The Most Beautiful Place I've Ever Photographed

I don't know if I'm gonna get the sunset I want and we traveled an awful long way to get here and like right now this is definitely not what I imagined this scene was going to look like. So it is a long way up here and we're off to a pretty bad start because twisted my ankle a little bit on the way here and I'm already sunburned and Rachel told me so. She told me I get burned and I didn't listen but man it is great to be back in the Dolomites. This is St. Valentin Church and it's a very steep walk up from the tiny village of Susi but once you're here it is just so peaceful. I spent about an hour here without seeing a single other photographer which is pretty rare in the Dolomites and I think this might actually be one of the most underrated photography spots in the Dolomites. It's tiring to get up there but it's not that difficult to reach and it just feels so peaceful. So here we are at St. Valentin Church. I've been here before and got a shot from this spot but this time I want to kind of make my way around the church because it looks amazing from so many different angles. So this time yeah I'm gonna try and find a few more compositions but I don't want to spend too long because I'm getting burned right now. So I'm here with the R8 and the 28-70 and you might not be able to see this but I'm basically gonna frame this up so the ridge of the mountain kind of just comes down and guides the eye right towards the church and unfortunately this time around there is now a fence here. So I'll probably use that as a bit of a leading line towards the church as well and I'm also going to try and get some really wide stuff using my Hasselblad. But I'm interested, what would you guys do in this situation? Would you remove the fence or would you keep it in? I don't know, let me know what you guys think. So this is the composition I was probably most happy with but it's just hard to choose where to position the church but I just feel here all the layers from the hillside to the mountains all create these subtle leading lines that all guide your eye back to the church. So I am shooting through an electric fence right now so wish me luck and hopefully this shot is worth it. Here's the ultra wide lens shots and these were probably my favorite images from this location and I did try to find some new angles but in hindsight I became a little bit too focused on trying to use these branches and leaves from this tree to kind of frame the church from the side. At the time I remember thinking that these were going to turn out pretty great but I'm not sure I really like them. I just think it's a bit too busy but at least I did get something different. And with that it was time for the long walk back down to the car and on to another church, probably the most famous church in the Dolomites. All right we've just arrived at San Giovanni Church, it's one of the most famous churches in the Dolomites. It's a beautiful church with these incredible peaks just behind it. It's a really easy shot to get and a great shot to get during the day as well and it's just a short walk to the perfect viewing point so let's go. Just a few minutes from the car and you're looking at one of the most iconic views in the entire Dolomites and the hardest part is getting parked. So we're at the viewing point now and this is pretty much the best place to get the photo of the church. I have got the shot before so I don't really know if I'm gonna get it any better but it's one of them where it's just so good that whilst you're here you might as well get it again. So the longest lens that I have with me is on my R8, it's the 28-70mm but I seem to remember the last time I got the shot the 70mm was actually perfect for this because you just get the church and then you just get the entire mountain range in at the same time when shooting vertically. So yep, I'm gonna get that now and also get a horizontal shot because I don't think I got that last time. The church is beautiful, probably one of the most photographed buildings in the whole of South Tyrol and has become one of the symbols of the Dolomites and you can actually pay to walk much closer to the church and check out the inside of the church which is definitely worth doing of course but in terms of photos after trying both I still think that the classic viewpoint is the strongest. Sometimes the postcard view is the postcard view for a reason and the reason this composition just works so well is the separation. You've got the church sitting isolated in the meadow with just enough distance between the church and the jagged peaks to make both stand out and I think the horizontal shot here was probably my favorite. But now it was time to head to our real destination, a winding mountain drive to almost 2,000 meters above sea level where I think you'll find the single most beautiful view in Europe. We are heading to Alpe de Chouzi, the largest high-altitude alpine meadow in Europe. A vast plateau of rolling grasslands beneath the towering Schlern and Langperfell mountains. Much of what you see today was actually cleared centuries ago for grazing for these guys and thanks to strict restrictions on cars during the day it is an incredibly peaceful place to explore and for photographers it really feels like one giant playground. Alright we've just arrived at our hotel but we can't really chill out we've got to get pretty much straight out if you want to catch sunset. When we arrived it was looking pretty gloomy but the light right now just looks so good so I'm pretty optimistic that we're gonna get a nice sunset here. And we're staying at a hotel that's just a short walk from pretty much my favorite spot not only in Italy but probably I think the most beautiful view in like the entirety of Europe and I can't wait to get out there. I'm gonna take some landscape photos and also hopefully some portraits of Rachel so we're gonna set off now. Now the weather can change incredibly quick up here and if you're wondering why Rachel seems to magically