Hello from Athens/Greece

**Sascha Welter** · 5-Oct-2009, 04:47

Hello all!

Already posted a few replies, but here goes my introduction: I'm a Swiss guy living in Athens Greece. I used to be a professional photographer for some time at the end of the 80s, early 90s. Changed professions a couple of times, ended up being a programmer. After some years without a camera I started to point&shoot a small digital, then finally this summer bringing back my many years unused Arca Swiss 6x9 from storage in Switzerland.

I'm mainly interested in getting back into the slow mode of photography, doing landscapes and cityscapes, maybe with the occasional portrait. I've still got most of the theory and the camera practice down well. A lot of things have changed though, with me not having a darkroom any more (or: yet?) and all this digital and scanning business around. Resources I need have shifted too, can't buy roll film on every street corner exactly now and the color dev shop I brought my films to 20 years ago closed down a few months ago. So it will a bit of learning experience there too.

Partially I'm interested in hybrid workflow, scanning what I picture on film, but in the end I would like to print again on old fashioned baryt paper in a real darkroom some day.

My Arca has no model designation, no serial number. The lenses are a Super Angulon 1:8/65 (placed around 10/67 - 11/68), a 1:5.6/100 (10/67-11/68, convertible lens), and a Tele-Xenar 1:5.5/180 (54-57). Judging from the paint job on the older lens panel and the ground glass frame, the camera might as well be 1950's vintage. I don't really care, as it works just fine. I've got 2 cassettes for 6x9 and all the accessories I seem to need (2 bellows, compendium shade, filter holder, etc.) I might want to buy a "real" longer lens instead of the tele one day, but no hurry. I'll have enough stuff to buy and money to spend to get pictures on paper somehow :-)

Regards,

Sascha

**IanG** · 5-Oct-2009, 07:21

Welcome from the other side of the Aegean. I was shooting LF in Athens last year but the stores I wanted to go too were in the path of the riots, or rather to close

Ian

**Sascha Welter** · 6-Oct-2009, 01:22

Thanks Ian!

I think the december riots were not the preferred subject of LF photographers. Nobody wanted teargas mist and the rose reflections of burning molotov cocktails on broken shop windows, pictured on epic 8x10.

The press photographer who took the picture of a riot police man with drawn gun ended up fired and jailed (he was released a short while ago after a longish hunger strike), so my decision not to try myself at press photography seemed to have been right :-) I didn't go to the center of town for those weeks at all, even though the events moved me deeply, like most everybody else.

Anyway, if you happen to be in Athens again, drop me a line and we can go for coffee or a photo excursion!

**Vick Vickery** · 6-Oct-2009, 06:55

Welcome to group therepy! You're in the right place for "the slow mode of photography"!!

You're in a beautiful and historic part of the world that is very appropriate for LF cameras with movements. Have fun!!

**Sascha Welter** · 9-Oct-2009, 01:26

Thank you Vick!

Indeed I live a 15-20 minutes walk from the Acropolis (with some other archeological sites even closer), a wonderful privilege! As soon as I have my gear together I will start doing excursions that will include these places.

One little problem is the regulations on tripod use in archeological sites. I have to get an update there, the last time I asked (ok, more than 20 years ago), when using a tripod you were considered a professional photographer and had to pay fees based on what you wanted to do with the pictures (e.g. what publication they would be published in). As an amateur that left you out, since even if you were willing to pay the fee, you couldn't tell them what the end use of the pictures was. I hope that has changed, otherwise I'll stay outside the fence and shoot whatever I can.

I also like the cityscapes that show the wild and ugly architecture of modern Athens with a tiny corner of ancient stuff somewhere. I'm itching to get started, hoping my tripod arrives soon!

**Robert A. Zeichner** · 9-Oct-2009, 04:55

Originally Posted by Sascha Welter

Thank you Vick!

Indeed I live a 15-20 minutes walk from the Acropolis (with some other archeological sites even closer), a wonderful privilege! As soon as I have my gear together I will start doing excursions that will include these places.

One little problem is the regulations on tripod use in archeological sites. I have to get an update there, the last time I asked (ok, more than 20 years ago), when using a tripod you were considered a professional photographer and had to pay fees based on what you wanted to do with the pictures (e.g. what publication they would be published in). As an amateur that left you out, since even if you were willing to pay the fee, you couldn't tell them what the end use of the pictures was. I hope that has changed, otherwise I'll stay outside the fence and shoot whatever I can.

I also like the cityscapes that show the wild and ugly architecture of modern Athens with a tiny corner of ancient stuff somewhere. I'm itching to get started, hoping my tripod arrives soon!

I was at the Acropolis in May of this year and tried to get a permit, however, without being able to read the Greek application form and then being told it might take weeks to process anyway, I figured I would not be shooting anything with my view camera that day. I proceeded up to the site and just took slides until I spotted a couple of gals shooting video with tripods in plain sight of the park officials. I set mine up and made a few negatives, but except for one, wasn't able to avoid the extensive scaffolding and throng of tourists. A pretty interesting place to visit nonetheless.

**Ernest Purdum** · 9-Oct-2009, 11:17

Your mention of riots reminds me of living in Kifissia many years ago. I worked several places, Tanagra, near Piraeus, and in the Tameion building. At the time, Cyprus was a hot issue and the Greeks were mad at Americans because we wouldn't help them kill Turks; while the Turks were mad at us because we wouldn't help them throw the Greeks out of Cyprus.

One day I was downtown, having forgotten that there was a demonstration scheduled. I twiddled my thumbs for an hour or so, while looking at the demonstration going on below. Finally I got bored enough and needed to be elsewhere enough that I decided to leave anyway. I walked through a whole mob of shouting, sign-waving men, all looking for an American to scream at, or maybe worse, and none of them paying any attention to me.

I'm mildly jealous. I saw a travelog of Athens the other day and would love to see first-hand the many changes since I lived there. Ah well. I had my turn and that's more than most.

**Sascha Welter** · 10-Nov-2009, 10:15

Thanks for all the welcome messages! Speaking of historical venues...

f=100mm
1/30sec, f:22-32
Kodak Portra 160NC

I had gone up Filopappou hill before sunrise, found my spot, waited for the sun to come out. Took several exposures in changing light conditions. This is the last one of the series. with the sun out over the Ymittos hills and hitting the walls of the Akropolis. I currently like this one best, though I think the one right before this, with slightly less sun on the walls of the Akropolis would have been better - unfortunately it is destroyed by a light leak. One of the security "snaps" on this cassette hasn't enough strength in it any more, so I seem to have managed to open the cassette a tiny bit a few times.

This is a cheap scan done where they developed the film, looks like it was scanned on a minilab. Still don't have a darkroom, but at least I have something to look at. You can zoom in to the full scan size on this flash viewer.