How my solo adventure through The Dolomites benefitted my photography

My name is Chris König, a 23 years old self-taught photographer, based in The Netherlands. This story is about my one week adventure in the Italian Dolomites, in which I tried to challenge myself, not only on a photography level, but on a personal level as well. I crawled through 2 meters deep snow, I sweat so much I thought there was no water left in me and I climbed for so long that it felt like my legs left me halfway through already. It was all absolutely worth it :)

It is very easy to be distracted from what you do, even if you are truly passionate about what you do. For example, when I am planning new photoshoots for my portfolio, I find it very easy to just postpone it until I kind of forget about it, even though I still love to shoot every day! Kind of strange how this works, but in order to fight this, I decided to just book a trip to Italy, to explore the mountains by myself and make use of this opportunity to come back with some new work. Not only as an addition to my portfolio, but to improve my improvising skills by making the most out of the unexpected and rather uncomfortable situations.

During this week I found that it was so easy to stay focussed on creating new pictures, because I was in this situation, all by myself, with no real options to do something else than what I came for. Once all distractions were basically gone, it became so easy to just to what I had to! I guess the key element is just doing something: throw yourself in that new situation and make the most out of it, instead of overthinking it until nothing really happens. That doesn’t apply only to photography, I think. :)

Skiing in fresh powder with a beautiful mountain backdrop!

Lago di Braies

A lake during winter is hardly a lake, right?

More powder shredding!

Near Sexten, a beautiful area in the north of the Dolomites

Tre Cimes

Nightly views after a hike to the mountain top

Best spot to stay for the night!

View from my tent.

The orange is just a distant city, the sun was long gone.. Looks unearthly though!

Hiking near Tre Cimes. Lots of snow, no people!

Puez-Odle from the other side

Me, after some harsh nights in the cold :D

Wintersport in these kind of sceneries, isn’t too bad.

About The Author

Chris König is 22 years old photographer based in Tilburg, The Netherlands. You can see more of his photos on his website and interact with him via his Facebook and Instagram profiles. This article was also published here and shared with permission.

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