Published on the web just as a regular photo, it looked like a colorful stripe not a normal photograph. It’s because when it fits screen width, the height is too small and I didn’t want to slice it into pieces. Also, it would not be so good if I submitted 210 mpx photo to usual photo sites, just to show details. Therefore, Gigapan is the perfect platform for this image to have it’s full purpose. And that is enjoying the nice view, evening light and details.

I have embedded the photo here in this post, but for the sake of enjoying the view, click here to open full size gigapan of Split and Kastela area, turn on full screen and explore :))

Also, I have noticed the gigapan iframe tends to misbehave while scrolling (zooming) so that’s another reason for following the upper link.

If you’d like to know more, here are landscape, weather and shooting location details:

The photo was taken from Malacka, on mountain Kozjak from where you have really stunning view of the surroundings and it’s accessible by car. It was partially cloudy and rainy (see the rain curtain on the far left, behind Split peninsula) but, thanks to the north wind Bura, very clear weather so the visibility was around 100 km (approx. 60 miles).

In the bottom part of the panorama is town of Kastela and Ciovo island across the Kastela bay to the right. Behind Ciovo are islands of Solta and Vis, and roght of the Solta is Drvenik island. Far away on the right side of the horizon is barely visible Svetac island (St. Andrija). On the left part of the photo is city of Split (on the peninsula). Behind Split are islands of Brac, Hvar and Susac.

Technical details:

This panorama is made of 15 vertical shots, stitched and processed in Photoshop. Camera is Canon 5D mkII and lens is 24-70 f/2.8 L, date of shooting was 7th of November 2009

In the past, Doljans knew how to make use of the vicinity of the sea and the woods in the background, from where they led out many mules loaded with the finest quality of wood. On the hill flanks and in the valley, they cultivate vines, vegetables, citrus fruits and olive-trees.

Part of the village that sits on the western side is smaller, but more spacious. The house roofs are mostly covered with slabs, while the walls are thick and with small windows. These old, stone houses detached or set in rows, preserved the mark of the genuine Dalmatian architecture.

Eastern side of the village:

Western side – hill is less steep so the houses don’t look like they’re built one on top of the other, and there is more space around them, even though ‘space’ is an overstatement for any old Dalmatian village and their streets.

As I was walking through the village, I spotted models of the houses exhibited by the road. They are made completely out of stone and have all the elements of the traditional stone houses. They looked so real :)

Further up to the road, only 200 m away, I reached the end of the village. The road was getting narrower as the valley ended between the hills. On the left, there were some deserted, derelict houses and the chapel on the top of the small hill, between the trees.

A deserted field above the village.

After I reached the end of the road, I decided to go uphill, to the eastern side of the village, between the houses

From the top, beautiful view spreads on Postira and, acroos the Brac channel, town of Dugi rat. From here you can see how close Dol really is to the sea, and yet it is protected from the sea impact.

Here is a detail from one of the Dol’s rooftops. Mediterranean plants don’t need much ground to grow, a bit of dirt is good enough. Probably because they wouldn’t find so much good soil around, even if they needed it. :)

Typical roof of the Dol house: covered with slabs, with small addition…

Another typical architectural detail.

A view from top of the village.

One more look at stone houses…

…beautiful, old, stone houses of Dol.

If you ever happen to be on Brac island, Dol is certainly a place to see. This authentic island village, a standing witness and guardian of past times, tells a story of harsh and ruthless conditions of the island life where every inch of the soil was priceless and where cultivating bare, stony, dry landscape was the only way to survive.

Snow in Sinj and the fields around it is not unusual, though, but not to this extent. It was really nice to see white landscape and roads.

