of leftovers and documentary pictures. Although I know that's probably not the best and most spectacular ending ;) Actually I really wanted to make a longer write-up about the whole trip, but somehow I just couldn't manage to find the ressources. So hopefully at least my images could give you a little glimpse of this incredible region.

Today I actually have two main emotions when in I think of our Patagonia trip. First of all I'm super happy we could spend some time in this absolutely fantastic part of the world and I'm still overwhelmed by alle the beauty we witnessed and all the unforgettable experiences we made. And without a doubt this is my primary emotion. All in all it was just awesome. But there's also this little gloomy feeling about that human-wilderness-relation-thing and tourism and I'm not quite sure why this feeling is so remarkable present after this journey and it never stroke me harder than this time. Maybe it's because I'm getting richer in experiences or because I'm just spoiled from all our other trips and I have too high and concrete expectations. But actually I guess it's because I didn't expect those difficulties here in one of the very remote and still really wild parts of the planet with an average populousness of one person per km².

Let me just copy some of my writing I did in my first Patagonia blog post "The beaten towers" which you can find around page 30 (may vary a bit) :
"Of course the trip was an extremely delightful and enriching pleasure. Patagonia doesn’t disappoint when it comes to jaw dropping vistas, endless open spaces and untouched wilderness. (...) But I have to admit that I also left South America with a handful of mixed emotions. Patagonia of course has down sides too. Also in this part of the planet the tourism and the popularity of particular areas cause some deep troubles. On the one hand there are the countless visitors with a total lack of sense for unaffected nature („Oh, there’s a wild fox, so let’s feed it with cookies!“) and on the other hand there are national park departments, who desperately try to protect the unique areas from the masses, and there are also lots of people who just try to make money. Same here, like in all the other parts of the world.
(...)
Now it’s no more possible to spend more than one night in the same place (note: in Torres del Paine National Park) and you have to plan your hiking trip exactly, because you have to make a registration for every night before you start trekking. So we couldn’t start to Torres del Paine as we wanted. (...) This new regulations can bring some troubles, because the Patagonian weather can really be unpredictable and when you’re not allowed to set up your tent for more than one night, you can be forced to hike in dangerous conditions. Also the up to 20 km long day distances with heavy backpacks can be really exhausting and so the one or another resting day could be very useful. But the bigger issue in my opinion is the fact, that hikers are now forced even more in this kind of let’s-rush-from-one-selfie-spot-to-the-next-nature-experience which of course is no nature experience at all and leads to more and more alienating from wilderness.
(...)
One silly human behavior that one can always observe, no matter where you are, is the lack of individual initiative. People don’t go to places (or even spend some time there) which are beautiful or of a personal interest, they go to places where other people go. The cars in Yellowstone don’t stop where there’s a grizzly in the field, they stop where all the other cars do. You want to enjoy Yosemite (probably the same in Torres del Paine in February) alone during the high season? Just go out before 09:00 a.m.! On one side this behavior often drives me crazy and on the other side I’m happy about it, because so some zones can be “sacrificed for the crowds” but all the other, often much more beautiful, areas don’t get any attention and actually stay widely untouched and unexploited."

One of the big questions I ask myself is, why do people often do things voluntarily which make them obviously feel uncomfortable and why do they stay in places they don't belong? (Not only when it comes to wilderness related items. E.g. working in a reception camp for refugees and being a racist.) And why become so many areas adapted to this kind of people? Of course, if you don't like something you won't take that much care of it. It will suffer due to ones ignorance and dislike and it also cannot be enjoyed. So why to go to Patagonia, when one isn't into hiking and wilderness and when one cannot exist without Wi-Fi? Why taking your camera to some of the world's most stunning vistas when you only want to take images of yourself? There's absolutely nothing wrong to walk in flip-flops, to enjoy an aircon every now and then and to use the technological achievements of our modern time, but it's stupid to demand that in the wild natural world. It's the wild natural world because it simply has no cell phone coverage. It's quite problematic that countless places submit themselves to this behavior, because this causes at least two problems. First, the wild place itself suffers under the installation of infrastructure and the mass of people and second, the place cannot be experienced any more by people who go there because it's unaffected. As for myself I don't feel comfortable in areas (I'm reffering to areas of nature) I don't belong. And I think I don't belong to areas which I either just don't like or where I cannot exist (free and rather safe movement, no starving or freezing to death, etc.) for a planned period of time only with the equipment and food I can bring and carry on my own without tons of support of other experienced people (guides, Sherpas, armed bodyguards, etc.) or built infrastructure (stairways, hotels, lodges, restrooms, handrails, shops, etc.). And I never feel sorry about the fact, that I'm just able to explore a few tiny pieces of this planet on my own, I just don't have to go everywhere.

