Sunny Dolomites

Fortunately the forecast for a wet day was seriously wrong. It was a cracking day in the Dolomites with sunshine, clouds and visibility for many miles.

We circumnavigated the spiky peak called Croda da Lago, just south of Cortina, including a couple of passes, the highest being  at almost 2500 metres.

Lots of trees lower down so few photo opportunities until above the trees and above the hut. Clear views from both cols and good clouds. I took quite a few with peaks, mountains as well as clouds. Used the orange filter quite a bit to give high contrast and darken the blue sky. I didn’t go mad though, taking 47 shots in all today, all on Ilford FP4 120.

One of the best was of 3 shapely mountains, reasonably spaced left to right, each with its own clouds. I think this will be great as a 2:1 panorama.

My bad back has not been good for most of trip so have limited myself to using 1 camera (Mamiya 7 mk 2) and 1 lens (43mm). This limits a few shots but overall I just look for the shots that work with the kit I’m carrying. For the hill days I have used the smaller of my 2 Gitzo carbon fibre tripods and the lower height has not been much of a problem.

I also have some new ultra-lightweight carbon fibre trekking poles which have saved weight and work really well. I don’t always use poles because of the weight but with these new ones I can’t use that excuse any more. They cause my posture to become more upright so my back is less likely to go into spasm, so I should use them all the time.

Wonder what we’ll do tomorrow?