Reichenstein Castle

Reichenstein Castle and its staggered floor plan

At Reichenstein Castle, the first thing you notice is the staggered outer walls and the towers of different heights. In the steeper shots, the courtyard areas lie in front of the viewer like surfaces pushed into one another. Only in the wide view does its place in the overgrown slope on the Rhine become apparent.

The courtyards within the fortification

At Reichenstein Castle, the impression of size is created by several staggered buildings. A single facade only partially reflects how far the castle extends along the slope.

When looking at a castle, it is worth looking at the roofs and the spaces between them separately. A large roof wing initially attracts attention. In addition, a courtyard or a narrow passage can show much better how the parts of the system are connected. An oblique aerial photo also gives an idea of ​​their altitude. With a narrower section, a piece of outer wall or slope maintains orientation and allows the building to remain visible in the context of its location.

Courtyards and entrances

In a courtyard, the relationships between buildings change. What appears from the outside to be a single long building can actually wrap around several open areas. In a steep aerial view, the passageways, the corners and the orientation of the adjacent roofs become understandable. For a caption, a specific reference to the visible side of the courtyard is often more helpful than a list of all the buildings. This means the viewer can recognize the spatial connection themselves and find it again in other images.

The direction of the vine rows

Rows of vines make the slope of a slope visible in a special way. They run across the area, change direction at a plot boundary or end at an embankment. From the air, their order can be observed over a large distance. An oblique view also shows how high the cultivated areas are above the valley. When selecting images, a combination with a fixed reference point is helpful, such as the edge of the town or an easily recognizable path through the slope.

Warm tones within the series

Among the 10 photos in the gallery, shot 2 and shot 6 provide a good starting point for the comparison. In the second view, warm reds and browns have more weight than in the first. Red-brown and yellowish areas are particularly noticeable next to cooler surfaces. What is interesting when comparing is whether they are concentrated on a single object or appear spread out across the entire view.

The camera captured March 31, 2021 for shot 6 and shot 1. The time interval between these two views is approximately 4 minutes. The exposure time was 1/640 second for the first of the images mentioned and 1/500 second for the second.

Communicate architecture and location together

For a post about a building, two captions can fulfill very different tasks. The first names the system and explains its location, the second leads to a visible component. Historical construction phases or previous uses can hardly be determined from the roof color and current wall edges alone. However, an aerial photographer can show precisely which parts will actually be visible in the later photo. For a guide or local chronicler, this separation makes it easier to work with people who know the local building history.

More aerial photos for comparison

Two further articles invite comparison. In the first, Burg Stahleck, another detail is in the foreground. At Stahleck Castle, the compact group of towers and roofs meets a steep slope above the Rhine. Then you can go to Burg Rheinstein. Rheinstein Castle lies above the Rhine on a rocky outcrop.