While waiting for the perfect light at Múla­fo­ssur on the Faroe Islands, I spent my time captu­ring the perfect moments at the water­fall. Not easy, as the light was already quite dark in the late evening and the birds were flying around the falling water at a brisk pace. Nevert­heless, I managed to get some great shots, a few of which will certainly make it into my port­folio. Like this shot of the wind-blown Múlafossur. 

A view not to be missed on the Faroe Islands is the view of the Fossa, the largest water­fall on the Faroe Islands. From the oppo­site side of the fjord, you have the oppor­tu­nity to see the Fossa in all its gran­deur. It is one of the few water­falls on the Faroe Islands that carries water all year round. Many smaller water­falls on the Faroe Islands often dry up after a few days of drought, but usually swell up again into impres­sive water­falls after a short rain­fall. At the Fossa itself, you can also walk up to the upper cascade. When we were there, however, this was not possible as the mud on the path was far too slip­pery and there was hardly any grip. 

This scene at a wonderful and well-hidden small water­fall enchanted me. The compo­si­tion of the picture lives from the curved green ferns poin­ting towards the center of the picture, the water flow and the rocks that create a triangle towards the water­fall in the lower part of the picture. Although this patch of nature is in the middle of Germany, it could just as easily be in a jungle or another planet unknown to man. 

A water­fall in the middle of the Black Forest that I disco­vered by chance. It is some­what remote and hidden, but when you get close to it, you can hear the sound of the water falling down its gorge. The descent to the water­fall is a bit of an adven­ture. But it was worth it, because behind each rock you could discover another secret. A beau­tiful spot of almost untouched nature. 

On loca­tion, I was not enti­rely satis­fied with the condi­tions I found. The result of this photo, however, convinced me comple­tely at home in front of the computer. The beau­tiful green of the moss on the large rocks and the well-chosen expo­sure time for beau­tifully soft water with a light texture finally convinced me to show the picture to the public. 

| Top 32 nature photo of summer 2023 | The fame of this water­fall near Todtnau in the Black Forest doesn’t exactly make it easy to take pictures of it without people. The search for a special compo­si­tion without tourists running in front of my lens then took me under a wooden foot­bridge, where I was able to successfully capture the dyna­mics of the falling and flowing water in a picture. 

I took this beau­tiful scene at a stream in the Black Forest. The fern in the fore­ground, the stream and the rhodo­den­dron in the back­ground form a great work of art. 

This beau­tiful stream can be found on the way in the direc­tion of the Gerold­sauer waterfall. 

This beau­tiful section of the Triberg water­falls would be worth a visit on its own. The compo­si­tion is deli­bera­tely chosen so that the viewer’s gaze is guided up the river, to where the water flows out of the forest. 

This raging water­fall is another cascade of the Triberg water­falls. A large bridge leads over it, which was beau­tifully deco­rated with autumnal forest colors on the day the photo was taken. 

Germany’s highest water­falls exude a very special magic as soon as the leaves are colored in autumn. In this picture you can see the lower cascades of the water­falls of Triberg. 

Some pictures need no descrip­tion. Fallen orange leaves, moss-covered stones and trees, an idyllic stream and a magical atmo­sphere. That’s autumn in the Black Forest. 

The beau­tiful early autumn color of the leaves frame the Geroldsau water­fall in a romantic way. 

Espe­ci­ally on stressful days, some people long for peace and soli­tude to find a little peace within them­selves. The people of this house in the seclu­sion of the Black Forest certainly have enough of this peace and solitude. 

For this photo we already left in the middle of the night and arrived at still pitch dark night. After a short walk over 100 meters of alti­tude through the snowy forest, we arrived at this well-known view­point. With the naked eye, you could only see the lights of the Mummelsee Hotel in the distance, but with the camera I was able to take a wonderful picture. 

