The Santorini Experience

There is much to visit and photograph on the island.

Cruise ship passenger rarely get any further than the capital Fira. It has a picturesque market and shops to please the most demanding of customers, if you can drag yourself away from the view.

A few days and a hire car will reveal the real Santorini and is well worth the time. Pyrgos, the capital until 1800 is one of the oldest settlements on the island. A pyramid of white buildings reaching up to the ruins of a Venetian castle.

Volcanic soil is very fertile and you can drive the winding roads through vineyards and villages to visit the volcanic black sand beaches of Kamari and Perissa or the red beach.

You can take a boat trip to Nea Kameni and walk to the crater of the sleeping volcano. Finally there is Oia at the extreme north end of the island, the most picturesque of all, where houses are carved out of the rock. The village square is a balcony looking into the caldera and the place to linger at sun set for the ultimate experience – a Santorini sunset.


Notice: Images submitted for St. Louis Camera Club competitions will be publicly displayed for judging at a meeting of the Club. Images receiving awards may be publicly displayed at other times in connection with Club activities. Such images will be posted on the Club's Web site and may also be published in the Club's Newsletter, in a manner identifying the maker. The images will not otherwise be published, nor will they be used for any commercial purposes, without the express permission of the maker. If the maker does not wish any image to be displayed and/or published in this manner, the maker should so inform both the Recorder and the Webmaster prior to the competition in question. By entering an image into competition, the maker represents to the Club that the maker has the legal rights to display and publish the image in this fashion, including any necessary model releases.

Notice: Images submitted for St. Louis Camera Club competitions will be publicly displayed for judging at a meeting of the Club. Images receiving awards may be publicly displayed at other times in connection with Club activities. Such images will be posted on the Club's Web site and may also be published in the Club's Newsletter, in a manner identifying the maker. The images will not otherwise be published, nor will they be used for any commercial purposes, without the express permission of the maker. If the maker does not wish any image to be displayed and/or published in this manner, the maker should so inform both the Recorder and the Webmaster prior to the competition in question. By entering an image into competition, the maker represents to the Club that the maker has the legal rights to display and publish the image in this fashion, including any necessary model releases.

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314-652-4000

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314-878-7777

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314-567-3456

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314-725-5649

Diversified Lab
314-781-0480

Freestyle Photographic Supplies
800-292-6137

Hunt's Photo, Video and Definitely Digital
800-924-8682 X 2332 For Gary Farber
DigitalGuyGary@wbhunt.com

Kwik Kopy Printing
314-878-2299

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314-517-7717

Schiller's Camera & Video
314-968-3650


Jane Black is a very active and very well known photographer in Great Britain. Her many accomplishments include being chairman of Northern Counties International Colour Slide Exhibition for many, many years. Her dedication and managerial excellence have made Northern Counties one of the world's largest and most prestigious color slide exhibitions. Evelyn Greaves, FPSA, one of our St. Louis Camera Club members. has had the honor of being invited to judge Northern Counties. Another of Jane's many accomplishment is having been President of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB). Her years of service and dedication to PAGB have been recognized by the Alliance awarding her an "Honorary" (Hon PAGB). Jane recently received her Associateship (APSA) from the Photographic Society of America. Her other honors including being an Associate of the Royal Photo (ARPS). She has many friends in the St. Louis Camera Club and it is our honor to be able to share her photographic experiences in Venice at Carnival Time with our members and web site visitors from around the world. If you would like to visit Northern Counties web site click here. To visit another excellent English (Northallerton Camera Club) camera club web site, click here.

The islands of Greece are many and varied in size and character. They are bathed in a quality of light, which the ancient gods themselves must have decreed. Under blue skies and amid Homers wine dark sea, the islands vie with each other for tourist attention. Yet amid all this dazzling light and colour there is one island that is unique. Born out of a massive upheaval of the earth’s crust, Santorini is an experience. It is the most southern of the Cycladean group but in no way resembles any other island in the Agean. It is one of the most spectacular and photogenic islands in the world.
Legend and the works of Plato identify Santorini as the lost land of Atlantis. Sitting in one of the many cafes in Fira or Oia gazing at the spectacular view it takes little imagination to agree. Santorini is made of one larger crescent shaped island and four smaller islands. One [Nea Kameni] is the dormant core of the volcano. The pattern of the islands form a broken circle around the flooded caldera which has an area of 22 square kilometres or 8.5 square miles.

Geologists and archaeologists have learnt from evidence uncovered in the area that a volcanic explosion similar to the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 but four times greater shaped Santorini. As the volcano blew apart and sank the water rushed in to fill the caldera. It is now acknowledged that the eruption of Santorini was responsible for the sudden destruction of the sophisticated Minoan civilisation on Crete . Dust and ash coupled with earthquakes and a massif tsunami would have obliterated crops and life.

From this powerful stroke of nature in the Bronze age was born the crescent shaped island of Santorini about 14 miles long, 3 miles across at its widest point and half a mile at its narrowest. To reach the island there is a regular air service and seeing it from the air is interesting. However nothing can compare with the approach by sea. It is something else to experience the ship enter the deep blue waters of the caldera, and sail towards the reddish black, sheer cliffs rising to 900 feet, with tiny white buildings perched precariously on the top, against an intense blue sky.

The only deep water harbour is Athinio. The cruise ships anchor off the cliffs below Fira the capital. Once ashore there is a choice. You can climb the 600 steps which snake up the cliff face, hire a donkey and ride up or glide up in the cable car.

Of the small towns and villages scattered across the island it seems most of the buildings are a dazzling white and blue is the colour of doors, windows and church domes. The streets are narrow winding and frequently stepped. What seems to be a cul-de-sac becomes the courtyard of a house and at the same time the roof of the house below. Round every corner there is a stunning view, a picturesque house or a blue domed church.

There is much to visit and photograph on the island. Cruise ship passenger rarely get any further than the capital Fira. It has a picturesque market and shops to please the most demanding of customers, if you can drag yourself away from the view. A few days and a hire car will reveal the real Santorini and is well worth the time. Pyrgos, the capital until 1800 is one of the oldest settlements on the island. A pyramid of white buildings reaching up to the ruins of a Venetian castle. Volcanic soil is very fertile and you can drive the winding roads through vineyards and villages to visit the volcanic black sand beaches of Kamari and Perissa or the red beach. You can take a boat trip to Nea Kameni and walk to the crater of the sleeping volcano. Finally there is Oia at the extreme north end of the island, the most picturesque of all, where houses are carved out of the rock. The village square is a balcony looking into the caldera and the place to linger at sun set for the ultimate experience – a Santorini sunset.


	The Santorini Experience by Jane Black, APSA of England Updated October 10, 2006