A Really Nice Break

I took a vacation. Strange, but true! We threw our stuff in the car, rented a cabin at Volcanoes National Park, and moved in for six days. No cell phone, no email, no computer, no nuthin'.

It was GREAT!

I packed my KAP bag, but except for using my camera, the rest of the gear went almost entirely unused. Volcanoes National Park doesn't allow kite flying inside its borders, so I never got to do KAP while we were there. We drove down to Kapoho to swim in one of the hot pools there, but I didn't fly there, either. Because of space constraints I also couldn't bring my Bender 4x5 camera, either. Photographically it was an odd trip. I wound up using my A650 almost exclusively. A far cry from my normal monorail-toting, KAP-flying, gear-heavy self. At one point I even figured this out, and quit carrying the KAP gear with me. I stuffed a little camera in my jacket pocket, grabbed my tripod, and went a' walkin'.

The view of the eruption in Halema`uma`u was outstanding. The only other time I'd gone to the park to see it, the wind was iffy and the gases were collecting at the crater. It made for muddy pictures and burning eyes. Not this time! The weather was unbelievable.

Some of the trails were closed, like the trail across Kilauea Crater, which I've done with the kids numerous times. Still, Kilauea Iki was open and we spent several hours down there doing photography. My older daughter inherited my old KAP camera, a Nikon Coolpix 5600. She's developing a good eye, and in time is going to become a really good photographer. My son's camera really isn't made for this kind of thing, so my wife and I gave him our Coolpix 950, our first digital camera. It's dinky by modern standards, but it was built early on in the age of the digital camera when people thought they should be built like tanks. Perfect! We had a blast, and while they were busy doing their thing I was able to re-visit shots I'd attempted before. The fern shot is one I'd attempted, and failed at, a number of times. This time it worked.

We went on a new trail this time, Kipuka Puaulu. It was beautiful. Kipukas are forested cinder cones that get cut off by a subsequent lava flow. This isolates the flora on the cinder cone, making for a really neat natural biological laboratory. Kipuka forests tend to be interesting places to visit because they essentially become self-sufficient environments. Animals and insects can move in and out, but the plants tend to be stuck at that point. Kipuka Puaulu has a nice mix of koa, ohia, and other trees, along with tree ferns, flowers, and all sorts of other stuff. Great place to go if you're in the park.

It was my first time playing with IR in the park. The Canon A650 IS isn't the best camera for IR, but it's workable if the wind isn't blowing too hard and the vegetation is mostly sitting still. Because of the contrast between vegetation and fresh lava, it made for some interesting views. In the end it helped make the fern shot work because the vegetation tends to blend in with the rock when shot in visible light. In the IR it worked.

We came back bruised, cut, a little beat up, and utterly exhausted. Just the way a vacation should be! Can't wait for the next one.

Tom