Will this mysterious lake disappear? LAAX stories #7

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Lake Cauma is truly a jewel of Graubunden (kanton in Switzerland). Sadly it has been steadily losing water level throughout this Summer. Let me tell you why, as I'll unwind the story of today's content hunting.

So I have finally (or yet again) got my hands on decent camera yesterday. A retro Panasonic Lumix G10. Mirrorless beast that defines it's category as one of the pioneering models. It is a lovely piece of equipment, with all the manual controls at your fingertips...

What is all the hype about lake Cauma?

Today, with weather forecast not promising anything close to decent for better part of the day, I was stressed to go out and test my new plastic friend.

Actually it couldn't happen in a better timing. I always wanted to make a post about the infamous lake Cauma. Caumasee in local language...

A lake so nice, they had to put a fence around a bigger half of it. It is hence more or less like a swimming pool during the hot summer days and visitors need to pay to get in. Unless of course, they don't want to sit in the shady side of the lake, which is for free. At least something is free in Switzerland, right?

There are many ways to the lake, as it sits at the bottom of the valley. I always take a different path with my mountain bike, to make even the way to the lake special. But today, pushed by a bad weather forecast, I took the fastest one, providing no views over the lake. Nevertheless, being Autumn, the forest with all the colours looked amazing.

I have been to Caumasee many times to cool down after a hard day's work. In peak months it was really busy and you had no chance of making pictures like I did today. It can get really packed over there.

That wasn't the case today, even though I've already experienced the lake totally on my own once. That is something special. But on such occasions one always tends to forget camera at home...

Lake Cauma and it's underwater rock formations.

Nobody really knows the true origins of this mysterious place. The lake also has many water sources, but people only found a few so far. One of them must have been damaged recently as the water level has never been lower. Some locals say that upon construction of a new tunnel for the highway few years ago, one of important water sources disappeared. That leaves the lake prone to draughts. What seems like a dryest summer in many, many years, left its mark on the lake.

I remember just a few months ago, you couldn't see all this magnificent rocks under water. They've just been way deeper back then...

Tourist trap for locals and nature?

Nonetheless, for me as photographer, the lack of water didn't matter and in fact maybe let me take nicer shots as one can see the stuff underwater. Also the timing was important. Shortly before lunchtime, the sun wasn't still that high and allowed for amazing mirror like effect to appear on most of photos.

In fact I wanted to go for a swim myself, but somehow there were too many noisy tourists and I didn't felt like being the only one inside, being totally monitored from all of them around. That is a sad fact about tourism. Even though it generates livelihoods for many, it destroys the purity of nature. At such special places like lake Cauma, one can really feel it and feels sorry for it. But hey, there are other places, lakes and countries with less humans for sure...

Macro with lake Cauma as a backdrop.

In fact I wasn't the only photographer around today. It seamed that some couple might have been doing some wedding style photos and quite a few people actually had decent cameras around. Definitely more expensive ones than I have. But with uttermost certainty I was the only Hiver around.

I am really satisfied with today's camera test and hope to bring you some more soon. For anybody out there who might still be taking stills on their smartphones, do not hesitate and get yourself a proper camera. You'll feel more motivated and it will give your pictures another level, both in terms of quality as well as artistically...

Untill next time,

Global Local 

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