Triunfo Park fire

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

I was driving my daughter and her friend from school around 6 pm when they mentioned some fire. Soon I have noticed it myself. Its bright orange light gave our quiet and usually peaceful Conejo Valley rather volcanic and generally inferno-ish look.
I dropped the girls at the house and I took off for a quick - half an hour, I told my wife -look.
...
Two hours later I got back...
...
Here are a few shots.

01: Crowd is silently watching the raging fire:

02: Fire blast:

03: Fireman in action (I know it's blurry, but I like it):

04: Fireman:

These pics (and some more) can also be found here:
http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/2384696

And a slightly broader selection (including firetrucks! is here:
http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/2384697

Enjoy!

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Nik,

Thx for sharing. Although I have "enjoyed" your pictures very much -as usual- my mind goes out to the victims of this fire; the people, the flora and the fauna. I hope that there were none seriously injured or dead?

This picture is particularly eye-catching. Was it a matter of the image sensor shutting down due to overexposure or was it something else?

Cheers,

 

[Asher Kelman]

Nikolai,

It's like you are always around fires! I cannot believe how unlucky-lucky-fortunate-unfortunate-dangerous-safe you are! All I know is that you have taken some pretty stunning scary images in the past several months.

The very first picture is awesome. It is Biblical in stature. No set designer could come up with an image like that. The people in the foreground make the image significant in that people are potentially at great risk.

Did you use RAW and did you have to specially process it to deal with the extremes of exposure?

Asher

 

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

Cem,

Hi Nik,

Thx for sharing. Although I have "enjoyed" your pictures very much -as usual- my mind goes out to the victims of this fire; the people, the flora and the fauna. I hope that there were none seriously injured or dead?

We got lucky on this one. Only about 30 acres burnt, no victims, no property damage.
Yes, some trees and bushes were lost to the fire, but... you wouldn't believe how fast it grows back. In a few years it will be even greenier than it was before last night...

This picture is particularly eye-catching. Was it a matter of the image sensor shutting down due to overexposure or was it something else?
Cheers,

yes, this was one of the severe overexposure cases. I liked the shape so I let it be...
Shooting wildfire at night is not always a walk in the park... Wait.. It *was* in the park

Cheers!

 

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

Asher,

Nikolai,

It's like you are always around fires! I cannot believe how unlucky-lucky-fortunate-unfortunate-dangerous-safe you are! All I know is that you have taken some pretty stunning scary images in the past several months.

I guess it's the fact that I live in the socal 'burbs. Lots and lots of hills with the "fuel", and, as you know yourself, not enough moisture during the last couple of years...

The very first picture is awesome. It is Biblical in stature. No set designer could come up with an image like that. The people in the foreground make the image significant in that people are potentially at great risk.

I guess my "arc of intent", however small and simple it was, is complete in this instance

Did you use RAW and did you have to specially process it to deal with the extremes of exposure?
Asher

Yes and yes.
Yes, I shoot RAW - I mean, come on, how could I not ;-)?
And yes, in most cases I had to tweak the RAW setting in more than one direction, this particular image being one of those cases. The crowd was almost dark, I had to bring it up without overdoing the flames, at least too much...
Man, I love ACR4 (part of the CS3 beta)! Makes my life MUCh easier!

Thanks for looking and commenting!

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Brave

Actually, I live near the fire - about 2 miles from the burn - not far if you watched last year's fires. We've awakend to fire behind our house a few years ago. It terrifying. Our neighbor is a fireman with LA County, wo we have an agreement - he promised to always be home if our homes (they are attached ) are in danger and he will go on the roof for us.

Anyway, I thought Nik would be there. My husband does not want me to play journalist. We had a bear in our yard last year and when I went for the camera, he was none to pleased. I felt like a little kid. We do live in a wild habitat our here in Thousand Oaks. We've had Mountain Lions, Coyote, Bears, Possum, Rabbits and other creatures. I hope none perished. Glad no one was hurt.

We will leave the journalism to Nik - he does a great job. Great photos - really captured the fire last night. I will wait for the flowers to grow back and the babies to be outside in the park and keep my husband happy.

 

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

Kathy,

thank you for your kind words!

Bear? Lion? Nice... I only saw something that looked like a fox once, but the rest were bunnies and rattlers. Oh, and of course, lizards, possums and 'coons, but that's my back yard stuff