Last week I was again with my family in the Swiss Alps. And my intention was to find some wonderful spring spots. But apparently the weather god had other ideas as you can see in my image here. I must confess that I never had such an extreme experience of falling temperatures and snow storms in April. In less than a couple of hours the area was completely converted into a winterwonderland … and damn … it was really icy cold!!! And my thoughts belong to all the farmers I know from this area here. One week later after I made this shot here I heard that they lost all grapevine due to the extreme temperatures below zero degrees. Everything was destroyed!!! But at this point in time when I made this shot here I tried to go up a mountain … I couldn’t care less about harsh weather but I must confess … it was not so funny to walk in a snow storm and therefore my hike was really short. If you could zoom in you would see how much it was snowing in the distance and how strong the wind was. My location had only a small break and I could see a cloudburst. I had not much time to set up my equipment with my new filter system and to make this shot here. Yes, I have a new filter system. I never used to have one because I was never happy with the results. Normally for the most of my images I use my 14-24mm Nikkor lens. And to find a fitting filter system is not very easy. Several years ago I bought the one from Leefilters that suits the need of a 14-24mm Nikkor lens. But I was so disappointed about the results. Vignetting, color cast and the nightmare to put the system on this particular lens. I’m talking about to put a part of the filter system behind the lens … I mean you must detach the lens from the body, attach this part behind the lens, attach the lens again with the body and finally attach the rest of the filter system on the front of the lens. And all this in a possible snow storm ha ha ha … what a nightmare and what an adventure. I never never used it again!! Well, since a long time I was reading so many good things about my new system from Lucroit! So simple and so effective in any ways! I’m so happy and so impressed about this filter system!!!! This is indeed my first image I used this new filter system. Attached in only a few seconds without removing the lens from the body. No vignetting and no color cast! Wow … really wow! Here I only used a circular polarizer to capture the extreme light conditions and I hope you enjoy my new work.
What a surprise I had when I turned my had just for a second to see what was going on behind me while I was taking some shots of this wonderful valley with a frozen lake. I had not the time to find a cool spot with a fitting foreground. Just only the time to take my tripod and put it on the direction of this splendid light! Man man man … I was not prepared for this. Therefore I used my own footprints I made to reach this place here to make a sort of guiding line into the image. Nevertheless I hope you like it :-)
By the end of the year 2016 I made a small hike to this wonderful place here. And there I was … standing in the icy cold on a small frozen lake in the mountains and waiting for sunrise. I love to stand up in the middle of the night to reach such places, because I think to experience the atmosphere before sunrise is always something very special. I could find this rock here coming out of the ice … and normally this rock would be below the water level. But due to the driest December month since the data recording in our country and the great tensions in the ice this formation could happen. And it was clear that I made a shot as you can see.
