Lava Entering Pacific Ocean Kalapana, Big Island, Hawaii When I first visited the Big Island to see the lava spewing into the ocean I was in for a real treat! I watched lava pour beautifully into the ocean for almost an hour. Despite having to wait a few seconds for the wind to blow the steam away from the scene, I came home with a ton of amazing photos. However, one thing I didn't witness were the lava bombs! The lava bombs occur when the pressure from the lava tube builds up so much that the lava explodes to the surface. Using a long shutter length you can capture the explosion as if it's silky and on a string. One our second day on the Big Island we got to the lava flow early and just as the sun began to come up, the tube began to explode! For almost 15 minutes we watched this lava bomb go off over and over. We snapped away, hoping we got all the settings right in our cameras and sure enough, I did! Nikon D800 w/Sigma 150-600mm: 150mm, f/6.3, 2.0 sec, ISO 500
Fog Dances Amongst the Trees Below Tunnel View Yosemite National Park, California Willie and I have been wanting to visit the sand dunes at Death Valley National Park for a long time now. Well, we visited a few years ago but we didn't have the equipment to take the photograph we wanted. If you happen to be at the sand dunes with a very large telephoto lens you can take advantage of how optics work: longer lenses compress the 3 dimensional elements into a more 2 dimensional and flat scene. Sand dunes off in the distance feel closer, mountains feel like they're in your face. Take this to the sand dunes and you can make one pretty amazing photo. Willie purchased Sigma's new 150-600mm lens and brought it on our trip to Banff. I was blown away by some of his photos and immediately ordered the lens, ahead of our desire to visit Death Valley in December 2015. Then, at the last minute, we cancelled our Death Valley trip and went to Yosemite instead. I had already puchased, paid for, and received the new Sigma 150-600mm lens and figured I might as well bring it on our Yosemite trip anyways. It turned out to be a good call, because we saw a number of Coyotes hanging out in the meadows, and the lens turned out to be amazing. It also became quite useful while we hung out at Tunnel View for a sunset that never happened. While waiting at Tunnel View for sunset, a new storm rolled in and threatened to cover the entire Yosemite Valley. Sunset clearly wasn't going to produce any beautiful photos and I was determined to make the best of it. I noticed there was some beautiful fog rolling into the valley, dancing amongst the trees. I looked at Willie and said "I'm getting the big lens." He looked back and replied "grab mine too." We spent the next 20 minutes capturing the beautiful fog as it played amongst the trees, blanketing the valley in a beautiful mysterious scene. Here you can also see the impact of the Beetle infestation in the park. Typically, cold weather kills the beetles each year, but the last few winters have been too warm and the beetle population has grown, eating their way through many of the beautiful trees in the park and creating an even more hazardous potential fire situation. We're all hoping this winter will be cold enough to kill them off. Nikon D800 w/Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Contemporary: 200mm, f/10, 1/6, ISO 100
Sunrise over Oak Tree and Hills Silicon Valley, California If I’m getting up for sunrise while at home in the Bay Area it’s usually to go visit the Golden Gate Bridge or some other iconic spot in San Francisco. The Bay Area has some other beautiful locations though: tons and tons of rolling hills with beautiful oak trees dotting all over. They become especially pretty in the winter and spring, when all the winter rain turns our golden hills into stunning green hills. On this particular morning we met just before sunrise and looked around, wondering where the clouds were. There was 1 small patch of clouds that might light up, but the rest of the sky was devoid of anything that would catch color. Fortunately for us, that one small cloud happened to plop itself right behind the tree we wanted to photograph! I loved how this scene has criss-crossing hills, that suck the eye in, and then the Oak Tree cements your eye. A bird perched itself on top of the tree, which itself is perched on top of the hill. Big thanks to Willie for hunting for this tree and finding it! Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 56mm, f/11, 1/40 sec, ISO 200
