Known universally as the City of Light or La Ville-Lumière, Paris is the quintessential European city and a photographic delicacy. The crowds and chaos of the big city were a dramatic change from my usual subject matter, but the lure of its grand architecture bathed in golden light was constant visual treat.

Madame Pele has re-awakened on the the Big Island of Hawaii this week. The floor of the Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park collapsed and a fissure opened up on the flanks of Kilauea sending lava high into the air. For more than a quarter century the goddess of fire has let her temperament be known on this island creating one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and once again she is feeling uneasy.

This image taken a few years ago of the lava flowing into the Pacific Ocean at night shows the raw force of fire and water combining to form new land. It is an incredible spectacle to witness and one of the most challenging subjects I have ever photographed. Walking across miles of a’a lava fields (the sharp brittle variety) in the dark and carefully setting up a tripod on a newly formed shelf above the sea is a stark contrast to shooting the lush forests and beautiful beaches on the opposite side of this same island. But the experience is intoxicating and Madame Pele’s pull will keep me coming back again and again.

Contrary to popular belief lightning can strike the same place twice as shown in this timed exposure in the Ajo Mountains of Arizona. Although there are devices available for capturing lightning images, I find that composing a shot and then making a timed exposure of one to three minutes in sync with the rhythm of the strikes works just as well.

This image was made with a 300mm lens at a distance of about ten miles. While heading back from a day of shooting at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, I noticed the storm in the distance just after sunset and was surprised by the consistency of the strikes on the ridge. Shooting lightning can be dangerous (a tripod makes a good lightning rod!), but the conditions were perfect on this evening with clear skies above me and the long lens bringing the drama safely into view. The challenging part was actually framing the image in complete darkness using only the light from the strikes to compose. After opening the shutter, I watched and waited as mother nature created her elaborate light painting.

Light painting is a photographic technique where artificial light is combined with ambient light (typically at dusk or after dark) to enhance the features of a foreground subject and add a sense of mystery. It is often used on Indian ruins, unique rock formations, or trees to enhance the dramatic qualities already present in the scene.

This image of an ancient Bristlecone Pine in the Patriarch Grove in California’s White Mountains was made at dusk when the stars were just starting to shine and the sky still held some color. A Maglite flashlight with a directional snout and an amber gel was used to paint the tree during the 2 minute exposure, and a wide-angle 17mm lens allowed me to fill the frame with the large tree and still include plenty of sky.

These images are fun to create because, as Forrest Gump would say, “you never really know what you’re gonna get”. Fortunately with the advent of digital the wait is considerably shorter than the old days of film and any mistakes can be corrected before leaving the scene.

After nearly 25 years the lava on Hawaii’s Big Island continues to flow from the Pu’u O’o vent on the flanks of Kilauea down into the Pacific Ocean. In the early 90′s I was there to witness the slow destruction of Kalapana and watched in amazement as they rolled the historic painted church down the road to safety, while the palms on the famous black sand beach went up in flames.

I’ve been back many times over the years and I’m always in awe of Pele’s powerful hand in shaping these Islands. Will Rogers once said “buy real estate, they don’t make it any more”, but clearly he had never been to this part of the world!