Why Doesn't Everyone Have This Shot of the Parrocchia San Giorgio Cannero? A Harrowing Story, Maybe.

Sometimes, there's actually a pretty good story attached to the acquisition of a photographic image. Where the artist had to put him/herself into a potentially life-threatening situation to get THE shot. Or, at least the artist likes to think it's a good story. I'll share it anyway and you can be the judge. I will admit, death defying may be a bit of a stretch, in retrospect; nobody was shooting at me...

So, I'm driving up the shoreline of Lake Maggiore in Italy. I come around a curve and am presented with this unspeakably beautiful vista consisting of the Parrocchia San Giorgio (church) nestled up to the lake shore (honest, it appeared to be on the lake shore from where I was) and framed by mountains and a majestic blue sky. I had to have that picture. Of course, it was getting late and the sun was low in the Western sky, so I had to act fast.

Also, of course, the cliff-hugging road I was on - see map below - had no shoulders or roadside public parking spaces in the vicinity to where I wanted to be. I pulled a quick u-turn and headed back south looking for a place to park but everywhere I looked had Privato! or No Parking signs posted. So I drove back a little and then turned back north to see if I could find a spot to park and then a vantage point from which to shoot the picture. After one more u-turn, I finally decided I wasn't going to be there that long and pulled into someone's parking space indicated by the letter A in the map below.

Ok, that's good. Now to find an unobstructed vantage point. Look to the second picture below for the visuals of what I'm about to describe. I discovered I couldn't go up the hill and thus would have to get on the other side of the street. Great, except there was no sidewalk and no shoulder. But there was a 12" wide rock wall that bordered the road and kept cars from plummeting off the shear cliff that was on the other side. So, with camera in hand, I climbed up onto that and walked about 50 yards north until I found a spot (B) from where I had a good view of the church. The thrill in this was that cars and trucks were zooming by only a couple of feet from where I was standing on the wall. This was especially gut wrenching when there were vehicles converging in both directions which prevented the guy close to me from moving into the other lane; not that Italian drivers do that normally... What I'll do to get the shot...

And I did. And, it seems to be a rather unique image as I can't find others from this viewpoint. Maybe other photographers weren't as nuts as I was.