Prisoners of the Dusk

PRINT AVAILABLE HERE: Prisoners of the Dusk

Actually there is a story behind this shot which explains its title. Buckle up, grab a cup of hot chocolate and gather around all you faithful ones, it’s a long one, be warned!

The dawn of 28th December 2009 found us outside the castle of Methoni, shooting at this same fortress from a different angle. Not totally satisfied with what we got we decided to enter the castle seeking for alternative angles. The castle was clearly under maintenance work, scaffolding and chains forbidding access to the most crucial points all around but no construction worker anywhere to be seen, so *KirlianCamera playing Indiana Jones stepped over some chains and climbed with remarkable agility to the top of the castle to see if the view from the loopholes offered any interest. Playing my part as Lara Croft (I wish) I followed and agreed that the view from the top was promising indeed so that same afternoon found us following the same forbidden route. Kozy set up comfortably at the central loophole (“finders-keepers” was his argument when I stated that I wanted to set up there too), me at the one nearby, ranting about how unfair that “finders-keepers” saying was as I used my tripod to club to a fragrant, green pulp a plant that had its blades spread all over my frame.

Dusk found me crouched precariously on the edge, using what little weight I have to keep my tripod steady. It was so amazingly windy that the moment I let go of my tripod to climb down to my bag and get a filter, I saw it from the corner of my eye tumbling towards the abyss below! I grabbed blindly at it and managed to save it but, needless to say, the image of my tripod carrying my camera and precious lens smashing on the rough rocks below still features in my worst nightmares!

Anyway, we were rewarded with beautiful, golden light just before the sun set and a lovely, colorful sky just after that and took the way back, me still trembling from the cold and the shock, dreaming of a nice warm room, a cold beer (how nuts is this?) a sandwich and an episode of Californication… to find the gate of the castle securely chainlocked! Granted, there was a sign stating that the castle remained open from 8.00am to 15.00 but when we got there it was already 16.30 so we thought it was a joke (so to speak). Resuming the part of Lara, I climbed over the gate only to find myself in a position where the only thing I could do was jump back in cause I just couldn’t pull the other leg over the gate. Resuming the part of Indy, Kozy climbed over the gate only to come back with a cramped leg! Defeated we called our hotel and reported our predicament at the nice lady there, hoping she would find the man who held the keys to the gate. Soon afterwards we were informed that the key-holder had just returned from his farm (how the hell did he manage to be at his farm and yet lock the gate?) and was having a bath. About an hour later he had just come out of the bath and had no intention of coming in case he caught a cold!!! In the meantime the hotel-lady had totally freaked out thinking about how scared we must have been (we weren’t, we were just sitting in an alcove enjoying the atmosphere) and sent for a relative to get the keys and finally set us free!

Yeah, we got our fair share of preaching about observing the signs but who gives a ^@&*? That incident was the highlight of our xmas trip and I’m sure as hell grateful for it!

s to all of you who managed to get through the story and I wish you get to be prisoners of such a dusk at some point in your life



Location: fortress of Methoni, Peloponnese, Greece

<sub>tech stuff

Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Nikkor VR 18-200mm @18mm
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 30s
ISO: 200

*filters*
Hoya ND 400 (9 stop ND)
Lee 3 stop ND soft graduated filter (0.9)</sub>