Vulcano, a photo from Messina, Sicily

Photographer's Note

Sulphur deposits and steaming fumaroles on the Gran Cratere on the island of Vulcano, one of the seven Aeolian islands off the north coast of Sicily.

The Romans believed that Vulcano was the chimney to the god Vulcanus's workshop. The island had grown due to his periodic clearing of cinders and ashes from his forge. The earthquakes that either preceded or accompanied the explosions of ash etc., were considered to be due to Vulcanus making weapons for Mars and his armies to wage war. [Wikipedia]

Fuji Velvia slide film scanned on a Nikon Coolscan 5000 scanner.

jean11-3, crhieatt, avene, chpp, lilimih33, ribeiroantonio, angela926, Floydian, alainh, Dyerco, sevy, pboehringer, hispic, mirarer, jorgi, kiks, stefpat has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Leonidas2008 (0) 2008-05-02 15:18

Hi John.
Wow, that this a brilliant photo and considering the analog background very nice post processed. Colours are vivid and composition just perfect.
Well seen and well done, Leonidas

jean11-3 (2799) 2008-05-02 15:20

Hello John, excellent atmospheric shot, we can almost smell the sulphur!
You did a great job scanning this one.
The colours are beautiful.
You were obviously quite close to the edge to take this shot.
Tfs, regards Jean.

crhieatt (5347) 2008-05-02 15:23

John,
Fantastic shot - and a fantastic scan which really does convey something of the velvia look.
In many ways, an abstract of colour shape and movement; ground in the real world only by our glimpse to the far horizon.
Regards
Colin

chpp (4283) 2008-05-02 15:40

Hi John
very nice shot, tight framing to showcase the fumaroles in beautiful colour contrast. Good light and depth
nice job
cheers
C

lilimih33 (9918) 2008-05-02 15:55

Hello John!
Excellent image!
Great detail and beautiful colours!
Very well done!
Best regards!
Lili

ribeiroantonio (22730) 2008-05-02 16:11

Just from reading the note and looking at the picture I can assume it is possible to visit the island and stang very close to the fumaroles without any particular risk of a sudden eruption. And what about the sulphur odour? What is the risk of breathing dangerous gases as H2S? I can see you were up-wind but the wind can change direction.
The picture is very nice with a beautiful yellow and very sharp too.
Antonio

Clementi (52514) 2008-05-02 16:31

Ciao John,
poco fa' ho commentato una foto dell'Etna , e ora mi trovo a Vulcano ,il giro incomincia a scaldarsi....
bellissima composizione dai colori incredibili , si rimane a bocca aperta nel vedere la natura cosa riesce a fare e tu nel riprenderlo e mostrarcelo.
ottimo lavoro
Giorgio

angela926 (1884) 2008-05-02 18:20

Hello John,
WOW! great shot, fantastic colors, beautiful
lighting, excellent textures and good
details.
Angela

SteveH (6431) 2008-05-02 19:39

Hi John, It looks like something from a different planet. Your scanner did a good job here. wouldn't have guessed that it wasn't digital (I have a coolscan 4000, which gets good results, but not quite this good). The tonal range is terrific, just as one would expect from Velvia. cheers, Steve

drweizy (536) 2008-05-02 20:21

Thank you for so clear photo of crater.

alainh (33209) 2008-05-02 21:41

hello John
you have walked on Mars planete !
not evient i suppose to stay here ! good picture, as usual, of the incrdeible place.
a good week-end for you
alain

Vanessa132 (94) 2008-05-02 23:44

Hi John,
really great shot of this vulcano! Good POV and superb colors!
Nice details!
Well done and TFS
Vanessa

avene (12675) 2008-05-03 5:31

oh my, I guess I have to open the window, the smell of sulphur from this shot is too strong to tolerate :))
fantastic photo, John, this is a very powerful photo, the saturated colours and sharp details work well to illustrate this fascinating place. excellent work, my compliments.

with best regards,
Kristine

baclama (19138) 2008-05-03 5:38

bonjour,
un tres bon rendu de ce lieu magnifique!
superbes couleurs!
bravo
vero

Floydian (30970) 2008-05-03 6:17

Hi John,
What a place, what a great location but also your pov and the resulting picture is absolute great. Those yellow colours are amazing, a great scan and thanks to the Velvia we can enjoy the deep colours of this film...fasntastic.
Regards, Henk

Merline (0) 2008-05-03 6:48

That Velvia is a gorgeous film. I have good memories of this place and I love your rendering of at. What a great yellow/touches of orange and also what a wonderful light to caress it. I could not have devined this was a scan so stunning is the quality John. I also like this so much because it has an almost abstract quality in showing the beauty of nature, it's all about colors, shapes, textures. My compliments!

