|
|
Videographer
Mick Kalber shares his prespective on the creating of
VolcanoScapes and VolcanoScapes II. |
|
“VolcanoScapes… Pele’s
March to the Pacific!”
“The
high fountain eruptions of the early to mid 1980’s
are undoubtedly the most spectacular events of the current eruption… It
was during this period that I am first introduced to Kilauea volcano
close-up. On March 15th, 1985, KHON-TV news director Kent Baker
calls me. He says go to Hilo Bay Air and fly in a helicopter
with John Greenway to shoot the eruption at Pu`u `O`o.
Frankly,
I am unprepared for the event. Decked out in casual
attire… thin cotton pants and a t-shirt, this first flight
past the one-thousand foot-high fountain takes me by surprise. The
heat is so intense I think the hair on my arms is catching on fire...
it’s like being too close to a barbeque. I’d been
shooting film and video by that time for nearly fifteen years… and
yet I’m having trouble remembering how to adjust the lens on
my camera!
|
|
I
scream in delight at my first encounter with the Fire Goddess
Pele… but I tell John Greenway, my pilot that I might not
be able to go that close the next time… it’s simply
too hot… and we were at least a quarter mile away! John
laughs… but takes a serious look to check for paint bubbles
on the chopper.
But
for some reason, although we fly even closer that day, it never
seems that hot again. I call that first time Pele’s
kiss… her greeting to me, the new videographer. I am
blessed. It is fabulous… one of the most amazing things
I have ever seen in my life. I can’t wait to do it again.”
|
|
“VolcanoScapes II… Kilauea
Volcano Rages On!”
“My
helicopter pilot, John Greenway and I are on our way to the vent
to drop off some folks from the US Geological Survey. The
cone still retains most of its height now… around 7 or 800
feet, but the collapse has widened the throat from about sixty feet
to over four hundred feet across. Thru the steamy haze I can
see incandescent lava, crackling from the depths of the earth, leaping
onto the walls of the cinder cone. Incoming lava from beneath
Pu`u `O`o’s internal lava lake gushes into a dome about fifty
feet in height.
|
As
he drops us off, John tells me he’ll be back to pick me up
in about twenty minutes… he needs to make a flight for the
scientists to check on activity at the coast. So I know my
time at the vent is short. The problem is I can’t just
stand back safely from the edge and shoot… in order to see
the activity, I have to shoot straight down into the fiery abyss… and
to get there, I have to step over huge cracks in the cone in order
to set up right at the precipice of the vent…. One false
move and I’m toast! And how long will the section of
cinders on which I’m standing remain attached before they too
tumble into the boiling lava lake? Who knows.
If
I’m
not shooting I probably can’t stand here. I quickly do
what I know I have to do… focus, roll tape, zoom, try to stay
as steady as I can… Because I’m preoccupied, I don’t
really think too much about the dangers… But for weeks
afterward I ask myself… “what in world was I doing out
there?!?” But the images are fabulous… priceless… capturing
activity I have never seen before… and am unlikely to see
again.”
|
|
“VolcanoScapes II… Kilauea
Volcano Rages On!”
“We’re
documenting Kapa’ahu resident Bob Paloucci
battling lava flows that have buried his property… and now
the ex-marine’s house is in imminent danger. Bob uses
a garden hose to “freeze” the flow and force it to move
in a different direction. It works… for a while. That
evening, as the lava flow stagnate once again, we realize we will
have to spend the night there... somewhere. Maurice chooses
Bob’s place… the
house threatened by lava just six feet away! I think he’s
crazy. I’m not about to stay there… so I spent
the night in an abandoned house on a hill above the flow… a
much safer location, or so I think. Oddly, the house I’m
in ends up burning down first. Fortunately not while I’m
in it however. I guess Maurice knew just a little bit more
about the volcano than I did.”
|
|
|
|
“VolcanoScapes
II… Kilauea Volcano Rages On!” &
“VolcanoScapes 3…Living on the Edge!”
“The
loss of the Queen’s Bath in Kapa`ahu hits me hard. My
kids and I love going to the popular swimming hole in the mid-80’s. Its
crystal clear waters nestled in the large lava rock crack provide
a great place to swim, sunbath or just relax. Guava and passion
fruit are readily available. It’s the perfect spot. So
it is with great sadness that I witness its demise in the spring
of 1987. And it was just prior to that inundation that I had
my fist encounter with a methane gas explosion. Park Ranger
Mardie Lane took a still photographer and me to a small heiau, a
rock platform used historically as a Hawaiian temple. The
lava is surrounding it on its way to
the Queen’s Bath. As we stand on the rock I hear a loud |
|
crack
and a rush of gas up my pants leg. I know instantly that
it’s methane gas, created by organic matter that decomposes
without oxygen. It is often ignited by the heat, but this time,
thank God, it remains in its vaporous form as it travels up my leg. As
you might well imagine, we take off like rabbits.
A
similar, but potentially even more deadly experience occurs while we
are waiting for the first house in Kalapana to be taken by Pele’s
fire in early 1990. The lava has surrounded the house, but slowed
in its approach. Several photographers lie down on the grass to
sleep a bit during the night. They awaken and move as activity
picks up… just moments before a huge methane explosion blows
a five-foot square hole in the very place they’ve been sleeping. Understandably,
this event makes for many restless nights thereafter." |
|
|
Tropical
Visions Video Inc.| 62 Halaulani Place | Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Contact by email |
