Glamour shot... Haha.
My first time running my new-to-me-Expedition on a wildland fire. So of course I had to get a cool shot to initiate my new vehicle to it's new life of fire chasing.
The 27,000 acre "Mountain Fire" in Mountain Center, CA. About 20 minutes east of my house. I was there within the first 30 minutes of the dispatch.
Picked a very critical moment for this shot, too... over the preceeding hour, the header had climbed up to 30,000 to 40,000 feet and ice capped. A few minutes before this shot, the column collapsed. What happens when it does that, is extreme outflow winds coming straight down and in every direction, essentially the same as the outflow winds from a severe thunderstorm. Large fires typically do this over and over, build, ice cap, collapse, fire gets huge, builds the column again, ice cap, collapse. It's what makes a fire like this really treacherous.
5 minutes before this shot, the fire was on the other side of this mountain. We moved into position here, in Apple Canyon, in anticipation of it's arriving. The outflow winds unleashed and the fire was at the ridge in minutes. The fire crews had already pulled out of the area, so myself and another fire photographer were alone in this part of the canyon, which as a general rule you don't do for long. I took this shot, and within 2-3 minutes we had to reposition/retreat further down the canyon. The fire reached this exact spot just a couple minutes after we left. 23 structures were destroyed, 7 of them homes. :-/
It should be said, that many more homes were saved than were lost when considering the whole of Apple Canyon.
My first time running my new-to-me-Expedition on a wildland fire. So of course I had to get a cool shot to initiate my new vehicle to it's new life of fire chasing.
The 27,000 acre "Mountain Fire" in Mountain Center, CA. About 20 minutes east of my house. I was there within the first 30 minutes of the dispatch.
Picked a very critical moment for this shot, too... over the preceeding hour, the header had climbed up to 30,000 to 40,000 feet and ice capped. A few minutes before this shot, the column collapsed. What happens when it does that, is extreme outflow winds coming straight down and in every direction, essentially the same as the outflow winds from a severe thunderstorm. Large fires typically do this over and over, build, ice cap, collapse, fire gets huge, builds the column again, ice cap, collapse. It's what makes a fire like this really treacherous.
5 minutes before this shot, the fire was on the other side of this mountain. We moved into position here, in Apple Canyon, in anticipation of it's arriving. The outflow winds unleashed and the fire was at the ridge in minutes. The fire crews had already pulled out of the area, so myself and another fire photographer were alone in this part of the canyon, which as a general rule you don't do for long. I took this shot, and within 2-3 minutes we had to reposition/retreat further down the canyon. The fire reached this exact spot just a couple minutes after we left. 23 structures were destroyed, 7 of them homes. :-/
It should be said, that many more homes were saved than were lost when considering the whole of Apple Canyon.
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