The medieval castle Kriebstein photographed with a long exposure of the river during the blue hour after sunset in autumn.

Beautiful pastel colors and soft sunset light at the coast of Senja island with the famous rugged mountain formation Dragons Teeth in the background of the frame.

The beautiful forest of lapland with leaves beginning to change their color and its reflection in the calm water in september.

I am happy and proud to present my new coffee-table book "Sagenhafter Harz".

The book was created together with the author Christine Lendt and the publisher Frederking & Thaler. I've spent several years creating the images for the book on 180 pages. Feel free to read about the creation process of the book and get more background information in this article on my german photography blog.

Feel free to have a closer look inside the book here. 

A mirror like lake on a windstill, warm and sunny summer day in Sweden. Captured on a small island in the large lake during a canoe tour. There is actually a little bird sitting on the stones in the foreground.

An abstract pattern of a braided glacial river in Iceland, photographed from above.

Dark silhouettes of trees on the mystical mountains of the Harz region on a moody day, Germany.

A wooden footbridge through the mystical moor with fog and autumn foliage in the Harz mountains, Germany.

Blooming wildflowers at a beautiful lake on a peaceful summer day in the swedisch countryside.

A little creepy woodland creature found in the wild and deep forests of sweden.

A paradise lake with lots of wildflowers on a wonderful summer evening in Sweden.

A path through the forest to a castle ruin in the Harz mountains, Germany.

A dreamy pathway through the spring forest with its blooming bears garlic during the golden hour before sunset near Leipzig, Germany.

Misty mountains all around the legendary Bodetal during this moody weather in the Harz region, Germany.

The legendary mountains of the Harz region surrounded by gentle wafts of mist and atmospheric weather.

The hoof print of the legendary Rosstrappe and the impressive canyon of the Bode river at sunset, Harz Germany.

The magical fairytale tree in Lauenburg in the Harz mountains is straight out of a fantasy novel.

The famous rock formation Klus during sunset in the Harz Mountains, Germanys.

A very old building at the market of Quedlinburg with the church in the background, Harz Germany.

Some old houses in Quedlingburg in the Harz region during a colourful sunset.

The famous Bastei bridge surrounded by colorful autumn foliage in Saxon Switzerland, Germany.

With this article I present my personal three favorite photos from the past year 2022. In the last months I had a lot of fun diving more into the abstract kind of photography.

I was fortunate to travel to Iceland and revisit some beloved locations but I also found some new ones and new perspectives. On another trip I drove about 7000 kilometers through scandinavia and again visited swedish lappland and the arctic island of Senja in Northern Norway. During the fall season I was primarily shooting the fabulous forest of the Harz region and the Bohemian and Saxon Switzerland in Germany. I also - again - wrote lots of new tutorials, guides and product reviews for my german landscape photography blog. If you are interrested you can find a much more detailed review of my photographic year here (german).

Abstract River Aerial I - Prints Available

An abstract pattern of a braided glacial river in Iceland, photographed from above.

Fjordland - Prints Available

The sun is shining through a gap in the clouds, illuminating the rugged mountains of the fjord during the golden hour before sunset in Northern Norway.

Autumn Expression - Prints Available

An abstract autumn expression of fall foliage reflected in a calm lake near Leipzig, Germany.

If you're interested in seeing more photos of 2022, here is my anual gallery with the 16 best photos of 2022.

In 2022 I also worked on another project which I started in 2021. I added some new photos to my series of infrared landscape photos. All photographed near Brumby or Leipzig on several bicycle photo tours. One example here:

Dreamscape XVIII - Prints Available

This is just a short summary of my annual review. You can find a more detailed article about the photos of 2022 on my German photo blog.

With this article I present my personal three favorite photos from the past year 2021. Due to the 2nd year of the pandemic I was - again - primarily shooting in Germany and the Alps, of course I visited the fabulous Harz region and the Bohemian and Saxon Switzerland several times. I also - again - wrote more than twenty new tutorials, guides and product reviews for my german landscape photography blog.

Wild Homeland II - Prints Available

A famous and breathtaking view over rugged mountains and forests in Saxon Switzerland during a vivid sunset in spring, Saxony Germany.

Alpine Beauty - Prints Available

An alpine beauty with a classical view of huts in a meadow, a mountain lake and the massive Karwendel group in the distance catching the last light of the day.

Aletsch Glacier Sunset - Prints Available

The mighty Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps during the golden light before sunset, photographed from the rugged peak of Mt. Eggishorn (2926 Hm).

If you're interested in seeing more photos of 2021, here is my anual gallery with the 16 best photos of 2021.

In 2021 I also worked on another project which I had in my mind for quite a while now. I was fortunate to realize a series of 16 infrared landscape photos. All photographed near Brumby or Leipzig on several bicycle photo tours. See some examples here:

Dreamscape I

Dreamscape IX

Dreamscape XV

Next to the "normal photography", I also enjoyed and explored some new virtual adventures during the past year. Here are some ingame photos from AC Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077. You can find a lot more shots by clicking the links to the games galleries.

