Photographing Interlaken

Interlaken is a very touristic town in Switzerland. It is well known for its proximity to so many different winter and summer activities. In Interlaken it is possible to practice a variety of adventure sports. In addition, the town has a privileged location for all types of nature lovers: west is the lake Thunersee, east is the lake Brienzersee, and south is Jungfrau area. Doesn't it sound like paradise? Yes, it is!


Well, the town itself has not much to offer, with the exception of a nice view of Jungfrau when standing right in front of Casino Kursall on the main street. That's exactly where I decided to pick a park bench and sit down to enjoy being there.
 
For me, the main attraction of Interlaken is its surroundings. I would separate it in two large areas: the first one is the 2 lakes (Brienzersee and Thurnersee) and the second one is the Jungfrau area which includes Lauterbrunnen, Wegen, Grindelwald, and Murren to name a few.

This post will cover the astonishing lakes, in a future one I will present the Jungfrau splendid area. 

For landscape, my favourite lake is the Brienzersee. I have photographed it from 2 different locations, the first one, in the afternoon from the further east side of Interlaken. There is no public transportation from the town. But it is a flat walk from Interlaken Ost train station to the small beach area, about 20 to 25 minutes max.

Image 1 - Brienzersee from Interlaken 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and there was not even one cloud in the sky... a photographer's nightmare. It seems to be a constant in Switzerland. In here it is either too cloudy or not cloudy at all. I hang around the beach for a little, but the wind started to pick up which erased the nice reflections on the lake surface. I tried working around it but it was just not happening. After a couple of more attempts, I just decided to enjoy the rest of the day without worrying about photography for a change. I did some hikes and scouted some possible photo locations, after all photography is always on my mind.

Image 2 - Brienzersee from Interlaken - weather erasing lake reflections

The next morning, I left on the first train to Niederried, a small village on the north side of lake Brienzersee for the second perspective of the lake. Using only public transportation has its falls back. The first train was not early enough for me to arrive at location for dawn, so the sun was already up, which helped me to find my way around the trail to the beach area of the village. 


As mentioned before, it has been a really mild winter in Switzerland, so the water levels around the country are extremely low. Lake Brienzersee is no exception. I took full advantage of this opportunity. The lower water levels reveal rocks that can be used on the foreground composition of the images. With the moon still in the sky and the first rays of the sun hitting the snowed peaks mountains, I had a blast creating the images! 

Image 3 - Lake Brienzersee from Niederried

Image 4 - Lake Brienzersee from Niederried

 The wind was completely calm allowing a perfect reflection of the snowed peak mountains on the lake surface. I moved around the small beach area to include different elements on the foreground such as the exposed wooden boat docks, trees in the vicinity, and the cracking rock of the beach area. 

Image 5 - Exposed wooden boat docks in the foreground

Image 6 - Trees from the vicinity in the foreground

Image 7 - Cracking rock from beach area in the foreground

Then, I turned to the other side to capture the layers of mountains covered with the fog produced by the warn sunrise light.

Image 8 - Foggy sunrise mountains 

Image 9 - Foggy sunrise mountains

It was such an amazing morning. I hiked back to the train station with the village still asleep. I had about 45 minutes until the next train that would take me back to Interlaken. I walked around the village and 10 minutes later, I was back to the train station - not much going on at 8:00am! That's when I decided to do a little train experiment. I photographed a sequence of images of a train going through the station and created a slideshow to add the motion of the experience. It is my first attempt in FotoMagico, I definitely need to upgrade to FotoMagico Pro so I can add sound too. Let me know your thoughts and tips so I can keep improving on the slideshow area. 

From Niederried, I took a train back to Interlaken Ost and then a bus to Neuhaus, which is on Lake Thunersee. Lake Thurnersee was not all that attractive to me, it might have been the time of the day, the boring sky, or the location that I was. I tried a couple of shots, but the only one that I thought was worth sharing is the one with the rowers on a panoramic.

Image 10 - Lake Thurnesee rowers

However, don't get discouraged about lake Thurnersee! The reason I have picked the Neuhaus locations is due to the Nature Reserve. This location has a variety of wildlife that can be appreciated from their pre-built observatory, during the right season and time of day. If it all fails it is a scenic flat trail that all ages can enjoy.

I tried to do my best to capture some of the most common birds species in the area. When I arrived, it was probably nap time. The mallard ducks were still sleeping and all I've got was one eye opened to see who was disturbing their peaceful snooze. Soon after, it seemed like the alarm clock had gone off. All ducks were swimming away, and the birds were chirping and flying around the trail. I saw some beautiful species that did not come close enough for me to photograph, or that were simply to fast for me to even get my equipment ready. 

Image 11 - Female Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) 

Image 12 - Female Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos)

   
For my luck, some birds seemed to have picked a fallen tree very close to the trail to feed that morning. The ones that kept coming back were an European Robin, a Great Tit, and a Male Chaffinch. I stayed there for about an hour, repeating the mantra: "I need to be patient to photograph birds!" It is too hard for me... I move around or I adjust my camera and then they just fly away. I believe I need to get some birding tips with my friends Tony Florio and Jonathan Ward. 


Here are the best results that I could achieve with the limited equipment and patience:

Image 13 - Erithacus rubecula - European Robin

Image 14 - Parus major - Great Tit

Image 15 - Male Fringilla Coelebs - Chaffinch

Image 16 - Erithacus rubecula - European Robin

While I was waiting "patiently", two bird watchers ladies approached me to ask what species I had seen so far. Or at least that was what I could understand since unfortunately I don't speak any German. They were extremely nice and once I showed the images, they have opened their German copy of the book Birds of Switzerland to give me the exact denomination of the birds. I wished I had brought my North American version with me, but it lays around a box somewhere back in Canada for one day to be retrieved. 


Further down the trail, I found a couple of Greylag Geese. They are not very common around. This has been the only couple of this specie that I have encountered so far. The one very common specie around Switzerland that I have not been able to capture yet is the Coot. They are very skittish. I will have to just keep trying! On the way back to the bus stop, I stopped to register some tiny little wild flowers.  

Image 17 - Greylag Geese couple (Anser anser) 

Image 18 - Greylag goose

Image 19 - Wild flowers

One watch out, Interlaken has 2 different train stations: Interlaken West and Interlaken Ost. The bigger one is Interlaken Ost from where the trains to Jungfrau leave. When arriving, make sure that you check where your hotel is so you don't get off the wrong station like I did. It was fine, because I ended up walking through the town and experiencing it all from one side to another. But if you are carrying luggage, you don't want it to happen!