1. Milky way
During the 2 weeks I spent in the mountains volunteering for the Vogelwarte, we also had some perfectly clear nights. Since there were only a few cities around, light pollution was fortunately not that strong. The resulting photo was made from a total of 10 photos that I took one after the other. I stacked them with a program called Sequator. How you can photograph the milky way with this technique, I explained in one of my blog articles: How to photograph the stars.
4s | f/ 2 | ISO 16000 | 50mm | 10 Fotos
2. Sunset in the swiss alps
1/400 | f/ 8 | ISO 400 | 150mm | Panorama
Of course, the sunrises and sunsets in the mountains were also very impressive. This impressive mountain was wonderfully illuminated in the evening. The shady valley created a wonderful color scheme.
3. "Laughing" Grey Heron
As almost every year I was able to photograph a few grey herons in late summer. These often perch on the parked boats along the rivers after completing their breeding business. By late summer they have become accustomed to people, making photography relatively easy. This image looks as if he was particularly happy about my presence. But actually, he was just tired and had to yawn....
1/500 | f/ 4 | ISO 400 | 500mm
4. Snipe
1/320 | f/ 4 | ISO 360 | 500mm
So far, I had never been really lucky with snipe. Usually they are rather shy and difficult to find. In addition then, the snipes are usually rather difficult to get close to. Therefore I was all the happier, when one morning I had a troop of snipes, right in front of me. This individual here was a bit off to the side of the group and I was able to photograph the bird with an almost perfect reflection.
5. Ruff portrait
1/800 | f/ 4 | ISO 560 | 500mm
While I have seen ruffs before, I also had only very few images of this species. On the same morning as the snipes, I could also photograph a couple of ruffs. Again and again these birds passed me on the shore and in the shallow water. On some occasions, the birds were even too close for my telephoto lens to focus.
6. Ruff reflection
Fortunately though, the ruffs were sometimes also a bit further away. (A phrase you rarely hear in wildlife photography!) And so I was able to photograph the ruffs together with their reflection. On this day it was practically windless and together with the shallow water the conditions were perfect.
1/1600 | f/ 4 | ISO 450 | 500mm
7. Greenshank reflection
1/1000 | f/ 4 | ISO 250 | 500mm
Last but not least I could check off another species on my list of "not-yet-well-photographed-species". Among the many birds on that morning, there were also some greenshanks, which came very close to me. With this photo the reflection was no longer completely perfect, nevertheless I am very content with the result.
8. Little grebe in action
1/1250 | f/ 4 | ISO 1800 | 500mm
Finally, it was time again to search for waterfowl with the Floating Hide. After the activity at the waters had decreased a bit during the summer, it was now again a lot more interesting. For example, the little grebes were quite active again and were fishing right in front of me. This bird then started flapping its wings right in front of the Hide. Fortunately, I was able to anticipate the behavior and pressed the shutter button at the right moment.
9. Kingfisher in the reeds
1/500 | f/ 4 | ISO 720 | 500mm
Besides the little grebe another winter visitor had returned to this stretch of water - the kingfisher. With high probability it is the same individual as last winter, namely an adult female. As in the previous year, the bird was not disturbed at all by the hide, and I was able to photograph the colourful bird from a very short distance.
10. Bass in a local lake
1/250 | f/ 13 | ISO 400 | 16mm
My last project between high school and university was the basic diving training, which I successfully completed and since then, I have been able to go into the water with my camera a few times. On my first dive with housing, I was not too successful. The visibility was relatively low and there were only a few fish. In the end, this photo here came out quite interesting though.
