Timelapse: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park from sea to summit

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 backpacked for a dozen miles on steep and sharp lava rocks to the 13,700 feet summit. In the morning, a water bottle was frozen after I 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. Guides/trip reports/behind the scenes about those adventures: 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 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. 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).

QT Luong a prolific National Parks photographer covers the lava hissing into the ocean at sea level to the peak of Mauna Loa at 13,700ft.  

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2 - Descending to Lava Lake

The Most Incredible Volcano Video ever shot ! Geoff Mackley, Bradley Ambrose, Nathan Berg, after an epic struggle with the weather for 35 days, we became the first people ever to get this close to Marum Volcano's famed lava lake on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu.

Whao. That is some roiling pool of liquid hot magma. And that guy (and the cameraman for that matter) are awfully close to it. ​

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​Ideas

National Geographic - Volcano!
National Geographic Video