Winter at Samara, Russia

[Dany]

The Volga river at Samara, in Russia, is frozen in winter.
Each Sunday, it becomes a place to stroll .
The opposite bank can be reached on foot

 

[tirediron]

No thanks!

 

[Derrel]

Boy howdy, the Russians sure have got it good! An ice-covered frozen river to stroll around on in sub-zero temps! How we envy them.

 

[tirediron]

Yep... it's only 52 (11C) here today, and I'm complaining about how cold it is!

 

[timor]

Yep... it's only 52 (11C) here today, and I'm complaining about how cold it is!

Come over to Toronto, we have 21C today. (It's freaky.)

 

[DarkShadow]

Going to be 70 here tomorrow and nothing lower then 53 for the next week woohoo.You can keep Russia weather.

 

[annamaria]

Brrrr winter nightmare

 

[Dany]

Did you say "Brrrr" ?
(same place, same time)

 

[Jim Walczak]

Uhhggg...except for the funky hats, looks too much like Ohio in the middle of January or February. We have had some winters here where I truly believe you could walk from Cleveland to Canada across Lake Erie...assuming you didn't freeze to death first. And yea, once MANY moons ago, my wife was actually in the local "Polar Bear Club" where they used to go ice swimming like in that last shot....give me a nice 104 f hot tub ANY day!

As far as the OP's first shots up there, the biggest single thing that draws my attention (other than looking way too much like home) is simply the grain/noise...looks like that was shot at a REALLY high ISO...really noticeable in the sky. If it were me, I'd try and run that thru Camera RAW (assuming someone hasn't already) to knock that down some.

 

[Dany]

Hi Jim,
These photos were produced at the early time of digital photography with a 3 megapiwel camera. At this time, Raw files were not available out of such cameras.
By the way, It is interesting to notice that grain was found aethetic at a time when people loaded classic cameras with Tri X films and is considered today as to be avoided as far as practicable.

 

[tirediron]

Yep... it's only 52 (11C) here today, and I'm complaining about how cold it is!

Come over to Toronto, we have 21C today. (It's freaky.)

No thanks... even warm weather doesn't make it worth going to TO!!!

 

[timor]

Yep... it's only 52 (11C) here today, and I'm complaining about how cold it is!

Come over to Toronto, we have 21C today. (It's freaky.)

No thanks... even warm weather doesn't make it worth going to TO!!!

I understand.
You are scared by me... Sorry about that...

 

[vintagesnaps]

No wonder there have been so many good hockey players from Russia. Interesting to see that.

 

[Jim Walczak]

Hi Jim,
These photos were produced at the early time of digital photography with a 3 megapiwel camera. At this time, Raw files were not available out of such cameras.
By the way, It is interesting to notice that grain was found aethetic at a time when people loaded classic cameras with Tri X films and is considered today as to be avoided as far as practicable.

I get your point regarding both the camera and the affection that some have regarding the grainy look of film. As a long time user of Photoshop, I have on occasion seen filters/plugins designed to actually reproduce that look. This is strictly a personal opinion, however I never really found that look to be all that aesthetically pleasing with most images....just me, but I think your shots there are actually pretty decent, or at least interesting, so 3mp or otherwise, I'd probably be more than tempted to give them a bit of a run thru using a NR filter such as Noise Ninja or something...again though, that's just my own opinion and my own sense of aesthetics.

You are absolutely correct though in how people's opinions change regarding such things. I have another thread going regarding vintage photography where we've been discussing some of this regarding people's attitudes and such and how they've changed over the years, particularly with the advent of digital photography. A rather interesting topic and discussion.