If you are interested in reading more about my recent trip to Croatia and the alps, there is a new article up on The Resonant Landscape today at
theresonantlandscape.com/autumn-in-the-alps-2017
One of the main motivations for me to drop everything and run off to Europe in the middle of a busy Fall semester at the college was the opportunity to shoot Plitvice Lakes National Park in October. The vast majority of photos that have been taken from this remarkable park in Croatia have been taken during the Spring and Summer months when water levels are high and the turquoise lakes are surrounded by green on all sides. But in Autumn, the leaves around these incredible lakes turn bright red, orange and yellow making an incredible background for the dozens of waterfalls throughout the park that seemingly flow right out of the trees on their way through this incredible valley.
Even though my itinerary had me shooting in Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Italy, I purposely kept my schedule open hoping to shoot Plitvice on a cloudy, misty morning with little or no wind. Well... it turns out that the week I made my trip was probably one of the driest stretches of October on record. Even though rain had been forecast for Friday earlier in the week, by the time Friday actually rolled around, it was clear, cloudless, hazy, and windy. The irony here was that I had waited all week for conditions to improve and they were actually worse by the time I finally headed down.
Plitvice, by the way, is one of the oldest national parks in Southeast Europe and the largest national park in Croatia. The park is world-famous for its lakes arranged in cascades. Currently, 16 lakes can be seen from the surface. These lakes are a result of the confluence of several small rivers and subterranean karst rivers. The lakes are all interconnected and follow the water flow. They are separated by natural dams of travertine, which is deposited by the action of moss, algae, and bacteria. (wiki)
Helpful hint if you are planning a trip in the future: Croatia hasn't quite made it all the way into the European Union yet, so their currency is still the Kuna rather than the Euro. This probably wouldn't have been an issue if their computers were up and running, but they were not and I lost 30-40 minutes scrambling around trying to exchange my Euros for Kunas as suddenly everything was "cash only." The park didn't exchange Euros so I had to hike back to one of the local hotels.
Even though I had less than ideal conditions at times during my 9 days in Europe, I had an incredible time shooting mostly in the alps through 5 countries while I was there. Plitvice is definitely a spot that you need to save more than one day for, and I'm hoping to make a return visit in the not too distant future. What an amazing park!
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