It was a green-golden present, hiking in the mountains, cycling up the hill -and down again- taking off shoes and walking through freezing water…
In Salzburg I stayed on the foot of a hill in the North-eastern part of the Alps, in Slovenia in the village Godic in a house on a hill, at the South-East part of the Alps. “When you leave Slovenia, you will remember it for its nature, not for its cities”, said a friend when we were walking through the mountains.
Where there are mountains, there are also rivers, creeks and waterfalls. So, as if once is not enough, I went twice up the mountains. The first time by bike on my own, and the second time with two friends, my host and her friend.
Once again I realised how peaceful nature can be. I have been living for three years in Barcelona, quite a large city, and with little nature. And every time I go into nature I relax. Especially now as well while I travel. It is as if time ceases to exist, instead of a social construction it becomes real again, natural.
This especially becomes apparent when you leave nature, and you’re walking on the middle of the road, being totally surprised by cars that start beeping their horns to you. What the heck? cars?
This time again, it was just more than excellent being in nature. Like my prayers were listened to. Finally I was not staying in a city, but right here, in the middle of nature and surrounded by mountains. It was a green-golden present, to be able to hike in the mountains, to cycle up the hill -and down again- taking off shoes and to walk through freezing water.
Talking about freezing water, in fact I finally discovered how to ‘freeze’ water. There is a spring of this major river, and while I was doing some shots at the spring, the numerous small rivers and some waterfalls, I also played around with the manual settings of my camera.
I changed the aperture to f8, which makes the amount of light my camera lets in the smallest possible, while letting the camera decide the shutter speed, the time the camera lets the light to come in. This made it happen, the water-freezing effect I was so long looking for was finally there. A relative long exposure with a smaller aperture did the trick.
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