In August 2025, I set off from Zagreb at six in the morning for a one-day road trip through Istria. It was an early start, but with a packed itinerary ahead of me, the excitement made it easy to get going. My plan was to visit a mix of small historic towns and ruins, each with its own story, and capture them through my lens.
The first destination of the day was Boljun, a quiet hilltop settlement overlooking the Boljunčica valley and the Učka mountain range. With its stone houses and remains of medieval walls, the town has an atmosphere that makes you feel like you’ve stepped back several centuries. Photographing Boljun was all about the details and the views that stretch far across Istria.
From there I drove down toward Vodnjan, a town with a strong Venetian influence and a medieval layout that hasn’t changed much over time. The narrow streets, Gothic windows, and Renaissance portals gave me plenty of subjects to photograph.
My third stop was Dvigrad, a place I had already photographed before. On my first visit the sky was cloudy and I wasn’t happy with the results, so I knew I had to return. This time, with better light, the ruins of the medieval town came to life in front of my camera. Walking among the crumbling walls, towers, and the remains of St. Sophia’s Basilica gave me the images I had hoped for.
Next, I headed to Sveti Lovreč, one of the best-preserved fortified towns in Istria. Encircled by Venetian walls and featuring a central square with a loggia, the town carries a strong sense of its military past. I took my time wandering through the streets, photographing the old churches and fragments of frescoes that still remain.
The final stop before driving back to Zagreb was Novigrad. Built on a small peninsula, this coastal town carries traces of many different rulers — Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, and Austrian. Photographing the old town as the light began to fade was the perfect way to wrap up a long day of exploring.
Looking back, it was a packed trip but worth every stop. Each town had its own identity, and together they made the day a journey through Istria’s layered history.
In late 2024, I began creating my own content management tool named Arhivio. The goal was to develop a system similar to Photoshelter, which I’ve been using for Fotografije Zagreba since 2018 and for Croatia Captured since September 2023, to store images. Arhivio is still in its early stages, but there are some versions available for review. For instance, all 12,000+ photos from the Croatia Captured project have been incorporated into Arhivio Croatia Captured. However, as Fotografije Zagreba’s archive contains over 100,000 images, there is more work to be done. When the photo count exceeds 10,000, the search function (keyword entry) becomes somewhat slow, so I’m in a process of searching for a solution. Furthermore, Photoshelter offers numerous features that surpass my current development skills and experience, so the intention is not to replace Photoshelter, but rather to explore what I can create for my photo collections.
Croatia Captured
This is how it looks like when you’re browsing photos:
You can also have your own list of keywords (locations, topics, whatever you want) to make searching more user friendly
Keywords list
In the Spring of 2025, I utilized AI tools to create Python scripts that automate the construction of new Arhivio subjects, leading to the establishment of Arhivio for multiple projects under Fotografije Zagreba.
The first one was for the largest project within Fotografije Zagreba – Mapping of Zagreb. The idea behind that project is to take photos of every street, square, and park in Zagreb. The project currently has more than 10,000 photos, and you can read more about it here. There’s also a link to the Arhivio Mapping of Zagreb there, so check it out.
Currently, I’m using Arhivio only for learning and development, but I hope that by the end of 2025, I’ll achieve a couple of goals I have for it, which are mostly based on useful tools that would be built within the Arhivio content management tool.
It’s been a couple of months since my last road trip where I took my camera and explored various parts of Croatia. The last time was at the beginning of November when I went on a two-day road trip to Slavonija.
The first road trip of 2025 happened on the first day of spring – March 21st. Since my schedule is overwhelming at the moment, I only had one day, so I decided to play it safe. My idea was to visit a few places in Istria. The whole idea behind the planning was that I wanted to go somewhere south, somewhere I hadn’t been yet, and visit a couple of towns. One of the regions I had in mind was Kvarner, because I’m familiar with it and there are a few places I want to photograph there, but I skipped it this time.
So, Istria… I listed a few places I wanted to visit, and by simple math, I decided on Pićan, Bale, and Završje – three places I had never been to but really wanted to see. The fourth, Oprtalj, was optional. It’s near Završje, and I planned to visit it if I had the time and energy. And, as it turns out, I had both!
