I am still busy with processing my negatives from my trip to Iceland in winter 2012. I am done with scanning and I have started the selecting and adjusting process. Since I am not in a hurry, I do find useful to compare the new photographs with those I took during my two previous trips to Iceland in 2009 and 2010. I am quite amazed how much some of those places have changed and also how my personal photographic vision has changed over the years. The first obvious difference in my photography approach, is the total change of my equipment. Unlike the two previous visits, when I was using mostly digital camera (90 % of time), this time I was using almost exclusively Ebony 4x5 large format camera with black and white films and the digital camera was used only in a few situations as a back-up.
It was not an easy decision for me to take the large format camera, especially when I am still not absolutely confident with the camera operations and the risk that something goes wrong was very high. Believe me, there were moments when I was regretting my decision, especially when the weather conditions were challenging (strong wind) and I was not able to use my camera at all and I felt that it would had been possible to capture at least some of those moments with smaller Contax 645. However, I have to say that after looking on my developed negatives at home, all my regrets fade quickly away and I am glad for my original decision. Those large negatives are amazing, the amount of detail and the tonality are just special. So sometimes you can struggle on the location and came home with few shots, but it does not mean that those few shots should be bad. On the contrary, they can actually be your best ones. It is quite obvious that quantity does not always means quality, does it?
Just to demonstrate what I mean with those changes I would like to show you two pictures, one taken this year in March and the other in July 2009. I was never really satisfied with the latter, but I felt that this place has some potential to be discovered. I will leave it up to you to decide whether my photographic vision has improved over the years. I have to admit that to me the new photograph is revealing the essence of this place much better than the first one, especially when I look at the large print and all the little details (which I missed in my previous attempt) has suddenly popped out.
Title: Bird’s Nest, Camera: Ebony RSW 45, Lens: Schneider 90 mm, Filtr: Lee Big Stopper, Film: Kodak T-Max 100, Exposure: 500″ , f 13, Vik, Iceland, 2012
Title: Beach End, Camera: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens:Canon EF 70-200 f /2.8L USM, Filtr: Lee ND 0.9 and Lee ND Grad 0.6, Exposure: 60″ , f 32, ISO: 50, Vik, Iceland, 2009