A Mini World Tour -- Warning: Lots of Images

[ksz]

This is the digital photography section, but I was browsing some scanned photos recently and was struck by how natural film looks, even when digitally scanned. Digital cameras produce nice images, of course, but I think they tend to look somewhat sterile.

So perhaps with a bit of nostalgia I decided to post a variety of images constituting a mini world tour, all of which were taken on film with either a Minolta or Nikon SLR. More than 90% were shot on slide film.

Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria

Paris from Eiffel

Paris from Eiffel - Opposite side

In need of wideangle

Somewhere near the Louvre

Florence

Coloseum in Rome

The Vatican "key"

St. Peter's Basilica

Trevi

 

[ksz]

Vernal Falls, Yosemite and the Mist Trail

Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point

Touloume Meadows

Ranger Talk

Half Home at Dusk

Somewhere around Mt. Rainier

More Mt. Rainier

 

[ksz]

Colorado Rockies

Maroon Bells

Maroon Bells

Pike's Peak

Royal Gorge Bridge

Singapore at Dusk

Espalande under construction

Singapore

Boat Quay

 

[-hh]

Very nice stuff. Reminds me that I need to get off my butt and starting to scan in more 35mm film too. And do some more travelling too.


BTW, for Neuschwanstein, I assume that your image was taken some distance up the trail beyond the viewing bridge? Do you recall how many hours up the trail it was?

IIRC, this was the view from ~30 minutes up. Still on the side and still much lower elevation:

The main problem we had was that it wasn't clear to us at the time if it was a "4 hour hike" one way, or round trip, to the end of the trail where you get the front view of the main gate. We didn't have enough time for either, but was hoping on getting lucky with a partial, semi-respectable view.

-hh

 

[ksz]

Very nice stuff. Reminds me that I need to get off my butt and starting to scan in more 35mm film too. And do some more travelling too.

Thanks! It would have been a daunting task to scan 38 carousels filled with slides so I used a Nikon Super Coolscan with 50-slide autofeeder. After a few test runs, the project went very well. I scanned an average of 4 carousels a day while doing other things...quite painless.

BTW, for Neuschwanstein, I assume that your image was taken some distance up the trail beyond the viewing bridge? Do you recall how many hours up the trail it was?

As I recall, I went up the trail for about 90 minutes and managed to get head-on views with the lake in the background. The view I posted, though, was probably from an hour or less.

IIRC, this was the view from ~30 minutes up. Still on the side and still much lower elevation:

You were working with very difficult light. Have you tried to punch up the lowlights (shadows)? I have a similar but lower angle, albeit with more favorable lighting:

The main problem we had was that it wasn't clear to us at the time if it was a "4 hour hike" one way, or round trip, to the end of the trail where you get the front view of the main gate. We didn't have enough time for either, but was hoping on getting lucky with a partial, semi-respectable view.

I had the same concern. It it weren't for the people waiting below for me to return, I would have continued the hike until I found the postcard angle.

 

[Zmmyt]

Really great pictures, but I wouldn't call it a "world tour".

 

[ksz]

...but I wouldn't call it a "world tour".

More to come...

 

[simie]

Really great photo's - I like the waterfalls and the cityscapes

 

[iGary]

Lots of good memories there - especially Yosemite.

 

[Mr. Jones]

I like a lot of those. Other ones, the color could use some basic color altering, and others could use some simple cropping. Other than that, it's some really good work.

 

[ksz]

In keeping with the theme of a mini world tour, let's expand the collection:

Roman ruins outside Tripoli (Libya)

Monaco

Casino Monte Carlo

 

[ksz]

Tokyo (Winter)

Nikko (outside Tokyo), an old Shogan village

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil

On the way to Mt. Fuji

Parthenon

 

[ksz]

Athens

Sounion, Temple of Poseidon

 

[ksz]

I like a lot of those. Other ones, the color could use some basic color altering, and others could use some simple cropping. Other than that, it's some really good work.

Agreed. These were all batch scanned and could use various amounts of post-processing.

 

[-hh]

Thanks! It would have been a daunting task to scan 38 carousels filled with slides so I used a Nikon Super Coolscan with 50-slide autofeeder. After a few test runs, the project went very well. I scanned an average of 4 carousels a day while doing other things...quite painless.

When you're done with that Super Coolscan, are you going to sell it?

You were working with very difficult light. Have you tried to punch up the lowlights (shadows)? I have a similar but lower angle, albeit with more favorable lighting...

I've worked it over some. You're spot-on about the difficult lighting: because of the time of day (very late afternoon), the presented side of the castle was fully in shadow for me.


FWIW, one thing that we did learn was that they pump 500(!) tour groups through Neuschwanstein every day, and that the last of these leave a few minutes before 5pm. If you get to the courtyard (as if you had a ticket) at around 4:45pm and hang out, this area will clear out of people and you can get a nice look-around and some photos of the architecture without too many other people around.


-hh

 

[ksz]

When you're done with that Super Coolscan, are you going to sell it?

Ha! Not as long as I'm still shooting film!

FWIW, one thing that we did learn was that they pump 500(!) tour groups through Neuschwanstein every day, and that the last of these leave a few minutes before 5pm. If you get to the courtyard (as if you had a ticket) at around 4:45pm and hang out, this area will clear out of people and you can get a nice look-around and some photos of the architecture without too many other people around.

Thanks for the tip.

BTW, visiting castles and palaces is a favorite tourist activity for me and I've visited several in Germany, England, Ireland, Austria, France, and Italy. I was, however, disappointed in Buckingham whose rear wing, as you might know, was opened to the public at the turn of the millennium. The large dinning table was chipped and scratched, the vases were nowhere as spectacular as the ones in German castles, and even the floor creaked! Windsor was much better.

But in general, I was more impressed by the structures in mainland Europe.