After years of dreaming about snow, I finally got a chance to enjoy and photograph true winter magic…
Just a week before my planned trip to Slovenia this January where I joined a photography workshop, the temperatures both in Croatia and Slovenia were more like spring than winter. It was way above average warm! It didn’t look very optimistic that we will get the snow and winter conditions we wanted. However, I still had hope and call it a hunch that things will change and that I will finally get the snow I’ve been waiting for years.
The last few years we didn’t have ‘real winter’ in this part of Europe and even when there was snow somewhere nearby, for one reason or another I couldn’t travel to enjoy it. But this year yes! The photos will show the best how I feel about that week of winter magic…
We stayed at Lake Bled, such a special place for nature lovers and photographers. Situated in the foothills of the Julian Alps Bled is beautiful any time of the year. I visited it more than once, in different seasons. But I love the most the tranquility of winter. That stillness and sense of calm and serenity is what I tried to capture with my photography. Hopefully you like it!
One of the lakes where we spent an afternoon enjoying the nature and photography was Lake Bohinj. It’s located within the Bohinj Valley of the Julian Alps and is part of Triglav National Park. It wasn’t snowing at a time but there was plenty of snow and the atmosphere was moody and kind of melancholic. As you can guess, romantic that I am, I loved it! 😀 Here are some details and scenes I captured…
Sometimes best things happen out of not so perfect conditions…
One of the places where we returned several times for photography is Jamnik. The village of Jamnik with its church of St. Primus and Felicianus is one of the most photographed locations in Slovenia. It’s located less than 20 kilometres away from Kranj and has a wonderful view of the mountains. I saw many photos from that location and it’s beautiful in any season. Of course for photography the conditions have to be just right. When we arrived very early in the morning for the sunrise shoot, it was snowing heavily. We couldn’t even see the church, let alone the mountains in the background! 😀
Beauty of winter…
But you know, sometimes both in life and in photography, the best things happen out of not so perfect conditions. For me personally, this was the most amazing experience! So we couldn’t see or photograph the mountains, the sunrise and the visibility was very poor. But the mood, the winter magic, the beauty of snow, the silence, the cold… Everything created a memorable morning and resulted in some of my favourite photographs from this trip. Winter minimalism.
And here is the same location on a different day and completely different conditions…
One day we crossed the border to Italy and visited Laghi di Fusine (Fusine Lakes). The two lakes are of glacial origin in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, very close to the borders with Slovenia and Austria. On another occasion we photographed one more lake in that area, Lago del Predil. The mood was beautiful and I enjoyed the silence and tranquility of the winter. After I finished with photography part and knew I got the images I’m happy with, I just enjoyed those views feeling gratitude and finding peace in that incredible beauty.
One of the places we visited and spent time enjoying the scenery was The Vrata Valley (Door Valley) in the heart of the Julian Alps. On the trail you come to the two waterfalls with the common name Peričnik. This time we didn’t hike up to the waterfall as the conditions were not right but still we had a great time and plenty of photography opportunities.
The last day of our trip we visited the Pokljuka plateau, the largest rounded forest area in Triglav National Park. We were lucky there was fresh snow and no wind so it stayed on the trees and created the most wonderful winter atmosphere. It was one of my favourite walks of the week, just the forest, silence, snow, simply beautiful…
Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you enjoyed this travel story from beautiful Slovenia! If you are interested in photography tours and workshops in Slovenia, Croatia and other countries in the region, check out Esenko workshops page… I couldn’t recommend them enough, perfect combination of travel, photography, great food, fun and overall just fantastic experience.
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