Photography Blog: French Alps
It was evening and I was on the couch. I really wanted to take pictures because I had some free time but Leonie had a lot of work to do. I picked up my cell phone and made a call. "Hey Carlos, are we going to Chamonix tomorrow?" I asked. There was silence before he answered. Maybe at that time he opened Google Maps to find out how far Chamonix really was.
"I don't know, I live 6 hours from Munich. You want me to travel there, drive across Switzerland, up a mountain in France and back to Germany in 3 days." He didn't look very convinced.
"There will be beer," I exclaimed.
"Pick me up at the bus station tomorrow morning."
Perfect. The trip was already planned. The car's winter tires were ready. All that was missing was a place to sleep. I quickly looked for an available place, because the ski season was open. The only thing I was worried about was my French. "Oh my! What French," I thought.
The next day I picked Carlos up at the bus terminal in Munich, we bought a couple of things for the trip and headed to France. The trip was short because we had a lot to talk about, we hadn't seen each other for 6 months and a lot had happened in our lives.
On our way the sunset caught up with us in Genf, Switzerland, a stop we had not contemplated, but we took advantage of the light to take portraits and photos of the lake.
Tips: In these photos I used negative space in my composition to draw more attention to my target (the boat) and give a sense of scale to the photo. Imagine if the boat wasn't there. The lake could be huge or very small, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Genfersee
Canon EOS R + Canon EF 70-200mm @70mm f/2.8L II/ ISO 800 - f/7 - 1/1000 sec
Carlos
Canon EOS R + Canon EF 24-70mm @60mm f/2.8L II/ ISO 125 - f/2.8 - 1/125 sec
Carlos 2
Canon EOS R + Canon EF 24-70mm @60mm f/2.8L II/ ISO 125 - f/2.8 - 1/125 sec
We arrived in Chamonix at night, slept and in the morning we started the adventure. We went to the top of the mountain with a very specific photo in mind.
Chamonix - Mont Blanc
Canon EOS R + Canon EF 24-70mm @53mm f/2.8L II/ ISO 125 - f/7.1 - 1/400 sec
After spending the whole day in this place we went back to the town of Chamonix to have the beers I promised Carlos.
For the next day with my main objectives already achieved, I wanted to go to Lac Blanc but to our surprise the lake was totally frozen. We decided to hike a mountain that was near the village in search of Mountain Goats, we had no luck with that either because it was not the right season. With almost all my planned photos already taken and with little time left, we didn't have many options but to enjoy the town. We ate delicious dishes and tried the local beer.
Tips: When taking pictures in the mountains be careful with your camera's light meter. It usually considers snow as overexposed and people tend to take underexposed photos, losing information in the shadows. This is also reflected in the histogram, so you have to trust your eyes and perception a little more.