Beside the fact, that countless wild regions become unwild because of all the established facilities, I'm especially desperated about the fact, that I find myself way too often in situations where I just cannot avoid these facilities, because it's simply mandatory to use them. So one cannot explore the way to a glacier by foot on a small path. You have to go there on the highway by car or you just have to let it alone. Beat the path. And furthermore lots of the facilities just have to be used because of their existence. You need to go to the lavatory in the Alps at an altitude of 2,500 m? No problem, just use the elevator, pay for the use of it and for the use of the toilette and just pee. Ahem, I'm in uninhabited terrain far away from civilisation, I could just pee in the bushes like all the other animals do?! No, you cannot, because there's a public toilette nearby! ... but how much needed facilities, tools and infrastructure is too much? I also use clothes, shoes, a tent, etc. (but actually I carry them by my own) and I drive a car, use the public roads and buy my foods in stores. But for me I actually never have to think of that, I just have some kind of gut instinct which let's me know what feels right and what feels wrong. But of course I'm aware, that this gut feelings could also be completely wrong (I'm afraid of that!). And I think no one can judge which person should be allowed to enter which terrain. Even more in my opinion everyone should be allowed to go everywhere (although I know that this won't work in practice nowadays), because this would be the only way to gain awarness and respect for our natural world, its needs and its vulnerability. Everyone just should know where she/he belongs on her/his own. That would already be a huge advance, I guess.

Don't get me wrong, of course I'm aware, that I'm also a tourist and just a guest and it's actually not that bad down there in Patagonia at all, I've been in many places where the situation is way more worse and we experienced unpleasant situations for just a few times (actually I mainly talk about the core zone of Torres del Paine National Park (which is still a wild and absolutely fantastic place, without a doubt) in Chile and the Porito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina) but in Patagonia they caught me very unprepared. Especially because Patagonia is wild and unaffected indeed. And that's why we travelled there. Actually I've never been in an area where you can travel for 1,000 km and all you can see is untouched land. And that's just great. But you will also be accompanied by a sheer endless fence along the road all the time (national parks are the only exception). I guess we expected freedom there and we found it very often (e.g. we just loved and deeply enjoyed the areas around the townlet of El Chaltén, which is also pretty popular), but not all the time. Probably this expectation was just gullible.

Cerro Torre and around part II - Patagonia part XIII

Monday, 8 May 2017

Today I would like to continue with the second set of images taken in Los Glaciares National Park mainly around Camp de Agostini. We probably enjoyed the time we spent in the areas around the village of El Chaltén the most during our entire Patagonia trip. El Chaltén is a really great opportunity to start your explorations in one of the most spectacular regions of Argentina. Once you've reached the village by public bus, you will find all you need. You can just relax in one of the lovely cafés, you can recharge your batteries and those of your camera, you can buy food for your hikes, you can have a shower in one of the campsites and most important you can start numerous hikes straight from the village to stay in the mountains as long as you want, because you don't need any permits and you don't have to make any prior registrations.

Recap 2016 & showcase update

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

Actually I intended to process all my images from the last year before I refresh my showcase. But I guess this will still take me longer ;) So I decided to update my portfolio with some of my favorite photographs which I could finish already. And of course I would like to invite you all to check out the new setting of my showcase. It still contents plenty of older shots but also a lot of new work. Hope you like it! And by the way (because I was confronted with this issue pretty often lately), all my images are actually made by the beauty of nature and I just try to capture the one or another of these wonderful moments. They are not made by Photoshop! ;)

Furthermore I would also like to show my long overdue recap of 2016. Again it was an amazing year with countless new experiences, great adventures and unforgettable memories. Our Patagonia trip was the highlight of course, but there were several other great moments out there and I’m also still happy about a handful awards in international competitions in 2016. Especially about my two images in the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year selection.

