We just followed the smoke....

My dad and I were driving along the shore of Lake Superior just outside Ashland Wisconsin when we noticed a big plume of white smoke rising into the sky several miles to the west. He said there was a prescribed burn about fifteen miles away.

I told him I always wanted to get forest fire photos, but never had the chance. I asked if he had time to go and he said sure. I had a camera in the car and my dad as a navigator so we started driving west on highway 2. The smoke was just whitish gray at the time, not the striking orange and red as in the image above. 

We drove about twelve miles west and turned on the only paved road going north through the Moquah barrens in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. We just kept following the smoke and after several more miles we came to a dirt road going west towards the fire.

It was almost sunset as we came to an intersection with another dirt road. Ahead of us was a flurry of activity, many vehicles from various federal agencies with lights on and fire crews in their trucks and walking the roads. A woman in a vest was standing in the middle of the road so I pulled over and parked out of the way. We walked up to visit with her. 

Our timing was great, because this was what we saw just across the road in front of us.

Fire crews had just ignited the blaze and the fire was quickly burning through the under story and up into some of the larger pine trees. 

We quickly got permission to be where we were and I just couldn't believe my luck.

I got my camera out and started photographing the forest fire in front of us. Flames were moving quickly through dried grass and shrubs and then climbing into the bigger trees.

All the colors and interplay of light and shadow was unbelievably beautiful. As I continued to trip the shutter release, I found myself saying "wow" over and over again out loud.

The Fish & Wildlife, or forest Service employee said we had to stay where we were as the fire moved away. I had been shooting hand held, but went to the car to get a tripod as it was getting dark and the shutter speeds were getting slow. 

I checked the ISO, made sure the auto focus was off, put the camera on the tripod and kept at it.

Trees that had been aflame moments earlier were now starkly silhouetted as the fire itself threw colorful light onto the smoke billowing towards the sky.

I just couldn't get over the mixture of light, color, and shadow. Just beautiful.

As the actual flames moved into the distance I noticed the surreal colors on the smoke above.

Some of the crews walked back towards their vehicles before driving off along the edge of the fire.

I kept on shooting and even remembered to look at the bigger picture. The colors were hard to believe.

We stayed for an hour and a half and it was dark as we turned the car around and headed out on the road we had come in on.

About a half mile down the road I stopped to capture this scene giving a sense of scale to the fire. 

The old adage, 'it's better to be lucky, than good' certainly applied here. My dad and I just followed the smoke, 

and had incredibly good luck, as far as location, timing, and fire personnel. What a night.

On the way home.....

 

Thunderstorms rolled through and heavy rain fell all afternoon in Madison Wisconsin.

 

 

Then just before dark some light slipped through the heavy cloud cover, 

 

 

and the sky seemed to glow yellow and orange. 

 

 

I found a place to pull over and did my best to make some useful photos with a limited foreground.

 

It was still raining steadily so I hand held the camera, shot from inside the car, and counted on the image stabilization to do it's job.

 

 

Normally I wouldn't chose a street light and parking lot as a subject, but tonight it was all about the light,

 

 

 

and by making due I was able to catch it. 

 

 

If only every stormy day would end like this.

 

 

Last chance?

Today was an outstanding day in my world. Why you ask? Because the sun came out!

It'd been dark, overcast, and rainy here for almost a month. So this morning I saw the sun and went looking for some fall color.

 

Lucky for me I found some. Like this ginormous maple tree.

 

 

 

The colors were great but it won't stay that way for long. There was frost on the ground and the trees were losing lots of leaves.

 

 

 

Here are some frosty leaves on a rose bush.

 

 

 

 

Most of these maple leaves probably won't last the day. There was just a subtle breeze, yet the tree dropped about a quarter of it's leaves while I was there.

 

 

 

This Japanese maple seemed to be fairing better than some of the others. It still had most of it's leaves.

 

 

 

This is my favorite tree of the day. Though it looks like several tree trunks in a row, it's actually just one giant maple.

 

 

 

Here's a view of it's canopy from another angle.

 

 

It's hard to go wrong with orange or yellow leaves against a blue sky in good light.

 

 

Not to be outdone, the oak trees had lots of color as well.

 

 

Like this one,

 

 

but I'll finish with another photo of that beautiful maple tree.

 

Based on the number of leaves falling this morning I doubt I'll have many more opportunities to shoot fall color this year.



 









Some more fall color. . . .

I was pretty pleased with the results I got shooting leaves and trees this fall so here are a few more photos.

Maple leaves just starting to change colors.

 

 

An oak leaf with striking edges and colors.

 



More oak leaves in super light. 



A tamarack tree catching some light just before sunset.

 

 



Oak leaves in a northern Wisconsin forest.

 

 

A sugar maple leaf hanging in there, Madison Wisconsin.

 

 

Another oak leaf in the process of change.

 

 

Maples and a blue sky on a Madison afternoon.

 

 

Tamaracks and spruce trees reflected in a small northern Wisconsin lake.

 

 

Last light on a maple leaf in Madison.

 



More vibrant red oak leaves. 

 

Yellow maple leaves and a blue afternoon sky.

 

 

Maple leaves going from yellow to orange. 

 





I hope it's not over yet. I'll be out for more as soon as I get a little sunlight. It's been rainy and overcast for quite awhile here.

Up north . . .

I was on my way to northern Wisconsin and noticed that lots of tamarack trees looked really colorful.

 

For years I had hoped to make some decent images of tamaracks and since the trees were looking so good and the sun was out I decided this would be the day. 

 

 

 

The cool thing about tamarack trees is although they're coniferous, their needles change to a beautiful golden color in the fall and then drop to the ground.

 

 

 

This particular tree was in a bog just off the road near Prentice Wisconsin. By using a circular polarizing filter I was able to capture the actual colors of the tree and sky.

 

 

 

I headed towards Clam Lake and found more great looking trees just off highway 77.

 

 

 

So I parked on the side of the road and spent the next hour trying to capture some of the beautiful colors,

 

 

 

and different perspectives and compositions.

 

 

 

Tamaracks like to grow in wet conditions so I was walking around in a bog of some type with lots of moss on the ground.

 

 

 

There was a small lake nearby and I was lucky to catch this image of the tree's reflection as light filtered through the forest.

 

 

 

I made several close ups of the beautiful golden needles against the blue sky.

 

 

 

The weather had been mostly overcast and rainy for the last couple of weeks, and I'm glad I made the time to photograph these distinctive trees while I had some sunlight and blue sky. It was a great fall afternoon in northern Wisconsin.