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

High Heat

I first witnessed hot-lava careering down towards me in 2013 during a vacation with friends. Ever since then I had wanted to go back and see it again. Shortly after my visit, the lava stopped flowing into the ocean. Luckily in 2016, it started back up again. I happened to need a few extra frequent flier miles for the year and I decided to take Willie, Zack, and a co-worker to Hawaii to see the lava. We were spoiled rotten by CJ Kale and Nick Selway. They took us out pretty much every morning (at least CJ did). CJ kept us safe, taught some some tricks, and we just an all around awesome guy to hang out with. We first met the two of them a few years ago in the Eastern Sierras and we've been friends ever since. On this particular morning we captured the lava popping out onto the surface, just as some lava bombs went off. The whole trip was tough because the steam just enveloped everything. The layout of the shelf wasn't very conducive to photography, so we battled the steam the entire time. 5 minutes before this was taken everything was pitch black. A few minutes later and we couldn't see anything but steam. Such is the life of a photographer! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 66mm, f/7.1, 1.3 sec, ISO 500

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