Saw a Light Circling in the Sky.
I was at home looking out my window last evening when I heard what I thought was an aircraft outside. The sound kept repeating and I noticed that there was a light that would flicker on and off in the sky in that direction. As I went outside I could smell the smoke as the wind was blowing my way. Well, I did what most people would do… I decided to investigate and drove my car (and camera) in that direction! Turned out to be a small fire at an abandoned farmstead 1/2 mile from my place.
It’s Been a Dry Spring.
Perfect conditions around here for grass fires and a rural church was within 100 yards. I had a front row seat and watched as the fire service did a great job of containing the blaze. I took a pictures as they filled the bag at a nearby pond and then swung over the fire to dump the water. Very efficient operation.
Equiment and Process.
Nikon D700 w/70-200 @ 200mm.
Image above: This sequence of 5 images of a single run was put together in Photoshop CS6 using auto-aline and auto-blend images. (Plus some work on the layer masks)
Image below: Caught the firefighting helicopter as it returned with a full load of water.
Close call.
I went over and took a closer look today after school. The fire had made it half way through a 5 acre woods and was just 50 yards from a larger grassy area that would have led to my woods. These guys did an amazing job of containing this fire on a very windy evening! I was told they had been at another fire just 10 miles away a couple of hours earlier. Busy day!