Interesting Photo of the Day: An Erupting Guatemalan Volcano

Interesting Photos

Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time. That’s what happened to Andy Shepard, a nature and travel photographer who hiked up a nearby mountain, set up his tripod, and fell asleep until 1:30 a.m., when a deafening sound exploded nearby; he woke up and quickly managed to capture this breathtaking image of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupting:

Erupting Volcano (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

He snapped it with a 15-second exposure, balanced with an ISO of 1600. As Shepard explained on social media,

“This was actually all in-camera, one exposure. I had the tripod setup while I was sleeping. All I had to do was push the button when I heard it start to erupt. Moonlit at 4000m helped to light the volcano’s side and we were high enough that the moonlit didn’t cause haze and darken out the stars. I was very lucky to capture this with one exposure….I try to put myself in places where great things can happen, and it doesn’t always (actually amazing things are rare), but here I was is the right place at the right time with the skills to photograph it. So be passionate about learning, but be willing to take risks.”