Dolomites - My Top 7 Landscape Photography Spots

I love the Dolomites, so much so I’ve been there three times. First in 2019 just after I had bought my first ‘proper camera’ after watching a vlog by Alyn Wallace (RIP brother) where he was photographing the Milky Way over Tre Cime. Cas and I loved it so much there we went back in 2020 (in the Covid travel gap… just!) and we returned once more in 2024. These are my favourite spots for landscape photography in the Dolomites, in no particular order!

TRE CIME

The reason I went to the Dolomites in the first place, the three massive rocks that make up Tre Cime. It’s an incredible and very popular place for hikers and explorers. I love a big mountain, and up here you are surrounded by them. Stay until the twilight hours or over night and you can feel like you are alone in the most imposing wilderness, pure bliss!

There’s a number of great spots up here, the first time you can see the North Face of the ‘Cime’ is when you reach Forcella Lavaredo (the light area in the middle of this image.) You can head right up the slope towards Monte Paterno to look back on this magnificent s-bend, photograph towards Refugio Lavaredo and the mountains behind, or look forward towards Refugio Locatelli.

If you want a full frontal shot of the mountains, you need to head further along the path towards Refugio Locatelli. The Refugio Locatelli can serve you up a nice coffee and a slice of cake in case you need more energy for the hike back, or book a bed there to catch the milky way.

CADINI DI MISURINA

As for Cadini Di Misurina you need to head out of the Tre Cime car park in the opposite direction (south).

I talk about the route in my YouTube video. The walk should only take around 45 minutes to get to the famous ‘ski-jump’ shot. When we visited, it was right at the end of the summer season and for sunrise there were only 6 people there including us. If you go in the height of summer there will be way more people and you’ll likely have to queue to get a brief moment on that spot. There’s talk of charging tourists for access too… not sure where they got to with that though.

It’s worth taking a drone, to get the best shot of the ski-jump like above, you’ll either need to hover in mid air, or take a drone and a do a wide angle panorama. You can trek back to the path that runs behind this, but you’ll want to take a lens that’s at least 70mm, and if you’re trying to take a selfie… drone is really the only way.

It is worth taking a longer lens as well, a 100-400mm, so you can zoom in and pick out features in the wider landscape. There’s a LOT to see from the walks around here.

Look out for morning mist hanging around the rocky layers, views down to Auronzo, or just the many rocky peaks.

Passo Giau

A classic, and a pass VERY popular with motorbikes and super cars on road trips. Not least because of the view, but the many hairpins that wind up and down each side of the pass. It’s actually those hairpins which make up one of the more popular shots. Obviously it requires a drone, looking straight down, and you can achieve a wider view by taking a panorama. The hairpins can be found half way between the hotel at the top and the start coming from the Cortina side.

Upon reaching the top of the pass, there is a car park and a cafe. Be aware it can get busy in the height of summer and it’s not the biggest car park in the world!

From here, there are a number of popular shots, one looking back towards the hotel with the mountains in the background. You could even include some car trials if you’re there towards blue hour at either end of the day

In the direction of Cortina, after a short walk, you can also find a small pond. This is very popular spot to get reflections of the mountains, usually with someone in frame standing on the other side.

There are plenty of other views from here, so explore and get creative. And if you get cold, pop into the café for a coffee and a piece of cake.

Passo Falzarego

Not the most famous mountain pass in the Dolomites, that has to be Passo Giau, but I think this place is beautiful, well half of it is anyway. Coming from the Cernadoi side I never found much of photographic interest until we got to the top of the pass where it meets Passo Valparola. If your in a car, this is a great spot to park up and start exploring. You can either jump in one of the cable cars if they are open, which will give you amazing views across the Dolomites. However there’s little foreground or mid ground interest up there.

In would suggest heading east from the car park and exploring the area around there. Plenty of rocks and trees, and if you head slightly down you can also get to Lago Limides which is gorgeous.

When we were there last, in 2024, we caught a sumptuous sunrise. I’d got some predawn shots and the sun was rising just enough to breach the tops of the surrounding peaks. It’s at this point I put the drone up to try and catch light filtering into the valley when I caught a glimpse of Cinque Torre. It’s another great spot to go and explore on Passo Falzarego and I’d recommend getting the cable car up there.

I was taking some video, slowly moving the drone around with it’s focus fixed on the rocky spires of Cinque Torre, and when the sun came up behind it… well… I quickly switched to photo mode, and you can see why!

I would say it’s definitely worth spending a sunrise and sunset here, if not a couple. There’s lots of hiking and viewpoints to explore. Endless foregrounds, lakes, woodlands. But, if you only had to pick one, I would recommend a sunrise here.

Seiser Alm

The highest altitude meadows in Europe! And also a very popular ski resort in the winter. The meadows are rolling, wooden huts dotted around amongst the trees and lush grass. Plenty of hotels too.

It wasn’t until our 3rd road trip around the Dolomites that we finally caught a sunrise here. If you want to catch a sunrise here, you can’t use the cable car. When it’s running, it doesn’t start early enough. Of course you could stay in a hotel on Seiser Alm, but that’s a rather expensive option! Considering the time of year we went (end of October) there was the possibility of parking at the other end. The car park at Compatsch opens at 6am, the walk across to where I wanted to catch sunrise was about an hour, and on the day we arrived, that was at around 7am!! Tight timings!!

If you’re there early enough, then you may even catch some radiation fog as the sun comes up. There' wasn’t a lot, and it didn’t hang around for long, but it was there for long enough to get a few shots off!

Also, we caught the end of the Autumn colours, the grass had already started to turn. The larch trees a week earlier would have been a bright yellow colour, but now most were a rusty orange. It’s really hard to plan a trip months in advance when you don’t know when autumn is going to hit, it changes every year.

I would say sunrise is probably the best time to shoot here. When we went in 2024, we caught sunrise (just!) and then went for a walk during the day whilst enjoying a couple of beers and local food at one of the many spots to eat on the meadows. We stayed for sunset, and even though it wasn’t anywhere near as good as when the sun came up, it was still beautiful.

Seceda

It’s been a while since we’ve been here… our best trip would have been in 2020. We decided to head up the cable cards one afternoon and camp at the top. My main aim was try and get a 12 hour timelapse from sunset to sunrise, and I succeeded!

Of course, with anywhere that’s over 2000m above sea level, the weather can change really fast. You can try and plan for the conditions you’d prefer to shoot, but in reality you never really know what’s going to happen.

For example, I wasn’t expecting to be stuck inside a could for a few hours overnight which somewhat spoiled the timelapse. But the morning was glorious, which was swiftly followed by a cloud inversion which rolled in about a hour later as the valleys below started to warm. In 2019, the snow hadn’t yet melted and we some of the white stuff underneath our feet.

Lago Di Braies

A classic, and VERY popular tourist spot. You can tell how popular a place is by the fact they have a massive carpark next to the lake. In our 2024 trip, we decided to catch a sunrise. What I really wanted was to get the larch trees as they turned yellow, and a string of rowing boats on the lake.

However, by the time we got there (because we decided to pop to Slovenia for a few days instead…!) the larch trees were mostly branches and twigs and the boats put away for the winter. But that didn’t stop me getting one of my favourite photos of the 2024 road trip as the sun started to come into the valley.

The tree roots catching the morning light on the left, the path leading up to the boat house which in turn leads into background. It had everything. Fore, mid and background all working together to lead your eye into the scene and wonder what a morning would be like at Lago Di Braies. Well… it was epic!!