Photo Stories
One reader takes on the Swiss Alps, while another spends time shooting beaches
With snowcapped mountains, beautiful valleys with meandering rivers, Switzerland is a picturesque paradise for photographers of all skills levels. Nestled in the centre of Europe, Switzerland is the most mountainous country on this continent.
Myself, and my sons Jathin Premjith and Nithin Premjith, thought of photographing the Alps in a region called the Bernese chartered flight, while also capturing the other prominent peaks. The best time for this is in summer on a clear sky with the sun shining down, helping you get a contrast between the rich green highlands and the snow capped mountain peaks.
We had planned a trip to the volcanic country of Iceland in August and as the weather was looking good at that time in Switzerland, so we planned to make a stop over to try our aerial photography on the Swiss Alps first. On a clear day people usually come out to
“We were always attentive and alert with our cameras, craning our neck for every possible image”
spend their time in the sun, travel and see the airfields, aircrafts and pilots are usually booked well in advance by the flying aficionados. But after much coordination, I arranged to book the time and slot at an airfield Lommis airfield located to the North-east part of Switzerland as all others were fully booked.
I’ve shot challenging subjects before, such as panning super-fast Formula 1 cars trackside, but aerial photography is different. I had done this once to cover the whole of Bahrain from an open helicopter with my feet dangling out. Again I was there with my two sons, for whom it was an exotic and thrilling experience.
This was back in 2014 when I was testing Canon’s latest EOS-1D X and what better way to put it through its paces! I also used Canon EF 16-35mm, EF 24-70mm f/2.8 and EF 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses to give me enough wide coverage, as well as the ability to zoom in if needed. Vibrations in the plane meant a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 sec was vital. Polarizing filters also helped cut down on glaring reflections from the sun, snow and rivers.
We researched various aircraft and in the end booked a four seat Piper Archer II as it had lower wings that wouldn’t obstruct our pictures so much, unlike a helicopter it also meant it wouldn’t need refuelling on our trip. It took two hours to complete the trip and during the duration we were always attentive and alert with our cameras, craning our neck for every possible image. All-in-all we travelled about 430km from Lommis then passing Santis, Grosser Mythen, Titlis, Eiger Monch Jungfrau, Rigi and Rheinfall and finally landing back in Lommis.