A missed Sunset in the Dolomites and a Surprise

If I had not driven to the sea first, I wouldn't have missed a lovely sunset in the Dolomites, but there was also a surprise...

As promised a couple of weeks ago, I have once more been to the Italian Dolomites and the Passo di Giau (Google Maps: Passo di Giau).

On December 8, 2022, a holiday in Austria, I had the funny idea that I could drive to the Adriatic Sea and take some beach photos. My decision was made quite late and so I arrived close to lunchtime in Grado in Italy, of course much too late for sunrise.

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[click for fullsize] I think this was the only seagull that wasn't surrounded by many others ;)

It was a little cloudy, but the sun was shining and it was quite warm, so I made a walk on the beach and took some photos from the sea and also from the thousands of seagulls. But because the sun was very high already, I didn't enjoy photographing a lot and thought of another destination ... Sunset in the Dolomites came into my mind.

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So, after a long walk along the water back to the car park, I drove north again, but not towards home, but more to the west to South Tyrol and the Italian Dolomites.

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Because I didn't take the shortest route, it was a long journey on sometimes narrow roads through small villages and over one cool to drive mountain pass of which I have forgotten the name. You want to know why it was cool to drive over this pass? Answer: the road was very narrow and curvy and I love such mountain roads.

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The final section of my route lead up to Passo di Giau and the road was partly icy and even snowy = very slippery and driving there made a lot of fun.

Monte Ragusela [click for fullsize]

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When I arrived on the pass, the sun was already setting and I had to find a parking spot first. There have already been a few other photographers on the hill that's marked on Google maps as Viewpoint Passo Giau.
Because I rarely go to places where other photographers are, I drove a bit to the other side of the pass and parked my car on the parking spot where I have been last time.

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I didn't have snow shoes with me and the snow was over knee deep, but I needed to get up to the other hill where no other photographers were, and so I trudged upwards through the snow ... you might even have heard me breathing hard and loud 🤣.

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But the sun was faster than me and because the very steep part of the route up the hill was still in front of me, I decided to stop take some photos where I was before the sunlight was completely gone.

I would love to know which version of my snow walk you prefer: the cool one on the left or the warmer toned on the right. The image was taken with my Xiaomi phone.

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Somehow I like the images which I certainly wouldn't have taken if I had been there earlier that evening. I like the ones most where's only a kind of snowy desert and the orange sunset sky behind to see.

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On my way back down to the car I suddenly saw a shine behind the mountains in the east: the full moon was about to rise. I had not known that there was a full moon that night, so I was even more happy ... I had missed the sunset, but was on time for the moonrise ... good luck in bad luck 😀

Moonrise in the Dolomites [click for fullsize]

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That was it for today thanks a million for staying here till the end - I hope you liked the images of my missed sunset and the rising moon.

Information

^{All photos were taken with the Canon EOS R and one of these lenses: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM, Canon EF 16-35mm 1:4 L IS USM, Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 L STM, SIGMA 105mm 1:2,8 DG MACRO HSM.
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