Photographers Note
The Åland Islands (Swedish: Åland, Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. It is situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and forms an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking administrative province, region and historical province of Finland. It is the smallest province of Finland, comprising 0.50% of Finland's population and 0.49% of land area. Although it belongs to Finland, the culture is close to the Swedish one. It has self-government and an own flag. The capital of Aland is Mariehamn.
The islands consist of the main island, Fasta Åland (where 90% of the population resides) and an archipelago to the east that consists of over 6,500 skerries and islands. The main island is separated from the coast of Sweden by forty kilometres (twenty-five miles) of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is virtually contiguous with the Finnish Archipelago Sea.
(Wikipedia)
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Geta is a municipality of Åland. The municipality has a population of 461 and covers an area of 87.21 km˛ of which 2.80 km˛ is water. Geta is almost an island itself, connected to the main island by just a narrow isthmus. The beautiful nature and the various possibilities to enjoy it are perhaps the best known things in Geta. The highest point of Geta rises 107 metres above sea level and there are great views around Geta, towards the forest covered rock chain and over the fjord like bays towards the sea. Soltuna restaurant & café and lookout tower is situated at the top. From here you may walk along Grottstigen (The Cave trail, 5 km) via the Geta cave and down to the beautiful bay Djupviken, or bring the children along for Trollstigen (The Troll trail, 1 km). The hilltop also has a name Kasberget, which refers to its use as singal fire hill at ancient times.
More information on Åland Official Tourist Gateway and here is more about Geta.
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This photo is scanned from a B&W negative and was shot in summer 1957. We were with my brother in that summer as hired hands in two farms separated by a couple of kilometres in Hammarland village of Åland. My dad decided, that it would be a good way to learn Swedish language, the second official language in Finland. We were of course
studying Swedish at school, but obviously with not a good success. :-) That summer sure helped a lot, because the farmers' families did not know a word of Finnish. In the weekends we had free time and we used to bike with my brother all around Åland. One weekend we went to Geta and biked up the road to the highest point. There indeed were amazing views. We saw in addition to the further lying sea also two small beautiful lakes in the distance. We left the bikes and walked to the first lake, name Svartträsk (Black lake), less than 2 km from the hill top. This picture is from the lake.
PP: After scan the contrast was rather poor. I have tried to improve the contrast and clarity.
Critiques | Translate
JanD
(14606) 2008-10-03 6:39
Howdy Lasse!
Very interesting black and white shot. Nice landscape. Good capture. Very good frame. Original picture.
Regards!
saxo042
(15448) 2008-10-03 7:01
Hej Lasse,
Very interesting old photo, I don´t think I even had a camera in 1957. But that was the first summer I had a job at the paper mill at Koppom, so I remember that year clearly. You had the eye for composition already here, that is quite visible. Interesting that you apparently grew up with the Finnish language, but having a Swedish name. Not so common for Swedes to study Finnish, but we have some friends in Jyväskylä and studied Finnish "iltakoulussa kaksi vuotta! Se on hyvin vakea mutta kaunis kieli!"
I hope I got that right:-)
Greetings from Gothenburg
Gunnar
Longroute
(9149) 2008-10-03 8:58
Even if it's an old scanned image it preserves most of it's original charm. The composition is typical of yours, well thught of, the only thing that it lacks is the pure white. It remainds me some W.&B. slides I made from negatives: the grays looks like silver. A good shot, interesting to see.
Ciao,
Donato
mauro61
(15154) 2008-10-03 10:31
ciao Lasse ,
ottimo bianco e nero con questi alberi piegati sulla riva del fiume.
Buona la luce e la saturazioe.
saluti
maurizio
fanni
(8733) 2008-10-03 14:06
Hello Lasse,
very interesting version of the landscape - in b&w! It brings back memories of my childhood when I used to take b&w photos with an old film camera...
Very good composition; very pleasant view... somehow even despite its b&w colours the picture looks "multicoloured"!
best regards,
Elena
PS. I'm using the moments when TE seems to be working again!
Clementi
(43589) 2008-10-03 14:21
Ciao Lasse,
very nice shot,my compliment on the scanning. a 50 year photo but does not show them. instead he shows your great photographer's cleverness.
Giorgio
paololg
(13518) 2008-10-03 15:06
Ciao Lasse,
the photographic quality of your scanner is unbelievable. This photo doesn't absolutely seem sort in 1957, also because the definition of the details is excellent. Yours photos from scanner are the most beautiful of TE, bravissimo!
Ciao, happy w.e.
Paolo
papagolf21
(56141) 2008-10-04 0:42
Bonjour, Lasse,
Une photo de 1957, cela ne nous rajeunit pas et me replonge dans mon enfance !
Une chose est certaine la composition est trčs jolie et n'a perdu de sa splendeur.
Une véritable réussite. Merci d'avoir exhumé une gemme de qualité.
Amitiés.
Philippe
gracious
(20017) 2008-10-04 1:57
Hello Lasse,
This is something worth to keep for rememberance from the past, very impressive to see a old photo from a conventional camera! the image is still sharp with good details as well!
thank for the useful notes regarding this place!
well done
have a wonderful weekend, Lasse!
Tony
stego
(22350) 2008-10-04 7:26
Hi Lasse,
Wow! What a quality for a 51 years old photo! It has an irresistible "classic" appeal. I don't know how seriously you took Photography those days, but the compo is highly achieved, having nothing to do with an occasional snapshot.
It's funny that I haven't noticed the lack of sharpness at first and I even thought the clarity was remarkable. I guess that the little blur actual looks nice instead of being exactly a flaw. I think you did a good job with the contrast and it was difficult to do much better because of the nature of the subject. Maybe it lacks clearly white spots, but having that would imply loosing much of the wealth of greys.
Thank you for sharing those good memories with us.
Regards, José.
cobra112
(11318) 2008-10-04 14:20
Ciao Lasse. Una lavoro fantastico che questo scatto di 51 anni meritava davvero. Atmosfera fiabesca accentuata dala leggera sfocatura. Da toliersi il cappello.
Roberto
Silvio1953
(41390) 2008-10-05 14:44
Hi Lasse, fascinating B&W landscape, great summer memory, I think one of oldest post on TE, great quality for a scan, very well done, have a good week end, ciao Silvio
Nolme
(5286) 2008-10-06 3:42
beau cadrage de ces arbres. Le noir et blanc collent bien ā la photo.
marie
ktanska
(16502) 2008-10-06 4:45
Hei Lasse,
Very interesting oldie. That landscape looks just perfect for hiking. Rocky terrain leaves open space between struggling pines. PP is not really unnoticeable but never mind. It gives good attention to those two pines that appear sharper than others.
Correct location would be Aland >> Geta.
Kari
Photo Information
-
Copyright: Lasse Lofstrom (ellelloo)
(4731) - Genre: Places
- Medium: Black & White
- Date Taken: 1957-08-00
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Theme(s): Pre-digital III (stego), Your favourites [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2008-10-03 6:29
- Favorites: 1 [view]
Discussions
- To ktanska: correction (1)
by ellelloo, last updated 10-06 05:28 - To Nolme: Merci (1)
by ellelloo, last updated 10-06 04:34 - To stego: thanks (1)
by ellelloo, last updated 10-04 08:28 - To saxo042: this and that (1)
by ellelloo, last updated 10-03 10:13