Assassins Creed Valhalla 83

Assassins Creed Valhalla 87

Cyberpunk 2077 173

Cyberpunk 2077 88

This is just a short summary of my annual review. You can find a more detailed article about the photos of 2021 on my German photo blog.

With this article I present my personal three favorite photos from 2020. Due to the pandemic I was shooting primarily in Germany from the Alps in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north and some places like the fabulous Harz, Bohemian and Saxon Switzerland and the wild blooming featherlands near Lüneburg in between. I also wrote more than twenty new tutorials, guides and product reviews for my german landscape photography blog, have a few more calender covers for 2021 and wrote an article for c't Fotografie magazine, which is available from now on.

Spring Garden - Prints Available

Wild red poppies and a golden cornfield catch the last light of the day in the beautiful rural countryside in Germany.

Mountain Dream - Prints Available

After a very rainy night spent in the back of my car I woke up at 5am in the morning, did a short hike to this location and was fortnuate enough to witness this awesome conditions at sunrise. The frame shows the calm lake, the impressive mountains, reflections in the water, rising fog and light in the clouds. What a start in the day!

Wild Coast Sunset - Prints Available

Vivid sunset colors and crashing waves during the golden hour at a wild and windy beach in northern Germany.

If you're interested in seeing more photos of 2020, here is my anual gallery with the 16 best photos of 2020.

With this article I want to present to you my personal top three photos from 2019. During last year I did not go on as many photo trips like in the years before and thereby took less photos than usual per year. One reason is that I started a long anticipated project, naming a landscape photography blog. I've spent quite a lot of evenings and weekends writing tutorials, product reviews and trip reports for the new site. However, I nevertheless managed to spent a few weeks on a dedicated photo car-camping trip in Norway and some time in the Saxon and Bohemaian Switzerland and the Harz region in middle Germany.

Sunnmøre Mountains - Prints Available

The majestic Sunnmøre Alps with their countless epic mountains, streams and the Sunnmøre fjords all around, it its like a dream coming true for photographers. With the right kind of light the landscape almost looks unreal, like a scene from a fantasy movie.

Vøringsfossen Sunset - Prints Available

The spectacular waterfall Vøringsfossen near Eidfjord with a total drop of 182 meters seen from the top of Måbødalen cascading down from the Hardangervidda Highlands down the valley to Måbøvatnet in September at sunset.

Island of Dreams - Prints Available

A beautiful little Island of Dreams in the lake Oppstrynsvatnet near Stryn.

If you're interested in seeing more photos of 2019, here is my anual gallery with the 16 best photos of 2019.

After being into landscape photography for more than 15 years now during last couple of years I've always thought about writing more about landscape photography. I thought about writing an eBook or to publish a "real" book or creating a dedicated site for it with the purpose on sharing my knowledge and thoughts about it with other people. At the end of the last year I figured out and realized that my passion for landscape photography, writing and creating websites is best combined with a new photo blog.

Greetings from the Bohemian Switzerland

So, there it is. I finally started the new project at the beginning of this year. The site is meant to be as an interactive, digital version of a photography book, with the option to share opinions and further questions within each articles (chapters) comment section. The blog now has about 20 articles but I am working on it on a daily basis. You'll find technique tutorials for beginners and advanced photogrpahers, lots of know-how, tips and tricks, product guides, photo business tipps, trip-reports and of course how-to plan a dedicated photo trip. This site combines all my lifes passions. Landscape Photography, Traveling, creating Websites and Writing. I hope you'll enjoy!

Greetings from the Rainforest

Note: The site is written not in english but in my own native language, which is german. Translated it is "Passion for Landscape Photography". I am writing this in german because I want to concentrate most on the content itself, not on translating and thinking in another language.

Here is the link to the site: Leidenschaft Landschaftsfotografie

In the end of august / beginning of september we decided to spent some days just relaxing in a nice beach resort on Kos island in Greece. After countless years of individual traveling I once again booked a prepackaged tour including flights, transfer and hotel - and I have to admit - it was a really enjoyable and relaxing holdiday and not a dedicated (and sometimes exhausting) photo tour like my road-trips through Scandinavia, Scotland, Iceland, Norway or Germany for instance. But of course I couldn't resist to take my large Nikon D810 camera + lenses with me, but to my own surprise I did not take a single photo with it. In fact, I did not even get it out of my backpack one time. I was just too lazy.

Kata Beach

All the images you see here are pictures made with my mobile phone (Samsung S8) in pro mode and shot in raw (not jpeg) and as usual processed in Photoshop. After a week I ended up with more than 800 photos, mostly vacation snapshots. During the first couple of days we just scouted the large hotel area and beaches and enjoyed the sweet idleness with reading at the beach, swimming along the hotel bay in the ocean and also enjoyed all the amenities of the all-inclusive offer with some decent drinks and a lot of fine food. The tranquility in the adults-only resort was just lovely and very relaxing.

