Tuesday 10 February 2009

Leaving Greenland


leaving Narsarssuaq

Leaving is never easy, and it is more difficult when time has been altered by the experience of travel. I had been in Greenland for twenty-three days, but it seemed much longer - every four days or so had seemed like a month. So some part of me probably had assumed that I had moved here. There. You see, writing about it, I am back there.

The first flakes of snow were blowing on a very sharp breeze as I took my time boarding, then settled in my seat (last row, window again!). The large group of Russians from the airport waiting lounge were everywhere, including a man in the seat next to me. I couldn't help noticing he had a very large, up-to-date model iPod, that seemed to be photoviewer, games meister, mini computer, and whatnot all in one, with a large, sharp colour screen. I looked away in case I was about to be able to read his personal messages on the pin-sharp screen.

I was assembling my three cameras in preparation for the flight (Pentax K-1000 35mm, Mamiya medium format, and Olympus u-ju 35mm compact as backup - the Fuji FinePix digital was completely out of memory by this point) when a face appeared over the seat in front of me. It was one of the Russians, of course. 'I see that you have a window seat,' he began politely, holding up a compact digital camera. 'Would you mind taking some pictures for me, since I am not seated by a window?'

'Well...' I needed to be honest. 'I've been paid money to come here to take photographs. But I'll do the best I can. I'd be happy to.'

He thanked me very graciously, and I had a look at another nifty little piece of kit. The zoom lens was actually more powerful than my FinePix, although I suspected its outer range to be digital rather than optical. I took a couple of shots while we were on the ground, to make sure I could work the thing. And then, we were ready for takeoff.

more to follow...


I took these pictures with Vladimir's digital camera.









This last is one of Vladimir's photos, probably from somewhere completely different in Greenland, but I quite like it. But how do you know his name was Vladimir? I can hear you ask. All in good time... and I will look up his surname to credit the picture, as soon as I can.



photo by Vladimir Schuster, 2008

4 comments:

RT said...

Greenland looks amazing. I really want to go there now!

Margaret Sharrow said...

Thanks, Rosa! Eventually I hope to put up a little how-to/travel advice info on this site. - Margaret

petersen-avantgarde said...

Hei,
lucky you! Greenland is a dream for artists - and all others intrested in the North...
Lucky you, that you could spent some time there. We only saw all from above (plane) several times.
Welcome to my sites!
Karl

Margaret Sharrow said...

Thank you, Karl. I was very fortunate indeed to spend so long in Greenland. And from a plane is one of the best ways to see it. I will post another installment as soon as I can.

Your 'drawing a day' site is a good idea, and a good discipline.
- Margaret