Saxony

Not only the size and beauty of this cathedral, but also its moving history, the complete destruction by bombs in World War II and the reconstruction, which has been started 50 years later, made it a unique building that is known far beyond the borders of Germany.

The end of an awesome day at an awesome place. I think I filled some memory cards during this trip but indeed it's all about that special moments in the morning and evening.

Last Weekend me and a couple of fellow landscapers from germany went to saxony Switzerland once more. The hopes were high, as usual. We wanted to photograph a view with fog in the valley and some magic light in the sky. But again either we had no fog at all or it completely fogged up.

Here is a view from the Schrammsteinaussicht, I shot during sunrise. We got up 3:15am hiked 45 minutes through the dark and were greeted by clear skies. Not ideal but ok, at least some color was there. We started shooting east, and the light just didn't get as intense as I had hoped. So I switched my position and went to this viewpoint, facing west.

You can bet just as I setup my tripod there I looked back east to see the sky starting to glow very intense. Damn, but it didn't help, it would just be a few minutes and I wanted to shoot another scene.

Yes, the glowing Schrammsteine you see in the photo was what I was after and I have to say it was good I kept my position there. A beautiful display of color as the stones were bathed in the red-orange light.

I used a lee 0.6 soft and lee 0.6 hard gnd here + a polarizer to emphasize the colors

Another beautiful morning in Dresden.

The bizarre rock formations around this famous bridge in the Saxonian Sandstone Mountains have always been a strong attraction for tourists as well as photographers. From Dresden, where we were stationed for a few days, this place is only a stone's throw away and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to drop by. Everyone knows the impressive photos of the rocks with rising fog from the Elbe river. The reality on a beautiful autumn day like this and having missed the best morning light as usual, because we slept too long, is less dramatic. The view is impressive no doubt, but you shouldn't expect spectacular pictures on the first try.

Königstein Fortress Sächsische Schweiz

River Bank of Elbe Dresden

2020.09 Ostsee-Berlin-Dresden-880

The popular and picturesque Moritzburg Castle is a hunting lodge that was built on an artificial island in a lake not far from Dresden in the 16C.

Basteibrücke, Sächsischen Schweiz

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9T06UfP1S0

Moritzburg Castle

Basteibrücke, Sächsischen Schweiz

So here's my favourite Image from the photo trip two weeks ago to saxony switzerland. Read closely, that's not switzerland, it's in saxon in germany ;-)

It shows a twilight view from the Winterberg when soft fog was laying over the land. It was awesome standing there watching the earth breathe. After the previous days of the weekend without many good photo opportunities in the area this was one of those moments were you just stand there in awe and then have to remind yourself not to forget taking some photos ;-)

Enjoy!

Municipality Leipzig

Pentax 645D, 33-55mm lens

This spot at the "Brühlsche Terrasse" seemed to be another good spot in Dresden to shoot a bigger panorama. I stayed there all evening until complete darkness and made quite a few HDR exposer series. Despite this one was pretty early and long before blue hour, it came out well.

Zwinger Dresden

Moritzburg Castle (German: Schloss Moritzburg) is a Baroque palace in Moritzburg, in the German state of Saxony, about 13 kilometres northwest of the Saxon capital, Dresden. The castle has four round towers and lies on a symmetrical artificial island. It is named after Duke Moritz of Saxony, who had a hunting lodge built there between 1542 and 1546. The surrounding woodlands and lakes have been a favourite hunting area of the electors and kings of Saxony.

Following the cessation of lignite-mining, a number of lakes have emerged in the post-mining landscape south of Leipzig. One of them is Lake Cospuden on the outskirts of Leipzig, Markkleeberg and Zwenkau.

To create something distinctive on the recultivated land adjacent to the lake completed in time for the Expo 2000 world's fair, an imposing tower with an open timber structure was erected on an existing elevation. Bistumshöhe was deliberately chosen since it had already been home to a vantage point with tables and benches overlooking Zwenkau mine. The name Bistumshöhe ('Diocese Height') dates back to earlier times when the area belonged to the diocese of Merseburg.

The tower, which does not yet have a name of its name, was quickly built south-west of Lake Cospuden. The method of construction used is known as 'chimney style', and indeed the tower is intended to recall the many chimney stacks which, after dominating the area south of Leipzig for decades, have now all but disappeared.

Extremely robust and requiring almost no maintenance, this landmark built out of slowly growing Siberian larch provides an all-round view of Lake Cospuden, the mine dumps at Zwenkau and Espenhain, the reforested Neue Harth, and BELANTIS amusement park. And on a good day, visitors facing north have a wonderful view of the sights and attractions of Leipzig.