It has been a while since my last post. The reason is the same as I already mentioned before – I am totally focused on my business with Photography Tours. There is very successful season behind me and now in November I was busy with renovating of Adriatc2Alps website. Now its finally published with many new features;

• New design with new company’s logo. Our designer did a great job, what do you think?
• Clear page structure, much easier to browse.
• New photos in the galleries. Check out time-lapse movies too! The photos are much higher resolution for enhanced viewing experience.
• New way of commenting with your Facebook account. If you don’t follow us on Facebook, now its the time – our community is growing each day.
• Updated testimonials page.

And because this is a photography blog after all, here are some shots I would like to share;

Marsh Tit. Photographed at my parents house where they have fantastic feeding station.

Elegant Swan at Zbilje Lake.

Kamnisko sedlo at the heart of Kamnik-Savinja Alps This year was so busy with tours I only managed once to go mountaineering.

My father’s portrait. He has an Owl couple nesting just by his bedroom window for the last 20 or so years!

First snowfall this season.

Haven’t done much travelling this year (at least for my standards ), but I’ve been twice to Morocco and most likely also for the New Year holidays too.

for more cool photos visit the galleries of A2A website!

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Last weekend I was running a photo camp at Labrca near Tolmin. We were photographing sporting activities such as whitewater rafting, mountain-biking, kayaking, mini rafts, and canyoning. To make a long story short;

• 8 photographers,
• 9 Nikon dslr cameras,
• more than 8.000 shots (good and bad ones ),
• a lot of fun and laugh,
• very patient and cooperative models,
• excellent food,
• freezing water temperatures (which didn’t stop of from jumping into the river every day)
• hot sun, heavy downpours and morning mists

And here are some shots to get the feeling how it was;

Mountainbiking; a great opportunity to try some creative lightning.

Canyoning was the biggest challenge; stark contrasts, steep and slippery terrain and water everywhere. But we’ve got some great shots

Rafting was something I was really looking forward to. I tried with longer exposures and with panning and zooming out.

Mini rafts are great adventure as well!

Having a great and creative models is priceless!

Ok guys that was great, what shall we do next?

Everybody – get ready – here they come!

Some of us tried unconventional techniques.

Come on guys – we are ready – go!  Its only 27m high!

Morning breakfast just few metres away from Soca river – how romantic!

Nidzo making worlds best cevapcici.

Eskimo turn – best seen in HD quality.

Tamara, Dusan, Sergeja, Martin, Katarina, Neja, Crt, Ivan – thank you joining me at Fotokamp! And a big thanks to Maya team, especially Borut, Klemen and Simon – you guys are great!

And for the rest of you guys who missed this opportunity – hope to see you next year!

Photo credits: Ivan Zupic – photo 1, Martin Esenko – photo 8, Dusan Rajh – photos 7, 11.

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The movie was shot from the Ljubljana castle tower, late afternoon after a whole day of rain. Total of 1366 frames combined into a movie with Photoshop. Uploaded to Youtube and added a music. It looks much better in HD resolution (1080p). Do you like it?

Here below are some random photos from April that I took at various places in Slovenia. (Ha, Wordpress did not find any misspellings yet )

A Mallard duck bachelor. He was cleaning his feathers and I took this snapshot. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time…

Young Beech tree leaves. Back lit by the sun, shot against dark background. I could use a larger f-stop to get more DOF though…

Vineyards in NE Slovenia.

Spring exhibit at Volcji Potok. I always like to come back. See the previous posts on Volcji Potok.

I’ve been to Lipica too. The horses were not out to graze yet, but it was a joy to watch the stallions at practice.

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Too busy lately to post anything even though I have tons of new photos to show. Spring is here, my first group is already on the way back home and new guests arriving. This is why I am posting just a few shots of these wabbits so you know I am still alive;)

Wabbits are funny creatures, they have enormous ears, they jump instead of walk and they love carrots. Some people call them rabbits or bunnies but I prefer Elmer’s name Wabbits. I stumbled upon a bunch of them at a farmhouse at Karst area where I usually take my guests while touring Slovenia. They were lovely little creatures, nosy and very cooperative models. It’s a shame that they will end up in an oven.

First when I asked them if I can photograph, they were a bit shy.

But soon they were all over the place looking at this strange device clicking madly and moving around.

