Scott and I had just come from France together, and we were excited to be up in the mountains. The conditions were pretty good, so we were trying to get as many shots as possible while the skies were interesting. This isn't even an HDR shot, and you can see how strange the clouds were! I have not yet processed my own shots from this event... but I look forward to it very much.
- Trey Ratcliff
Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Tags: europe matterhorn swiss switzerland tina ratcliff trey ratcliff zermatt
The more rugged the mountains, the better they look with a low angle of incidence of the light. Of course, they also look great in the middle of the day, but since the rugged peaks are in three dimensions, you get many extra angles of contrast when the sun is low.
These kind of shots help me remember the fake symbology built up in my head of the shape-of-mountains. I got a bit of this when I was learning to draw... when drawing a human face, it takes a long time to get rid of that thing that is drilled into you as a kid -- that the eye is sort of the shape of a football. If you try to do that with a good drawing, it never works. And, it's sort of the same way with mountains. In my head, I still have to stop thinking of them as a rugged 2D line. It's thousands of 2D lines, crawling this way and that, but I can usually only see one of them. But, on late afternoons like this, you can start to see hundreds of more lines.
- Trey Ratcliff
Read more, including a post about why I don't watermark, here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Tags: zermatt stuck customs stuckincustoms stuckincustoms.com travel blog travelblog photography photoblog photographyblog hdr high dynamic range imaging digital processing software tutorial hdrtutorial trey ratcliff treyratcliff world Europe western CH Confoederatio Helvetica Swiss Confederation Suisse die Schweiz Switzerland alps alpen alpi alpes Αλπεις Alpeis aups alpe alpine geography mountain rugged natural nature wild wilderness camping hiking hike peak rock rocky sky ominous cloud majestic shadow snow dangerous afternoon angle day vision perception mountainous scenic panorama july 2011 Nikon d3x
For most of my life, I've generally only known the Matterhorn for the ride in Disneyland! I mean, I always knew it was a real mountain... and I've seen photos of it and stuff... but seeing it there in the middle of the Alps was really cool.
I think I was lucky while here in Zermatt, Switzerland. I understand that it is often occluded by clouds, so this was a lucky day indeed!
Zermatt was a really great little town -- I'd love to go back and spend some more time there!
- Trey Ratcliff
Read the rest, and some info on the new Silver Efx Pro, here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Tags: Europe stuckincustoms switzerland travel treyratcliff zermatt stuck customs stuckincustoms.com blog travelblog photography photoblog photographyblog hdr high dynamic range imaging digital processing software tutorial hdrtutorial trey ratcliff world western CH Confoederatio Helvetica Swiss Confederation Suisse die Schweiz visp mattertal matterhorn canton black white black and white black & white silver monochrome sky clouds stunning facility base camp mountain mountainous peak building strange architecture science geology hiking hike cold july 2011 Nikon d3x
Getting to the top of these mountains happened just in time, late on a cool, crisp day on one of my first afternoons in Switzerland. I knew things would be beautiful way up here in the upper atmosphere, but I honestly did not expect the streaming confluence of flowing ice. This is always a nice and unexpected aspect of glaciers - how they look like they are flowing and still at the same time.
- Trey Ratcliff
Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Tags: Europe stuckincustoms switzerland travel treyratcliff zermatt stuck customs stuckincustoms.com blog travelblog photography photoblog photographyblog hdr high dynamic range imaging digital processing software tutorial hdrtutorial trey ratcliff world western CH Confoederatio Helvetica Swiss Confederation Suisse die Schweiz alps mountains mountainous snow snowy wild wilderness dangerous winter sweeping sky blue clouds weather hike hiking cold icy rocky natural nature scenic scenery peak july 2011 Nikon d3x