Until the Dark

A shot I wanted to have in my gallery mostly because of the memories it brings back. I’ve always claimed that my photos serve as my diary and I know no one can begin to understand the value of this, not until they’ve fully realized and experienced how limited my memory capacity is due to a defensive mechanism gone wild

Anyway, this shot incorporates the memories of at least a week of my life. Captured on 26 April 2009, this was the only serious shot taken during the 7 day school excursion in which I was the accompanying teacher. As was expected there was no chance for serious photography since we always happened to be in the best possible places at the worst possible times having a strict schedule but on that day I managed to sneak out of the hotel early enough to catch the sunset.Fully equipped and determined to take a shot of the sunset from the lake I set off and, luckily not trusting my totally broken down sense of direction, I asked someone on my way to the lake if I was heading towards the right direction. He laughed (discretely) and pointed me to the right direction (thank God, cause else they’d still be trying to find me).

I was so lucky to find myself at the only place where there was a break in the protective banisters, although I had to clean up the place from numerous beer cans and other debris and try to ignore the people sitting comfortably on launchers looking at me bemusedly and curious as to what the heck I was up to. When I was set and ready to shot, a dark-skinner guy came along claiming he was Osama Bil Laden and I should shoot him instead if I wanted to become famous! Suffice to say I totally missed my chance to become rich and famous and got this shot instead. Wouldn’t change it for the world, it holds in it the memories of a carefree and very happy week together with students that I’ve been with since their first steps in high school and I’ll miss so much in the years to come.

So, here it is, lake Pamvotis, Ioannina, I really hope you enjoy your visit here cause it happens to be a place I love so much for so many reasons!

Location: Lake Pamvotis, Ioannina

<sub>tech stuff

Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Tokina 12-24 @ 12mm
Shutter Speed: 75 sec
ISO: 200
Filters: Lee 3 stops soft grad ND (0.9), B+W 77E 110 (10 stop ND)</sub>