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Beech forest

Something happened over the last few weeks in the forests around us. Something so monumental that the rotation of the earth actually accelerated. Just like an ice-skater revs up her dizzying spin by moving her arms closer to her body any other rotating object starts to spin faster as more weight moves closer to its centre of gravity.

The change in the earths rotation is brought about by billions of deciduous trees in the northern hemisphere shedding their leaves, thus moving the weight of gazillions of leaves about 10-20 metres closer to the earth’s centre of gravity, i.e. to the ground. On a perfectly balanced planet, this autumnal action in the north would be offset by the action happening in spring on the other half of the globe. As it happens however, our lob sided planet has mostly watery oceans in the south – save for Australia perhaps, which for the most part consists of hot red dust. Whichever way we look at it, both habitats are distinctly hostile to trees.

Fading leaves

Fall foliage

Before a tree is ready to give our planet that extra nudge something else happens to its leaves. A layer of cork cells forms at the base of each leaf and slowly blocks the veins that have carried fluids into and out of the leaf all summer. As the water and mineral intake of the leaf is reduced the chlorophyll, which was responsible for turning it green, slowly decreases as well. When the boring green bits fade away, the other pigments take over and lend the leaves a much more interesting hue. The carotenoids make it yellow or brown, whereas the anthocyanins make it red or purple.

Autumn colours

Autumn colours

In some areas of the world, this colour change is so spectacular that tour operator around the deciduous northern hemisphere have specialised in autumn colour tourism. The tourists that come to look at multi-coloured leaves are simply known as “leaf peepers“. The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has even set up a special fall colour hotline for those in the search of a thrilling yellow and red forest.

Although the leaves on the ground are momentous occasion for our planet, I decided to watch the part of that spectacle of nature which involves the foliage still attached to the tree. In short – I went “leaf peeping”!

National leaf peeping holiday

The 26th October is the national holiday in Austria, and when the weather forecast promises glorious autumn sunshine, the whole country gets on their legs and goes out into the, well the country. When I went to a bookshop the previous day to buy a hiking map, I got the impression that I was not the only person with the idea to head out into the woods. The shop was simply buzzing with people asking for maps of this or that mountain. The shopkeeper was very knowledgeable in recommending routes, trails, cabins and inns. He provided information on parking, views and national park fees. The customers themselves started chatting about this or that mountain they’d climbed when they were much younger and fitter. Names of log cabins and their eccentric alpine owners were exchanged as well as hints on rare plants and animals.

Hike in the Ötscher-Tormäuer nature reserve

Ötscher view

Kitted out with sufficient cartographical details I was on my way at the crack of dawn to head for the Ötscher-Tormäuer nature reserve. Once the fog had lifted I was treated to an incredible display of scenery that made me stop my car every 500 yards to take it in and photograph it.

My route was about 15 km. The major way-points are listed below. The icons link to Google Earth placemark files. If you don’t have that installed, you click on the screenshot on the right:

• Trübenbach ()
• Nestelberg ()
• Eibenboden ()
• Trefflingfall ()
• and back to Trübenbach

Trefflingfall

The scenery varied from open pastures to dense beech and pine forests. One section follows the gorge carved into the granite by the river Erlauf. The icy green and blue stream either quietly meanders through docile beech woods or thunders over giant rocks in roaring rapids.

When the hammering growl of the waterfalls fades into the distance, you are left with tweeting and chattering birds, a fluttering wood pigeon, a deer rustling through the undergrowth, the wind whispering in the treetops. When even that soundstage is reduced to the sound of your own feet you might still be able to hear the faint and distant singing of Catholics on their pilgrimage to Mariazell. The other half of Austria not currently on a pilgrimage seemed to have congregated on the paths and trails closer to the parking lots at either end of my route. I wonder if they’d all been in that same bookshop the day before.

The hike that should have taken me 5 hours took nearly 6 for all the stoppages due to incomprehensibly beautiful scenery that had to be photographed.

