Kilauea Volcano

Hawaii is really the land of wonders.  The  almost lunar like landscapes found on the "the big island" of Hawaii have an austere beauty.  Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is home to Kilauea Volcano which is famous for it's deep glowing lava that can be seen best at night.  After a sun filled day of frolicking in the waves with green sea turtles, I had to the lose the bikini and sarong in favour of a pair of jeans and a sweater and make my way up to 4,190 feet for Kilauea's evening show.  It is not cold in Canadian terms up there, but the wind can be a bit shocking after the sun sets.  You can see many tourists wearing hoodies with the national park logo.  Most likely an emergency purchase after showing up in a pair of shorts and flip flops.  
A much bigger problem is how to photograph this volcanic phenomena.  I find the most important skill in photographing landscapes is figuring out the best time to shoot them.  The angle and quality of light is everything!  I chose to do a time exposure at dusk when there was still a little light in the sky so that the glow would not be in too much contrast to an unlit surrounding landscape.  I always try to keep my ISO as low as possible (200) to preserve quality.  Since I had brought a tripod this was made possible.  Considering the distance and wide focal length, I did not need to worry about my depth of field so I chose a wide open lens (2.8).   My exposure time was 121 seconds.  I was shooting with a Nikon D4  and using the wonderful long exposure noise reduction setting.  

   

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