It was a thrill to get the chance to go up in a helicopter and see the lava flowing at the Kīlauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Dorie and Chelle gave me this present for father’s day.
While I had been in helicopters many times, clients paid for the experience. This time it was out of our pockets. I had wanted to do this for years.
I have been coming to The Big Island of Hawaii at the invitation of my good friend Dennis Fahringer. I have been teaching photography to his School of Photography students with the University of Nations, which is part of Youth with a Missions.
Now for 12 years, I have been driving to the Volcano, hoping for good photos. I have taken some pretty good pictures through the years. Here is one from February this year before they closed the Volcano National park due to the recent activity.
The best way to see the volcano is from the air.
This is an untouched photo right out of the camera. I just converted from Nikon NEF to a JPEG.
By shooting RAW, you can work with the photo in Lightroom just like we did in the film days in the Darkroom.
Kīlauea is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands and the most active of the five volcanoes forming the island of Hawaiʻi. Fissure 8 erupts lava into the perched channel leading northeastward from the vent. Lava levels in the upper channel between Fissure 8 and Pohoiki Rd. are low this morning but are expected to rise after the next collapse/explosive vent at the Kīlauea summit. The channelized ʻaʻā flow west of Kapoho Crater continues to be the main ocean entry at the southern edge of the flow front this morning. Despite no visible surface connection to the Fissure 8 channel, lava continues to ooze out at several points on the 6 km (3.7 mi) wide flow front into the ocean. [Nikon D5, 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6, ISO 250, ƒ/8, 1/2000]
The number one tool that helps you when shooting from a helicopter is the Dehaze Slider.
There is a lot of haze created by the atmosphere, and over the volcano with VOG, you need to use this tool, or the fog clouds the photos.
Just compare this photo of Rainbow Falls I processed to the unprocessed image.
Now here are two short videos I shot while up as well. I processed these in Final Cut Pro X and corrected the footage for better contrast and color.
Kīlauea Volcano from Stanley Leary on Vimeo.
Kīlauea Volcano Fissure 8 from Stanley Leary on Vimeo.
I hope these tips help you see why shooting RAW and using Lightroom can make a HUGE difference in your photos.