Bad Weather Cont'd - Höllental Valley

Bridge over Schwarza river in Höllental
by Reichenau an der Rax
16mm, 13 sec, f/16, ISO 100

Weather has been quite stable, all the time grey and wet and sometimes also foggy. For shooting concerts assignments that occupied me recently it did not really matter but for landscapes, I had to take that into consideration. If you cannot change it, you have to adapt to the conditions and find advantages of the situation. This morning I got up quite late... way after 10, however considering the fact I came back from the gig shooting last night and had one day before, it was quite early... I need to sleep from time to time. (CRO pictures from Gasometer Halle can be seen on my site).

I looked through the window and saw same grey and wet world. But I had to go out somewhere, I needed some nature, and silence, and water, and colours, and trees, and fresh air. When whole surrounding is covered by thick layer of clouds time of the day does not matter, I mean to have quality light. You can shoot all day under that massive soft box spread all over you. I headed towards Höllental around noon in the end. Höllental means... Hell Valley, it is a narrow valley between the steep limestone massifs of the Schneeberg and Rax with Schwarza river in between. Magnificent location to say the least, you have got mountains, forest, river, waterfalls, from time to time you even loose phone coverage.

It is not the best picture. It was really wet already,
But I liked the fisherman adding some
extra life to this scene.
16mm, 4 sec, f/11, ISO 800

I was after wet picture with colours of trees and leaves popping out bringing life into the scene. I chose this rocky mountain river because I knew the the place, have been there few times but this time bad weather could really bring up the colours. The valley is quite deep and you do not get much of morning or afternoon light ever, during midday all looks dull, I think wet weather like that is the best for shooting there, and especially now during Autumn.

I loaded my waders having in mind shooting from water level and low which meant getting into water. Those water streams or in this case it is actually mountain river can be quite deep thus normal rubber boots are not enough. In some cases I was way above my waist in water especially when I tried to get to opposite bank. Right in the middle of the river one can really feel the power of water, the current is really strong and I had problems with keeping my position. Aha, the water is quite cold, make sure you wear something warm underneath. I did try to take few shots from the middle of the river pointing up to get the bridge and and mountain in the clouds behind but I was not successful. Moving water simply caused tripod to vibrate and the pictures came out shaken. I managed to get few decent shots but had to pump up ISO quite high to minimize the shutter speed.

Schwarza river in Höllental
by Reichenau an der Rax
16mm, 10 sec, f/16, ISO 100

Once in water, with gear still in safe dry place, I kept wandering from stone to stone, rock to rock, looking for good composition with running waters, red, orange, yellow leaves stuck on rocks sticking out of water. I needed to get as close to them as possible - less than 1 meter away from them. Frame should be surrounded by trees or something else interesting, in my case it was a bridge, actually two bridges - I shot in to different places, and should have mountain in the back. Normally there was a mountain but today it was simply hidden by clouds. Which is also good, actually perhaps even better, it adds some drama to the scene saying great vivid place even during such harsh conditions.

I actually like bridges, and like to shoot them, and I put it in the frame on purpose. It gave sense of some subtle civilization merged in this quiet natural surrounding. Also a bridge is a strong long line and leads viewer's eye all the way to the back of the pictures. You start with leaves and rocks, the jump to bridge and colourful trees and end up seeing foggy mountain and back to rock with leaves in front. All deliberately framed. And as usual I shot horizontal and vertical compositions, they both have different impact and different purpose. Vertical shots have greater three dimensional depth and seem deeper than horizontal. I am putting here two versions of exactly same frame and you can comment which one speaks more to you.

Schwarza river in Höllental by Reichenau an der Rax
16mm, 15 sec, f/16, ISO 100

It was good session, I still have not composed all ideas I had in mind, it became dark and really wet. At one stage I had to clean filters and lens from moisture and drops of water every 1-2 minutes so basically before every shot. If you decide to head for shooting in such weather conditions, make sure you have good clean cloth to constantly wipe off water from your precious glass.

Here's one shot taken with my phone showing same picture but from behind the camera. Note how close is rock with leaves and those pointy green rocks here, and how far away they seem on vertical shot above.

Again, fantastic place where you can spend days and weeks shooting.

All pictures in better resolution can be viewed on my site Waterfalls & Gorges

Till next time.

Cheers
Jerzy