Whatever you do, please don't go "Aw-wwww" in response to the above photograph. Read on and you'll understand.

Despite a quarter-century spent traveling around the world on various freelance assignments, I have never learned to pack properly for the occasion. Most seasoned travelers – even tourists -- understand that a good pair of sneakers or running shoes is the all-purpose footwear of choice and is acceptable in most venues even after-six (save, of course, for the symphony and Michelin-star restaurants). But not me. I insist on wearing loafers partly out of habit but also because, quite frankly, I find them more comfortable during long days spent in the field when press itineraries can seem intent on running journalists ragged.

But I never knew my miscalculated couture might serve me well as it did a few years back when I was in Switzerland on a press trip with a group of travel writers soaking up the culture of cities like Fribourg and Lucerne. Our literary coterie was led on a walkabout through the Swiss Alps biosphere preserve of Entlebuch not far from Lucerne. The spectacularly beautiful scenery wasn’t merely out of a postcard as it was straight from a movie – the 1937 Shirley Temple film, “Heidi,” to be precise. (This despite the fact the Alpine scenes for “Heidi” were shot in Lake Arrowhead, Calif. – sigh, that’s Hollywood for you )

Yet for most first-time American visitors to this country, setting foot in the Swiss Alps awakens the memories stored in our consciousness from all of the depictions (both real and Tinseltown-made) collected over the years of this gloriously idyllic and mercilessly photogenic landscape. During my trek, for instance, I walked among vast, rolling fields of knee-high green grass dotted by yellow Alpine daisies, occasionally framed by a red wooden farmhouse, the soaring majestic peaks in the distance pushing against a cloudless blue sky. Switzerland, to be sure, offers its own sort of heaven.

And, of course, there were the ubiquitous Swiss cows that comprise one of this country’s famous four Cs (the others being chocolate, clocks and cheese). In some ways photographing cows with a wide-angle lens in a no-brainer – yes, they’re going to look cute (especially when wearing their famous Swiss cowbells) and, yes, you’re going to get a bunch on them squeezed into frame. Truth be told, you could accidentally drop your camera on the ground and still get a shot that would make people go “Aw-wwww.” But when people do that in response to one of my animal photographs, I begin to feel like a pet photographer at the mall. (Disclaimer: Pet photography is in my estimation a wonderful genre of the craft that elevates the artistry of capturing poodles in oversized sunglasses and flowery hats set against faux Cape Cod backgrounds.)

After knocking off a few ordinary tourista shots, I wondered if there was a way to make the cows look slightly less damn cute. But nothing seemed to work. Suddenly my loafers hit a patch of wet grass and – whoosh! – my legs went up from under me and I landed flat on my back, virtually underneath my photo subjects. I tried unsuccessfully to dig my heels into the slippery grass and inchworm my way to safety.

But that was also the precise moment I saw my subjects from a (literally) new angle and in an entirely new light. No longer adorable, they now looked like menacing beasts, looming and hovering only inches away from me, regarding me as the geeky suburbanite who had dared to venture too far inside their Alpine turf. I grabbed my camera and began shooting like mad. At last I had found the perfect angle from which to reveal the dark and sinister truth about this country's loveable bovines: Switzerland's cows are pure gangsta (see below).

Say what you will but I’ll never stop wearing loafers when I travel. As I've learned during my haphazard journeys, occasionally the worst fashion missteps can yield the most unexpected (and rewarding) photographs.