CJ, Linda and I have been blessed with over a year of fairly regular eruptions at Halema’uma’u.  Starting in December of 2024 and continuing to this day, the Kilauea volcano has erupted about every two weeks.  And these are not your run-of-the-mill eruptions.  Several of them have been over 1000 feet in the air…one was estimated at 1600 feet and often there are two vents going hundreds of feet each at the same time.  It continues to be the episodes of a life time for us…and for thousands of others who have sat on the rim and enjoyed the show.

It is not just the size and frequency that have made these episodes unique.  The caldera is actually filling up with lava.  There is a huge mound of material from the vents that is just behind the vents and toward the sea from where the Jagger Museum once stood (it is now gone…done in by a huge eruption and earthquake…a viewing area remains).  For the only time in my lava life, I was uncomfortably warm one night while shooting…some half mile or more from the vents.  The heat was from the lava that had flowed out over the floor all the way to directly underneath our viewing area.  Instead of the normal 50 degree night, it felt like 80 degrees…a very odd feeling.

Oh, and then there was the volcanic hail storm.  I got caught in it in the middle of the night.  The fountain was maybe 1500 feet and the lava particles…tephra, Pele’s Hair and  reticulite rained down on my brand new pickup truck like a hail storm.  There were pieces of reticulite the size of watermelons hitting my car.  Cars were running off the road and spinning out on the slick silica that was hitting the highway.  I was in it for 20 minutes and it was just plain scary.  Did damage to my windshield, paint job and nerves.  I got to tell me story on ABC and NBC, because I had dash cam video of it and because one huge piece stuck between the cab of my pickup and the pick up part…and I got to show that on TV along with my story.

By the way, the huge pieces of reticulite weighed only a few ounces and most broke into small pieces when they hit the car or road. But they were as sharp as broken glass and traveling at good speed when they dropped from thousands of feet in the air (they get pulled up into the sky with the plume, sometimes reaching many miles high).  Here is the piece that stuck in my truck.

 

CJ, Linda and I are complete partners when it comes to photography, but that doesn’t mean that we can not be competitive with one another.  CJ could not stand that I had this good story to tell, so he made it out to another episode that made my episode story look tame.  Volcanic material rained down so hard that they closed the park.  Peoples got cut.  Umbrellas got torn.  Roofs had to be shoveled off.  Roads had to be cleared.  It was as big a mess as I have seen since the Puna eruptions.  I missed that episode and am happy I did.

Our most recent episode happened mostly in the rain.  I’ve shot those rain episodes…hard to get a good shot and not a lot of fun.  We are on standby for the next episode and it looks like it might be in the rain.  Also, I feel that something is changing in these episodes…not sure what…but each one is a bit different.

I will do a new blog on how to view the episodes if you are on island…how to photograph them…how to stay safe.  We have had two locals and a visitor fall into the caldera in the last year or so…two died, including one last week…and one lived because he got impaled on a tree after falling just 30 feet, with hundreds of feet below that tree.  They saved that guy…a miracle.  I’ve also noticed that each episode attracts huge crowds…which can overwhelm the National Park staff and, next thing you know, there are dozens of people hanging on the crater rim in places that are WAY out-of-bound.  Scares the heck out of me when I see it.  I am amazed there have not been more accidents.  I am especially concerned by the children I see…seemingly under no ones control…that run up to the edge of crater without any fear or concern.  Of course, this comes from a 79 year old guy who can be seen on Saturdays yelling at kids to keep off of his lawn.

We hope you get to see an episode or two in person.  It is about impossible to nail down the day and time an episode will begin…but they have been going off about every two weeks.  They last from a few hours to a day or more.  If you are here and the lava starts to fountain…drop everything and head to the National Park.  The show will be something you remember for a lifetime.

 

Aloha,

 

Don Hurzeler for CJ, Linda and the rest of the Lava Light Gallery crew of lava fanatics.

 

 

I just returned from a week in the Swiss and Italian Alps in the middle of winter.  I have never seen so much snow.  On two days we caught bright sunlight and great scenery…so we have some wonderful images to edit.

I live in Hawaii…I don’t edit many snowy photos.  We have snow on the summit of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and I avoid it as much as possible.  I lived in Chicago for over 20 years, I am over plan for a lifetime when it comes to snow.

So I sat down to edit my mountain shots and learned a few important things very quickly.

1. Don’t sharpen snow shots that are in both sunlight and shadows.  The area in the shadows will turn out green.  I did not sharpen nor denoise any of my shots and they all look crisp.
2. Make sure you have on your indicator that tells you if you need to turn down your highlights.  You will have areas that need turned down.
3. Go easy on the saturation. I used Auto Tone in Photoshop and that gave me all the color correction I needed.

All the rest was very easy.  The shots looked great and the editing was simple.  Good luck with yours.