Frozen Alpine Lake sunset
Stitched Long exposure shot from the Eibsee Lake
Stitched Long exposure shot from the Eibsee Lake
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Jan, 2018Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took the picture in the German Alps. The lake Eibsee lies just beneath Germany's Hughes peak the Hochspitze. Since I don't drive I had to take a train, bus and a small hike to get to the desired place.Time
Since I had to use public transport to get to the location, sunrise was out of the option. Went there around 2pm which gave me enough time to wait out the sunset and choose a spot for me to wait out the clouds. When I got there the clouds were covering the lake completely, my phone app was saying that it will clear out before sunset so I went on and chose my spot with the help of Google earth and foreground interest. Had to walk a fair amount during the unbeaten path through the woods and snow to get there. I was lucky I had started in the other side of the lake and saw that I could get to the shore. My app was right. The clouds cleared out just moments before the sunset which I used to take the 2 shots since I had a cropped sensor camera with me.Lighting
Had to wait a long time for the moment when the sun came on the right side of the peak and the clouds cleared for enough time to take a shot at the peak. It was important for me that I had that in the shot.Equipment
I used a canon 60d with a 2.8 28mm Canon lens, tripod (lightweight), remote shutter and a 2stop ND filter.Inspiration
I've seen a few pics of the location over the internet and since I was about 3hrs away and it just looks stunning, I didn't need more inspiration. Will want to go back since it did not turn out the way I wanted.Editing
Postprocessing was fairly simple, just stitched the 2 images together and desaturated, I decided not to play with the house on the lake as I would have introduced too much noise if I had tried to recover the hut, actually like it that dark.In my camera bag
Normally I have a 28mm, a 70-200 and sometimes 16-35 but rarely take it with as I have to borrow it and it's heavy. Other than that my trusty old 60d, a 2stop ND filter, polariser, shutter remote and a tripod.Feedback
Do your research on the location. I decided on going there a long time before actually setting off. I had checked a lot of weather information and prognosis and had gone through a lot of information about the lake and the way. It is easily reached and the way around the lake is easy to walk. To get to the good places though you may need to go the extra step out of the beaten path. Research the location as much as you can. I prefer to saturate myself with a lot of images that have been taken there and to know what to expect. I tent to forget quickly so on the day it all felt new again. As you can see my equipment is not at all top range but I am still reasonably happy with the quality. And wait when you get there. Don't despair because it's not the sky or weather you wanted. Wait it out and keep looking, something will come up.
