I grew up with the mysterious lore of Mount St. Helens. I recall many school days spent looking at black-and-white pictures of ash and sparse, panicked trees near the eruption. Back then, volcanoes belonged to a group of otherworldly things I knew a lot about, like planets and dinosaurs. I don’t know much about them any more.
In any case, I had a revisiting of my friend St. Helens today on The Big Picture. She’s looking lovely. None of that fire and smoke business.
In this May 7, 2010 photo, a timed exposure brings out Mount St. Helens against a backdrop of stars and the risen moon at left, in Washington state. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
A little flashback…..
Ash and steam billow from the crater of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. (USGS photo)
I think the dust spots make this image:
Mount St. Helens in eruption. Aerial view of upper part of volcano and the eruptive column on MAy 18th, 1980. (USGS photo)
And now it’s 2010, and we have 5D Mark IIs, and this is how we do volcano coverage. SPECTACULAR.
Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.
I miss Mount St Helens. Theres volcanic dust on my car, I live over 1500 miles away from Icelands Eyjafjallajokull, it makes me feel strangle connected to world events.
Some great pictures there. You can almost smell the hydrogen sulphide in the dust-laden air the photographers were breathing.