Hello everybody, hello from Switzerland, look at this view!
This morning I woke up in a different country, though
Let's go back and start from the beginning
This is the border with Switzerland
I have no idea if I have to stop
people are not stopping
well, that was easy
I'm in Switzerland!
Good morning everyone from the little town of Meride
looks like a pretty cool town
I'm trying to find the trail to Monte San Giorgio
that I believe is that one up there
That's why I'm here this morning
I don't know if this is the way, but it's definitely going up
Sunrise is happening all around me
this is the first real sunrise I see in more than one month
it's been raining and cloudy, which I love by the way
but it's nice to have a sunrise every once in a while
I'm missing it, I'm not at the top just yet
I don't even know if I'm on the right trail
but the point to be here this early is because I need the time
I don't have much time today, at this time of the year sunset is so early
I only have a few hours to spend here in Switzerland
I have many spots to hit, so let's keep going
Sound like there are hunters around here
which gives me a lot of confidence, being here in this forested area
no, it doesn't!
You might be wondering: "what the heck is he doing in Switzerland"?
I feel like I owe you an update about what I've been up to
As usual, nothing went according to plan on this trip
I change my mind a lot, but this time I was forced to
We were going to be 3 weeks in Austria, but we had to leave early
because the snow came way earlier than I was expecting
I didn't have the car or the equipment to be driving through mountain passes
I couldn't reach any of the spots that I wanted to visit, I couldn't go to the Dolomites as I wanted to
So we decided to leave early and it was the right call
right after we left a big snowstorm came and covered the mountain pass we went through the day before
with snow, we would've never made it with our car through there that day
but in the end it was all good, we got to spend some time next to Lago di Garda, in Trentino
I didn't know about that place, it was a nice surprise, it was beautiful and I had a great time there
It's been a month since I left Spain, we have only 2 weeks left on this fall trip
this is one of the 2 destinations that we have left
We are very close to Varese, in Northern Italy, a little farther west, very close to Milano
There are quite a few spots around Varese that I want to visit and Switzerland was one of them
I mean, it's half an hour away by car, so I had to
I found this place, Monte San Giorgio, in Google Maps
it looks like it has an amazing view from the top of Lugano and Lake Lugano
I've made it to the top, this is beautiful, isn't it? Look at this view
There are mountains as far as the eye can see
This is a good example of how a great view doesn't always make for great images
I'm really struggling to find something here
I've been taking long exposures hoping that they could do the trick, but they don't
Everything is too far away, there are not even clouds today
If I want to make some good images today, I think it's going to be down there, from the town of Lugano
I'm heading back down now
Don't get me wrong about what I said up there, it's a beautiful place
it was totally worth it to hike up here, I really enjoyed this walk
but it was just not the time to make an image from up there
it's more important to have the right conditions in a less than ideal place
than to have the right place in less than ideal conditions
if that makes sense
This will depend on how you photograph, what you are trying to achieve
in my opinion, what I try to do is to tell stories with my images
that create some mystery and drama
and that is very hard to do with panoramic vistas like this one
because it gives up everything, it shows clearly what's going on
there's a lot of stuff, a lot of mountains, there's no clear anchor, there's no clear subject
there's no weather helping, like clouds or fog isolating a subject that could tell a story
it cloud be anything, like a mountain peaking through the clouds
or fog, creating drama in a beautiful forest like this one
something, but today was very flat and nothing was really happening
I'm back in the car, it's 11am
that means that I have 6 hours left of daylight, should be plenty enough to go to Lugano and make some images
but first, second breakfast, after this 6-7 mile hike
For those who don't know, Switzerland is one of the very few european countries that are not part of the EU
it's a bit confusing because it is part of the Schengen area
what that means for me today here is that I'm free to come, the border was pretty much open
but, they don't use euros, the have the Swiss franc
I don't have any of those, so I'm hoping that if I have to buy something I can use my cards or they can take euros
what affects me the most today is that my mobile carrier does not offer free roaming in Switzerland
the way it does in the EU
I think it's 10 euros per megabyte, something really crazy
I have data turned off, that is bad on one hand, because I can't look anything up
I can't do any research, I can't let anyone know that I'm still alive
but on the other hand, it's good because I'm disconnected and I can focus on actually experiencing this place
on capturing images, on making this video
and every once in a while it's good to be disconnected
I just hope that I don't have any problems and I need to call for help
because I don't know if I'm going to be able to, and if I am, it's going to cost me a lot of money
This is much more like it
I'm at Lake Lugano, just out of the city of Lugano, in a little town called Melide
This is beautiful, you can see Monte San Giorgio where I hiked to this morning
This is something I can work with
I'm taking long exposures, I'm not going to analyze the photo but
being able to blur out the water and using the silhouette of the mountain
for me, it creates a drama and a mystery that I'm looking for in my images
that tells more a story than the view that I had from up there
I've made a huge mistake, I don't know how this happened but I left most of my batteries at home
I only have one fully charged battery left
I'm here in the car, charging the battery in camera
It's probably not going to be enough, or fast enough
but it's better than nothing, at least I have this option
This was pretty cool, as I said when I was on top of one of those mountains
I had better chances to make images down here at the lake, and that was the case
I've made a few that I really like
That is the rest of Lake Lugano, it ends not too far from here
this place is called Gandria, I drove here, it looks amazing
but I don't think I'm going to be doing any more photography today
first, because I only have half an hour left of daylight
second, because I'm exhausted
I woke up at 5am, I've been driving, I went on that hike this morning and then walking a lot in Lugano
it's been a lot of walking, it's been a long day
I think it's been enough
I've made a few images that I like, I don't know about this video, it's been a little bit chaotic
anyway, I hope you still enjoyed the video and the images
I don't know how I'm going to be uploading this video, the place where we are staying in Varese has terrible wifi
but yeah, that's all for today
Thank you so much for watching, and see you in the next one!