TITLE: Climbing Etna

On a trip to Sicily I was with my family on a guided tour of Mount Etna, the famed volcano which had a minor eruption just months before we were there. Gas was still spewing from crevices in the ground and the smell of sulphur and other fumes was still evident. We were transported by huge tractor-trucks with six-foot tires and gondolas to about the 2000 metre level. Then we had to climb the next 500 hundred metres on foot. As I was walking up a ridge I noticed this figure coming up over the distance and was amazed to see this man who must have climbed up the mountain on his own. It was a stunning site... almost cinematic in a way.

AUTHOR: Franco Magri (Canada)

Hello there. My name is Franco (Frank) Magri and I hail from Ontario, Canada. I was born and raised in Toronto and have lived in the nearby Mississauga and Brampton area all my life. I have worked as a Graphic Designer for 30+ years and along with my drawing pad I have always had a camera by my side. I remember getting my first camera as a gift from my great-aunt and uncle when I was about 12 years old. It was a ‘Diana’-type toy camera and I took pictures of friends and family on school trips and vacations but I also recall shooting many pictures of trees and landscapes, even at that age. At 14, I purchased my first ‘real’ camera - an Olympus Trip 35 Rangefinder. I took that thing everywhere... I was hooked. A couple of SLRs (Miranda and Canon) and a thousand colour slides later, the digital world began. And I was hooked even more.

Today, with my Nikon DSLR and my iMac I am immersed in the world of textures, filters, brushes, grains, layers etc. It’s not enough to just shoot an image, as an artist I find satisfaction in creating one. Many times the initial photo serves as the base and I build up from there, much like an artist builds up the paint on his canvas. With all the tools and options out there creativity has more room to grow. But of course, looking through that viewfinder and clicking that shutter is still my main source of inspiration.

I really enjoy looking for and shooting textures that I could later use as a layer on another image or as its own piece of art. It allows me to see things in a totally different perspective by focusing on the isolated subject apart from it’s surroundings. People would look puzzled and probably wonder why I was photographing a crumbling cement wall or a rusty metal door from one foot away or wonder why I had taken a hundred shots of clouds. (Surely, you can relate to this.) With my graphics background I find myself shooting more for good composition, structure and mood rather than striving for the perfectly exposed and perfectly sharp image - if that makes any sense.
I am always learning and always looking and am constantly being inspired by the many wonderful images we can all see today on... oh wait... look at that cloud! I have to get my camera!
See you!
Happy clicking!