The first half of this bog is about Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee) and the idea to take multiple photos from different viewpoints. However the weather and the crowds (it’s a very populair place) made me decide to go and explore the forest around Cascate di Fanes. This turned out to be an interesting hike and climb!

After the first days with mist and rain, this day seemed promising. It was cold, clear-ish sky and a good forecast. This meant, time for sunrise! The sunrise under Lagazuoi at Falzarego pass was the best option from the location where I stayed. Photographing Cinque Torri and the surrounding mountains.

Let me start with saying, I love the mountains! Especially the Dolomites. The colours especially, the grey and pink massive monolith rocks with razor-sharp edges and the patterns within the mountains. Since then, I have been there more than once.

This summer holiday was all about experiencing camping and visiting different places. We travelled to France, went to Switzerland and ended up in Germany - Black Forest. The one that stood out, was Switzerland! We were situated in La Fouly, right at the Mount Blanc Trail - more here. Where the Mont Blanc Massif stands tall!

So I have a confession to make, I’m stupid and nice! In this particular case all of the above apply to me. I bought the X100F last year as an allround, easy to carry and excellent image quality camera. The one that you always have in your hand or at least near you. After the summer and winter started, I got the feeling the X100F just sat on the shelf, not doing anything.

Just before summer holidays on a nice evening in June I did a short tour around our local birding area. We have a few, but this one is the closest. You can find all sorts of birds, but mainly you’ll find waterbirds. Lately some even have spotted a long-eared owl and a sparrow hawk. More commonly you’ll find besides the waterbirds, goose, seagulls and kestrels, with sometimes a buzzerd.

I have this idea, for a while now, it started with the photos on the desktop of the Microsoft surface line. Remember, the animals - owl photographed. To me it was as the birds where portrayed as a humans, a portrait almost. This intrigued me and wanted to try this for myself. So I thought let’s try to capture birds in portraits like humans, i.e. bird portrait photography.

I’ve been looking into different hiking trails in the forest area the Veluwe this time around, to capture wildlife and nature. A more forest type of photography. This was the first outing with the Fujinon 50-140F2.8 and the photos weren’t the primary goal, just a nice walk and getting to know the 50-140 and how it behaves.

After coming back from Vancouver and Vancouver island, photos will come later, I needed to test my few months old X-T3 against my former X-T2 for bird photography. So with a nice sun, wind and overall Dutch skies I went to the Groene Jonker and the Waver. See earlier blog posts on both areas here in the Netherlands.