Oct 2, 2009

Some like it hot



Now for something completely different. This photo is of an area of cooling lava about 30'x 50' in size from the Pu`u `Ō `ō eruption of Mount Kilauea on the big island of Hawaii. I had been on the other side of the island in Kailua Kona on a shoot and had 8 hours or so in between assignments when I heard it was erupting, so I quickly arranged for a helicopter to fly me over it and then drove like lightning around the coast to get to the Hilo based airport and into the air. The pilot thought it was a cool idea, took the doors off and rigged a harness strapped around the drive shaft to where I was able to stand outside the fuselage on the landing skids which allowed me look down almost directly parallel with the ground when he leaned to that side. Although a seemingly quiet scene here, the active (orange) lava was just below the inches thick surface crust shown. It was a very visceral experience for me, seeing this new earth twist and move in the midst of the challenge to endure the searing heat. We would swoop down to about 50' and stay for maybe 10 seconds before we were overcome and had to pull back to cool off and escape the cuastic gases. I had a bandanna on my face for protection and at one point a just-shot roll of film toppled out of my shirt breast pocket and exploded into flame before even hitting the surface. I surmise they must have been the best shots....lost of course!