OprtaljBaleZavršjePićan
Fun fact, I already visited Oprtalj once, and it was back in 2016 when I first discovered how Istria is interesting. Read more about that in this article.
Unfortunately, it was cloudy the whole time, but since I hadn’t traveled for a couple of months, I still really enjoyed it.
I’ll write more about these places in the coming weeks, and even more in-depth on the Croatia Captured website, so be sure to check it out.
Oh, and the photos are already uploaded – you can find them on the Explore Photos page on Croatia Captured. I’ve uploaded them through the Content management tool – Arhivio, which I’ve been working on over the past few months. It’s still going strong, though my current focus is on creating content for Croatia Captured, Fotografije Zagreba, and Lice Grada. So, Arhivio is a bit on hold for now, but every now and then I fix things and make upgrades. The plan is to have the entire product finished by the end of 2025.
The Photo of Zagreb service is the successor to the licegrada.media, which originated from the Lice Grada portal (licegrada.hr) – the starting point of the story behind this vast collection of Zagreb photographs. Without delving too much into history (which you can read more about at fotografijezagreba.hr/fotografije if you understand Croatian), I’d like to focus on the refreshed visual identity of the Photos of Zagreb service.
Although the service has only been around for four years (launched in the Spring of 2021), the website fotografijezagreba.hr has undergone several transformations in both design and functionality. It started as a blog with agency-style announcements of new photos, later evolving into a platform focused solely on updates regarding the growing photo archive, which, as of summer 2024, surpassed 100,000 photos.
With the beginning of 2025, it was time for a new refresh, which now includes closer collaboration with the Lice Grada portal, which will serve as a co-author on fotografijezagreba.hr. This means that in addition to the photo archive, the site will also feature blog posts with interesting articles about the city of Zagreb.
Besides the strengthened partnership between licegrada.hr and fotografijezagreba.hr, along with the updated visual elements, there will be an increased focus on photographic projects, particularly the flagship project, Mapping Zagreb, which has now reached nearly 10,000 photos. In 2025, the focus will remain on photographing Zagreb’s neighborhoods and local councils. Additionally, the Mapping Zagreb website now features a live map showcasing the areas that have already been photographed. Later in the year, a new search system will be launched, offering a more dynamic and visually appealing way to explore the available materials.
While there are already major visual changes in this 8.0 version of fotografijezagreba.hr, minor cosmetic updates will continue to roll out over the next few weeks. However, you can already see 95% of the new visual identity of the Photographs of Zagreb service and portal.
Thank you for following and supporting the growth of this amazing project.
Since I started project Croatia Captured in September 2023, 2024 was my biggest year in taking interesting road trips around Croatia. So, here’s a short overview of my two biggest road trips and two shorted ones.
It’s Done! I’ve Edited Photos From The Biggest Roadtrip Since Croatia Captured Started!
Finally! After one week of photographing and almost a month of editing, I’ve finished all the photos and content overall from the longest roadtrip I did after starting Croatia Captured project in September 2023. Since I work in media for 15 or so years, I’ve been programmed to edit as fast as I can, but for the project Croatia Captured – one of my rules is to take more time and don’t rush it. Still, I was overly eager to finish as fast as I can and put all the photos on the Photoshelter archive.
Photos of Dubrovnik, Makarska, Trogir, Omiš And Eight More Places Are Online!
So, that happened. After a big five-day road trip around the central part of Dalmatia I took in May (find more about that in the article It’s Done! I’ve Edited Photos From The Biggest Roadtrip Since Croatia Captured Started!), I spent another five days traveling around the southern part of the same region, this time in the middle of August. I was based in Makarska, from where I traveled to several places, including the one and only Dubrovnik.
New Places Visited! One Day Road Trip To Kvarner And Istria
After a long road trip at the end of August, it’s been two months since I last went on any trips to take photos for the Croatia Captured project. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do another long road trip until 2025, so I wrote down a few ideas for one- or two-day road trips to take before the end of 2024. The first of these was this one.