Some 50 of the best pictures can be seen in the Ötscher-Tormäuer nature reserve album below: (more…)

Hypselodoris infucata

When I submitted my best underwater photos of nudibranchs to the 2007 Nudibranch Calendar (See my article Sluggish pictures on the wall) I was pleasantly surprised that I had already photographed such a wide variety of these fascinating creatures.

One of my photos was chosen for a calendar month full page, and I have since received my paper copy to know that it looks rather splendid on paper. Poring over my photo collection gave me the idea to assemble a collection of the out-takes, those that didn’t get chosen and those worthy ones that I didn’t submit.

Glossodoris rufomarginata

I made the effort to identify all nudibranchs. If you find a mistake, please let me know. The gallery is presented in chronological order, which means it starts with my early efforts that might not live up to todays high standards. Those two were taken on a Powershot S30 in a plastic housing, where all later ones were taken using a Canon 300D in a UK-Germany housing with a housed 550EX Speedlight. Starting with the shots from Lembeh Strait, I used exclusively the EF-S 60mm macro lens.

View all images in the Nudibranch album below :

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Ask any person from the US or the UK about films related to Austria and they will name these two classics – “The Sound of Music” and “The Third Man”. The funny thing is that most Austrians or Germans have never seen these films, while they are must-see timeless classics in the anglo-saxon hemisphere. It has to be said, however, that these were english-language films made by american and british companies.

Josef statue

The filming locations of the Third Man

Tired of being pestered about details from the film by holidaying americans I decided to rent “The Third Man“. I had been led to believe that the enture film was set in the sewers of post-war Vienna, which was disappointing at first, but I did recognise a lot of details in the background, which I just had to explore further.

A local tour company offers guided walks through the city which retrace the history of the making of the film and visit several of the locations. The tour was joined mainly by american toursists and Gerhard, the guide did the narration in german and in english.

Harry Lime in the door

Apart from interesting trivia about the making of the movie, our guide had a wealth of knowledge about the post-war era of allied occupation.

In the film, Harry Lime is involved in a smuggling racket and he uses the underground sewers to move between the anglo-american and the russian occupation zones that divided Vienna between 1945 and 1955.

The sewers of post-war Vienna were narrow tunnels of 4 feet high by 2 feet wide that were filled with 3 feet of smelly effluent. Most of the older inner-city houses still had vast cellars and basements dating back to the times of the Siege of Vienna and the Battle of Vienna when the populace hoarded food and wine for those bleak times when ottoman forces washed up against the shores of Christianity. These cellars were generally interconnected and the whole length of some streets could be traversed underground. It was there and not in the rat-infested sewers that most the smuggling took place.
The famous scene where Harry Lime is hunted down in the underground was actually filmed in the vaults of the covered Wienfluss river and the actors who were super stars of their era did not actually get down there themselves, but sent stunt doubles instead.

The walk took us to the house of Harry Limes appartment, the Hotel Sacher and Cafe Mozart. We saw the door where Harry revealed himself for the first time and learned that the column he vanished in was installed on the square “Am Hof” by the film crew and didn’t actually lead anywhere.

See more photos of the tour in the Third Man tour in Vienna album below :
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Sun rays

Whether the water is as clear as gin or murky like tea, the pike, perch and trouts are just as much fun to visit in their natural habitat as the butterflyfishes, groupers and wrasses of the colourful coral reefs.

Diving in freshwater exudes a unique fascination for many reasons :

• local sites close to home
• pack and go on the spur of the moment
• new types of diving (e.g. rivers and rapids)
• appreciate local wildlife
• much cheaper than a trip to the Indo-Pacific
• colder water and heavy gear presents a new challenge
• bragging rights for having braved the icy rapids
• very good visibility in some mountain lakes and springwater streams

Many of those reasons apply also to local diving in the North Sea or the Baltic depending on where you live. For my old UK-based diveclub I once wrote a piece on North Sea diving to praise the beauty and the challenge of diving in Britain – A eulogy to British diving.

