Sahara dust – or did we wake up on Mars?

Last night, during quite clear conditions, the majority of the stars vanished in a haze. The bright moon did the rest to let me cease imaging. The haze was not actually a haze, but rather the dust carried from the Sahara desert to central Europe.
In the morning, the rising Sun appeared rather soft and set in a diffuse sky. If there were no buildings, but red sandy flats, one could be tempted to be viewing new images from Mars 😉

Autumn Impressions from Hallstatt and Altaussee

I love these autumn days with pristine weather. Temperatures are still pleasent. The many red, brown, yellow and some green leaves combined with blue skies create the perfect scenery for walks and hikes.
This wonderful October day had just everything of the above, set in the mountain region in Salzkammergut in Austria! The following images were taken in Hallstatt as well as around Altausseersee…

Comet C2020 F3 NEOWISE

This years best view of a comet has finally been visible in my region. Weather conditions have been really favorable for a night time spectacle.
Combined with the setting across my home town Graz, viewing from top of Plabutsch (located at the eastern edge of Graz) permitted the comet to rise exactly next to the 2 antennas on the mountain top of Schöckl in 14km distance.

See how remarkably bright the comet is in the wider angle image below. This image was taken with a mobile phone camera! And the comet is clearly visible!

The timelapse video shows the comet rising at 02:38 CEST until mid of nautic twilight at 03:54 CEST. See the amazing pattern of the noctilucent clouds going in waves!

Comet C2020 F3 NEOWISE rising over mount Schöckl (1445m) near Graz, Austria

What a day at Tauplitz ski resort

Today I had the chance to go to Tauplitz ski resort. The weather forecast predicted for a quite instable day, including rain. The morning rain at Tauplitz was actually snow fall creating pristine conditions . Further more, the clouds opened up and did give way for a wonderful day up in the mountains. In the surrounding areas and from the late afternoon on (on the way home) there was still rain and a lot of cloud coverage. But that did not matter at all.

This is central Austria in best winter / skiing conditions:

Sunset in Graz, Austria

Graz is a town, having still a city center with a lot of its original medieval flair. One of the best places to watch a sunset is on top of Schlossberg. There you may find Uhrturm (the clock tower). This landmark may be seen from most parts of the town. This is how it looks like:

HDR sunset at Horseshoe Bend

The Horseshoe Bend is an incredible place to see a sunset. When you arrive at the right time, a front row “seat” may still be available. Though nowadays literally crowds are streaming to the canyon rim to see the Horseshoe Bend. But be aware of the steep drop right next to you! The 300m straight down are nothing for the faint at heart. And you sure wont want to drop anything as it would just be lost forever.

Now if you are careful and ensure that spectators wont ruin your shots, you may set up the camera quite close to the edge. I took my turn and created a HDR sequence (5 photos per frame) of the sun descending behind the horizon:

Nighttime slider hyperlapse at Liptovsky Mara, Slovakia

In mid may I was invited to a wedding in Slovakia. All the day I was busy shooting the happy couple as well as the guests. When night fell upon the lake right beside the location, I set up my slider with 4 meters of rails and let it run for almost 2 hours. This time I added a rotating device for panning across the scenery. Unfortunately the unit stopped after 1 hour for no good. So the resulting video has a somewhat strange change of movement in the middle.

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