Vacation to Austria

[Paul_O]

I'm heading to Europe in Dec/January and will be spending a week or so in Austria (Vienna & Innsbruck), a couple of days in Prague as well as 2 weeks in the Netherlands with my in-laws. Does anyone have any must see sights to see whilst in Austria? I'll also be taking plenty of landscapes in the snow, what is the typical + exposure compensation to use? I'll be using my 300D with kit lens, 75-300 IS and 50mm Mk II.

I look forward to any advice

[lucasdigital]

1) Make sure you take plenty of memory cards, you may find it a lot harder to locate Internet cafes that support burning shots onto CDR. They also lock down access to FTP so you can't even upload your shots to FTP. I might have just been unlucky, but In Amsterdam I had to buy a new memory card to carry on shooting.

2) I'd recommend buying some guides, such as those produced by the loney planet - http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

While you can dig up useful things online, there is no substitute for quality guide material. The one I got for Prague was very helpful in locating the things that don't always get on the tourist maps.

3) take a raincoat :(

Hope you have a good time!

http://www.lucas-digital.com/bloghouse/amsterdam1.jpg
-carrying a tripod around can sometimes get you unexpected access to Dutch film sets.

http://www.lucas-digital.com/bloghouse/praga1.jpg
- Prague is one of the most enigmatic cities in europe, I hope to go back for another shoot.

[Paul_O]

Thanks for the feedback, I've already got the lonely planet guide and am in the process of studying it. I'm lucky to have family in The Netherlands so computer access etc won't be a problem, some extra storage whilst on the move wouldn't go astray though. I like your pictures, I spent about 9 months in Europe last year but unfortunately the Photographic bug bit too late and I only ended up with what I'd call "decent quality" photos from the latter part of the tour. I guess that's a good reason to go back and do it again. 8)
Hopefully when I'm back I'll figure out how to get some photos on here to share.

Paul

[Ronin]

I was there last year...if you can, try to go to Hitler's Eagle's Nest.

http://ronin.forwardhost.ca/Eagle's-Nest---Looking-On.jpg

Austria is full of photo ops just on the street.

http://ronin.forwardhost.ca/Vienna222.jpg

http://ronin.forwardhost.ca/Vienna028.jpg

And the architecture is amazing.

http://ronin.forwardhost.ca/palace.jpg

[Andy_T]

Hi,

you'll enjoy it!
In December, you should bring warm clothes.

When you have the chance to visit Vienna in December, take a look at the various Christmas markets (usually around until Dec. 24). New year's eve is also very nice in Vienna, it's a major tourism event.

Take a look at http://www.austria-tourism.at/

Best regards,
Andy

[Paul_O]

Andy, Ronin,
Thanks very much for the replies, I'm looking forward to it more and more. I forgot about the Christmas markets, I visited some in Germany at Christmas a couple of years ago and remember that they were great.

What I hadn't thought of before is batteries. I have 2 batteries for my 300D and know that I should keep 1 warm (in my pocket or similar) but betwen the 2 would that be good enough for a day or 2 of shooting? I wouldn't expect to take more that about 50 shots a day but also like to have my camera on "just in case".

By the way, cool link Andy. I'll be studying it further.

Paul