Already in my first post in this series did I mention Kloster Arnstein, an old monastery situated high up on the mountain above the village Obernhof an der Lahn. There was a narrow road leading up there from Klostermühle down below (where I was staying); and I went all the way up there at least once, to have a look at the church, which was open for visitors.
I'm starting with a couple of postcards from my album at the top, which have kept the colours better than most of my own photos. (A bit yellowed with age, but not all that much.)
Going through my photo album as well as the slides I recently had digitised, I have come to the conclusion that I must have used two cameras on this journey: One for slides, and one with negative film for prints. But I also had prints made from some of the slides.
The prints vs the slides have "aged" rather differently. Most prints have turned almost sepia with age, with very little colour left - and difficult to "bring back" in editing. My slides on the other hand have acquired a distinctly blue-ish tint - but a little bit easier to adjust in editing. (All editing done in Picasa3 because that's what I'm used to using...)
▲Just to show you what I'm "up against" with editing old printed photos from my album...
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| The road leading UP |
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| Looking DOWN |
I probably didn't go up alone, as someone must have taken this photo of me!
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| Cropped from the above photo |
By the way, exactly the same thing (turning red) also happened to slides I bought at the Basilika in Trier. (I'll show those when we get there.)
There is a Wikipedia article in English about Kloster Arnstein here.
What a surprising and confusing project this is. And I imagine it is going slowly as you will be reliving all the memories. My favorite is the winding road with the mountains, and the one of YOU.
ReplyDeleteGinny, we've had a mostly indoors kind of week here, weather-wise, so a good time to get on with this project. Out of the album photos I just chose a few to fill in the story + for myself to see what editing is possible and what feels worth while. I'm done with the Obernhof week for now I think... My 2-3 days in Trier remain, but I have less slides from there.
DeleteBless you, it is a job to go through old slides and photos, isn't it? The Monastery looks beautiful.
ReplyDeleteKay, luckily, until I went digital and started blogging instead, I always put printed photos in albums, with notes added. My slides I haven't looked at in 20 years or so, though. So I decided to to have some digitised, starting with these from a trip that meant a lot to me - and to get an idea of the quality. Most of the other slides are less important to me, but possibly I'll have one more box of travel photos done. I have no younger generation to leave things behind to, so it's just for myself!
DeleteYour time travel has been most interesting, and I am looking forward to see something of Trier in 1983 - I have never been to the place and only know the famous Porta Nigra from pictures.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking us along! It all goes to show that even a period as short as your trip to Germany can make a difference, and creates unforgettable memories.
Thanks Meike. I think that the fact that my journeys abroad were few, and long ago now, has made them seem all the more important to me in the longer perspective. And not least this one beacause of planning it all by myself.
DeleteI had never heard of Kloster Arnstein before.It looks like a charming place and the church seems very significant and so German! It's sad when photos fade like the memories we store in our minds.
ReplyDeleteYP, a bit sad, yes, but in some way perhaps also appropriate that the past has to fade away and become a bit blurry, while time marches on...?
DeleteYour reflections add another quiet layer of history to Kloster Arnstein where even the shifting hues of film and memory seem to echo the passage of time as much as the monastery itself
ReplyDeleteRo, yes, trying to relive old memories with the help of old photos also does make one aware of the passage of time. Just as visiting old ruins or even neatly restored old buildings will never quite bring back the times and life for which they were created...
DeleteWhat beautiful parts of the country these places are - the scenery looks magnificent.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that surprises me is how very decorative the church altar is, something I'm used to seeing here in Spain, but didn't expect to see in Germany.
It's so annoying that our photos and slides lose their clarity. I notice all the colour photos in my albums have now faded, and all the slides of long-ago holidays with my parents were sadly consigned to the rubbish bin years ago. How I wish I'd kept at least a few.
Carol, there's probably quite a wide variety of "styles" between churches in Germany, depending both on whether Catholic or Protestant, when they were first built, and how much they have wanted to modernise vs restore etc.
DeleteYou look so young and very 80s. I wonder what the monks were doing up there?
ReplyDeleteAmy, "those were the days"... ;) ...
DeleteIt was a working monastery, monks lived there. The magenta headgear I think is worn by bishops, maybe those were visiting?
I think the red ones are just as lovely.
ReplyDeleteRiver, they are, in their own way... Just not true to the natural/original colours!
DeleteI am thinking this edit thing is keeping you busy and with plenty to do, no boring moments. its odd how the different slides turn different colors.. I love the sepia look and in the past spent time turning color shots into sepia with software. now you are doing the reverse
ReplyDeleteSandra, with many old colour photos it would no doubt be easier to use a sepia filter (or black-and-white) than to try and restore the original colours... And in my family history blog, I've often used sepia to "soften" old black-and-white portraits. In my mind, this trip I made to Germany was such a colourful journey, though!!
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