Agios Nicolaos Church

On the fourth day or so we started a scouting tour with a rented Jeep throughout the whole island and explored the capital city of Kos, a typical small mountain village called Zia and of course nice sandy beaches with inviting names like "Paradise Beach", "Bubble Beach", "Magic Beach" or "Exotic Beach" for example. Noteworthy are the bubble areas at the beaches because there you can enjoy a natural phenomenon in the sea due to volcanic activity. In some areas natural - not dangerous - hot tubs (jacuzzi / whirlpool) evolve. I stood in the middle of one and enjoyed the rising bubbles all around me. A unique experience.

In the late afternoon we arrived at a pretty remote beach with only a few people there which is called "Kata Beach" (1st picture above) which for us was the best one. Because of its location on the west coast, there were the biggest waves we encountered on the island and while strolling along the beach and rugged cliffs we found a typical greek wooden boat that probably stranded there due to the dangerous surf of the bay. After taking our time there we started our way back to the hotel on the other side of the island, about an hour's drive. During the golden hour before sunset we stopped at a place called "Agios Stefanos Beach" where a little island (called Παλαιόκαστρο) with a typical church is located in front of the beach (picture above) and we also visited an ancient Basilica also directly at this beach. Btw, you can swim (almost walk all the way) from the beach to this little island, what some people actually did while we were there. It was a nice day trip and we saw a lot of the island. Back at the hotel we enjoyed Dinner and Drinks. 

Old Shipwreck

For the next day we had booked a full day cruise with a pirate ship starting in the harbour of Kos. Unfortunately we started with some delay but to glide through the turquoise-blue waters of the Aegean Sea with the ancient two-mast boat (called Captain Hook btw.) and the soundtrack of "pirates of the caribbean" was a really great experience.

We first stopped at a beach on the island Pserimos (Ψέριμος) with a small village which somehow strongly reminded me of my childhood and playing with Lego pirates back then. Today only 26 people live permanently on this little island. After an hour we continued our route around the island of Plati towards Kalimnos (Κάλυμνος) and a little town called Vathis (Βαθύς) and a special place called "dolphin bay". When we arrived there we almost instantly saw some dolphins swimming in the water and they even jumped in front of our eyes and made pirouettes. Awesome! After a while we continued towards a little fjord-like bay to Vathis. There we drank a delicious freshly squeezed orange juice for which the place is famous. Tabea did some shopping there and I took some photos and enjoyed the place. Again after an hour the ship continued its route towards another bay where all guests were invited to jump from board where they want and to swim in the ocean and then climb back over a ladder again on the ship. Another nice experience. Especially if you don't get too much salt water in your nose while diving into the sea. ^^ The ship then returned to the harbour of Kos and we to our hotel and enjoyed the rest of the evening with delicious food and a beach party at the hotel beach.

Greek House

We spent the remaining days enjoying the tranquility at the beach and the beautiful weather for which the Greek islands are so famous. In fact, we have not seen a single cloud during our time on the island, only bluebird skies like in the photos of this little trip-report. Good for the holidays and sun-bathing, bad for serious landscape photography. However, the goal of this trip was to read and relax at the beach - and yes, we have achieved this "goal"!

Breakers

Feel free to add any comments or questions below.

"I fear that future generations will judge us harshly for our failure to place proper value on wildness, diversity, open space, spirit, solitude and other treasures of the natural world still available to us today. May they at least know that some of us tried." - Guy Tal

In mid-October I revisited the rugged Dolomites in the Italian Alps to go on some kind of thoughtful and peaceful light-hunt and to enjoy the eye-wateringly spectacular views from the top of some famous mountain pass roads and hiking trails while car-camping and hiking my way through the mountains of South-Tyrol. I was there a couple of times before, one visit during summer and one during autumn. This time I wanted to focus on some places where I wasn't before, enjoy the larch foliage, the pleasant low and refreshing temperatures after the very hot and dry summer here in Europe and explore the region around Cortina d'Ampezzo even more and of course last but not least just enjoy the solitude of the mountains there far away from any stressful city full of people or distracting civilisation noise.

My favourite camping spot during the trip during sunrise

I had the designated spots I wanted to visit in my mind but not a real schedule when to do what. Since I was car camping the whole time like on various other road trips through Bavaria, whole Scandinavia, Fjord-Norway, Scotland, Saxon Switzerland, Iceland or the Lofoten Islands before, I was completely flexible and could react to the respective weather conditions and adapt my plans at any time. Although I know the area quite well I did some location scouting online in preparation of the trip and found some nice and wild camping spots and checked when the sun's position will be where at different spots to roughly plan all the hiking and shootings and so on. More on planning a photo trip or a landscape shooting here or what makes an interesting landscape photo here. 

