RichVR
3445
I’m old enough to remember Life magazine. I get that vibe from the pictures.
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Very nice, @anonymgeist. I hope there are more pictures to come.
Wow… I’m really kind of blown away by the reactions, to be honest. These are most of the good ones that I took (only shot a total of three rolls of film there) and most of the ones I left out were cases of blown focus. I’ll see if I can scrounge up a few I overlooked…
I do like the idea of putting these all together somewhere, though. Not sure what the best form/location would be.
Okay, these are probably the last of the shots worth sharing. In hindsight, I wish I’d loaded up on the film and spent much more time down there while I had the chance. It really did start off as just “oh I got a new camera. Guess I should find somewhere to go to test it out.”
Paging @Timex: if you’re curious in seeing what the CHOP (née CHAZ) in Seattle really looked like just wandering around, my photos are posted above.
A thousand thanks for these @anonymgeist. These tell more and truer than a thousand tweets or TV reportage. Some are also heart stoppingly beautiful.
That really means a lot to me! Thank you!
If anyone wants to share them, I’ve collected the shots in a Flickr album:
A few more shots of slightly less historical significance from the last batch of rolls:
RichVR
3457
Great composition. I used to shoot BW all the time. I think I’ll set my DSLR to BW and mess around with it.
Even on the (now rare) occasions that I shoot digital, I’ve always kept it in B&W mode. I find it much easier to judge the quality of composition that way.
I’ve got a wide variety of lenses for my cameras (well, except for the 8x10), but more and more I’ve realized all you really need is a 50mm prime equivalent. Cheap, tack-sharp, and such a wonderfully natural perspective.
Thrag
3459
A little while ago a brushfire broke out just northwest of me. Started like this.
Now it’s huge. Both fire bomber planes dropping retardant and helicopters with buckets.
A pair of what looked like 737s just buzzed my house to go drop retardant on the fire, which seems to have worked to great effect. In between repeatedly saying “holy shit” I managed to get some amazing pics I’ll add later.
Thrag
3460
Bombing run!
This hit on right on the ridge you see there, not behind it. The plane really is that low. This is maybe a quarter mile from the porch that I took these pictures from. There was a huge amount of air support on this thing as it threatened residential developments that are just over the ridge there. I haven’t checked the news, but by the sudden plumes of black smoke at least a handful of houses went up. Multiple passes from these big bombers were super effective and the smoke cloud that filled my horizion is now just a few smoldering spots.
Damn, hope your property is safe from all the burning, @Thrag! Certainly got some cool pics out of it, though. That middle one of the 737 is especially awesome.
Thrag
3462
It’s out now but this last hour or two was insane. I was completely prepared to evacuate. All the communities north of the highway there were evac’d. Thankfully the winds weren’t blowing my way. There was a moment when there were flames on the ridge demonstrating it was spreading south towards me, but the bombers put that right down.
Funny thing is just this morning I finally got around to calling land clearing/landscaping places to increase the fire break around my house.
Thrag
3463
This shot of a different run has better color on the retardant.
I plan to go hike through the trails up in that area later this week to see how the fire affected things. Right behind the ridge there’s a creek coming down from the sierra that has a trail alongside. I can see a big red streak of retardant on the mountainside behind the ridge.
I’m going to have to spend a weekend sorting and adjusting the pictures. I had the hammer down for continuous shots on some of these runs.
This was truly awesome. As in the real meaning of the word. Terrifying yet amazing to behold.
Thrag
3464
Even before cropping or adjusting white balance or anything I’ve got some keepers here. I love how the smoke enshrouds the copter (hanging above the fake cell phone tower tree).
