Star-Hunting in the Dolomites

What is it about the Dolomites that draws us (my wife and I) back again and again? For some reason, this region has a hold on both of us and won't let us go. The impressive peaks, green meadows and constantly changing skies are like a drug, so when I saw an advert several months ago for a week-long astrophotography workshop in the mountains around Cortina, I just knew that I had to go. Once I had the hall-pass in pocket I registered and was very happy to be able to secure one of the restricted places.

The week leading up to the trip I was busy studying the weather forecasts to see whether we were going to be in luck or not. It wasn't looking too good, but I wasn't overly concerned because even if we didn't get clear skies, this was the Dolomites. There would be photos a plenty to be had even in the worst weather. I wasn't wrong.

Tofana and Lagazoi || Olympus 9 mm, f/8, 1/200 s, ISO 200

Day 1 - Lago Misurina, d'Antorno and Rifugio Auronzo

One of the other participants picked me up early on the Tuesday morning and we headed off down to the meeting point at Lago Misurina, a popular lake nestled among the mountains with Punta Sorapis providing a dramatic backdrop to the essentially deserted hotel at the lake's head. The overcast weather on this first visit of the week to Misurina didn't really invite photos of the larger landscape, but there were plenty of mini-scenes waiting for our cameras. 

Reeds at Misurina || Olympus 86 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 s, ISO 200 

Several hours after we arrived, the rest of the group appeared and after working out where to leave the remaining cars for the week, we headed up to the more intimate Lago d'Antorno before driving up the toll road to Rifugio Auronzo. We'd parked at Auronzo many times over the years, but this was the first time I'd spend the night here.

Solitary Feather || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/30 s, ISO 200

After a general round of introductions, our instructors informed us what we could expect from the week ahead and I was excited to catch some new perspectives of places that were very familiar to me, as well as taking in a couple of new locations. It was interesting to learn that only a couple of us had any experience at all at taking nocturnal images - most were complete novices.

Cima Cadin della Neve || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/30 s, ISO 200

Our first evening saw us hiking a trail southwards towards Monte Compardelle below the imposing Cima Cadin della Neve to capture some evening shots. Golden hour gave way to the blue hour without much fanfare as the cloud cover was simply too thick for most shots. I quickly rediscovered my aversion for shooting photos in a huddle. Whilst everyone else seemed to be preoccupied with Cadin, I turned around and focussed on the Tre Cime, seeing them from an angle I had never had before. Shooting in the blue hour isn't always easy as the way the eye perceives light and the way the camera perceives light aren't always the same. I find that the best photos occur around the time where I think it's too dark for photography; I noticed this when I was shooting from the Kranzberg with Matthias back in May and the same happened here. This is pretty much the last shot I took before giving up for the evening. The lights are those of Rifugio Auronzo, our beacon for the route back.

Tre Cime and Rifugio Auronzo || Olympus 20 mm, f/8, 1/2 s, ISO 200

Day 2 - Auronzo to Locatelli and Back

If anything, the forecast for day 2 was worse than day 1. After breakfast we headed off on the well-trodden route to Rifugio Locatelli (a.k.a. the Dreizinnenhütte) via Forcella Lavaredo. We wanted to be out and back in good time since thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon, conditions that we really didn't want to be caught out in. 

Chapel on the way to Forcella Lavaredo || Olympus 400 mm, f/6.3, 1/1000 s, ISO 200

It was strange being out in territory that I was very familiar with in the context of a bunch of strangers. I was able to demonstrate my local knowledge by introducing one of the guides to a tunnel affording a view of the Tre Cime that he hadn't previously been aware of. In return we became privy to a great panorama spot for taking shots of the Tre Cime together with Locatelli and Monte Paterno, a shot which one of the workshop leaders had previously immortalised with his image Magic Dolomites. Even if we didn't have the best weather, at least I know now exactly where to head to in order to capture something similar one day when the conditions allow it.

Dolomite Poppies || Olympus 12 mm, f/11, 1/200 s, ISO 200

The weather was so poor that evening that we didn't even venture out for the non-existent sunset. Stefan promised that he'd check the cloud cover at regular intervals during the night and wake us if anything promising came up - a really great service! There was a brief break in the clouds around midnight, but only a couple of people dared the elements to catch a glimpse of the stars between the clouds, but that was all it was.

Locatelli alle Tre Chime || Olympus f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

Day 3 - Auronzo to Scoiatolli and the Cinque Torri

There's a song from my childhood titled "Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh." The text describes a fictional letter home from a child who's been sent away to camp for the summer, complaining about the weather, the other kids, and generally begging to be allowed to come home on promise of best behaviour. The letter closes with an update that the weather has taken a sudden swing for the better and implores Muddah and Fadduh to disregard the rest of the letter. So it was with day 3. We awoke to mist clinging to the mountains and clearing skies. We were of course all out on the balcony overlooking the valley and Cima Cadin della Neve before breakfast, snapping away. I even had a chance to sneak in a time-lapse of the fog fingers creeping through the peaks.

