SEPTEMBER 2022 – Following a long summer at the Stoißer Alm, the cattle are being brought home for the winter at Seiberstadt near Teisendorf, Bavaria. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
The day had been beautiful which tremendouly helped with the assignment to capture the original cattle drive in Seiberstadt near Teisendorf in Bavaria, Germany. Traditionally, the cattle will be brought up to the Stoißer Alm in spring to spend an undisturbed summer on the meadows in the mountains. As autumn apporaches by the end of September, the roughly thirty animals will be decorated at the Alm and then brought home to the lower regions in a small ceremony.
It’s a small fest that could not be any more different to the commercialized Oktoberfest that takes place in Munich at the same time. Very few tourists find the way to Seiberstadt, so the visitors come mostly from the area, enjoying the event as a natural flow of time that has been deeply embedded into their traditions over centuries.
And it’s hard work to get the cows down thrrough the deep woods with steep hikes. Cows can run away and need to be convinced to follow the herd, and sometimes they just stop and do not move on. So, the group was 30 minutes late, and when the farmers and their cattle appeared, they were glad to have reached the village.
I really like the fact that this joy can be seen in the image, the light is perfect, and the aperture of f/5.6 blurs the background quite nicely and as intended. The photo is almost straight of the camera, by the way. Lovely.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date & Time | 23-SEP-2022, 16:01 |
| Location | Seiberstadt, Bavaria, Germany |
| Camera | Canon EOS-1D Mark IV |
| Lens | Canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS II USM |
| ISO | 400 |
| Exposure | 1/640 sec at f/5.6 |
| Digital Image Source Format | Canon Camera RAW (CR2) |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 3264 x 4896 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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