This past week I returned to the Liechtenstein Castle (Schloss) to photograph it in morning light. The original plan was for early in the week to keep the fall colours but M. got sick and it wasn't until Thursday morning that she was well enough to go back to school. So Thursday I got up at 4:45am and was on my way by 5:30am. That's early. It is a 2 hr drive from our apartment in Strasbourg back to the castle. So if you want first light.. Truthfully I should have left an hour earlier but, I am not that good at mornings. You can see the results in the gallery here. I was incredibly happy when I arrived and the sun was struggling with cloud cover. Circumstances like that can help create really dramatic photos. I knew from my visit on the weekend I wanted to get some establishing shots from the far side of the valley but, first, I had to find my vantage point. Some wandering on barely marked roads finally got me there. A great sight line at a similar altitude. As I started to set up the light broke through the clouds right onto castle and surrounding forest. I quickly made a few frames before it went away. I then returned for the rest of my equipment and settled down to experiment. The castle itself didn't open until 9:00am so, I had time before I wanted to be there. I tried different lenses and tried a few long exposures with my 10 stop ND filter when a rainbow started to form right behind the castle. I reset to the shot I wanted and fired away. Finally the sun lit the castle and the rainbow gleamed above the forest and, then, it was gone again. No rainbow, no sunlit castle. I waited a few more minutes and one last burst of sun popped through. Now it was time to go to the castle and get inside. As I parked the car the skies had filled in grey and a few raindrops fell. I grabbed a snack and stopped for a coffee before I went for a walk outside the castle walls. After a while, the sky appeared to be brighter and I went into the castle. Shortly after I had gone in a bus pulled up and a tour group fell out. I hoped that they wouldn't be in any shots I wanted when the light was right. They generally wandered around the grounds and then collectively went into the castle proper. Shortly after this the sun did reappear and I was able to create the next series of images I wanted. Happy, but tired, I felt that familiar feeling in neck that meant I was coming down with something. Time for me to go back home.
Monday, I had to grab the kids and get out of the house. JBN has an exam this week and needed to study, uninterrupted. That is not really possible in the same apartment with a 3 yr old and a 4 yr old. So, the kids and I headed back to Germany to go see Geroldsau waterfalls (wasserfälle). It was a nice drive to the falls, about 1 hour 40 minutes and then the was a path of about 1.8 km. We walked most of the way before the kids wanted to turn back, I brought out my camera after we turned back to the car and was able to stop a few times and make images while the kids got a bit of a break. After we returned to the car and had our picnic lunch we returned home. The weather was overcast, but those are the best conditions to shoot waterfalls. I was using my new 16-35 f4 L IS lens and couldn't be happier. A few of the images were shot 1/10 of a second hand held and they are sharp. Good day.
This week we are off to Scotland for 2 weeks, so you can expect something.. different?