It's so nice, I had to check it twice. I visited Switzerland twice by car, simply because it was super awesome the first time. I have quite a lot of photographs from my first trip to Switzerland I never published anywhere (apparently, I didn't even want to go through all the "trouble" to edit them). 2023 is going to change that. I'm going to share more, and prepare for new trips with Lackofcolor once we both get better. The first time that I visit Switzerland, I stayed a couple of nights at Aeschi bei Spiez, the second time, I just made a quick pitstop at the very same camping site that I visited the first time.
This spot is a true gem. Fresh, healthy mountain air. Huge mountains all around you. Great Sunsets, nice people, and more importantly: it's quiet.
Driving through Switzerland
What a joy this is. If I could, I would've made several stops along the way to take photographs. But, I was on a mission, and I had the plan to visit and see as much as possible from Switzerland. The problem was, I was already behind my schedule, but I didn't bother much, and wanted to chill and enjoy the places I could see. The weather was getting much better, I'm not entirely sure, but I think I visited Interlaken right before this, and the weather was a little bit grayish.
Lucky day!
Even though it was gray, once arrived, the weather took a turn. The Sun was getting lower and lower. Holy shit, it's my lucky day! I could already tell this was going to be a stunning Sunset. But in reality, I wasn't expecting to see what I saw. This one did hit differently. I'm so used to flat Holland, that I'm not used to seeing these Sunsets with mountains. Actually, it is maybe the first time seeing a Sunset with a mountain landscape in the background.
It's also an incredible feeling to wake up next to huge mountains. It's awesome.
Layers for days
Would you look at all these dust particles! The above photograph didn't really catch what I wanted to capture. So I had to move elsewhere to get a better view. These light beams are looking awesome.
Watching till the end
I was watching the Sunset until the very end. A few hours later, I actually came back to see if the Sun would come back (of course not). The number of stars that I saw was unbelievable. I learned that eyes need about 15 minutes to fully adapt to their surroundings. I walked away from the camping site, brought my phone, and used it as a flashlight.
I was in the middle of nowhere and turned that flashlight off. It was pitch-black, and I wanted to take a moment to see this "magic" 15-minute rule. Living in a packed city, this is something rare, and most probably impossible to do as there is always some light somewhere.
Double luck
I looked and looked, and what the... is this... the Milkyway? I've written about this before, a long time ago. But it was the very first time me seeing the Milkyway. It was incredible and I ran back to the tent to get my tripod and camera. I spend an hour or 2 in complete darkness and tried to photograph it. Years later, when I wanted to photograph the Milkyway in my hometown, I realized how lucky I was. Seeing The Orion Belt like this. I mean, Earth keeps on spinning eh, and so does Orion.
Be patient, and you shall be rewarded
I never imagined ending the day like that. Seeing such a stunning Sunset and capturing the Milky way for the very first time. Of course, I have photographed the Milky way more than once now, but the photographs from Switzerland are still by far the best Milky way shots that I took.
Lol, imagine how the day looked like (picture below), and how it turned out.
Techniques
Most of the photographs that you see are taken hand-held, also the first shot (I took this photograph out of the car actually lol). All of them are shot in Manual mode. I've played with Manual mode for so long, I'm getting super used to it. Of course, for the Milky way photographs, I used a tripod and a remote shutter. This is because, at the time, I had a pretty cheap tripod. This tripod moved when I pushed the button, so it would result in instant movement blur right off the bat. Remote shutters are a must-have. I could also simply use the self-timer, but I often would forget to turn it back on, which annoys me whenever I want to take a photograph of something that could be gone in a split second.
As for the first Milky way photograph, I had to calculate how many batteries I had, since I had no power with me on the road. I also had to calculate how many photographs I could take before all of my cards would be out of space. Since it was getting cold during the night, batteries deplete much faster than during the day. Especially long exposures are quite power-demanding. The first photograph is a long exposure of about 5 minutes. I would need an exposure time of about 30-45 minutes to get a much more spinning effect. I figured it wouldn't be worth it as the sky is so clear right now. So, I decided to take ~40-second exposures (2nd photograph) instead.
If you ever plan to visit Switzerland, I can highly recommend you Aeshi bei Spiez. Any camping site would do. However, I'm not sure if this place is still open after the pandemic. Hope you enjoyed the photographs :)
Cheers,
Ruben
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