look at this this is what we came here for the Moraine Lake of Europe this is
probably the most famous Instagram location in all of Europe this is Lago
de Braies located in the Dolomites of northern italy so it's about 5:15 am the
sun's gonna be rising pretty soon let's get the heck out there with all the
camera stuff so it's not just the lake that's super interesting here the
building is just incredible there's actually an amazing World War two story
that relates to this hotel so now the important thing is I want to get out to
the water and see what this looks like for the very first time birds are
chirping this place is heaven and there it is the infamous boathouse level
so I've shot a couple of compositions and now the real trick is shoot and move
don't get stuck to that one spot especially here because as I look up
it's just really difficult to be able to find another location that is free
because all the good spots seems to have been taken instead of giving getting up
at 5 a.m. I should have got up at 4 a.m. moral of the story when coming to these
types of places but there's still lots of time the light is looking good I'm
super excited this is just what I really hoped that it was going to be so now I'm
going to move it's definitely a shoot and move situation I've got so many
compositions from here with the boathouse on the right-hand side and
then I also did some zooming in so that I could isolate some of those boats make
them just main subjects on their own but I have to say this place is not
disappointed it's just being one while after another
one of the problems that I find with this type of a location especially
arriving at an iconic one is that when you arrive you think it's going to be
easy to take a really good shot but finding that perfect composition is no
easy task you really have to shoot and move find
the different locations and what I've been searching for is a foreground that
is unique a foreground that will help to tell the story for the main subject and
I'm saying that the main subject in this shot is not the distant mountains but
it's that row of boats that's what makes this so unique from Moraine Lake in the
Canadian Rockies for example so not easy to do I've moved up the hill that's
behind the camera I've been down here at the water level I being around the
corner I've been around the corner that way so I've tried pretty much everything
in order just to get something that's unique then the other thing that's
really important to do is to get your wide-angle lens off the camera this is a
14 to 24 and so I threw on the 200 millimeter zoom so that I'm able to zoom
in on some of those boats and isolate the boats by themselves amongst those
reflections make the boats the main subject and just mix it up and then when
you get home and you look at your photos you might find the one that's the winner
out of the batch
okay look how drastically all the light just changed
so usually landscape photographers are leaving way before the Sun comes up and
hits the foreground and they're all out eating breakfast which is what I
actually wanted to do but I stayed and now the Sun has hit the foreground and I
think it looks gorgeous it gives it that extra sense of light and makes the boats
on the water pop a little bit more which I want them to be the main subject so
yeah I'm keeping it no breakfast right now I'm gonna stay and keep shooting
okay so we flew halfway around the world we drove for five hours we got to the
hotel at dark we woke up at 5:00 in the morning we got our shots and now this is
the first coffee in Italy and to this I say bonjourno. Bornjourno. oh my goodness
that is so good it really is I'm not just saying that
for the camera
so one of the things is super interesting about this hotel where we're
staying at lago de braies is its history during the war so what happened at the
very end of the war there was a group of 139 VIP prisoners that the Nazis were
holding these prisoners were mostly made up of political dissidents or even
German army officers who had fallen out of favor with the regime more
interesting actually there were about one third of the 139 they were the
families of Klaus von Stauffenberg who is the guy who planted the bomb and
tried to kill Hitler and the movie Valkyrie was made about him so this
group of 139 prisoners was supposed to be taken to a concentration camp and
they were being held as kind of a hostage so that if the Americans got
really close they could be used as a bargaining chip
but the Americans were getting really close to the location where they were
being held so the SS were ordered to take these prisoners and bring them to
this particular hotel at lago de braies now i don't know if you know but the SS
they were the fanatical ones who would obey every order no matter what there
were the real mass murderers of the regime and they had orders that if the
Americans were getting really close to these VIP prisoners that they were to
murder them all so what's really interesting is that there was a ver mark
officer and the ver mark is like the regular German army they weren't
necessarily the political fanatic the SS were and he heard about these orders to
shoot all of the prisoners if the Americans were getting close and he said
absolutely no way I'm not going to let this happen so he ordered some lower
level Varma officers to drive to this place with some soldiers and there was
according to Wikipedia a very tense standoff between the Verma officers and
the SS officers and ultimately the SS officers lowered their guns
the Verma took over and the prisoners were then taken into the custody or I
should say like the protection of the ver mocked the SS guys took off and then
within days the Americans over ran this location and the
Emma turned over these prisoners into the safe custody of the Americans so
it's pretty amazing and what is really cool to me is that this particular patio
that I'm sitting on there are photos from 1945 that show all of those
prisoners standing out here and even mixing and mingling with some of the
German army officers and then also other pictures that show when the Americans
have arrived and the prisoners are mingling with the Americans right here
at this very patio so enough of World War 2 back to photography I've got three
photos to show you and I'm curious about which one you like the best
so is it photo number one or is it photo number two or
photo number three which photo you like the best please leave a comment below
and we are off now leaving this beautiful place to go to the next
location which is going to be secede ah which is a mountaintop that will blow
your mind see in the next video take care of bye bye