this is Gerta and this is her father Bozo.
They live here in the town of
Molunat along Croatia's Dalmatian
coast just south of Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik is an ancient walled city situated along
the rolling green hills of olive trees
and the clear blue water of the Adriatic Sea.
It is straight from a scene in 'Game of Thrones'
both literally and figuratively.
Gerta and her family
run a bar in the old town of Dubrovnik
featuring wines from their family vineyard
and winery.
Over the course of a week we will be
spending time with amazing people like
Gerta and her family and see a side of
Croatia beyond the tourist circuit.
While here, we will be shooting stills and video
on the new Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
and diving into how I approach my work
as an adventure travel photographer.
So join me - photographer Max Lowe - as we explore
Croatia's Dalmatian coast with the Canon
EOS 5D Mark IV.
Dubrovnik. The pearl of the Adriatic.
As the largest city along the southern coast
of Croatia, its a thriving hub of tourism
its port basically serving as a parking
lot for luxury cruise liners.
But 20 years ago, things were different.
Following the breakup of former
Yugoslavia, a series of conflicts spread
through the region igniting
long-standing ethnic tensions.
Dubrovnik narrowly escaped destruction,
its walls repeatedly shelled.
Today, Dubrovnik has made a stark rebound.
Within the ancient walls tourists mix with the locals
in labyrinthine alleys and grand
plazas. It is - to say the least - a great place to take photos.
The Canon EOS 5D Mark IV is the latest
iteration of Canon's iconic 5D-series.
It is built around a new 30.4 megapixel
CMOS full-frame sensor. The 5D IV now
offers fast and accurate AF that extends
to its live view and movie modes.
Combined with its AI servo system
this means it can rapidly acquire and
track objects selected by touch.
The 5D Mark IV also features class-leading
face detection capabilities allowing for
easy subject selection using the back
joystick. This is a very handy feature for
portrait sessions or shooting crowds of people.
On the video end, the 5D Mark IV
can shoot the standard 1080 frame rates
but also offers a super slo-mo HFR mode
at a hundred and twenty frames per
second at 720p. It is now capable of
shooting 4k video at up to 30p and has
a built-in workflow for pulling stills
from the footage.
In addition to these features the 5D
Mark IV has some other updates. The new
1.62 million-dot touch screen
provides for very intuitive function
control and image review including the
ability to pinch zoom. Raw images can be
processed in-camera and saved as jpegs
combined with built-in Wi-Fi, toned
RAW files can be sent directly to a mobile
device for upload. The outside has the solid
weather-sealed build that
world-traveling journalists and
adventure lifestyle photographers have
come to trust. This is a real asset when the rain
starts to pour. It also features twin
slots for compact flash and SD which is
handy when a parent tries to steal in
your cards.
thank you very much - thank you.
With the sun setting over the Adriatic,
we spent the last part of our first day
shooting the churning waves lapping the
stoic walls of Dubrovnik's old town.
Sunset and sunrise are the photographer's favorite
hours not only because of the light but
also because the transitions in people's
livelihoods. People work out of sight
during the day but in the morning and
evening locals come out to enjoy the
beauty alongside everyone else.
Giving you a chance to encounter those who call
these foreign shores home.
Croatia's Dalmatian coast is comprised
of over a thousand islands. One of the
most populated is Korčula - about an
hour's drive north of Dubrovnik. To reach
the island you take a short ferry ride
Much likely Dubrovnik, it's a walled city
with the visible influence of Greek,
Roman and Hungarian civilizations.
From atop the highest point in the city, in a
belltower we find a new perspective.
The shadows of passers-by, stretched out
across the white stones of the plaza below.
Korčula, like Dubrovnik, is where
everyone goes. We were looking for
something a little bit different, though, so
we roamed around for a while,
looked at a map, drove down a random road
that dead-endedd at a small bay and met
these two Philipe and Evita. alongside
Philipe and Evita we got a first-hand look at
a small artesian oyster farm.
'We're going to see a mussel and oyster
farm first. Here on these barrels, which are
used for hanging a big rope, on which
we hang the previously-prepared mussels
and oysters. We want to show you first a big oyster
that we already prepared for you'.
Oysters are a staple of this region in
Croatia due to the unique salinity of the
ocean's water, the flavor of the meat is
said to be especially delicious.
'Down here we sunk an old wooden boat
and we keep champagne inside it
so the bottles don't float on the surface'.
