Lava Creatures: The Claw [explored]

Well it's been a while since I've had much to post, but the next few shots I have to post I'm probably as excited about as I've ever been. I recently had the good fortune to get invited on a corporate outing to the island of Maui in Hawaii. My girls had a horse show that same weekend and my incredibly understanding wife let me take off anyway, so I invited fellow photographer Kevin Benedict along. Kevin had the brilliant suggestion that we set out a day early and visit the lava fields of Kilauea. I have always found lava photos to be extraordinarily fascinating so the more I thought about it the more this seemed like something that *had* to be done. As we researched the idea, we discovered that Bruce Omori of Extreme Exposure was world renowned and the obvious choice to lead our inaugural lava expedition.

 

Bruce told us that the flows are only accessibly by helicopter at the moment, but we were hooked on the idea by then, so helicopter it was! Bruce arranged a dawn outing with Paradise Helicopters on a "doors off" ride low over the lava fields. We found several live flows on the fields and I shot off over 800 shots in an hour. I was quite surprised that in spite of having a new lenses (Pentax 24-70mm and 150-450mm) and shooting from a moving helicopter I was able to come away with some decent ones.

 

What struck me about my photos afterward is just how many "faces" and imaginary creatures I saw in these formations. So, I decided I will make a little fantastical lava creature series. It was actually quite difficult to pick the first shot, but this one was perhaps the most dramatic with something that looked to me like a giant flaming claw emerging from the blackness.

 

I have a whole back story to tell on the camera I *should* have been shooting with, but to keep this from becoming a novel, let's just say I had my trusty Pentax K-3ii with me.

Done