Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Alps in all their many guises...



Greetings dear readers.

I decided that, what with living in Switzerland, it was utterly inexcusable that I have thus far deprived you of any of those picturesque, cow-eating-grass-in-an-Alpine-pasture-whilst-gazing-at a-cuckoo-clock type shots that everyone associates with Switzerland. So here they are, no more chomping at the bit, the wait is over my friends.

These first two photos were taken on an ill fated 'International Award - Adventurous Journey', which, for the uninitiated is a 3 day excursion into the unknown with a couple of your gormless friends. Most people do the original 'Duke of Edinburgh's Award' but as this is an exclusively English thing I, in Switzerland, had to partake of the disappointingly unpatriotic international denomination of the award. Furthermore, the DofE award typically involves tromping around the New Forest for a couple of days (the New Forest is in the South of England and is pretty un-threatening; as Mark Corrigan says in the BBCs Peep Show: "No one dies in the South of England". However our trip was high into the Swiss Alps, starting in Andermatt (1444m) and travelling up some god-forsaken mountain to a maximum altitude of 3700m.
They were taken on the first day and the morning of the second respectively, when we were blessed with lovely weather. Sadly later that day, at the top of the afforementioned and god-forsaken mountain, storms quite unlike those found in the South of England meant we had to call for extraction and eventually arrive at a hotel with our tails firmly between out legs.





I think ideally I would have liked to have had more of the lake in the first one, that way I could've cashed in on the cool clouds and sky some more, however mountains/cliffs behind weren't being very forthcoming and I didn't have a wider lens. I like the second one for the clouds which I think add some 'drama' to use a pretentious photographic word, to an otherwise standard image. I think it works well in black and white, what with the snow and scree combining to create a zebra-mountain type effect which I find quite pleasing.

This next one is a good old sunset-over-a-picturesque-town photo which, using the magic of Adobe Lightroom, to which I was able to apply a grad filter in oder to bring out the wonderfully pinky sky that happened to be gracing the sky over Adelboden at New year.




Last but not least, what would a 'Mountains' post be without at least a token mention of that most bizarre of past-times that attracts so many, sliding downhill at high speed on two planks attached to your feet. This particular devotee of such recklessness happens to be my sister.



So I hope you've enjoyed this small but mountainous offering. I've tried to cover everything in the space of a short blog unit. You've got black and white, lake reflections, sunsets and skiing all in one blog. Show me another where you can find all that variety in one place and I'll eat my film.

Next time: Basel's sights and local populus.

Until then, faithful few.

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