Smoke from Colorado’s several forest fires bore down hard on the Boulder valley last night so I grabbed my camera and went in search of strange photos at a local wildlife habitat preserve. I was not disappointed.
As I wandered, the wind picked up, ash fall increased noticeably, the smoke thickened such that I had to wear a mask and frequently rub my burning eyes, and the light…oh man, did it get interesting. Over the course of the last 2 hours of daylight, the light turned various shades of gray, brown, pink, beige, and ultimately orange before finally fading to darkness. Atmospheric perspective increased considerably to turn distant objects into gray masses - shapes without detail. I positioned myself on a slight ridge to minimize the sky in the frame and get the camera level with the tree canopy.
For this image, I focused on a set of trees that surrounded a space filled with smoke. And then…the sun appeared as a bright red ball of fire. Everything came together to express the conditions. An amazing experience to witness.
Witnessing this and taking photographs wouldn’t have happened without leveraging lessons learned:
Put in the effort of getting there.
Be ready with my camera.
Commit to reacting quickly to conditions.
And still, many images were unusable due to camera shake during exposures as brief as 1/30 sec because of the wind. It pays to take a range of images at various settings.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I want this image to portray the extreme conditions of the experience. How does it make your feel?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Believe it or not, I dulled the intensity of orange in this image (changed the white balance from 5050 to 4105)
Nikon D610
70-300mm lens at 250 mm
f5.6
1/125 sec
ISO 500
Man, that’s magical Dan. The rich tones and smoky mood make it painterly. Your composition is subtle, and really striking in a sneaky way. Normally I’d be all over that red sun, but the remainder is so unique I have to agree with @Igor_Doncov. In fact, I’d be tempted to crop the top off.
I like this with the sun and find the position of the sun perfect, low and superimposed on the trees.
Smoke and sun of this type has been too common also here in southern Oregon and I have photos with similar rising and setting suns in dense smoke, but the trees with dead autumn leaves in your image make it very special. And I like that the smoky haze shows in the forest. It is well framed and the negative space of the sky balances well with the amount of foreground grass.
This is not a scene where the highest resolution lens and sensor are needed or even desired, nor the most aggressive processing with maximized dynamic range. I think you presented it very well. For me it is the smoke which is the principal subject. The trees and the sun are props which bring attention to the smoke. The open channel straight ahead in the center of the image draws the eye. The trees frame it.
Where in CO is this? We moved from Evergreen in 2018.
Matt
Really like this and kudos to you for being brave enough to get out there with all the smoke we are having. Put it on your wall, it is unique
Stay safe
Kathy
@Igor_Doncov, @John_Williams, thanks for your feedback. Glad you like it. I’ve processed a different frame that didn’t contain the sun and posted it below the original. It’s a crop of a horizontally oriented image so it doesn’t have quite the resolution but I think that is irrelevant since sharpness isn’t a concern with this subject. I’ve attempted to process it with the same qualities of the original. I’d be interested in hearing which of the two images you prefer. My preference is the original since it conveys the environmental conditions and moment more accurately and adds a critical element of the mood. And that red sun is just so unusual!!
Thanks, @Richard_Handler, for your analysis and comment and your compliments. I agree with you - resolution was not my focus. Mood and composition were with processing to maintain the low contrast and color. This image was captured just a couple of miles east the airport in Boulder.
@Kathy_Snead, @Eva_McDermott, thanks so much for your kind words. I may have paid the price but it was worth it. I’ll be printing this one.
Without the sun it’s a different message. Instead of telling the story of wildfire smoke (at least to viewers familiar with it) it becomes a well balanced view of mist/fog/smoke i.e. and particulate light scattering, in a forest, a fine composition but the message is lost.
Definitely keep the sun, Matt!. IMO it looks much more apocalyptic with the sun in the frame. The second version is nice, but without the back story it could be fog or mist. I can’t even imagine what you folks out west are going through right now. I hope I am wrong, but I think that is going to be the new normal with the climate change.
@Richard_Handler, agreed. The story is lost without the sun, IMO. Thanks for your comments.
@Ed_Lowe, the sun is in - thanks for weighing in. And the fires keep raging. You may have heard that another 3 fires began over the weekend near Boulder (NPR ran a story just this morning). One became Boulder County’s largest ever within 1 day and sent volcano plume-like clouds over my home from about 8 miles away. I took the attached photo in front of my house. It’s never been this dry and this hot this late in the season, say meteorologists and firefighters.
What a very creative approach to take advantage of these unusual (and tragic) conditions. My brother-in-law lives in Jamestown CO, outside Boulder and they had to evacuate the town. Hopefully it doesn’t burn down, because in 2013 the Jamestown flood nearly destroyed his house and he had to rebuild.
This image looks very painterly Matt, I love it. And don’t you dare take the sun out of this image, the sun is what elevates this image substantially. I also like how the sun is obscured by the tree, it sort of mimics the obscuring murk of the smoke. If this were mine I might be tempted to add a very subtle increase in luminosity, but it depends what type of mood you were going for. Either way, this is a very creative image.
#2 - used a Lights 2 TK Luminosity Mask to color dodge the lighter tones. Used a pale orange brush instead of white for a little more color in the light tones.
The changes are subtle, but with an image that was already very good, it’s the subtle things that take stuff up a notch. If you haven’t played with the Sean Bagshaw / Tony Kuyper dodging with color technique, it can produce some really nice results if done in a subtle way. It depends on the mood you were going for though, if it’s murk and gloom, then color dodging is not the way to go.
Has to include the Sun, it so simply adds to the whole atmosphere of your very nice image. It tells a story and as always, its a matter of being in the right spot at the right time BUT also knowing what you are doing! Really like it - well done.
I love your original. It perfectly shows the mood of being near a wildfire. You’ve captured the understated, low contrast atmosphere so well. The other-worldly sun is absolutely necessary to the scene. Your composition is super, with that foreground tree pointing us into the background, a hint of a path, and the sun behind it all. How does it make me feel? Having lived through the CA wildfires of 2018, it takes me right back - you’ve expressed the conditions well.
