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.

Johannesbachklamm - Is Autumn Late Or What Is Going On?

Johannesbachklamm
16mm, 30 sec, F16, ISO 100

I cannot find those great deep autumn colours those weeks. We have entered into October on our calendar, at least the one in front of me, and still everything is more or less green. Leaves are falling and falling and still things are green. Wherever I go I look for colours of Autumn and to me it has not waken up yet fully. I keep visiting different places with trees and nothing ends up as planned. One, two weeks I hope. At the most. Then it will be only few days and all will be over for this year, snow will come and all will change. Gosh, I need to get new winter tyres this month.

Anyway, today in search of autumn I decided to visit Johannesbachklamm (gorge) by Würflach (Schneeberg Land, Niederösterreich) not far from Hohe Wand, one of my favourite locations around Vienna. The gorge itself is approximately 1 km long and 60m deep.

In principle I was after deep reds and yellows and water streams with floating fallen leaves. I got streams, rocks, greens in quite good quantities but reds and yellows are still not there, at least not as much as I wished for. I went shooting during midday and this was another reason to head into woods to kill sunlight above me. Shadows from trees even during midday can create nice atmosphere and produce good soft diffused light. So in the end I should not complain.