For this shot we got quite low (maybe down to about 20-30 feet) over this incredible lava vent, where the lava was flowing in large volume out of a roughly oven-sized opening in the ground and flowing down a short hill, creating a waterfall of lava.
Both Bruce and Paradise were absolutely top notch and phenomenal to work with.Ī pretty straightforward picture, almost straight out of the camera, no creatures here but this is for sure the forge from which my other lava creatures were made. As with previous 2 shots, this was taken on a helicopter flight over the lava fields with Bruce Omori of Extreme Exposure and Paradise Helicopters. Bruce runs the Extreme Exposures Gallery in Hilo HI, if you are ever in the vicinity I strongly urge you to drop in and say Hi ( Continuing with my lava shots from recent trip to Hawaii with Kevin Benedict. I was delighted to meet several other photographers there in line to shoot the maple, including the talented Bruce Omori, whom I met in Hawaii a couple of years ago and who I can say with fair certainty is the world's pre-eminent lava photographer and an all-around terrific guy. I did notice that last year's image had a lot of moss covering all over the tree which adds some lovely texture and catches the light, and the tree is nearly 'bald' this year, having somehow lost its moss covering off the branches (if anyone knows what happened to the moss - please drop a note in the comments! I'm curious). I sacrificed some time in the NC mountains for a trip out west where I managed to grab some color in a few different locations. It makes for an eye-popping image and deeply satisfies the inner need for grabbing those fall colors. I really love the shape of the tree of course but also the range of colors you end up with in the image from the deep greens of the moss to the bright greens of the bushes in background to the bright yellow, orange, and deep reds of the maple leaves. This time I managed to get to the garden a few days later, almost exactly at peak color time, so no color shift required (but definitely some vibrancy and light/shadow enhancement). I posted a shot from that visit, which I confess was significantly color-shifted and never looked quite right to my eyes, so I've been wanting another go at it. Last year I was here a few days too early and the tree was just starting to turn colors, with a lot of green and yellow.
My second attempt at shooting the famous Jaoanese Maple tree at the Portland Japanese Garden.