The typical chaos in the trunk while on photo expedition

After modifying my car to its "photo expedition-mode" (photo above) with lots of blankets and pillows next to the thermarest mattress and a warm sleeping bag for the freezing tempeartures at night and buying all the food and supplies for a week in the mountains, I started the nine hour drive from Leipzig, Germany towards Toblach, Italy. On trips like this the co-drivers seat with all the photo equipment usally looks like what you see in the photo below. As usual nowadays in my photo bags are the dji phantom 4 pro plus drone, a D810 body, a backup D800E, two tripods, lots of lenses (14mm - 300mm) and filters, cable releases, cards, batteries, chargers, several backpacks and an F-Stop ICU for the hiking and of course one of the most important tools - the mobile phone (Samsung Galaxy S8) with all the useful apps, camera (pro mode with raw image files) and the possibility to keep contact with other people or call help, if needed sometime.

(some of the links in the paragraph above are Amazon Affiliate-Links)

Ford Mondeo Photo Gear

Some annoying traffic jams around Munich and a very long drive on different Autobahn sections and through three different countries later, I finally arrived just in time for sunset at the famous Lago di Braies (also called Pragser Wildsee) in Italy (photo below). I felt quite lucky to have arrived timely and to see some colour in the sky. I arrived at the parking lot during the end of the golden hour and when I approached my shooting location at the lake the clouds just began to turn from yellow to pink. After being pretty busy with photographing several perspectives along the shore, I just thought what a blessing with the timing and the light during sunset that day and what a great start of the tour. I left the place with a smile on my face and drove towards my first sleeping spot for the night. At the end of the day I called the people at home to say that I had arrived safely and then straightaway prepared the car for the night because it was already quite late and I was very tired after all the driving.

Pragser Wildsee - Prints Available

The next day I awoke after a relative short but restful night and started my car camping morning routine with brewing coffee on my gas cooker at the trunk of the car. Since I arrived during the night and in complete darkness at this first nice camping spot I only did see the impressive rugged mountains all around me with the first coffee in hand. It was breathtakingly beautiful. After taking my time for breakfast and a little walking around I started the drive towards Cortina d'Ampezzo and further to Passo Giau to the starting point of my first serious mountain hike of the trip. My heavy backpack was filled with the ICU including all my needed camera gear with a D810 body, lenses, cable release, spare batteries and CF cards, headlamp, battery torch and what not for the photography and hiking and of course some food, water and additional clothes. The multiple-hour climb to the first remote mountain lake was quite steep and very exhausting but when I finally reached the top and took a short break, it was so quiet and the view literally breathtaking at ~2050m that I forgot the effort of the ascent instantly. I took my time and surrounded the lake taking lot's of photos and absorbing the views and reflections at this very calm place. I also had lunch there and took my time to just relax and to enjoy the silence and the sun combined with a gentle breeze on my skin. Eventually I left the lake sometime in the afternoon and continued my loop hike back to the car down in the valley.

October Reflections - Prints Available

After an almost equally strenuous descent and being back at the car I had not much time and daylight left so I continued my way up another mountain pass road and wanted to have a look at my camping spot for the night which I've previously scouted online via maps. When I arrived there an hour or so before sunset I was completely thrilled! The spectacular view and the place (first pano photo above) itself were just great - and I was completely alone there - no other people around. It was so incredibly quiet without any disturbing noises from people or traffic noise or whatever, only a few birds could be heard - wonderful.

Cinque Torri Autumn - Prints Available

This was exactly what I was looking for during this trip. Spending all the time outdoors away from devices combined with a lot of hiking during the day and physical movement at the fresh air and in the evenings to find the mountain solitude I had hoped for. I enjoyed my first full evening there with a little reading and thinking and just calming down. I think due to the hiking and that I felt save at this place during the night I again slept quite well, though not very long.

Car camping in the mountains with freezing 0°C at night on 2098m

At the beginning of the third day I repeated my usual morning routine and took my own sweet time with everything I did and for instance sat in my camping chair just enjoying the sun and peacefulness of the place for a few hours. A nice contrast to the normal structured routines and procedures in my everyday life. Around noon or so I continued exploring the area and drove down to another valley nearby. My rough plan was to drive another mountain pass road and just explore nice and interesting spots along the way. On my way I accidentally came to a cinema filming scene. They had blocked the entire mountain road and you only heard a helicopter in the distance, but then, it came closer and closer towards me and so I could witness the elaborate filming of this scene. What a hassle and how many people were involved (including catering, ambulance, SUV cars with a movable camera arm and whatnot) just for a scene in the movie where a car drives on a mountain road. Watching this was incredible. They then opened the road and I thought ok, they're done with filming for today and drove along the road and stopped randomly somewhere because I wanted to take a photo there, but then they suddenly closed the road again and I was stuck there for the moment. After a minute I heard the helicopter again and then saw it flying sideways exactly towards me. Luckily I had the phone in my hand at this moment and spontaneously thought why not recording this and pressed the record button. I could hardly believe my eyes when the helicopter flew right over me and almost blew the cap off my head. What an experience. See the video below.

