Look! Up in the sky! Its a bird! Its a plane! Its…uh…wait a minute…its…its…its just a guy in a helicopter with a camera.
I wasn’t superman for the day but it sure felt like it! September proved to be pretty exciting as I was commissioned to shoot for Hemispheres Magazine, United Airlines In-flight magazine, and cover the Big Island for their Three Perfect Days section. In three days, I drove (and flew) across the Big Island shooting the lushness of Hilo, the cold stars of Mauna Kea, the blackness of Kilauea, and the resorts of the Kohala Coast…all the while fighting rain, clouds, chill, and vog. What a mess those three perfect days!
Perhaps the most exciting bit had me floating over lava and sea in a chartered helicopter. How exciting to ride up in a the sky with no doors and only a buckle and God to keep me from becoming part of the aina!
We took off from the Hilo airport with little introduction to what lay ahead. We walked straight out onto the runway, buckled in, and away we went. Jersey Rob of Paradise Helicopters said fuggitaboutit as it was routine and I had nuthin to worry about. I’ve flown several times in military Blackhawks for work here and there but this was one of those small four seaters that doesn’t offer any imagination to what lies just beyond the seatbelts. As we levitated off the ground and shot across the green lush areas around Hilo, you immediately sense the uniqueness of being in a small bubble, no bigger than a Hyndai’s car cabin, spinning through the cotton. Yet just outside that doorless portal gushed propeller wash and streaming jets of air. I stuck my head and arms out a bit too far and found the wind nearly tearing me and my cameras out into the abyss.
Our first hover was directly over Honolii surf spot just north of Hilo. A group of early morning surfers, who were not to keen to having a helicopter disturbing their morning sets, awaited their anticipated breaks and I perfectly captured the lone girl and the rocks below. If you look close enough, you can actually see tropical fish swimming around her. Unbelievable!
After a quick hover over the beach and surf spots, we zoomed back over Hilo and flew to the volcanic rift zone. Green gave away to the mesmerizing black volcanic landscape. Black lava rock. Endless. As if life first started. It all appears like death but its actually life giving as the eruptions create new land. Since 1983, the lava flows from Kilauea produced hundreds of acres of new land but has also destroyed entire communities and covered many once beautiful beaches and landscapes. My pictures and words can’t describe what is out in Volcano, HI. Every time I go out there, I stare and get lost in what once was…endless lava fields of blackness and life.
The pilot few us over Kilauea and directly over Pu’u Oo cone, where the lava is currently flowing. Now this is the exciting part. Magma…as Dr. Evil would say. Loads of magma flowing like a river. Lava poured and bubbled all over making for a SPECTACULAR show. National Geographic ain’t got nothing on what’s out there. A river of lava oozed down the ridge like glowing hot toothpaste gurgling from the depths. We probably hovered no more than 30 or more stories above the lava but it felt as if a portal to the underworld lay below.
Just mesmerizing! Lava. Magma. Darkness. Red. Black. A little grey. Amazing.
If you can’t fly the month of December on United, please download the spread from here. Its a small pdf file which should easily download.
A big thank you to the guys at Paradise Helicopter in Hawaii for helping me get the shot. Thanks Rob. Another big mahalo to the BIBV for providing so much to make this impossible trip happen. Thanks Jessica.
But no thanks to the crappy weather. No thanks to the grey clouds and the congestive vog. Couldn’t make perfect this time but you just wait.