Tag Archives: sunrise

Looking into 2013 with Aloha

By JasonM | Published January 3, 2013

It looks like I am headed back to the Big Island to catch the lava ocean entry this weekend! Very exciting! SO. I thought I’d better let go of the last lava capture that I’ve been holding on to. “Lesion” In this capture you can see straight into Pele’s veins and feel the hot life and new land flowing beneath me. What a scary thought, at any moment this could rush up in search of rich cool air! I took me nearly 30 minutes to take this photo…boy was I tempting Chance! My new cover photo on my Facebook page is shot by Jason O’Rourke Photography and shows me perched a top this formation figuring out this capture. I’m lucky to get to play with other good photographers.

Lesion and the other eight photos I captured are available on my web site in limited and open editions. My favorite photos from December in Kalapana are “Into the Wild” “The Dragon’s Eye” “Quick Silver” (the one with a rainbow!) “Lava Knife” and “Lesion” I am very fortunate to have returned with so many photographs. In fact, I am very fortunate to be doing what I love and receiving so much support from all of you! In four months since beginning photography as a business I’ve become represented in four galleries around Oahu, my Facebook page has 700+ followers and one of my photos received more than 14,000 “Likes!”

I hope to continue this trend by continuing to venture out into the dark and bringing back that first light that everyone loves as well as continuing to photograph the beautiful landscapes of Hawai’i and, dare I dream, abroad.

www.JasonMatias.com features my best work from the vibrant sunflower fields of Waialua to the thought provoking Door Series, to Oahu’s beautiful sunrises and landscapes. It features my Underwater photography, and Big Island Lava Landscapes. Lastly, my newest and most original work; scenes of iconic Hawaii an entire day featured in one photograph have begun being released. The first release being the last Aloha Friday of 2012.

2013 feels exciting and with all the imminent end of the world prophecies behind us I see nothing on the horizon to dampen our trajectory.
Mahalo and Aloha

Jason Matias Photography

Posted in Journal, Photography | Also tagged big island, Facebook, hawaii, lava, oahu, pele, photographer, photography, sunset 1 Comment

I stayed the night at Koko Crater

By JasonM | Published January 8, 2012

Just a little bit of me getting back to being myself…..

I decided around 8 after leaving the pool hall that I wanted to finally hike Kokohead. It was a full moon and completely clear skies. Its not too often that those variables align on a Saturday.

I hit the trail head around 9pm began stomping my way to the top, alone. In six years and three different states I’ve only found one other person who might do this type of thing with me. I learned in Alaska that if I wait for company I’ll end up with many missed opportunities.

I've used this knife to turn trees into 10,000 pieces of wood and build fires in the tundra.

For the risk adverse people, not to worry. I know I was alone in the dark but I brought war knife! Ironically, I was more worried about running into homeless crazies and vagrants here than I have been worried about running into nature in other places.

Most other places I’ve been are much further from the beaten path though.

Like I say in the video, there are 1100 or so rail ties leading up to Koko Crater. I climbed about 900 of them. I half-skimmed an online trail guide and ended up trailblazing a path to where I knew the rail ties would be.

Foto credit: Aaron L.

aAaron took this shot later on on Sunday. I climbed in the dark and didn’t get to see the stairs until morning. Which brings me to my next point: I stayed the night. watch-

Like the video says, I wanted to go so I went! Pretty awesome to have the freedom to stomp around the island of my own accord. With nothing waiting for me at home I took the leap to kick-it on the summit.

I was too lazy to make myself a bed- which I regretted continuously- so I curled up in a few different places at the top. My knife is meant for prying, wedging, and killing vagrant attackers: I had a hard time cutting the folliage and gave up feeling that it wasnt that cold anyhow. The wind kept striping my body heat off of me and it was generally unpleasant- but I love it. I thought about calling it quits a few times but the moon was so bright and the air was so fresh. I wasn’t thinking about girls or stocks. Or about future plans and where I might end up next.

Its hard to pass on rare moments of solitude.

The moon is setting over Honolulu

Around this time people began arriving at the summit for Sunrise. I got to hang out with a great group of Canadians from an excellent gene pool- everyone of them had fantastic eyes! Carmela let me play with her camera and we got some awesome shots of the sunrise (all my pictures are iPhone4) I’ll add some of those when she sends them over. After the hike down we had breakfast and talked story for a while. It was fun. Meeting random people is one thing I’ve been missing in my life lately. I wish all of them luck in the future.

The cannuks were awesome and have great stories. I don’t know why we hate on them so much… I hope to keep in touch with Mitch (now thats a tough name) as he hikes the entire Appalachian Trail straight through. Ambitious goal!

The sun is rising over Maui.

Really cool moment during the sunrise. One of the clouds looked exactly like a seagull! We all saw it. It reminded me of this short book by Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The book is about seeking a higher purpose in life and follows Jonathan on his journey to his higher purpose. The read is so simple that I fear I didn’t capture 100% of its imprint. I will read it again someday.