Compared with the impressive helicopter experience the rest of this day was pretty unspectacular. I just drove and hiked around a bit, mostly thinking of the costs and extravagance of the filming of this one motion picture scene. For sunset I planned a relative short hike to another mountain lake and started in the afternoon to be there early enough for a relaxed dinner and some location scouting there. But the reality was that I arrived there approximately an hour later after a pretty muddy and partly steep ascent and was really dissapointed because the lake looked more like a big puddle with little water in it, probably due to the countless weeks without rain in the previous months. I looked at the scenery, thought about it for a moment and reviewed the situation and came to the conclusion that it is better to change the plan for this evening. So, after taking a snapshot with the mobile phone I started the descent back to the car. A little frustrated  (I carried all the photo-equipment and the drone up there - for nothing) I drove to another, very well known place, for sunset on the summit of a pass road. The weather conditions were not so good this evening and the fact that were a lot of other photographers (10+) because of some photography workshop happening there unmotivated me a little. I tried to find my own image compositions away from the crowd and to enjoy the views and nature there but this evening I did not take any serious landscape photos. Instead I then focused on enjoying the evening at my favourite spot for the night. This lifted my spirits again at the end of this nice day and I had a good nights sleep.

Passo Giau Aerial - Prints Available

For the next morning I had planned a sunrise flight with the drone so I got up a bit earlier then normal and drove to my previously scouted location. Luckily, I was there completely alone, no other people around. I hiked to the spot where I wanted to start the flight, prepared everything and then flew around the area there trying some new perspectives, angles and technical functions with the Phantom 4 Pro+. With almost cloudless skies the weather conditions were not exactly what I had hoped for but at least there was not that much wind nor rain. The result of this early endeavor is the photo above - for example - with which I am pretty satisfied by the way. I spent about two hours there taking lots of photos with the DSLR and drone cameras enjoying the view and experimenting with different techniques and perspectives. When my stomach began to growl it was a good time to think about breakfast. So I hiked back to the car and drove down to the valley to find a nice sunny spot. As usual during this week I took my time for that and then continued my way towards the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo mountains near Misurina and Lago Antorno. A few impressive mountain pass roads with sections through nice looking golden larch woods and countless curves later I arrived at the Rifugio Auronzo on ~2350m, the starting point of the hike. The goal for this day was to get a closer look and explore and photograph the region around Lago del Piani, photo below.

Laghi dei Piani - Prints Available

And this is what I did for the rest of the day. Hiking and creating photos and enjoying the views and the nice weather. It was a delightful hike with a few ups and downs but not too demanding, with lots of breathtaking vistas and not much people around. After five hours or so of roaming around the lakes I started the hike back to the car where I arrived during the golden hour with an impressive view of the Cadini di Misurina group, photo below. Somehow the whole scene strongly reminded me of the Lord of the Rings movies, hence the title of this photo.

Towers of Mordor - Prints Available

Shortly after creating the photo above I arrived at the car and started my drive back to my favourite camping spot. On the way down from Rifugio Auronzo I came across another eye-opening scene which I hoped to find during this photo tour. Namely larch trees with their foliage at its peak and the typical rugged mountains of the Dolomites in the background with some illuminated clouds above during sunset. When I arrived at the place and saw the possibility for the photo, I quickly hurried to build the tripod and setup the camera to have a little more time for the image composition and then minutes later the photo below ended on one of my cards. I continued the drive again with a smile on my face.

Cima Cadin di San Lucano - Prints Available

When I arrived at my camp spot I prepared everything for the night and enjoyed the remainder of the evening with a decent drink and some thinking. While sitting there alone on the mountain at my campsite I thought about all kind of things - one was the proscribed trophy hunt in the realm of landscape photography. In fact, in philosophical photography circles a so called trophy hunt for iconic or even unknown place is often frowned upon but imho and my past experiences it is indeed very satisfying when you spend hours planning a possible photo at home with some maps or Google Earth and all kind of other tools like The Photographer's Ephemeris for example, to spend countless hours of traveling to the location (driving, flying, by boat or whatever) and not to forget all the strenuous hikes with a heavy backpack to get to the place (often in the dark, very late or early in the day) and then everything materialises like in a dream and your previsualised photo you imaged at home is formed in front of your eyes and everything works out as you hoped for and all is left to do is pressing the shutter and capture the beautiful scene you see - this is just a great feeling! And yes, I like to take this often spurned trophy photo home - for all the planning and effort and the anxiety about the weather and other circumstances during the shooting or trip. Honestly, I can not find anything wrong with it. After planning another attempt to shoot my long anticipated sunrise-photo of a peak in the nearby Saxon Switzerland National Park and finally got all the circumstances right after planning, driving, hiking and spending a night alone in the mountains it just felt great - like a success. I had the exact same feeling while creating other photos in the past years which involved a lot of planning and maybe several tries. Of course, this only applies when you've done all the scounting, planning, getting there alone and learned the needed shooting techniques before and not only captured your "trophy photo" during a payed photo "adventure" tour with a guide who plans everything for you, leads you to the places, and teaches you the techniques on site - because then it's really only a plain trophy hunt and not a personal experience, accomplishment and success for yourself. I understand why many people do that and take this shortcut but for me this is not the kind of experience I strive for with my photography. In the end, everyone must decide for themselves what they prefer. Anyways, I was happy with my week in the mountains so far, both the experiences and the photographic results.