change outfits a few times throughout this section well as we made our way to my favorite spot on the plateau we noticed some pretty sinister looking clouds rolling in. We figured our chances of getting the portraits we wanted were disappearing pretty fast so we scrapped that plan and I decided to focus on landscapes instead. Alright we made it so this is the view and this is by far I think my favorite view in the whole of Europe. I just love photographing this spot but I'm a bit worried because it was beautiful when we set off but now that we've arrived as you can probably see it's not looking so good and I think we heard some some thunder right over there so I don't know if I'm gonna get the sunset I want and we traveled an awful long way to get here and like right now this is definitely not what I imagined this scene was gonna look like but hopefully we've still got like 45 minutes tops for this to turn itself around so I'm gonna set up the shot anyway kind of play with composition a little bit and yeah let's just hope for the best. Yeah so we 100% just heard thunder over in that direction so who knows it could open up and if there is a bit of a storm to be fair every time I've shot here before it's just been really clear blue skies which to be fair for landscape photography is a little bit boring to be honest we're not shooting any portraits so if I can get a bit of drama in the sky then I'm not gonna be mad about that so let's see. Alright so the gear that I'm gonna use for this shot is the Canon R8 with a 35mm f1.8. I do have the 28-70mm but I've been here so much that I just know that 35mm just kind of works so for me personally the landscapes I'm not the best landscape photographer in the world a prime just kind of forces me to work to really work at the composition a little bit more so let's set it up. All right here's the shot that I've set up and obviously the mountains are the kind of main subject but if I just zoomed in on the mountains it'd be a bit boring and what's so special about this scene is definitely these little huts that are kind of littered across the meadow. What I like is we have the grass in the foreground the huts are kind of our middle ground interest and obviously we've got the peaks in the background. The huts just by themselves create contrast against the green grass but what I really want is a bit more side light. Right now the Sun is kind of hiding behind some clouds because of this storm. We're not getting much contrast and this scene really does benefit from really strong side lighting because it really accentuates the curve of the little hills and shows all the relief in the landscape. So yeah it is just a waiting game right now. So yeah although it was cool to capture the scene with a bit of drama not being able to see the peaks was a real shame since this might be my only opportunity to actually capture them this trip. So I managed to get a few shots it is looking pretty dramatic now but still not exactly what I wanted because you can't actually see the top of the peaks. So that's a bit of a shame but I moved around a bit got some shots with some of these kind of wildflowers in the foreground. Yeah hopefully it turns out better a bit later on if not we'll probably be back for sunrise. I didn't mind these shots through the wildflowers and later on the weather did actually clear slightly but by then the sun was already too low really the storm clouds were casting a huge shadow across the plateau and it had just started to rain as well so I had to just admit defeat. Morning guys it is 5 a.m. and we've decided to get up for sunrise go to the same spot but this time we're gonna focus more on portraits and the light is looking beautiful right now so we're gonna try and get back to the same spot but this time focus on some portraits. And this is one of those places that I just find myself thinking about long after I've gone home. Watching the first light peak over the mountains and slowly bring the meadow to life it is just magical. And although the conditions were looking much more promising this time we had another challenge. A huge family arrived and they were all taking it in turns taking pictures together at sunrise and it was actually really nice to see this because it's usually only other photographers that you find up here at this time of the day so to avoid getting in their way we just moved a little bit further down the hill and that's where we ended up capturing these dreamy portraits just before the Sun fully rose above the mountains. And then almost as if someone had flicked a switch the meadow finally burst into light and contrast. Right the Sun has properly risen now we've got beautiful contrast across these rolling hills which is exactly what I wanted. This doesn't last for too long though so gonna get Rachel out and take some some wide portraits now I think to really show off the landscape so yeah let's do it. Okay so keep going back kind of just to the edge of the light there before it turns to shadow at the end of the hill. Bit to the left. Yeah that's cool. Yeah I mean I genuinely couldn't have asked for anything better I could count on one hand the number of times I've traveled somewhere and found the exact conditions I'd imagined beforehand but today I got seriously lucky especially after how disappointing the previous evening was. But I knew that this light wasn't gonna last long so I just ditched a tripod and just started kind of running around trying to just make the most of it. There was genuinely a beautiful photo in pretty much every single direction and these were some of my favorite shots that I've captured through this whole trip. These moments are incredibly rare as a photographer but they're the reason that I keep traveling and keep exploring and keep coming back with a camera. I think that's what makes photography so addictive and so rewarding. So whether it is actually the most beautiful place in Europe or not well I'll leave that one up to you but for me it's about as close as anywhere I've ever photographed.