Mountains, nature, hiking, and me.

Hello everybody!
I know, I know, I know. I have been terrible about posting any news here. I guess life sometimes gives you too many new things to always write about them! ;)
Well, let's start somewhere. For example with a really cool summer assignment that I just finished on Monday! I think many of you know by now that I'm a nature lover. And I happen to live in the most gorgeous mountain region. Combine this, add client, booooooooooooooooom: awesome assignment.
My task was to photograph the entire Postalm region - landscapes, panos, flora, fauna. Now, what is Postalm? For all you non-Austrians. Postalm is the biggest summer pasture area in Austria | 42 square kilometers or over 10.000 acres | and the second largest mountain plateau in Europe | average elevation is about 1300 m or over 4000 feet |
About 300 years ago, wood became scarce down in my beautiful valley, so farmers went up there and started logging. They also did not replant many of the trees because they figured that, for the summers, it was a great space for their cattle, horses, and sheep. In the 50s, the management of the pastures declined. In the 70s, very smart people came up with the idea of a toll road. From then on, not only was there enough funding for the pastures and cabins, but everybody could access this beautiful, gorgeous, sublimely pristine (no, it's really pretty!) region in the Austrian Alps. You can enjoy great and well maintained hiking trails and there are over 15 cabins. The cabins not only offer delicious meals and home-made cakes but also their own cheeses, milk, bread, butter, jellies, bacon etc. A foodie heaven, so to speak.
Now, there are about 2000 animals on Postalm each summer, grazing away on these beautiful pastures. They are also allowed to roam around freely which makes for great up close and personal encounters with huge cows and bulls. I only ran away once. I swear.
Needless to say, it took me a while to capture this pretty vast area. But I think the results reflect the beauty of the region. I enjoyed it a lot and my hiking boots got a great workout!
A few of my favorite shots are presented in my Land&Places portfolio here on my website. We took well over a thousand shots and I edited hundreds. So, here are a few for you to see. Come hike with me here!
Further info: there are some panos in that portfolio, so I encourage you to use my (brand new) "large preview" button below the images!
Postalm website: Here
Have fun and I hope you all have a great day!
♥ Sabine
PS: My husband accompanied me on some of the trips and we actually managed to take a few personal photos ONCE. Can you believe that? Once. But, hey, better than nothing. So here are some "outtakes" of our mountain adventure. Not very exciting shots if you expect to see me running from a cow or something......

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