Ab jetzt wird alles besser!

Sunset at Sella Group, Dolomiti, Italy

Originally uploaded by Xindaan

Two weeks ago, I was a on a multi-day trek in the Dolomites. This was great, and I just love the mountains. Rough, rocky mountains. The Eastern Sierra in February were great, and the Dolomites, which are significantly closer, were wonderful too.

In the mountains, you can make great use of light. And it’s amazing how fast it changes. Of course, this means getting up early, to be where you need when the sun is rising. And being around at sunset, to be where you need when the sun is setting. Even if that means a missed meal.

A picture I particularly liked is this one. At the Sellajoch (Passo Sella), there is the "Stone City". The Stone City is the result of a huge rockslide off the flank of the Langkofel, creating a large area with seriously large rocks, over which, over time, trees settled. So, I decided to be there at sunset to try to get an interesting picture.

Unfortunately, I had only one evening there, so I did not know exactly what it would like, I only knew that I wanted to use the shadowed Stone City (in the evening shadow of the Langkofel) while the Sella should be in the evening sun (and even of that I was not sure). I already had my eye on a lone tree which kinda stuck out. So, when the sun was setting, I could see the real light, and, I was starting to run around – through "run" is probably the wrong word – I was stumbling among smaller rocks, climbing on larger rocks in order to find an interesting composition. I tried wide angle, ultra wide angle, telephoto.

The picture I currently prefer the most is this one. My Sigma 70-200 zoom at 130 mm, f5.6 (I do not need a large depth of field), and basically a silhouette shot of that tree against the massive Sella stock in the evening sun.

Getty Images – Flickr Hive Mind – flexplore – DNA

Calm Morning, Zingst, Germany

Originally uploaded by Xindaan

This is a picture I took last fall. I actually keep returning to this picture quite often. I like the calmness projected by it. A major part of this calmness was to choose the exposure to be at 30 seconds, making the baltic sea completely flat, and softening the completely cloud sky even further. It took quite a long time to position the camera exactly in the center, to use all the symmetries available, as well as choosing the right camera height (and keeping the camera completely level), keeping the railing below the horizon level (and all the lines straight). Maximum ultra wide angle, the 11mm of the Tokina, was necessary to capture everything.

An important question during processing was "black&white or colour?" Not much colour tonality there to begin with, so it all settles to the question of whether or not that red point of interest should be there. In the end, I decided to keep it in colour, to have a little irritating thing that disturbs the symmetry the eye gets drawn to.

What do you think?

Getty Images – Flickr Hive Mind – flexplore – DNA

Sunrise at Zugspitze, Alps, Bavaria, Germany

Originally uploaded by Xindaan

Cliched, but working. I have a picture with and without that rock in the foreground, but the rock just works.

Other than that, we have a pretty straightforward composition. For reflections, I like to have the horizont in the center, unless with either the reflection or the "original" you can see more, such is often the case when you have a great (= cloudy) sky and you use the reflection to show more of it. In this case, there wasn’t. Additionally, for reflections, I like to use graduated ND filters to keep the brightnesses about the same, though being careful that the reflection is not brighter than the original.

What I liked about this specific place was the framing, silhouetting forest in the foreground, which mirrors (pun intended) the reflection theme of the lake, so we next to horizontal, we get a vertical "reflection axis".

Getty Images – Flickr Hive Mind – flexplore – DNA

Stormy skies – The Big Picture – Boston.com.

Upper Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park, California, USA

Originally uploaded by Xindaan

While we are suffering the heat in Europe, and I guess elsewhere in the world too , I can’t help but to think back to Yosemite in Winter.

Not the first Yosemite picture that I show, but hey, it’s a great place. Visible here is Upper Yosemite Falls, being reflected in the Merced River. Compositionally, finding a good balance between the snow ladden forest in the shadow together with the mountain and waterfall in the wonderful morning sidelight was the thing to achieve. Add to that the work with the reflection, to have it appear reasonably. I wandered around Swinging Bridge a few times before settling for this spot. The decision helper was that single, snow covered rock and its relative position to the composition. A bit too left, and it is in the reflection of the shadowed trees, a bit too right, and it becomes too dominant, at the same time the perspective of the trees to the left in respect to the waterfall becoming disadvantegeous too.

Well, this is what I ended up with. Hope you enjoy it.

Getty Images – Flickr Hive Mind – flexplore – DNA

Wonderful collection of Tour de France pictures.

2010 Tour de France – part I – The Big Picture – Boston.com.

Alpenglow, Zugspitze and Moon, Bavaria, Germany

Originally uploaded by Xindaan

A small picture, but I like it nonetheless. A wonderful morning in the south of Germany. Alarm clock rang at 4.15 am, getting up, heading towards the Eibsee, a lake directly on the foot of the Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze. Nice to hike there. Which I did, looking for photographic opportunities along the way. There are lots of different options, you got a lake, it’s calm for good reflections, there are stones in it for your foreground. All the while the clock is ticking, Alpenglow, the literal alpenglow, of course, being on the mountains next to you. I took a lot of pictures. Lots of classical shots. Some not so. Like this one, which I ended up liking the most, despite all the other "classic" shots.

I was wishing for a ladder to put the silhouetted trees a bit down in comparison to the massive mountain range. I tried moving off trail a bit, to get a bit higher, but that shifted perspective too much. So, here we are. The moon was nice enough to be there at sunrise, as well as that patch of clouds clinging to the mountain top.

Getty Images – Flickr Hive Mind – flexplore – DNA

Clearing Winter Storm, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, USA

Originally uploaded by Xindaan

February 18th, we went from Arches/Canyonlands to a stopover in Bryce Canyon National Park, heading on to Zion the next day. Near the end of the trip, weather got bad, and suddenly, we were in the midst of a snow storm. To our luck, a short one only, because as we pushed through the park, it actually cleared.

What a wonderful sight. Cloud rests clinging to distant hoodos, the sun breaking through, bringing out the magical colours of the sandstone there. Just wonderful.

Took lots of shots, trying to capture the storm. This one is one of my favorites, showing the clouds moving along in the distance, while having the snow covered Bryce Canyon with its Amphitheatre and the Sinking Ship in the foreground.

Getty Images – Flickr Hive Mind – flexplore – DNA