2025 posts
Rome, the eternal city needs no introduction
We don't need to say much about Rome. It is famous, packed with history, loud, hot in summer, plagued by over-tourism all that you would expect.
This is not the place to spend some quiet and relaxing days. This is to see places on everyones bucket list like the Colosseum, Forum Romanum, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican museums incl. Sistine Chapel, Trevi fountain... and of course we did all that.
Yes all of that is a must-see of course but the range of our experiences was wide. We were totally underwhelmed of how you were rushed through the Vatican museums without the chance to take in the extraordinary artifacts amassed there. On the other hand we loved the Forum Romanum site which was of course crowded but you could take all the time you wanted to ingest history there.
If you take your time and leave the most popular tourist paths you can find awesome places for photo shootings - and I think we created some nice shots. As often key is to be earlier than the masses and so we even captured some nice photos inside the Colosseum while all the tourists were still asleep or having breakfast in their hotels.
The images are provided in much higher resolution than you can see on this page. To see the full resolution: Right click on an image and select "Open image in new tab" from the context menu.
Lago Maggiore, Ticino - a truly special place for us
In this case I really struggled to choose the landscape pictures to show here. It is not only about the lake, the whole area is simply stunning and this goes for the Italian side as well as for the one of Switzerland.
Let me just name a few of the towns we love to be at when we are traveling there. Switzerland: Locarno, Brissago and especially Ascona! Italy: Cannobio, Stresa and the Borromean Islands. Especially Isola Bella holds a special place in our hearts. The sheer beauty of this place had such big impact on us that we were almost crying when we first arrived there. The flower portrait and the upper landscape image are shot on Isola Bella.
You definitely need either a boat or a car to explore the coast line towns of Lago Maggiore. But be prepared for narrow roads probably best not to take your Range Rover there - a nice open two-seater suits the occassion just better.
A side-note for the budget minded traveller: Accommodation and restaurants are usually a lot cheaper on the Italian side than in Switzerland. And in this case cheaper surely does not mean inferior. If you don't mind budget our vote is on Ascona. Anyway you can't go wrong visiting Lago Maggiore over Lago Garda in our opinion.
The images are provided in much higher resolution than you can see on this page. To see the full resolution: Right click on an image and select "Open image in new tab" from the context menu.
Croatia -Mediterranean coast and more
For this shooting trip we chose Zadar old town as our base camp.
Shooting was mostly done on the board walk around the old town, right next to our airbnb. Lovely for walking and dining on those warm spring/early summer evenings at the Med. How comfortable to finish shooting and sit down right on location to have an Aperol and some nice seafood.
Leave the town and the coastline behind and you will find very green hills and forests - which we had not expected to be like this tbh. There are a lot of places to visit like national parks and waterfalls. Either use a guided tour or rent a car and head out on your own. Croatia is a safe place - the photo of the crowd above does not show a riot btw - just young men and women celebrating after graduating from high school.
In general Croatia is neither too crowded nor too expensive - with the exception of Dubrovnik which you should really avoid in high season! And probably one of the best things Croatia has to offer is the countless beautiful islands waiting for you to do some pleasure sailing...
The images are provided in much higher resolution than you can see on this page. To see the full resolution: Right click on an image and select "Open image in new tab" from the context menu.
The big and well-known lake in the South
A beautiful lake where Germany, Austria and Switzerland meet and you can visit three countries by ship in one day.
This time we were shooting at Constance city on the German side of the lake and also had a short ferry trip to Meersburg (also Germany). The evening light was perfect and Lolas blue outfit went very well with the color of the water I think. So we accomplished beautiful photos in our opinion.
What we didn't like though was how crowded the city was even in off-season. Almost impossible to grab a drink in one of the lake-side bars. And don't even think of having dinner at a restaurant without a reservation. Instead be prepared to pay a lot for food and service that is only so so - clearly the restaurants don't have to rely on you ever coming back. Thinking of it now we liked our earlier stay at Lindau much more. May be because that is located in Bavaria and hospitality is so much nicer.
The images are provided in much higher resolution than you can see on this page. To see the full resolution: Right click on an image and select "Open image in new tab" from the context menu.
some more of 2025 to come
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