“The Dolomites are badass. The mountains are so spiky and aggressive, and to this day, I’ve photographed nothing like them.” David Clapp shoots autumn in the Italian mountains
Canon pro photographer David Clapp’s day of autumn landscape photography excellence in the Dolomite mountains.
The Canon Magazine columnist David Clapp reveals how a Fall photoshoot in the Dolomites was the day that didn’t stop giving!
“The Dolomites are badass. The mountains are just so spiky and aggressive, and to this day, I’ve photographed nothing like them. It’s difficult to imagine they were once a coral reef and, in basic geological terms, two plates (African and European) that pushed towards each other, lifting and creating photogenic folds that plaster daily Instagram feeds.
It was autumn, and I’d gone there for a recce with my good friend Martin, to see what the season’s colors were all about. The woodland was a mix of deciduous trees, with larch (a deciduous conifer) covering the mountain slopes. The air was fresh, the weather was stable, and it was a relief to be away, camera in hand.
We centered our stay in two zones: the Val Gardena region and Cortina. The trees hadn’t fully turned in Gardena, but traveling to Cortina, the larches had turned beautifully, and driving through the mountain passes, washed with rich yellow, was an unforgettable experience.
As the sun rises, you shoot pre-dawn and then dawn light. When the sun climbs, the light rakes down through the slopes, creating amazing back-lighting effects in the autumnal trees. Polarized blue skies make guide-book-style lunchtime shooting very effective. Then you reverse the order.
Mid-week, we started early at Lago Di Misurina. It was a beautiful calm morning and our view looked southwards across a mirrored lake to a beautiful set of side-lit mountains. I was so glad we arrived early, but not because we avoided other tourists.
Within minutes of taking my first blue-hour shots of this delightful alpine view, a flock of ducks splash-landed in the middle of the lake. Their noisy objective was to ruin any chance of repeating my low-light reflections with morning lightk.”
