Hiking through the Isle of Skye, Scotland in 13 images
Hiking through the Isle of Skye, Scotland in 13 images
Icelandic Autumn
Autumn is here and Iceland feels magical.
Iceland emanates a certain feeling through Autumn. You can hear its voice in the wind howling through the trees.
The leaves draw their last breath and smell like an ancient home, whispering words only few can hear.
The light fades day by day. But the long dark still seems far away.
There is a stillness that creates motion. A shift inward. As it is only through the stillness and the silence, offered by a place like this, a lone island in the cold far north, that you can truly listen to what's within.
Nature's Rare Spectacle: Volcano Eruption Meets Northern Lights
The stars aligned last night and I was able to capture an image I was waiting for a long time now, the erupting volcano with the Northern Lights, the rare phenomenon, where the fiery force of the Earth meets the celestial dance of the sky.
This extraordinary convergence is exceedingly rare. Volcanic eruptions, driven by tectonic forces beneath the Earth's crust, are unpredictable and often violent. In contrast, the Northern Lights are a delicate, atmospheric phenomenon caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with Earth's magnetic field. For both to occur simultaneously is a unique event, requiring precise conditions—clear skies, high geomagnetic activity, and an active volcano.
Photographers and nature lovers cherish such moments, as they offer a glimpse into the incredible forces that shape our planet and beyond. This image of this dual spectacle, for me not only captures a fleeting moment of natural wonder but also serves as a reminder of the powerful and beautiful forces at play on Earth and in the universe.
A night to remember.
Merafjall volcano eruption in Reykjanes peninsula. Iceland, August 3rd, 2022.
A new volcanic eruption in the Meradalir valley in the Reykjanes peninsula has given rise to the newly formed Merafjall volcano. Footage from the first night of the eruption.
Intense seismic activity has lead to a new volcanic eruption in the Meradalir valley in Reykjanes peninsula giving rise to the newly formed Merafjall volcano.
Footage from the first night of the eruption. Available for licensing and further field assignments.
Photographic Diary - Hiking at the Fagradalsfjall Volcano in Iceland
The earth shakes and rumbles under the Reykjanes peninsula with many indications pointing that another volcanic eruption is imminent. Whether that happens or not, the Fagradalsfjall volcano is one the best places for a daily adventure/hike, and it can be done easily from Reykjavik.
Hiking at the Fagradalsfjall Volcano
Words: Evelyn Edward
Images: Odysseas Chloridis
The earth shakes and rumbles under the Reykjanes peninsula with many indications pointing that another volcanic eruption is imminent. Whether that happens or not, the Fagradalsfjall volcano is one the best places for a daily adventure/hike, and it can be done easily from Reykjavik.
The volcano itself is about an hour's drive away from the city, but with lots to see along the way it won't feel like a long drive at all. Four of us from the HI Iceland team set off on a sunny Sunday evening to make the most of the long summer days and make our way up the volcano.
Getting to Fagradalsfjall is a relatively smooth journey along paved road- on our way, we stopped at Lake Kleifarvatn to watch swimmers brave the cold water, as well as Seltún geothermal pools, where water boils from the ground and sulphur stains the ground orange yellow and blue. With the drive taking you through diverse landscapes from snowy mountaintops to grassy plains and moss-covered, rocky landscapes, it feels like you have touched down on another planet.
While the flow of the volcano has slowed down now following its eruption in March 2021- there is no hot rushing magma or crater explosions- it is perhaps even more impressive to see the smoldering lava and let your imagination run wild with what lies under the tall dark rock.
In preparation for the summer high season the infrastructure surrounding the area has had to adapt rapidly- please note there is now a car parking charge- and several routes to viewpoints have been signposted. These vary in length and difficulty- we opted to head up a large hill with a zig-zag path marked out. While fairly easy underfoot, there is a lot of loose gravel that can slip you up- make sure to bring shoes with a good tread.
We trekked our way up to the viewpoint (following Path C towards Langihryggur), slowly but surely while the sun slid behind the mountains. As we got higher we could see more of the valley than before- the lava rock went on for miles, a black, sprawling mass upon the rocky landscape. When we arrived at the top (comfortable but slightly out of breath) we had the best view of the lava steam rising through the cracks in the rocks, creating a contrasting soft white layer over the land. We stood there for a while, taking in the scenery.
