Breathtaking Breather, a photo from Bern, West

Photographer's Note

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I've already portrayed this mountain chain the Jungfrau Massif in Berner Oberland - from further away with a scanned print dated 2001. Here they are again: Eiger [the Hunter] 3.970m/13'025ft, Mönch [the Monk] 4.109m/13'481ft and Jungfrau [the Virgin] 4.158m/13'642ft.

This time I'm much closer, taking a well-earned breathing pause in Mettlen an easy 8,6km/5.35mi slalom slope descending 1.120m/3'675ft shortly after the starting point at Kleine Scheidegg heading for Grindelwald Grund. One of two easy descents, where the other one ends in Wengen on the other side of the 'dividing range'.

I'm not a very good skier, so most of the time I had to concentrate on how and where I was going. I had a full time job keeping the balance and avoiding other skiers not to mention snowboarders, sledge-runners and walkers and had to make long pauses, enjoying the sun at the different cafés and restaurants.

Being the first time I practiced Winter sports in the Alps, it wasn't until the very last day I was able to enjoy the scenic surroundings while going down the slopes. And suddenly I saw this breathtaking backdrop and decided to try to catch it. However my wide-angle (6.3mm = 38mm on an SLR) wasn't able to cover the whole range.

So there and then I decided to go for a panorama shot. I took three photos in a rapid sequence slightly overlaid camera hand held, still set to max wide-angle and with auto exposure. This resulted in three wide-angled, differently exposed, slightly displaced photos, which I've tried to the best of my ability stitching together with my panorama tool.

It wasn't easy, but I had to get it off my hands!

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Three photos stitched in The Panorama Factory, ran NeatImage at 60%, resized for TE (x2), cloned some imperfections, sharpened [LP faded to 40%], framed and saved for Web (x2).
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Actual exposures: 1) f:5.0, 1/650sec 2) f:6.3, 1/800sec 3) f:7.0, 1/800sec.

MvS, Ulises, perryhooter, pamastro, kent_s, ceky, digi-mom, maphoto, orme, PJE oznaczył to zdjęcie jeko użyteczne

Critiques | Translate

MvS (4163) 2005-04-04 17:50

Kaj,
Fantastisk bild. Jag gillar det lilla molnet pĺ kammens baksida, solstrĺlarna och de kristallklara färgerna och ljuset. Knivskarpt!
Magnus

jrzufferey (7305) 2005-04-04 18:17

Magnifique image de ces 4000 dans les alpes prčs de chez nous. Amitié/jr

[2]

LCannon (2798) 2005-04-04 20:03

Wow the panorama is impressive, I've tried one and failed to stitch the photos together. You've done a good job at that. The mountain looks even more impressive when you notice the building on the lower left and the lift towers. Well done, beautiful mountainscape!

pamastro (7296) 2005-04-04 23:00

You did a great job making the panorama shots fit together cleanly and evenly. The small version looks great as it is but it is in the large version that a sense of the scale of the mountains is seen. It's a very dramatic backdrop to skiing. There's such a majesty here. I like the sun shining into the scene showing the clarity of the air and what looks like very good skiing conditions. Great capture and really good job on the work to present it.

tityop (6225) 2005-04-05 3:09

Salut kaj
Je sais combien c'est difficil de realiser un panorama de cette taille mais celui ci est particulierement bien reussi. Une image nette, des couleurs superbes c'est tout simplement magnifique*
BRAVO
bien amicalement Thierry

namaste_oti (705) 2005-04-05 3:29

Bonjour,
Tres joli panorama avec une belle lumičre. Seul le piquet en premier plan au milieu de l'image me dérange un peu.
Olivier

kent_s (1911) 2005-04-05 4:50

I know your feeling exactly about skiing. Like the scanian I am I have to avoid steeper hills than 1 to 100.

It's really a breathtaking panorama shot you present to us. It's impossible to see the "needlework" so you did a great job there to.

As usual words isn't good enough to comment this pic. Very well done Kaj

ceky (2592) 2005-04-05 5:36

Bonjour Kaj
Well, some days ago, you were somewhat pessimistic on your ability to realize a nice panorama...
I have to admit that your first post of this kind is perfect ! Even more difficult to realize with the sun in front !
As sou say this ski resort has very scenic surroundings, and your picture gives a good idea of the high summits right above !
Thank you also for your very interisting note... as usual !
Georges

Cat (0) 2005-04-06 19:17 [Comment]

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maphoto (8082) 2005-04-06 22:02

Hi Kaj, this is very good work, great picture, the light and the natural colors are just great, very good result and instructive note, thanks for sharing, very good.

Stepan (27210) 2005-04-17 15:25

You succeed in catching an incredible light. Well done.
Stéphane

Lolydodia (580) 2005-04-19 14:54

It doesn´t get much better than this. Well done with the panorama, I´m impressed!

jiherka (4552) 2005-04-26 15:46

Very nice panorama of these beautiful mountains. Against the light picture with the side of the mountains just lighted up make a good effect.
Well done Kaj.

mwphotopress (47) 2005-05-09 13:57

Great photo, of a great place. I've been there and I can see that you captured it very well.

orme (7219) 2005-06-15 23:34

This is a very beautiful panoramic shot, Kaj. Perfectly stitched. I especially like the untouched snow and how the colour contrasts with the darker mountains. The lighting is excellent. Well captured.

PJE (20758) 2005-09-11 22:52

Well Kaj I am surfing around tonight and I found this photo. Gorgous work and amazing place to be for capturing this scene. Cheers Paul