Grand canyon du Verdon

This is the end of the Verdon canyon, where the Verdon river flows into a large, artificial lake. We spent most of our time climbing, though we did rent canoes for an hour and went rowing as far as we could - which wasn't very far. The photo itself was taken on film with my old Konica, I used Fuji's Velvia film which is perfect for showing off the strong colours.

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.

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).

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.

Winter sunrise

This photo of a winter sunrise over the Sava river was taken this winter, close to where I live.
For some reason or another, I had to get up early one cold Saturday morning (I think I had to drive someone somewhere), and I figured I might as well take the opportunity for some photography. I tossed one of my two old Konicas - the one with Velvia colour film (I always keep colour film in one and black and white film in the other), a few lenses and a sturdy tripod into my car. I went to a nice spot along the river that's isolated and shot of almost an entire roll of film (36 exposures).

Many of the photos were bracketed - which means that I took the same photo at two or three different exposures (light settings). This is because with tricky conditions such as these (the sun shinning directly into the camera), light meters have a hard time determining the correct exposure, especially older meters such as the ones found in the 30 year old Konicas. New cameras have better light meters and all sorts of electronic tricks, but even they can get confused sometimes. In the days of film, professionals often bracketed photos because the price of film wasn't as important as getting the perfect shot. With digital, bracketing has become less important, mostly because you can check the photo on the spot and decide on any changes right there - something you can't do with film. Besides bracketing the exposure itself, one can also bracket focus, white balance or flash.

Mountains of Austria

Taken on a recent ski trip to Mokrine (Nassfeld in German) from one of the higher peaks of the ski resort. I don't know any of the mountains by name, but they sure look imposing. The photo was taken on film (Velvia, of course), I only took around five or six photos during the entire day, because I only had my film EOS camera with me and I managed to forget two rolls of film in my car (which was back in Ljubljana) - and I only had those five or six shots left on the film that was still in the camera. Oh well, that just ment I got more skiing in.

Festive Ljubljana

Taken sometime around the holidays, this shows Ljubljana in its most festive mood. The bridge in the photo is Čevljarski Most (Shoemaker's bridge), behind it is the center of town. The photo itself was taken on Veliva colour film which is great for showing off the beautiful colours reflecting in the Ljubljanica river. Obviously, I had to use a tripod and a slow shutter speed, which is why the river is so silky smooth. I was thinking of cropping in a bit tighter to show the bridge, but in the end I decided to show more of the reflections in the water. I think it came out quite nicely :-)

Chevy Nova SS

This is (as far as I can tell) a third generation Chevy Nova SS. I was driving along and just had to pull over when I saw it - american muscle cars are quite rare in Europe, even more so in Slovenia. The photo was taken on Velvia film, which perfectly shows off the red-purple colour.

Star trails

Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

This was taken on Velvia film one night at Rašica, which is a village on a hill overlooking Ljubljana. The bright light behind the tree on the right is light pollution from the city. The camera was on a tripod and the exposure time is a few minutes (six, if I remember correctly, this is why the stars are streaks instead of being points of light). It was pretty cold so I was waiting in my car. When I opened this up in Photoshop to resize it for the web, the first thing that came to mind is the rhyme above, even though these are not the first stars of the night. As always, you can click it for a larger picture.

Trnovo bridge

Like the church in Trnovo, this was done on velvia film on a tripod at night. It's actually from almost the exact same spot as the church, only in the opposite direction. This bridge is very new, and I like it quite a lot, though I've heard it is responsible for quite a bit of light pollution. This year is the international year of astronomy, and this is one of the things which astronomers are fighting, since it makes star gazing much harder. From a photographic point of view, I agree completely. It's nearly impossible to take photos of the night sky anywhere near Ljubljana (or most other cities), since the sky is just way too bright.

Trnovo church

Another night shot done on film, this time the church in Trnovo.

Tanngrisnir?

Tanngrisnir is one of the two goats which, in Norse mythology, pulled Thor's flying chariot. This fellow appears to be a bit too young for something like that. The photo was taken on Velvia color film.

Night highway

I love nighttime photography - especially on Velvia film. One interesting thing about photos taken at night is that they have such strong colors. Our eyes tend to see less color in low light - walking in a dark forest at night, you see pretty much black and white (let's leave aside the fact that you are probably scared stiff by even the tiniest of sounds). But film (and digital cameras, of course) doesn't do this (and it doesn't get scared, either ;-)).

This shot has an exposure of around a minute or two, with my Konica on a sturdy tripod. I used bulb mode and a remote trigger, which has a small screw to hold it in place - this way you can easily take exposures of minutes or even hours.

Ljubljana sunset

As I mentioned previously, Veliva film has awesome saturated colours. This is a cheap scan, it looks much better when viewed on a slide projector (which, in Slovenia, we call a dia-projector).