Nymphs dancing in the sky [explored on 2022/11/26]

I was in Messina, Sicily, for a convention - Messina, the city of the Strait. The city of the two seas, the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian - not two whichever seas, but the very stuff of myths and epics. Scylla and Charybdis haunted these narrow, deep, perilous waters.

As you would expect, I had tried to leave my camera at home (it was work, after all...), but it nevertheless jumped into my backpack, along with my Samyang wide angle lens and my tripod. Unfortunately neither of them told the remote shutter, so it stayed safe and cozy within my gear bag at home. Oh my gosh! What was the use of having a tripod while lacking a remote shutter? I just hoped that enabling the Delay exposure Mode would be sufficient to compensate for my awkward finger actually pressing the shutter release button.
So I began my Sicilian days with just as many sunrise sessions. Wow.
The weather was consistently unstable - an ever changing sky enlivened by an endless turmoil of clouds (sometimes benign, sometimes threatening and ominous), sudden showers followed by warm sun, and then again. There was at first a peculiar ambiance - a stormy mood, I would say - an epic character reminiscent of remote ages, when the gods and Cyclops trod these lands and monsters haunted these waters. I could understand the sense of awe the ancient dwellers of these places felt while contemplating such views. I could feel the presence of the gods of old just before me. Just all around me.

My third Sicilian sunrise was the most amazing of the whole trilogy of four (dedicated to my fellow Doug Adams' fans). At first I dubbed it "the sunrise of the happy painter", since it was so colourful and the sky was - well... It was just like a happy painter - maybe a painter in love - had brushed it with glowing orange and pink. I dubbed it like that to make my fellow librarians attending the convention regretful for not having accepted my invitation to come along with me and see the sunrise. Haha. And I showed them some photos taken with my smartphone, just to pour salt into the wound. Haha.

However when I immersed myself in the project humbly titled "In the Land of the Gods", I forgot the painter in love and came to see Nephele and her sister nymphs, the Nephelai, dancing in the morning sky with their billowing robes flying about and streaking the sky while capturing that incredible orange-rosy light. The Nephelai, or Nephelae, were the nymphs of the clouds and rain, daughters of the gods of the earth-encircling river Okeanos, the Titans Okeanos and Tethys.
As an individual nymph, Nephele originated from a cloud moulded by Zeus to look like his own wife, Hera, to test the integrity of Ixion, king of the Lapiths - or rather to test Hera's report that Ixion had tried to violate her. Be that as it may, Ixion failed the test and was chained to a fiery wheel for all eternity - a hell of a punishment for an impious king.

Well, I understand that by now you might be getting lost in the multifaceted, complex layers of Greek mythology, with their often conflicting traditions. To be honest I am fully with you, yet I believe that you can really see the beautiful girls dancing in their orange and rosy robes, smiling and laughing while looking at their own colourful reflections in the tidal pools - so close to a humble mortal like me that I felt I was almost able to touch them. I did not succumb to the temptation, anyway, fearing that disturbing those reflections would make the nymphs flee - after all you can only watch a reflection and delight in its beauty, but never seize it - so I contented myself with photographing the scene that I am sharing with you.

Explored on 2022/11/26 #43

I have processed this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-2.0/-1.0/0/+1.0/+2.0 EV] by luminosity masks with the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal" exposure shot).
Along the journey - post-processing always is a journey of discovery to me - I tried the inverted RGB blue channel technique described by Boris Hajdukovic to give a slight tonal boost to several parts of the scene. As usual, I gave the finishing touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and played a bit with dodging and burning. I used for the very first time the Gimp's Liquify tool - a very powerful and dangerous one, indeed - to impart a slight bending on the streaks of clouds on the left, that were absolutely straight. As always, it was a small touch, not betraying itself.
Raw files processed with Darktable.

Taken in: Italy / Sicily / Messina / Torre di Faro (show map)

Taken on: September 29, 2022

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Italia

Italy

Sicily

Messina

Strait of Messina

Stretto di Messina

Greek myths

mythology

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myths

miti

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clouds

morning

early morning

dawn

sunrise

daybreak

Tethys

Okeanus

nymphs

Nephele

Nephelai

Oceanids

dance

Zeus

Hera

painterly

orange

pink

rosy

tidal pools

rocks

pebbles

sun

sky

seascape

mountains

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Calabria

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alba

mattina

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ancient gods

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Nikon

D750

luminosity masks

Samyang

14 mm

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Nik Color Efex Pro 4

inverted blue channel

reflections

beach

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Camera: Nikon D750, f/14.0, 1/8 sec, 14mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D750
Aperture:	f/14.0
Exposure Time:	0.125 sec (1/8)
Focal Length:	14mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	GIMP 2.10.32
Show full info

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