Some more shots from Iceland (dialup might be slow)

Rivers running off from Vatnajokull

A Stranded chick on Vik beach

From this beach...

The main highway in Iceland

In color

I suppose I better stop there before I start ticking people off for posting so many (sorry if I have already done so...they are all at my website, so I don't think it harms photo.net in any way).

Stuart:

Very nice shots - they loaded in seconds for me.

One suggestion would be to upload the images to your portfolio & provide the link here. That way one could go larger as well.

Thanks for the shots

Splendid, and I'm not one for color...skip

Velvia (presumably)seems excessive in that wildly dramatic scenery...and loses shadow information...though I especially like the shot after the horse, and the final shot with the airplane, cabin, and mountains.

Where's the blonde you showed us earlier?

Don't remind me John....that girl was very cute and gave me a very nice smile after I took the shot, yet I still did not really talk to her afterwards. My accursed shyness......

Anyway here is a magnified view of the girl's face from the previous photo:

As for Velvia and the shadow detail, I think much of the shadow detail is lost in the scanning process. In order to reach the same color saturation and look as the slide, I find that I have to discard some of the shadow information. Perhaps it is just my lack of skill in photoshop. And I do think that the colors are actually rather accurate. The landscape there is incredibly crisp compared to anywhere else I have been (other than New Zealand). The lack of pollution and cool tempertures create a clarity and crispness in the landscapes that is rarely seen elsewhere.

great shots - nice variety of composition - Iceland has always been on my list of places to go, you've made it bump back up to the top

For some unknown reason the linked pics do not load in my browser. I use Mozilla Firefox and have searched both IE and Firefox trying to find some option I may have neglected to enable, all to no avail. I seem to recall that there is somewhere the option to view attachments but can't find any such menu. This situation seems to have come about withing the last several days. Does anyone have any idea what I may be doing wrong? If so I would appreciate your advice. Thanks, HG

I am sorry that they are not loading for you Harry. Maybe you can try my website. I have not fully loaded the page yet, but a decent number of the pics are up there. I will finish loading them in the next day or two...

Iceland 2005

very nice. Are the b/w all from bw400cn?

Damn! Will definately add to my "must visit" list.

Hi Stuart,

Nice shots - I just got back from another weekend there just yesterday. Stayed in Skaftafell again too. Here's my contribution to the Iceland theme - the basalt columns at Reynisdranger.

All the best,

James

Stuart - Nice photos. I've long been curious about visiting Iceland. Your photos do nothing to dampen my desire to visit. Very nice mood conveyed...

Harry - I also use Firefox, but didn't have issues with Stuart's photos loading. Make sure you don't have the box checked that only loads photos from the originating site (such as photo.net). It would prevent photos loading that were hosted on Stuart's site. Look under Tools--->Options--->(left pane)Web Features--->Load images. There is a secondary box for the loading of originating site images only. That should be unchecked. Hope this helps!

Stuart, I'd guess several of the images are over-sharpened (halos). But maybe that's just a quirk of photo.net. SOME scanning software wants to default to sharpening...if yours gives you options, be sure it's not doing that. I've got no other ideas on Velvia, other than to abandon it when the light's strong and clear, with no overcast. Just IMO.

Other than that petty talk, WOW!

And I'll bet that girl is more easily approachable in the winter. Oh, if only I was forty years younger and had today's seeming-confidence :-)

Hi John,

Any over-sharpening is surely my own fault. Everything I do in editing is my own fumbling attempt to restore the clarity, sharpness, shadow detail and colors of the original slides. It really is a losing battle. I wish there was an internet equivalent to a 35mm slide show. The technical aspects of the slides alone tend to impress people when they see them in person. Too bad that slide shows have such a bad reputation (as boring) among non-photographers. My dad gave them all the time when I was growing up and we absolutely loved them.

Travis -- actually in this case I think all the black and white images were on Tmax 100. The ones on BW400CN are listed on my website, but were not in this group.

James -- Great shot! Don't hold back; post more if you have them. I would love to see other people's shots. I was actually extraordinarily impressed with Pall Stefansson's photography in Iceland Review when I was there, though his stuff on the web doesn't look as nice....

As for everyone else, thank you for the kind words.

Great Stuart. I have to bookmark these and your other shots for when someone tells me my M6 is ill suited to landscape photography due to imprecise framing. BTW, I know web uploads aren't really accurate for judging sharpness (you'd think that was a big secret judging by the number of times they're used as examples of how good a lens or digital sensor is)but I don't see any evidence of oof such as would be caused by incompatible back focus between the Hexar RF and your lenses. Can you see any in the originals, or did you have your RF flange-to-film distance adjusted to Leica specs?

Thanks for the kind words Ben. I have not really noticed a problem with the Hexar and it's sharpness. I don't think there is a real difference. The RF went out of alignment once and I sent it to DAG to be adjusted. I told him to adjust it for Leica lenses, as that is mostly what I have. I believe he charged 35 dollars for his trouble. The camera has been pretty much spot on since then. I have only had a tiny bit of a focus issue with the 135 at f/4 or the 75 at 1.4, but that is a function of the .6 viewfinder magnification and my eyes, not the camera.

The only Hexar/Leica incompatability I have actually noted is with the M- Hexanon 50/1.2. I did a lens test with this lens and the Leica 50/1.4 and 50/2, and the Hexanon was obviously not focusing on the same spot. I think this must be a lens collimation problem, but I have not sent it in to DAG or anyone else to be fixed. I have not really noticed it in any real life conditions....

Stuart,

These photos are really,really beautiful. I was in Reykjavik in April, when the weather wasn't *quite* as nice - and seeing these pictures, makes going back one summer a definite must. The horse looks spookily familiar though -first & last time I'll ride one of those things!

Thanks for sharing

Michael

geysir..

Finally got them to load. Seems I had clicked my Adblock at the wrong place a couple of times and disabled the pics from both PN and eBay. Just chanced upon it and when I removed the two filters the pictures loaded.

It is interesting that Iceland, the only remaining civilized nation in the universe is descended from some of the fiercest marauders the world has ever known. My single short stayover in the spring of '44 on my way to the UK was not particularly enhanced by our billets near the coast with the prevailing breezes blowing across the fish dryint racks. However, I have always wanted to go back to see how an intrepid people can make a sane, viable, and vibrant society in a violent and hostile habitat.