A grey and bleak day in Piran, Socerb and Škocjan

My friend Sebastian and I explored Slovenian coast and Karst one bleak Sunday in February. First we went to Piran and climbed the hill with the town wall. Everything was grey and there was no distinction between the sea and the sky.



Always interesting narrow streets of Piran:


Then we quickly visited Socerb Castle.

The views towards the Adriatic Sea weren't exactly magnificent. :D

Our next destination was the Škocjan Cave. Photography is not allowed inside, but I took a few pics at the exit and from the viewpoint. The view from the viewpoint is actually very impressive, with Škocjan village on the other side of the collapsed valley and the Reka River flowing below.

The visit of the cave was a completely different story from many years ago when the Reka River was extremely polluted, dirty, smelly and covered in foam. Now it's clear and green, making the whole experience really memorable.
As I already mentioned, taking photos is not allowed and we could only take our cameras out near the exit. I could barely take one picture before our guide turned off the lights!


When outside, you have to take a path through another cave back to the entrance.


Bleak weather or not, this was a great day. :)

Frosty Mt. Slivnica

It was a cold, grey and pretty miserable weekend. While trying to make the best of it, I went hiking to Mt. Slivnica and took some pictures. Frosty ones. :)







Ahhh, just getting some fresh air was worth it!

First snow back in October

Yep, this post is only three months late. :) At least the photos didn't end up buried somewhere on my disk, with no selection and no post-processing.
Anyway, in mid October my friends Andrej, Črt, Luka, Michelle and I went exploring the west part of Gorenjska. The conditions were perfect - OK, different to say the least: the foliage was still bright colors, but it was covered with a thin layer of snow, and to top it off, the mountains were enveloped in mists.
First we drove to Zelenci, the source of the Sava Dolinka river. It was half-raining, half-snowing.


Then we hopped across the border into Italy to visit the always gorgeous Mangart Lakes. There was more snow here, and more mists.

Mt. Mangart was obscured by the clouds and fog.

Red leaves and snow.




After a hearty meal in Kranjska Gora we went exploring along a winding country road leading into the mountains above the town. Last year I photographed the same area even later, on November 1, but it was a perfect fall day, all sun and no snow. The ski pistes at Podkoren:


The higher we went, the more snowy it became.



From a nice lookout point the views of the valley opened up in front of us. The light around Mt. Špik was eerily blue.



There was an interesting blue cloud above Kranjska Gora, too.

By the time we left it got pretty dark.

The combination of fall foliage and snow is very picturesque. I'm glad we were lucky enough to capture it (and that we kicked our butts out of the house to see it in the first place!).
More photos here.

Kriska planina

Hopefully my photographic black hole is coming to an end. Three months after my last photo outing I decided it was time to grab my camera and head for the mountains again. Leaving home at 2 p.m. we were late for any serious hiking, but I was hoping to at least get some fresh air and nice pictures.
The first part of our short walk was up a grassy slope with Mt. Krvavec in the background.

It was warm - too warm for mid-January!

At the top of Kriška planina, the T-bar lifts waited patiently for some snow. This is supposed to be the high season for skiing! I want some snow!

Views were a bit hazy but you could make out Kamnik, my hometown in the valley below.

Layers of hills, one of my favorite landscapes.

St. Primož chapel on another hill.

Soon the light started to turn warm yellow and orange.

We headed back towards our car.

Orange mists reaching out of the Ljubljana Basin all the way to the mountains.

A lone skydiver and Mt. Triglav in the background.

Fiery sky above the ski pistes of Stari vrh.

We waited for the sun to finally disappear behind the horizon, but as it is usually the case, the show was just beginning. First, everything was calm...

... and then the sky exploded into crazy pink and red colors.

And I didn't have my tripod with me!

Of course, it only lasted six minutes. Then the colors started to fade just as quickly as they appeared.

I was lucky! How many times have I waited for the sunset, equipped with everything from a tripod and a remote control to warm clothes and snacks, but ended up with a sorry excuse for a sunset or no sunset at all? This little hike definitely gave me motivation to start shooting more often again.