GFX100S: More than Full Frame x Yevhen Biletskiy

Travel Photography in Europe

I have already been doing landscape photography for 10 years. Going through this experience, I have visited many countries and some of them even several times for a better shot. However, each time I am full of admiration for exploring a new mystery. Indeed, in the landscape photography everything depends on the weather. Moreover, until the moment I am on location, I keep thinking about the weather, how the sun will illuminate the landscape and what the best way to build a perspective is. Have I chosen the right season? That was the main question on this trip. The primary goal of this trip to Europe was to complete a photography project of shooting autumn nature. Frankly saying, I arrived 2-3 weeks earlier than it had been planned. Nevertheless, the photos are beautiful, even if not autumn ones. Nature is always enchanting and it knows how to surprise!

The plan for the next few days was Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and a long list of locations, with both main landmarks and extra ones. At 4:00 in the morning, I picked my friends up from the railway station in Lviv, we loaded all our things and bags with photographic equipment and hit the road. Despite the fact that our first venue was Budapest, Hungary, 650 km of the way and 8 hours of driving. Perhaps Budapest is one of the best cities I have ever visited. I always try to stop by Budapest for 1-2 days traveling in Europe, because it really impresses me with its cityscapes, streets, historical sites and cuisine. In addition, my collection had had a lack of the main illustration of Budapest – the view of the Parliament on the banks of the Danube River in the evening classical “blue hour”. In my opinion, that is the best time to shoot architecture, when the yellow lighting on the buildings turns on and the sky has not yet had time to “fall” into the darkness of the night. It turns out the perfect color set. So now, I am proud to own an entire collection of Budapest photos!

By the way, this trip is also interesting because we filmed a promo video for the new FUJIFILM GFX100S, which I was shooting for the first time. First of all, I was amazed by the speed of the camera and the unusually strong autofocus! Detailing is fantastic in the medium format system.

The next day we went to Austria to the Almsee Lake and had to drive 500 km. Then I clearly realized that this time I would not be able to take autumn photos. Despite the weather forecast, summer was lasting and unusually warm weather was observing even in the mountains. My experience in landscape photography has taught me not to get upset in such situations and just enjoy the view around without taking pictures. By the way, the lake is stunning and we took a pleasant walk around it. After that, we decided not to stay there longer and go to Germany, to the next location – Lake Hintersee.

It was not my first trip to Lake Hintersee and again it greeted me with a dense fog. Unfortunately, it is not the shot that I have dreamt of. It is spectacular in its own way at such time, though. When it is about shooting lakes, rivers or the sea, I always use a wide-angle lens. I have a GF 23mm and it is simply irreplaceable for such shots! The large viewing angle allows you to capture, probably, the whole world in one frame! In addition, I like to place objects in the foreground, and the close minimum focusing distance of this lens allows me to do this without focus stacking.

According to the plan, In Germany we had the location that to some extent imitates ice caves in Iceland. However, because of the warm weather, there was no point in visiting this place, since neither ice nor snow would be clean for a beautiful shot. To be honest, there still is a high need to go to Iceland behind this shot, but that will be a completely different journey. Then the basic plan was changed, as we eventually came to photograph the summer landscape. Therefore, I decided to go to a location in Switzerland (another 450 km), which looks the best in the summer. These are verdant hills shone like emeralds against the clear blue sky. The emerald hills (as I call them) with a few lonely trees at the top had always been my dream to take photos. Every landscape photographer has his or her own “secret locations” and I will not reveal the location of this scene. I think that everyone can find this place on their own, like many others, if they really want it. It is very quiet here, with many smooth rolling hills, perfectly mowed meadows and the sound of bells on cows. I really liked the walk among this landscape. What a magical place!

We stayed here for a couple of days. Unfortunately, one of them was completely cloudy and gray, so we could not get good shots. Then we decided to go to the high-mountainous part of Switzerland, to the Grindelwald region, Lauterbrunnen and other places around. It was still summer there and … unexpectedly, everything was getting covered with dense clouds. Any sun rays could not break through the clouds, so it did not give us any hope for a good landscape shot. Since Switzerland is a ski country with many ski slopes, we decided to climb above the clouds. It was a great solution and here is the reason:

Yeah, this is my favorite “sea of clouds”. It has always looked impressive! It is especially cool that in order to understand the scale and size, I managed to position successfully my friend in the frame. That is the key point to emphasize the giant size of these mountains. This place is the last stop of the ski lift and there is an excellent cafe with an almost 360-degree view around. I would say that espresso with this scenery is more than fantastic! That is not all. Then we were going to get a short trekking to the lake, we hoped to shoot reflections there and several videos for a promotional one. The trek took 1.5-2 hours and we were very lucky with the weather. It was calm, only a light wind created tiny waves on the surface of the lake, but still the photo with the reflection on the surface came out excellent. A little “life hack” is that there is always calm water near the coast and you need to position the camera as low as possible near the surface of the water so that the mountains are reflected more correctly.