The river Traun when salt ruled the world

River Traun

The river Traun in Austria once served as the main transport artery to ferry salt from the aptly named “Salzkammergut” (the salt district) to the Danube. The “white gold” drove a technological, military and political revolution as it was traded from the banks of the Traun and the Danube to the far corners of the medieval world. (Read more on that in the excellent book “Salt: A World History” by Mark Kurlansky)

Along the river Traun whole armies of rafters used to drive even bigger armies of horses, oxen, mules and donkeys along the river banks to drag the salt barges, boats and rafts. Where the river bank was flat the rafters built paved embankments to provide sure footing for their donkeys and mules. Their progress was only blocked by steep water falls and the salt had to be transferred from one side of the falls to the other. Taverns and Inns sprung up at such transfer points and at distances equalling roughly a days journey on the river.

Salt is cheap in the modern world. Business is no longer driven by donkeys, but electricity and as early as the 1920s plans were laid down to build a dam on the Traun falls. A hydro-electric powerplant was constructed later to turn the fast-flowing rapids into the magic sparks that lit up a new world no longer dependant on horse- and manpower, but on engines, motors, oil and kilowatts.

Diving and snorkelling at the Traun falls

First sun

The Atlantis dive centre in Viecht (Desselbrunn village) is the most convenient starting point for exploring the Traun falls. The water level above the falls rose by about 4 metres after the dam was built. The standard clock-wise circumnavgiation of the island takes you to a maximum of about 10m, but the water is turbid in this part of the river. The yellow cast gives the water the appearance of tea. As I’ve only ever been in autumn when the river is full of fallen leaves I haven’t worked out yet wether the river is actually made of beech and oak leaf tea at this time of year and whether it is clearer when there are less leaves floating about.

clear waters

In contrast the river below the dam is crystal clear and reminds the snorkeller of floating in gin. The power station operators prohibit diving in this part of the river, but snorkelling over the rapids is just as much fun. Snorkelling trips are always accompanied by a guide, which keeps telling you how painful a different route down the rapids can be. Even when you do follow the line of Franz or Uschi it easy to get bumped and bruised, especially when your attention is turned to protecting your camera rather than your knees, shoulders or chin.

Perch

Pike

Both sections of the river above and below the dam are full of freshwater fish, the most prominent being the trout, perch and pike. The geological features of the riverbed are just as stunning as the schooling fish.

The bedrock is pockmarked with geological potholes which have been ground over hundreds of years. The strong current during the snow melt floods gnaw at the rock year after year. The most interesting features develop when a pebble is deposited in small depression in the rock and starts grinding it into a whole as it is tumbled around by the swirling currents. A section of river is called the “Grand Canyon” by the local guides for its stunning underwater landscapes that are reminiscent giant geological marvels in the USA.

Just in case you were about to ask : The water temperature was around 8°C (46°F).

See more photos of diving at the Traun falls from my most recent and last years trip in the Traun falls gallery below :

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Via The Online Photographer comes a link to an interesting video that explores the question

How did our idea of beauty become so distorted ?

View flash video

The Campaign for Real Beauty might be sponsored by a cosmetics manufacturer (who some would hold partially responsible for the dilemma), but it does highlight valid concerns about self esteem especially in young people.

When you pick up your next glossy magazine look closely at the cover and try to imagine what the model really looked like. The cover shot is always manipulated the most – sometimes you find a similar (less altered) photo from the same shoot on the inside pages and you get an idea what the photographer/retouch artist did to achieve that “cover look”.

These two websites have before/after galleries of the type of photos that are used for glossy fashion magazines or advertising:

• Elektronische Schoenheit (it means electronic beauty - that says it all)

• Glenn Feron (you’ll recognize many famous celebrities in his portfolio and get to see all their wrinkles and pimples before they were touched up)