California has been on fire...literally. About three weeks ago, I had planned to leave for Eastern Sierras around noon, shoot the sunset on the way..camp..have some whiskey...well all those plans went out the door as around 6 AM fire broke out about a mile away as the crow flies. As the fire spread the freeways (that's what we call the highways in California) started to shut down, soon enough 3 streets away from me the whole community is under mandatory evacuation...thick smoke is now blowing into my direction..soon enough all freeways that could lead me to The Eastern Sierras were shut. Noon turned to evening, evening into night...all the while I'm sitting watching the news, seeing familiar street names flash on the news...and refreshing the twitter feed from CHP, CalTrans, LAFD to see which roads and freeways are open...around 9 some freeways were open, but all in the opposite direction of where I needed to go...around 11:30 they opened up 2 freeways and I planned my route out visually, threw the gear in my buddies truck and off we went. As we're driving, we can see fire on hilltops and helicopters doing water drops, roads were empty...and the wind...it was just howling...gusts upto 50 mph...Made it to North lake around 3 AM, napped for a little bit, and shot the sunrise...it was just meh. so no north lake pics this time...
Kudos to you for making it to the mountains in those circumstances! I love the colors and the water motion in both but the first one works best for me because the water leads into the forest. It's an amazing shot.
They are both cool shots, but the vertical one has some really interesting water flow patterns that I like lot. The stream disappearing into the frame is a nice element too.
Those are beautiful shots, I'm envious as I haven't been able to make it out to shoot anything this year. But, I'm surprised that you left with the fire that close to your home. I'm glad it all worked out.
