The Rhine delta reeds

Ten kilometres west of Bregenz the Rhine reaches the lake and drops everything it has carried down from the Alps. The result is the Rheindelta: a flat, protected landscape of reed beds, gravel banks, water meadows and shallow open water, the largest reserve on Lake Constance and one of the most important bird sites in the region.

For a photograph it is the opposite of the town — no architecture, no crowd and no vertical at all except the reeds themselves and the Swiss and Austrian mountains far across the water. Paths and dykes run out through the reserve from Hard and Fußach, level and easy, with long sightlines and a horizon that reads much bigger than the distances involved.

This is a place for the edges of the day. The delta faces roughly north and west, so the light lies flat across the reeds at sunrise and again in the last hour, when the water and the reed heads both go warm. Midday here is empty light on a flat subject.

The reeds are green from June, gold and pale from October, and stand bleached and broken through the winter, which is when the delta looks its most severe. It is a protected reserve: parts are closed to entry, particularly in the bird breeding season, and the marked paths are the marked paths. Check the current access rules before planning a session here.