Steam / Ash.

Kumamoto, March — Aso.

The summit sightseeing helicopter runs every forty minutes; each circuit hangs over the crater for maybe ten minutes — some passengers take one shot and put the camera down; I spend the whole pass still counting shutter speeds.

That day the wind was from the west, so our right side stayed a solid wall of white steam; through gaps in the rotor disk you could occasionally see the faded sulphur-green of the crater floor, but more often only the concentric ridges left where rain had washed the ash — stacked geological exam papers.

Four frames. The first is the key frame for the whole series.