Snow covered Hallstatt

I visited Hallstatt in Austria few times before, but I always wanted to go back during winter, to get some nice photos of it covered with snow. And with a fellow photographer Pedro Kin (from pedrokinphotography.com) we planed to do a road trip there last Friday. But, not the amount of snow that fallen the last week was so big, that the roads into Hallstatt were closed. So we decided to postpone.

And we postponed it to yesterday, when we did the trip. And wow, there was still a lot of snow. We visited Hallstatt and a nearby lake Altausseer See. We got some nice photos, that I will share mine with you here on the blog. The biggest problem actually was to get to some places, as getting through a 1m or more of snow without sinking into it was not possible. Should have bought snow shoes:)

Today’s photo is a typical view of Hallstat, but this time with all the snow. It is a 2 shot panorama, each shot from three exposures. I was a bit lucky here, as for some reason the light on the church tower was off in one of the photos. As it always creates an overexposed area, I was quite happy how it looks without it. Shot’s combined into panorama in PTgui, edited in Photoshop.

Sun at the horizon

I really like the lighthouse at the Neusidlersee. Probably because it’s the only one that is relatively close. Not that many lighthouses in central Europe :). I took this photo few weeks ago during a very cold and windy evening there. I just set the camera to do a long exposure and tried not to freeze my finger off as I forgot my gloves. But the results were nice.

For this photo I did the double processing technique. That is you edit the photo twice from the RAW and then blend the results together. Here I did one edit to get the sky and most of the photo how I liked. But the lighthouse looked dirty. It’s white, so when it’s dark it does not look so great. So I did a second edit, just for the lighthouse, and the blended these two together using layers in Photoshop.

This is a two shot panorama, taken with the VFfoto 10 stop ND filter.

Calm morning in Hallstatt

Let’s go with another very early morning photo. This one of course from Hallstatt in Austria. It’s again from the very famous spot there. I do have photo from different views, but since I have been here for the sunrise and sunset, the other ones are not that great. I will go definitively go back here, so next time I plan mostly to take photos of the other views :)

This is a two shot vertorama (but cropped down a lot), merged in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.

Moments before sunset

I really like to include the sun in my photos. It makes for a bit harder editing, but that a price I’m willing to pay for a nice photo. It is a bit easier when it’s already close to the sunset, as the light from the sun is no longer so bright (mostly). This photo was taken two weeks ago at the Lighthouse at Neusidelrsee in Austria.

This is a single long exposure, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop. I used a 10stop VFfoto filter here.

Back alley view

You know that I really like these huge lanscapes and panorama that capture as much as possible. But here and there is nice to focus on something else, a small area, to do a different kind of photo. And today is one of those :)

I took this photo sometime back while visiting the town of Melk in Austria. This was actually the view of the hotel room we were stain in in that tow. I wanted to stay, as there is a huge monastery there, that just looks great. But you will not find a photo of it on the blog, as it was under reconstruction that year. But now it’s finished and I know next time I’m there I will get some photos :) Melk is also one of the spots I suggest you visit in my Top spot guide for the Wachau Valley.

This is a blend of three exposures, edited in Lightroom and blended in Photoshop. I again used Raya Pro here, as I’m trying to get more familiar with it.