The mountains are calling

That said, of course it always feels good when a plan works, but unlike past years when I was dissapointed when I was unlucky with the weather or whatever, I now (mostly) can enjoy the trip anyway and appreciate being outdoors away from the distractions and just enjoy solitude. But, I have also to admit, that was not the case from the beginning of my photographic journey. My inner mindset changed over the recent years to the mantra "experience first - photography second - read more in this article. 

For the last day I planned some more exploration and driving through the mountains of the Dolomites to a region I first visited seven years ago near San Martino di Castrozza. For whatever reason, back then, I never visited the specific place I now wanted to explore. It was a 2.5 hour drive again on very narrow and winding mountain roads, but when I arrived there, I immediately liked the place very much. With the forest and sounds of the rivers running through it, the location reminded me a lot on my virtual adventures in Skyrim. 

Val Venegia - Prints Available

After the tiring drive on these winding and treacherous roads another hike was more than welcome. So, I quickly grabbed my photo gear and something to eat and to drink and started my way towards the valley called Val Venegia. After half an hour of constantly walking up through the forest a beautiful valley with forests and foliage, rivers, small rapids and waterfalls and of course the impressive rugged mountains in the background unveiled before my eyes and I could hardly believe it. What a place! I walked along the river and soaked up the whole scenery with all its nuances, sounds and scents.

And then, I somehow thought it would be a great idea to drive back to Leipzig in the evening and through the night to avoid traffic jams etc. instead of spending a last night in Italy at this beautiful place. Yeah, I ended up with another nine hour drive, a traffic jam in Innsbruck, Austria, another one at the border to Germany and then a very stressful drive back home through Germany and the darkness of the night with an unbelievable amount of cars on the Autobahn on a Friday evening. Welcome back to civilisation! But however, finally it only remains to say that it was again a terrific photo tour in the mountains with great experiences, sweet solitude and quite a few new photos of course.

See more photos from Italy in this gallery and of course feel free to add any comments or questions below.

In early July I had a week off from work and decided relatively spontaneously to do a little bavarian lakes photo tour in the german Alps. I wanted to revisit some places I last visited about 10 years ago, scout some new locations and primarily just enjoy nature and relax but also do some decent mountain hikes which I wanted to do for quite a few years now, like the so called "Höllentalklamm" (devils deep), a very impressive, narrow, rugged and wild gorge near the Zugspitze (Germany's highest mountain, 2962m).

This time I had no particular photos in my mind which I wanted to create like I often have on my other photo motivated trips like the Heringstein Mountain Bivouac - instead I wanted to focus on the outdoor experience and just take photos along the way. That said, I ended up with almost 2000 new photos taken with the Nikon D810, the DJI Phantom 4 Pro Plus drone and my Samsung Galaxy S8 mobile device - and I am pretty satisfied with the photographic results! The photo below shows my very organised storage management of all the photo equipment on the co-drivers seat. The drone, a D810 body, a backup D800E, two tripods, lots of lenses (14mm - 300mm) and filters, cable releases, cards, batteries, chargers, several backpacks and an ICU for hiking and whatnot.

Ford Mondeo Photo Gear

Here is a view of the chaos in the trunk where I've slept in the back of the drivers seat next to all the camping gear, needed clothes and food for such a trip. The trunk of the Mondeo has plenty of space for all this stuff and me sleeping stretched out without any problems with 1,81m size. With some blankets, pillows and a Thermarest mat with sleeping bag it is reasonably cozy and comfortable during the night.

Ford Mondeo Trunk Camping

I packed and loaded up my expedition modified Ford Mondeo like I did on several photo tours before, for example during my roadtrip  through Scotland and hit the road on very warm and cloudless ~30°C summer day and I was very happy to go to some colder climes in the mountains and out of the stressful, loud and hectic city.

After a seven hour drive I arrived at my first location, a lake called "Hintersee" near Berchtesgaden in Southern Germany at about six in the evening. Funnily, 10 minutes after I arrived there a two-hour thunderstorm with hail, heavy rain and incredibly loud thunder started and I was sitting in the car on a parking lot directly at the lake and enjoying the show in front of me. The temperature dropped from 21°C to 11°C in 15 minutes or so. During the second hour I was a bit disappointed and worried about my planned evening stroll and sunset shooting. Fortunately the weather calmed down in time and I had enough time left to scout the lake and possible locations for sunset. As it turned out the thunderstorm was good for interesting photo opportunities with a lot of fog and mist in the air which created some nice mystical conditions at the mountain lake. See the photos below.

Hintersee - Prints Available

Mystic Mountain - Prints Available

Bavarian Coast - Prints Available

Raven Island - Prints Available

Reflection Mountain - Prints Available

Two additional photos from previous visits:

Mountain Ghosts - Prints Available

Summer Solitude - Prints Available

After sunset I drove to my previously scouted location to spent the night in the car there. It was a very nice and quiet spot in the forest, not far from the lake. I've slept quite well but not that much. After breakfast I strolled around in a nearby forest called "Zauberwald" (fairytale forest) which was a nice experience, except the company of too many other tourists.

