NG Slovenia Trip 2015

[Jakov Minić]

Lake Bled also offers a place for romance

[Jakov Minić]

Ever since we all met during the first NikonGear safari in 2009 we have always made night shots together. In good spirits of course  assisted by Laphroaig malt whisky on this occasion (coincidently Erik and I bought the exact same whisky without prior notice, so we had to consume two bottles, which had been a great burden to us all as you can imagine...).

[Jan Anne]

Tested Eriks Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6 LTM on the Sony a7S today, straight from the camera (only resized in C1), it looks pretty good to me.

In case you're wondering, it's the villa we stayed at the last week brewing up the revival of Nikongear

[Akira]

Very pleasant travelogue, folks!

If I remember correctly, Andy Aungthwin, an old member from FilmLives, runs a lakeside pension in Bohinj.  I wonder if you had chance to see him...

[Jan Anne]

Around 5:30 AM local time, the guys just left for the airport, Bjørn and Erik will fly home and Jakov will exchange cars and drive to Belgrade to visit friends and family.

I crawled back into bed to catch a few more hours of sleep and hit the road around 10, got an invite on Facebook last night to visit Vienna from a friend I met while canoeing in Sweden in 2013 and as some of you already know I won't pass on opportunities to discover new places with a local

[elsa hoffmann]

I am also enjoying the travel stories very much. thanks for sharing

[Jakov Minić]

Erik and Bjørn are past the departures gate. I have waved them off to Copenhagen
Here are some shots from the first day. Our first door neighbors were cows I got very fond of immediately...

[Olivier]

You obviously had a good time, and it is nice to read from people I have learnt to appreciate over the years...
Thank you for NG(R), it looks like an interesting experience.
Olivier

[Erik Lund]

A walk in the park

The crew where not so eager to get out of the luxury Villa and into the 30 deg C hot humid air of the canyon so after a huge and healthy breakfast i wandered out the door with a quick remark about the surrounding mountains...




A short stroll down the gravel road was the first signpost... very ambitious destinations where quoted with precise distances..




The houses in the outskirts of the area are not well maintained...




Also the woods where a bit weathered...




The path up the mountains at the end of the canyon looked promising at the beginning steep but mostly rather well prepared...

[Erik Lund]

The view suddenly cleared as I came out of the trees to revel a beautiful view of our Villa at the lakeside...




The path was clearly marked; Red circles with white dots and at all points where there was eminent danger of a non recoverable fall wires and or foot holds where positioned strategically...




At the top ancient fortifications where still standing proud...





The reward was a beautifully calm mountain lake, green ice cold water was quite refreshing but definitely not drinkable...



Realizing time flies when you're having fun struck me, I had spend three hours climbing up the 800 height meters so the nearby summit was unreachable if I intended to get down before darkness would strike - So the decision was easy; Decent and enjoy the view of the valley canyon full front...




Remembering to stop and enjoy and shoot the New Noct-Nikkor at full throttel was not difficult - but time consuming - well and a excuse to catch the breath...




Following the about ten anchor-points down was a breeze compared to the uphill climb, remembering to stay safe and keep three point contact was not so easy...




Then wooden stairs of the path was at some points so deteriorated that only the iron anchors where sticking out at odd angles...




Two hours after the lake and at the canyon floor a live spring gave a much needed cold refreshment...




Back in the Villa a chilled bath was truly needed

[Jan Anne]

I've arrived in Vienna around 4 in the afternoon, luckily I had an app to tell me where all the speed cameras where because there where plenty on the Austrian highways 

Tomorrow I'll be driving roughly 1150km to Amsterdam so expect another day of radio silence from my side, hope to back online this weekend though.

Really excited to see so many familiar faces here on NG in less than two days, it already feels like coming home to a warm bath

[Jørgen Ramskov]

I expect you already know that but watch out in Switzerland, rules are quite strict there and I believe apps like the one you're using is illegal as well. Enjoy Vienna and have a safe trip home.

Added:
Wonderful pictures Erik, looks like a very nice hike and certainly worth the effort.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

As usual on these trips, I end up in Copenhagen for a few days extra with Erik.

Yesterday we went downtown for Erik to do architectural shooting (paid commission for him; I just tagged along).

In quest for a sun shade to my 10-100 mm CX Nikkor lens, I ended up with a nice sample of the Nikkor-H 85 mm f/1.8 ("K") lens, an item I had been actively searching for recently. True, it was pre-AI, but in companionship with Erik that is just a minor inconvenience quickly settled by him whipping out the Dremel. He thoughtfully added the CPU conversion whilst at it, plus cleaned and lubricated the lens so now it's good for decades to come.

Afterwards, we had a nice lunch with Danish 'smørrebrød' and on the return to Erik's flat, a minor incident with his Audi. The Great Dane sprung to action again and we returned safely home.

All images with the 10-100 mm f/4-f/5.6 1 Nikkor CX zoom lens and the 1 AW1 Nikon camera.

[Jakov Minić]

On my return from Yugoslavia, sat at the Vienna Airpot waiting for my connecting flight, I decided to reflect on our most productive NG Slovenia Trip 2015.
What I noticed was that I didn't post, probably my favorite photo of the trip, although there are plenty that fall into that category

The COW!

[Akira]

Jakov, I'm interested in the blue flower with the pinkish red core in your June 11 post.  Is that in natural color?  I like the last shot with "Ferdinand" in the same post.