Here, below the hanging oyster beds,
they keep sparkling wine from the local vineyard,
where the ocean's chill
kept it equally cool year-round.
'Evita and I are going to go down and get some
champagne that's stored in the underwater
wine cellar. It's going to be great - maybe a little cold.'
'Show me your mussel beds!'
'He's diving, getting the bottles from the boat'.
'2013 sparkling white wine pulled off the bottom
of the ocean here, where it's been stored for the last few
years, and we're going to pop it open for dinner.
'See how it tastes'.
Naturally, we wanted to get a taste of the sea's bounty, of the bounty
So, clad in his finest red mankini, Evita pulled in
a haul of oysters that were ready for shucking.
Using the lowering sun, I was able to
make some great backlit environmental
portraits of them at work. One of the
most important considerations when
shooting lifestyle photography is setting
the scene. It's an often-overlooked element.
What separates the pros from the amateurs is the
ability to basically art direct, and
consider everything that's in the frame.
The reality is that the travel photography
that you often think of as pure
documentary is nothing of the sort.
It's an intentional staging of the real
world around us to create the scene you
want, to tell the story you want to tell.
With our catch in hand it was time for dinner.
'I think we have to pop the bottle, right?'
'that's your job'.
'How do you say cheers again, in Croatian?'
'Živjeli!'
'Heres to you guys, thanks again'.
This experience, getting a taste of local
seafood pulled from the ocean before our
eyes and rubbing elbows with the family
making a life they love in this amazing
place was possible only because we
turned our eyes from the beaten path,
and went out on a limb to trust the warmth
of strangers.
'If i was going to live in Croatia, I would live here, I think'
'who knows, maybe I will someday. We can't rule it out'.
'What do you like about it here so much?'
'Everything - the peace, the nature, blending with the sea...'
'...enjoying the fruits from it'
'and the peace'.
'Everything is clean it's not polluted'
'Where I see myself in 10 years i'm really not sure'
'but I know what I'm going to do tomorrow'.
It was a magical evening and to think
that it came out of taking a chance and
driving down a random road reminds me
of just how important it is to talk
to strangers which is exactly how we met
Gerta and her family.
So back to where we started. A picturesque winery
overlooking the Adriatic Sea
Where Bozo grows grapes that embody the very
taste of Croatia. Or at least the
minerals and earthy tones that come from
its soil.
'My name is Bozo Metkovic'
'I live in Croatia'
'Why did you choose to build your vineyard here?'
'This place is in a very special position'
'all day you have sunshine'
'and the ground is very special'.
'that's a cool contrast'.
After exploring the vineyard we met up with Gerta to learn a
bit about the types of wines that the
Metkovic family produces.
'So basically we are in are in our family wine cellar'
'and we're here to try some wine'.
'Including sparking and sweet wines'
'We produce 14 different wines. We have sparkling white, we have reds'
'we have rosé, we also have some whites'
'and we also produce two sweet wines'.
Bozo's pride in his craft is obvious.
Using the diffuse light
in the doorway I shots portraits of Gerta.
Then it was time for more food
At the family's restaurant alongside
the lapping ocean, where Gerta's sister, an award-winning chef
runs the show.
this time it was steak, fish
and of course, more wine.
Before we left we gathered everyone for a family photo.
On our last day before heading to the
airport we took one last detour.
'We are in the former Hotel Belvedere'
'which was one of the biggest hotels in Dubrovnik'.
'Very popular in the former Yugoslavia'
'but now it's abandoned, and it's empty'
'big, interesting...'
The hotel stands as a remnant of a different era.
'I was two years old when the war started'
'so I don't really remember anything of it, luckily'.
'My mother and I went to Germany'
'and my father was here'.
'How was he affected by it?'
'He didn't talk about it very much to us'
'He really never told any war stories'
'because i think it affected him very much'
'but he didn't want us to be affected in the way he was.'
Gerta and I explored the ruins
Using the dramatic light and backdrop to create
some of my favorite images from the trip.
'These people, my father's generation...'
'...they actually built up businesses from nothing'
'they had to start all over again. Of course we're proud'
'I'm proud of what my family built'
'and what we built together'
'otherwise it wouldn't be possible'.
'It's a bit kitschy but I like it'.
Throughout our journey
in this small corner of Croatia, through the
eyes of those who live each day amidst
this beautiful landscape we got a glimpse of the
magic that shimmers beyond the path most
traveled. And through the power of
photography got the chance to explore that.
For dpreview I'm Max Lowe.