Pelister National Park’s Large Lake View
Nestled high in Pelister National Park near my hometown of Bitola, Large Lake sits at 2,200 meters above sea level and feels like a hidden jewel of the Macedonian mountains. In 2022, I hiked there with a few of my closest childhood friends, following the rocky but well-marked trail that takes around four hours to reach the lake. We spent the night in the small dormitory by the water, sipping mountain tea and soaking in the alpine quiet before climbing up to the peak of Veternica the next morning. While exploring the lakeside, I noticed a cluster of mountain flowers and decided they would make the perfect foreground for my composition. I framed the shot with the flowers in front, the lake as the middle ground, and my hometown of Bitola fading into the distance. Using my Nikon D800 with a 17–35mm lens and my NiSi polarizing filter to enrich the colours, I finally got the shot I envisioned, a memory of home framed through nature’s perspective.
