We recently returned from a wonderful trip to the Greek Cycladic Islands of Mykonos and Santorini. While on Mykonos, we took a day-trip excursion over to the small neighboring island of Delos. Delos is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and preserves the ruins of an ancient Greek city that at its heyday may have housed something like 30,000 people nearly 3,000 years ago. The ruins sprawl over much of the small island of about 3.5 square kilometers, and many of them are in remarkably good condition, a function of the the very arid climate and the fact that only archaeologists and on-site managers live on the island. Approximately 100,000 people visit Delos annually, most via frequent daily ferries from nearby Mykonos. Accordingly to Greek mythology, Delos is where Apollo and his sister, Artemis, were born; consequently, Delos was considered very sacred to the Greeks of the first millenia B.C.
Delos is known for its collection of very well preserved stonework, tile mosaic floors, statuary, marble columns and several beautiful small temples. One of the more magnificent sights is the huge amphitheater which is really in quite good shape. In fact, I understand that the Greek Ministry of Culture has approved a restoration plan to restore the amphitheater using the marble that is scattered around the site. Ultimately I think the plan is to host the performance of Greek theater again in the ancient amphitheater of Delos.
We arrived on the island about 0930 in the morning, paid our entrance fee of a few Euros and met up with our very knowledgeable guide for the day. The day was already hot and the light was getting pretty contrasty. I knew that conditions for meaningful photography was going to be challenging at best. Being a long-time resident of the American Southwest, I am used to these types of lighting conditions and realized that if I was thoughtful and deliberative that I could use the light to accentuate the desolate character of Delos and the beauty of the ruins. I shot all of the following images with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 with my M.Zuiko digital 14-54mm lens (a 4/3 system lens attached to a micro-4/3 adapter).
As you can see, the light is getting rather harsh. Not to be deterred, I felt like a kid in a candy store at the sheer beauty of the these ruins and enormity of the several millennia of archaeological history that I was seeing. It was truly amazing!
In harsh lighting conditions, I tend to focus on compositions first, and then look for interesting light and shadow play. Much of the time this approach lends itself well to black and white photography, with an emphasis on forms, texture and light play.
I like this image. In my opinion, it is an interesting composition that leads your eye along the flagstones between the beautiful stonework and out to the Aegean Sea in the background. The textures, shadows and light all add to the sense of history and grandeur of these ancient ruins on Delos. My processing included initial adjustments in Adobe Lightroom and then performing my normal workflow in Photoshop. This is an image that we do plan to print and hang in the house.
This is another find that completely captivated me! I found this large slab of marble–almost like an old marble lintel–that had been stacked over along the side of some of the ruins. I noticed the beautifully carved letters from the Greek alphabet and just knew that I needed to try and make an image of this. Down on my hands and knees I consciously worked at applying the Zone System to ensure that my exposure had a full range of tonal values. I very much like the black and white conversion, and the textures and details are simply fascinating to look at. This is another image that I plan to print large.
There were many of these incredibly well-preserved rooms that still had standing marble columns and these unbelievably beautiful tile mosaic floors. This was the “Lake House” in the extreme northern quarter of Delos, and is one of the most complete of the mosaic floors. From a photography perspective, the challenge was to try and develop an interesting composition that highlighted the beauty of this interior room, the columns and the tile floor and used the harsh lighting conditions to accentuate these features. You can be the judge as to whether or not you think I’ve been successful. I have to say that by the time I took this photograph it was probably about 1400 hours and was in excess of 100 degrees F! I pretty much had the place to myself. There were a few folks wandering, but most of those who’d come over on the ferry with us in the morning had left on the ferry that departed Delos at 1300 (including my wife and sister-in-law).
You can see that it was not all black and white images that I made. This is a detail of the tile mosaic floor in the beautiful “House of Dionysus” in the Theater Quarter in the southern end of Delos near the large amphitheater.
After a stout climb in the heat, I reached this beautiful little temple. This was temple built by the Delians to honor the Egyptian goddess Isis. I tried several compositions and exposures and then settled on this rendition. Again, while the lighting conditions were exceptionally harsh, I am pleased with the image that I managed to make here. Would I have loved having a few puffy clouds up in that bald sky? You bet! But I dealt with the conditions that I had knowing full well that it was very unlikely that I would ever be back to visit beautiful Delos again.
Finally, after something like six hours of slowly wandering around the ruins of Delos in the heat, I decided that I should make my way back down to the dock in time to catch the 1630 ferry back to Mykonos Town. As I walked down the trail I came across this gorgeous marble door frame encased by the exquisite stonework. I knew that I had to try and make an image of this. In moving about and looking at it I could see other doorways in interior rooms and decided to frame up tightly and use the doorway to lead the eye into the image, into the other rooms and then on to the dry, windswept hills in the background. We have plans to print this image large and find a home for it on one of our walls.
I made it back to the dock in time to catch the ferry back to Mykonos. I was supremely happy with my day on Delos. I had seen something that few of us actually get to see in our lifetimes. A visit to Delos really is a “bucket-list” type of event–at least it was for me.
I bought a cold Mythos beer on the ferry and went back to the stern and watched the small island of Delos get smaller and smaller as we chugged our way back to old port in Mykonos Town. While sad that I was leaving, I knew that I had made at least a few interesting images that would serve as timeless reminders of the wonderful day that I had spent on Delos in Greece’s beautiful Cycladic Islands.
Let me know what you thought of the images that I made on Delos, and I hope that someday you have the opportunity to visit this beautiful place sometime too. I hope that it is cooler, the lighting conditions are good, and your sky is filled with some awesome clouds too!
Lone Bear Images 