The birth of Aphrodite, a photo from Paphos, West

Photographer's Note

“The birth of Aphrodite from the foam of the sea of Cyprus”

It would be impossible for the Greeks not to create a goddess who would protect and personify natural beauty and physical perfection, two elements which the Greeks loved and worshipped so deeply. They created Aphrodite for this exact reason; she symbolizes eternal beauty and erotic feeling. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and of beauty, emerged from the soft foam of the sea. She made her appearance in Cyprus many millenniums ago, right next to the Rock of Romios (Petra tou Romiou), the huge rock that appears majestically on the shore of Cyprus.

The most prevalent myth concerning her origin is that she was born from the foam of the sea on a beautiful shore in Cyprus. From there, the wind of Zefiros with a soft breeze pushed her to the sea, in the white foam waves. She was welcomed by the ‘Hours’ (the seasons of the year). They dressed her with beautifully decorated dresses of porphyries and silk. They platted her rich hair and they fixed it with a gold buckle. They decorated her fair neck with gold necklaces and her ears with pearl earrings.

It was only during my second visit of Cyprus that I have timed my journey right and decided to spend late afternoon and evening at this wonderful place, hoping for some great results. Whole evening indeed turned out to be better than expected. This is my favorite shot, the pink was indeed very intensive but didnt lasted more than few minutes. It really felt like Aphrodite was still there...

jenofonte, Floydian, lilimih33, Bruno40, cbrman, Cormac, BABUBZH, luisafonso, patdeph, pboehringer, ewasting, fotomek has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

jenofonte (935) 2007-11-26 3:04

Me gusta muchisimo el cielo que has conseguido, resulta surrealista y magico

jimmj63 (2230) 2007-11-26 3:09

PERFECTS, like all of your photoes. good the chose of the long time of exposure.
ciao, giacomo

Floydian (30970) 2007-11-26 3:21

Hallo Lucie,
How funny, i was there a few years a go on the same location. Have some shots from the other side, will browse my archive in finding some.
The winner here is of course those swirls of red clouds in the sky, really amazing how you caught those in combination with the rocks and the nice blue colour toning from the ocaean...very nice.
Regards, Henk

barni (15745) 2007-11-26 3:28

Hello Lucie
superbe ! La couleur du ciel est une vrai merveille.
Have a nice day
Christophe

dkeus31 (27733) 2007-11-26 4:05

hello Lucie,
the cloud perfectly closes the frame with the rock on the other corner, well done
didier

lilimih33 (9912) 2007-11-26 5:10

Hello Lucie!
Fantastic colours on the sky and lovely perspective!
Nice atmosphere!
Excellent done!
Best regards!
Lili

Bruno40 (6658) 2007-11-26 6:04

Beautiful light Lucie!
Great clouds shape and colours.
Nice work
Jorge

smarcell (19875) 2007-11-26 7:17

Nice pink clouds and beautiful composition. Very nice sunset atmosphere.

cbrman (21637) 2007-11-26 8:21

Hello Lucie,

La couleur des nuages est l'élément qui m'attire immédiatement dans cette image de bord de mer ! J'aime beaucoup ces teintes de fin de journée très bien rendues !
Un sol très bas permet de mettre en valeur ce ciel splendide !
Bravo !

A+

Dominique

PSkillz (1327) 2007-11-26 9:18

nice clear shot....great colours regards PPP

brandstaetter (15913) 2007-11-26 11:27

Hi Lucie,

fascinating pink dots you have here. High technical quality as always..
Cheers Chris

Cormac (26545) 2007-11-26 20:09

I'm a big fan of clouds and of sunrise and sunset colours, so this is a great treat. The colour of those clouds is amazing, and I like the positioning in the frame, where the clouds tend to balance the rocks at the bottom of the frame. Nicely done, as always!

eeedi (820) 2007-11-27 2:30

superb colours and composition. regards

PierreMorel (1172) 2007-11-27 6:31

Hi Lucie,
Your composition is well balanced by the fantastic sky with gorgeous tones.

rgarrigus (0) 2007-11-27 9:41

Hi Lucinka,

I absolutely love morning skies like this. This image imparts a wonderful sense of peacefulness for me from the colors to the soft, quiet surf. I like the placement of the horizon low in the composition.

Cheers!

Bob G.

luisafonso (862) 2007-11-29 0:51

You know I love these coastal scenes. I would love to be there with you as this is exactly the photos I like to make. Your composition is great, the red sky completely justifies your compositional choices. The blues are so smooth, like a great curtain of silk (or velvet). Like this one a lot.

Herquin (6875) 2007-12-02 0:54

Hello Lucie,

Is this a picture from moon ?
Regards.
Christian .

patdeph (35738) 2007-12-02 2:33

hello Lucie
the colours of the clouds and their luminosity are really fantastic!I like the way you have framed the beach and the rocks,and the large place you have let to the sky!A marvelous photo!
Have a nice day.
Pascale

rbcy1974 (20758) 2007-12-03 5:17

Hello
Very nice sky. Love the cloud colours. I think you could have exposed it a bit longer though.
Regards
Daniel

toni_al (15873) 2007-12-08 16:08

Salut Lucie
Un très joli paysage cadre e façon somptueuse comme à ton habitude, en plus cette couleur vive dans le ciel apporte un vrai plus
Regards
Toni

pboehringer (770) 2007-12-15 19:29

Lucinka,
the image and its colors are simply fantastic. A real delight to look for several minutes and even hours. Reason enough to make it one of my favorites. My only critique is that Aphrodite is the god "borne out ot the foam" where sea water gets on the shore and mixes up with air, hence foam. Your long exposure doesn't allow me to see that moment of foam building. Yes, I know, I'm being picky ... ;-(
Cheers, Peter

Xen (572) 2008-01-19 15:32

I really like your POV here. The composition is great and i really like the way you got down low to take this photo. The colours are also really beautiful.

Well done - Deb x

fotomek (920) 2008-01-25 10:29

interesting POV, nice light..
TFS - Tomasz

Signal-Womb (13048) 2008-03-14 18:43

Hi Lucie, great capture of this famous location. Love how you give the composition over to this great expanse of sky. Great tones of pink and blue which set the tranquil mood. Very nice work..