Why Photographing Lake Jasna in Better in the Morning

Spring is well and truly upon us now, and the colours in Slovenia are amazing. This is the time of year you will see Slovenia at its greenest!

Lake Jasna is just one of many great places to photograph during this time. It was not actually my intention to visit the other morning though, but it reminded me why the morning is a much better time to photograph it. Let me explain.

It had been my intention to photograph the Fairytale Cottage in all its spring glory. Sadly though, it was clearly not meant to be.

First of all, the main motorway exit to Kranjska Gora was closed due to reconstruction. Not a problem, I diverted off at Bled and took the old road. But when I got to the road leading up to Srednji Vrh (the village where you get this view), this whole road was also undergoing construction. It was not closed, but completely dug up and all gravel. In the dark of the morning I was not about to risk getting stuck part way up, so I turned back.

The good news is that it will be well and truly finished in time for my autumn in Slovenia workshop, so we’ll have a nice new road to go up by!

The only other place to go was Lake Jasna.

Photographing on a cloudless day

Ordinarily I would not go out when the forecast is for zero cloud, but firstly the Fairytale Cottage view is a composition with minimal sky, so although some wispy clouds are preferable, they are not essential.

Secondly, time was running out to capture some of the trees still in bloom. So this is why I headed out on a cloudless morning.

Perfect Reflections at Lake Jasna

There is always an upside though, and I often say that nothing is ever lost and you can always get something from a trip out, as long as you work with the conditions.

When there are no clouds, you either need to plan for a composition like I had, with minimal sky in the frame or as below, look for the mirror image shots over lakes.

The absence of clouds makes for a perfectly clean reflection over water. So Lake Jasna was the ideal second choice (It was also the closest)!

No People in the morning

As with most photogenic places around the world, Lake Jasna is not only popular with photographers, but also tourists. Therefore, when you shoot here late afternoon and evening, the shores are teeming with people walking around.

Even if you don’t mind people in your shots, the walkers present a problem when trying to do long exposures. You end up with a blurry people along the shore. Even a 1/10 sec shutter speed can turn a walker into a blurry figure. You often have to wait for them to go behind a tree, or more often than not wait for any walkers to exit your composition. But in the meantime you can miss the moments of best light when the conditions are changing.

So that is why coming here for a dawn and sunrise shoot is better, there are hardly any people about; allowing you to more easily capture long exposures.

The scene below is also a problem in the latter part of the day, because right behind that bridge is a car park, so you always get cars in your shot.

Not in the morning though!

First Light on the Peaks

The mountains you see across this lake are a section of the Julian Alps. The peak on the left is Razor, and the right Prisank. The view looks directly south, so this is partly the reason it can be very difficult to get any colourful sunrises or sunsets. You need the right amount of thin, broken high cloud for that. It’s not often I’ve had this, but when it happens it’s magnificent. See my photo here from last Autumn.

But one thing you can be assured of at either end of the day, is that these two prominent peaks are the first to catch the warm light in the morning, and the last light in the evening.

From the Other End of the Lake

Lake Jasna is actually an artificial lake, and is in two parts separated by a land bridge down the middle. Ordinarily, I shoot from the middle in the evenings. But if you come back around to the front lake, beside the cafe there, you get this wider view. It’s also idea for shooting panoramics.

Again, in the morning you can shoot this better because of the absence of people. Plus, as the sun comes up from the left, it lights up that beautiful forested peak on the right.