On the way down we faced amazing views of the ocean and all the way over to Grindavik- the small fishing town that faced three weeks of earthquakes before the eruption. The sea was so calm and the area so quiet that it was almost hard to believe that hundreds of meters below us, the earth was violent with energy, shifting and reforming itself.
Iceland is a country with a constantly shifting landscape- whether it's the extreme seasons, weather or geographical changes- and we saw that on a mass scale on our trip to Fagradalsfjall. And who knows- with more and more volcanic activity being recorded in the Reykjanes peninsula, the next Fagradalsfjall could happen sooner than we think.
Portrait Session With Lyyti
Portrait session in the Finnish nature with Lytti Linjama.
Portrait Session With Lyyti Linjama
I always consider it an honor when someone allows me to make them a portrait. It feels like they let me to see a glimpse of their inner self which sometimes is only visible to those who are truly close to them.
Many times it feels more like a psychoanalysis session than a photoshoot as you try to figure out more about the person you have in front of you, by looking at his movements, eyes, choice of clothes and of course think about what you know so far about them. Combine all that with having to think about composition, lighting and timing and you have one of the most challenging situations in photography.
There are times though that all of these elements effortlessly come together and you get that beautiful hidden glimpse of someone’s personality.
That was the case with the photoshoot we had a few days ago with Lyyti. The rough landscape around us was the perfect stage. An endless sheet of grey clouds above us, dark waters beneath us, pines and birch trees on the horizon, the wind howling around us playfully messing up her hair.
Finns seem to be extremely connected to nature so it felt right to give nature an equally important role in this photoshoot, letting her take the stage on some of the frames.
I couldn’t be happier with the result, as what I had in mind for this shoot - combining nature, portraiture and a slight pinch of fashion - came naturally from both of us, spending an hour of basically playing around in the amazing location we found.
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Aurora Borealis In East Finland
Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) in the night sky of Nurmes, Finland - October 13, 2021.
A Glimpse Of The Sublime - Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) In East Finland
Last night a dream came true as we witnessed one of the most beautiful natural phenomenon our planet has to offer. Just after 11.00 p.m. the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) appeared in the night sky of Nurmes, Finland.
Nurmes is in central-east Finland and we were close to a camp with artificial lights when we first witnessed it so we couldn’t enjoy the phenomenon in its maximum display of colors and luminance at first but that changed when I moved closer to the forest. Running around with a camera and tripod on my hand to find a good spot where I could witness and capture the Nothern Lights I went just outside our camp and faced the forest. There, with nothing but wilderness in front of me, my eyes could marvel on that miracle that is called Aurora Borealis.
The light streaks of the Aurora look like curtains of greenish hues, changing in shape and form as if a soft breeze is blowing through them.
The solar wind particles light up in the night sky offering a glimpse of the sublime. It’s where two worlds collide. The sun’s electrons and protons with our Earth’s atmosphere.
The retina of the eyes feast on the indescribable beauty that lies before them and the mind races to understand what you see. A feeling of deep gratitude embraces you for having the chance to see something like this.
A dense cloud formation approaching from the west started covering the Aurora. I took a big breath in, enjoying the last green light streaks playing hide and seek with the clouds. As with everything good in life, this too had to end to fully appreciate its value.
I am now eager to see what the next two weeks in Finland will offer and how the next Northern Lights display will be.
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Wildfires in Thesaloniki
Images from the wildfires in the forest of Seich Sou (Kedrinos Lofos) in Thessaloniki - July 13, 2021.
Wildfires in the forest of Seich Sou, Thessaloniki - July 13, 2021.
The forest of Seich Sou (Kedrinos Lofos) is home to more than 277 plant species an a variety of mammals such as hares, foxes, squirrels, weasels, hedgehogs and around 80 types of birds including owls, nightingales, cuckoos and the magnificent short-toed snake eagle chief. Amphibians and reptiles like salamanders, frogs, turtles, grass snakes, and lizards are also common in the forest.
It’s a lush ecosystem that’s not only vital for the city’s atmosphere acting as a green lung, but also well-being, as it offers a pleasant escape from the hustle and bustle of the city for many of its residents.
Covering around 2.800 hectares the forest of Seich Sou is just outside Thessaloniki, making yesterday’s wildfire incredibly dangerous. The incident brought bitter memories to those that experienced the wildfires of Seich Sou in the year 1997 which burned almost half of the forest.
Fortunately this year the fire was quickly contained leading to the loss of only 9 hectares of forest. But with global temperatures on the rise, summers are getting hotter and hotter with every passing year. It remains to be seen when the next wildfire will strike and what might be its consequences.
