Aloha,
I recently took another helicopter tour over the new eruption area in and around Leilani Estates. Fissure 8 has been shooting a continuous fountain up to 260′ into the air.
The huge flow from it at this writing is past 4 corners and moving into Kapoho. I’ll be doing another flight later today. I used 3 cameras. One was my trusty old Nikon D800 with a fixed 16 – 24mm lens for the wide shots and my newer Panasonic Lumix GH5 with the Lumix 35mm – 100mm (70mm – 200mm equivalent in a full frame system). The videos are from the GH5 shot in 4k and my GoPro Hero 5 was mounted to it shooting 1080p HD. The GoPro video is 44 minutes long and shows the entire tour other than some parts edited out because there wasn’t anything seen when I set that rig down to use the Nikon.
I haven’t edited my still images so, no gallery to view yet.
Below are the links to the previous flight’s galleries.
So its easy to know which camera shot what images I loaded two separate galleries.
5-19-18 Leilani Eruption Helicopter D800 (wide shots)
5-19-18 Leilani Eruption Helicopter GH5 (zoomed in shots)
Both galleries start with images shot earlier that morning from Hwy 137 in Kapoho.
Remember, both galleries have multiple pages.
No, I don’t have any images from the ground in the residential areas. I have my reasons why I chose not to go at this time. Maybe someday I’ll share them if and when it’s appropriate.
Some final notes.
Civil Defense and every other agency you can think of has their hands full so, please stay away from the eruption area and view from either the air or boat tours. As the eruption grows and intensifies the area becomes even more dangerous. New breakouts will be faster and more widespread. The chances of getting trapped or worse are very real.
Also, don’t believe everything you hear on Facebook. If you want exact and real updates visit the USGS-HVO update website and or Hawaii County Civil Defense. You can also follow my twitter feed as I get my information from these sources.
Don’t be afraid to visit the island. This is only affecting a very small region in comparison to the size of The Big Island. About 1+% of the islands total acreage.
This event is affecting the entire islands economy. Not just those who have lost homes etc… If you want to help, be sure and donate to reputable organizations only and visit the island. Tourism is our economy.
The eruption is a beautiful sight to see but, tragic too.
Fine art Prints of my work are available at Pacific Fine Art in Kailua Kona, 75-5744 Ali’i Drive Hawaii at the Kona Inn Shopping Village. 808-329-5009
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July 7, 1937 – March 12, 2018
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Mahalo! This video is just what I wanted to see. The size of the fountain is amazing and the photography is stupendous! Side note: I know you didn’t get that close to fissure 8 but did the heat from the fountain cause difficulty with the helicopter? I heard that the fountain was around 260 feet in the air.
Thank you on all accounts. Glad you enjoyed it. The heat wasn’t enough to bother the helicopter. Those pilots are very experienced and they know how to navigate for a photographer. They have lots going on communicating with other flights so everyone gets good views if possible. Yes, the fountain was huge as you could see. The close ups were only a 200mm lens. It would have been too shaky for my 200mm – 800mm for video. I’m going up again tomorrow morning. Thanks for commenting…
Bryan, if you get some good pictures of the fountaining tomorrow, I’d love a print (11″x17″) or whatever you think shows the power and destructive beauty of Pele! Mahalo!
I’ll do a blog post once I’ve finished my trips over there and get caught up on my photos. I have no idea as of yet when that will be.