Vienna

Between the shipping pier for the Bratislava hovercraft and the stylish restaurant “Motto at the River” you have to walk on that metal construction way. That’s one of the newer buildings at the Danube canal in Vienna. From time to time I go there and have a cocktail at the bar. A great view of the water channel and the Schwedenplatz-bridge awaits you, which connects second with the first district of Vienna.

Post processed with: Luminar, Photoshop 

• Camera: ILCE-7RM2
• Aperture: ƒ/4
• Shutter speed: 1/200s
• Focal length: 14mm
• ISO: 100

Going through amusement park The Prater in the night gives you all these fancy colors of the attractions, like that shooting gallery shown in the photo. Though you can only shoot with air rifles, onto targets like paper flowers or balloons, it’s great fun. If you can increase your strikes, you get rewarded with teddies or plushies. Many younger guys use this, to shoot a presence for their girlfriends.

As an alternative, you could choose the safest of all shooters, can knock down. You shoot with soft balls, made of old socks and stockings. It’s the same procedure; the more cans you can strike, the bigger the teddy you will get.

The third variation is shooting with darts on balloons; again a teddy is waiting.  🙂

Post processed with: Photomatix, Color Efex Pro, Photoshop

• Camera: ILCE-7RM2
• Aperture: ƒ/1.4
• Shutter speed: 1/640s
• Focal length: 35mm
• ISO: 640

“Let’s have a beer, a cold Budweiser, a Paulaner wheat beer, a darker one? ” There is no better place in Vienna than the Schweizerhaus in the Prater. The orders come so fast that up to 10 people draw beer all the time. There are grills with hundreds of knuckles of pork, ready to be served. Every day there is a mood like a fair. Since the cold beer tastes special on hot days, you will see people with an unsteady gait in the later hours.  🙂

Post processed with: Luminar, Photoshop 

• Camera: ILCE-7RM2
• Aperture: ƒ/3.5
• Shutter speed: 1/80s
• Focal length: 35mm
• ISO: 800

The Sculptures of the  Gloriette in Schönbrunn impressed me, so gracefully and artfully crafted, this pure white, the height, the different motives like lions, soldiers, and shields. One is like the copy of the other; they look the same and enhance the building and the stairway and remind you of the past times of the emperor. If you are in Schönbrunn, don’t shy away from the march up to the Gloriette, you get rewarded with architecture and a great view over Vienna.  🙂

Post processed with: Luminar, Photoshop

• Camera: LEICA X VARIO (Typ 107)
• Aperture: ƒ/9
• Shutter speed: 1/250s
• Focal length: 18mm
• ISO: 100

Vienna has expanded big with graffiti and street paintings in recent years. At the Danube canal, you will see graffiti for miles. Sometimes you get interesting compositions, like here with newly built residences and stacked graffiti paintings.

Post processed with: Photomatix, Photoshop 

• Camera: ILCE-7R
• Aperture: ƒ/10
• Shutter speed: 10s
• Focal length: 55mm
• ISO: 100

Trey Ratcliff’s Photo Walk After Party took place at the Ritz Carlton Vienna. It was an enjoyable event, with some glasses of red wine, a presentation of Trey’s best shots and this marvelous Instagram artist, which paints a picture in 1 hour. You have to be very creative to paint like this. I took this high ISO handheld shot which shows how great the Sony A7R II handles ISO 16,000.  🙂

Post processed with: Luminar, Photoshop 

• Camera: ILCE-7RM2
• Aperture: ƒ/2
• Shutter speed: 1/1250s
• Focal length: 24mm
• ISO: 16000

Before the first guests come in, the ground of the sitting areas gets cleaned, the chairs and tables will get arranged soon, sun shades will get spanned, always many things to do in a restaurant which the guests won’t recognize directly, but belong to the feelgood factor.

Post processed with: Luminar, Photoshop 

• Camera: ILCE-7RM2
• Aperture: ƒ/4
• Shutter speed: 1/200s
• Focal length: 14mm
• ISO: 100

The Karlskirche in Vienna has an elevator which brings you up near the cupola. Then you have to take a wooden “Stairway to Heaven” ( :-)) to reach the top, but there the windows are barred with thick iron grids, no good condition for taking photos. So I went two levels down and concentrated on the phenomenal frescos of the vaulted walls. Those painters get too less attention for their art, though it is tough work to paint on these big walls and hold all in perspective, bring the right colors and arrange a set of motives which often tell a story.

Post processed with: Photoshop 

• Camera: ILCE-6000
• Aperture: ƒ/4
• Shutter speed: 1/60s
• Focal length: 11mm
• ISO: 1250

This little chapel is placed neatly between chestnut trees; there are even some wooden banks and a small altar inside. Seen during a Nordic walking session through the “Lainzer Tiergarten,” a big green wooden area with deer, boar and occasionally some snakes.  My wife has seen one  🙂

Post processed with: Aurora, Photoshop

• Camera: LEICA X VARIO (Typ 107)
• Aperture: ƒ/16
• Shutter speed: 1/80s
• Focal length: 34.6mm
• ISO: 100

Since I am converted almost entirely to a digital reader (iPad, Kindle), I was astounded of the millions of physical books exhibited in the Austrian National Library. I wondered if all of those books had been read by someone, at least they had been written and printed. 🙂 Many have a leather cover, golden embossings and are written in Kurrent. Even the building from out- and inside is fantastic, a photographer’s dream.

Post processed with: Photoshop

• Camera: ILCE-7R
• Aperture: ƒ/9
• Shutter speed: 3.2s
• Focal length: 24mm
• ISO: 160