Steam Dried
I remember when I was visiting the lava flow in 2013, trying to take a photo in front of the lava. I gave my camera to my friend (who was also a photographer, but shot on a Canon at the time) and stood in front of an approaching lava flow. As it slowly inched closer, I could feel the heat rising. "TAKE THE DAMN PICTURE" I kept thinking, trying to keep the smile on my face, while he stumbled to find the right settings and compose the photo properly. To this day it's one of my favorite photos and I've always wanted to go back.
Willie, Zack, Dan, and I had that chance at the end of 2016. We spent 4 days out by the lava flow, doing a little vacationing, and a lot of bad photography (mostly because the steam ruined everything). It was a super fun trip but very challenging photographically due to the way the steam kept blowing into all our photos and ruining any chance at seeing the actual lava.
We arrived early, hiked out to the lava flow and setup, waiting. As we watched, the shelf opened up and lava came pouring out, across the surface. I recorded several videos and then kept firing away. I think we swapped lenses a few times so we wouldn't miss anything. In this photo I zoomed in a little bit, to capture some of the texture of the moving lava, but what I really loved was how the steam caught a bunch of light and glows in the air.
Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8:
200mm, f/6.3, 1/50 sec, ISO 800