107 - Following the Tracks

Not that I have asked for it, but finally it is here: Winter.

… Some time passes …

OK, now it’s Monday night, I finally have time to get back.

Yesterday began with very warm sunlight and a bright blue sky, but quickly a thin veil of clouds rendered the light utterly flat. There was still some blue to the north and west though, thus in the afternoon I decided to try my luck at “Ossiacher Tauern”, a ridge about 1000 meters high, between Wörthersee and Ossiacher See. I mainly went there for the snow that I promised you.

After having taken some shots on the small road from between Alpen and Leiten to Ossiach, I turned around and wanted to drive home, only to be surprised in Köstenberg by a spectacular sundown. The high clouds in the south, after having troubled me all the day, had turned red all over. Between Köstenberg and Wurzen I departed from the street to the left, a little up the hill, and there it was: a fantastic panorama, usable for sunrise as well as sundown, at least all through the winter. There is practically no foreground interest, but, well, how much can you ask for?

This image, facing south-east, taken with the Sigma 10-20, is a combination of two different layers made from the same RAW file, basically one for the sky, one for the rest. In this case it was extremely easy and effective because of the relatively dark horizon line. Doing the same to an image facing west, i.e. directly into the sundown, would be more difficult, the danger being that the result easily looks artificial.

For a Link of the Day, why not looking at what the Guardian has to say about Windows Vista and the security we can hope for. Who would have thought that? Not that it would not have been known for some while, but it’s good to see the hype being put into perspective in mainstream media.