We stopped by the road to make some shots. The plants were trying to find their way out of the deep snow…

…and while we were driving we noticed some guys enjoying real snowboarding without a slope. A car was driving, pulling a snowboarder with the rope. The guys seemed to know what the< were doing as they were boarding from one side of the road to another and jumping over the thick heaps of snow.  They were real fun to watch. :)

After some driving through the field we decided to climb up a small hill on the east side of the Sinjsko polje to shoot some landscapes. There was no luck with the sunset this time – the sun hid behind the clouds. :(

Traces of an animal were leading to a tree. Or to me? It was hard to recognize which animal but I hoped it was already far away. :)  In the back you can see plains of Sinjsko polje.

This is me with my pet. Together, we conquer snowy hills. :)

Me and Filip. We travel everywhere together loaded with cameras and equipment, yet we have so little photos of us (I believe most of the photographers have the same problem). This time I was determined to sacrifice a minute of our time and make at least one.  Just to freshen our memories :)

In the bottom of the hill we saw some people were marching through the field, who knows where.

Small village in the snow.

Before we started to walk back I put my camera and whole equipment back into the bag for return to be safer (when we were walking up the hill I fell into the deep snow twice and I wanted to spare my camera from getting wet again). I thought there was nothing to shoot anymore. But right after I put my camera into the bag the images started to appear in front of my eyes. I pulled out my camera again – that was stronger than common sense.

I looked back and took a shot of our traces. We destroyed perfect white snow surface. This one looks like we were on the top of the Alps, not on some small hill. :)

Right after this image, on the right side, a nice scene with the tree appeared. For this one I had to lie down in the snow to omit some unnecessary details from the photo. It was worth to get the snow into my jacket and boots again.

After few steps again nice scenes appeared. This one…

Even though there was no wind, snow dunes  created on a slope.

And this one, with the snow unveiling some really nice scenes and shapes again.

What I’ve learned: never give up. Even though I had given up on making any more nice photos (due to bad light which didn’t not fulfill my expectations) and put my camera into the bag,  the photos were there. I only had to see them.

It was a long way up…

…and even longer way down.

But I really enjoyed that nice snow day… :)

Last time, snow in Split was falling in 2009 and it lasted only few hours. Sometimes it happens every winter, we see it, but it rarely stays on the ground. February record was already broken on the first day when we measured 15 cm of snow, and previous record was from 1963 with modest 6 cm in one day. That was 49 years ago. Also, the biggest snow cover ever measured was in 1979 and it lasted 4 days, with 21 cm. This time we had 25 cm in two days. And it will last probably longer than week this time. We set new limits. Ha!

All of you folks from northern countries are probably rolling on the floor laughing to this, but we are Mediterranean people – we see snow only if we go to skiing holidays somewhere in the mountains. We are sun and sea people who learn to swim almost before we learn to walk. So yes, it’s a hype. :)

This is the view from my balcony. Today, one bus line was operational for the complete traffic collapse to be avoided.

Again I went out to make some more photos of the snow occasion. Our parking lot.

I decided to go to Solin, small town just few kilometers away from Split. Roads were barely visible, luckily we know them by heart.

Birds by the river Jadro were freezing…

Seagulls liked the bridge fence very much. But every time any of them tried to land on it, it slipped. Sometimes it took them couple of tries to land safely. They looked so funny trying to understand what the heck was going on. :)

Poor little frozen creatures… :)

Before the evening I went to a panorama spot above the Split port to take an evening snow panorama of Split. The conditions were not good for shooting, gusts of strong northern wind were shaking the camera and another trouble was icy rain which started to fall just after I arrived up there. Ice particles were hitting my face and sticking onto the camera lens. But I did not give up. The night was really beautiful.

A view on Riva:

And the last but not the least, panorama of Split under snow:

Read more about the snow in Split in Blizzard and Snow day posts.

The snow continued to fall for two days which nobody expected. Public companies and offices were closed, not even private companies, shops or bars worked cause nobody could reach their work place. By car it was impossible – people either don’t have winter tires, snow chains or they lack experience to drive in snow conditions and the roads weren’t being cleaned everywhere. Public transportation was also not operative because it was too risky to send buses with no winter tires or snow chains on roads covered with snow and ice. Also, Split is located on the terrain full of hills, so I guess buses would just slide off the steep roads. Grocery stores were lacking some goods, garbage was not being taken away – city’s public services were totally unprepared, unorganized and chaotic that weekend and following few days. We are really not used to those conditions.

But, to put bad things on side, that was really once in a lifetime event – biggest snow in 50 years. After the morning blizzard finished, I stopped for a coffee in one of the few bars that were opened – the one which had nice view on Riva – central spot of Split. Riva looked like this:

The ferry boats were trying to find their way through the snow storm and strong wind.

And this is the model of Split, located on Riva.

After a break, I continued to walk through the town and by the coast. Next stop was ferry boat station. It was really odd to see the boats in this weather conditions.

The train was also trying to push through the thick snow.

I continued to walk to the most popular beach in Split – Bacvice, located near the main port.

Instead of usual summer activities (even in sunny winter days people come here to swim and play Picigin), some really odd things were happening there. :)

A ferry boat going to island Brac. Behind is the island Ciovo.

After some time snow began to fall again… No coffee in the open today :)

After I returned back to Bacvice, some real action was going on there. Since people from Split have to mock everyone and have to make a joke out of everything, I was not surprised at all to see this. It was just a question of time and a question of how many crazy men will dare to do this. They were playing  picigin, in the middle of snow blizzard. I’m freezing just looking at it :))

Picigin is the city’s legendary sport created right on this beach many years ago. The rules of picigin are very simple. Better to say, there’s only one rule: to keep a small ball as long in the air and away from the water as possible. There are no goals, scores or homeruns of any kind, you hit the ball with your hands and you can run, jump, slide or make any kind of crazy things as long as you don’t miss it.

Picigin requires shallow water and sandy beach to be played properly and this beach is perfect for that. That way you can throw yourself all over the place without getting hurt, while trying to keep the ball away from the water. It’s real fun! If you’ll ever want to try it and can’t find a ball small or light enough, just peel off the tennis ball until you reach the rubber core and you’re good to go.  :)

Anyhow, it was really funny to see them in the sea playing, while people in the snow suits were watching the from the shore.

Four brave and crazy men, I asked them to pose once more for me. I hope they were alright tomorrow and they didn’t catch pneumonia or something :)

Back on the Riva. Stolen part from the bazaar table can make a really good snowboard as we can learn :)

Those two days, Split became more populated. It was richer for at least a thousand new people. Snow people. They were everywhere :)

Frozen fountain in one of the Split’s parks.

I will certainly never forget this day. Once in a lifetime experience, despite all the troubles and icy roads it brought afterwards. I was happy :)

I woke up around 6 AM and after the brief glimpse through the window I knew it was time to go outside. It was already starting to become white. I grabbed my equipment, put on my snow clothes and ran out.

Yet,  I think nobody was prepared for this. That was not a nice snow that silently falls through the night. It was a blizzard, a pure rage. Wind gusts were reaching the speed of more than 120 km/h, snow was hitting my face. Most of the time I was unable to see where I was going. I know photos can’t show the strength of the wind, but few gusts nearly threw me to the ground.

Snow was already pretty deep and the streets were very slippery, so I had to be extra careful because I slipped and fell while I was shooting this building.

I decided to go to Emanuel Vidovic park. Parks always look nice covered in snow. And I wasn’t mistaken. It looked magic with those trees and benches with snow.

Oh, I loved how benches looked nice that morning. I could not stop taking pictures of them :)

And there’s a snowman. First one out of many I saw that day. Somebody could not wait for the morning so he made it in the first hour of snow.  I couldn’t help but wonder, what’s all that with the people and snow-people? Are they in love with them? If we had 1 cm thick snow they would still manage to collect whole snow around the park ground just to make even a tiny a snowman. Is it some kind of instinct, a pre-programmed thing in our heads to give everything human shape? Hm…

I continued to walk downtown. The area was almost unrecognizable.

Streets were deserted (as I expected) but that was likely to be changed in very short time – everyone will go out to enjoy the white visitor.

When I arrived to the center the wind was getting even stronger, snow was falling harder and it was very, very cold. I wondered what are these people doing here. I understand if you go shooting or something like that, but this was no time for casual walking. Maybe they were going to work…

Wind was blowing snow from the ground away and in some moments I could not see more than 20 meters further.

Even though there was a real blizzard going on, there was some people walking around.

One of the first people to arrive on Riva was this man: a skiing instructor, as he introduced himself. It was funny to see him on skis there on Riva – a place normally related to warmth, sun, tourists on their summer holiday… Funny scene. :))

I guess we won’t be having any coffee outside today :))

I’ve been to Omis many times, but I mostly explored the town centre or spots by the sea. This has been my first occasion to shoot on some of the mountains above Omis and I was really curious how will the photos turn out. Since I’m not that familiar with the area, I didn’t know where hiking trails are, or how long will it take to get to some good off-road landscape spots.  Therefore I decided to go by car, to get to know the surroundings and to scout locations for some future photo shoots.

When you drive up the mountain, view on Omis and the beautiful landscape opens. I hoped the sun position will be more to the right as it might be photographically more interesting – close-up town images with sun in the back, but I guess I’m gonna have to wait for late spring months for that scene. Anyhow, after I arrived above, I took first HDR panorama of the landscape (if you’d like to read few tips about the HDR panoramas, scroll down the post). The scene was very vivid and full of contrast as a result of few days with strong northern wind which cleared the atmosphere up.

On the hill on the left side of the panorama a small chapel is located. I couldn’t find out it’s name by googling so for now it’s name and age remains unknown :)  Sunlight reflections in sea surface created nice silhouette, though.

The sun setting behind the island of Brac.

Here is a detail of the Omis riviera – parts of the Dugi rat nad Duce areas. The coastline is really beautiful there – kilometers of pebble and sandy beaches, in summer full of bars and young people.

When the night started to fall I decided to take another panorama. This time it’s a bit narrower view on the town of Omis, but I still wanted to keep nice green vegetation in the front and beautiful sunset colors.

And now it’s time for a how-to part… :)

The photo above is, in technical words, a HDR panoramic photography. For those of you unfamiliar with that expression, but interested in subject matter – HDR (High Dynamic Range) is an image blended out of two or more different exposures of a single image, for achieving bigger dynamic range of the photograph, and panorama is a photo assembled (stitched) from two or more overlapping photographs. It takes a lot of patience both while shooting and in post-processing to create such photos, and you surely must know what are you doing when you’re at the spot, taking pictures.

This particular image is stitched out of 4 vertical shots, and each of the shot is blended out of 3 different exposures (+/- 2 stops). After I published these two panoramas online (this one and the first photo in the post) I got an e-mail with an interesting question, which I’ll answer here in public so any of you reading can learn if you want.

On my way home I stopped in the centre of Omis to take some photos of the dusk colors. My intention was to shoot only tower bell and the river channel, nut the silhouette of the mountain fit in just perfectly.

Well, up until some years ago, the specialty I’ll be writing about today was also foreign to me, even though it is common meal in the kitchens of the area only 10 km away from my town. But, it’s never being prepared in homes of Split, not even in restaurants (which is a big mistake, IMHO).

The specialty is called Soparnik and it belongs to kitchen of Poljica area (historical name is Poljička republika). It’s the area between towns Split, Sinj and Omis. Local people often prepare this meal and it’s really delicious. I won’t be listing any ingredients right now since you’ll see everything in the photos. :)

First you prepare dough, split it into two halves, take a rolling pin and make two big, thin, round pieces.

Stuffing is very simple: swiss chard cut into stripes, parsley, a bit of spring onion and a lots of olive oil. Freshly pressed, tasty olive oil from the olive trees that grow 50 meters away. Haha, ok, it does not have to be the oil from the olive trees 50 m away – quality extra virgin olive oil from your local store will be just fine. :)

In the meantime, fire is being prepared (but the kitchen stove also can do).

