sylt
At the beginning of this month, Beth and I went to the North Sea island Sylt to photograph for a project that will run in the Süddeutsche Zeitung shortly. Sylt is part of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park, an extremely shallow strait between the German mainland and a group of islands in the North Sea. During low tide, it empties out almost completely. It is home to a plethora of rare birds and other endangered animals. Sylt itself is shaped by the relentless wind that blows in from the sea. Its entire geography, flora and fauna have adjusted to this never-ending force of nature. We only had one day, most of which was spent shooting for the paper, but once we were done we had a couple of hours to explore. Here are some of my favorite shots:
Low tide is setting in on the eastern shore of Southern Sylt. Wednesday, December 4, 2013.
We walked a little way into the tidelands - I really enjoyed the texture of the ground there. I wish we would have had more time to go on an actual guided tideland hike. Maybe next time...
The trail winds through a forest on the southern part of Sylt. With all the leaves gone, the trees look almost skeletal.
Beth hikes up the crest of a dune in southern Sylt.
Hiking through the dunes on the Southern part of Sylt.
A patch of moss grows in the dunes.
Someone put up this little piece of art or whatever it is on the northernmost tip of Sylt (and thus of Germany). I'm pretty sure the wind has also had its part in shaping it over time.
We drove as far as we could to the northernmost part of the island (the so-called "Elbow"), then hiked through the dunes to the shore just so we could say that we were on the northern tip of Germany. Storm "Xaver" was already blowing in. 24 hours later it shut down the whole place and going to this particular spot would have been a very bad idea.
Somehow, despite the storm, we managed to prop the camera up on top of that piece of art you saw earlier and take a self-portrait right there at the end of Germany.
December 17, 2013