Ethiopia's Blue Volcano

[tronic44 3,642]

Saw this yesterday and thought it was pretty amazing so wanted to share it. 

 

 

IT'S a volcano, but not as we know it. This cerulean eruption takes place in the Danakil Depression, a low-lying plain in Ethiopia. The volcano's lava is the usual orange-red – the blue comes from flames produced when escaping sulphuric gases burn.

 

French photographer Olivier Grunewald creates such images without using colour filters or digital enhancement, which is no simple task. To get this shot he had to wait until dusk, when the electric blue flames were visible, but before all the daylight had ebbed away. Then the wind had to be blowing away from him so he could get close enough. Photographing the similarly sulphurous Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, where he worked inside the crater, was even more treacherous. "We have to take care when the winds push the flames close to us," he says. "In Danakil it is easier to escape as the land is flat."

 

Grunewald works in a gas mask to avoid breathing in the deadly fumes – but photographing Kawah Ijen still left him with peeling skin and clothes smelling of rotten eggs for weeks afterwards.

 

Another drawback of Grunewald's subject matter is that the acidic gases don't agree with his cameras. But it's worth it, he says. "The phenomenon is so uncommon – we really feel like we are on another planet."

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229700.100-ethiopias-blue-volcano-burns-deadly-sulphuric-gas.html#.U4WWE_ldV15

[Dattebayo 446]

Sweet Jesus that's amazing

[deterioration 443]

Aside from it being amazing imagery two things make me cynical about this. 1.) It's a Frenchman. 2.) The "which is no simple task", "left him with peeling skin and clothes smelling of rotten eggs for weeks" and "acidic gases don't agree with his cameras" lines.

 

We don't know what camera set up(s) he had and he planned ahead enough to bring a gas mask but not to bring equipment that would separate him from danger? I could bang that same shot out with the non-ultrasonic/non-image stabilizing 75-300 that came with my DSLR and be well within safe distance from the acid gas/surfer stench for it not to be an issue. Either he's really that French and dumb to run up into the scene of an active volcano or he made it harder than it needed to be in an attempt to make himself seem more important than he actually is?

[Dattebayo 446]

Aside from it being amazing imagery two things make me cynical about this. 1.) It's a Frenchman. 2.) The "which is no simple task", "left him with peeling skin and clothes smelling of rotten eggs for weeks" and "acidic gases don't agree with his cameras" lines.

We don't know what camera set up(s) he had and he planned ahead enough to bring a gas mask but not to bring equipment that would separate him from danger? I could bang that same shot out with the non-ultrasonic/non-image stabilizing 75-300 that came with my DSLR and be well within safe distance from the acid gas/surfer stench for it not to be an issue. Either he's really that French and dumb to run up into the scene of an active volcano or he made it harder than it needed to be in an attempt to make himself seem more important than he actually is?

Shshshsh, enjoy the blue volcano...

[Diddums 4,346]

That's fuckin' awesome. 

 

 

It's not 'chopped by the way, that's legit. 

[Megan 35]

Awesome! Though if I saw something like that in person, I'd probably crap my pants, haha.