Mist Time Lapse

Misty Mountain Hop || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/100 s, ISO 64

Sun Breaking Through || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 64

As the Mist Lifts... || Olympus 16 mm, f/9, 1/80 s, ISO 64

Rifugio Auronzo || Olympus 9 mm, f/16, 1/100 s, ISO 200

The prospect of better weather changed the mood of the whole group and we were suddenly cautiously optimistic about the prospect of getting some astrophotography in that night. Stopping at the lakes d'Antorno and Misurina on the way down to re-capture some of the images of day 1 in better conditions, we finally headed off to Cinque Torri.

D'Antorno Revisited || Olympus 15 mm, f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200

Dolomite Reflections || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

Lago Misurina || Olympus 100 mm, f/10, 2 s, ISO 200

The car park at the bottom of the chair lift up to the Rifugio Scoiatolli was full to overflowing, but we managed to squeeze the minibuses into a gap on the access road. Before heading up the mountain, our guides took us to the tiny Lago Bain de Dones, an otherwise fairly non-descript woodland lake that afforded some beautiful reflections of the Tofana range opposite us. The excessive rainfall of the previous 24 h had rendered the water extremely muddy and flooded the path at the lake's edge, forcing us to detour through the undergrowth. Maybe under better conditions the lake would have been a worthwhile photo op, but I wasn't able to get anything decent out of it.

Tofana || Olympus 10 mm, f/8, 1/200 s, ISO 200

Given the state of the car park, it was no surprise to find the restaurant at the Rifugio heaving with people. The hut itself is absolutely beautiful and a very welcome change to the more functional Auronzo hut. The food, too, was exceptional, meaning that we will very definitely be back here some time in the future. We spent the afternoon shooting the cr@p out of the eponymous Five Towers and scouting the area below the hut for suitable spots for capturing the Milky Way that night. We still weren't 100% certain of the cloud levels; Clear Outside was still indicating a 15% chance of high cloud (or was it low cloud?) - hardly surprising given the previous day's weather. Even as the sun was setting, there were still clouds on the horizon.

Big Skies over Croda da Lago || Olympus 10 mm, f/8, 1/200 s, ISO 200

Broody Skies || Olympus 86 mm, f/8, 1/13 s, ISO 200 

Our mood over dinner was on the exuberant side. Finally we were going to have a crack at taking some astro images. I've never sat at a table in a mountain hut in the evening with so little alcohol being consumed. We were all being exceedingly abstemious, bearing in mind the need to stay awake and alert into the wee hours, or at least we were until one of our party spotted an extremely rare bottle of red wine on the wine list that he had to share with the group. I don't think I've ever drunk a wine with a list price closer to three figures than two, and it was very nice, but not something I'd ever think about buying for myself.

Cinque Torri and Rifugio Scoiatolli || Olympus Panorama, f/2.8, 6 s, ISO 800

After dinner, we headed out to the various spots that we'd scouted earlier in the day. When Sharon and I had passed by a closed Scoiatolli in autumn a couple of years ago, we had the impression that it stood on a cliff-edge. This couldn't be further from the truth. Below the Rifugio there's a warren of WW I trenches and hideouts. Most of the others had scouted a spot lower down the slopes, giving them a panorama shot with the Cinque Torri centre picture. My spot was significantly higher up with  the Cinque Torri framing the left hand side of the picture, followed by the beautiful ridges of Croda da Lago and the peaks of Nuvolau and Averau because this composition had a much more personal connection to me. 

Scoiatolli and Nuvolau || Olympus 12 mm, f/3.4, 240 s, ISO 800

I don't think I necessarily got the better composition, but I got some astro shots that I was pleased with, both with the tracker* and without. My single image (above) was taken with the tracker, the panorama (below)  without due to time constraints. We only had around half an hour or so to shoot the Milky Way before the core dipped below the horizon. Three rows of 10 photos for the panorama at 30 s each meant a total of 15 min of exposure. Had I used the tracker, it would have taken me upwards of 2 h to catch the same data, not to mention taking a further set of foreground pictures without the tracker for still shots of the mountains.

