Naturfotografen Schweiz - Taking part at the new members event

On Saturday July 2, 2022, the event for the new members of the association "Naturfotografen Schweiz" (www.naturfotografen.ch) took place in splendid summer weather. 17 new members came to the Reuss valley to spend a morning together at the Reuss near Rottenschwil and to discover the surrounding nature.

After a welcome and a short introduction of the association by Therese, a board member of the association, we split up into two groups. Therese accompanied her group to the nearby Hide at the Flachsee near Unterlunkhofen, where we could photograph the water birds without disturbing them.

The second group was allowed to get to know the Stille Reuss better under the expert guidance of Pascal. The Stille Reuss is a well-preserved old course of the Reuss and one of the most biologically diverse still waters in Switzerland. Pascal, himself an enthusiastic nature photographer, is active as a ranger of the Reuss Foundation for the Reuss Valley and thus has a profound knowledge of the nature reserve.

After 2 hours, both groups met for a joint coffee break with lively exchange before the groups changed.

Finally, we stopped at the restaurant Hecht and took the opportunity to exchange ideas among like-minded people.

Many thanks to Therese and Pascal for the organization and the instructive company on this sociable photography morning!

Focal length 400 mm, aperture 6.3, shutter speed 1/1000 s, ISO 800

Focal length 400 mm, aperture 6.3, shutter speed 1/1000 s, ISO 500

Focal length 400 mm, aperture 6.3, shutter speed 1/1000 s, ISO 200

Focal length 400 mm, aperture 6.3, shutter speed 1/640 s, ISO 400

Focal length 400 mm, aperture 6.3, shutter speed 1/800 s, ISO 400

A hike full of Rhaetian Railway (Räthische Bahn) from Preda to Bergün

Two friends of mine and myself were enjoying a photography workshop led by Christian Oeler (https://www.christian-oeler.ch/) on June 17th ‘22. He took us to shoot the Rhaetian Railway in the wonderful Albula valley on a hike from Preda to Bergün. By the way, you don’t need to be a railway fan to enjoy this wonderful hike. We parked the car in Bergün, took the railway up to Preda and started our hike down from the train station of Preda to Bergün. First we passed some beautiful meadows full of wild flowers. We grabbed our cameras to capture the flowers and the gorgeous view. I was happy to try out my new Sony 14 mm prime lens at 1.8 aperture to get a soft foreground and sharp mountains in the background.

Lens 14 mm, aperture 1.8, shutter speed 1/6400 s, ISO 100

Leaving the meadows behind, we started the descent to Bergün and crossed on our way several viaducts that gave us the opportunity to photograph the beautiful red train from different perspectives. The hiking trail follows the mountain stream Albula, that provides nice photographic opportunities too. We used our mid-day break to take our time searching for nice motives of the mountain stream.

Lens 24 mm, aperture 5.0, shutter speed 1/400 s, ISO 100

Lens 24 mm, aperture 11.0, shutter speed 4.0 s, ISO 100

Lens 24 mm, aperture 5.0, shutter speed 1/400 s, ISO 100

After having finished our hike, we drove down to Filisur to shoot the iconic scenery of the Rhaetian Railway on the Landwasser Viaduct. The Landwasser Viaduct is the largest and most spectacular bridge structure of the RhB and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. It was late afternoon and we got some nice warm light. A perfect highlight at the end of our photography workshop.

Lightning photography - First Time

Lately I tried to photograph lightnings. This is nothing I ever really tried before. It was a spontaneous decision to try it, since we had a stormy evening with many lightnings in the sky. So I quickly grabbed my tripod and my camera and did it the lazy way. I put my tripod on our balcony and tried to figure out how to best shoot the lightnings. From my balcony the foreground isn’t particularly spectacular. So I decided to take a long lens and to concentrate only on the sky without any disturbing buildings and light sources. I opted for the Sony 135mm 1.8 GM lens. A wonderfully sharp lens with a small aperture. It's one of my favourite lenses I own. The images from this lens are perfectly crisp, contrasty, sharp and beautifully rendered, doesn’t matter what you shoot with it.

Once my tripod and camera were in the right position, I tried to figure out, how to best shoot lightnings. I did a couple of test shots and ended up trying out apertures between 1.8 and 2.5, a shutter speed between 5 and 30 seconds and ISO of 100 to 400. Given that the sky wasn’t that dark, I ended up with good results using the 5 second shutter speed.

Quickly I learned that photographing a lightning requires the right timing to be able to catch one. First I took the images pressing the shutter-release button by hand. I soon switched to an interval shooting. I set up the interval on 5 seconds shutter speed and no delay for 200 pictures and let camera do its job.

With this settings I didn’t miss any lightnings anymore and just had to sort out all the images where no lightnings were happening during the 5 seconds of an image (which was for most of the images the case). But I was lucky and was able to catch a couple of lightnings.

Here a few images I was able to take at this stormy evening. It was interesting to try and I will certainly retry it again, but next time I’m gonna look for a nice foreground :-)

Lens 135mm, aperture 1.8, shutter speed 5 sec, ISO 400

Lens 135mm, aperture 2.5, shutter speed 8 sec, ISO 400

Lens 135mm, aperture 2.0, shutter speed 5 sec, ISO 100