Just under three weeks ago I returned from a fabulous trip to the Polish Carpathian Mountains with fellow nature photographer, Marek Kosinski and his son, Bartek. The plan was to spend 2 full days in the Tatra Mountains and 2 in the Bieszczady Mountains. Marek knows these areas extremely well and, aside from taking pictures for ourselves, the idea was to check out a few new locations, as we plan to hold a couple of photography tours in those areas next year. Possibly, one in summer and another in autumn.
Having been picked up from Krakow airport, we made our way south to the Tatras. Marek had planned to use a back-country road to see if there were any good places to take clients and three quarters along we came across a river crossing. Vehicles would usually cross this narrow shallow stretch but there had been so much rain that it was now too deep. As I found out when I rolled up my trousers to check it's depth. Too deep and damn cold! 50m further along was a wooden bridge. It seemed stable enough when we jumped up and down on it but then we didn't weigh the same as a 4x4 laden with luggage and camera equipment. It simply wasn't worth the risk. So, we doubled back on ourselves and took the main road, instead.
Marek had booked us into an amazing guest house. Traditional, extremely comfortable and my room had a pretty good view, too!
We didn't waste any time. We quickly put our luggage into our rooms and headed out to the first location. A mountainous limestone region. The weather was inclement, to say the least. Overcast with occasional downpours and the ever present rumble of thunder. It was very warm, too, at around 25 degrees C. On our walk we noted lots of fragrant orchids and, on our way back, Bartek spotted a fire salamander which I took a shot of though I had to use flash as it was so dark. Nice to record, anyway.
The rain was so heavy at this point that we took shelter on the balcony of a forestry building. It did, at least, allow us the opportunity to take a few shots of the distant monastery surrounded by the Pieniny Mountains.
En-route to the guest house the light was slowly improving so we stopped and photographed these wonderful hay bales amid this arable and mountain landscape.
The forecast for sunrise the following day was not good so we ate breakfast and headed to a spot Marek had photographed at many times before. A lake setting surrounded by the Tatra Mountains. It's an 11 km walk along a rather uninteresting tarmac road so we took the horse and cart instead! We still had 1 km or so to walk and, as we did, a Red deer hind appeared and fed right infront of us. it did so for quite some time, completely ignoring all that passed and photographed her!
An hour later and we were at the information centre/picnic site. One of the advantages with places like this is that the local wildlife is used to seeing people and, as a result, a whole lot easier to photograph. As soon as we arrived we could hear Nutcracker, a bird I have always wanted to see. Through the dark trees we could see they had young and within a few moments, posed beautifully on a spruce bow feeding it's young.
To give you some idea ss to how tame they were, I shot these with a Nikon D300 and a 70-200mm f2.8 with a 1.4x tele-converter attached. I guess they were around 4-5m away. This, surely, has to be the best place to photograph them, anywhere!
After having our fill of the nutctackers we spent the next couple of hours walking around the lake, taking in the scenery. This old Arolla pine caught my eye which I thought might look nice as a black and white as it was a fairly monochromatic scene, anyway.
The scenery was just stunning and I could only imagine how it must look in autumn.
Marek is a doctor of biology whose speciality is botany. If he didn't know the English name, he sure knew it's latin which helped enormously when identifying those species I am not entirely familiar with. I was glad I brought my pocket flower book with me. Marek spotted these Common butterwort which we set about photographing. An insectiverous plant which catches insects on their sticky leaves, slowly digesting them.
We still had a good few hours of daylight left so we set about looking for a vantage point in which to shoot late into the evening.
The following day we had a bit of walking to do! Marek assured me it would be worth it though. Let's just say I was glad to have left the 300mm f2.8 in the car but not so that we had decided not to use our hiking poles. You know, in the past, I always had a little laugh to myself when I saw ramblers in the English countryside using these. They are very much a European thing and, I don't know, watching someone powerfully striding along using poles with a tiny rucksack wearing gaiters and hopping over a style in the Kent countryside just looks a bit twee! Let us not forget the map dangling around their necks, too! But, in tougher country, Wales, Scotland or here, in the Tatras, boy do they help! They quite literally propel you onwards and save a lot of strain on your knees. You definitely feel the difference when you are donning a 15kg backpack. So, for the next 2 hours, Marek and I sweated and bitched that we had left them in the car. His son, on the other hand, a very talented 11 year old photographer (who has a secret that cannot be revealed, just yet!) although sporting a somewhat lighter pack didn't moan once. Infact, throughout the whole trip, he carried his own backpack and tripod without so much as a "are we there yet?" That was me! :) Watch out for this young man. He's gonna go far!
As we neared the summit, at 1300m, Marek spotted another species I hadn't seen before but one which everyone has heard of, Edelweiss. A protected species in many European countries including in Poland's Tatra National Park.
The walk back was along one of the most orchid-rich paths I had ever encountered. It was this tiny flower, however, that caught my attention and felt glad I had brought my 105mm macro with me. The macro couldn't focus quite close enough and, rather than use extension tubes, I prefer to add a Nikon 5T close-up filter. Close-up filters, in general, are not of the best quality but these 2 element filters are superb without any noticeable image degradation. Their advantages are that they are lightweight and, unlike tubes, you don't lose any light. Very useful with fading light and a nagging breeze, as in this instance. Oh yes, the flower is called a One-flowered wintergreen and has two ther names, also, which are Single delight and St. Olaf's candlestick. I prefer the latter!
As I took this image, Marek, pointed me in the direction of a flower he himself was very surprised to see here and which he had not seen previously in the area. The most beautiful (at least in my eyes) of all European orchids, the Lady's- slipper. The light was rapidly fading, the breeze became stronger and with the sound of nearing thunder, a soaking was on the cards. We worked around each other and, after many, many images......wait for a lull, lock the mirror up, wait a second or two, fire the shutter, I was "reasonably" confident of a sharp one.
As with the previous evening, we were on the hunt for more views and we came across this fantastic signt not oo far from our guest house. it's funny how those with tripods alert others of a photo-opportunity. As Marek and I worked, a car slowed and stopped to take a snap and a short while later, another photographer stopped and started to set-up. By that time, however, the best of the evening's light had faded. Little wry smile appeared at this point :) I know, can't help it!
The perfect finale to the first part of the trip. Next, the Bieszczady Mountains....
If you're wondering what kit I took and how I got it through airport security, I'll be writing about this, in detail, after Part 2.