Finally A Visit To Slavonija! Check Out The New Locations
When I launched this project in September 2023, one of my goals was to explore parts of Croatia that were unfamiliar to me, particularly Istria, Dalmatia, and the northern regions. Since I was already familiar with the eastern part, best known as Slavonija, I put that region aside for a while. But as I started visiting more places around Croatia, the map looked a bit empty on its eastern side. I couldn’t ignore that gap, so I planned a day-and-a-half visit to Slavonia to photograph and explore as many locations as possible in that short time.
Ever since I started building an archive of photos of Zagreb (first as Lice Grada Media, now as Fotografije Zagreba), Advent in Zagreb has been one of the most popular events of the year. During the Christmas season, better known as Advent in Zagreb, I captured many great photos that were published in different kind of media and attracted a lot of attention.
Let’s be honest: it’s all shiny, beautiful, positive, and people love that kind of atmosphere.
As far as I remember, some of the best Advent photos I took were in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, I started my own business, and since I went all in, Advent was a great opportunity to capture some truly amazing photos. 2019 was just as productive, but 2020 didn’t follow that trend as Covid shut down the entire world.
Now, we’re just a few days away from the newest Advent in Zagreb, so I decided to showcase some of the photos I’ve taken over the past few years (since 2018). If everything goes as planned, I’ll upload photos from the opening days of Advent in Zagreb next Monday (December 2nd).
Even though I registered as a contributor to Shutterstock back in 2014, I only started uploading ten years later, sometime in May 2024. There are many reasons why that happened, but that’s not the point of this post. As I dig deep into my archive to look for photos that could be good for Shutterstock, I often find photos I’ve forgotten about – like photos from Rally Show Santa Domenica.
Rally Show Santa Domenica takes place not far from my home (I’m in Zagreb, and this rally is in Sveta Nedelja). My colleague, with whom I used to test various cars years ago, and I used to go to Rally Santa Domenica and stay there for the entire day. Those were days full of mud, rain, fatigue, more mud, and even more mud.
But, since we were always into cars and rallying, this was fun and exciting for us!
We visited five Rally Santa Domenica events: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018. You may ask what stopped us? Life, probably. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time these days, but maybe we’ll do it again one year.
In this post, I wanted to share my favorite photos from each year. I can’t choose my favorite year, but I know that I’m least happy with 2018. It rained the whole day, we were too tired, we chose bad spots, etc… It wasn’t a good year for photos.
– 2013 –
– 2014 –
– 2015 –
– 2016 –
– 2018 –
After looking all of these photos… I need to go there again!
When I launched the project Croatia Captured in September 2023, one of my goals was to explore parts of Croatia that were unfamiliar to me, particularly Istria, Dalmatia, and the northern regions. Since I was already familiar with the eastern part, best known as Slavonija, I put that region aside for a while. But as I started visiting more places around Croatia, the map looked a bit empty on its eastern side. I couldn’t ignore that gap, so I planned a day-and-a-half visit to Slavonia to photograph and explore as many locations as possible in that short time.
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My idea was to start from Zagreb around 6 am and head to Croatia’s easternmost town—Ilok. I had never been there before, so I was excited about the visit. A few months ago, I read that the city had completed renovations on the walls surrounding the oldest part of the town, so that became my main objective for the visit to Ilok.
The next location was Vukovar. I had visited Vukovar a few times before, even with my camera, but this was my first trip focused only on photographing it. My first stop, naturally, was the famous water tower, which has been renovated and turned into a museum. After the water tower, I strolled around the city center.
After Vukovar, I continued to Vinkovci. I had been there once, around 2010, without my camera, so this visit felt like my first time seeing the town through a photographer’s lens.
At this point in the day, I was quite tired, but I still followed my plan and headed to Đakovo. This was my first visit there. When I was younger, my family and I used to travel to Osijek regularly, and I remember seeing the towers of the Đakovo Cathedral from far away. That was my only connection to this town until now.
After a brief walk around Đakovo, I decided to catch the last rays of the setting sun on my way to Osijek, where I would spend the night. I made a stop at the Kolođvar Fortress near Čepin, which had been on my wishlist for a while. That wrapped up day one.