Hintersee Fairytale Forest - Prints Available

Ramsauer Ache

Fairytale Forest Hiking Path

After that I started my drive towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Zugspitz region on a road called "Deutsche Alpenstrasse". It was a very nice and scenic 190 kilometers drive on partly steep and narrow roads but with great vistas along the way. A nice contrast to the monotonous seven hour drive on the Autobahn the day before. In the late afternoon I arrived at my next destination, a large artificial lake called "Sylvensteinstausee" - of course in the pouring rain. I scouted the location but postponed my planned flight with the drone to take some photos of the place and continued my way towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 

Wild Bavaria - Prints Available

Along the way I discovered a very special place I didn't know before and which I hadn't expected. A place which impressed me a lot, especially seen from above with the drone. It strongly reminded my on the vastness of the landscape of my northern adventures last year in Scandinavia. See photos below of the impressive valley with its streams and forests, the river Isar and the Rißbachtal, all enclosed by mountains.

Rissbachtal - Prints Available

Sylvensteinsee - Prints Available

Isar Aerial - Prints Available

In the evening I hiked from a parking lot called "Alpencamp" some paths at the mountain called Wank and strolled around and enjoyed the vistas over Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Due to the rain and grey skies I did not take any interesting photos that evening. When I woke up the next day the skies were still grey and the rain was still pouring. So I opted for the hike up and through the Höllentalklamm. One of the wildest and most adventurous hikes I ever did, until now. The hike started in the hamlet Hammersbach and led along the river, through really nice forests and between the massive mountains Waxenstein (2277m) and Alpspitze (2628m). All the rain and the fog in the mountains and forest gave the hike a very mystical touch and pretty intense green colors. See some snapshots of this breathtaking hike below.

After an hour or so of constant, partly quite steep ascent I arrived at the gorge entrance. The landscape suddenly changed and it became very loud due to the Hammersbach river crashing down in the deep and narrow gorge. Water was literally everywhere and as I continued my way on the countless ladders, bridges, tunnels and stairs I got wet to the skin of icy glacier water. With 12° C outside temperature, it was a pretty refreshing experience! 

I've spent quite some time completely wet in the icy cold canyon and took countless pictures, always fighting with water on the lenses and the cold in my fingers and then eventually enjoyed the wider Höllental (devils valley) with its more open landscape and very mystic atmosphere with all the mist and fog in the air and the spectacular views and vistas along the hiking path in this high mountain wilderness. It was breathtaking and I enjoyed it very much but after three hours completely wet and cold I decided to descend back to the village but again through the raging gorge. I think I only needed a little more than an hour to get back to the parking lot and then I was very glad to have a hotel room to dry all the wet clothes and to enjoy a very long and hot shower.

Altough this trip-report is named "Bavarian Lakes Tour", this impressive and adventurous mountain hike might be the true highlight of the trip. It was a very memorable and intense experience that I do not want to miss! Due to the weather and the strenuous hike I've spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing and warming up again.

In the evening however I drove to a lake called Lüttensee near the village Mittenwald, scouting for image compositions but left the place without a single photo. For sunset I drove to a famous alpine lake called Geroldsee (or Wagenbrüchsee) but the thick gray clouds of rain prevented even seeing the mountains behind the lake, so I just enjoyed being there breathing the fresh mountain air and appreciating solitude without creating images. To give you a sense for the place here are some photos I created there some years ago.

Geroldsee Reflection - Prints Available

Geroldsee Huts - Prints Available

The next day the rain finally stopped and I visited a Viking village (picture below) directly at a huge lake called Walchensee and revisited the place which impressed me so much the other day. I really enjoyed taking my time there doing my thing, strolled around the area and flew around with the drone in search of new image compositions, soaking in the wild landscapes.

Viking House

On my last evening I've explored and enjoyed the area around the Eibsee and scouted for new image compositions. The weather was cooperating with my photographic endeavors, so I was fortunate to create some (imho) decent new photos. See some of them below. It was such a nice place to be! Very quiet with no winds, almost no other people around and I enjoyed the scenery and the smell off a nice summer evening at the mountain lake a lot! I kept shooting and being in awe of the landscape until the last light was gone und then hiked back about 4km to the car through the dark forest during the blue hour. The forest there somehow reminded me on the forest of Saxon Switzerland with all the huge rocks and ancient, rolling paths and so on.

Ludwigs Island - Prints Available

Eibsee Golden Hour - Prints Available

Almbichl Aerial - Prints Available

Eibsee - Prints Available

The next day, I started my way back home and with lots of new experiences and photos made, I returned with a smile on my face, looking forward to review and process all the new images.

Feel free to add any comments or questions below.

