Beeches at Beaches
To be honest, it has been quite a while since I was out photographing the last time. Workouts, university, and moving to Berlin were my priorities and so the next photography trip had to wait. Until this weekend. I spend four days with fellow photographers from the German Society for Nature Photography and explored the woods and beaches of the Rügen, a German island in the Baltic Sea.
The beautiful beech forest of Rügen meets the sandy coastline
I was particularly excited about this trip because of the beautiful, natural woods on the island of Rügen, I heard quite a lot about. Combined with the sprouting branches, Rügen sounded like the perfect destination for me!
And indeed, Rügen delivered. Located in a small hostel near Sassnitz, the Jasmund National Park was right at our doorstop. Thus, getting up early wasn’t too bad (even though sunrise is at 5:30am this time of year) because the spots to shoot at sunrise were located quite closely.
Despite the beautiful beech trees in the Jasmund National Park nearby, most of my woodland shots were not taken there. I found it challenging to pick out a pleasing scene in the forest with no fog around.
Instead, I found myself shooting details at the forest edges quite a lot. The shot of the sprouting birches above, for instance, is one of my favorite shots from the trip. It was taken at lunchtime, when the sunlight was the harshest. The fresh leaves looked stunning against the black backdrop of the forest behind! I guess, sunrise and sunset around the only two options to go out shooting.
Besides the woodlands around, the coastline also provided a multitude of shooting opportunities. Especially, the combination of a longer exposure with the incoming wave produce some decent results, as you can see in the first and second picture below.
All in all, we were really lucky with the conditions. Most evening we had direct light until the sun set, and the sky was clear again at sunrise. Only on the last morning, the sun did not make it through the thick layer of clouds. Still, shooting at the Königsstuhl during the blue hour produces some moody shots.
Blue hour at the Königsstuhl
