Mahalo Haleakala
Hundreds of people make their way to the summit of Haleakala each morning to witness the magnificence of sunrise from atop this soaring, dormant volcano, and the sunrise was a fantastic experience, but the even more interesting light came just a little later this morning as the rising sun passed through a thin cloud layer just above the far mountain tops while a small lower cloud layer dissipated into patches of thin fog through which nearly crepuscular rays passed before beautifully lighting the interesting patterns deeper within the volcanic caldera, Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii.
This image is from the second morning of a recent brief visit to Hawaii thanks to a conference I was able to attend at the much appreciated invitation of good friend and excellent photographer Sky Matthews. We had spent the first morning photographing the active volcanism of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii (there are more lava shots to come), but then we quickly had to move on to Maui where the conference was being held. Since sunrise on Maui was at 5:45 a.m. and the conference didn't start until mid-morning, we got up at 2:30 a.m. or so and made our way up to the Haleakala summit to join the crowd and hope for a stunning scene. Nature did not disappoint!
This light through the clouds and dissipating fog shortly after sunrise, which only lasted for a couple of minutes, was remarkable in the mood it created and in how it cast a mysterious golden glow on the finely textured landscape of scree fields, rock prominences and cinder cones within the larger Haleakala caldera. It was truly magnificent, and for a moment this high-elevation view on this otherwise tropical island in the middle of the Pacific could easily be confused with one from Iceland or another remote and much colder volcanic locale.
Please also check out Sky's photostream, as he has begun posting a great series of lava abstracts from this trip, and I expect his Haleakala sunrise photos will be soon to follow.
Thanks for visiting!
Mahalo Haleakala
Hundreds of people make their way to the summit of Haleakala each morning to witness the magnificence of sunrise from atop this soaring, dormant volcano, and the sunrise was a fantastic experience, but the even more interesting light came just a little later this morning as the rising sun passed through a thin cloud layer just above the far mountain tops while a small lower cloud layer dissipated into patches of thin fog through which nearly crepuscular rays passed before beautifully lighting the interesting patterns deeper within the volcanic caldera, Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii.
This image is from the second morning of a recent brief visit to Hawaii thanks to a conference I was able to attend at the much appreciated invitation of good friend and excellent photographer Sky Matthews. We had spent the first morning photographing the active volcanism of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii (there are more lava shots to come), but then we quickly had to move on to Maui where the conference was being held. Since sunrise on Maui was at 5:45 a.m. and the conference didn't start until mid-morning, we got up at 2:30 a.m. or so and made our way up to the Haleakala summit to join the crowd and hope for a stunning scene. Nature did not disappoint!
This light through the clouds and dissipating fog shortly after sunrise, which only lasted for a couple of minutes, was remarkable in the mood it created and in how it cast a mysterious golden glow on the finely textured landscape of scree fields, rock prominences and cinder cones within the larger Haleakala caldera. It was truly magnificent, and for a moment this high-elevation view on this otherwise tropical island in the middle of the Pacific could easily be confused with one from Iceland or another remote and much colder volcanic locale.
Please also check out Sky's photostream, as he has begun posting a great series of lava abstracts from this trip, and I expect his Haleakala sunrise photos will be soon to follow.
Thanks for visiting!