Syd Kap, July, 1970 Photo

Photographer’s Note

Well, here's another one from the archives. The "archives" consist of a dusty box in the loft with boxes of slides and old prints. This is one of a series of pictures I took during a university expedition to East Greenland exactly 38 years ago, in the summer of 1970.

This is a very young me sitting on a rock at Syd Kap, where we had the use of a small wooden hut. I am admiring the icebergs which lie pretty much at the junction of two large masses of water - Scoresby Sund, which passes out to the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and Nordvest Fjord, the longest fjord in the World, which travels right into the centre of Greenland.

Picture shot with my old Edixa Prismat SLR on Kodachrome 64 which was pretty new at the time and almost 2 stops faster than Kodachrome 25 which, in turn was almost 2 stops faster than the original Kodachrome, if anyone else remembers that - it was 10 ASA or ISO 10!

Transparency scanned and then edited in PSE6. Most of the editing was to clone out piles of dust and crud on the picture.

All comments/critiques/advice welcome.

macondo, lrw1966, saxo042 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

macondo (13519) 2008-06-30 13:47

Hi John.
I think this shot has historical significance as well as sentimental/nostalgic. I wonder if those icebergs are so close to this spot today, with global warming etc. Anyway, you've done a good job of the scan and restoration, and the photo was quite nicely composed when taken, with the pleasing diagonal of the headland on which you are sitting, and the farther point on the right to give depth to the shot. The sky has come out pretty well with some good cloud detail. I presume you used a self-timer on the old camera. I like to see these old archival shots appearing on TE every so often. Well done.
Regards,
Andrew

graffer (1764) 2008-07-01 1:18

Hello John,

This one must really bring back the memories for you. I too have a lot of these old transparencies, mostly Agfa CT 18, and you may remember commenting some of my efforts to revive them. How did you scan this one?

This has come up excellently - the colours are soft - possibly due to the long time in storage I imagine, but this gives a suitable effect of age to the image. It has of course rejuvenated the centre of attraction here!

A memorable picture.

Regards,

Peter.

lrw1966 (1632) 2008-07-01 8:26

John Hi:
How special and wonderful that old dusty box is, I hope you never forget where it is. I really like this historical image. Very well done with an excellent photograghic history lesson for a note. Congratulations, very well done.
Larry
USA-tfs

Glint (3196) 2008-07-02 1:03

And you had an eye for a good composition even then!
Bev

saxo042 (17332) 2008-07-02 12:54

Hi John,
Looking at the thumbprint, I saw "Denmark" and a small figure near a stone. Immediately I thought: The Mermaid in Copenhagen! But it wasn´t! It was even better!

A beautiful landscape and a very fine photo. You must have given a good instruction to your companion how to take this picture, or maybe he had a very good eye himself (or herself).

I also know that it is quite fun to find something in your archive and post it here (I still have some from 1960!)

Greetings from Gothenburg
Gunnar