Today was an extraordinarily bright day and a little bit warmer again. My first idea was to watch a sunset on mount Dobratsch, the mountain where I’ve watched the sun rise and set many times, but I did not manage to get up in time, and it wouldn’t have been spectacular anyway, as the sky was completely clear.
Instead I took the car in the early afternoon and drove half way up to slightly below 3000 ft, where I parked on the side of the road and tried my luck in the forest near the abyss.
I decided to leave all other lenses in the car and only take the camera with the Sigma 50/1.4 mounted. Actually I had no idea that I would spend almost an hour in that place, shooting forest landscapes, patches of snow, rocks, grass, details and big vistas.
I was not far from the road, but there was almost complete silence and peace. It was like stepping out of your life, forgetting everything before and after, only breathing the magic in this mountain wilderness.
I have explained the details before, but it is always fascinating to think of the fact that this mountain broke apart twice, once in prehistoric times and once due to a devastating earthquake in 1348. Therefore the southern flank is a steep abyss.
Standing up there, looking down at the highway below, it’s hard to avoid a fit of vertigo.
The Song of the Day is “Mountain Hare Krishna” from Krishna Das’ 1998 album “Pilgrim Heart”, a duet sung together with Sting. Hear it on YouTube. I spare you the lyrics, they are sort of … simple 🙂
There are 6 comments
Juha Haataja (2008-11-24)
I looked at these photos already earlier but didn't then have time to comment. Well, better late than never.
I really like the two photos with the grass, perhaps the second one (with the snow background) best. I have had a lot of trouble in getting such grass to show up right in a photo. These were illuminating and interesting captures.
Andreas (2008-11-24)
Actually the one you mean is a straight capture, right out of the camera. I have Nikon's "Active D-Lighting" enabled though, and that, together with 14-bit RAW, should compress the dynamic range a bit, at least that's the theory.
In general, underexposing normally does the trick as well, probably at the expense of shadows. Otoh, there are not many shadows anyway 🙂
I guess even a polarizer may help. One would have to try.
omami (2008-11-25)
lovely photos again, and I love the link with krisna, I do chant sometimes!!
Ted (2008-11-23)
Pity Al Gore had had not been around in 1348. He'd have discovered the people who'd caused earthquake change and stopped the mountain from crumbling like that.
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