The 6th International Ballooning day’s Toggenburg were between Friday morning the 25th and Sunday 27th September 2009 at Alp Sellamatt above Alt St. Johann. The weather conditions were OK and Hot Air Balloons from round the world enchanted the sky in the valley of Toggenburg. We went for the famous NightGlow at the Lake Schwendi. Twelve Hot Air Balloons around the lake are “dancing” and glowing in harmony to the music.
The big advantage compared to the Canon 100m Macro is that you don’t have to be that close for a 1:1 shot. With this lens it’s easy to shoot insects like dragonflies or butterflies because you can be at a distance of about 0.5 m. Below are some example shots. As you can see the blurry background is perfect…
The Arosa ClassicCar, a international car race from Langwies to Arosa was over the weekend of 10. to 13. September 2009. It is also called the “Monaco of the mountains”. It has grown in recent years, and is a event known across Switzerland and provides many highlights.
The event is listed in the national sports calendar (auto sport Switzerland) and in the international sports calendar of the FIA (Federation International de l’Automobile). Every year around 10 ‘ 000 spectators are expected.
We started at 7am to get to Arosa before the first race starts. The last part of the way to Arosa is the actual race track so we got a feeling of the race itself. Below are some impressions of this day.
More pictures are in the gallery.
These are the first images I took with the new Canon MP-E 65mm lens. I read a lot about it and how difficult it is to focus because of the very shallow depth of field. And I must admit it is not that easy as I thought. Some pictures were taken with the MR-14EX Macro ringflash because this lens needs a lot of light. All pictures were taken without a tripod.
This is one of my panoramas I took on the summit of Säntis. It is a merge of 14 landscape pictures.
Click here for the large version.
This time in August the sunrise is at about 6:30 am. So we started at 5 to be ready for this event. The Mount Säntis is the highest peak in the Appenzell region (2502m). From the summit you can see six countries and the view is breathtaking!
The easiest way to reach the top is by the comfortable cable car. It leaves every 30 minutes.
After taking lots of pictures of the sunrise we had a nice breakfast in the panorama restaurant.
The team (aka Members of the Zoom-Photoclub):
A mating couple
I love the clean blurry background in the next two shots
A Hairy face
We went to Romanshorn at the Lake Constance to take some pictures of the fireworks which started at 10:30pm. It was also the Summer Nights festival and therefore there were lots of people. But we had a pretty good location because the fireworks were actually let off on the sea (a few hundred meters apart from the coastline). With a wide angle lens we could capture the whole fireworks display as well as the reflections in the water.
Some hints for taking better firework pictures:
If the camera is in BULB mode the shutter is open for as long as you hold down the shutter. This is very convenient and gives you a lot more flexibility compared to the predefined exposure times.
Below are some of my favorite shots:
More pictures in the gallery.
The botanic gardens are situated near the Schloss Nymphenburg. It was created 1909 and has more than 15′000 different plants. The entrance charge is only 4 euros and you should definitely go there. You can walk directly from the botanic gardens to the Nymphenburg where you can find the Schlosscafe in the Palmenhaus. It is a nice place to have some coffee before visiting the Nymphenburg.
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