There are some days when I go out to capture images that it just doesn't work. Yesterday was one of those days. As I want to try to post every week those days are on here too.
It was a grey day in Basel, the kind of weather that in no way helps with motivation. The clouds were very low, bathing everything in a dull subdued light. Un-motivated I decided to give it a go anyway and see if I could get above the clouds. I checked out a couple of webcams in the region and it looked promising. I had a few possibilities.
Not knowing exactly where I was going, but with a few destinations in mind I got in the car and headed towards higher ground. I ended up at Belchenflue, in hindsight it probably wasn't the best choice from the locations that I had in mind, but lesson learnt.
On the positive side, I was out of the clouds under a blue sky with an incredible panoramic view of the Swiss alps, as well as the peaks of the Vosges and the Black Forest.
From where I was I could identify three of the five Belchen peaks floating on a sea of clouds.
The Swiss Belchen. Quite easy to find as I was standing on it.
Le Grand Ballon. Easy to identify due to the large ball shaped weather station and the monument on the top.
Schwarzwald Belchen. Also easy to identify due to the distinctive Belchenhaus on the top.
The other two, the Elsässer Belchen and the Petit Ballon, I'm not so sure about. I could see peaks that were in the general area that they should be in, but I'm not 100% sure.
This is a side of photography that I love, it's where it takes me, the draw to capture new images, it's another reason to get outside.
So what went wrong? Why, with such an incredible view could I not get an image? Well there are simply some days that just don't work, there are a multitude of reasons and it's probably best not to look too deep into it, but this time I will. It can be broken down to three points, location, weather and me!
The top of Belchenflue is a small viewing point that feels full with four people. It's generally fine when I've been there before, people come and go quickly and there have been occasions that I've been there for several hours without seeing anyone at all, but not yesterday. For some reason there were a lot of people and dogs. At one point there were more dogs than people. Most of the viewing point was covered with a thick coating of ice. The floor is uneven anyway, the addition of ice does not make it any easier.
So I was trying to find a composition and get a tripod into place, while trying to keep upright and not stand on dogs, while people were coming and going. That's the weather and the location down, the me side comes in as I'm not that comfortable with new people (could be a confidence in language thing) and I have a severe allergy to dogs. As I enjoy breathing, I tend to prefer distance between dogs and myself.
In all, I think that it was just a situation in which I really didn't feel comfortable.
Below are three images that came out relatively okay with some amount of cropping.