Hey widdle wabbit, listen to me very carefully.

Mama wabbit checking out what’s going on.

Widdle wabbit with ears.

Widdle wabbit without ears.

Those wabbits are such fun to photograph! If you haven’t tried it I recommend – a great practice if you want to learn how to photograph children… They all have this thing in common – they move all the time.

Oh and there is a wabbit joke:

A precious little girl walks into a pet shop and asks in the sweetest little lisp, “Excuthe me, mithter, do you keep widdle wabbits?” As the shopkeeper’s heart melts, he gets down on his knees, so that he’s on her level,and asks, “Do you want a widdle white wabby or a thoft and fuwwy bwack wabby or maybe one like that cute widdle bwown wabby over there?” She, in turn blushes, rocks on her heels, puts her hands on her knees, leans forward and says in a quiet voice, “I don’t fink my pet python weally gives a thit”

And if you want to shoot some wabbits, play this game. Very entertaining – while I was waiting my photos to upload I completed all levels.

I don’t know why this freaking spellchecker shows so many mistakes in this post?!?

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Last few months have been very busy for me and this is the main reason I haven’t been posting as often as I used to. Most of the time I was (and still am) working on Photography Tours project and the result of hard work was the Creator award we received in December.

And why the End of Winter for me? Because on Tuesday I am leaving to Egypt for 11 days. I will be guiding a group of Slovenian tourists on a classic Egyptian Nile cruise with a short trip to Sinai peninsula.

When I am back there will be just a short time to prepare everything for a business trip to London where I will be promoting photography tours.

After London another overseas trip – this time to Indonesia, more exactly North Sulawesi. My girlfriend is doing voluntary work there and I am going to visit her. I plan to visit a few national parks there so expect new photos here on the blog!

On the way back to Europe I will stop at Singapore for a few days, again to promote photography tours.

When I am back from these trips there will be a Spring already and a new tourist season – no rest for me…

Enough of my plans – here are some photos I made during this Winter at various places around Slovenia.

Lake Cerknica at high water level. A total contrast to the photo at the top which was taken approx one month earlier.

Winter came late this year. First snowfall of the season I experienced in Ljubljana. Here are some more photos of that beautiful day.

Lake Bled. Stunningly beautiful in all seasons.

But the first snow was soon all gone. This shot was made on Christmas day! It was almost 15C which is unusual for this time of the year. So much of “White Christmas”. Well I love the rainbow anyway:)

January finally brought real winter temperatures. These icicles were photographed at Velika Karlovica sinkhole near Lake Cerknica.

I was planning to do star trails at Velika Planina Plateau for many years. This Winter I finally did it and it was an unforgettable experience! Some more cool shots of that night. Trust me – worth to check it out!

Planina cave. A great place to learn cave photography!

A sunset somewhere in SE Slovenia.

Pericnik Waterfall always leaves a strong impression! More photos of it from the last Winter.

My newest toy is a SB-900 Speedlight. What a great piece of equipment! Of course I needed to give it a try immediately. My girlfriend was patient and understanding model – and beautiful of course!

And this is probably the last shot I made before I hit the road. A Shrovetide festival in Ljubljana. I hope for you guys that the Kurenti succeeded to scare away the Winter!

Do you like the photos? Which one is your favourite?

On all my trips next two months I will have my laptop with me so I can post some photos while travelling. Stay tuned!

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Cerknica lake is a mysterious place which surprises every time a man goes there. Its water level is never the same, sometimes dry, sometimes flooded. I’ve been there many times before and I always like to come back.

This cold January morning Neja and I did a nice winter trip with Crt and Maja. We decided to climb Slivnica mountain at the foot of the lake Cerknica basin. At the top there is a mountain hut (the photo above) where you can get a warm meal and a tea with rum to get warm. A little further through the forest there is a clear area with fantastic views. With fantastic visibility we have been able to see the Julian Alps with Mt. Triglav, Karavanke range and Kamnik-Savinja Alps. To the South there were views on Nanos, Mt. Sneznik and the whole Cerknica Lake basin. Absolutely amazing!

Mt. Sneznik (1796 m) dominates views to the South.

Due to heavy rains in the last three weeks the water has flooded most of the fields.

Morning mists above the lake.

A panoramic view on lake Cerknica.

