Obermarchtal Monastery

Obermarchtal Monastery above the Danube bank

The Obermarchtal monastery complex can be recognized by its large, connected roof areas. In the steeper aerial view, the geometry of courtyards and paths emerges. Seen from the river, however, the towers and the elevated location of the complex are in the foreground.

The courtyard as the center of the complex

At the Obermarchtal monastery, the church and courtyard form a narrow building group. The lower bank of the Danube gives it a location that hardly conveys a frontal view from the forecourt.

A church can often be identified in the townscape by its height. In an aerial view, the arrangement of the roof surfaces also helps. It shows the length of the ship, the orientation of the building and its relationship to paths and adjacent areas. A particularly clear angle is where the tower only covers a little of the rest of the building. To create a portrait of the location, some of the surroundings can be included in the picture. Only it turns the individual church building into a concrete place with a neighborhood.

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.

Follow the watercourse in the picture

At the river it is worth taking a second look at both edges of the picture. Sometimes a road ends there and continues along the water in the next section. In another place, a line of trees frames a stretch of bank. Such clues connect the place with its river valley. For a double page spread, you can choose an overview showing the course and juxtapose it with a close-up view of the shore. It helps if at least one bend in the bank or a building can be found in both motifs.

The color effect of two views

Among the 9 photos in the gallery, shot 9 and shot 6 provide a good starting point for the comparison. The colors appear more reserved in the first photo. In the second, individual colors stand out more clearly from each other. In the more reserved view, outlines and gradations of brightness are more important. In the stronger version, even a single colored surface can become the starting point for viewing.

The camera captured April 26, 2020 for shot 9 and shot 1. The time interval between these two views is approximately 3 minutes. The exposure time was 1/500 second for the first of the images mentioned and 1/640 second for the second.

For a selection of moving images, the gallery contains 3 linked clips. Among them is “Kloster-Obermarchtal aerial photos”. Under Aerial Videos the preview leads to the aerial photographer's respective offer at Adobe Stock.

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.

Related motifs in the aerial photo archive

Two further articles invite comparison. In the first, Munderkingen, a different detail is in the foreground. The Danube forms a pronounced curve around the buildings near Munderkingen. Then Rechtenstein is a good option. At Rechtenstein, the Danube follows a forested cut.