Dolomites Fall 2024

The Dolomites are a large area. Too large to cover it all in just one life. Over the last years I came here to photograph a lot of the icons, the shots that everybody wants. And that's fine because they are famous and being photographed for a reason. But this year I was leaning into an area nearby. Cimolais is the gateway to the Parco Naturale Dolomiti Friulane and my home base for every trip I do in the Dolomites. It is in the South-East of the Dolomites. Much wilder, with few people and anyhow just 1 1/2 hours away from the crowd pleasers in the north and west. I wanted to spend as much time in this area as possible, hunting for unique compositions. I challenged myself in terms of revisiting the locations multiple times, stick to one composition and if necessary wait for hours for the right light. I had 2 locations in mind and an additional one that includes one of the icons in special conditions. But more about that later.

In the end I got so much more then I expected, as I completely lucked out on this trip. 
I arrived in foggy conditions and there were still visible signs of a lot of rain that hit the Dolomites in the weeks before. But already on the next day the weather took a turn for the better. As major parts of middle Europe literally drowned in rain, the Dolomites were blessed with perfect photography weather and up to 22° Celsius. 
Another risky point was basically my health. Over the last months and years I had problems with my knees and everyone who had a chronic pain in his or her life before, know how distracting it can be and how much influence it can have on your mood. With a lot of luck and the help of modern medicine the knees were (at least for the duration of this trip) no distracting factor. It was one of those trips where everything falls into place. In a way that only happens 1 or 2 times a decade or even in a life. It was just perfect.  The photography, the hiking, the fleeting encounters with humans and animals, the nature and the solitude - evrything was just perfect.

At times I was overwhelmed by what I got presented by nature and by the sheer friendliness of the local people and fellow hikers. I photographed so many and yet, I never felt so clear with regards to what I want to shoot.  From all the photography experiences I had on that trip I want to record two of them in writing here in this blog.
The first one is about a location that probably nobody beside the local people from Cimolais know. It definitely isn't photographed to death and is not known to the IG community.
Within the Parco Naturale Dolomiti Friulane is a place where you can place the tripod on a bridge. Your camera points along a raging stream of water that leads in to colorful woodland and finally to the mountain range in the back. The peaks catch beautiful light in the morning and evening and if you are lucky you can add another element to the scene. Fog or low hanging clouds are almost always part of the scene and sometimes there's also a chance for pinkt alpen glow.

I photographed the scene from many different angles, I shot it at dawn and dusk, during the day, in good and bad weather and still don't think that I got it perfectly right. But instead of being angry about it I enjoy the fact that I can come back here and improve on composition and timing. For example, although there was plenty of fall color left I didn't catch the perfect time of the year as most of the larches had already lost their yellow needles. 

The one thing that I wasn't prepared for was how much I enjoyed the fleeting encounters that I made along the journey. In general I seek solitude during my trips and I actively try to avoid as much human contact as possible. But from time to time it just happens that you meet these gentle humans and animals that enrich the hiking experience. It happened 4 times during my trip.
The first encounter happened during my hiking trip to the Valle dell'Inferno. I met Lisa, Andrea and Pax on the way up to Cason di Brica, the hut where I planned to spend the night. Although we went for different routes we knew that we will finally meet up at the hut. To be honest, I hoped that I would have the hut for myself but as we got comfortable in the hut and with each other the evening and the following day got better as expected. We collected wood for the mini stove in the hut, we shared food and drinks, we exchanged our stories and backgrounds. Both Andrea and Lisa as well as Pax their beautiful and intelligent italian mountain sheppard dog have been the most amazing fellowship and so we decided to hike together on the next day.

The second encounter was a totaly unexpected one. It was early in the morning and I drove to the Tre Cime and past the valleys alongside the little village of Erto. The valley was filled with low hanging clouds and of course I had to stop and take a view shots. While I was standing beside the road with my camera in my hands an old lady started to approach me. The way I said Buon Giorno must have told her that I am not from Italy. In fact she realised that I was from Germany by recognising the German accent. To make a long story short: It turned out that the woman I was talking to and that I have never met before, is from Erto but spent more than 40 years in Germany working in the same area where I live and in the same business as my family. She was working in a Gelateria and she was the one who introduced a woman to my uncle that later became his wife and my aunt. Crazy, isn't it.

