Category Archives: Series

Abstracts: Morning webs

Webs on the ground catch the early morning sunlight.
I was on the west side of Mauna Kea, at around 7,500 feet, when I saw these lines all over the ground. I don’t know what they are. I doubt they’re spider webs, though they look like it. If they’re trip wires, they didn’t work. But I did like how they caught the early morning sun, which had just cleared the edge of the volcano.

Abstracts: A softer, gentler firehose of lava

The firehose of lava entering the sea from Kilauea Volcano
One last photo from my trip to see the firehose of lava from Kilauea Volcano gushing into the sea. I tried a few longer exposures and I particularly like the effect of this one. More lava photos here.

For more information about Kilauea Volcano and it current eruption, go to hvo.wr.usgs.gov/activity/kilaueastatus.php.

Better Days: Hawaiian garden spider

A female Hawaiian garden spider sits in the center of a battered web.
I came across this brightly-colored Hawaiian garden spider, the female of the species, in the late afternoon of a windy day. Her web shows debris that’s been blown in and likely encounters with bugs large and small. The web looks like it’s on its last legs and indeed it is because, at the end of the day, this spider will eat her web (or what remains of it) and start afresh in the morning.