A quick first real post. Above is a photograph of a sulfur miner who works at Kawah Ijen. His name is Paing and over the time that I spent in the region we became friends. This image was taken during my last trip to the Ijen crater (I made 3 trips there). We decided to make the journey together, but began a little later than I would have preferred; the sun was already slowly making its way up as we reached the crater rim. We stopped to rest; I decided to take advantage of the fact that there was some light and to photograph Paing against the spectacular mountain backdrop. He sat down, I set up my tripod, he lit his cigarette with the still burning flame and stared out into the distance. Another miner walked past, they exchanged greetings and he continued to stare. I took as few frames. This is probably one that I like most. The image is lit only by the flame that Paing is holding.

To get more of an idea about Kawah Ijen and the people who work there you can read what I’ve written and see the bunch of images here in my gallery on PBase.