It was the last day of Jennifer Newitt’s holiday in the Swiss Alps, and she and her husband were hankering after one more excursion before their flight home to the US. High above Wengen, the village they were staying in, they noticed the Grindelwald–Männlichen mountain gondola cableway. Despite pouring rain, sunshine was forecast for later in the day, so they decided to give it a go.
“The rain stopped shortly after we arrived at the small cable car station, and we began the 15-minute walk to the summit. Because of the conditions, we had the mountain to ourselves for a while. As we explored, we noticed this huge cow.”
The pair were enchanted by the scene; the cow sat, unmoving, just staring at the cars going by. Newitt believes the animal is probably a Simmental or Swiss Fleckvieh. “We wondered if this was the usual spot for this particular cow to sit, or if the cows fought over it.”
Newitt is a high school biology teacher and took up photography a couple of years ago as a hobby. She says this image, made on her iPhone 14 Pro, is the most satisfying photo she’s taken to date. “I love the way your eyes are first drawn to the large, warmly coloured cow, then to the cable cars as you work out what the cow is looking at, and then to the gorgeous, moody clouds hanging over the valley. My husband had a jigsaw puzzle made of this image because he knows how much I love it.”
