Newsblog
Autumn beat part I
Friday, 8 January 2016
Although winter actually hasn't really arrived here in Austria yet, I'm quite sure autumn is already over nevertheless. So, we're caught in a kind of no-man's-season now ;) … like in most years, actually. And due to the fact, that fall is gone, I can show some impression of the colorful and foggy season. Nothing more, nothing less. Enjoy!
Alpine ibexes part II
Monday, 15 June 2015
The High Tauern National Park is Austria‘s biggest, oldest and in my opinion wildest national park. It’s located in Carinthia, Tyrol and Salzburg and it includes the country’s highest mountains with more than 300 summits higher than 3.000m and 342 glaciers. But, of course, most important for my trip, there are about 1.200 alpine ibexes living in the national park.
Last but not least I would like to write some words about the last image of this post which you can see below. (Actually I would like to tell something about the story for every single image I take, but therefor I would need a ghostwriter.) I have to admit, I’m totally stoked about this particular shot. I love how many elements went together just perfectly in this seconds. This morning I was already quite exhausted. I couldn’t manage to get just one proper shot the day before, there were thunderstorms in the night, so I couldn’t find some sleep, and I wasn’t able to find the ibexes in the early morning. As I was already losing hope to find them before the light gets unappealing, I discovered them in an extremely beautiful area where I’ve never seen them before. Due to the thunderstorms they came down the mountain and spent the night in a less exposed place close to a mountain lake. As I finally discovered them and hiked into this terrain, I was able to get some nice images in wonderful morning conditions and this one is by far my favorite. But it was a little though to capture. The dynamic range between the skies and the still rather dark foreground was very wide and since I was shooting hand held wildlife pictures with quickly moving subjects I couldn’t do a HDR or use a GND filter. So, I’m happy I managed to do a proper exposure with no loss of any details in the highlights or shadows. But of course I had do adjust the bright and dark parts in post processing to bring back the colors and details. Beside that I had to close the aperture to get everything from the wildflowers in the foreground to the clouds in the background in focus, which caused a longer exposure. And of course the ibexes didn’t stay in this wonderful posing for a longer time ;) I ended up with only two frames at f22, ISO1250, 1/80sec. @ 24mm.
Although there are hundreds of flowers on these meadows it’s always a challenge to find some particular individuals which can make a pleasing picture. So I kindly ask you to overlook the fact, that you’ll probably find some flowers on two or even three images in the upcoming sets ;)
Along the way - Norway part II
Tuesday, 10 November 2015
During our Norway trip this late summer we had a couple of areas we wanted to visit definitely and where we would spend more time, like Rondane National Park, for example. But on the ways to these popular spots we also had enough time to go and stay wherever we preferred to. And since Norway is a country full of amazing wild and unpeopled landscapes we came across numerous fascinating placed where we spontaneously decided to stay for one or more nights. So, today I would like to show some images I took in the highlands during two of theses stays.
Come to life
Monday, 29 June 2015
Since May is by far the greenest month here in Austria, this May was again a very rainy one and the rain can really make the spring colors pop, it was time for me to do some creek photography. I decided to spend one of those rainy days about five weeks ago at the gorgeous Ysper gorge. Actually I do not know this place very well, I was there only once before for a relaxed walk with my girl a few years back. But I knew that beside all the fresh green lushness of the woods the color of the water there is quite lovely. It probably gets its orange color of its iron content.
Mountain faces
Wednesday, 20 September 2017
After the rather photographic unproductive midsummer, in late summer and (early) autumn the photo opportunities start to improve again. This means, that the unpublished images on my hard drives become more and more but the time to post them here becomes less and less. To keep this blog alive I decided to display some quickly picked beside-pictures I shot while I was actually out for wildlife in the mountains. All of these photographs show some closeup snapshots of mountain ridges in gorgeous conditions. And all of them were taken with my telephoto lens which can also be used very well for landscape photography to exclude a particular mood from the rest of the bigger scenery.
My next series will show the second part of the alpine ibex images, which I also took at the High Tauern National Park, but on the Carinthian side of these moutains. Thanks, see you soon.
Actually I unsuccessfully tried to photograph the famous musk ox of Norway's Dovrefjell National Park for about one week. Everyone told me that I will find them just everywhere and easily. But I will probably have no chance to spot some reindeer, because they're extremely shy, with a flight initiation distance of about 400-600m, and the hunting season has already started that time. And unfortunately Sabine and me we found ourselves between all these guns and the animals for a couple of times. And finally witnessed one of these magnificent animals die in endless agony by the hands of hunters. Some of these so very well experienced and skilled hunters. In an open field it took them only about 20 minutes and three shots to hunt down this wonderful bull. Finally one of them killed it as if he had all the time in the world by placing his gun right on the skull of the completely panic reindeer, unable to flee but in sight distance to his also panic herd. Just one more successful ending of this noble and relaxing passion. How come that so many people enjoy this?
Home of the trolls - Norway part I
Friday, 16 October 2015
Hello again! Yes, I’m still alive and I’m still taking pictures ;) …no entry here for ages, so it seems it’s time for the short, cold and grey winter days. Maybe then I will find some more time to work behind my monitor. I had a great time during the last three month travelling around Norway for one month and our first time, visiting Sweden for a couple of days, going to Spain to have a really pleasant time at the MontPhoto Fest, meeting some great people and great photographers like Jonathan Lhoir, David Maitland, Máté Bence there, taking a couple of different hikes with friends in the mountains of Austria, sleeping under the stars, shooting at the Traun-Danube floodplains, unsuccessfully trying to capture the red deer rut at the Danube Wetlands National Park and much more.
Although we returned from Scandinavia about a month ago I still couldn’t find the time to have a look at most of my images I took there. The pictures you can find in this blog entry show some landscapes of Norway’s Reinheimen National Park and the area along Valldøla river.
Gentle audience part II
Wednesday, 9 August 2017
The second set of my 2017 Lady's Slipper Orchid images from Lower Austria is still missing, so here we go. No big story, just a couple of images of these fascinating flowers which you'll hopefully enjoy as much as I do.
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