One afternoon we visited the area of Bùdir with the famous black church. And it was really unbelievable to see a lonely black church in the middle of nothing. This contrast between the wider plane and this church was burned into my memory. Of course I started to make shots, but there was something more than just this church. In fact I had a little troll in my head and this little creature started to talk to me „Look, there’s an old lava field not far from the church!“. „Nonsense, I’m taking shots from this cool church now!“, was my answer. But again and again I heard this little troll talking to me. And hey, how many times have I already experienced to stand in the middle of a lava field? It was obvious … I disappeared from the scene and I found me again in all the small canyons of this huge lava field. And it was there where I found this spot here.
Well, as you can see I was on a workshop in Iceland. The workshop was guided by two great landscape photographers (Javier de la Torre and Enrico Fossati). Beside that they both are great photographers I must also say that they are such nice and fine guys and I enjoyed so much the time with them and of course also with the great group we were. If you visit their pages you will know what I’m talking about, and for sure I can recommend every workshop they lead! This here in the image is one of the many iconic places that Iceland can offer to all landscape photographers. And I decided to go for a classic one and for sure I hope you like it.
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.
