Science and Art

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 31.5 Exposure: f/3.6, 1/2,000, ISO 600

 My parents were visiting us for the last couple of weeks and we had a great time touring around southern Bavaria with them.  But, the beginning of the tour started in Austria, at one of our favorite places, Hallstatt, a spot we haven't been to since 2013.  Hallstatt is a small town perched on the side of a mountain and the Hallstätter See.  People have been living in this spot for about 7,000 years, mining the salt out of the mountain above.  They're still mining up there actually.  It was in Hallstatt that some of the first systematic archaeological excavations in history took place, back in 1846.  The finds there were so significant that they shed a bright light on prehistoric European culture.  That period of the archaeological record is now known as Hallstatt culture and it is the first recognizable period of Celtic civilization.

It was for these reasons that I wanted to visit Hallstatt back in 2013.  I wanted to see this famed archaeological site, its salt mines, and the material culture now on display in the town's museum.  It also had the attraction of being really easy on the eyes.  However, the visit in 2013 didn't go as planned.  A day or so before we were due to drive down there, I woke up with a nasty sinus infection.  I figured it was just a cold, and we headed down anyway.  Hallstatt was everything that I thought it would be.  It's the quintessential alpine village.  Timber buildings with wrap around balconies cling to the mountainside.  Narrow pathways take you up above the village for dramatic views (this way used to pass through attics).  There are two beautiful churches.  Flowers are everywhere.  Mountains tower above and the lake is calm and blue.  It's a pristine place.  In 2013, it was very wet.  It rained hard every day while we were there (pictures from that trip can be found here.)  I got sicker and sicker and woke up on the second day of the visit with a brutal ear infection.  I couldn't breathe, swallow, or hear out of one ear.  That led me to one of Hallstatt's lesser known attractions, the doctor's office.  Whatever I ended up having held on for a month.  But, all that aside, I still loved Hallstatt and it's now in my top three places to visit on the continent.  I always wanted to go back to Hallstatt without feeling like death, and, if we were lucky, with a bit more sunshine.  This second trip was a great improvement.

We spent about two days there.  Most of the time was spent in the village center where we had booked some rooms at the lovely Gasthof Zauner-Seewirt (they have an excellent restaurant, by the way).  Last time, except for a few breaks in the rain, I stuck mostly to tighter shots.  My photography goals for this visit were to capture broader landscape shots.  I had the equipment for it now, a solid tripod, ND filters, etc. and the weather was much more cooperative.  I decided to do all of this in the early mornings since the village faces east and the dinner hour this time of year overlaps sunset and evening blue hour.  Dawn shooting is our favorite anyway.  There's nothing like walking the streets of a place like this when the only other people up and moving around are the bakers.  There aren't any tourists with iPads and selfie sticks stepping in front of my tripod like there are in the evenings.  The atmospherics and light are very soft.  It's dead quiet.  Plus, we always get the freshest pastries and coffee when we're done.

But, it's not always a piece of cake.  Photography, as I've learned over the past few years, is all about, um, light.  Yeah, I know, duh.  But, it's more than the actual process of taking an image.  What the light is doing on the subject from one minute to the next can make the difference between ho-hum and wow.  It's also important where you are in relation to that light and the subject at any given time.  And, of course, it's kinda difficult to predict this sort of thing when you're working with weather and natural light.  No app is going to tell you exactly where and when the light is going to be perfect.  I've spent hours on cold mornings waiting for morning light that doesn't really show up.  Mountain locations are an extra challenge because the weather changes very quickly, very often.  The Alps aren't a studio location.  You can't set it up again if you missed the moment.  You have to wait until the next morning and hope that the sun shines in a cool way.  If it doesn't, oh well, get over it or come back and try again some other time.  Since I've started doing more land and city scapes, I've been trying to learn about more than correct exposure times, apertures, and Photoshop techniques.  I also spend a lot time studying things like weather patterns, light diffusion, and the rotation of the earth.  Photography really is a marriage between science and art, especially when it's being done in an uncontrolled location.  The challenge of getting the relationship just right is part of the fun.  I feel like I only succeed about an eighth of the time.  The really nice thing about a place like Hallstatt is that it's small.  Unlike Paris, where there are 1,001 places to shoot that are spread all over a huge space, old Hallstatt center is only 1 kilometer long.  Granted, there's a surprising amount packed into that space, but it is certainly easier to get around and get to know well.  There was good chance I could get a great shot or two with multiple mornings to work.

The main shot I wanted from this visit was a postcard style classic view of the village.  I had done it before, but I wanted a new version with sunlight, filters, and a tripod.  The first morning I decided to start on the north side of the village, looking down.  Then I would head over to the south side when the sun got higher.  It seemed like a promising morning.  The early colors were very brilliant.

Blend of three exposures.

When we headed uphill to shoot from above, the sun slowly came up and...meh.  I took about 30 or so exposures before heading south to the other side of the town to get this shot.  

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 35.8mm
Exposure: f/11, 8 secs, ISO 200

I really liked the effect of using the ND filter.  Hallstatt Lake is very deep and very smooth early in the morning, but by this time the boats had started running and the ducks were out chopping the water up.  The filter smoothed the water out again for me and created a touch of movement in the sky.  But, I had a sneaky feeling that I should have reversed my schedule.  So the next morning we started at this location before sunrise then headed up above for golden hour.

Camera: Fuljifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 10mm Exposure: f/11, 15 secs, ISO 200

That's more like it!  It turned out that when the sun came up over the mountains and shined on the town, it was hitting the north side just a little bit more dramatically than the south.  This morning there weren't any clouds so the shots I took below near the water ended up being kind of dull without that interesting color reflection that had been going on the previous morning.  But, when I moved up to the higher location- Bam!  They had been calling for rain overnight, but none in the morning.  I had hoped for some clouds, but ended up being pleasantly surprised with visible moisture in the air instead.  I loved the way it caught the rays of the sun as they shown down on the town.

The two mornings in Hallstatt were the best lesson I've had so far about the importance of science in photography.  Photo sharing sites are a huge help when I'm looking for locations when we're heading to a new place to shoot.  But, they aren't going to predict the right moment.  That's a matter of practice, study, and, sometimes, a whole lot of luck.

These shots and others are available for purchase in the shop under the Austrian Countryside gallery.