On Home Territory

So, what's your photographic home territory? I kind of want mine to be the high mountains, but it turns out that I really have to work at that. Where do you find yourself shooting instinctively, not having to think about compositions? Where is photography second nature for you, where the shots throw themselves at your feet? It may simply be that it's I've spent more time here over the last 10 months, but I'm really finding that my local fields and woodlands are where it's at for me. And the Dolomites perhaps. I don't have to think about it there either.

Cedar Rushes || Olympus 21 mm, f/8, 1/40 s, ISO 200 

This afternoon I went for a walk between the local villages. There's a triangle between Kaltenberg where I live and the neighbouring two villages - Hausen and Walleshausen. There's a small mixed woods, fields and many copses and spinneys. I've walked through this area a couple of times in recent days, once on Friday in the hoarfrost and again today in fresh snow. Yesterday I was in the Allgäu, our favourite local mountain range, particularly during lockdown as it's in Germany and we don't have to cross to Austria. I'd gone cross-country skiing with my wife. Granted the light conditions were quite tricky - blue skies and a real contrast between light and shadow, but almost every shot was a challenge and editing was a chore rather than a breeze. Even - or even especially - my favourite bridge down at Bad Hindelang was proving a royal pain in the @rse. I had to shoot about 5 shots at various EV settings to accommodate everything from the sunny high slopes to the dark waters of the Ostrach river.

A Hoary Afternoon

Even though it was just after lunch, because it was cold and because the fog had persisted until late into the morning, there was still some hoarfrost on the trees around the village. As soon as the sun touched the trees, however, it fell off. In this first photo of a birch twig, you can see what look like snow falling in the background. It's actually hoarfrost falling off the tree.

Frosty Birch || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/400 s, ISO 200

These thistles caught our eye as we walked along the local hedgerows. Hoarfrost had formed on the spines and then melted again as the sun fell on them.

Hoary Thistle || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

Similarly, the frost had formed on these thistles too.

Frosty Thistles || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200

We weren't the only people taking a walk in the fresh air. Two couples, one standing watching, the other walking away. I wonder what story this represents?

Two Couples || Olympus 100 mm, f/9, 1/800 s, ISO 200

Skiing in the Allgäu

The next day we made an early start to Gunzesried, scene of a most enjoyable mountain sunset shoot and moonlight walk back at the end of October. The car park was a lot emptier than then, especially when we arrived. The avalanche warning level was high - 4/5 and so the ski-tourers were not out in force as they might otherwise have been. The temperature on the car thermometer was -5.5°C as we geared up for our first cross country ski tour since Norway last February.

Fold in the Snow || Olympus 50 mm, f/8, 1/25 s, ISO 200

This was by far and away my favourite shot from the ski tour. A subtle fold in the snow, presumably hiding a stream below and forming a zig-zagging leading line towards the saplings. In an ideal world, I would have been able to get better separation between the saplings and the forest behind, but it'll do.

There are a couple of majestic old maple trees in the valley that I plan to revisit in autumn some time. In the meantime they stick out from the forest thanks to the fresh snow outlining their ancient bows.

Wizened Winter Maple || Olympus 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 s, ISO 200

The Bridge at Bad Hindelang

This was my third time shooting at the bridge near Bad Hindelang. The first trip was on a murky day in autumn when I discovered this wonderful covered bridge on a horseshoe bend. I returned in December, but the conditions weren't quite optimal. In an ideal world I'd have had some mist in the valley or some clouds swathing the forested peaks, but I'll take this for now.

The Bridge at Bad Hindelang - HDR || Olympus 8 mm, f/8, 1/13 s, ISO 200

Instead of the usual route home, we decided to come back over the Oberjoch pass. We waded through the snow to reach the overlook looking back down west over Bad Hindelang and the Jochstrasse.

Jochstrasse in the Allgäu || Olympus 8 mm, f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

The More It Snows...

The forecast was for 30-50 cm new snow in the Allgäu, 10-20 in the valley. It essentially snowed steadily all day at about -2°C, slowly building up in the garden. After lunch I took the camera out for my usual round between the villages. I love the way the snow highlights the tree branches. In any other weather this photo wouldn't work; there'd be zero separation and it would fall flat.

Snowy Boughs I || Olympus 57 mm, f/8, 1/40 s, ISO 200

Snowy Boughs II || Olympus 50 mm, f/8, 1/100 s, ISO 500

Beech trees always seem to hang onto their leaves for the longest time. Their golden yellow leaves always provide a striking counterpoint to the snow.