On the second day, I planned two stops on my way back to Zagreb. The first was Old Town Kaptol. The drive was mostly foggy, which dampened my spirits a bit. Some stretches were breathtaking with autumn forests and clear blue skies, while others were shrouded in thick fog. Then, as if by miracle, just two kilometers before reaching the town Kaptol, I emerged from the fog into clear skies.
I parked next to the old town, which, unfortunately, is permanetly closed. But I walked around it and took a few photos. My next location was another old town – Cernik. Sadly, this time the skies weren’t as clear, but the fog gave the abandoned castle a more mysterious look.
Since it’s mid-November, I think this is my last road trip for Croatia Captured in 2024. I’m happy that the map finally looks more balanced, but I can’t wait for the next adventures!
One more thing! This time, I decided to leave my Fujifilm X-T30II in my backpack and take photos only with the X100V and it’s fixed lens. It was challenging, but I enjoyed it.
As always, find out more about these locations on the Croatia Captured website, where you can also search through over 12,000 images I’ve taken around Croatia since September 2023.
Check my last road trip for the Croatia Captured project:
Back in 2022, I started a project with the goal of photographing every street, square, and park in Zagreb. I’ve been photographing Zagreb for over 15 years, and I needed a new challenge. At that time, I had several ongoing projects – some still active – but Mapping Zagreb was in a different league. I knew this project would last for years, but it was exciting knowing I was gradually gathering photos of the entire city.
When I was younger (much younger), I used to play computer games, and one of my favorite genres were strategy games – specifically, I LOVED Age of Empires. You might be wondering, what does that have to do with this project? Well, in Age of Empires, you’d develop your skills, care for your village/town/kingdom, and slowly expand across the map. When I open my Google Maps, where I mark the parts of the city I’ve photographed, it feels like I’m conquering the map just as I once did in Age of Empires. The biggest difference is my weapon – I use only my camera.
Because of other projects, especially Croatia Captured, my time is spread across various activities. However, while reviewing project statistics from the last three years (with the help of GPT, of course), I was surprised by the numbers. In 2024, I conquered the biggest part of the map yet!
Red color above shows places I’ve photographed, yellow color marks locations that are probably next, and the black is after the yellow.
Zagreb is divided into city quarters (gradska četvrt), which are further divided into local committees (mjesni odbor). Below is a list of the top 10 most photographed city quarters:
Trnje – 252 locations photographed
Donja Dubrava – 173 locations photographed
Donji grad – 170 locations photographed
Trešnjevka – Sjever – 152 locations photographed
Peščenica – Žitnjak – 122 locations photographed
Trešnjevka – Jug – 83 locations photographed
Novi Zagreb – Istok – 60 locations photographed
Maksimir – 51 locations photographed
Gornja Dubrava – 46 locations photographed
Novi Zagreb – Zapad – 17 locations photographed
(Location = street/square/park)
I’m sharing this because the project is going to be on hold for a bit. My goal is to capture photos during spring, summer, or autumn. In the coming weeks, the city will be decorated for Christmas, and trees will lose their leaves, which doesn’t make for the most appealing shots. For that reason, the project will be paused until spring. I might complete one or two more local committees, but that’s a small chance for that.
As always, feel free to check out fotografijezagreba.hr, where you’ll find all these photos and over 100,000 other photos of Zagreb.
So, I have a few ideas for one or two-day road trips I could take before the end of 2024, and this was one of those. On October 15th I had a plan to travel outside Zagreb, so I decided to use that opportunity to visit a few places in Kvarner (specifically, the east side of the Istrian peninsula) and a few places within Istria itself.
I decided to start pretty early so I left Zagreb before 6 am. The weather wasn’t as I had hoped for, but at least it wasn’t raining. Fun fact: when I set off back to Zagreb, the clouds disappeared, and the sun was shining. Yes, fun times.
During the trip, I visited Lovran, Mošćenice (first visited in 2016), Brseč, Old Town Plomin, Old Town Kršan, and Old Town Labin. I had a few more places on the list, but this road trip was too much for one day, and I was too tired, so I set off for Zagreb after Labin.
