Why Wengen, Switzerland?

If you are a regular reader of my blog or viewer of my YouTube channel, you will know that most of my adventures are based in the south west of England or occasionally in the wider parts of the UK. It’s rare that I’m on some epic international photography expedition!

My visit to Wengen in Switzerland over the festive period actually had nothing to do with landscape photography. I was actually there on a family holiday. A time to relax, eat too much food, drink a lot of glühwein, and maybe hit the slopes for a bit of skiing and snowboarding. This holiday was definitely not a photography trip.

I’ll Take a Camera Just in Case

No matter where I go, or who with, I normally have some sort of camera with me. It could be my current phone, the OnePlus 6, or my trusty old Sony RX100 M4, but it’s rare that I take my D850 with me on a family holiday. On a family holiday I generally don’t have enough time to spare to dedicate to landscape photography, and besides, sometimes you really do need to take a break from all that serious photography stuff!

When I booked the holiday though, I remembered watching a video from Mads Peter Iversen in which he photographed the Lauterbrunnen valley from Wengen. After watching his wonderful video again, I was inspired to photograph that location myself. Where Mads photographed it when it was all green and lush, I could photograph it in the snow.

Hopefully, I would find a spare hour during my holiday so I could get the shot.

On Location

When we arrived in Wengen there was a distinct lack of snow. This wasn’t a problem for my skiing aspirations as the slopes were quite a bit further up the mountain on a cable car or train, but down in the village, the snow cover was sparse. There was some snow cover, but it was patchy and it looked like I would not get any joy with the photography.

Then one morning it snowed and (mostly) covered the ground with a fresh blanket of snow. With no other snowfall forecast for the week, I knew this was my best opportunity to get a photo. Fortunately, I was able to get away that afternoon, capture an image and make another one of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos.

Here it is:

And here is the photograph that I took:

Cloud and Snow Along The Lauterbrunnen Valley, Wengen, Switzerland - Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR at 35mm, f/13, 1/20th sec at ISO 64. — **Cloud and Snow Along The Lauterbrunnen Valley, Wengen, Switzerland** - Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR at 35mm, f/13, 1/20th sec at ISO 64.

Challenges

It was actually a challenging shoot. As you saw in the video, a layer of cloud enveloped me at one point, there wasn’t quite enough snow to cover the ground completely, and I didn’t get much in the way of light in the valley or sky. However, I did anticipate the challenges of light on the valley and mountains thanks to some early analysis on The Photographer’s Ephemeris.

Despite all the challenges, I’m pretty happy with the photo. It was my first time at the location, I was really limited with what time I did have, and I was trying to video the whole experience! And besides, I had a lot of fun doing it all, and isn’t that the point?

I do hope you enjoyed this (slightly shorter than) 5 Minute Photo Adventure from Switzerland. Have you ever photographed Wengen or Switzerland? What Europeans countries have you photographed, and do you have a favourite? Let me know in the comments below.