The third one took place at the Tre Cime. While me and two other photographers were waiting for the right light several people were passing by. Among them were a group of three women with whom we started talking. It turned out that two of them were also from cities in the Ruhr area, Bochum and Dortmund. So at the top of the Tre Cime I was basically talking to neighbors. 
After all this I think it's hilarious that despite me desperately trying to avoid human contact I made at least 3 profound encounters with total strangers. And I loved it that despite they were strangers to me, we all had at least one thing in common or something that connected us immediately.

Talking of the Tre Cime. This is the second location that I had special plans for.
I've been to the Tre Cime several times. First of all the peaks themselves are so rewarding and the everchanging weather gives you lots of oppportunities to compose and shoot.
An then there are so many other prominent and photogenic peaks that can be shot from multiple different angles. It's basically a photography heaven.
While already in Italy I researched the weather forecasts and stuff. While using the photopills app I realised that there will be a 30 minute window to shoot the milky way right beside the Tre Cime. Astro photography isn't my thing to be honest. I have 3 reasons for that. First of all, you do not see what you are shooting. You heavily depend on post processing to make the picture come alive. Second reason is time. I shoot in the morning and in the evening. I simply can not afford to loose any more sleep during the night. The third reason is that you need clear skys. So the complete opposite of what I want during daylight.
Well, at this time of the year it gets dark at 6 p.m., the weather forecast predicted clear skies and the 30 minute window of shooting the milky way would start at 6:30 p.m.
So I was 100% in on that challenge and I could not pass on that opportunity. 

I arrived very early, at the location. Till sunset I had to wait for about 4-5 hours. Till the opportunity window of shooting the milky way I had to wait 6 hours. I don't mind waiting, but I mind the cold. And it got very cold. End of October at about 2.500 altimeters with the sun already set, it rapidly got colder until we reached below zero. The golden hour and the sunset was a little underwhelming as all clouds had disappeared. But I gladly accepted that as it meant that the milky way shot would be doable. But then it got complicated:
1. By 6 p.m. the sun set behind the mountains and it got darker. There wasn't any cloud in the sky and the first stars became visible. So far so good,
2. But at 6:20 p.m. I started to get nervous, as there was still too much light on the horizon. I wasn't dark enough to make the stars and the milky way visible. 
3. There was also an alarming amount of people with head lamps constantly running through the frame.
4. I decided to shoot the first frame for the mountains and the foreground and make use of the existing light. 
5. Suddenly the milky way became visible but it was already quite near to the Tre cime and it was obvious that in about 30-60 minutes it would dissappear behind the mountains.
6. So now it was game on. Me and the other two photographers shook of the cold and fatigue and we were ready to capture the perfect moment. 
7. It never got completely dark, as you can see on the final image, but the milky way was now right next to the Tre Cime. So we had to take the shot now and expose for the sky. 
8. In that moment a big group of hikers came through the the tunnel behind us. We heard them arrive minutes before as the tunnel was increasing their voices. Ww hoped that we would get the shot before they arrive, but of course we didn't. 
9. Honestly, in the perfect moment for the shot the group came around the corner and suddenly we had about 10 head lamps running around our spot. It would have been a solvable problem when they were just passing by, but instead they decided to use the exact spot where we were to change equipment. Obviously they didn't know that they kept us from taking our photograph. 
10. I watched it for about 2 minutes, while our window of shooting the milky way went by. As none of the other photographers were saying something I kindly approached the leader of the hiking group, explaning the situation and asking him to give us 2 minutes to take some shots. 11. As soon as the hikers recognised the situation they all turned off their headlamps immediately and we were able to expose for the sky and the milky way. 
12. It definitely was more nerve-racking as it should be, but man I love the excitement of photography. And it all fits to the impression I have of the respect in the hiking and photography community.