The Eiger and Slide Scanning

Last year I sorted and scanned a shortlist of about 2000 film images, both positives (slides) and negatives, that I had taken in my formative photographic days (between about 1997 and 2006). I traveled a lot over that period of my life, really just exploring the world and searching for meaning. The main reason for scanning them was to archive those memories before the slides physically deteriorated anymore as the film was starting to get some fungus growth on it. I hope to eventually edit them up to do them justice, but this is a long term project and in the mean time you might see a few of these early travel shots posted here and there.

Both of these two shots are taken of the Eiger, and date back to 2001 when I lived in Switzerland for a while and spent time in the mountains . The Eiger is an imposing 3,970-metre (13,020 ft) mountain that forms part of the Bernese Alps looking over the valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The first shot is a zoom on the Eiger itself and the precipitous northern wall. Known as the Eigerwand or Nordwand, it is at 1,800-metres (5,900 ft) the biggest north face in the Alps. First climbed in 1935 it is subject to several famous movies and books. It is often cynically referred to as Mordwand, which translates to "murder wall", as it is taken the lives of at least sixty-four climbers.

The second shot is a longer exposure taken just after sunset with lower light and has a lot more film grain. It has a slight purple tint that was the signature of Fuji Velvia when you took a longer exposure. The first shot in contrast was also shot on Fuji Velvia however in brighter light with shorter exposure times. You can see how much sharper the first shot is and with no sign of the blue hour purple tint.

It is interesting to see what photographically influenced me then verses now and look back at both the complexities, and simplicity, of film vs the modern digital age. Expectations about aspects of photos such as dynamic range and image sharpness have changed a lot with the with advent of high res digital sensors. My personal expectations about composition and subject placement have also changed as my style has evolved.

The Bernese Oberland is in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. Let me know what shot you prefer? I have entered this post into the Steemit World Map Challenge run by @runicar ; I think the Steemit World Map is an undervalued tool on the Steem ecosystem.

If you would like to learn a little bit more about my background in photography you can read the interview @photofeed did with me here

Robert Downie
Love Life, Love Photography

_{All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com}