Photographers in Lake Constance

When to be photographed in Lake Constance

The geography does all the work here. The German shore is the northern one, so from Konstanz, Meersburg, Überlingen or Lindau you look south — across sixty kilometres of water to the Swiss and Austrian mountains. That means two things. First, from the shore you have backlight or side light essentially always, which is ideal for couples and demanding for groups. Second, the Alpine view depends on the weather and is most reliable in spring and late autumn, when the air is clear and the summer haze is absent. The lake is also a mild-climate pocket, and that shifts the season: the fruit blossom on the Höri peninsula and around Meersburg starts in early April in a good year, a fortnight ahead of the rest of southern Germany, and in October the evenings are still warm enough for a session without a coat. What takes arranging is the Mainau — it belongs to a foundation, charges admission and permits commercial photography only by prior agreement. That is not a formality: there are staff on Mainau who ask.

April is the strongest month, for the blossom and the clear air, followed by late September and October, when the Alpine view returns and the shore paths empty. High summer is warm but hazy — the mountains often disappear entirely — and the towns are full. From November to February there is frequently morning fog on the water that lifts the shoreline clear; snow down to the shore is rare, but there is hoar frost on the vine rows above Meersburg.