A new old project

[Mike Shimwell]

In the latter half of 1995 and into early 1996 I was furtunate to be able to spend several months travelling in southern and eastern africa. During my trip I carried my AE1 and 30 rolls of Kodachrome (plus it now transpirese some E6 film as well) in my rucsac. The slides have sat pretty well untouched in the loft or other storage since my return, but I have in the last couple of days started working through them with the scanner. They do seem to have deteriorated a bit over time, and the lack of sharpness is quite shocking!! But, they give me a real flavour of the time I spent there and so I am intending to work through the full set and then print them in 'keepsake' size. I might even splash out on a photobook as well.

These images are all from a very important time for me - I met Sue whilst travelling in Zimbabwe - and so I find them terribly evocative of the land. We returned to Namibia in 1998 and the first sense I had on leaving the plane was of the smell of the bush and bright white light that permeates everything. That took me straight home.

I was reading to my daughter the other night and the story picked up on Adam and Eve and the garden of eden. When I traveled in Africa I always felt that it had once been eden (of course that is probably correct anthropolgically too) but has suffered much at the hands of fallen man. Even today, through all the troubles that men and land suffer throughout the continent, this remains the most wonderful and evocative land.

I will share some pictures here over the next few weeks, and hopefully some of you will find something within them that speaks to you.

Mike


Baobab, Kruger National Park, South Africa

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

...I will share some pictures here over the next few weeks, and hopefully some of you will find something within them that speaks to you.

Hi Mike,

This is a very interesting tale you've started telling us, I am hooked already. Please continue by showing more pics when you can find the time.

I too have been scanning the odd slide every now and then and I fully understand where you're coming from when you write: "the lack of sharpness is quite shocking!". It seems that only by going digital and using better and better lenses, I have started to see the real difference a sharp lens can make. Softness in itself is something which can be dealt with by using convolution sharpening, but the problem with scanning film is the grain which one gets for free as part of the package ;-).

Re. the tree picture, it is quite good. On my office monitor, the black areas seem to be plugged. Is that so? In that case, you can easily crop two thirds of the black part below the horizon to make the composition a bit more balanced, but this is a first impression I've got now. I'll write back from home tonight.

Cheers,

 

[Mike Shimwell]

I climbed most of the way up Cathedral peak - missing only the last scramble after mistakenly getting into a difficult and very dangerous position on the rock. The weather was breathtaking, but the clouds rolled in as we headed out of the mountains. The road took us back through the Zulu homelands (iirc). This is the view as I looked out on leaving the Cathedral Peak reserve area.

Kwazulu Natal

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Cem, thank you. I was able to dig some more detail out of the slide (amazing what's in there actually) but thought I'd let this one sink into darkness. You're right, I should probably crop it square

Mike

 

[Asher Kelman]

In the latter half of 1995 and into early 1996 I was furtunate to be able to spend several months travelling in southern and eastern africa. During my trip I carried my AE1 and 30 rolls of Kodachrome (plus it now transpirese some E6 film as well) in my rucsac. The slides have sat pretty well untouched in the loft or other storage since my return, but I have in the last couple of days started working through them with the scanner. They do seem to have deteriorated a bit over time, and the lack of sharpness is quite shocking!! But, they give me a real flavour of the time I spent there and so I am intending to work through the full set and then print them in 'keepsake' size. I might even splash out on a photobook as well.

Mike,

This film is so precious. It's character imprints for you the time and place that would not be so true with digital. It does not need to be any sharper or to have more detail. To me the picture is so wonderful and brings me back to the Southern Continent too.

Baobab, Kruger National Park, South Africa

This stands before and beyond the transience of man.

Asher

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Asher, thanks so much for your kind comment. Indeed in the face of the 'Southern Continent' we become aware of our transience. There is a real sense of the ages in these old trees and they inhabit a special place in the hearts of all my Southern African friends.

Mike