Austrian spiders - Not for Arachnophobes!

A few spiders from our recent trip to Austria. The first image is not great photo as the subject was small and long way away but pleased to see Nursery spider with young on its back as well as with egg sacs. Orb spiders were everywhere with lots of different prey. The fifth image is of the very small male hiding in a buttercup. Other images - a couple of crab-type spiders.

Kitzbuhl Town in Rain and Shine

We returned from Kitzbuhl yesterday and so here a few final shots of the town in different weathers and times of day. The railway runs round Kitzbuhl in a loop with the centre of the town very compact and attractive. On the Sunday, there would have been a parade for the Festival of the Heart of Christ but rain stopped play but the members of the congregation were very photogenic in their national dress. The last two images show the hotel where we were staying split in two by the Hahnenkamm Gondola lift. I was in the building on the right and the panorama is from my balcony.

 

Marmots on Last Visit to the Kitzbuhl Horn

It was very mixed weather on our last visit up the Kitzbuhl Horn. Delighted to see Marmots playing in the Buttercups. Otherwise concentrated on flowers in their environment and the clouds on the mountains. 

Rainbow at the End of the Day; A Visit to Schwarzsee, Austria

A very enjoyable day walking to and around the Schwarzsee concluded with a spectacular rainbow over Kitzbuhel town and valley. The lake is a dark colour from the underlying peat soil; this contributes to its warm water - 24 degrees when Peter swam in it yesterday It was a cooler day with showers so we found lots of insects in the grass too cold to move fast including Damselflies and this beautiful Dragonfly (IDs to follow). 

Alpine Flowers - Experiments in Focus Stacking etc

I spent all of Wednesday on a hillside on Hahnenkamm photographing the various species using different techniques to try to get an image sharp throughout but standing away from the background. These included Focus stacking (first Common Spotted Orchid, Moss seed heads), artificial backdrop (second orchid etc), aperture control to get as wide depth of field as possible with light conditions (third orchid etc) and long lens (fourth etc; 200mm equivalent). All methods had their successes and failures (more of the latter than the former). The Hare Bells and Butterwort are both stacked images. Also shown White Orchid and Bearded Bell flower.