Water, Earth, Fire, Sky

While climbing Stromboli, thevolcano in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, you face the Sciaradel Fuoco, the slope where smoky lava debris make it down to thesea.

The sulphuric smoke and the fog mixed with the clouds, and Itried to capture such a strange atmosphere...but never really likedthe results.

Your frank comments and suggestions on the composition of this shotare most welcome

Magnifica luz,,,,,, color y composicion,, saludos Salvatore.http://www.hectorbrandan.com/images/julio-carmona.gif

 

The rising fog gives a nice sense of moodiness to the shot, which I ascribe to the dark presence of the mountain. The patches of sunlight breaking through onto the water and the shafts through the fog really make the shot. Viewed on my desktop screen the foreground is very dark and I can't see any detail. This is not quite so on my laptop, but I think just a little more detail could be brought out, e.g. where the light slightly touches the rock at lower L, to emphasize the volcanic nature of the rock. I might also be tempted to crop a tiny strip from the bottom. Beautiful shot!

Julio, gracias por tu comentarios aqui y por otras fotos.

Julie, thanks for coming to my pictures. I was expecting this a day or the other. You raise two (rather three) points I had considered while shooting and while editing.

• In many of my shots I thread at the edge of a very dark element. I guess it is just because I like it. This gives a problem in making the shots very monitor dependent (one of the five/six I use to edit them, not all intercalibrated) and those of the viewers. Crusades about who has the right monitor do not help, of course. But it's bound to make the shots controversial.
• I should definitly take the habit of carrying the split filter with me (and the cookin system, and the housing of the filter, ... too many pieces rather than weight, and that's why it stays at home) or learn to set this up in PS, as suggested -and answered- in this other recent shot of mine. That's a long way to say that, indeed, some more details to the bottom left would help, since you'll get also some vegetal life in all this mineral world.
• Cropping the bottom was done, than undone, than done again, than undone again. The reason for chosing this is the fact that too little blackish foreground looked unbalanced in front of all the light on the water and made that edge -to me- fly in the sky. The opposite effect of what I wanted to suggest, of a heavy and massive piece of the shot.

You've had food for the eyes lately ! Indeed, you mastered the crop in this one as well. Wow.

Salvatore, you have once again come into direct contact with beauty and mystery. Part of the mystery comes from difference in light and shadow. That said this image would be improved if more detailed were available in this foreground. To get a detail explanation for how this could be acheived in PS I refer you to an article that has really helped me. Read this:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml

Lionel, thanks. That's from a short trip we took in March. The highlight was meant to be the eruption on the summit with the cloud in the background, but I was so annoyed by the bad weather and lack of photos, that I did not touch these negatives for over six months. I'm now discovering a few decent shots in there.

 

David, thanks for the link. I will have to start understanding masks and layers -see the comments above- even though, in this case, I almost like it pitch dark in the foreground.

Salvatore ...this is absolutely beautiful and great picture. Thank you for sharing your photo.

 

Simon, thanks. Showing places which are a bit off the everyday experience is maybe the reason itself for me to shoot.

This amazing shot struck me straight away, and then I realised it's from Stromboli. I love the apparently steaming collapse scar on the left, the sun rays, the light on the sea...the composition is nicely balanced, although it might have been even better if the rock in the right foreground had also fallen into the sea - but not with anybody standing on it! an original, special image - showing that there's more to photography at stromboli than long-exposure shots of lava bombs flying through the night sky...great portfolio, by the way. greetings, hugo