Fresh snow has fallen the night before.

Ploughing the road to the Slivnica mountain hut.

Fairytale road in winter.

Zelse church of St. Volbenk (St. Wolfgang).

And for the end a panoramic shot taken just after the sunrise. The panorama was merged from 21! shots and the original size is more than 10.000 x 4.200 px!

If you want to experience these fantastic views here are some directions how to get there. In Cerknica town locate the Slivnica sign and park the car at the nearby parking lot. There is about one hour of walking to get to the mountain hut. At first, the way will lead you through forest, but later on it will open and you will get to the pastures. In summer you will meet here a lot of stock grazing, maybe even horses. At the hut they have a great Jota (cabbage and beans stew), the manager is really friendly, but do not believe his stories about witches! And beware of the bears…

Oh, almost forgot – with the new year you can see al the photos in a bigger size than before. just click on the first photo and scroll with left/right arrow key. What do you think? Are the photos too big to watch them in bigger size?

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A view from the top to the Croatian side of the border.

Silly photographers – everything for a good photo opp…

Limestone ridge.

A natural bridge is always fun to climb!

Red Smoke tree bushes from distance.

And from close…

And even closer…

The Karst ridge is at its highest at Socerga, close to Croatian border crossing into Istria. (Note my girlfriend standing at the bottom of it)

Best time to visit this stunningly beautiful place is in the afternoon when there is a gentle warm sunlight.

Yes, Neja is biologist – obviously enough:)

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Lake Bled.

Lake Bohinj

Autumn colours of the Northern Julian Alps.

Lake Bled island.

The new Gorenjska highway.

Mount Krn above the Soca river valley. See this post for more photos.

A view to the south of Mt. Krn.

Lake Bohinj

Rodica and Crna Prst ridge.

Zajamniki pasture at Pokljuka plateau.

Mighty Triglav – the highest peak of Slovenia.

Martin – an experienced pilot that took us for a ride above the Alps.

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We started our hike from Planina Kuhinja, which lies on the southern slopes of the Krn mountain. This is the quickest route to the top and it can be extremely hot if you walk in summer during the day. Usually takes around three hours to get to the top – but not if you have a photographer in a group:)

We were quite lucky because the peak was surrounded with thick fog and it was not to hot to walk.

We almost lost our way and luckily we met these funny sheep that gave us the right directions.

The downside of the fog was that we couldn’t enjoy the famous views from the peak of mt. Krn. I wanted to build another pyramid at the top and it was extremely hard task to do. How could Egyptians do it?!?

Suddenly the weather changed. The clouds dispersed and allowed us to enjoy this beautiful natural phenomenon similar to rainbow.

We quickly ascended the peak again and the views to the West were awesome!

And so were the views to the North. Triglav was still covered in clouds, but the lake Krn is clearly visible.

On the top of Mt. Krn there is a plate showing directions to all major mountain peaks in the area. The visibility was superb.

The clouds were gone, there were only occasional mists left. Nobody expected that the end of the day will be so beautiful. We returned to the hut in a good mood to have a dinner and some hot tea.

Next morning I got up at 4 am and ascended the peak again. The sky was clear, visibility even better than last evening and I was there at the top just by myself. Can you guess which mountain peak is on the photo above?

Me, waiting for the sunrise. In the distance you can see the highest peaks of Slovenia, Mangrt, Jalovec, Prisank, Skrlatica and the mighty Triglav.

Gentle sun illuminating the stone pyramids.

And finally – the sunrise!

On the way back to our car we enjoyed the company of numerous cows that were grazing in the mountain pastures. I just love the sounds of the cow-bells and the smell of the fresh air in the mountains!

This was really a lovely trip. Not too demanding and very rewarding from a photographer’s point of view.

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The Kosuta range. On the left (North) there is Austria, on the right – Slovenia. The entire range (about 10-11km) represents the border between these two countries.

Alpine flowers. A kind of Carnation, I guess.

Pure joy 1.

Pure joy 2.

Pure joy 3.

Cheeky jackdaw. These funny birds were flying along the ridge in huge flocks. They are quite tame and some of them came very close to me. In exchange for some breadcrumbs of course.

Last sun rays on the ridge. The colours changed dramatically and the wind started to blow strongly.

It was damn cold, but I waited a bit longer. To get this photo…

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