People ask me this question a lot: What’s the best season for photography in The Dolomites? Well, let me be clear. The Dolomites will always be impressive and each season has its charms. This year I visited the Italian Dolomites for the first time in the autumn season. It was a spontaneous trip and I was a tiny bit late in the season, but I still managed to take incredible photos. Some of them among my best shots ever! In this blog I’ll show you loads of my shots and their locations.
In This Post
Lago di Dobbiaco
On my way to the Dolomites, I did a small stop at Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany and after that I made my way to Italy. As I was car camping, I took a last shower for the next couple of days. If you’re looking for a nice place to get a shower, consider Rastplatz Nösslach, about halfway at the Brennerpas. During my past trips to The Dolomites, I started with St. Magdalena and Alpe di Siusi, but this time I decided to do it the other way around. I made my way to Dobbiaco as soon as possible and at the end of the afternoon I parked at Lago di Dobbiaco for my first couple of photos. I hiked around this lake in June and didn’t plan to do it again. The photo above takes literally zero exercise and was taken maybe 50 meters from the parking lot where I parked my car for 30 minutes. I was lucky with the still water conditions and took a variety of shots until I was happy with the results. The colours already blew my mind and I loved to see some popping orange trees between the regular green ones!
🚙 How to get there: Navigate here and you can’t miss the house I shot.
💰 Costs: None, but bring some cash for the parking meter.
Lago di Misurina
Right after shooting these photos, I made my way to Lago di Misurina. I never really shot this spot, but I’ve seen countless photos of it. I decided that I had to take that photo at least one time, so I stopped by. The water wasn’t as still as during my first stop, but I still like the result. Especially the popping trees on the left give that autumn vibes. Crazy as nature is, the trees on the right didn’t care about changing their colours.
🚙 How to get there: Navigate here and you can’t miss the house I shot.
💰 Costs: None, but bring some cash for the parking meter.
Lago d'Antorno
My third stop would be my sunset spot and the last spot of my first day. It’s also the place where I would park my car to spend the night. Lago d’Antorno is located on the way to Tre Cime di Misurina and a small lake with phenomenal backdrops on all sides. The trees really give that extra autumn vibe and I surely wasn’t the only one who planned to shoot his sunset here. A bad memory from this place is that my Sony 16-35 f/2.8 GM stopped working here. I didn’t know what it was and thought my camera was broken, but afterwards I found out that the lens has a common issue, resulting in the problems I had. My display froze and I couldn’t take photos anymore. Sony runs a repair program to repair this issue and I got it repaired for free afterwards.
🚙 How to get there: Navigate here and you can’t miss the house I shot.
💰 Costs: None, parking is free but limited for 1 hour, or park on the other side of the road, where you’re allowed to park longer.
Cadini di Misurina
Even though I knew that Cadini wouldn’t be a great spot for fall footage, it was still a location I wanted to visit for sunrise. Cadini is located above the tree line, so there won’t be any trees in frame. I visited this spot once during bright daylight and once during sunset, but I was sure that sunrise must be special as well. Due to the high costs of the toll road, I decided to wake up early and hike up to the viewpoint. This hike would take me about 1h 30m, but I had to leave in the dark, through the forest and up to the mountain. I did this hike once before on the first day of snow, so I knew how to get there. Again, I wasn’t the only one at the spot and many people were lining up for their perfect shots. I met two incredible good Finnish photographers here and we all flew our drone until we were satisfied with our content. One of the photographers was Krista Ylinen (click) and I highly recommend to check her website and portfolio, as she’s such a talented photographer.
🥾 How to get there: Follow track 101, once you get above the tree line, bend to the right and hike up to the viewpoint of Cadini. It’s easier to use Maps.Me for detailed navigation and offline maps.
💰 Costs: If you hike, you save the €30 of the toll road. Parking spots can be limited around Lago d’Antorno. You can take a bus up as well.
On my way down, I could finally see the colours I was waiting for. It might have been a bit late to see the trees in optimal condition, but I still loved to look at them. I’t’s safe to say that it didn’t cost me any effort to get down to the lake with first of all these views, and second to that the ability to walk downhill instead of uphill.
Lago Ghedina
This one is less famous than all the other spots I visited during this Dolomites trip. I saw one photo beforehand and didn’t know where to find it. Of course this photographer didn’t share any location tags and I had to find it myself. Thanks to Google Maps and reversed image search, I was able to find the exact spot! What I didn’t know, is that you can actually drive to the lake yourself. I parked next to Camping Olympia and hiked for about 30 minutes, but after all I didn’t have to. I don’t mind a little hike, but the next time I’ll just park my car next to the lake. 😇 In this next photo, I decided to keep that house on the right side in frame, so you can actually see that I didn’t do anything to the greens. I still can’t believe how orange the trees were here, making it actually hard to edit this photo in a realistic way!
🚙 How to get there: Navigate here and approach the lake from the south. The road is closed from the north side. If you want a small hike, park here and hike to the lake.
💰 Costs: None.
