The high season month of August is normally the period I like least in Panarea, as it’s just too busy, and often too hot, to do any meaningful photography. But you must always strive to pit your fertile imagination as an artist, as a creator, to seek out interesting scenes. This August Sunrise Iditella panorama is a moment in the life of Panarea when its sea is filled with magnificent yachts and boats of all sizes, when the island is buzzing with people, when the only peaceful moment of the day is at sunrise, just after the last revellers have gone to sleep after a night’s partying and dancing.

The high summer season was in fact what I attempted to evoke in the view:  with the multitudes of boats moored off the shore. The morning was a bit hazy, with heavy, hot and humid air, but I think this slight softness of the sky adds to the mystery of the scene. I continued to capture views as the sun rose, but the soft light of the first appearance at this moment of the sun above the shadow of coastal mist – the Tyrrhenian coastline of Calabria is just beyond range of visibility – and this I think makes the view.

As always, I stood there marvelling at the scene unfolding in front of me, in the totally deep silence of daybreak aside from the first birds chirping and cicadas starting to sing, as I witnessed the daily but always mesmerising spectacle of the sun rising and the colours on the sky coming to life.

I shot a short timelapse video of this August Sunrise Iditella view at the same time as this panorama, see it here. There you will find many of my other timelapses of similar scenes in Panarea and the Aeolian Islands, of the sun and moon rising, and of Stromboli erupting, in the night sky with the Milky Way.

See more panoramas of Panarea here