rangefinderforum user leicashot recently visitied the sulfur mines at Kawah Ijen, a volcano in east Java, featuring the world’s largest lake of sulfuric acid. Around the lake, between clouds of sulfur dioxide gas, some 400 workers collect rocks of pure sulfur, which they then carry over four kilometers down to the processing plant at the foot of the mountain – for a handfull of dollars a day.

leicashot’s report features some stunning pictures of the mountain, the workers, the processing plant and its surroundings, as well as a report on his first-hand experience being caught in a cloud of sulfur dioxide gas for ten minutes – from the impact of which he claims he is still suffering. The pictures were taken using a Leica M9, a pre-aspheric Elmarit-M 28/2.8 and a Voigtländer Nokton 35/1.2. You can find his post here @ rangefinderforum.