So, I’ve chosen nine of my favorite already-processed-photographs from 2016. And like I already did in the recaps of the past two years, I will give you a little insight into the tech which was used to create the pictures.

Alpine ibexes part III

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

I guess the distance “my” herd did every day was about 10 to 15 km. Some days they started in lower areas and went up into higher regions in the course of the day and on others they spent the night higher up and wandered down until dusk. As far as I know and I could observe the main influence on their wandering behavior is the weather. During sunny conditions they prefer higher grounds whereas they stay lower when the weather is bad. And, of course, they like to stay on meadows where the snow was already gone.

The northern south - Patagonia part IX

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

Of course one could also spend ages to explore the northern parts of Patagonia with its countless gorgeous lakes and stunning volcanos. But, as already written in a former posting, as mostly, we decide not to rush around but to stay in Lanín National Park for some more time instead. Maybe some of you can remember the images I already showed here from Lanín. There was only one more national park we visited after we came back from the east coast and Valdés. The Los Alerces National Park, in which we spent about three relaxed nights at the shores of one of its beautiful lakes. The park was established in 1937 to protect the last Patagonian Cypresses, also called Fitzroya or Alerce, which is the Spanish name for larch. This set of images mostly displays photographs I took in Los Alerces as well as some pictures taken along the way in the northern areas.

Habitats 2017 calendar

Friday, 7 October 2016

It's done. My upcoming DIN A3 (29.7 x 42cm) calendar "Habitats 2017" is finished and just arrived from the printing company. It's filled with 13 high quality photographs, I took during the last couple of years. This year the calendar comes with some improvements. I've choosen a vertical format for less buckling on the wall, the paper is much stronger, the surface is glossy for brilliant colors & contrast and the new layout offers some space for small notices.

Es ist vollbracht. Mein neuer Kalender "Habitats 2017" ist fertig und eben ganz druckfrisch bei mir eingetroffen. Das Ding kommt im Format DIN A3 und ist gefüllt mit hochwertigen Fotografien aus den letzten Jahren. Gegenüber dem letztjährigen Kalender habe ich einige Verbesserungen vorgenommen. Um ein unnötiges Wölben an der Wand auszuschließen habe ich mich für Hochformat entschieden. Weiters wurde diesmal auf wesentlich stärkerem und glänzendem Papier gedruckt um eine ausgezeichnete Farbbrillanz und hervorragende Kontraste zu gewährleisten. Außerdem gibt's ein überarbeitetes Layout, in dem nun auch Platz für kleine Notizen ist.

This magic world

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Today I would like to share some images I took during a really fascinating and magical winter experience. That particular day Sabine and me, we were out with some good friends of us taking a moderate winter hike at the borders of Austria and the Czech Republic. I didn't want to carry all my photography gear but I also didn't dare to go there without any equipment. So I decided just to take my camera and two lenses along. During our first rest in the woods above the fog we noticed some lovely glittering crystals falling from the sky. First we though they're just falling from the trees. But a little later they became more and more and the scenery started to become really fairytale-like. When we were looking towards the winter sun we could see thousands of tiny crystals in the air.

Desperate love part I

Friday, 3 November 2017

Red Deer bulls are the biggest land mammals which can be found in Central Europe. And especially the wetland bulls can be quite big. Togehter with their beauty and their impressive antlers every sighting of such an animal is always a great and exciting experience. And the rut, which takes place every year in very early autumn, is the best and most spectacular possibility to encounter some of these love-crazed guys. So in terms of mammals this is one of the most impressive events of the year. But also during the rut the deer is extremely shy and attentive and access to most of the areas where they can be found is strictly prohibited due to the peak of the hunting season.

• Showcase
• About
• Shop
• Workshops
• Projects
• Newsblog
• Galleries
• Contact