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Mountain and road #1

Mountain and road, Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria

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The story behind this image

As Liz and I found out on our holiday last summer, Austria is a country that lives up to its reputation for scenic grandeur.

Based in Schladming, in the heart of Austria and hard up against the limestone Dachstein Massiv, we were able to explore the region by car, and visit some truly spectacular locations.

But what made our holiay doubly pleasurable was the driving.

Normally I treat driving as a necessary evil to get us to a pre-determined photogenic spot, but driving round the mountains of Austria was an experience in itself, and there were plenty of times I wish I could have pulled over to enjoy the view we were passing through and take the odd photo or two. However, most of the time stopping wasn't possible due to the road being narrow, windy, and with a cliff on one side and a precipice on the other. The locals would have been really annoyed at some gawking tourist blocking the road, so I didn't attempt it. Liz did try shooting video out of the car window as we drove along, but that's another story.

However, on a rare occasion, a beautiful view would coincide with an opportunity to stop, and that's what happened here on the road from Schladming to Ramsau am Dachstein.

Some purist landscape photographers would shudder at my inclusion of the road in this composition, but I feel it adds 'story' to the image. Can't you just picture yourself driving this road through the mountains on such a beautiful day? Happy memories.

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Image data


Filename - mountain road 01.jpg

Camera - Canon 5D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm

Exposure - 1/250sec @ f11, ISO100

Location - Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria

This image - 800x533px JPEG

Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2

Comments - 0.7 stop underexposure used to hold detail in the clouds.