Chasing Fire: A Photographer’s Race to Capture the Volcano’s Fury By Photographer, Author & Contributor Don Hurzeler
I mentioned in the last article that sometimes I drive out to the volcano because I think it is about to go off…and it does not go off. Other times I get lucky and show up just in time for a big time eruption.
The day before my last article published, I checked YouTube for a live feed on the volcano…and noticed it was spattering. This was three in the morning. I did not shave, bathe nor have breakfast. I jumped into the clothes I had put out before I went to bed and got into my pickup that already had all my camera gear…and headed to the volcano. It was a two hour drive and, if the volcano did erupt, I would be there at sunrise…a perfect time to photograph an eruption. Here was the scene when I got there…
It looked like it was going to erupt, but it had not yet erupted. It was, however, pouring out a lot of lava.
The lava was all over the caldera floor…things were looking good.
Withing a half hour of arriving, the eruption began.
As we would say here in Hawaii, it went from small kine to big time in no time. Within minutes, it looked like this…
That arch or rainbow of lava was 500 feet high and 500 feet from left to right…and it poured out like that for over 12 hours. The output of lava was enough to fill something like 4000 Olympic sized swimming pools. A massive eruption. It sounded like a jet engine.
Along the way, the eruption grew “dirty” by pounding the caldera floor and stirring the tephra, dirt, pumice and volcanic sand up into the air. From there, the heat from the eruption caused major wind currents next to the fountaining lava and vortices formed…looking like tornadoes dancing across the caldera floor.
I left some eight hours after arriving. Here is a photo looking back at some of the crowd..actually quite light given the size of the eruption.
About the time I decided to leave, my business partner, CJ Kale, arrived to photograph it until it stopped erupting. He got great shots, as well, because two other vents opened and contributed to the huge outpouring of lava.
So, that is how it works sometimes…the time before I spent 36 hours on the rim and then missed the eruption by five hours. This time, I got there just before it started and got some great shots.
Let me know if I can help you plan your own chance on seeing new land arrive in our beautiful state. You can reach me at djhzz@aol.com. Aloha.
Don and Linda are “lucky to live Hawaii” for the past fourteen year and claims to have never experienced an unhappy day on the island.
However, he does admit that he thinks of PV often…as it stands today and as it was. And what he misses most from those early days on the hill are growing up with a great set of friends and neighbors and the unimaginable freedom enjoyed in those days. He claims that he was raised like a free range chicken, able to hitch hike to get around town, to go out in surf that would scare any parent and to carry around a bow and arrow or small caliber gun to protect himself from rattle snakes when he hiked the canyons…not as a highly trained, accredited, licensed gun owner…but as a 12 year old kid whose dad treated guns like tools…there for protection and to be treated with respect and care.
And the best part of his freedom, no cell phones. Don was basically on his own and no one could track him or reach him until he decided to come home. Don always knew when dinner was served and he made sure to sneak in the door a few minutes prior. And, get this, dinner always included beer for Don…from about age 9 on. Or a milkshake made using 31 Flavors Baskin and Robbins ice cream from the Hollywood Rivera store mixed with crème de menthe. His dad felt the alcohol would whet Don’s appetite and help him grow from the skinny kid he was in those days. That did not work, but it did make him (temporarily) unafraid of orcas.
You can catch up with Don Hurzeler on Facebook. He is also on Instagram @donhurzeler. His book writing website is donhurzeler.com and his photography website is lavalightgalleries.com.
For a kid who grew up on the mean streets of Palos Verdes Estates, parented in a way that would land everyone in jail today, but supported, coached and loved…Don came out alright. A PV boy who fully understands how lucky he was that his parents built their dream home on a hill with a million lights sparkling below…or a fog bank a thousand feet thick.