Newsblog
Altitude encounters part I
Monday, 3 December 2018
Although I couldn't spend as much time with the Alpine Ibexes as I actually wanted this year, I managed to do two trips up to the mountain areas in Carinthia where these fascinating mammals can be found. The first time in early July and the second later at the end of August. Alpine Ibexes have almost been extinct in Europe by the beginning of the 19th century. Only about 100 individuals survived in Italy's Gran Paradiso National Park. In 1924 the rewilding of these mammals in Austria started. Now there are about 4,000 individuals in Austria, most of them in the areas of the High Tauern National Park. In the meantime I already spent about 50 days with the ibexes and I'm always deeply delighted when they finally show up somewhere on the rocks or meadows. Sometimes it takes me days to discover them and sometimes only a few hours before I can start to approach carefully. Since the big older males are actually rather relaxed animals, I mostly capture them in pretty small scale using my wide angle lens which gives me the opportunity to also show the impressive habitat of the animals. So the main challenge is to place myself (in time) for a proper view.
Most of their habitat is made of rough rocks.
That day I experienced some of the best bad weather conditions and I could manage to capture this ibex where I wanted it. Right infront of the glacier lake facing the heavy clouds.
What a pleasant scenery with the animal, a lovely sunrise, parts of the melting glacier and Austria's highest peak, Mount Großglockner.
Here it is! The two-headed ibex ;)
Of course ibexes are not the only animals which can be found up there ... Two Mountain Marmots in their bloomy habitat and in front of one of the coolest icebergs I've seen in a while.
That particular evening I was lucky enough to experience this amazing sundog (this is not a rainbow it's an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright and colorful spot to the left or right of the sun) while I was shooting the ibexes. But of course it was actually quite a challenge to capture them both appealing in the frame ...
Every time I'm up in the habitat of these graceful mammals I pay close attention to all the surrounding ridges, because on the one hand, the animals can be spotted very easliy when they show up at the horizon and on the other hand, it can be a very appealing scenery like in this case as a younger one seemed to look for the top of the world.
After heavy rainfalls during the whole day, all of a sudden short before sunset the clouds scattered and the sun managed to break through.
Dramatic clouds during a pretty wet evening as two ibexes passed by right at the ridge of this alpine meadow.
There will be a second series of 2018 ibex images here in this blog soon showing a few more experiences I had there. So, make sure to check back again.
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Widescapes
Friday, 23 November 2018
Although I only create very few panorama images, I did a handful this year and I would also like to display some of them here. Sometimes the sceneries are just to big for one singel shot ... Since we only did one easy journey in 2018, all the images are either made in Austria or on Corsica, France. Of course all of them actually should be printed in large formats instead of being reduced to this tiny scale here ;)
This image shows a gorgeous sunrise in "my" wetlands in Upper Austria. Although this is the place I probably visited most often during the last couple of years, I only did a few landscape shots during this particular morning. All the other time I'm always looking for wildlife in this area.
I took this one just about a week back rather close to my home. November is the best time to experience fantastic sceneries like this one, when the sun breaks through the fog in the forest.
A world of green and red. We only could catch a glimpse to tise peak for one brief moment before it disappeared in the clouds again.
The rising sun finally hits the glaciers and the massive peak of Austria's highest mountain, Mount Großglockner, as a young Alpine Ibex climbes up into higher terrain for the upcoming day.
Sunset at the Gesäuse National Park in Styria, Austria. Due to the very dry conditions this summer and fall, the water level of the Enns River is pretty low and the colors of the fall foliage actually never popped up like usually.
We deeply enjoyed this hike in heavy rain, observing the fast moving clouds as we wandered through the lush greens of late spring.
An extremely pleasant sunrise high up in the mountains of Corsica with a stunning view to the sea in the far distance.
Another one from the Gesäuse National Park. Wet and rainy weather is always a treat when it comes to creek photography.
Also in rather unappealing forests some lovely little hidden gems like this one can be found.
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Wild water, steep rock part III
Monday, 19 November 2018
Here we go with the third and final set of my 2018 Gesäuse National Park impressions. As I already mentioned, I will lead two workshops there in 2019 and therefore I did some location scouting. Nevertheless there is still so much more for me to discover in the national park and I will definitely try to spend much more time there in the future. So I'm already looking forward to my upcoming stays along the wild water surrounded by steep rock.
In periods of high water the river also carries large pieces of driftwood like this big log which finally got wedged here.
A cloudless sunny autumn day ends peacefully.
The fallen red fall foliage makes a great contrast to the moss covered green rocks along this creek.
The tiny moon as a forerunner of the slowly rising sun above the peaks of the so called Hochtorguppe.
To my pleasure all of a sudden this nutcracker appeared on a treetop druing this rainy morning.
In early summer most of the meadows in the national park are full of beautiful orchids and lots of other wildflowers.
Some autumn mushrooms in their wet habitat along the river.
Long after the sun has already set the rock faces are still illuminated by some soft glow.
First snow on the higher peaks of the area.
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