One man's ash cloud—material from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption—is another man's Cloud Nine. And the latter is a photographer.

When the volcano in Iceland first began to wreak havoc across Europe, it was difficult to find high quality photos of the cloud. Photographers have since seized the opportunity to capture what is now a magnificent and evolving sight to behold, and the photos have become an Internet phenomenon. Check out some of the best photographs with the most interesting stories behind them.

Lucas Jackson of Reuters wrote about his trials and triumphs shooting the cloud, leading off with his "attention grabber," a shot of a lighting storm on the volcano.

Seasoned volcano photography veteran Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson flew to the scene early in its evolution and began shooting. His story is told alongside his photos on the NYT's Lens blog. "I just love volcanoes and the Northern Lights," he said. "I’m very happy to live here in Iceland even though we’re broke. We’re poor, with beauty."

National Geographic online hosts a number of slideshows of the volcano and its eruption's various stages, with accompanying stories.

Places like Flickr and TwitPic have been hotbeds for amateur and professional shots of the eruption, like this guy's clean little 13-photo gallery. Ash cloud photos are good for site traffic, too -- the Boston Globe's renowned photo blog, the Big Picture, has gotten more than 10 million hits and nearly 10,000 comments hits on its dazzling spread of 35 volcano photos.