I took this photo a short time before sunset, as the sun was just about to hide behind the mountains. The last rays of the sun gave a nice glow to the city and that’s what I was trying to capture here.

I had a “funny” experience while taking this photo. I was standing around one meter from Danube, totally focused on my camera and not looking that much on what was happening around me. I was almost alone on this small beach and the water was quite calm. So when a ship passed by, I took no notice and just continued to take photos. To my big surprise, the ship had a much bigger effect on the water than I thought, and when I finally noticed what was happening, I was already standing in a 40cm water. This wouldn’t normally be so bad, but I was in my trekking shoes and jeans and both were soaked immediately. One could call it a funny way to end a photography trip :)

This is a manual blend from 4 photos, all taken through a HOYA ND400 9stop ND filter. Photo taken across the Danube from Durnstein in Austria.

When shooting daytime landscapes I really like when there are some clouds. Even if they don’t look good, they still provide some shade and make the light more interesting. The opposite can be seen here. After weeks of 35+ degree weather and no rain, there were absolutely no clouds that day. Of course for the sunset they magically appeared, together with a very heavy thunderstorm :)

I really like how most of the ruins in Austria are opened without any limitations. You just go there and take photos. No entry, nobody to tell you what to do and similar. Of course all is at your own risk, but that the same even if there is someone. I was also surprised how all was nice and clean. Somebody must have been taking a good care of it :)

This is a manual blend from 4 shots. Taken from top of the tower of the Hinterhaus castle ruins above Spitz in Austria. I included a little behind the camera shot on the side. I usually put those on my Facebook page, but why not sometimes also show them here :)

Continuing with another shot from Austria. This was not a part of my recent trip, but I went there today. Hainburg is very close to Bratislava, so it took only a short while to get there. And since there is a nice hill right next to it, and you can get with a car to the top of it, it’s great for a quick sunset shooting. No luck for clouds, but still the view was really nice.

This is a manual blend from 4 shots.

There will be few more beautiful green landscapes now, as that’s what I took most photos in Austria. This is a view from another castle ruin (I visited three in those two days there), this one being the the Durnstein Castle. It gives you a very nice exercise to get up to it, but the view is worth it.

This is a manual blend from 8 shots. I actually took 12 here, two series of 6. One time for the scenery, and the second series with my hand in front of the sun, so I can remove all the lens flares the sun created. This photo was really not easy to edit :)

New Smugmug

Today it will be a little longer post :). So first thing. Smugmug changed it’s look recently so I also changed the way my portfolio page (www.hdrshooter.net) looks. I think it looks better now, but I still have to do a lot more customization to it, so it look less generic. But all takes time. But one thing they added, which I really like, is that you can change the order of the photos in a gallery. Finally :)

1 000 000 photo views

When on the Smugmug topic. I checked my statistics there and I just reached 1 000 000 photo views as counted from the 1st January of this year. Big thank you to all who visited my potfolio, and I hope you will again find reasons to take a look at it :)

Top 5 spots in Paris

Also maybe some of you noticed a new addition to the Top 5 spots category. This time I added the Top 5 photography spots in Paris. As I’m not yet such familiar with the whole of Paris, please take this more as a top 5 must visit spots there. All give you great photo opportunities and should be visited.

View from the Aggstein castle ruins

And finally the daily photo. Today it’s the view form the Aggstein castle ruins in Austria. The view from there is just stunning and you don’t even have to walk up there, as the road goes completely up to the castle :) I could spend hours here. If you are ever close by, I definitively suggest a visit.

This is a manual blend from 5 shots.