Shishaldin 2005 - My Film Swan Song

 

Slide film - stitched into panoramic

I've been looking through old photos lately and have been thinking about the film to digital transition. I stuck with film longer than most people.  I remember that the museum got a digital camera in 1998 and it was terrible - like the pictures it took were less than 1 mega pixel in size. By 2003 a lot of people I knew were using digital cameras, and, at the time, the pictures seemed pretty good.  I think the pictures were generally 3 mega pixels in size.  But looking back I am still glad that I did not switch because I think my film images were still better.

In 2005 I got a digital video camera that also took 2 megapixel still images.  It was my first digital camera, but I mostly still stuck with slides.  But I did take digital stills.  And I often created panoramic images stitching the digital files together. Then in 2006 I got a 6 mega pixel digital camera (the Pentax Optio WP10), and, for me, that was pretty much it for slide film. 

I think 6 megapixels is actually pretty close in quality to digitized slide film.  When I have scanned slides I've found that much over 12 megapixels all you gain extra is more grain in the film (I usually scan slide film at around 19 MB).  However, the 6MB digital cameras were better with colors and exposure than the film camera I was using at the time.  So at about 6 mega pixels I think digital had finally caught up with film, or at least for me it had.

But for a couple of years there I did use both digital and film.  Some major projects from that time period are archaeological surveys to Chirikof Island and Olga Lakes, the Salonie Mound excavation, and the pictures shown here from our ski trip to Shishaldin Volcano in the Aleutians.  I think the 2005 trip to Shishaldin might just be the last trip I ever did where I mostly used slide film.  It is not a coincidence that I started to blog in 2006.  Blogs are easier when you do not have to wait a couple of weeks for the pictures to come back.

Anyway, here are the pictures from my days of film swan song - the 2005 ski expedition to Shishaldin Volcano in the Aleutians.  We hiked and skied 20 miles or so to the base of the volcano and then waited for a weather window to climb to the top. The volcano is over 9000 feet high and is the tallest in the Aleutians.  We got to the top and skied down - at around 7000 vertical to our base camp it is the longest vertical ski run I've ever done in my life. Quite the expedition, and it is mostly documented in film!

Patrick

Digital - this is about 3 mega pixels in size

Digital - these are the 2 mega pixel pictures stitched into a panoramic - that's 7000 vertical to the top

Slide film - leaving False Pass on the long hike and ski to the volcano

slide film - the smoking caldera at the top of the volcano 

slide film - skiing from near the top of the volcano

slide film - Shishaldin is in the distance on the left

slide film - that's more than 5000 vertical ahead of us!

slide film - our camp at the base of the volcano where we waited for a weather window

slide film - navigating through a white out to get to the base of the volcano