Author Archives: Graham

About Graham

I take photos when I'm out and about, recording life on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Halemaʻumaʻu crater

A view of Halemaumau Crater at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii — Halemaʻumaʻu crater sits within the larger Kilauea calera.

A view of Halemaumau Crater and Jaggar Museum at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii — Jagger Museum sits on the center of the ridge above Halemaʻumaʻu crater. This view gives an idea of the scale.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Earth Day.’ See more responses here.

My brother has been visiting from England and, a few days ago, we went down to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to check out the scene. The volcano’s last eruption ended in September 2023, and it’s been mostly quiet since then.

We arrived to find the volcano socked in with clouds, but the next morning the skies had lifted and we got some great views. We started at Uēkahuna, a viewing area next door to the Jaggar Museum. The viewing area used to be at the museum, but that was badly damaged during Kilauea’s 2018 eruption and is currently in the process of being removed.

Halemaʻumaʻu crater is a pit crater within the larger Kilauea caldera. By the end of that 2018 eruption, the crater floor had collapsed into a deep pit. A small lake formed at the bottom, but that was boiled away and covered in the next eruption. Subsequent eruptions have continued this process of filling the collapsed pit. I hadn’t been down to view this area for quite a while and I was surprised at how much had been filled in. The whole floor was easily visible from the many viewpoints around the caldera, and while there’s no active lava to be seen, there’s plenty of steam rising.

A view of volcanic cones in Halemaumau Crater at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii — Volcanic cones, from the last eruption, on the floor of the crater.

A view of steam rising in Halemaumau Crater at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii — Steam rises from cracks in the walls of Halemaʻumaʻu crater.

Ironically, yesterday I got an email from the U.S. Geological Survey announcing that ‘Increased seismicity over the past three weeks, indicates heightened activity. Updates will be provided daily while at a heightened state of unrest.’ In other words, watch this space!

For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/.

Silver arrows

Two Cornetfishes in the waters off Hawaii

A pair of Cornetfishes glide over the rocks off the Kohala coast.

Going up

A vine climbs a power pole in Hawi. Not sure what the vine is, but it probably won’t get to the top. The power company will see to that.

Just warming up

I drive past the port facility in Kawaihae all the time. Sometimes, in the early morning, I’m there when a second bank of lights are turned on. These lights start out red, but quickly warm up to their normal yellow.

This is a feature of low-pressure sodium lights, which I assumed these are. However, the manufacturer stopped making those lamps five years ago, so I’m not sure. Not that it would be unusual for Hawaii to several years behind the times!

Frass

A monarch butterfly caterpillar and its poops in Hawaii

This Monarch Butterfly caterpillar was busy munching its way through an Hawaiian Crown Flower plant. But all that eating means it poops a lot. That poop, politely known as frass, is what those greenish nuggets on the left are. My first thought when I saw them was, ‘those are big poops!’

The Numbers Game #17

A Pallid Ghost crab blends int o the beach in Hawaii — A Pallid Ghost Crab on the beach.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. The top photo was one of these and I thought, I must have run this before, but I hadn’t. It turned out to be a photo I’d processed, but neglected to move from my originals folder. Without The Numbers Game, I would never have found this!

This week’s number is 138. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A green turtle swims in the waters off Hawaii — A Hawaiian Green Turtle swimming.

Crocodile Needlefish swim just below the surface in Hawaii — A Hawaiian Green Turtle swimming.

Fish on the rocks

An ember parrotfish in the waters off Hawaii

An Ember Parrotfish swims in the company of a pair of Convict Tangs and a Whitebar Surgeonfish, but it was the bouldered bottom that caught my eye here.

A purple patch

An orchid tree flower in Hawi, Hawai — An orchid tree flower.

This week’s Sunday Stills monthly color challenge is ‘Diamond, Quartz, Crystal and/or Purple.’ See more responses here. I’m going with purple because I have nothing for the others! I was going to do another flower array, but then I had a wander around beautiful downtown Hawi and came up with these photos.

A water dispenser in Hawi, Hawai — A water dispenser in Hawi.

A screen in Hawi, Hawai — A water dispenser in Hawi.

An abandoned theater in Hawi, Hawai — A sign at the front of an old theater in Hawi.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii