Lake Bohinj, Slovenia: Gregor Skoberne’s Photos of Its Changing Faces

Slovenian photographer Gregor Skoberne goes back to Lake Bohinj every week, and he says it never looks the same twice. His series “Faces of Lake Bohinj”, published in 2015, follows the lake through mist, low cloud, clear mornings and golden evenings in the heart of Triglav National Park.

Skoberne puts the variety down to two things: the lake runs east to west, so the light is always changing across it, and the mountains rising straight from its shores throw strong reflections into its clear water.

Lake Bohinj facts: a glacial lake in the Julian Alps

Lake Bohinj (Bohinjsko jezero) fills the floor of the Bohinj Valley in the Julian Alps, in north-west Slovenia. It is a glacial lake, held back by a moraine left by the Ice Age glacier that carved the valley.

• Size: about 4.2 km long and 1 km wide, with a surface of 318 hectares.
• Depth: 30 metres on average and 45 metres at its deepest.
• Altitude: 526 metres above sea level.
• Water: the main inflow is the Savica, fed from Črno jezero high above. The lake drains at its eastern end through the Jezernica, which joins the Mostnica to form the Sava Bohinjka, one of the headwaters of the Sava. More water leaves the lake than enters it, the difference coming from underground springs.

The clear, cold water holds brown trout, Arctic char and burbot. On the shore stands a statue of Zlatorog, the legendary golden-horned chamois of the Julian Alps.

Mist, light and reflections on the lake

Skoberne’s pictures show how much the weather does for a mountain lake. On still mornings the surface becomes a mirror for the slopes and the sky. When mist lifts off the water, it separates the mountains into layers of grey and blue, and the shoreline almost disappears. Shafts of sun through broken cloud pick out a single slope, and after rain the shallow water at the edge turns glass-clear, showing every stone on the bottom.

The quieter frames are as strong as the colourful ones. A blue morning reduces the view to a few dark shapes; a warm evening turns the same water gold.

Visiting Lake Bohinj: what to see and do

Bohinj is the quieter neighbour of Lake Bled, and it rewards a full day or more. The classic view is from the stone bridge at the eastern end, looking across to the Church of St John the Baptist with the lake and mountains behind. Other highlights:

• Savica waterfall: Slovenia’s most visited waterfall and the lake’s main source, above the village of Ukanc at the western end. The short trail takes about an hour there and back, with plenty of steps.
• Vogel cable car: from near the western end of the lake up to viewing platforms over the valley, a ski area in winter and a starting point for alpine hikes in summer.
• Lake trail: a flat circuit of about 12 km around the shore, roughly four hours on foot.
• Mostnica Gorge: a 12 km round-trip hike (about three and a half hours) through a clear-water gorge, with shorter options.
• On the water: swimming from small beaches, kayaking, canoeing and stand-up paddleboarding in summer, with rentals near the stone bridge.

For photographs like Skoberne’s, come early. Mist is most likely early in the day, and the light changes fast once the sun clears the ridges.

Related reading

• Lake Bohinj guide: the valley and the lake in the mountains
• Lake Bled, Slovenia: Island, Castle and Lakeside Views
• Vintgar Gorge near Bled: The Radovna River, Walkways and Waterfalls
• Marko Korošec’s Ice-Covered Trees and Tower on Mount Javornik
• Rime on Mount Javornik: Marko Korošec’s Frozen Landscape
• Slovenia’s February 2014 Ice Storm: Frozen Landscapes and Storm Damage
• Thomas Tourral’s changing light in the French Alps
• Hallerbos Bluebells: The Living Forest Behind the Spring Photographs

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