The Scene While scouting with friends for a new photo workshop in Ecuador, we visited the Cotopaxi Volcano National Park. It’s a beautiful place, and I wanted to take some shots that showed the vast open spaces, which are always exciting for a rainforest photographer (such as myself) as I’m used to very dark, closed
One of the hottest and driest places on Earth, the Danakil Depression in the northern part of the Afar region in Ethiopia (part of the great East African Rift Valley) is one of the most cruelly inhospitable places on the planet. Much of it lies below sea level, with temperatures as high as 125 degrees
Although there is no force of nature more destructive than a volcanic eruption, there are actually a few places in the world where you can photograph lava as it explodes, erupts, or oozes out from the molten core of the Earth safely. Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park in the United States, Nyiragongo Volcano in the Democratic
Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. In early 2016, an eruption sent lava flowing slowly towards the ocean, the first time in three years. Since August 2016, lava has been dribbling into the ocean, but after a collapse of the cliff at the ocean entry
I recently spent a week in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, located on the Big Island of Hawaii. I had heard that after a long hiatus, lava was once again flowing into the sea, so with a little bit of free time and some frequent flier miles to burn, I decided to head out and do
Mount Nyiragongo, located in Virunga National Park with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is an active stratovolcano that has erupted at least 34 times since 1882. The most recent major eruption of the volcano occurred in 2002, destroying 4,500 buildings, displacing 400,000 people, and causing 147 casualties. The primary draw of Nyiragongo is the
While visiting Indonesia, I spent two nights photographing the sulfur mine of Ijen Volcano. Although the experience was a grueling one for me, it doesn’t even begin to compare to the challenging life led by the miners of Ijen, recognized as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Every night, the miners climb
