I didn’t know what to expect when I traveled to Slovenia’s capital. Ljubljana has been on my radar for quite a while, but I somehow always failed to visit it. When I finally booked my flight, I knew I had to shoot one more edition of Polaroid Diaries. And this time, it didn’t take long to decide which camera I should bring to shoot Ljubljana Polaroids.
It was an easy call. After checking the weather forecast for my early spring journey, I decided to pack my Impulse AF. According to the forecast, the weather would be unstable during my trip to Slovenia: a mixture of sunshine and clouds accompanied by some light rain. After having shot almost thirty diaries, I know that it’s safer to have an instant camera with a flash when the weather is like this. The Impulse AF didn’t let me down in the previous journeys, and I was sure it was the optimal decision.
The weather forecast turned out to be accurate. Although I always think first of my SX-70, I know I have to pick the Impulse AF for unstable weather conditions. It was the perfect choice. As a travel blogger and instant photographer, you can’t choose the time you visit a place. Instead, you must find a way to make the most of the moment. As you can see in the diary, the camera offered me some great Ljubljana Polaroids and handled the times the sky was dark well.
Once again, the time I spent with the Impulse AF was challenging yet rewarding.
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What’s on the Polaroid Diaries: Ljubljana Polaroids
In the 28th edition of my Polaroids, you will see the instant photos I took in Slovenia’s capital. My 8 Polaroids from Ljubljana were taken under different light conditions, which meant I had to tweak the settings often.
If you’ve been following my Polaroid Diaries, you know that I often wondered why I didn’t bring more films with me in the past. However, lately, I feel more secure traveling with just one pack. Although this could very well be a cost-oriented decision due to the film price, I can assure you it’s not. I often rant about how instant photography makes us thoughtful and how important that is in the digital era. Moreover, working the scene and spending time before clicking is always nice.
You might rightly wonder: does it always work? Well, absolutely not. Part of Polaroid photography is to embrace spontaneity and accept that you won’t always get the desired result. That’s the beauty of the medium, and that’s why more and more people are getting into instant photography. My Ljubljana Polaroids, once again, had good and bad moments. However, that’s the best I could do, and as I often claim, I’m happy to have one good photo of every journey.
And I believe I also got it in Ljubljana.
Ljubljana Polaroids with the Impulse AF
On my first walk around Ljubljana, I only had my digital camera with me. As if Murphy’s law had to be once again validated, this turned out to be the only sunny day of my trip. I wanted to scout the locations and somehow pre-plan my Ljubljana Polaroids before shooting them. The Dragon’s Bridge is among the landmarks of the Slovenian capital, and the next day, I decided to shoot my first photo at this spot. Here’s the Polaroid I got.
From the exact same spot, I took a second Polaroid. I was about to head on a river cruise along the Ljubljanica River, and I thought of shooting a photo of the boat I was about to embark on. The bridge offered a nice perspective of the city, and seeing the boat moving slowly, I decided to click.
The following morning, the sky was relatively blue. Only a few clouds appeared behind the mountains. Without second thoughts, I took the funicular to the Castle of Ljubljana. I have heard that there’s a viewpoint in the Castle and you can enjoy spectacular city views from there. The mountains still had snow on their peaks, and when I reached the viewpoint, I saw many people enjoying the view. I waited patiently for my turn, then framed the photo and shot a somewhat panoramic one. Here’s the Polaroid from the Castle and the beautiful city of Ljubljana.
Of course, no Ljubljana Polaroid Diary could be complete without a photo from one of its most famous locations. The Triple Bridge is in the heart of the city center, attached to the iconic Preseren Square. As its name suggests, the Triple Bridge or Tromostovje comprises three bridges spanning the river. The pioneering architect Jože Plečnik also designed an extension in 1929. Due to the film’s format, it was rather hard to photograph it. However, I gave it a try and waited for a passerby to provide me with an extra layer of scale.
The downtown Church of Saint Nicholas is Ljubljana’s Cathedral. It’s an impressive building, visible from every side of the historical center. I walked past it several times during my stay and wanted to take a photo. However, its size made it impossible for a decent polaroid. Instead, I preferred to focus on a detail that caught my attention. The interior is beautiful, but I somehow got attracted by a detail on the exterior:
The remaining days were mostly cloudy. However, I have planned a day trip to Lake Bled, Slovenia’s most famous location. The lake’s highlight is a tiny island on its edge. You can visit the island by traditional rowing boats called Pletna. However, as I already wrote, you can’t choose the weather. The day was cloudy in Ljubljana, and when I arrived at Bled Castle, which overlooked the lake, it started to rain. The tour guide mentioned that we had half an hour at the spot -then, we’d move to the lake and visit Bled Island by a Pletna boat. I waited in vain for the sky to clear. But I wanted a Polaroid, and here’s what I got.
After seeing the result, I knew I couldn’t shoot more instant photos of the landscape. The result wasn’t satisfying, even though I was happy to have at least an image. I had two photos left on my Impulse AF and decided to save them. However, when I arrived in front of the Pletna boat, I knew I couldn’t resist; I had to take a photo. I didn’t think about it twice: Pletnas are iconic and unique pieces produced exclusively in this region. So, here it is.
The final Polaroid was taken on the last day of my trip. It was shot from the window of Ella’s Castle Apartment, where I stayed in Ljubljana. This was also the last time I saw something like clear skies in the city. Shortly afterward, I packed my stuff and headed to the airport for my flight home. On the left side, behind the building, I could see parts of the Ljubljana Castle. But since this was what I mainly saw out of my window, I decided to capture this instead.
And that’s it with the 28th edition of my Polaroid Diaries and the Ljubljana Polaroids.
The camera settings for the Ljubljana Polaroids
Lastly, here is the usual end note that always accompanies the Polaroid Diaries. As you can see in the photos, the varied weather conditions meant I had to improvise a lot. The Impulse AF is a very good instant camera capable of producing impressive results. Its Autofocus system helps a lot to get sharp photos, but the integrated flash that is also always on means that you have to guess the correct exposure.
After shooting several diaries with the Impulse AF, I decided to overexpose all the cloudy pictures by 1/3. Most likely, I should have overexposed by 2/3 or even by a stop the image of Lake Bled. On the other hand, I kept the exposure wheel in the middle for the photos with fair weather conditions. After shooting several films with the camera, I knew that it didn’t make much sense to underexpose under such weather conditions. I would only do that if the light was intense, like in the summertime, and I was about to shoot at noon or early afternoon.
Overall, I was satisfied with the Ljubljana Polaroids with the Impulse AF. It’s a pity that I couldn’t get better images at Lake Bled, but as you know, that’s part of the instant photography game.
And here’s the usual end note of these diaries: the photos you see are not post-processed. I only used a +20 in sharpness for web optimization purposes. Polaroids should always look like Polaroids.
And that’s it with my Ljubljana Polaroids. If you want to see more diaries, get instant photography tips, and read camera reviews, subscribe to my Polaroid mailing list.
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More Polaroids: The complete Polaroid diaries
Polaroid Camera reviews: Polaroid Sun 660 review, Polaroid SX-70, Polaroid NOW+ review
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Last Updated on January 18, 2025 by George Pavlopoulos