This amazing nightshot was taken in Xinovrisi beach at Pelion.

Nighttime or daytime, the scenery at Meteora is always mesmerising.

TURNING TO THE HEAVENS

The idea for Greek Skies was born during one of Filippou’s business trips to Los Angeles, where Greek expats kept urging him to “do something in Greece to promote the country’s image abroad.” The choice of theme was both aesthetic and symbolic. Filippou reckoned that the starry night sky is something people rarely get to see in big cities, mostly because of light pollution. Moreover, however, photographing the Greek night sky was a way for Filippou to be close to his recently departed father who, he felt, was now residing in the heavens. “I felt closer to dad during the night, being out there shooting stars all alone in the dark, while praying at the same time for him and his soul. This was my dad-time, making up for the time I hadn’t spent with him here on earth.”

NOT LOSING SIGHT OF THE GOAL

Filippou began filming in 2014 after getting a special permit to shoot on Mount Athos, in northern Greece, home to 20 monasteries and an ideal location for time-lapse photography. “No light pollution, amazing scenery of monasteries and wild places, nature with rock formations that no one has ever seen before!” The initial plan was to shoot there exclusively, but the recession and imposition of the capital controls in the summer of 2015 made it impossible for Filippou to keep going back and forth to Mount Athos from his home base in Volos, Thessaly. Filippou was disheartened at first, but instead of postponing his filming on Mount Athos to a later date, he simply changed the plan. He put the Mount Athos footage aside for a future project and started scouting for alternative locations. They needed to be interesting landscapes, not photographed before using the time-lapse technique nor polluted by lights. From his travels he had some locations in mind and he found the rest by consulting light pollution maps on the internet. Some of the places that made it into the final video are Pelio, Volos, Thessaly, Antiparos island, Kalavryta, Patras, Kalambaka and Meteora, whose monasteries perch on some of the most gorgeous rock formations in the country.

BEFORE NIGHTFALL

Preparing for a night’s shooting involved a meticulous routine that would begin long before nightfall: cleaning lenses and other gear, checking battery supplies, packing the equipment and preparing snacks or dinner and water supplies. He would then inform friends and relatives of his destination and shooting schedule and hit the road so he could reach the location before dark. “I didn’t want to end up arriving and finding someone else already occupying the place, either camping or even shooting.”

SHOOTING STARS

Once the shooting was under way, he would sit back and do some work, like replying to emails or researching new locations. Every 15 minutes he would check to ensure everything was working properly, especially the cameras that he was not operating on remote, and then resume waiting. “If the weather was good and I was by the sea I would go for a night swim. I might also shoot some behind-the-scenes photos, or walk around to get some fresh air, or when bored watch a movie.”