I have photographed each of the 59 US National Parks, often with an ancient-looking large-format camera. The volcanoes of Hawaii are such a dynamic landscape that to tell their story, I felt inspired to interpret them through motion using time-lapse and DSLR video. Although I've been shooting clips for years, this is my first completed video.
Here are highlights of this unique sea-to-summit project, filmed in 2011/2013, mostly in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park:
1. One of the most mesmerizing spectacles of nature I've witnessed is lava flowing to the ocean as clouds of steam rise from the meeting of fire and water. I stood mere feet away from the 2000F lava. After everybody had left, I stayed to record the pulse of the flow over an entire night.
2. Since 2008, the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at Kilauea Summit contains an active lava lake which at night illuminates a large gas plume. I captured the Milky Way appearing in a weather break above by setting up my camera in driving rain.
3. Besides filming Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, from Mauna Kea and Haleakala (I've included a shot of the "world's most beautiful sunrise"), I backpacked for a solitary dozen miles on steep and sharp lava rocks to its 13,700 feet summit. In the morning, my water bottle was frozen solid after I had camped to capture what is likely the first night-time and sunrise time-lapses from the top of the summit cliffs overlooking the immense Mokuaweoweo caldera. They bookend the video.