There are probably many 'wine routes', even in the Steiermark, the south-eastern state of Austria, there are ceveral ones. The one I travelled is right at the border towards Slovenia. In November most coloured leaves are already gone but some have remained. The weather can still be quite warm and the air is clear: Steirische Weinstrasse.
The pictures from the portfolio Flowing Water are shot in the small gorge Rettenbachklamm mentioned below. I love capturing water, but moving water is specially tricky. The combination of long exposure times and closed aperture with a higher depth of field make it difficult to foresee the effects on the final image: A thrilling experience.
The Rettenbachklamm is a small little gorge in the Austrian city of Graz. Even though Graz is not a huge town it's still surprising to find a gorge system in the 200'000 inhabitants capital of the southern county 'Steiermark'. The creek has formed various nice water falls and pools and offers a wide variety for photographers. As the sown travels low in November, the direct sunlight seldom touches the water surface and working with indirect light will offer you many possibilities to experiment with long exposure times.
North of Hongkongs Tsim Sha Tsui lies the Kowloon and Mon Kok regions known for their markets, the Night Market, the Ladies Market and the Bird Market as well as the Kowloon Park. But also on other streets you'll find many busy areas and there is a lot to see: Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok.
As mentioned below, the Leica M8 is very well suited for infrared photography. The technical details behind this and how to approach handheld infrared photography are described in the technical article: The M8 for Infrared Photography.
Taking the ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui (see below) over the victoria harbour will take you to different locations on the other side. One of them is Wan Chai, where the huge Convention Center is located: Evening Visit to Wan Chai.
Tsim Sha Tsui lies north of the Victoria Harbour, the sea lane that divides the centre of Hong Kong. In this part of the city, the streets are always crowded and never seem to empty: Tsim Sha Tsui Night Shots.
The Leica M8 is specially suited for Infrared Photography. Due to the bad efficiency of the IR block filter in front of the sensor, it is possible to use the camera for conventional infrared photography with filters that block the visible light. As the M8 is a rangefinder camera, one does not view the object through the lens and through the filter (which would be very dark as the IR filter blocks the visible spectrum) but through the viewfinder which gives a unfiltered, clear view of the object. These two facts make the M8 the ideal Infraredcamera for handheld shots. Have a look at some pictures: Infrared
This is the second part of my South-West England series, which was shot with the Canon 5DMK2; it's interesting to see the differences between these pictures and those shot with the Leica M8 in the gallery below.
On the trip to Southwest-England, I was travelling with three different camera systems. The Ricoh GX200 was used for time lapse movies, the Canon 5DMK2 for landscapes and the Leica M8 for street photography. The pictures from the M8 are totally different from those of the MK2. One reason is the lens range. I used only a 35mm lens on the M8 while I was using everything from 17mm to 400mm on the MK2. But taking pictures differs also a lot between a rangefinder and a SLR camera: Southwest-England with the M8, the MK2 gallery will follow in some days.
The beautiful landscapes, the dramatic coasts and the cosy villages of soutwest england with its counties Devon and Cornwall are a great place for landscape photograhers. Panorama photograhy is one possibility to capture the beautiful sights: Panoramas Soutwest England
It's now much easier to record time lapse movies with the little Ricoh GX 200 with its built in intervallometer. There are 4 new movies available on the time lapse page, 2 recorded in the county Steiermark in southern Austria and the other two recorded in Brixham, in the Southwest of England, county Devon.
The temperatres in central Europa are currently in the 30th (°C) and almost in tropical heights. My gallery of the Seychelle Plants therefor comes at the right time. It will probably take some time until we have a similar vegetation.....
The new title picture comes from the same gallery.
It's been some time since my last update but today I have some additional reports on the Canon 5DMK2 field useability, specially about its capability in extreme temperture coinditions, the hot and the cold end of it. And finally I also have to report a strange error message...
The 'Schöckl' is the housemountain of the second biggest city of Austria, Graz. With its 1400m above sea level it's not a really high montain but nevertheless it's enogh to be above the winter cloud layer which often covers the city. The gallery Schöckl shows winter landscape photographs while the portfolio Schöckl Snowsacpes leans itself to its sister portfolios 'Snowscapes' which were created in finnish Lappland.
The new collection 'baumnah' (translated: close to trees) focuses on closeups in the forest. This collection is a mixed balck and white and colour collection. The new title image is also from 'baumnah'.
