Accidental Birding

 Yesterday, I drove about an hour southeast of Munich to Tegernsee specifically to spend a few hours photographing the hot air balloons at their annual festival.  Unfortunately, there were no balloons when I got there (save for the one you see on the left and that one is electronically inflated so it doesn't really count) because I had translated the website incorrectly and didn't realize that it only ran on two weekends.  But, in the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, I decided that since I was there I would wander around the lake and shoot whatever seemed interesting - landscapes, the birds, the details.  After a few minutes of shooting, I realized that the birds were having a ball.  It was an unseasonably warm and sunny day and they were relishing every moment of it.  So, my shoot then turned into a challenge.  To shoot movement and allow it to be seen.  See, I have learned over the years how to stop movement with my camera.  It is something photographers of little ones master pretty quickly because no one really wants a portrait of their child that is blurry and out of focus.  And though I know the mechanics of how to show movement with my pictures it has never been something I have really practiced - until yesterday.  And I got a bunch of great shots (and some not so great blurs) with all of the flowing water and the birds frolicking.  I also got some great still of the birds and our surroundings.  I am not much of a birder but this was a lot of fun and I love how the shots turned out.  Maybe I should misread the web more often...  What do you think?    {Make sure you make it about half way down and see if you can find the picture I am obsessed with at the moment}

The lake

 Love the sun sparkles.

 Reflection

 {Obsessed}

Shaking off the wings

Underneath the wave...

 Waves crash.

 Please do not walk on the flowerbed. (ironic, right?)

 Lonely, stark and waiting for its Biergarten heyday to come back...

 Curly tail feathers...

Sledding in Switzerland

For the past few weeks, my friend N and I had been trying to find a time that we could get the kids (and adults) together for a long weekend.  With her family living in Zurich and us in Germany, and having different school schedules, it was proving to be very difficult and it didn't look like it was going to happen until just before summer or even later.  And then I got an email from her husband asking if I could photograph him for the cover of a trade publication that he was being interviewed for.  The catch was that they needed to have the pictures taken by February 1.  The catch for me - B would still be in Latvia on business until late Saturday night.  We talked about it and decided that the girls and I would head over for the weekend. And so was hatched our first road trip of 2017.

We left right after school pickup (this is when I love getting out 2 hours early on Friday's).  One standstill traffic jam, four hours and four countries later - Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland - we were saying very excited hello's to the S family.  It took about 5 seconds for our kids to reconnect and disappear somewhere deep within the house.  N, J and I spent some time catching up, eating fondue and generally just relaxing.

Since I was mainly there to do the photoshoot and not sightsee, I didn't take many pictures on Saturday, other than for the magazine and we didn't do much other than enjoy each others company and have lunch in town.  

Back at home, these 3 decided that they wanted to sleep on the floor so they could all sleep next to each other.  It didn't last and they all ended up in beds but they did watch some TV this way...

 My job done. it was time for some Sunday fun before we had to head back to Munich.  N had found the perfect sled hill so we bundled up some excited kids for the short drive over.  And in that short drive it felt like we had entered another world.  The hoar frost was incredible.  We parked across the street from the hill and we could hear the kids laughing and screaming as they sled but we couldn't see a thing.  We couldn't even see across the street!  It was a bit unsettling actually as the kids kept getting lost in the fog if they wandered more than 10 feet in front of us.  Which made it hard to tell where you were stepping and where the actual hill for sledding was.  We set off in the direction of the sound and after about 100 meters the sledders (and the hill) came into view.  Thankfully there was a bit more visibility here as the fog cleared a bit in the bowl but as you will see from the pictures, it didn't clear much.

I snapped a bunch of photos though the fog made it difficult.  I do love the softening effect it had but it does make it hard for the camera to find focus in all of that white.  But I couldn't resist snapping away because it really was gorgeous and the kids had such fun.  And don't get me started on the hoar frost that was clinging to everything - the feathery, dew and snow covered branches were some of the most beautiful I had ever seen.  See for yourselves...

These guys were only feet from me.  And look how that horizon falls away to nothing right behind them.

 Everyone got in on the sledding fun.

This is what I normally got for a picture - until they got super close to me.  And then I fixed them a bit in post processing so that you could tell there were actual people in the pics.

This one kept busy while waiting her turn - cartwheels and sledding like penguins do.

We wore them out. And it was time for lunch and for us to get on the road.  But first - that tree!

Hoar Frost - completely different than snow.  Or dew.  Or regular frost.  It is formed when water vapor goes directly to a solid state, skipping the liquid state altogether.  The feathery hoar fost (as seen above) is formed when the object it adheres to is already below freezing.  (This is where I wish I had a macro lens to show you the details better - but you can get the idea).  It makes for stunning pictures.

The feathery branches!

In Black and White...

i-Phone snap.