Himalayan Times (1953)

Six

July 19, 1953

7n*i»vnhujan (time*

CLIMBERS’ PHOTOGRAPHIC ADVENTURES

The successful British Everest expe-
dition made a good—the best in the
circumstances—photographic record of its
achievement, a S' nice close to the Hunt
team disclosed in New Delhi on July 10th.

“When the full story of« the climb
i is told by its. leader (Hunt) in the book
he plans, to write, every item will be
completely substantiated by pictures”, the
source added.

Almost every member of the team
carried with him camera as an adjunct
to climbing.

The extreme usefulness of this was
borne out when S;r Edmund Hillary was
able to take, as best he could, that unique
■ picture ot smiling Tenzing standing on
summit of Mount Everest—four Hags flu-
ttering bravely ' from Ins ice axe —and
also a scenic “shot” from the top of
the world.

.“With n?y hands heavily padded, I
was iiot able to ■ focus my miniature
camera; with, the result that T shot everv
object 'with, tlie Ecus at infinity”, Hij-
laryif said in an interview before be left
for lire United .Kingdom.

fje added ‘‘Whether the results were
good or bad, it was an event I could'
. not afford to tntss and in my anxiety
iu recording it erred' on the side of
liberality in exposure”.

Film Forgotten

Iii spite of i all the elaborate coordi-
nation and planning, the climbers forgot
to carry their stock of black and white
films to the highest Amps. So all the
pictures Hillary took at the top of the
peak were colour transparencies, from
which black and white prints were mado
as occasion demanded..

“This conversion from colour negatives
to black and white prints and the fact
that the focus always remained at infinity
are responsible for the lack of sharp
precision in the picture of Tenzing at
the summit”, Hillery said. He added
with a chuckle. “But anyone can recog-
nise Tenzing in his historic role.

Alfred Gregory was the man in charge
of coordination for the stills. Gregory
took more than 2,0(10 Bhots, but, he
said, with a shrug of his soldiers, “The
heavy task was not that of taking the
pictures but of writing dope sheets for
each of them.’' He sard with a trium-
phant smile: “And I did it for every
one of them.1'

Photography is easy enough until one
reches Namcho Bazar, the last village
Oil the route of Everest, 170 miles to
the east of Kathmandu.

The scenic beauty of the Himalayan
habitation is at. its best here, full of
colour and life. And some of the best
pictures in colour as well as in black
and white were taken on this phase of
the climb.

The real problem arises, however when
organic life ends and the snow and ico
begin

In the first place, there is nothing
to provide a contrast to the prevailing
blank white expanse of ice and snow
except a few brown or black rocks pro-
truding here and there and the pale
cream tents.

Secondly, thero is the glare of light
reflected from the snow, which defies
ones notions cf exposure. The light is
so bright that the tendency is either to
overexpose or under-expose.

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