{"id":12992,"date":"2017-07-18T07:05:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T05:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=12992"},"modified":"2017-07-17T20:09:58","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T18:09:58","slug":"improve-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/it\/improve-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving my Photography at High Altitudes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I spent a weekend doing an activity I love, in an area that I knew I\u2019d love, and it\u2019s kicked off something of an obsession. The activity is photography<\/strong> \u2013 a long-time hobby of mine \u2013 and the location is the Kronplatz<\/strong> area of the Dolomites, in South Tyrol. Two years ago, Tommaso and I already found out that these mountains are fantastic in the summer<\/a>, both from the point of view of a cooler-weather experience and as a place that is fun to capture in photos.<\/p>\n

\"These
These cows just pose in the mountains and wait for you to come along and photograph them<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So when I was invited by a company called Master Photo Tour<\/a><\/strong> and by the tourist board of Kronplatz to return for an intense weekend photographing in the mountains, I jumped for joy. My joy was, however, soon replaced by a feeling of total inadequacy<\/strong> when I saw what great photographers were included in the tour. Luckily, when we got there, rather than making me feel like I knew nothing, this community of photographers proved truly welcoming and the experience has garnered a personal dedication to improving the photos I take. Here are a few things I learned through this experience.<\/p>\n

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I have to start waking up really early<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The thing that makes me happiest in life, bar none, is sleep. I have always been someone who needs more hours of sleep than your average bear. I\u2019m crabby and dysfunctional if I don\u2019t get it. So it turns out that photographers have a habit of getting up before the sun rises in order to get into position and wait for optimal light. In Italy in the summer that means 4:30am, which for me is the exact time I turn over after 6 hours of shut-eye, go pee, and head in for another 3-4 hours. Sunset is another favourite photo-op, of course, which means being out at 9:30pm, an ideal time for having put the dishwasher on after dinner and settled in for a night of Netflix. I\u2019m not going to be able to incorporate shooting at these times into my daily life, but maybe I can do it occasionally on the weekend. In the winter.<\/p>\n

\"6am
6am at 2000 meters looks like this (according to me)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On our weekend in the Dolomites, our group had a 5am wake-up call for a drive up the service road that gives access to a hut some 2000 meters up. We were privileged that we didn\u2019t have to walk two hours uphill, normally the only way to get there. Here, we met the sun just rising over this mountain peak, where it danced on streams with mossy rocks and made a mirror out of a high-altitude lake. And it was worth waking up early.<\/p>\n

Creativity is infinite so we can all share<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You\u2019d think that a group of nine photographers let loose in the landscape might produce at least a few of the \u201csame\u201d photos. And yes, most of us did one shot of water and a hut, but they are all totally different. Why?<\/p>\n

1\/ For one, we all had different equipment, and different abilities to use it. In my case, I felt like my cameras were insufficient to achieve what I wanted in this challenging light, so I got some help and got a few okay photos. Ability is part fact, part perception.<\/p>\n

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