It is an impres­sive oak tree that stands here by the side of the path and whose dimen­sions cannot really be depicted in a picture. A sawn-off tree trunk lies next to it, rotting away. It is lying in a large puddle of water that has formed this summer, which is very watery. In these spec­ta­cular condi­tions, with fog and the sunlight shining through, this beau­tiful natural scene was created, showing both unspoiled nature and the inter­ven­tion of man, making it appear mystical and myste­rious as well as calm and optimistic. 

At first glance, as I walked past, this scene was quite unre­mar­kable. What I parti­cu­larly liked was the forest floor, which was comple­tely covered in green. The tree in the fore­ground has a little pecu­lia­rity in its appearance, so I took a closer look at the scene. I noticed that the trees in the back­ground were also wonderfully stag­gered. A few centi­me­ters back, a little further in the focal length, a little lower and 2 cm to the right, then the compo­si­tion was right for me. The foggy atmo­sphere helped with the compo­si­tion and empha­sized the myste­rious mood of this forest scene. 

For me, the forest usually seems like one of the most peaceful places in the world. Espe­ci­ally in a healthy forest, ever­y­thing lives in harmony with each other. The animals, the trees, the bushes. When the mist or light rain in the morning makes the atmo­sphere almost magical, it seems so peaceful. You can only hear the rain drip­ping on the leaves and your own foot­s­teps. From a distance, you can hear the soft hamme­ring of a woodpe­cker and the occa­sional bird­song. Quiet moments like this in nature are not just for taking photos, but also for enjoying. 

A photo­graph that visually illus­trates the harmony and tran­quil­lity of the forest. In the soft back­light, the trunks of the beech trees look like dark figures. This is enhanced by the humi­dity of the prevai­ling light rain and the mist. The summery green of the beech leaves makes the whole atmo­sphere appear gree­nish, which under­lines the tran­quil­lity of the scene. These are the scenes that I like to look for most in the forest and that I love to photo­graph, because these photo­graphs are also incre­dibly atmo­spheric when printed on the wall. 

Photo­gra­phi­cally spea­king, I like late fall. When the tree­tops are already thin­ning out, allo­wing more light into the forest, but there are still a few last, brightly colored autumn leaves clinging to the bran­ches. The chance of fog in the woods increases and you can take some great melan­cholic, mystical and dreamy pictures. In my home region, these are the last days before the land­scape appears gray, brown and dreary most of the time. 

A wonderful myste­rious forest scene from the Oden­wald. The light seems to come from two direc­tions, which is due to forest clea­rings to the left and right of the camera loca­tion. The fog, or light rain, was quite thick at the time, which created a great magical atmo­sphere in the photo. 

I was amazed when I drove to a slightly higher forest on this — actually still autumnal — day to capture the last autumn colors in the forest. The clouds were clinging to the tree­tops at higher alti­tudes, so I should have plenty of time to photo­graph the misty atmo­sphere. What I found, however, was snow already falling in places. In some places, it lay gently on the autumn leaves lying on the ground, crea­ting a wintry interlude. 

A picture that, for me perso­nally, repres­ents a dark time in my life. But that is precisely why it is so meaningful. After our daughter was diagnosed with cancer when she was not quite two years old, we asked ourselves so many ques­tions. Among other things, why couldn’t we have seen a tumor growing inside her earlier? Just like this little tree growing slowly but unno­ticed in the middle of the big trees in the forest. The dark, mystical foggy atmo­sphere before sunrise is symbolic of our unclear thoughts about an uncer­tain future at this time. 

A scene from a wintry forest. There was dense fog on the spot, because the clouds hung so low in this forest that it always seemed to be raining, then again only misty mois­ture surrounded us. Before sunrise in the twilight, deep in such a large, dark forest, surrounded by silence and quiet bird­song, you expe­ri­ence moments again and again that you can’t explain. That’s how I came up with the title of this photo­graph: Meta­phy­sical Twilight. I also pondered a lot that morning about things I could not explain. 

