We saw the cloud roll in. At first it seemed like fog, then a brown cast became subtly visible. Looked again minutes later and the whole world had changed. If I had any idea this was about to happen, I'd have started shooting way earlier.
Normally the wind comes from the west. In southern california they call these easterlies Santa Ana Winds, here traditionally they're called El Diablo. To historic local tribes the words kinda mean the same. They are winds that come the wrong way and last year caused the historic devastation all over norcal.
Hoping to get on the roof of the new building I raced to the job site. Everyone between the office and the car had to make a comment about the camera I held, and while I love talking with locals, this time I really wanted to go. I
The tree line on the east side of the job site is what I wanted to catch. While I was driving the five minutes it seemed the colors were changing by the minute.
The scissor lift was already up, and I didn't want to wait for them to bring it down. Mostly because I didn't really know what kind of shot was available up there and time seemed critical. I wanted to head towards the oak tree. We have a client who wants a film print of a single oak--the lonely tree on the hill--and we've been trying to find the right tree. But I had to get a couple before heading for the trees.
The lighting was so low I needed to crank my ISO to 1600 and I could still only shoot around f4. Despite it being 2 pm. Like the longest eclipse ever.
Took a couple of the building itself, but I figured that wasn't where the magic would be so I didn't really stop.
I dropped the aperture to 2.8 to make sure the shutter could freeze the images, recently I had again shot a few that proved out of focus and didn't want to make the mistake again. Probably should have grabbed the tripod from the van but I first thought of it when I was super far away.
This (below) is the shot I was looking for, but as I kept heading north, the images kept changing all over. The hills kept filling more of the frame, I felt I had to keep going quickly because the light was unpredictable to me. I really wanted to be everywhere at once.
To get one shot, necessarily I was missing another. Choices...decisions, its all very hard.
As I kept heading north, everything just kept getting even farther out of this world.
For an hour it seemed no matter where I pointed the camera, every angle was truly incredible. They say the fire was an hour away but it sure seemed just over the hill.
We study all this science to try and predict and explain but I'm still mystified after all these years by freak events like what happened yesterday.
All images ©ramsayphotography
canon Mark II, 16-35 2.8, no filters
November 8 2018.