South Kučaj - An Unforgettable Mountain

In the east of Serbia, there is a huge forested area. Mountain Kučaj is 40 km long and almost entirely covered with rich forests of lush maple and ash. The southern part of this mountain, Southern Kučaj, is one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the whole of Serbia. Although relatively modest in height, with the highest peak of only 1,284 meters, rich in waters and with a moderate climate, this area is considered the least populated area in the urban part of Europe.

One of the forests on the slopes of the Kučaj Mountains is considered the last true rainforest in this part of Europe. In some parts of the Vinatava forest, the human foot has not stepped for centuries. Even in more accessible areas, there is a total ban on any interference with nature.

These beautiful forests are full of streams and caves. In some parts, centuries-old forests are so dense that sunrays never broke into them. The mysterious beauties of this mountain are most impressive in the fall when golden and red tones rules and when the air is full of autumn scents.

A few years ago, I was invited to spend one weekend touring the slopes of this beautiful mountain. Even though I had a serious injury of my knee, I had no doubt. These slopes are relatively easy and they should put low stress on my legs. In other words - I should survive. My life was a mess at that time, and I needed some time away to calm my restless mind. So, naturally, I said - yes :)

Two days were filled with the beautiful scenes of this lovely mountain. On the second day, the road led us through a beautiful forest, which was painted by the autumn in the most beautiful shades of golden and red. Captivated, I rested to enjoy the beautiful view of the path winding through this forest. And also, my leg hurt like hell.

On that trip, I almost did not engage in photography. At that time, my photo equipment was an already obsolete Canon camera that couldn't cope with low light situations. Since we spent almost two days burried deep into the forests of South Kučaj, the number of photos I had taken was almost single-digit. But, the scene of the forest road was a very nice one, so I decided to give it a shot. I found the location I liked and started taking pictures.

At that moment, other cyclists arrived. I took a few photos as they passed me and decided that that was enough. I was already a little tired and, as I said, my leg decided to hurt a lot. Also, unlike my usual trips, I had neither a map nor navigation of the area. And let me remind you - it is one of the less populated areas in the whole of Europe. Having hopelessly lost myself earlier that day, I decided to hurry up and catch the front of the group.

Generally, I tend to leave the photos to rest for a while. I like to subconsciously review impressions of the trip before I edit and publish photos. (This is why you are going to wait for Lisbon photos for another week or two) So, I didn't look at the photos from the South Kucaj for some time. Even when I look at them, a blurry photo of my good friend chasing an autumn forest path didn't seem to be attention-grabbing. With disappointment, I could say that my old faithful Canon had failed to deal with a cyclist on the move in low light. The photo was blurry and a bit out of focus.

Later that day, I sent the photo to Lesandro, a friend who was on it. More than by mistake than by decision, I tagged the photo to sync with the Adobe Stock Photo Sales site. As I mentioned in one of the previous articles - I do stock photography occasionally and you can find some of my photos in stock sites. After that, without exaggeration, in the next couple of weeks, I completely forgot about this photo.

At the end of the month, the sales report from Adobe Stock arrived. I was shocked to see that one of my photos was sold in over 50 copies. I logged on and with a huge surprise saw that my Autumn Cycling photo had risen to the sky. It was the absolute bestseller.

This photo has been in my portfolio for several years. Every fall it is an absolute hit and with no small pride, I do the Reverse Image Search from time to time to check who is using it. I won't tell you all the secrets, but let me just mention that a photo of a mountain in Eastern Serbia advertises some much more famous locations around the world ;)

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