Landscape: Bi-polar weather

Exceptional light seems easy to come by in the "hills" of Jura on the border between Switzerland and France. I am particularly fond of the light that results from a "bi-polar" weather, where one part of the sky is clear with a brimming sun and the other side is full of an approaching storm of menacingly black clouds. These conditions are probably the only time I can bear photographing trees only. These photos are from a tour a month a go or so, when this bi-polar weather condition was very strong.

Landscape: Outing in the Alps

Following the lack of skiable snow the last couple of weeks in Switzerland, we have resorted to snowshoes and crampons for our outings. Slush snow and 15 degrees in the middle of January makes for bad skiing, yet clear skies and towering mountains makes for good landscape photography. In this case my session was a study in the triad of the legendary mountains Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. The North Face of Eiger is particularly well know among mountaineers and climbers for being one of the most difficult ascents in the Alps - a vertical wall devoid of sunshine and with a height of around 1600 m and conditions that are often not favorable for climbing. For those in the know, it is classified as ED (Extremely Difficult), one of the few in the Alps.

Eiger and Mönch in an "Arabian Night" kind of interpretation.
The north face of Eiger to the left is rendered heavily shadowed reflecting its menacing character.

Mönch in a very interesting light, where the sunset orange is reflected from Eiger on the left to illuminate the left side of Mönch orange as well.

Crazy skies continue

I had a portrait photo shoot around Lake Geneva yesterday, and in between I had the opportunity to capture the sky that turned more and more crazy.

Skies in Jura

People say it rains much in the Jura. It might be true, but the rain often passes quickly, and when doing so the sky sometimes turns crazy - like last evening. A few snaps taken during a break in the portrait post processing marathon!

Jura skies. Obviously with polarizer ;)

Lac Léman

Switzerland is very different from other areas of central Europe. Although the ocean is more than 450 km away you are never far away from a beach with azur blue water! Such as the croissant formed Lac Léman (or Lake Geneva), which is certainly special, as its lofty dimensions make it feel like you are gazing out over an endless ocean horizon. This is especially true when standing in either extremity of the croissant, Geneva in the west or Vevey in the east (however, maybe not so much in Lausanne in the middle).

The photo is taken from a wine yard in Chexbres overlooking the French Pre-alps. The conditions were very interesting at the top of the cliff. Although it might not be evident, the windchill factor is very present close to the lake, and by the time I took this photo my hands resembled extremities that did not belong to my body - it was that cold. Nonetheless, I enjoyed every second.

Lake Geneva seen from Chexbres, Switzerland

Starry Sky over Jura

A choice when photographing starry skies is whether to render stars as dots or as lines. The former requires short exposure times and the latter longer. However, to reach something resembling a dot an exposure time of less than 30 seconds is needed (exact time depends on where in the sky the lens is pointed). To achieve this in a pitch black sky (appx. EV 0 or less) the sensitivity need to be high, i.e. very high ISO. This photo is exposed during 64 seconds at ISO 3200. Already at this shutter speed the stars are suspiciously "long".

The photo is taken south, and Orion is clearly visible in the right side, with the Jura rendered black. What nicely looks like a sunset is however nothing more than light pollution from the densly populated "Schweizer Mittelland", the flat(ter) space between Jura and the Alps. There is nothing revolutionary with this photo, other than the fact that it is taken from my balcony!

 Starry sky over Jura, Switzerland

Massif de Jura

We are now settled in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Our apartment is located in Couvet - a smallish town among the hills of Jura. With an unobstructed view of the mountains from the balcon, it is very inspiring photographically. Having spent most off time in the Alps, I have had little opportunity explore the beauty of my immediate surrounding. However, a week or so ago my free time coincided with the light I had been waiting for. It was just to throw tripod, my trusted 5D2, and my landscape lenses in the car and drive up the mountain to find a good spot.

The photo is of houses in the Val-de-travers valley of Neuchâtel being sidelit and almost "torched" by the setting sun. I find it interesting how the polarizer often manages to tint non-sunlit areas more blue than usual, a property I was not aware of with these little babies (as they are usually called for to deepen skies and reduce reflections). I for sure need to investigate this more. In this case, however, this gives a nice partition of the photo into fields colored by light temperatures, an extreme orange from setting-sun light in focus, extreme blue from the polarizer in the background, and a more "normal" temperature in the foreground.

"Sun torched" houses in Val-de-travers, Switzerland