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Photographic Diary - The Siren
I often wonder about how myths and legends came into being. What did people of the past see, experience or hear to forge the folklore mythological tales of gods, nymphs, monsters and such beings?
I often wonder how myths and legends came into being. What did people of the past see, experience or hear to forge the folklore mythological tales of gods, nymphs and monsters?
Some of the most renowned creatures in Greek mythology (and not only) are the Sirens. Dangerous beings who lured passing sailors with their mesmerizing songs and voices and ultimately making them crush into the saw-tooth rocks of their island.
The hero Odysseus was curious to hear their song, and so with the advice of Circe he had all of his sailors plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast of the ship. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly there, no matter how much he might beg. When he heard their beautiful song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter and eventually managed to escape the range of their song. According to some tales, the Sirens were fated to die if someone heard their singing and escaped them, and that after Odysseus managed to pass they therefore flung themselves into the water and perished.
Through my wanders in nature I have also seen myths taking shape and form.
It was a hot and humid summer night. The full moon shined brightly and its pale light illuminated everything it touched. The water’s surface made all kind of shapes and patterns as the waves moved in a rhythmic motion. It felt like we were swimming in silver, it was an otherworldly scene.
All it took was a friend’s silhouette against the moon to make the myth come alive. I grabbed the camera and a 35mm lens. I started photographing in slow shutter speeds to capture the motion of the waves. As my friend moved close to me it felt like I was washed ashore the sirens’ island. She was now approaching me to see the prey that her songs had to managed to lure in.
Photographic Diary - The Phoenix
Greece offers amazing vistas for landscape photography. But to capture them in their full glory you' ve got to be able to get up early. And when you do, you get rewarded with not just beauty but wisdom as well.
I have been thinking lately about why some of us like to wake up early in the morning. "Seize the day" and similar quotes offer some explanation but I think it's something deeper than that.
I mean, why would someone get out of a warm, cozy bed at 06.00 a.m., dress up, get out into the freezing morning cold and drive or walk all the way up a mountain?
Is it masochism? Obsession? Is it the feeling of seizing the day like so many quotes have stated? Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe some, maybe none.
What I've realised though is that every time I manage to get up so early I get rewarded with scenes of sublimeness and occasionally with a short ray of wisdom.
A few days ago I got to witness one of the most stunning sunrises of this year. Despite the jaw-dropping vista in front of me I found something else, quiet unexpected appearing up in the horizon.
It is there, between the moody clouds of
the early morning hours that some form of magic seems to happen. Just when you start to truly feel the cold, to question the reason why you got up so early and look back behind you, thinking to go back to bed, it happens.
A vibrant circle of fiery red appears above the mountains on the horizon, setting fire to everything it reaches.
Your eyes go berserk with all the beauty they are witnessing. Light, shape, movement, they all merge to create scenes of fantasy.
Your mind tries to fathom what your eyes are seeing but it can't. Not fully at least. And it is there you realise that some of the most beautiful things we can witness are like this because they can't be fully understood. And that's how they should probably stay.
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A Night with the Gods
What's magic? For me it's something like the night we spent at the alpine lakes of Flega. Mountaintops, stars, moonlight, fire and alpine lakes coming together to form a spectacle that is unlike anything else.
All of nature’s elements coming together to create a magical experience
It’s been only a month and yet it feels so distant.
It’s been only a month and yet it feels so strange, so far off from the reality we are now into.
I am talking about the recent adventure that I and some friends made at Valia Kalda and more specifically, the mesmerizing night we got to spend at the plateau of the Flega alpine lakes.
That magical night we spent under the stars, listening to the sound of the howling wind and staring at the fire’s primal dance.
It was a long hike. Around 16 km, since we decided to reach the lakes through the long trail that starts from the Valia Calda Mountain Shelter just outside of Vovousa. We got up around 07.00 am and had a quick breakfast before starting our journey. From its beginning, it was clear that this was going to be an epic hike. The valley of Valia Calda is famous around Epirus for its stunning views, waterfalls and colors, especially in Autumn, but I won’t speak much about it, since the national park deserve an article of its own.
After passing through the river of Aoos multiple times, swimming in the natural stone carvings created by its waters, witnessing gigantic primordial trees and hiking until we could no longer feel our legs we reached the plateau.
