When people ask this question, I think back to my childhood. They are kind of mythic creatures and symbols of a world bigger than us. I've never lost that sense of wonder about volcanoes. In the presence of the awesome power of the earth and geological time I gain a healthy perspective on life.
Insurmountable problems become insignificant in scope.
I try to capture in my photographs some of the luminescense of the lava flows and the textures of their paths across the earth. We now have a home ibuilt on lava flows in Hilo, as well as a home in Maine, and whenever we can, we travel to see current volcanic activity. I've been going to Hawaii since the first curtains of fire of Kilauea's current eruption in January of 1983, for the dual eruption with Mauno Loa in April of 1984, and the 2,000 foot high fountains of 1985 . We were married in 1986, and saw lava flow into the sea in 1987. In 1990 we captured some spectacular close ups of the eruption as it entered the villages on the south shores of the Island.