Trying to capture traditional Albania on Silbersalz35 film – Part 2

This is the second part of my images from Albania from August/September 2025 with my Minolta SRT-101 on Silbersalz35 (250D) film. The first part can be found here.

Gjirokastra

Cause of bad travel planning we only visited the world-heritage town of Gjirokastra for one day. Gjirokastra has a very worthwhile old town with numerous magnificent houses from the Ottoman period and a large fortress. It has now become one of the main tourist attractions in Albania. Strolling through the small lanes going up the hill there is still a lot of authentic things to discover.

Like many places in Albania, Gjirokastra is full of stray cats. This young white one sat in the court of one of the beautiful houses from the Ottoman era. I really like the softness of the Minolta MC Rokkor-PF 1.4/58mm wide open in this shot.

The old basar of Gjirokastra has already become a thoroughly touristy place. In the shops they’re mostly selling just cheap tourist junk, but there’s surprisingly good food and nice local crafts to be found as well. But on this late August evening the place had still a relaxed vibe.

I’m not a street photographer at all, but here I had to try it a little bit. Some locals in the middle of all the tourists.

Classic street photography fail: I wanted the dog to come in the center of the frame. But it came too slow. Instead the tourist with the white shirt stepped into the frame. I like the image anyway.

View from the town to the huge fortress above it. Cause of bad planning we hadn’t time to visit the fortress which is alone a site for a whole day with history buildings, museums, tunnels and bunkers.

Stray dogs in one the bunker tunnels below the fortress.

Qeparo Fshat and Albanian Riviera

The so-called Albanian Riviera is the Mediterranean coastline in southern Albania. The landscape here is spectacular: high mountains drop steeply into the sea, interspersed with long beaches and hidden coves. In July and August, it gets very crowded with tourists—including many Albanian vacationers— and the beaches can become quite packed. However, we stayed in Qeparo Fshat, an old, partially abandoned village perched on a steep hill high above the sea.

The so-called Tower of Ali Pasha a bit outside of Qeparo Fshat. I don’t understand why this Ottoman regional governor of the early 19th century is regarded here as a kind of national hero.

If Ali Pasha indeed stayed here, he at least had a great view to the Mediterranean. The island in the background is Korfu, part of Greece.

The mountain slopes of the Albanian Riviera are covered with vast olive groves.

You can encounter free-roaming cows almost everywhere: in villages, on the beach, or even on busy roads.

By late August and early September, with a bit of exploring, it’s still possible to find peaceful beaches, like this one below Lukovë.

Little waves…

Sunset at the beach. Big cliché but always beautiful.

Albania is an incredibly photogenic country. There is so much I didn’t capture: the shepherds with their flocks, the makeshift bridges over wild rivers and canyons, the socialist architecture, and the industrial ruins—often set in stunningly beautiful landscapes. You could fill an entire coffee-table book with those alone.

I hope I can return someday (before everything has changed) with Medium Format and shoot all this.

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