Follow the Light

What a glorious day out this was! Hiking with my snowshoes into this beautiful valley and enjoying the bright sun, fresh cold air and the quiet alpine scenery.

It's the Langental valley in the Sellrain mountain range, Tyrol, Austria. A small side valley seldom visited, in winter only back country skiers will walk here. That's because it is not accessible easily when all is covered with thick layers of snow. I guess I was one of the few people walking there in winter time.

After a two-hour walk upwards I stopped and walked back, but I could easily have walked for many hours more. The weather was gorgeous, although a chilly wind blew. Sometimes I had to stop and turn away from the gust blowing snow crystals in my face.

On my way back I walked past this wooden cross and then turned around to see my back view. I always do this to see if there's a good view backwards. Many people just walk ahead and never turn back - a mistake in my opinion. I then took this photo and I deliberately positioned the sun right into the picture. Often this doesn't work and just results in a great white spot or lots of lens flare, but this time it was perfect. The suns circle makes such a great motif.

I thoroughly enjoyed this day and I will recommend snowshoeing to everybody who loves nature. Unfortunately it's planned to build a reservoir and dam in that valley starting from 2011. It's sad, because another beautiful place is sacrificed for human needs.

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Winter Glory

This is the alpine peak Spitzmauer with a height of 2445m. It is in the Stodertal valley in Austria, a well known area for hiking in summer and skiing in winter. We are often there, especially in winter when Sylvia wants to ski. Because I don't ski I always walk around and take some pictures. As you can guess I already have dozens of images of the motifs there, but there's always something new to discover. For instance I like the Spitzmauer because it is such a distinctive mountain, you can recognize it from any angle.

When I took this particular image it was a cold winter day this January. After some days of bad weather the sun finally came through and the light was gorgeous. I also was lucky because most of the time clouds are around the summit. The look of the snow and rocks is great and the contrast to the blue sky works very well. It's one of the best photos I took of this mountain.

If you're ever in Austria you should visit this valley, you can do any sorts of summer or winter sports and the scenery is great.

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The Jetty

Another image from Lake Weissensee, there are so many beautiful motifs at this scenic place. This jetty and its reflection make a great photo in combination with the sunset. The colors of the sun rays match the water's blue and the mirrored poles looks good. I also like the silhouettes of the mountains in the background a lot.

It's been a quiet and serene evening. After dinner we walked around a bit and enjoyed the scenery. As we returned to our hotel we saw this scene. The sun was about to set behind the mountains and clouds and the last rays of light made a wonderful impression. Luckily the water was calm enough so we also got a good reflection of the jetty.

I can't wait to be there again this summer :-) Hopefully we have good weather so I can look for another series of great images.

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Cool

One of the photos that got much better then expected. We've been at Hinterstoder for skiing (actually my wife skies, I don't) and got there at 8am. While Sylvia took the chair lift up to the slopes I walked to the Schiederweiher, a little pond usually covered with ice in winter. This time it was warm enough so I could see the dark green water.

Just as I came there the morning sun started to shine through the trees and suddenly a haze emerged from the water surface. I tried to get out my tripod of the rucksack as fast as I can! I knew there would be little time to capture this scenery. If the sun will rise more it will get warmer and the fog will disappear.

While preparing the tripod I also walked around to find the right place for taking the photo. As you can see I decided to put the ice covered trees into the background. And it works very nice. The haze floated in my direction and the sun was right into the lens. I feared there will be lens flare but all was ok.

The result is good and I like that photo a lot. Such kind of scenery is rare and I was lucky to be at the right place the right time.

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Majestic

This is one of the magic places you can visit in Patagonia, Cerro Torre. It's located near the small village of El Chalten in southern Argentina. The little lake is Laguna Torre and there are little icebergs floating around.

After a 4-hour hike we stumbled up a small hill of rocks and finally stood in front of that majestic mountains and the lake. It was a glorious day with lots of sun, only behind the summits clouds approached fast. We've been lucky to see the peaks for a couple of minutes.

The three peaks are amazing, like sharp needles they reach out of the surrounding landscape. Unfortunately we could only stay for about 30 minutes to have a quick lunch. In this time I managed to set up my tripod (I carried it all the journey!) and take some shots. Of course I had a rather quick snack compared to the others ;-)

Back at home I met a friend of my brother who is a mountaineer. He told me that he had climbed Cerro Torre once and it took him three days to get up with a friend. Imagine to sleep up in that wall!

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Waiting

While walking through a small village in rural Nepal I saw a group of children playing in the street. This girl was sitting and watching, I thought she was waiting for something, maybe for her turn in the ongoing game. As I passed her I took this image, already noticing the great light on her face.

It was late afternoon and the sun was low over the horizon. The light was gorgeous and it works very well in the result. I also like the color tones and the facade made of bricks. Again this is a shot unplanned and the best image of that day. I think I have to try street photography more oftern...

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Condor

As we travelled to Patagonia we've been told that with a lot of luck we'll see Condors. But as we stood in front of the Perito Moreno glacier in southern Argentina three Condors circled above our heads. Most people of our hiking group pointed their cameras upwards, just as we did. But it was not easy, although the large birds floated majestically over the ice they still were fast.

I've been lucky because one of the trio suddenly flew in our direction and right above me, only 10 meters away. One of the photos I took you see here, I even managed to get a bit of the snowy mountains into the frame. This works very well as it "earthens" the Condor and gives a good scale of its size.

In reality it was very impressive, just imagine that bird with its 3 meters of wingspan flying close above you and looking at you. Add the huge wall of ice of the Perito Moreno glacier in front of you and only minutes later a large block of ice broke off and fell into the lake. Wonderful scenery and impressions!

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