This years, our visit to northern Lapland to Äkäslompolo took place relatively late in the year and we experienced a totally diffirent winter than the other years, with long days and already some melting during the sunflooded weeks. Aurora activity was very low but we were happy observing birds and other animals. And there is another Snowscapes portfolio: Snowscapes 3.
There are two more collections in the project area about trees. Collection 2 is about trees at the end of winter time here in southern Austria, in Graz. Colection 3 is about trees seen from the ground; you could call the collection ground work. Most of the pictures wre shot using a very wide angle lens (17mm) from the very ground.
Europs northern capital are all worth visiting but among them, Copenhagen stands out. The city is so close to the water that the sea is not only bordering the city but also flowing through it. An this proximity is fascinating for every visitor. The seaside is even more spectacular in wintertime when iceplates cover the channels; photographed at night time and the scenario has its own atmosphere: Københavns Havn
The site's layout and design was modernised; I hope will enjoy it as much as I do; I would appreciate and feed-back. The new layout should make it easier to read articles onscreen. As I worked on the new layout and had to adopt the new design to all the pages I realised how big the whole site has grown over the last years. There are now more than 70 galleries with more than 2000 photos as well as 14 technical articles online; a good reason to explore the site a little bit. Enjoy!
To go out into the suboptimal photography weather is a special task which was always thrilling to me. Is it possible to take photographs which describe the situation and give the beholder an idea of what was going on? The Finnish Photograher Hannu Hautala has made exemplary work around winter landscape and is an antetype concerning winter photography for me. But have a look at my pictures and decide weather I succeeded: Snowfall.
Clouds are fascinating to observe, with their enormous variety and their ever changing forms and types. The benefit for every interested cloud spotter is that even dull days can become very interesting for finding new cloud types. In the Seychelles we had a beautiful view over the large Beau Vallon Bay and the wide sea; an excellent spot for cloud observations: Seychelles Cloudscapes.
In Autumn 2009 I had the possibility, to go on a photo shooting inside the impressive and giant refinery located east of Vienna close to the airport in Schwechat. The shooting took several hours, starting in the late afternoon and ending short before midnight. Due to security reasons, I was accompanied by a firebrigade truck all along the trip. Due to the big contrast range I used the HDR technik as soon as it got dark. Two series out of the hundrets of shoots I took that night are now online in the portfolio section:
- OMV Inside
- OMV Details
Projects will give you the opportunity to follow certain subjects, views or compositions over the years and from country to country. You will have the possibility to observe things other people would'nt even notice. One of my favourite projects is Bus Stops; this is my latest update. Any body else out there who cares about them?
In the wintertime its relatively easy to take close up pictures of birds around the house, as they approach in search for food. Don't be tempted to take pictures through the window (even I can't resist sometimes) as the results are mostly poor due to reflections in the glass and its poor optical quality. The better way is to use a hide, which will give you the possibility to observe and take pictures from very low distances. Songbirds are mostly small and even when using a 400mm tele lens for example, distances from 2-3 yards are required, which will require extension rings on most standard tele lenses. I was able to capture many different tits (blue, great, willow, crested and long-tailed tit), nuthatch, siskin and great spotted woodpecker. We are also very lucky to have a tawny owl in our neighbourhood.
The new title picture was captured in Luosto, northern finland last winter.
Multiple time lapse movies were recorded during our stay on the Seychelles and many more were planned. But already during the first week, the camera dedicated to time lapse movies broke because of too many exposures; I was very lucky having another camera with me for regular photography! 3 movies are shown here.
The Beau Vallon Bay is situated in the north of the main Island of the Seychelles, Mahé. Even though the bay is one of the tourist centres and one of the main atractions on the 30km long island, it is a quite beach where you can still find many places of tranquility. The waterfront is sourrounded by palm trees and granitic rocks which make the tropical picture perfect.
The 7th biggest town of Spain is Murcia with more than 400'000 inhabitants. The city lies in the south-east of Spain and the universitiy city is also the capital of the region with the same name. Here you'll find some impressions of this beautiful Spanish town.
The new Folio Luosto Winterscapes includes photographs taken around the small village Luosto (see below). This folio is about the cold, snow covere,d lapish winter landscape. A pdf slide show is available for download here.
In the beginning of 2009 we had the opportunity to visit Luosto, a small town in central Lapland about 100km north of the lappish capita Rvaniemi. Luostos is situated close to a national park which covers some of the sorrounding fiell landscapes. A great place to take pictures of the lappish wilderness: Luosto Winterscapes.
