The blogposts seem to be like London buses at the moment. You wait ages for one, and then three come along at once! Don't worry, this will be the last for a week or so and there won't be as much text with this one.
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| Layers || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/1600 s, ISO 200 |
We (i.e. The Wife) decided that we should go for a walk on Sunday morning, so we headed down to one of our regular mountains, the Hörnle above Bad Kohgrub at the edge of the Ammergau Alps. There was an off chance that the kiosk might be open at the Hörnle Hütte - or at least that was the carrot that was dangled before me...
I'd schlepped the regular camera gear with me (in my case this is the Oly E-M1 Mk III with by trusty 12-100 mm lens attached and the Pano Leica 8-18 mm in the bag just in case). Standing around in dense fog in the car park above the Hörnle Bahn I wasn't convinced that I'd actually be getting it out of its pouch. Oh how wrong I was!
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| Frozen Catkins || Olympus 41 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 s, ISO 200 |
It started in the carpark already when I noticed these frosty catkins. Stopping the aperture down to throw the background out of focus and dancing around the hazel to try and get the right composition, this is the best I came up with. It wasn't until we'd got home and I saw the Girl-Child's take on this - she'd managed to get a comp with an old wooden hut in the background, but by then it was too late to go back.
The frozen foggy forest was full of little delights like this, be it the fir trees or cobwebs tucked in between the roots of a tree.
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| Christmas Decorations || Olympus 54 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 s, ISO 200 |
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| Cobweb Gems || Olympus 25 mm, f/5.6, 1/13 s, ISO 200 |
It's always worth keeping your eyes open for a quick abstract in the forest and this piece of bark caught my eye with its brown and orange tones combined with the frost emphasising the edges. The fog was working as a giant lightbox, taking away the harshness that direct sunlight would have caused.
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| Bark Abstract || Olympus 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 s, ISO 200 |
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| Handprints || Olympus 38 mm, f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 200 |
As we climbed through the forest it got lighter and lighter with occasional glimpses of blue sky above and we knew that we would soon be emerging above the clouds. I was ready for the sun disk, but nothing prepared us for the haunting fog-shadows caused by the trees as we reached the clear air.
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| Shadows in the Mist || Olympus 28 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 s, ISO 200 |
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| First Glimpse of Sun || Olympus 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/4000 s, ISO 200 |
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| Into the Light || Olympus 12 mm, f/8, 1/8000 s, ISO 200 |
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| Haunted Trees I || Olympus 41 mm, f/8, 1/4000 s, ISO 200 |
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| Haunted Trees II || Olympus 28 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 s, ISO 200 |
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| Edge of the Mist || Olympus 38 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 s, ISO 200 |
Out of the clouds the hike was pleasant enough, but without the fog as an interest there weren't so many shots to be had any more, though the views from the summit over the thick cloud bank were fine enough. There were plenty of people around at the hut and all three Hörnle summits - Vorderes, Mittleres and Hinteres.
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| Towards the Hörnle Hütte || Olympus 12 mm, f/8, 1/1250 s, ISO 200 |
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| Hörnle Round incl. Zugspitze || Huawei P30 Panorama |
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| Hinteres Hörnle || Olympus 70 mm, f/8, 1/1600 s, ISO 200 |
We came back down via the sledge run. Fortunately we'd brought our spikes with us - poor man's crampons that you pull over the boots to give extra grip on icy ground. The fog had a couple more special shots left for us before we got back to the car.
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| Spot: On || Olympus 34 mm, f/8, 1/13 s, ISO 200 |
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| Bad Kohlgrub || Olympus 31 mm, f/8, 1/800 s, ISO 200 |
So, when the forecast is dodgy, don't leave your camera at home. Sometimes challenging conditions can give rise to some unique images.
Wishing you interesting light.
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