Hot Shot

“Watch your footing,” I’m told. The advice is redundant: The brittle crunch of the charcoal-like ground under my sooty sneakers keeps me on my toes at every step. I’m in search of a scenic photo op on the edge of a live volcano that’s spewing hot lava mere metres away. Somehow, I’m staying calm enough to hold my camera steady – except when I think about the trek back.

I’m on Hawaii’s Big Island – where the Kilauea Volcano continues to create some of the planet’s newest landmass – learning fine art photography with Photo Safari Hawaii owner Brian Ross, whose work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. While regular safaris chase animals, our 13-hour, 492-kilometre expedition chases light. And with rainforests, deserts and sometimes snow – the youngest island in the Hawaiian archipelago has some of the world’s most diverse weather – we have plenty of beautifully lit subjects to choose from.

We start at Pu’u Huluhulu, a woody cinder cone offering a panorama of old lava flows and Maunakea, the world’s tallest mountain from its base beneath the sea floor to its summit. Ross issues the first two of his assignments: Take photographs that include three effects of light (translucence, and direct and indirect illumination) and incorporate tonal extremes (the whitest whites and the blackest blacks). His approach combines photography basics with art theory from Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky.

Indirect light is easy to spot (look for shadows), as is direct light (look for bright reflected light). But finding semi-transparent objects other than leaves stumps me. I try to forgo nature and find contrast in my clothing – to no avail – so I head for the volcano. The flowing lava and raging fire aren’t co-operating. Hold still, I think. How can I figure out your light qualities with you moving like that? “Fine art photographs draw you in,” Ross had said, earlier. At this particular point in time, I’m hoping he didn’t mean it literally.

I get the hang of things a little later in a drizzle at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where Ross gives out his next assignment: Find points and lines, two geometrical elements common to most paintings, according to Kandinsky. Confirming the painter’s theory is a breeze: I find the shapes in the koa tree, the hapu’u fern, the pilo plant. “It’s a bit of a visual meditation,” Ross says of photography. “It helps you experience the place you’re in.” Indeed, although so does a little hot lava.

Write to us: letters@enroutemag.net