Long, hard, sad week in an Oregon wilderness fire lookout tower. [View all]
We were hit very badly Wednesday/Thursday and, then kind of unexpectedly, Friday by badass lightning. Over 3000 strikes, maybe a lot more. At least 100 fires, probably many more, in the Deschutes NF. And a beloved Sisters, OR, firefighter (58 years old) killed fighting a fire near Greenridge as a contract "faller". Falling a snag, I hear - a "widow-maker" as we call them.
The I/A (Initial Attack), smoke jumpers, and helo-rappeller crews have amazed me this week. The Central Oregon dispatchers have become hoarse working the max hours allowable. The helo and fixed wing pilots all deserve DFCs. We lookouts have been on dawn to deep-dark since Wednesday.
I have many photos to choose from, but I'm posting a happy one from tonight. I took this after my boss called and told me to go off duty "early" at 8:00 PM, and go on duty tomorrow at 8:00 AM PDT. A break before the forecast lightning hits again on Tuesday.
A little about this photo. The moiré patterns on the digital negative gave me a clue that the final color JPEG was going to be special. It was a simple shot: sunset through the blinds by the bed on the west side of the lookout, focusing on the detail of the blinds. The moiré patterns did not show in the finished image, but the natural colors were awesome (IMHO). I used a Canon 50mm f1.2 lens with a polarizing filter on a Canon 5D-MK2. The horizontal bamboo strips of the blinds acted as another polarizing filter, thus (physics majors check me on this) the moiré patterns in the digital negatives.
The saturation is natural, so you saturation purists - and you know who you are - please tune out.
= new reply since forum marked as read