In forest photo­graphy, you have to look for compo­si­tions with an open eye and a steady step. A few centi­me­tres to the left, right, up or down can change a scene greatly. In this shot it becomes parti­cu­larly clear. Just a few centi­me­tres to the side and it would have been a comple­tely diffe­rent image of a single tree. When I disco­vered the trees almost perfectly lined up, however, I wanted to photo­graph them so that they continued into the depths of the forest like a kind of echo of the fore­most trunk. 

A broken branch that has caught on the trunk of a neigh­boring tree forms the motif of this photo­graph. The secon­dary motif is the wonderfully beau­tiful wild garlic in bloom, spre­a­ding out like a white carpet in the green spring forest. Finding an inte­res­ting compo­si­tion for this motif was a some­what more diffi­cult task, which I think I managed quite well. 

It is always a plea­sure to walk into a spring forest where the wild garlic blos­soms are in full swing. The spicy smell, the fresh green colors of the leaves and the chir­ping of the birds in the early morning always put me in a kind of “short vaca­tion” every time I visit. On this morning after a down­pour the night before, I was parti­cu­larly lucky, as a light misty haze in the forest made the atmo­sphere seem even more enchanted. 

The bloo­ming wild­flower carpet of this wood­land is crossed by a fallen tree trunk and its bran­ches. The light mist in the forest gives the image a special aesthetics. 

On this spring morning, condi­tions were not neces­s­a­rily the best one would wish for photo­gra­phing wild garlic in bloom. But the mist outside the forest gates and a brief moment of pier­cing sunlight provided inco­ming, wonderfully difuss light that lite­rally made this scene glow. Luckily, I was there at the time and was able to capture this wonderful shot on my sensor. 

Even though the carpet of wild garlic in this section of forest on a small hill was not parti­cu­larly dense, the morning atmo­sphere was beau­tiful. The sun still managed to shine through the leaf canopy that morning, a few weeks later, this was already too dense. 

A picture that I took during a little chall­enge. The aim was to press the shutter button just once on this morning, which I spent walking in the woods with my daughter. This was the scene I decided on. But there were also other beau­tiful scenes, espe­ci­ally details, that would have been worth photographing. 

A forest scene, as if from a fairy tale. Those who still have some child­like imagi­na­tion will reco­g­nise the face in the trunk of the tree and possibly ask them­selves, who is or who was that? An old witch who was defeated by a glorious hero and is now banished in this tree trunk? Fittingly for the scene, I was able to catch the right light some time after sunrise to give this scene the neces­sary dreamy glow. 

The last few days have been pretty stormy. At such wind speeds and with many trees still in leaf, every now and then a tree is caught whose trunk can no longer with­stand the strain or is even uprooted. This specimen may have been on the ropes for some time, but it still suited the weather condi­tions and the compo­si­tion of the picture. I chose a slightly longer expo­sure time as a deli­be­rate styli­stic device to make the wind visible in the blurred leaves. Some­thing diffe­rent from always making ever­y­thing pin-sharp. 

A few minutes after sunrise, the first rays of the day trans­form the dark forest into a magical, light-flooded place that loses all its ghostly features. 

A small scene in the fall forest that you pass by without thin­king unless you’re really looking for it. I was looking for the last remai­ning colorful leaves in the forest. First and fore­most, of course, yellow leaves. Because in the shadows of the morning, the mist often still looks slightly bluish, which creates a wonderful color harmony with the yellow leaves. To discover this scene, you had to look closely and you could only take the picture with a tele­photo lens so that the detail would fit. The picture quickly became unin­te­res­ting all around. 

This bird’s eye view of an autumn wood­land shows the diver­sity of our wonderful native forests and the beauty of our natural world. 

Germany’s forests are parti­cu­larly beau­tiful to look at in autumn, as the mixed forests change color in diffe­rent facets. Paired with evening soft side light, great shots of these autumn forests are created. 

