Neuschwanstein Castle in Fog, Germany
This four-day trip had only one purpose — to shoot the famous Bavarian castle surrounded by colorful autumn trees. We waited for the precise moment, when leaves turn red, green and orange for the short period of time. Technically the photo shoot of this type shouldn't take more than two days. However, we decided to give it some extra time...
As it turned out, it was a wise decision. Mountains stay mountains (even if it's just low foothills of Alps in Southern Bavaria), so the weather is rather unpredictable there. It is also worth mentioning, that the only time when the castle is perfectly lit for the photo is that short 30-minutes window in the morning. Afterwards the sun travels leaving only the sidewall of the castle in light.
We arrived. But apparently the weather didn't want to cooperate. Day one — it was raining all day; photo shoot was canceled. Day two — the same thing.
On the third day the weather tricked us again. The thick fog covered everything from the very morning. Regardless, we were full of optimism, so we climbed the mountain above the castle, and then descended into the valley, hoping to find a clearing. No luck. Finally after three hours of waiting we decided to shoot the castle at any cost.
However, there are no good shooting spots when the visibility is 30-40 meters. Except for one — right from the center of the castle! Although it's rather risky to fly and shoot in the castle...
Anyhow, we took our chance. Thank God that all the tourists were asleep at such an early hour. The take-off was very difficult due to heavy fog, which was in reality 100% humidity. It condensed large drops of water on the equipment, so we had to be quick. There was no time to go back and correct mistakes.
Our RC helicopter took off and quickly disappeared into the fog. All we had was the screen of our laptop with blinking control lights and short beeps of the height sensor in Stas's headphones. The time passed very slowly.
In a few minutes, here it was — our helicopter returned from the white foam of the fog, all wet, as if it was in a shower. Everything was covered with large drops of water: the helicopter, the camera, and the lens. Nevertheless, the equipment did its job just fine, and we immediately returned to our hotel room to dry it.
So this is the story of shooting this spherical panorama.
We spent the following day waiting, and only on the forth day did nature smile at us. The weather was wonderful and we shot, and shot, and shot...
The entire coverage of our fall-winter photo tour of Neuschwanstein Castle, night Hohenschwangau, and the town of Füssen and its surroundings will be published next month.
Photo and text by Sergey Semenov and Stas Sedov
17 December 2011
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