Fire & Ice
In April 2010, Eyjafjallajökull, the infamous volcano in Iceland, erupted. A fellow college classmate from Syracuse University quickly organized a trip for a dozen photographers to go to Iceland to photograph the volcano. Before we left to go to Iceland, a second, larger eruption occurred wreaking havoc on world-wide air travel. We all had difficulty flying into Iceland. Several us were diverted to Glasglow, Scotland and two of us endured a long, slow, bumpy, red-eye bus ride from the north of Iceland to the capital. Lucklily, the very first night we arrived at the volcano, it was erupting. it was absolutely spectacular. Everyone piled out of our mobile base of operation "The Mantruck", set up tripods in front of the truck and began shooting...except for me. Like a dying animal wanting to slip into the forest to be alone, I left the group and walked toward the volcano; I didn't want my fellow photographers to see me struggle setting up or feel burdened to help me during this critical moment. As I set up my tripod, I knew I wanted to use my longest lens. It turned out my 300 mm 2.8 was the only lens I had with a plate for my tripod. Then it was magical. Enormous fiery, eruptions, throwing rocks the size of cars, blazing red and black smoke swirling high above the glacier, all against a clear, midnight blue night sky. Every time I go away on a trip, my hope is to come home with one image that I love. This is my favorite and most memorable photograph from that trip. Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland. May 2010.