Posted by beastusa

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.

Notes and stills: http://www.terragalleria.com/blog/2013/06/11/hawaii-volcanoes-video-notes-and-stills

More detailed guides/trip reports/behind the scenes:
ocean http://www.terragalleria.com/blog/2013/04/25/photographing-the-lava-ocean-entry-in-hawaii
summit http://www.terragalleria.com/blog/2013/05/17/hiking-mauna-loa-summit-via-observatory-trail

Website (with 30,000+ photographs): http://www.terragalleria.com
Hawaii Volcanoes picture gallery: http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.hawaii-volcanoes.html

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/terragalleria
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/terragalleria
Google+: http://plus.google.com/u/0/115204805503581947511/

I am a widely published, full-time photographer, accepting assignments worldwide. Most of the film footage is available in 4K. Contact: [email protected].

Equipment: Canon 5D mk2 & 5D mk3 cameras, Canon 24/1.4, 24-105, 100-400, Nikkor 12-24.
Post-production: Lightroom 4, Adobe CS5 (Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro), LRTimelapse 2, GBDeflicker.

I am grateful to zero-project http://www.zero-project.gr for the CC-licensed (edited) track "Ride of the Dark Knight", and Steven Bumgardner https://vimeo.com/user2380620 for guidance and advice.

Thank you for watching. I always appreciate comments and feedback (critiques welcome).