Lake Bled on a fairytale winter morning

As you probably all know by now, Bled is one of the most beautiful places in Slovenia that draws almost one million visitors each year. Most choose to visit Bled in spring or summer, but in my opinion the most beautiful time to visit is in winter, on a clear day after the snow. Unfortunately days like these were not very frequent in the last few winters. So I was very happy when finally the weather forecast seemed perfect. It was snowing and the next day was supposed to be very cold and clear (with some mist). Perfect conditions to make some beautiful shoots of lake Bled in winter time.

I arrived very early in the morning as I didn’t want to miss anything. Weather was just as predicted and I quickly took a few shots when it was still very dark.

I really like the rock with some snow on it. The fog slowly started to get a bit more thick as the sunrise was approaching.

I was slowly walking towards the pier from where you get the best view of the church. The next shot is one of my favorites. I just love the tranquility in this one. Usually the background is very crowded from this perpective with the centre of the town behind the lake. But in this case it’s so perfectly hidden, one can only tell the town is there because of the subtle lights.

A few minutes before the lights from the castle went off.

Unfortunately it was still very dark at this point so I had to increase the ISO value and underexpose the image. I was able to shoot at higher speed this way and the swan is not blurred because of that. The result is an attractive scene, but the image is not so technically good as I would want.

As the sunrise was approaching the clouds turn pink in the east.

I was expecting a lot of other photographers to be out there on a morning like this. Still, I didn’t expect this many and the line they formed created a very good composition.

I was walking towards the mill area of Bled as I wanted to make a few images of the church from the right side also. The whole place was turning more and more pink and purplish.

I like photographing the island from this exact spot as it’s less photographed in general. For me, the composition from this angle is really great, with the stairs directly in front leading to the top and towards the church. Lake Bled in all it’s winter glory.

The first sun is starting to light up the nearby hills and the castle. One of the boats is already at work, bringing tourists to the island.

All of a sudden the clouds moved away from the east, so the mountains and the church received some more light which made up for a great view.

Beautiful morning light continued to enchant me.

I made a few panoramic shoots as well.

The sun was now already pretty high on the horizon, but the light was still soft.

I started heading back to my car and conditions were beginning to change rapidly. The wind was getting very strong and the lake started to look more like the sea.

At the moment I got back to the car the sky just closed. One hour after the sunrise it was completely cloudy and all the beautiful winter light was gone. I consider myself pretty lucky to catch some of that beautiful winter scenery as the next day it got very warm and the snow melted from the trees.