You mix everything up…

…and spread it through the round dough you prepared.

For the best taste, it has to look like a soccer field. :D

Then you cover it with the other thin and round dough. Carefully….

Then you have to fix the edges with scissors…

…and twist them so the stuffing won’t go out.

It has to look like this.

And now, it’s time for baking.

After being placed into furnace, Soparnik is being covered by ember and ashes.

After 20 minutes of baking, the meal is finished. All you have to do now is take it out of the furnace…

…and dust off the remaining ashes for aesthetic purposes.

And then, Soparnik receives the final touch – sliced garlic…

…and again some olive oil.

A lots of olive oil, to be precise. Did I mention it is a freshly pressed, tasty olive oil from the olive trees that grow 50 meters away? Oh, sorry, now I remember I did :)))

Spread it all over baked Soparnik.

And voila!! (:drumroll:) It’s ready to dig into it.

Yum!!

If you ever happen to be in Split or the Poljica region on a vacation or a business trip, make sure you find a place where you can try this fabulous meal. Taste of Soparnik will knock you off your feet. :)  Bon apetit!

In the end I’d like to thank beautiful people Marija and Zlatko from Zrnovnica for their warm welcome and for being so patient with posing for this little Soparnik photo session.

University campus in Split has been a big construction site over the past years. New building emerges every few months, old buildings are being remodeled, new annexes added and, in general, the area is changing really fast and it has become a real architectural showcase. I was planning this photo shoot for a long ti I was curious how I would see it through the viewfinder.

I arrived on a late afternoon and there was almost no one there. Besides just a few passengers, there was no other signs of life. Yet, the time was just right for some light and shadow play.

This kind of place is really an inspiration. New, modern buildings abound with minimalistic details, different elements, geometrical shapes or cool textures. I love that kind of semi-abstract architectural images. This photo is called Ying Yang.

This surveillance camera reminds me of E.T. :)

A reflection of the old residential buildings in the new University library.

Just before it went dark I took a few shots of the nearby street from the pedestrian bridge.

Long exposure traffic.

And here is the pedestrian bridge, which connect campus with the Split 3 area.

On 2010 Foto Ars Danubia took place in small village of Erdut. This year, our host is ethno-village Karanac, from 26th till 29th of May.

The reason for choosing Baranja as the meeting point is very simple – Baranja is full of beautiful, ‘photogenic’ landscapes, interesting people, picturesque villages and rich with animal and plant life. To make things more interesting, people from Canon Croatia will introduce to us many professional Canon cameras and lenses and also newest technical solutions for aerial shooting with remotely controlled helicopters.

Detail from Foto Ars Danubia 2010:

Photographers who will take part in this event are:

• Darko Bandić AP www.ap.org
• Janko Belaj FOTOZINE www.belaj.com, www.fotozine.org
• Siniša Hančić PIXSELL www.pixsell.hr
• Rade Jug www.fotojugplitvice.com
• Boris Kavić www.rtl.hr
• Saša Kavić REUTERS www.reuters.com
• Željko Kolprolčec www.zeljkokoprolcec.com
• Igor Leskovar FOTOMAG www.fotomag.net
• Filip Lolić www.filiplolic.com
• Tomislav Marić tomica@inbox.com
• Saša Poldan www.sasapoldan.com
• Zoran Osrečak www.zockphoto.com
• Mario Romulić www.romulic.com
• Dražen Stojčić www.stojcic.com
• Goran Šafarek www.visionexpander.com
• Davor Šarić www.digitalfilm.hr
• Ervin Šilić www.novena.hr
• Krešimir Žanetić www.zanetic.com
• Lidija Žižić www.lidijazizic.com

I hope we’ll have a good weather up there (not too dull and not too rainy, thank you) and I hope to take many unforgettable photos and make many good contacts with other photographers.