Kilauea Volcano - March 16 '08

sanaka

Pretty intense volcano activity last weekend. Good lava viewing at the ocean, and Halemaumau crater issuing record amounts of sulphur dioxide (2000 tons/day! The air in Kona is not nice right now!) This turned out to be just a few days before the big gas explosion, the first in Halemaumau since 1924.

This was a little spring break road trip for the kids, so the photography was squeezed into the spare available moments. I would like to do a dedicated photo trip some time.

I'd really like peoples' C&C. I have clear specific issues of my own, especially with #2, but more generally am looking for help to develop in this craft and identify the things I tend to do wrong and not do right.

#1
Halemaumau belching forth. This is a -2/0/+2 HDR (using Photomatix), then rendered in a toned BW using (roughly) Greg Gorman's BW conversion method.




#2
Kilauea Iki crater, Kilauea/Halemaumau in background. HDR as above. Shot around 5:30pm. I haven't bought Photomatix yet, hence their watermarks (sorry).



#3
Nighttime, lava flowing into ocean. I think I could've gotten much better shots if I had not: 1) been preoccupied with keeping track of my kids, 2) been really tired and addle-brained, 3) so little idea what I'm doing with a camera But I thougt it was a kinda cool shot anyway. The horizontal surface in front of the bright lava squiggles is the ocean. Lava + water = steam!



Gallery, if you want to see bigger.


Thanks!

Peace,
Sanaka

sanaka

Bumpage.

Any comments?

Your bluntness is more than welcomed.

If anyone's wondering, here is info on Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The "summit area" map contains the two crater photo locations.

Peace,
Sanaka

sanaka

BTW, scale-wise, Halemaumau crater is about 1/2 mile across. Kilauea Iki crater is about 3/4 mile long, and about 2.5 miles from Halemaumau.

NorthernFocus

Hi, Sanaka. You live in a great location. I'll give you some feedback for what it's worth.

#1: I'm not much on B/W so won't comment.

#2: You really got good color in this image on what looks like it was a day of very flat light. The sky is interesting with what looks like some rain showers in the background. Wonder if you could have done more with that. As it is, there is nothing in this image which grabs my attention. No dominant theme and my eye just wanders all over the picture. For my taste your stuck between showing the entire crater and zeroing in on a dominant aspect of it. I get that you were trying to get the backgroud crater as well but in this image it just didn't work for me. The foreground foliage further confuses things.

#3: I like this one best. Good job of getting the color of the molten lava. The steam/mist adds character and that sense of Pele mysticism. Maybe a little different crop, selectively despeckle some of the steam, and clone out the distracting whisp on the right side. Thusly:

ChrisJ

I love the first one.... many people may not realize that the big steam vent is brand new. Before that it was a pretty sedate looking crater (with some steam). For some reason I get a feeling of leftward lean when I look at it, but angles can be messed up on the mountain.

The last one is nice... I wish I could visit a nighttime ocean entry. But I've seen a lot of similar shots. Definitely a good memory, though.

sanaka

Thanks so much, arcticblooms and Chris.

I really like your crop on #3, arctic, it's much better that way. And I feel your comments on #2 are right on, too. For me, the fern sticking in at left kinda wrecks the whole thing, and you're right, there's no real point of focus in the picture. I guess the shot really says what it was: "I've got 10 minutes to get whatever shot I can so here it is."

ChrisJ: The mountain horizon slopes so I think the left lean feeling is just there from this vantage point - it was really weird though so this is leveled out five degrees or so. Probably a better shot location should be found!

Wow I'd like to go try these again

Peace,
Sanaka