Autumn is in the air and the landscape is changing rapidly, with the Alps currently looking near their finest. I had a clear schedule this weekend so I set myself the challenge of capturing myself in an action self portrait. Wanting to keep things in Switzerland, I found three locations that all offered something a little different aesthetically. This first image was taken at the highest point of Villars ski resort, just as the sun was setting on Friday night. Despite being one of the first stops of the weekend, I think this came out as my favourite shot.Saturday came around and I ventured just across the valley to the Portes du Soleil. All of the images in this blog post are self portraits, with a tripod mounted camera being triggered by a pocketwizard remote (look closely at the images and you can see one in my hand). Using a fast frame rate I was able to work around my shortcomings as an athlete, including having a goofy running stance, belly hanging out (which is very easily done in Compressport), or a horrible gurning face. It also meant that I could capture sequences that didn’t quite work out. Like this one.
This second day almost had an English Lake District type feel to it, with the terrain working perfectly as camouflage for my feline companion.
Sunday was all set to be a down day, so I didn’t expect to get much from it. Waking up to a blue sky but with the threat of the afternoon closing in, I quickly made my way right to the edge of Switzerland to the spectacular Emosson dam. I’ve been up here once before to Photograph an 80km trail race and was blown away by the views. Ideally I would have ventured higher up into the mountain range but time and weather was not on my side. It’s funny how I had to hike for about an hour on the first two days, whereas the dramatic views of Emosson were 5 minutes above where I parked the car…
So there we have it, 3 days of shooting and a couple of different results. All of the images carry a slightly different vibe, but as a group go to show of how beautiful Switzerland is right now. With the colours starting to pop, it makes me want to stay outside all day everyday.As soon as those first snowflakes start falling the trails will all be over until next year.
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