The Theresa’s valley
If I was a rich aristocrat living in the mid 18th century, I would not hesitate to build myself a large game reserve just so I could come there and watch animals (and probably just try to draw them, since the first modern camera obscura was made around year 1800 and was no good for wildlife photography anyway). As a matter of fact, one of the most popular destination in Gratzen Mountains - The Theresa’s valley originated pretty much just like that. Count Jan Nepomuk Buquoy loved nature and his wife Theresa so much (or just could not bear her nagging anymore, who knows) that he let build this beautiful forest park with small creek with artificial waterfall running right through the whole valley. And he named it after her.
When I came there this June, there was enough water in the creek so the waterfall looked really nice, which is not often the case during drier seasons. I tried several angles to take a photo of it and the three above seemed to work best in my opinion. For picture two and three I had to get my tripod in the water, which is always a bit nerve-wracking, since I really wouldn't like my camera to go swimming. When it comes to running water I like to keep my shutter speed lower to capture the motion but not too long so the water would look like pouring milk. In this case I settled at 1 second (first two photos) and 1/2 a second exposure (third picture) respectively. Please let me know which one do you prefer in the comments, since I could not decide myself.
The waterfall also provided a suitable habitat for (at least) two species of birds. Right next to falling water inside a small crack in the rock there was a nest of pair of grey wagtails with their young ones. You can see the man of the house on the pictures above (unlike females the males have bright yellow chest and tummy). Watching them catch the insects mid-air above the creek was so awesome! Whenever each of the parents caught something, they did not take it directly to the nest. They always perched on the tree nearby and watched for possible threats. Only when they were confident enough that everything is alright they brought their catch to the nest to feed the hungry chicks.
There was also a white-throated dipper. And what an interesting bird it is! These little fellows just love the water where they hunt for their prey. In fact, they are very skilful divers (hence the name obviously)! And it was this dipper who allowed me to take the best picture of the day while it was standing in the shower of the waterfall. I only cloned out some distracting piece of grass in Photoshop. This way I achieved a bit cleaner composition with the bird nicely facing against the water stream.
