Born in 1973 Photo

Photographer’s Note

Imagine a new volcano in your backyard! For this is what happened in this place on January 23th 1973.

In this shot you see the proximity between the town and the young volcano.

The place is Heimaey, the only town in tiny Vestmannaeyjar (Westmen Islands), an archipelago off the coast of Iceland (3 hours by ferry).

On the fateful day, a new fissure opened up unexpectedly barely a kilometre away from the town centre, and a major eruption began: a 2-kilometer long spectacular curtain of fire.

Just half and hour later evacuation by sea began, and it was completed within just six hours (!). The eruption went on for 6 months, forming the 200-meter high cone volcano you can see in the photo. The new volcano was named Eldfell ("Fire Mountain").

About one third of the town was buried under lava.

(update - you can see photos of the eruption itself in the link kindly brought by Patricia, see below)

alekpet, Angshu, pierrefonds, plimrn, asival, TeresaT, emjleclercq, pranab has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

alekpet (4657) 2006-03-22 4:39

Hi Daniel.
Perfet light and great composition with foreground and background layers of different colour.

take care, Aleks

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Gerrit (35417) 2006-03-22 5:51

Hi Daniel,
it's a dynamic country, Iceland. And beautiful.
Thanks and regards, gerrit

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Angshu (33215) 2006-03-22 6:12

What a shot Daniel!...amazing in terms of setting & colours. Is that smoke coming out of the volcano in the right top half of the image?
Superb
Regards
Angshu

[2] +

Modacolor51 (1309) 2006-03-22 9:00

Merhaba Danıel.
Excellent shot. Composition, contrast, color and sharpness first rate.
yılmaz..:)))

pierrefonds (25871) 2006-03-22 9:43

Hi Daniel,

A spectacular scenery, the houses, the land and the volcano, all the different shape are an asset to the photo. It has a good composition and nice colors.

Pierre

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plimrn (19552) 2006-03-22 10:35

Hi Daniel,
I like the attractive curving fence against the white buildings with the volcano lucking 'in the backyard.'
You go such interesting places and write such interesting notes; you're always sending me off on quests. I really liked this website about this volcano. Great title also.
Regards,
Pat

feather (49848) 2006-03-22 11:13

I'd never heard of this new volcano before; it can't be too comfortable living there and I bet they can't sell the houses.
Well composed shot to show how close the volcano is to the houses. Excellent DOF and focus to have it all sharp.
Kath

TeresaT (10727) 2006-03-22 16:37

Hi Daniel
Nice perpective you cvaptured here with this beautiful wood fence in the first plan and the mountains in the background.
Nice colours and contrast.
Regards
Teresa

pranab (5354) 2006-03-23 1:46