"I fear that future generations will judge us harshly for our failure to place proper value on wildness, diversity, open space, spirit, solitude and other treasures of the natural world still available to us today. May they at least know that some of us tried." - Guy Tal

Last week I spontaneously decided to give a long anticipated photo another chance to be finally realized. There is only a time window of a about a month per year to create this photo where the sun is at the right desired position during sunrise, clear horizons provided. Only between the end of May and mid-June the suns position at sunrise would be there directly behind the rugged peak of the Heringstein summit which results in a nicely composed and interesting image, at least in my humble opinion. As usual I've planned this trip with various apps, maps and tools like Photographers Ephemeris (screenshot below) to know where the suns position is when or GPSies (among others) to plan the hiking. But so far, previously either the weather was suboptimal or I had no time or motivation to be up there at 4:30 in the morning. My last attempt was about two years ago where I had to cancel my mountain bivouac in the middle of the night due to a upcoming thunderstorm. On last friday the weather forecast for the next two days looked stable and promising enough for me to motivate myself for another try.  

Honestly, I had not that much expectation for the perfect circumstances and weather conditions and hope to be able to create the exact image which I had previsualized in my mind but I was really looking forward to the nature experience during the weekend and to be out of the loud and stuffy city and hike through the mountains and enjoy the forests, views and the fresh air instead. Nevertheless the whole trip was planned around this possible sunrise shooting at the peak called Heringstein where I was many times before. I also wanted to just explore the area and some other and new places I don't know so far and to scout possible new locations for upcoming photo trips into the region. (By the way, the images below are shot with my mobile phone, Samsung Galaxy S8 in pro mode)

I started the tour in the early afternoon in Leipzig and drove towards Dresden and the Saxon Switzerland National Park. Luckily I had no traffic jams and was there in time, like I planned it. After arriving at the parking lot I immediately started the hike. It was a very sweaty and exhausting hike with my heavy backpack with all the photo equipment in my ICU (Nikon D810, 14-24mm, 24-120mm, Tripod, Filters, Batteries, Remote Release etc.) and of course the food, enough to drink, additional clothes, camping gear and whatnot needed in order to spend a night in the mountains. But shortly after I started the hike through the forest I also started to calm down and shake off all the stress of everyday life. Nice.

Once the beginning very steep sections were overcome I even more enjoyed nature, the forest and its natural sounds without any disturbing noices of civilization. When I arrived at the top of the plateau the first thing was to check out the place where I wanted to bivouac during the night. It's a bit hidden and off the trial. As I hoped nobody was there and everything looked as in my memory, so I continued my hike to another place (roughly a 40 minutes walk away) where I wanted to shoot sunset.

On my way I enjoyed some really nice eye-opening vistas and I came along some places where the forest smelled like some kind of sauna infusion. This was really awesome and I enjoyed this natural forest scent and the scenery along the way very much. 

Relaxing and soaking in the scenery

When I arrived at my sunset location there were a couple of other people. Of course they were sitting right in my desired image composition and frame. So I waited for about an hour or so there until the beginning golden hour and sunset and finally opted for another composition, which was also ok, but not what I really wanted. You can't have it all, I guess. At least this time the weather was as expected.

Shooting sunset at Carolafelsen

After sunset, during the beginning blue hour, I made my way back to my bivouac place for the night. I was worried that maybe other people would be there too by then, but fortunately I again was alone there. Below you see a photo of my small campsite directly at the sunrise location. When everything was set up and prepared I chatted a bit with my girlfriend on the phone and then tried to sleep a little.

My little bivouac camp for the night

The night was unbelievably quiet and peaceful. There were absolutely no sounds, no birds, no wind, nothing. From time to time I heard a few other campers in the distance, that was all. A very special experience being there all night alone and in the dark on the mountain, just laying on ground without any protection around you like a tent, a car, a flat or a house like most of us are used to. I did not really sleep though. Two times a bat flew over me very closely and I had two visits of creepy-crawlies on me. The end of the "night" was at about 4 o´clock in the morning when I unexpectedly heard some voices coming out of the dark forest exactly towards me. First, I was a bit scared and frightened but then I saw that the three tall guys were photographers too. We had a nice chat and then started to prepare our camera gear for sunrise.

Shooting sunrise at Heringstein

When the sun hit the horizon at about 5 o'clock in the morning I was prepared and at the right position where I had planned to be. Luckily there were no clouds at the horizon an no mist coming up from the valley. (I once climped a peak called Kl. Winterberg for sunrise only to see thick mist there and not the desired vista and the rugged mountains I hoped for and returned without a single photo from that trip.) So, this time I was happy with the conditions and started to shoot several image compositions and exposure brakets as well as some frames with a closed aperture (F-Stop for the sunstar) in order to blend it later all nicely in a final single photo like the ones you see below.  Looking back this time everything worked out fantastically. From the preparations of the trip to the execution and the weather conditions at sunset, during the night and of course the sunrise which made me walk down the mountain and back to the car with a smile on my face. After some fruitless attempts I was finally able to create the photo I had in my mind for quite awhile now. Yes!

Her are the final processed photos:

Heringstein Sunrise - Prints Available

Vizima - Prints Available

Sunset Fortress - Prints Available

Feel free to add any comments or questions below.