From Austria

[thereyougo!]

In the South east of Austria at the moment in the city of klagenfurt on the banks of Wörthersee the warmest of the Alpine lakes (apparently it's 27 degrees in the water!) this is a view from close to my hotel across crops towards the Corinthian mountains:


Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at 33mm and f/16 1/80 ISO 200



Looking-towards-the-Corinthian-mountains by singingsnapper, on Flickr

 

[thereyougo!]

Weather has now improved a great deal and temperatures in the mid 70's so nice and c comfortable. We took a drive today up two of the main mountain roads in the Kärnten area of Austria - The Goldeckaplenstrasse and Villach Alpenstrasse.


This is on our way back down the Goldeckalpenstrasse which goes up to 1900 metres (the temperature went from 24C to 9C) and the mountain road is just under 10 miles long.


Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at 43mm and f/16 (33mm 35mm equivalent) ISO 100 1/60



Towards-the-bottom-of-the-Goldeckalpenstrasse by singingsnapper, on Flickr


This is a 3 landscape panoramic shot from one of the viewing platforms of the Villach Alpenstrasse at 1500m


Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at 33mm x 3 (26mm 35mm equiv) 1/40 ISO 160



austrian-panoramic-2012 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

 

[thereyougo!]

Heading back to the UK from (mostly) sunny Austria will be daunting weathewise, but it's been a good few days. I have done several trips to Austria and have extended a few to see a bit more of the country and have found myself scheduling holidays there after. It's easy to see why as the scenery is very dramatic. We had another day in the hire car heading up mountain roads and I made a point of heading through Feldkirchen again as on the way through yesterday, I saw a shot in my mind's eye but by the time I had thought it out we had gone too far and the shot was gone. Even today we had gone past as there was no lay-by to stop in, so we turned back and parked in a driveway and this is the result:


Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at f/16 and 39mm 1/60 ISO 100



Looking-down-to-Moosburg,-Kärnten,-Austria by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Today we headed up to the dam at the top of Malta almalpenstrasse. At a height of just under 2000m (6400 feet) while it was 26 degrees in the valley, it was 8 degrees here and there was snow on the tops of the mountains. There was a hotel exhibition and a restaurant with a boat shaped observation terrace.


Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at f/16 and 33mm 1/80 ISO 200



looking-over-the-Alms-Dam,-Austria by singingsnapper, on Flickr


in black and white



looking-across-the-bw-dam by singingsnapper, on Flickr

 

[tanya7x]

I loooove the picture Looking across the dam!! I prefer it in color though instead of the black and white. I also really like the 2 in the second post Good shots!

 

[thereyougo!]

When I need speed, the 645D just isn't built for that so bird shots will nearly always be done with the Canon. I do find that the Pentax has much better dynamic range than the Canon, although the inbuilt HDR is good and even better as it retains the RAW files. Here are some more shots including some of the Maltatal Dam, which is Austria's highest at about 700ft high.


Canon 5D mk III EF 16 - 35 at 17mm and f/14 1/30 and ISO 400



Malta-dam---Canon by singingsnapper, on Flickr


The view from the top of the dam:


canon 5D mk III EF 16 - 35 L at 20mm and f/14 1/40 ISO 400



View-from-Alms-Dam by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Looking from the top of Villach Alpenstrasse - this is a handheld HDR using photomatix to blend the three exposures taken using auto bracketing on 5D3:


Canon 5D mk III Carl Zeiss 35 f/2 at f/8 ISO 100



View-from-the-top-of-the-Vallach-Alpenstrasse by singingsnapper, on Flickr


An alpine bird - not sure which one could be a kind bird from the crow family, possibly a raven:


Canon 5D mk III EF 70 - 200 f/2.8 IS L at f/8 and 200mm 1/1250 ISO 400



alpine-bird by singingsnapper, on Flickr


An alpine cow complete with bell:


Canon 5D mk III EF 70 - 200 L at f/8 and 200mm, 1/400 ISO 400



Alpine-Cow-with-bells-on! by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Pentax 645D:


The view from the side of Maltatal Dam:


Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at f/16 and 33mm 1/60 ISO 250



maltatal-dam by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Two from the Villacher Alpenstrasse:


Pentax 645D FA 120 f/4 macro, f/8 1/200 ISO 200



river-canal-and-autobahn by singingsnapper, on Flickr


The view over the town of Villach with Ossiacher See in the top left and Wörthersee in the right hand side


Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at 55mm f/16 1/100 ISO 200



Looking-over-Villach by singingsnapper, on Flickr

 

[PlanetStarbucks]

What a beautiful country. Agreed on the shot of the dam being the best of the group. And prefer the color...kind of weird as it is the one with the least color saturation, but that's kind of the point for that shot I think.