*A (star) tracker is a device that allows photographers to take long photos of the stars without having the points degrade into lines due to the earth's rotation. Normally the limit for an exposure before star-trailing occurs is (500 / focal length) s - approximately 30 s with my m43 8 mm lens. In order to get anything worthwhile, I have to increase the ISO setting on the camera to 6400, resulting in a lot of excess noise in the images. With the star tracker I can shoot for 4 min at ISO 800, resulting in a much more pleasing image with significantly more colour and less noise.

Milky Way over Cinque Torri || Olympus 8 mm, f/2.8, 25 s, ISO 6400

As I reached the end of my 30-shot panorama,  the clouds started rolling in and it was time to head back to the Rifugio, but not before taking a couple of last snaps of the Great Tower.

Cinque Torri by Night || Olympus 12 mm, f/3.3, 10 s, ISO 6400

Day 4 Scoiatolli to Passo Rolle

The night was short. At 4:30 am we were up again to shoot the dawn over the Towers. The sickle moon put in an appearance over the Great Tower as the first colour became visible in the sky. 

New Moon in the Dolomites || Olympus 12 mm, f/8, 1 s, ISO 200 

Then it was off to attempt to capture sun stars and flowers. At least that was the brief. I stopped off at a suitable looking patch of Adenostyles (yes, I did have to look that up) to wait for the sun to rise. As it happened, I was spot on with my positioning to catch the sun rising between the towers. In the end, I preferred this shot of the warm sun's rays coming through the gap rather than the sun star shot itself.

A New Day Dawns || Olympus 10 mm, f/16, 1/100 s, ISO 1600

Just One More... || Olympus Panorama, f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200

After a hearty buffet breakfast back at the hut, we headed to the chairlift to carry on with out tour of the eastern Dolomites. Our goal for day four was a mountain lake above Passo Rolle in the south-eastern corner of the range. We spent a rather fruitless evening looking for more flowers to feature as foreground for the dominating peaks of Cima della Vezzana. Unfortunately all of the suitable species were over at this time of year. Clouds were also passing through, making shots of the pinnacles above us very elusive as well. The clouds put paid to any attempts at another evening of astrophotography and we arrived back at our accommodation a little dejected.

Day 5 Passo Rolle to Brunico via Lago Carezza

After a lazy breakfast we all piled back into the minibus for an arduous drive up and down the passes all the way to the northern edge of the Dolomites via Lago Carezza and Bozen, followed by short trips to Lago di Braies and the stone pyramids at Platten. It was a long day that tried all of our patience with closed roads, misleading directions, late lunches (I don't do well with low blood sugar!), complicated light and everything in between. Had we not all gotten on so well I think day 5 would have broken us as a group, but we survived the mixed bag that day 5 presented us with and ended the day having pizza (first time of the week) in a restaurant that we had pretty much to ourselves in a village just round the corner from the farmhouse that we stay at.

Lago Carezza was interesting, full of influenzas taking selfies and the usual tourists. In contrast to scarce flora at Passo Rolle, the rosebay willow herb was still out in force at the lake. The tips of the Diamantiditurm were engulfed in cloud, but the pink flowers contrasting against the turquoise water of the lake were irresistible.

Lago Carezza || Olympus 16 mm, f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 200

After a late lunch in Niederdorf the road to Lago di Braies was open. We arrived just as the rain started, but this actually enhanced the charm of the lake as well as chasing off all the tourists. The boats are so photogenic here, particularly with the beautiful blue waters. The dull light made long exposures easy to set up, smoothing out the lake surface.

Rowboats at Braies || Olympus 9 mm, f/8, 5 s, ISO 200

Lago di Braies || Olympus 9 mm, f/8, 5 s, ISO 200

Before heading back to the farm, we detoured up to the earth pyramids of Platten, an interesting rock formation revealed overnight by a flash flood in 1882. 

The Platten Pyramids || Olympus 25 mm, f/8, 1/40 s, ISO 200

Day 6 Lago di Braies to Lago Misurina

On our last day, we were up again for dawn at Lago di Braies. My photos in the rain from the previous afternoon had much better colour than anything from this morning session. Having waited in vain for some dawn light we headed back to Brunico to pack and grab some breakfast before returning to Misurina to pick up the cars.

Conclusions

One of my photo-goals for 2021 was shooting a Milky Way panorama that I was happy with. I'd managed to get good arches both on the Kranzberg and at Raisting, but wasn't happy with the results because of the light pollution. Bagging shots that I am happy with at Cinque Torri made the whole trip worthwhile in my estimation.

We had a good week with mixed weather. It was no-one's fault that we only got one evening of astrophotography during the six days. The company was very welcome and I hope that we will be able to keep in touch with the other participants. I might have wished for a bit more instruction and feedback from our workshop leaders, but I still picked up some new tricks and discovered some interesting new spots to shoot from in better conditions. Would certainly do it again.