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.

Where we came from

Posted on November 4th, 2015

The lake behind us and where we came from.
As you know, we were walking about an hour until we found the pond behind me. And as you can see, the way was not so far, if we read the map and walked along the hiking path, before we decided to walk in a straight line “directly” to the pond.
But it was anyway a nice evening and night and it gives me a good story to tell.
On this image you can see the top of the Grimselpass with the lake called Deadlake, maybe it’s a deadly one, who knows This is an HDR pano made of 16 images two times four images and with two different exposure times each.

Looking for the lake

Posted on November 2nd, 2015

It once upon a time in the summer…
When I called my friend Koni, whether he want to come to the mountains for a short trip at friday night. I mean other guys are going out for a beer, meeting friends in the bars, but we decided to drive up to the alps for a nice photo night.
We meet us half way at a shopping mall, so we can share one car and while we parked one car, it rains like hell. Okay that starts already well… But we are tough men and so we drove ahead up to the grimsel pass. It was the idea of Koni to go there, because he knows that secret spot with a small alpine like, where the mountains are mirrored in.
Because of the rain and the traffic, we reached our destination, as usual, too late and it was already dark. But we are real men and as mountaineers as we are, we walked from the parking lot straight ahead through the meadow and over some hills to this secret lake. Koni knows where to go, he was already there and has a lot of experience in the mountains. And so I walked after him and we talked about the nice images we will do in a few minutes.
After half an hour or so, he was no more so sure, where this lake was and in his mind, it was much nearer as we walked already. After another ten minutes I took out my smartphone and asked the GPS-map where we are and where the pond is. And what a surprise, the pond was not far away from car but we where not close by. Okay, with the help of the map we walked offroad across the meadow back to the place where it should be.
Now, we were really late and it was close to midnight now, but the good thing was, the sky was as good as clear now. And after few minutes I could recognize a small red dot in front of me and a bit later some white beams of headlamps. Hmm, there were already some photographers at work at his secret place in the middle of nowhere, near the parking lot.

Two galaxies

Posted on September 18th, 2015

Two meteors, the andromeda nebula and the milkyway.
Well, every good story comes to an end and so will end this trip with this amazing image of the galaxies. The milkyway is obvious and if you’ll look closer, then you can, in the middle of the left image part, see a smeary spot, this is andromeda.
After I packed all my gear into my rucksack, I started to walk down to my car. In the middle of the way I was observed by bunch of glowing eyes, which were a herd of sheeps. But it’s always a bit friable, when you see glowing eyes in the middle of nowhere.
At the end I reached my car in one piece and I could visit another interesting spot in another amazing night, between the mighty alps.

Grimselworld

Posted on September 16th, 2015

At midnight on the top of a mountain.
You ever took a funicular up to a mountain, enjoyed the whole panoramic view from the peak and took a refreshing coffee, before you entered the funicular again on the way down?
Well, this will not happen, if you stand at midnight on the peak. Even if there is a funicular, it will not run at this time. And if you want something for your thirst, you need bring up by yourself, all restaurants ar closed now.
But at this particular spot, you have to walk anyway, there is neither a funicular nor a McDonalds on the top. Maybe some ghosts between the cairns, but else you are alone and you can enjoy the silence of the mountains. Except the loud noise of the wind and the rattle of your teeth, because it’s below zero degrees.

Cairns on the top

Posted on September 14th, 2015

They always hang around and do nothing, except cover the light.
It’s the same on every alpine mountain, motionless and useless are the stone men (german for cairns) sitting on the top and annoying me. And nothing can bring them to a move. I shouted, I asked it and I threatened them. But no, they moved not an inch.
Okay maybe it was the wrong view and they have another reason to stay there. It’s maybe an ancient try to increase the total height of a mountain. Ah yes, like all the tall antennas on the skyscrapers in the big cities around the world, to increase their height, a few extra meters.

Lake Grimsel

Posted on September 11th, 2015

Another shot from the top.
After the galactic firework last time, a silent view to the west with the glaciers and the high mounts. This image was taken with 12800 ISO, but I took two shots and stacked it to reduce the noise. And it’s really amazing how less noisy it is.
Okay, there is noise, but the only thing I saw was a bit of the horizon, nothing more, it was so dark.

Lightshow in da house!

Posted on September 9th, 2015

A pure and clear view to our galaxy on 2800m at midnight.
As I promised, let me present to you, the Milkyway. An hour earlier, I thought, that I’m again watching the famous movie “The road was in vain”. The clouds were so thick I saw the clouds flying by in the beam of my head lamp. And after I was on the top, my backpack was wet from the clouds, although it was not raining.
But now, within minutes all clouds were gone and I realized the cold air. I started around 30°C and I thought, damn I’m a pantywaist, if I’m cold in the middle of the summer, what would it be in the winter. I walked back to my rucksack to grab my second pair of gloves, when I saw that my backpack was no more wet, it was now frozen!
Okay, it must be very cold and this is good, because the air is getting very clear to see the Milkyway.