A VOLCANO’S COLORS can be felt as
much as seen. At the Fagradalsfjall
volcano in Iceland, about 19 miles
from the capital, Reykjavík, the hottest
lava radiates whitish yellow but cools
to orange, red, and eventually midnight black. This
“extraordinary dynamic range” is one of many col-
orful phenomena that photographer Stephen Wilkes
observes in his May image of the eruption, at left.
The image shows the landscape transition from day
to night in a single frame. Wilkes created the effect by
compiling 70 of the 1,123 photographs he took from a
single vantage point over 21 hours. The composition
starts on the lower right with a photo taken at 1:54 p.m.
and progresses diagonally to the upper left, blending
together Wilkes’s favorite moments. “I’m re-creating
my memory, in many ways,” he says.
The process of making the image was a whirlwind.
After an overnight flight to Iceland, Wilkes passed a
COVID-19 test and ate a quick lunch before boarding
a helicopter to scout sites. He chose a steep hill to the
east of Fagradalsfjall; from there, by his calculations,
the setting sun would line up with the fiery volcanic
peak. Steady 45-mile-an-hour winds buffeted Wilkes
and his team as they drove stakes into the ground to
anchor the camera’s tripod. Then Wilkes settled in to
track the ever changing scene. The precariousness
of the rocky slope underfoot forced him to stand the
entire day and night—but tired legs and frigid fingers
didn’t distract him from the volcanic light show.
As the sun sank toward the horizon, the volcano
fell quiet, and Wilkes watched with rising concern:
“I do all this planning,” he notes, “but at the end of
the day, I just have to react to what’s in front of me.”
Just when it seemed his plans were foiled, the vol-
cano sputtered back to life, and Wilkes got the much
anticipated image.
Watching the deepening colors of the sunset
above the golden lava from the volcano—a union of
forces that have shaped our planet’s surface since its
infancy—he says he felt an almost spiritual connection:
“That is where it all began.” —MAYA WEI-HAASSECTION
COLORThe National
Geographic Society,
committed to illuminating
and protecting the wonder
of our world, has funded
Explorer Stephen Wilkes’s
photography and story-
telling about the natural
world since 2017.
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY
Scan this QR code to
watch a behind-the-
scenes video on how
Wilkes and his team
made this image.
Stephen Wilkes documented an eruption
in Iceland for 21 hours straight, making images
of the fiery scene as day turned to night.A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LONG,
AMAZING DAY WITH A VOLCANO
A