When the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted on Iceland in March, Bastian Werner's fingers itched straight away. The storm chaser and weather photographer from Southern Hesse doesn’t want to miss the spectacle and uses the first opportunity after the lockdown to document the rare natural phenomenon.
As a weather photographer Bastian Werner actually hunts for thunderstorms and hurricanes. But when he heard in March that there was a volcanic eruption in the south of the Fagradalsfjall mountain range on the Icelandic peninsula Raykjanes, the Tamron ambassador did not hesitate and flew there with a colleague. "The area is one of the most geologically active regions and there hasn't been a volcanic eruption there for 800 years," he reports. "The authorities did not close the area to visitors, so that we could get within 1.5 meters of the 800 degree hot lava that is freshly pouring out of the cone."
The whole thing is not harmless. Bastian's colleague suffered minor burns when he walked a little too close to the glowing rock for a photo. And the drone, which both photographers let circle over the lava flow at low altitude, was afterwards a bit coked on the underside here and there. The Tamron lens that Bastian took along survived the mission unscathed.
"The greatest danger, however, was not the heat or the lumps of lava splashing out of the crater, but the unimaginably large amounts of CO2 that come out of the earth," explains Bastian. “If the concentration of the gas is too high, you can suffocate on it within a few minutes. So we could only take photos when the wind blew the poisonous gases away from us."
Storm chaser Bastian was so enthusiastic about the sight of the fire-breathing mountain massif that he would love to fly there again. "During the summer months, it is polar day in Iceland and the lighting conditions are not ideal," says Bastian. “But from autumn onwards the beautiful contrasts between glowing lava and the surroundings will be given again.” Then, at the latest, he is determined to photograph the spectacle again.
Bastian Werner
Bastian Werner is a storm chaser and weather photographer. He dedicates his life to the weather events of our planet, which he captures in picture and video recordings. He passes on his extensive knowledge in his book “Photographing with wind and weather” and in his blog.
Web: www.bastianw.de