Lava Monster

My first photo to ever get published in a magazine was a photo I took in 2013 from the Big Island, of the Kilauea Volcano erupting into the ocean. The photo made it into Popular Photography Magazine and it’s still one of my favorite photos to this day. Ever since 2013 I knew I wanted to go back and photograph the lava erupting into the ocean. Unfortunately, shortly after my trip, the lava tube closed up and the volcano stopped flowing into the ocean. Fast forward a few years, and in May 2016, it started flowing again! Willie, Zack, and I flew out to the Big Island in December and met up with CJ Kale and Nick Selway. Both of them took us out for 4 straight mornings and we experienced both amazing (lava bombs!) and frustrating (totally steam’d in) conditions. On our first day, though, we looked down and saw this Lava Monster greeting us. I loved how it looked like the cookie monster, going to town on the rock (despite the fact that the lava makes the island *bigger*). Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8: 200mm, f/9, 0.8 sec, ISO 125