Warm regards
Mich鋩e

Dyerco (10185) 2008-05-03 7:48

Hi John
You can't beat that Velvia colour. Great shot. At least the wind was blowing in the right direction for you.
Phil

sevy (58) 2008-05-03 9:41

Bonsoir John,

Very nice photo from Vulcano. I made my first travel there 9 years ago. It is always nice and interesting to see photos from those islands.
You used well the great angle and the saturation of the velvia to put in evidence the yellow of the sulphur. There are enough sea and sky to play with the opposition of colors between the blue and the yellow.
The fog pushed away by the wind suggests the movement and the odors of this place.
Yes, a good photo from Vulcano.

Yves.

apucci (1020) 2008-05-03 13:20

Hi John,
really impressive example of life on earth...

Thanks for sharing,
Andrea

pboehringer (770) 2008-05-03 15:09

John,
fantastic entry with vivid colors coming out of your scanned velvia shot. Did you really take this with a 20mm? Is the 1:2.8 an converter? I can't believe that you got so close to this scene. A pure 20mm would be something close to suicidal ideations.
I would love to get to some volcanic activity. There are a lot of volcanic reminscents in California, but nothing smoldering like your image. My dream was always to get to Sicily or Iceland and now that I live at the West Coast I might get at some point to Hawaii.
Peter

lespicaros (5542) 2008-05-04 12:09

Bonsoir John

Je suis mont� de nombreuses fois au sommet du vulcano et c'est la premi鋨e fois que je vois les fum嶪s dans cette direction !
C'est un site extraordinaire que tu as tr鋊 bien mis en valeur ! c'est tr鋊 beau
Bonne soir嶪
LP

kensimage (8563) 2008-05-04 13:57

Very rich color, John--Velvia was a good choice! (As was having light at a good low angle.) Setting the intense yellowness against a blue sky and white steam makes it clear how other-worldly such a place is. Regards, Ken.

hispic (9658) 2008-05-05 1:11

Hello John,
Yellow of sulphur is really impressive, you have captured the flows of vapor rising from fumaroles with sulphur deposits with very nice angle.
Have a nice day, Hisashi

smarcell (19965) 2008-05-07 9:21

Hello John, I am going to Vulcano just at the end of this month !
Your picture tells me that there are nice opportunities to make good shots. This Dante's landscape is great !
Ciao Stefano

ahmetgedikli (25609) 2008-05-09 7:14

Hi John,
Great shot, superb POV...
Very good light, good colors and sharpness.
Thanks for sharing.
Ahmet

cherryripe (21033) 2008-05-09 14:48

Hi John
Excellent capture and such brilliant "Nikon" colours. The mountain is so sharp too. I guess you needed the wide angle to avoid being in the midst of the smoke.
Regards
Nikki

mirarer (4751) 2008-05-10 15:05

Hola John,
Me atrae mucho la belleza de los paisajes extremos e indudablemente esto lo es. Sicilia est� en mi punto de mira desde hace tiempo (hice un viaje hace muchos a隳s en verano, pero el calor era insoportable y no disfrute mucho).
El color, como no pod燰 ser de otra forma, tiene esa calidez Velvia que yo todav燰 a隳ro, siempre has ido mi pel獳ula preferida.
Un abrazo,
Mirari

jorgi (3810) 2008-05-15 1:20

Hi John,

not many different details here, but ones displayed are shown to their perfection. The saturation, the colour balance of yellow and blue, the great sence of volume of the smoke and small but so important window to distant scenery makes us realise how high we are and how big observed vulcano is. Fantastic shot!

Kind regards,
Jeri

fotohadi (2967) 2008-05-20 6:40

Hi John.WOW...S𧩓erb..Well done.Hadi

kiks (12805) 2008-06-13 11:07

WOW... amazing colors and textures!!! and what a perfect exposure work.
I guess it must have been very smelly there!
Thanks for the great scene
Best regards
KIKs

scalerman (26900) 2009-07-19 13:42

John: some amazing landscape hues in your first opening pages - very magnetic to the eye. best, c