I am visiting my sister-in-law in Germany at the end of June.
Does anyone have any suggestions for places to shoot that time of year. I know, i know, there are hundred of places over there, but for those of you who have photographed over there, I'd appreciate any input you have.
I'll be staying at her place in Germany (she lives in Kaiserslaughtern) and we will plan for one or two overnight places to stay in either Switzerland, France or Austria.
We'd also like to shoot a few times within a days drive of her place in Germany
Any thoughts? (Alps, great small towns, gardens, scenics, etc etc)
Again, I know it's a pretty broad question. I've just never been there and would like to know if there's anything I should make sure to visit over the 8 days I'll be there.
I'm from Austria and of course we have a wide array of great places. As you go to Germany the closest parts for you would be "Vorarlberg", "Tirol" and "Salzburg" - all of the wonderful and with a lot of mountains as well. As I'm from the other side of the country I can't suggest you too much places there. For "Salzburg" I have a few options. If you like a great city with a lot of history, then go to the city of "Salzburg" itself. You'll find a lot of historic places there and some wonderful castles and parks as well. For nature you can visit the mountains in the South there - the "Hochkönig" is a very nice one. There's a great waterfall at a town called "Golling" and not far away a wonderful place with two great lakes near the town of "Gosau". If you should decide to drive the extra hour from the German/Austrian border to Styria, I could eventually join you for a trip and take you for a hike to the Alps.
I'd suggest that you go over to my deviantArt account (http://andreasresch.deviantart.com/gallery/) where you can find images of some places in Austria. Under each of the (newer) images there's a Google Maps link so that you can see where exactly the place is.
Another great way to pick locations by photos, is to go to Panoramio (http://www.panoramio.com) where you can choose the area on a map and see the images from there next to it - I often use it myself - also in conjunction with Google Earth.
Have fun ... for further questions, just contact me.
What sort of trip are you looking for? Long hike, short hike, "drive-in-shooting", city trip (with "cities" being much smaller than what you're used to, probably)? There's just too much to visit to give a meaningful suggestion without more information.
Alright. I'm not really experienced with regard to city shooting. So, I'll leave that to others (except for mentioning that my home town Lucerne is very nice if weather is good ). There's a number of (sometimes spectacular) mountain destinations in Switzerland that can be reached quite easily by cable car or some sort of mountain railway - the downside is that these means of transport are expensive (that's where the long hikes come into play - cheaper, but a bit more strenuous, too ). The recommendations below are completely unexhaustive and equally biased (read: it's just what I know about, not necessarily all that's worth seeing).
In central Switzerland, there's Mt. Titlis, Mt. Pilatus, and Mt. Rigi (the latter two not being quite as high as the the first, but probably better suited for short strolls and can be reached from Lucerne easily). You can also walk up the latter two (which adds to the experience IMO, but I realize that this is probably not what you want).
Then, in the highlands of Bern (Berner Oberland), there's of course the Jungfrau area. Amazing if you're not used to mountains, still quite great if you are (I have a couple of shots on my website - you may also check my other galleries, and if you like something you see, just ask where that was). You can take a mountain train all the way up to Jungfraujoch (said to be fantastic, but $$$ - I've never been up there, not quite suited for student budgets). Quite close, there's the Schilthorn. Can also be accessed by cable car right to the top.
The top destination in Valais (Wallis) is probably Zermatt, with the Gornergrat railway and the Matterhorn.
A cheaper alternative is to just buy a normal train ticket across the Gotthard (north-south axis in Switzerland). It's probably not as great for photography (because you're in a train ), but I thought the views from the valley floor up to massive mountains were quite impressive. Good thing is that you'll end up in Ticino, which is where it's warm and sunny more often than in the rest of Switzerland (there's a number of nice places for an overnight stay if you want that).
Most important thing if you go to the mountains (I'm probably pointing out the obvious) is the weather. It's great with good weather, and quite depressing (= not worth your time & money) when it's raining.
hi there,
I live in Munich and will be visiting kaiserslautern in the second half of the June. There are already great suggestions for Austria and Swiss. For Germany I will suggest to visit bayern. It depends on your tastes, more citiscapes? landscapes? Alps?
Discussion
7 repliesDoes anyone have any suggestions for places to shoot that time of year. I know, i know, there are hundred of places over there, but for those of you who have photographed over there, I'd appreciate any input you have.
I'll be staying at her place in Germany (she lives in Kaiserslaughtern) and we will plan for one or two overnight places to stay in either Switzerland, France or Austria.
We'd also like to shoot a few times within a days drive of her place in Germany
Any thoughts? (Alps, great small towns, gardens, scenics, etc etc)
Again, I know it's a pretty broad question. I've just never been there and would like to know if there's anything I should make sure to visit over the 8 days I'll be there.
Thanks!
I'm from Austria and of course we have a wide array of great places. As you go to Germany the closest parts for you would be "Vorarlberg", "Tirol" and "Salzburg" - all of the wonderful and with a lot of mountains as well. As I'm from the other side of the country I can't suggest you too much places there. For "Salzburg" I have a few options. If you like a great city with a lot of history, then go to the city of "Salzburg" itself. You'll find a lot of historic places there and some wonderful castles and parks as well. For nature you can visit the mountains in the South there - the "Hochkönig" is a very nice one. There's a great waterfall at a town called "Golling" and not far away a wonderful place with two great lakes near the town of "Gosau". If you should decide to drive the extra hour from the German/Austrian border to Styria, I could eventually join you for a trip and take you for a hike to the Alps.
I'd suggest that you go over to my deviantArt account (http://andreasresch.deviantart.com/gallery/) where you can find images of some places in Austria. Under each of the (newer) images there's a Google Maps link so that you can see where exactly the place is.
Another great way to pick locations by photos, is to go to Panoramio (http://www.panoramio.com) where you can choose the area on a map and see the images from there next to it - I often use it myself - also in conjunction with Google Earth.
Have fun ... for further questions, just contact me.
Take care ... Andreas.
In central Switzerland, there's Mt. Titlis, Mt. Pilatus, and Mt. Rigi (the latter two not being quite as high as the the first, but probably better suited for short strolls and can be reached from Lucerne easily). You can also walk up the latter two (which adds to the experience IMO, but I realize that this is probably not what you want).
Then, in the highlands of Bern (Berner Oberland), there's of course the Jungfrau area. Amazing if you're not used to mountains, still quite great if you are (I have a couple of shots on my website - you may also check my other galleries, and if you like something you see, just ask where that was). You can take a mountain train all the way up to Jungfraujoch (said to be fantastic, but $$$ - I've never been up there, not quite suited for student budgets). Quite close, there's the Schilthorn. Can also be accessed by cable car right to the top.
The top destination in Valais (Wallis) is probably Zermatt, with the Gornergrat railway and the Matterhorn.
A cheaper alternative is to just buy a normal train ticket across the Gotthard (north-south axis in Switzerland). It's probably not as great for photography (because you're in a train
Most important thing if you go to the mountains (I'm probably pointing out the obvious) is the weather. It's great with good weather, and quite depressing (= not worth your time & money) when it's raining.
I live in Munich and will be visiting kaiserslautern in the second half of the June. There are already great suggestions for Austria and Swiss. For Germany I will suggest to visit bayern. It depends on your tastes, more citiscapes? landscapes? Alps?
Let me know, I will shoot an email.