It is well worth going to Interlocken and taking a day to go up the Jungfrau by train and cog wheeled railway. I have done that twice. You will see the largest glacier in Europe at the top of the Jungfrau.
It is well worth going to Interlocken and taking a day to go up the Jungfrau by train and cog wheeled railway. I have done that twice. You will see the largest glacier in Europe at the top of the Jungfrau.
Nothing beats a great piece of glass!
I leave the digital work for the urologists and proctologists.
Many thanks for everyone's responses, very helpful! Will do more home works and figure out where I can shoot some LF during tour. David
THE ALPS' MOST EPIC PHOTO OPS. AND THE TOURISTS RUINING THEM
https://www.wired.com/2017/03/simon-...sacralization/
http://www.simoncroberts.com/work/si...ation/#PHOTO_0
David, I'd say your decision to bring an LF camera on an organized tour will hinge on quite a few things. I've worked as a mountain climbing & ski guide and travelled in the mountains of those areas a lot. The cities you mention are generally speaking 'in the Alps/of the Alps' in the same way that Denver is in the Rockies. If you're interested in photographing mountains, then the smaller actual mountain towns of Chamonix, Zermatt, Courmayeur, Grindelwald & Cortina (& others)....are the places to go. Travelling with others in a group, I'd consider downsizing to medium format (still w/ a tripod or monopod). I if were to take LF gear, i'd have a good idea of what kind of photos i wanted to take & limit myself to a couple of lenses. I can't imagine you being able to work in an unhurried fashion travelling in a tour, & likely you'd have less to show for your trip. A 6x9 neg can still produce pretty stunning 16x20s.
Sirius G, the trip up to the Jungfrau joch is pretty cool but photographically doesn't give you the same perspective of the large mountain faces ( like the massive north Face of the Eiger or the Schreckhorn) as the valley does.
Pfsor, as has been pointed out....many of the restaurants are used by tours just because they can accommodate 50 people walking in the door at once, many cannot & the tourist industry, like many others, works on perks & volume discounts.... ;-)
The point many of you don't understand is that such behaviour is unlawful in Switzerland, the leading country in the anti corruption politics. It is regarded as corruption with bribery. The other point is that travellers cannot stop the bus when they want to drink or to eat - they are practically hostages of the secret deal the boss, their bus driver has with his accomplices. Not pleasant if you have to travel 1 more hour to get to the place only the driver knows because he doesn't care about your thirst or hunger. Hope you got the point.Originally Posted by Greg Y
Pfsor...we get the point, however tours are pre- arranged to provide service to large numbers, and are typically planned in advance. The passengers on buses and trains don't get to vote or change the arrangements. They are not a private car or taxi. Not that this comment has anything to do with LF photography.
Greg, unlike you, I know about the Swiss alpine tours from my own experience. A tour leader is not a person in the bus agency that arranges a plan for the bus passengers. It's a person who is actually travelling with the passengers, interacting with them and planning - in the possible manner - their trip according to the local conditions (traffic condition for ex.) The passengers are not regarded as a weight load that a bus driver drives as it pleases him. Remember the Swiss direct democracy principle?
The case I spoke about was so appalling that the people on the bus decided no to give the driver his several hundred $$$ in bakshish at the end of the trip. They didn't like the fact that he overrode them when they wanted to eat still on the Italian part of the border rather than at the corrupted location he chose in Switzerland, despite the fact that the tour leader was telling him to stop.
When it comes to trains it is probably you who want to enlighten the OP what it has to do with his Alps tour?
David, you received some good suggestions. Although I worked for several tour outfits in previous life, I agree with Greg Y. The tour is usually preset. Unless you hook up with a smaller tourist group (much more customized) it will directly reflect how much time you'll have for LF photos or otherwise. The place where an average tour stops for a meal is also set - v. often 2 buses would travel in parallel and most places can't handle 40-50 group, much less 2X that...so one bus delays/overlap arrival by 15-20 min or so. Personally, I enjoy stopping where I wish vs looking at someone's head ahead of me on the bus (just can't see paying for that).....and you don't have the flexibility of stopping where the perfect light/view may be. Granted, this may be a way of familiarize oneself with the terrain > having to return and putting emphasis on the *photos only*. It's your decision.
Not sure how relevant Pfsor's experience may be, but working for top notch operators such as Tauck Tours or Collette, the tourguide that arranges
"things on the ground" can make one call to the management of the company....and such a rogue driver will be quickly replaced by the bus company that leases the equipment to the tour. The driver does not have the right to derail a tour (taking a group of people hostage).
Most of the popular places in the Alps were already mentioned. I've spend 2 months in '82 and especially enjoyed the mountain region of Germany,
Austria and Switzerland. I'd add Lake Geneva + Dolomites in Italy (only about 60Km from Insbruck). Bumping around Lucern (lake) was real nice too.
Enjoy and bring back some nice images.
Les
I too would rent a car and not bother with a tour...
Hi, Guys, Thank you so much for your responses! We initially wanted to have a self-guide tour in Alps and we could stop anywhere we wanted. I went to a travel agent and she could not come up with a route/plan, we gave it up, also we were afraid of driving in different countries and do not know their languages. Maybe we can go back again and will be able to drive around by ourselves next time. This tour will be the first one we will join in Western countries and not sure what we are going to expect, but our friends who have been on this tour before said the it was very good. I do not plan to shoot LF pictures all the time or everywhere. It will be good for me if I could catch one or two each day. We will have some free afternoons or excursions to explore the regions. We look forward to this tour and absolutely will share my LF photos in this forum after I come back. Thanks! David
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