Hung out to Dry || Olympus 86 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 s, ISO 1600

Beech Sapling in the Snow || Olympus 35 mm, f/5, 1/60 s, ISO 500

The confusion of the young birch (?) trees takes on a degree of regularity with a dash of snow.

Plantation || Olympus 50 mm, f/5.6, 1/100 s, ISO 320

As Sharon wandered off down the path...

Into the Forest || Olympus 29 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 s, ISO 400

One of the nice things about snow is that it lightens up the forest floor, making photography a lot easier. It also creates beautiful pastel colours, firstly as it throws an opaque layer in front of the subject. This will be more or less depending on the intensity of the snow, distance to the subject and length of exposure, all factors that need to be taken into account. The quality of the light is also beautiful and soft, being omnidirectional, at least whilst it's snowing.

Enchanted Woodland || Olympus 16 mm, f/5, 1/80 s, ISO 200

Cedars || Olympus 12 mm, f/5, 1/60 s, ISO 200

The Lonely Bench || Olympus 12 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 s, ISO 200

Into the Canopy Chaos || Olympus 18 mm, f/5.6, 1/40 s, ISO 400

Berries || Olympus 86 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 s, ISO 320

Winter Birch I || Olympus 38 mm, f/8, 1/20 s, ISO 200

Winter Birch II || Olympus 57 mm, f/8, 1/50 s, ISO 200

Ghost of an Egret || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/100 s, ISO 200

Cedar and Rushes || Olympus 29 mm, f/8, 1/30 s, ISO 200

Sentinel || Olympus 80 mm, f/8, 1/30 s, ISO 200

Slow Rushes || Olympus 92 mm, f/4, 1/125 s, ISO 200

Reaching Out || Olympus 61 mm, f/8, 1/20 s, ISO 200

Above Hausen || Olympus 86 mm, f/8, 1/50 s, ISO 200

Hunter's Perch || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/30 s, ISO 200

Out for a Spin || Olympus 57 mm, f/7.1, 1/60 s, ISO 200

Sledging in Hausen || Olympus 15 mm, f/7.1, 1/100 s, ISO 200

Three, || Olympus 61 mm, f/7.1, 1/80 s, ISO 200

or Four? || Olympus 50 mm, f/11, 1/50 s, ISO 200

Wintery Hausen || Olympus 54 mm, f/8, 1/100 s, ISO 200

Winter Walk || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/50 s, ISO 200

Reduced to Geometry || Olympus 92 mm, f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 200

Gateway to Kaltenberg || Olympus 31 mm, f/8, 1/50 s, ISO 200

So what's your photographic muse? What do you find easy to shoot and which scenes present you with difficulties?

Photography Workshop Group 2021

Have you got stuck in a photography rut and want to make progress? Looking for a group of like-minded photographers to exchange ideas with? At the beginning of 2021 I've started an online Photography Workshop Group over at Facebook with my good friend Matthias.  If you're tired of just getting likes on your photos (who am I kidding, keep them coming!), and are looking for a place to get friendly constructive criticism, you've come to the right place. The idea is to submit a handful of photos each month that we can take apart and critique, offering feedback on composition and editing. 

At the moment I see no need to restrict to a particular genre, though I suspect that most of the photos are going to be landscape and nature, simply due to the constitution of the members.

All comments should be respectful and helpful. Not everybody is at the same level, but we're all headed in the same direction.

I'm really looking forward to see where this takes us. Happy shooting!

Deep Winter in the Allgäu, December 2020

Impressions of Winter

How is winter working for you so far? It's a challenging season for photography. The light can be great or nah, exposing photos correctly is more of a challenge and landscapes can be completely transformed. Frost and ice can add nice details to foliage, snow can cover messy details, focussing attention on the contours. Colours can be muted - or disappear altogether. Alternatively they can naturally desaturate a scene and leave just a single element in colour. All in all a fun time of year to be out and about.

Hoar Frost on Beech || Olympus 75 mm f/8, 1/125 s, ISO 320 

But not every day is a success. Yesterday, for example, we went out snow-shoeing above the Riedberg Pass and the light was a complete let-down. I barely took a shot all day, and of those none were worth writing home about. The light was too flat. There were a couple of snow-drifts that might have made the cut, but it was all a bit of a waste photographically speaking (great day out with the family though and fun to break out the snow shoes again after almost 20 years).