Surrounded by the nearby mountain tops and standing beneath the Flega peak (from where their name derives), the two lakes offer a view that you seldom have the pleasure of viewing. We usually see lakes on lower altitudes, and in my case, most I have seen were on valleys or at the base of mountains.
But these two sit at the top of a plateau, offering an outstanding view - in front of the lower lake where there is no surrounding land - of tens of other peaks that go as far as the eye can see. It’s a landscape that seems like it was born out of a fairy tale, two mystical lakes hidden underneath the mountain, a place where fairies would come and bathe under a night with a full Moon.
It was already late so we had to set up camp fast. We put up our tents and lighted a fire. The sky was turning into a beautiful deep-blue pallet of colors. Twilight was upon us and it’s my favorite hour to shoot - especially when there is a fire in the scene. The radiant, blazing orange of the fire seemed like a hearth of comfort, a sanctuary of some sort, against the cold but beautiful silence of the surrounding landscape.
We baked some coffee and sat down to enjoy this moment of connection with nature.
As the last rays of the sun started disappearing, the cold air embraced us, but gently, making the body feel an invigorating rush due to the low temperature. We could feel fragrances of pine, coffee, and the smell of burning wood feeling our nostrils. Oh, the smell of burning wood, I just love it. It brings a feeling of coziness in my mind, one that I had longed to feel again.
And the fire. This radiant spectrum of reds and oranges, roaring fiercely with its burning embers. Caressing the body with its warm touch. It’s been a companion of humans for almost 2 million years and its effect on our gaze stands as concrete proof for the role it has played in our evolution and survival. We stood there, watching it tirelessly, devouring its ever-changing colors and tones, as it devoured the wood that we fed it.
Going a bit further away to take some pictures, I turned back and looked at the scene.
It almost looked like a pagan ritual. Three figures standing around a pyre, moving, shouting, playing music, in the middle of nowhere. When witnessing scenes like this my mind goes back, thinking about the first of our species who harnessed the power of fire.
I think of how important it must had been for them to be able to gather around a source of warmth in the relentless cold they had to face. And how beautiful the landscape around them must have looked. Pure and wild, without any of man’s technological interventions, pollution and destruction. Like the scene we had the privilege of enjoying that night - if you exclude our tents of course.
I look up at the night sky. The stars are shining brightly. Another scene we have come to treasure deeply due to its rareness. The night sky that our cities offer is usually home to tens of stars in the best-case scenario. In the wild you see hundreds, thousands or millions. In places with no light pollution and nights with no Moon it can feel like there is more light than darkness up there, and that’s something that words or images can hardly describe. Only your eyes can make you feel the true sensation of witnessing a proper starry night sky out in the wild.
I believe that looking at a night sky full of stars is of paramount importance. It allows our minds to wander off freely, without constraints and borders. It’s a place where reality and fantasy blend into an opaque mix of light and darkness. A place of total detachment from the hustles of everyday life that allows us to get lost on our thoughts, embracing them fully with their light and darkness.
One of the few scenes we are able to observe and actually feel the grandness of the unknown. A liberating source of visual magnificence, reminding us how vast this world we live in is, how little we know about it, how small we are, but at the same time how lucky we are to be alive right now, right here, enjoying this moment.
And for me this is a source of creativity, liberation, and introspection that rejuvenates me like nothing else.
After a few hours the moon started appearing behind a nearby mountain top, dimming the star’s light and filling the sky with its silver radiance.
The water’s surface on the upper lake started glimmering with beautiful shades of green, cyan, blue and grey. If there is a place where dryads lived this would probably be it, and I could almost see them emerging from the lake bathing themselves with water and moonlight.
My roaring imagination was halted by the shivers of my body. The cold had started to become unbearable and it was time for me to go to my tent.
I went back to our fire and stood there for a few minutes warming my hands. A feeling of appreciation filled my mind for the scene we got to experience this day. The stars, the moonlight, the trees, the mountaintops, the sound of birds chirping, the strain on the body’s muscles after a vigorous workout, it’s all things we need but have come to enjoy so seldomly, especially this year with the lock-downs imposed due to COVID-19.
I put out the fire as I started to prepare to go to sleep. Before going in I decided to check it again, making sure it’s properly extinguished. I threw in some water and it made a loud, hissing noise. I looked down at the last burning embers. They looked like sprinkling stars shining out in front of the background of black coal. I looked up the actual night sky and saw the resemblance.
I guess there is beauty everywhere, I thought, you just need to have the eyes to look for it.