A beau­tiful scene of nature showing some wonderful facets of our breath­ta­king world. The forests in the early Hersbt, the clouds on the horizon, illu­mi­nated by the setting evening sun, the rising moon and in the middle this bare tree, which is synony­mous with the tran­si­ence of all crea­tures here on earth. 

Inte­res­ting scenes resulted from a drop in tempe­ra­ture further below zero and nocturnal fog. This clash caused hoar­frost to form on the forests of my home­land. Deep into the woods, bran­ches, twigs and remai­ning leaves were covered by white frost. Beau­tiful winter land­scapes that had not seen a single snowflake. 

Yeah, okay. I had to retouch a few foot­prints to make this shot port­folio-ready, I’ll be honest. But when condi­tions like this prevail in our little wine-growing commu­nity, ever­yone is lite­rally drawn out into nature. And as the winter sun had to be used for this shot in the early evening, I had no choice but to accept this fact. Modern image proces­sing made it possible and if the picture is successful, no one will actually ask after­wards whether there weren’t actually foot­prints in the winter forest, right? 

A scene that you probably just walk past 99% of the time. But if you are looking for some­thing special in the bare winter forest, this young tree, elegantly dancing around the big trees, can catch your eye. That’s how it caught my eye and I was able to bring it into a beau­tiful compo­si­tion with a long focal length. The back­light and the prevai­ling fog in the forest natu­rally help this motif. It was exactly the weather condi­tion it needed. 

This shot had been buzzing around in my head for a while, as this section of the forest is one of my usual running laps. But I wanted to wait for the right condi­tions. This late fall, there was enough fog to take this picture of the broken tree. In addi­tion to the actual motif, the broken oak, it was also important to me to show the surroun­dings, which actually stand out some­what from the surroun­ding forest. The ground vege­ta­tion in parti­cular is charac­te­rized by comple­tely diffe­rent dark green plants here, unlike in the rest of the forest. That’s why I wanted to use this cool morning mood for this picture. 

On this winter morning in February, there was dense fog espe­ci­ally in the some­what higher forests of my home region. So I set off to a place where I had been before in summer. There, in a larger clea­ring, I knew there were some inte­res­ting trees with a little more distance, which should help in finding a compo­si­tion for the picture. This tree with its peeling bark caught my eye imme­dia­tely. It was to become the eye-catcher in my picture. 

Photo­graphy also means letting others see the world through your eyes. Ever­yone perceives their surroun­dings differ­ently or disco­vers diffe­rent things. In the bright morning sun with a slight haze in the atmo­sphere, I disco­vered this scene in nature. The light surrounded this tree in a flood­plain with a soft golden glow. And although the scene looks chaotic, the light gives it a plea­sant calm. 

In color theory, the color yellow stands for opti­mism. This beau­tiful shot shows the tops of some trees in a forest that lies behind a beau­tiful inver­sion. The warm side light from the rising sun gives the picture this wonderful warm color and makes it a beau­tiful mini­ma­list motif. 

| Top 16 nature photo of autumn 2022 | The Karl­stal Gorge in Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate is always a popular desti­na­tion for hikers. In autumn, the forest makes the valley glow in beau­tiful autumn colors. Many people are fami­liar with the motif of the pavi­lion in the middle of the valley, but some of the rapids of the stream also lend them­selves to being photo­gra­phed as small waterfalls. 

In this photo I was able to capture a dreamy, beau­tiful light mood in the early morning in the Pala­ti­nate Forest in late summer. The bloo­ming erica plants, the rocks and the sun star of the morning sun toge­ther with the pine trees form a beau­tiful photo. 

While looking for some inte­res­ting areas for a few land­scape shots, I came across a small pine forest on a roadside on Sardinia’s west coast. As I drove slowly past, 2–3 ideas and compo­si­tions caught my eye. The next morning, I set off before sunrise to take a few shots here. One of my favo­rite shots is this one, in which the sun’s rays refracted twice on a tree and created two sun stars.