Back to the Covered Bridge || Huawei P30 Pro

The first photos were from a visit to Bad Hindelang. I wanted to check out that bridge to see how it looked in its winter coat. Although we'd had some snow, it had mostly gone from the south-facing slopes, leaving the unsightly brown-green  fir trees in the background spoiling the shot. So apart from the smartphone grab-shot above that scene's on hold for now. Fortunately there are some cool looking cross-country ski tracks down that way, so I may be able to persuade Sharon that we need to go back down there when the snow improves 😉.

Beaver Chippings || Olympus 15 mm f/8, 1/125 s, ISO 160

Instead of hitting the bridge, we carried on up the valley and walked around Hinterstein. It was delightfully cold and crunchy as we set off along the Ostrach valley. We discovered that there wasn't just one covered bridge in the valley but three, though the others don't lie quite as nicely as the one at Bruck (if you look carefully, you'll spot one of the others in the shot above). With the cold air and lack of snow on the south-facing slopes it ended up being a day for close-ups rather than landscapes. Fortunately I'm equally at home in either genre so I was able to make the best of an otherwise bad day photographically.

Frosty Teasel || Olympus 100 mm f/8, 1/100 s, ISO 320

One of the accessories that's always in my camera bag is a +3 diopter screw-in magnifying filter, a sneaky little add-on that lets me get really close-up details like this teasel above. Although it might look like a studio shot, this was taken in situ. The magnifying lens sharply drops the depth of field, throwing the background out of focus.

 

Thaw-Lines  || Olympus 61 mm f/5.6, 1/160 s, ISO 320

Frozen Moss  || Olympus 50 mm f/8, 1/30 s, ISO 1600

Hoary Beech  || Olympus 28 mm f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 1600

Hoary Tree  || Olympus 50 mm f/5.6, 1/200 s, ISO 320

Our second outing was to Oberstdorf on Boxing Day. It has snowed again on Christmas Day and there was a fresh dusting of snow on the mountains. 

Fresh Snow on Boxing Day || Olympus 80 mm f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200 

The next shot shows off what I meant at the start with the colour accents.

The Hay Shed || Olympus 17 mm f/11, 1/80 s, ISO 200

Across the Valley || Olympus 100 mm f/11, 1/25 s, ISO 200

Stumped for a Title || Olympus 34 mm f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

All About the Diagonals || Olympus 31 mm f/8, 1/200 s, ISO 200

Through the Boughs || Olympus 80 mm f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200

Winter Wonderland || Olympus 24 mm f/11, 1/80 s, ISO 200 

Tree Skeletons  || Olympus 75 mm f/8, 1/15 s, ISO 200

Winter in the High Alps || Olympus 100 mm f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200

Seven Peaks I || Olympus 61 mm f/8, 1/500 s, ISO 200

Seven Peaks II || Olympus 50 mm f/8, 1/320 s, ISO 200

There are several things to watch out for when hiking in the winter; the cold, routes generally take longer due to the more challenging conditions, reduced day-length and, of course, avalanches. We always make a point of checking the avalanche forecast AND comparing it with the terrain for the tour we've planned. Bergfex provides free online maps and allows you to call up a Slope Gradient overlay, allowing you to tell at a glance areas to avoid. 

Bergfex Gradient Overlay

Even with a relatively low avalanche forecast, in the early afternoon we were seeing spontaneous avalanches occur as the sun hit the labile new snow:

Spontaneous Avalanche || Olympus 31 mm f/5.6, 1/320 s, ISO 200

Frosty Trees || Olympus 100 mm f/5.6, 1/200 s, ISO 200

Icicles and Trees - Focus-Stacked Image || Olympus 38 mm f/5.6, 1/250 s, ISO 200

Textures || Olympus 66 mm f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 200

Winter Stream || Olympus 44 mm f/7.1, 0.4 s, ISO 200

Lurking Giants || Olympus 100 mm f/5.6, 1/500 s, ISO 200

Cabin in the Woods || Olympus 92 mm f/5.6, 1/160 s, ISO 200

Winter Sun - Exposure Bracketed || Olympus 35 mm f/5.6, 1/2000 s, ISO 200

All that remains is for us to wish you a very happy 2021 and happy shooting.

The Page Family at an unusually colour-co-ordinated moment, Christmas 2020

Calendar Update - THANK YOU!

Just a quick, pre-Christmas update on the calendars. Thank you to all my generous friends. Together we raised € 750 for Doctors without Borders, a great contribution to a worthy cause.