Sunrise volcano

Like the photo of the bears in my last post, this image of the Bromo Caldera in Indonesia was taken with medium format film. I used to shoot 220 rolls of film, which for the 6x7cm format gave me 20 shots per roll. I had just finished the roll of film when Mt. Semeru emitted a giant plume of smoke. I feverishly reloaded as fast as I could, not wanting to look at the volcano because I didn’t want to see what I wasn’t able to photograph. It was extremely windy that morning, and when I was ready to shoot again the wind had moved the column of smoke off to the side. I was very disappointed, and when I returned home and got the film back from the lab, my emotions when from, “Well, that’s not that bad” to “I sort of like it” to “Wow, I really do like this shot.” Indonesia has 129 active volcanos. I have yet to capture a serious volcanic eruption, but I’m hopeful I’ll have that chance. This picture was taken with the Mamiya RZ 67 II, a 250mm lens, and the unrecorded settings were probably 1/15, f/4.5, and I used Fujichrome Provia 100. When I used to shoot landscapes with this camera, I always used the mirror lock-up feature and a cable release.