Vogel

The ski resort of Vogel, above Lake Bohinj during the summer. The photo was taken from the near by mountain hut of Komna around four years ago with an old film camera.

Red leaf

Taken on film about four years ago - I don't remember where but I love the color of the leaf.

On belay

I don't even remember when I took this - it was taken on film, probably a couple of years ago. I had the photograph in my dia-projector for ages and didn't bother with it because the scan quality was so bad. I took some time to fix it and it came out pretty good. I'm still in love with the colors of Fuji's Velvia film :-)

Anyhow, this is at Napoleonica (as is this ship, this sunset and this castle), where Blaž was belaying a climber in the late afternoon sunshine on a winter day.

Colorful umbrellas

I love this shot - I took it on Velvia film during a walk through Ljubljana. The only reason I even took this walk was because I had a few more shots on that roll of film to take, and I was on my way to get it developed. But being in the right place at the right time worked out well.

Fujifilm's Velvia film is probably the best for something like this. It has beautiful, strong colours, some of which are very very hard to capture with digital. Deep reds and purples are the hardest to get right on digital - overexpose by just the tiniest bit and that beautiful red Ferrari gets an orange tinge (speaking from experience).

A big thank-you to Primoz Gabrijelčič, who scanned this and a few other slides for me. Oh, and I've also written up a post at Monitor's blog (slovene only) on the topic of scanning.

Going up!

I took this a few months ago in one of Slovenia's larger climbing areas, Kotečnik. Barbara is doing the climbing, and the photo was taken on slide film with an older Canon EOS film camera.

Edit: I didn't even realise it at first, but because of the light, she looks like she's climbing into the sky. Or am I imagining it?

Cranes

These cranes stand directly across from the cafe where Žiga and I drink most of our coffee. With the right light, such as here, after a storm, they can be quite majestic. I took this on film, one of the first rolls I ever took with my old Konica.

Work of art

Žiga standing next to a photograph of his at a photography exhibition held at Ljubljana's Celica Hostel. His photo is the one on the right - the two buildings. This shot was taken on black and white film.

Snow shoveller

A photo of my brother, taken this winter while he was shovelling snow. He looks to me like some Afghan tribesman. Taken on film.

Analog vs. Digital

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the second part of photos from our recent climbing trip to Arco, Italy, they'll come soon. But in the mean time, here's a nice photo from a few months ago. That's Gregor playing around with the then-new Nikon D90, which I was testing. This shot was taken with my old Konica on black and white film with a 50 mm F1,4 lens. Given these two cameras (the Nikon D90 and the 30 year old Konica Autoreflex T4), I have to admit I prefer photographing with the Konica. Sure, a digital camera such as the D90 saves a lot of time and makes things much simpler, but photographing on film is just so much more fun and just feels better.

Parlament photographer

Photography at night is usually more about trial and error than about light meters and such. Usually, the best way to go about it is to take a few test shots (with a digital camera) and find settings that are as close as possible to what you want to achieve. This was taken from a tripod in front of the Slovenian Parlament, that's Žiga on the left trying to sit still for the few seconds which I needed for this shot. Taken with one of my old Konicas with black and white film.

My balloon

This is probably as good as it gets in life - you are four years old (five?), you get a balloon and you spend an afternoon looking at some weird old cars. There are adults all around getting excited about these old cars, you're not sure what the point is (after all, aren't new cars better than old ones?), but it doesn't matter, you have a balloon.

Anyhow, this was taken with my old Konica on black and white film at a old-timer meeting in the center of Ljubljana sometime last year. With photography, you can usually tell the time period of a photograph by small details such as cars. But with photographing old cars such as these with an old film camera, I could probably convince people that the photos were taken thirty or forty years ago.

Frequent flyer

This is Gregor, catching some air on a recent ski trip to Austria (the same trip this photo was taken). This wasn't the easiest of photographs to take. First off, I only had 3 shots left on the roll of film (Fujifilm's Sensia Dia/Slide film), and I had forgotten spare rolls in my car, back in Ljubljana. Besides this, these conditions are not easy to photograph - shooting into the sun with shadows in the foreground and on the main subject isn't easy, especially with the simpler light reader in my old EOS 10s. I metered off the shadowy snow in the foreground and hoped for the best. Also, I had no clue where exactly Gregor was going to come over the hump, since I didn't see him until the last minute.

All in all, I got lucky that the metering was as good as could be, and that I caught him in time to be able to get a nice composition. Though it might look like a small jump here, it's actually quite high, especially if you're not ready for it.

A look

Black and white photography is special because it removes one layer of visual information (the colour) and thus makes the story behind the photograph that much more important. It is most often used in portrait photography for this very reason - it makes the person in the photograph take center stage. It is simple and to the point, and because of this, I find that it takes a bit more effort to get it right. Though when someone gives you a look such as this one, it doesn't take much to get it right.

I have often mentioned to people who ask me how to get better at photography that they should make things as simple as possible. By eliminating colour you concentrate on other, usually more important things - both technical (the composition and perspective) and artistic.

I almost forgot to mention that this was taken after climbing the same day as this similar photo of Žiga.

Tired?

I love this photo of Žiga, it just looks so old-school. It was, of course, taken on black and white film after we finished climbing one sunny day. He looks tired as hell here, which is about what I'm feeling right now :P

In a line

Again a photograph taken on film. Seems like that's becoming a trend here on our blog, but we don't mind. Anyhow, this was taken in Koper during the sunset, these streetlights are placed just along the pier facing out towards the open sea (this was taken about an hour after I shot this ship entering port). Yes, the sky really was that colour - and I have the slide to prove it (though it looks even better on the slide).

A penny for your thoughts?

You know how you sometimes wonder what exactly is going on in someone's head? It's even worse with photography, especially on film. Because you take a picture and only see it much later - sometimes days, sometimes weeks or even months after you took it. I have an especially terrible memory and often forget many of the photos I take on film. So when you see a photo such as the one above, you often wonder exactly what was going on during that moment in time.

As for the photo - our friend Nina at a small photography exhibition in Ljubljana's Celica Hostel, taken on black and white film with my 30 year old Konica.

One cold winter morning

Sometimes, photography is being in the right place at the right time. The trick is to know, to feel, where this place is and when to be there. This is usually much trickier than it sounds, and it is often the difference between amateur photographers (like Žiga and I) and the pros. People like Galen Rowell knew (and know) when the light was going to be just right and where to be to show it off. The rest of us just try to get lucky as much as possible, as in this shot. Taken on the same morning as this previous photo on the shore of the Sava river, the sun was just beginning to rise and it showed of the rising mists very nicely. Taken on film, of course.

Into port

This was taken during our recent coffee in Koper. We caught an incredible sunset and I took quite a few photos - around 20, to be exact, all on film. This is one of the better ones - this ship was waiting for a tug to pull it into port. And yes, the colours are exactly the same as on film.

A work in progress

Ljubljana's castle is probably its most known landmark. But, as we've already shown in one photograph, it's undergoing reconstruction. This shot was taken from my sister's apartment, which is in the very center of town, with my old Konica. As with most of my night photos, I used film and a sturdy tripod. The sky behind the castle is as bright as it is because of light polution, the magenta colour of the castle is from floodlights which light it up every night. They are actually never magenta, but change colours - in this case, the camera caught both red and blue and put them together :-)

Smile, man!

This is a photo of a friend of ours, who's name also happens to be Jure. Taken during a picnic last summer on black and white film. I could probably go around convincing people this was taken twenty or thirty years ago - though I'm not sure how common dreadlocks were back then.