Trip Report: Croatia

 

This is the second, and last, trip report that I will be re-publishing from the Light Café newsletter. Again, the distribution of this newsletter was so small that few people would have had the chance to read it. I only wrote two trip reports for the short lived newsletter, so all future trip reports will be completely new.

 

Trip Report: Croatia

Originally published October 3, 2011 – Light Café Newsletter, Issue 1

Croatia isn’t necessarily the first place that people think of when planning a vacation in Europe – but maybe it should be! A coastal nation on the Adriatic Sea, Croatia has lots to offer for photographers.

During this 12 day tour of Croatia, I was traveling with a small group of photographers, led by my very good friend, Willie McElligott. Willie’s tours are centered around photography, with the goal of fully exploring an area, rather than rushing through before moving on to the next location. Willie always pre-scouts everywhere we go, so he knows when to be there to get the best light and the best photographic possibilities. 

I have been Willie’s assistant for both local and touring workshops for the last 7 years. For this tour, Willie teamed up with Lynda Milina of Slikamilina Tours, a tour operator with many ties to Croatia.

We started our tour in Cavtat  (pronounced sav-tat), in southern Croatia. Cavtat is a small town, about 18 km (11 miles) south of Dubrovnik. Cavtat has two natural harbours, and is popular with boaters. Some of the private yachts that visit the town are upwards of 80ft long or more. Some yachts are available for weekly rental for the mere sum of $100k per week, full crew included!

The most popular sport in Croatia is water polo, and in Cavtat the local water polo club is right downtown, in the harbour. Boys come straight from school, change into their bathing suits (sometimes right on the dock, wrapped with a towel) and jump into the salt water ready to play.

After two days in Cavtat, we spent a day driving along the coast to Orebić. This drive normally takes about 2 1/2 hours, but we took closer to seven hours! Why? Because there’s lots to see along the way. We had all day, so we made frequent stops to photograph the sites around us.

From Orebić, we took the ferry to the island of Korčula (pronounced kor-chu-la), and then on to the city of Lumbarda where we would spend the next 7 nights.

The island of Korčula is only 47km (28 miles) across, so we were able to explore the entire island without having to change hotels.

Croatia is a wine producing country, and Korčula is home to many of the vineyards used to grow the grapes for the wine. We had planned to go into the fields to photograph the pickers, but unfortunately the dryer than normal summer led to an early harvest, and the picking was pretty much complete when we arrived. We did get the opportunity to meet a few of the pickers, and they gave us grapes to eat, straight off the vine.

Not to worry though, there is still lots to photograph. We explored the entire island, photographing sunrises by the lighthouse, sunsets from the top of the small mountains, and the old cities of the island.

The morning that we had planned to photograph the pickers turned out to be extremely windy. We saw this as opportunity to head out to the rocky coastline and photograph the waves as they crashed to shore. I used this opportunity to use long shutter speeds for motion blurred shots, while others in the group choose the opposite approach, using quick shutters to freeze the spray.

The main city on the island of Korčula is the city of Korčula. Like Dubrovnik, the city of Korčula is surrounded by a wall, although on a much smaller scale. The roads, only around the outside of the city, are very narrow, which is common in many cities in Europe. The inner part of the city is only accessible by foot or perhaps bicycle (although there are a lot of stairs). The alley ways are often only  3 or 4 people wide, with small shops and restaurants throughout.

We photographed Korčula on two occasions. The first, an early morning shoot to capture the east side of the city. We returned in the afternoon a few days later, to capture the west side, and to capture the light as it lined up with the narrow alley ways.

During the afternoons, we relaxed and reviewed our images. Or we walked the 100 meters or so to the water to go for a salt water swim. On one afternoon, at the eastern end of the island, we stopped to go for a swim in a small bay. The salt concentration in this bay was so high that it was impossible to sink. We could relax and float without having to tread water in slightest.

After spending six days exploring and photographing the island of Korčula, we made the return trip to Cavtat for the last two nights of our tour.

On our last full day, we took the city bus for the 30 minute ride to Dubrovnik. 

We arrived at the entrance to the walled city approximately 15 minutes before the walls opened for tourists who want to walk the 2.5km (1.5 miles) route around the top of the walls. By arriving early, we caught the best light on the city, while also beating the large numbers of tourists that would arrive later in the day from the cruise ships that visit Dubrovnik on a daily basis.

Walking the walls of Dubrovnik is the only attraction that requires an admission fee. During the peak tourist period, between 4500 and 5000 people walk the wall each day! All of the money collected is used to pay for the reconstruction of the city.

After capturing the city from above, we headed to the harbour for a lunch of assorted seafood and wine, followed by some time for shopping.

During the afternoon, while the sun was too harsh to make good photographs, Lynda arranged for a private guided tour of the city. We learned some of the history of the city, and heard about the war, and the affects it had on the people.

In the early evening, we visited the fort outside the walls, which offered a great view of the walls with the great golden hour light. 

We finished our day in Dubrovnik by taking the water taxi back to Cavtat for one final meal together before returning to the hotel to pack for our early flight home.

This trip to Croatia was an amazing experience, and one I very much hope to do again.