We could not stay until sunset at this altitude of 2265m, since it becomes very cold in the mountains after sunset. Moreover, we had not had appropriate equipment for staying there. Therefore, being late for the lift (only 45 minutes were left) we just were running, literally stopped for a couple seconds for taking a few shots. Frankly, we could not have missed that beauty! In that case, I realized the value of a stabilizer on the matrix. It can really help if you cannot use a tripod, need to mention that I use it anytime and anywhere. There is also a stabilizer at 45-100mm. I love how well the collaboration of camera and lens works.

The following day, we decided to climb high into the mountains on a lift up to 2970 m to Piz Gloria. This is a well-known place where James Bond movie was filmed in 1969 and on the top of Piz Gloria there is a famous restaurant that constantly rotates 360 degrees. Luckily, the weather was still clear and sea of clouds was magnificent.

There are many hiking trails and great views!

On the way down to the parking lot, we stopped at an intermediate station in the village of Mürren. It was getting dark and very foggy. The combination of the lantern lights and the fog let it obtain its own unique

Before leaving Switzerland, we visited several famous places where I had not been before. Generally, I call such places “the location of one shot” since there are not many diverse shots there. On the other hand, for a photographer it is worth to have such shots in his or her portfolio.

Finally we moved to Italy, my beloved the Dolomites Alps. Here, summer and autumn have just been beginning to color the trees. Before our first location, or

rather the Giau Pass, there was only 250 km and on the autobahns, you can drive this distance in a couple of hours, but in the mountains along the serpentines it took 5-6 hours. I have not seen so many turns, ascents and descents anywhere else! Driving is a little dangerous there, but the views are incredible. On the serpentines we got to the shooting point just at sunset, the weather was excellent and we completely immersed ourselves in the process. At this location, I have two main points of shooting: a view of the Ra Gusela Mountain and it with a reflection in the lake:

In addition, the rocks around were gorgeous and the sun played its role perfectly. Without good sunshine, these rocks would look flat. I took this shot using 65:24 intra-camera cropping. I had not paid attention to this format before, but it was at this moment that I realized all its advantages. Without this aspect ratio, the semantic accent would “scatter” throughout the frame, and in this condition, the gaze is precisely concentrated on the rocks and unique lighting. In addition, 100MP makes it possible not to lose quality when framing.

The next day was for relaxation, although in the evening we went hiking to the Lago Federa Lake, it took 2 hours one way and in general it was a pleasant walk among the rocks and forest. The next time I come back here, I will definitely wait for autumn, spend the night in a mountain tourist shelter by the lake and photograph a bright and juicy sunrise with yellow trees. It has become one of my dream!

According to the plan, our trip was coming to the finish and it was the last location. I had already been to it a several time, but I wanted to repeat the shooting with a new camera. The place where the whole world comes to admire the classic mountain view of Italy. The venue, where green meadows, ancient buildings and mountains merge into the perfect landscape photography. This place called Santa Maddalena. There are two main locations there: a view of a small church against a background of mountains and a large-scale view of a small settlement against a background of mountains. You may have a hard time being everywhere at once. At least before that, you need to practice running with a backpack full of equipment.

I use zoom lenses 80% of the time in my work. I like their versatility and, importantly, the quality. These photos were taken with one lens, and I only changed the focal and aspect ratio.

This was the end of our journey. We decided to go home through Slovenia, visit the famous Lake Bled and, of course, stop by again in Budapest for a cup of espresso overlooking the Chain Bridge and enjoy the local cuisine. All the way long and in all locations, I used several cameras and lenses that allow me to get my creative tasks done. It was FUJIFILM 50R and FUJIFILM 100S with 23mm, 32-64mm, 45-100mm, 80mm lenses. I also have an X-T4 with 50-140mm and this is a great kit!

We have driven about 5000 kilometers and have seen many beautiful places. This journey has revealed a new outline for future trips considering the season and the time. It has confirmed again how interesting it is to create landscape photos!

See you next trip!