We have all seen lots of photos of the white buildings of Imerovigli and other locations on the wonderful Greek Island of Santorini.
But out of all the images of Santorini that we have all seen how many times have we seen this view – a photo of the white buildings of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock?
Not often is the answer.
Why do I like this photo so much?
I like this photo as I have never seen this view of Imerovigli before. This is the view from Skaros Rock looking back up the caldera to the town of Imerovigli where we were stopping.
I love this photo as it really does show how the buildings have been constructed slap bang on the top of the caldera.
And how precarious does this development look? That is the story of this picture of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock.
Those famous white buildings of Santorini perched on top of the caldera.
How did I decide on this composition?
Well I walked to Skaros Rock from Imerovigli after lunch on one of my epic photo taking days.
I had been up since 4am, got back to the hotel and had lunch with Mrs M and then went off to climb Skaros Rock.
But first I had to navigate the meandering footpaths therough all the white buildings to get to the very bottom level of Imerovigli. I took a few wrong turns along the way through the white buildings, passing people on sunloungers and eating lunch.
Seriously I will post my top 10 Santorini tips in another post, but this will be one them.
Check exactly where you will be staying before you book or you might have people like me walking right past your sunloungers all day.
Anyway I eventually got down out of the hit painted buildings and on to the path in the rocks and did a good quick walk all the way round the rock and straight up to the top of Skaros Rock. Apart from the last bit but that is for later.
This is how I travel. I get to the furthest/ highest point as quickly as possible and then work back from there – I like to get the worst out of the way. There is a bit of a scramble to get to the top of Skaros Rock which I managed easily as all my gear was in my Peak Design Everyday Backpack all nice and safely sorted.
And wow what a fantastic location. Absolutely spectacular views all around. There is another photo on this website which was taken from the top of Skaros Rock which is equally sepactacular.
This must be one of the best places to see the sunset in Santorini.
I just sat there on top of the rock sipping my water and taking n the views – another reward for my hard work and intrepid adventuring!
Where was the photo taken?
This photo of the white buildings of Imerovigli percehd on top of the caldera was taken from the top of Skaros Rock. There is one other photo on my website taken from Skaros Rock, sowing the view looking towards Fira.
This is the Lightroom extract of the location that the photo was taken at. It is the yellow tab.
And this is what Skaros Rock looks like from Imerovigli
And finally this is the view of the photo being taken. I know this is with the 70-200mm lens – I swapped lenses after this shot to get the wide view.
What time of day was the photo taken?
1.30pm. I walked there straight after lunch, this time going out taking photos with a full belly of food and actual water to drink.
I know – actual drinks!!
What photography gear did I use to get the shot
Here is a photo of some of my gear with Imerovigli in the background.
- Canon 6D
- Canon 17-40mm F4 L Lens
- Manfrotto 190 Go tripod with geared head
- Peak Design Everyday Backpack
- Loupe Viewer – as you can see
- No red hat – far too hot
- Oakley sunglasses
- Red shoes (in need of a clean today)
- No snacks required – just water!
What camera settings did I use?
- Aperture F22
- Shutter speeds 1/60th second, 1/250th second and 1/15th second.
- ISO 100
- Back-button focus
- Focal length 17mm
- AV Mode
- 10 second self-timer
- RAW format
I notice that I take a lot of photos with my old faithful Canon 24-105mm lens at 24mm. Interesting. And I tend to use my Canon 17-40mm lens at 17mm most of the time.
Maybe I need to rethink my camera lens selection – sounds like I could do with a 14mm lens! Or wider.
One interesting fact about the image.
See that bit of rock in the very foreground. I didn’t venture onto that. I thought it would be irresponsible to do that when I was on my own so had to stick where I was.
Anyway the interesting fact is that if you keep going on the path down, rather than taking the path up the rock keep going around Skaros Rock the path takes you to this seldom visited church called Ekklisia Theoskepasti. And a rather spectacular view of part of the Santorini caldera.
Is there a behind the scenes video of this shoot?
No. And to be honest I have no idea why not. I was there for enough time to have taken lots of videos.
What was i thinking???
But there is this short video taken before I left the buildings of Imerovigli – check out the footpath and the fast moving clouds in the video here.
You can see the end of the path amongst the buildings at the start of this video.
How did I process the image?
As with the other images, three images merged into one in Lightroom. Here is the processing that I did with the newly created HDR merged file.
I have to fill in the blanks in Photoshop – these were caused by the adjustment to make everything straight and vertical – I didn’t want to lose part of the image by cropping in.
What could I have done to improve the image?
Jumped onto the rock in the foreground. Common sense stopped me from doing this.
I will have to go back there and get over to that little bit of rock – I have a great idea for an image and a video from that precarious position.
There will definitely not be anyone on that little bit of rock so I might even be able to get a drone flying from there!
So getting to the very front of the rock is the only thing that could improve this shot.
Sunrise will not help me. Having said that yes it would.
A photo of Imerovigli from Skaros Rock at sunrise – that I have to do!
And what are my thoughts on this image?
Well here I am on location! Yes some people appeared so I had to ask….
Enough about me.
I really like this image as I have not seen this view elsewhere, which is surprising considering how prominent Skaros Rock is. Having said that I didn’t see many people on the top of the rock – just three others.
And I passeed no more than a dozen people on the walk to and from Skaros Rock from the very bottom of Imerovigli.
Enough of me – what do you think of this image?
Well you have read what I think of this image – but what do you think? Get in touch please with your thoughts which I would love to hear, goor dr bad.
One last thing
If you want to buy this image, or want to speak to me about future collaboration email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk.
Rick McEvoy ABIPP – Photographer, writer, blogger