The Lake

March 5, 2013 8:22 AM

Photographer Geoff Tompkinson has just released this hypnotically gorgeous time lapse of Lake Hallstatt in Upper Austria. [via]
posted by quin (8 comments total)

That really is gorgeous, though he ought to edit out those ducks and swans (geese?) in the early scenes. They look too cartoonishly silly motorboating by at high speed.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:46 AM on March 5, 2013

Thank you. This was lovely.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:12 AM on March 5, 2013

Wow. Thanks. I love the headlights along the shore at night. You never know what you'll get before you get it though. My best job thus far revealed the flashlights of climbers going up the high mountain that was my subject (pre-sunrise). In the video, there are enough repeated flashes to notice them. In real time, not very likely to see. In another location, about 30 minutes before the sun came into view, someone set off a block of fireworks on an adjacent ridge, just barely in my frame. Only a couple of them made it on to the camera, I was shooting at 4-second intervals (the fastest that camera can deal, continuously).
posted by Goofyy at 9:22 AM on March 5, 2013

When I read the post, I thought it said Lake Hallstatt in Upper Australia. I watched the video completely dumbstruck that such a place existed down under. After it was over, I went to google maps to find where in the outback such snowy vistas, calm water, and even modern trains could hide. I'm a bit embarassed that I made it through the whole video without coming to that obvious realisation.
posted by Metro Gnome at 12:14 PM on March 5, 2013

The one time I went to Hallstatt, doing German language study abroad, there was a missing person (and foul play was suspected, so the police kept expecting the body to pop out of the lake at any minute).

Of course ALL we could think of and discuss was "have you seen anything? Did it pop out?" In almost every photo, at least ONE person is turning around to look at the lake.

I'm glad this is so beautiful I can finally rid my head of the other stuff...
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:15 PM on March 5, 2013

I only realized latter, I was there in my first trip to the mountains in Europe. It's where I went up above the tree line for my first time ever. At the time, it seemed quite awesome (before I lived in Switzerland, obviously. LOL). It was the thing about the salt mines there that made me realize it.

Where the car lights are so pretty are places the road runs under cover, so falling rocks (or snow avalanche) don't mess with the traffic.
posted by Goofyy at 10:06 PM on March 5, 2013

Thank you for posting this. It reminded me so much of one those "paradigm shifts" we are sometimes lucky to experience. I grew in New Zealand in the 1950's and 60's. One of national myths was that we lived in THE most beautiful country in the world. God's own country people used to say. Whatever else about us; such as distance from anywhere important, lack of culture or art, small population, shops closing on Saturdays and Sundays and there being nothing really to do after 5:00pm, we lived in THE most beautiful country in the world. Then in my forties I visited Austria, arriving at Lake Wolfgang, just up the road from where this video was shot, late on a winter's night. When I woke up the next day and looked out the window, I saw the most glorious mountain scenery I had ever seen, and I realised that New Zealand was not THE most beautiful country in the world, but a beautiful one nonetheless. The mountain and lake scenery in Austria is stunning and just as beautiful as anything I had seen at home. Thank you for reminding me again of this.
posted by vac2003 at 12:16 AM on March 6, 2013

Absolutely beautiful place, and the night scenes were amazing, but dang, I really wanted to slow it down.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:05 AM on March 6, 2013