Sound recordings from Greece

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I see that my mention of sound recordings has generated some interesting
discussions.  My recordings were, of course, monophonic using a little tape
recorder from Radio Shack.  This is just a start, but a good one.  I was
amazed by the variety of sounds that can be recorded and accompany a slide
show and I am surprised that not many stereo slide shows (none that I can
recall) have made use of such sound recordings to accompany the images. 

It is true that many visually interesting objects, like the columns of
Parthenon, do not come with any particular sound, while many interesting
sounds are not accompanied by an equally interesting visual image. 
However, it is possible to combine images and sounds in a way that gives a
better feel of "being there".  

For example, while touring Acropolis and taking pictures of the columns of
Parthenon and other ancient Greek monuments, I recorded the sounds of
tourists walking around, talking among themselves, snapping pictures (sound
of shutters or winders in modern P&S cameras), and tourist guides talking
all different languages, English, French, German, Japanese, Italian,
Russian... I made a particular effort to record segments in all different
languages.  When showing pictures from Acropolis, I can use these sound
recordings, mix or alternate the different languages to emphasize that this
is a place visited daily by thousands of tourists from all over the world.

In many cases, recording an interesting sound was an inspiration for taking
pictures that I would have not taken in the first place.  Rev. Robert L.
mentioned "French fries".  That's no joke, Greeks spend a significant part
of their day cooking and eating.  First day camping, we went fishing and
caught a few fish which we cooked and ate the same night in a little
camping fire.  While recording the sound of the fish being grilled, I
remembered to snap a close-up picture of our meal in-preparation.  

While wandering around Athens early on a Sunday morning, I heard and
recorded the sounds of church bells.  This was a reminder that liturgy is
taking place in every church around.  I then visited a few churches and
ended up in Mitropolis, the main cathedral in Athens and recorded parts of
the liturgy.  In the process, I took a few pictures with my Realist (all
shot without flash at f/3.5 and 1/25 s handheld).  Another example where
the sound recordings let to picture-taking. 

Some of the sounds that I recorded I am sure would have been missed by the
tourist with the video camera who has the imaging part first in his mind. 
In that sense, I felt that I had an advantage.  With my low budget tools
(the $100 Ilex Realist and the $50 tape recorder - OK, forget the 2.8 Ektar
7p Realist for a moment which in any case does not offer much more than
the regular 3.5 one) I came back with 1000 stereo images and 6 hours of
independent sound recordings.  It will take many hours of hard labor to
mount these pictures and produce a slide show with the best of them, music,
narration and sound clips all together, but I feel that such production is
superior to amateur video recording.  The most important for me is that
personally it is more satisfying.  One good stereo picture is worth for me
more than hours of video shooting.

-- George Themelis

PS.  Dalia is kiddding, but it is true that I did not record any Greek
dances (with or without me dancing).  Believe it or not, it is easier to
find Greeks dancing here in America than in Greece and especially Athens!


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