Lake Bled & Bohinj Photo Tour

Why shoot Bled and Bohinj?

Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj sit about thirty minutes apart in the Julian Alps of northwestern Slovenia, and they photograph as opposites. Bled is the composed one: a small island carrying a church with a 52-meter bell tower, a castle on a cliff above the north shore, and wooden pletna boats crossing the water. Bohinj is larger and wilder, inside Triglav National Park, with a stone bridge and the church of St. John the Baptist at its eastern end. Both hold reflections on still mornings, and both have the Alps standing directly behind them.

On a Bled and Bohinj photo tour with me, you'll start at the shore while the water is still flat and the pletna boats are just setting out, working the island against the Alps from the north side and the castle from below. After that we drive to Bohinj, about thirty minutes, for the stone bridge and the church at Ribčev Laz with the lake opening behind them. The standard route stays at lake level. If you'd like the elevated frame of the island, the Mala Osojnica viewpoint is a steep climb on a forest path and I'm glad to build it in on request. The same goes for the Vintgar gorge boardwalk and the Vogel cable car above Bohinj. Beginners leave with a sharper eye and confident use of aperture priority. Pros leave with compositions they wouldn't have found alone.

What you'll photograph

The frames you'll typically take home include an island church framed against alpine ridgelines, wooden boats on flat morning water, a clifftop castle seen from the shore below, a stone bridge and lakeside chapel inside a national park, and the reflections that come back whenever the wind drops. We adapt the route to the season and the subjects you like to shoot.