EPJ - 1st Place

Gallery: EPA 2013Posted March 26, 20132,242 views9 comments

Wildfires

This is from part of the Hayman Fire burn area in Lost Creek Wilderness, Colorado. This was the largest wildfire in Colorado history, burning 138,114 acres of pine forest. The wildfire season kicked in early this year in Colorado with a fire near Ft. Collins last week, very close to the scene of a huge fire last summer. Today the US Forest Service announced that due to budget reductions they would be hiring about 500 less firefighters than usual this year. They usually hire around 10,000-15,000 firefighters. Because of federal reductions and an increasing demand on air tankers owned by the federal government, Colorado is now considering purchasing it's own tankers and funding them through advertising on the tankers.

Any critiques would be greatly appreciated.

Canon 1DsII, 24-105 lens @40mm, f8, 2 sec, ISO 100
Converted to B&W in Silver Efex Pro II

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by John Clulow on March 27, 2013 at 8:02 AM

I like the sort of "reverse diagonal" leading lines of the two logs in the foreground bringing the eye to look at the panorama rather than to a single subject.

Without your title and narrative, in B&W it wouldn't be at all clear to me that I was looking at a burned-off area. Maybe color would have conveyed that idea better, but this could be a winter scene without snow. I guess that the whitish areas on the bark of the felled logs in the foreground are probably ashen; maybe a larger view would have made the antecedent to the scene clearer.

But bottom line, it's a visually interesting landscape composition.

Registered on November 1, 2012, 155 Posts, 1079 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Fricke on March 27, 2013 at 1:10 PM

Thanks for your comment John. I converted this to B&W because there was almost no color in the scene. It was shot right before dawn in very foggy conditions, the RAW image has a very blue cast to it because of the conditions. I also should have pointed out that this was a pine forest so even in winter there would have been foliage.

Registered on January 19, 2007, 133 Posts, 1448 Comments

Comment posted by John Clulow on March 27, 2013 at 7:21 PM

My bad, Scott.

As is clearly evident, I'm not a naturalist. Now that you tell me it was conifers, it makes sense. Also, I can definitely see that in the paterns in the bark on the fallen trees, now that I know what I'm looking at.

This just serves to illustrate the fact that your audience may consist of folks like me who don't have your depth of understanding. So maybe a title like "Pine Wildfire" would have been more helpful to those of us who are nature ignorant (and maybe it's just me)

Registered on November 1, 2012, 155 Posts, 1079 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Fricke on March 27, 2013 at 11:32 PM

No problem John, you are quite right about being clear on the subject matter. It also probably didn't help that this was taken a few years after the fire and you can see ground cover growing back.

Registered on January 19, 2007, 133 Posts, 1448 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Turner on March 28, 2013 at 11:41 AM

I like the bw presentation and suggest cropping closer to the background tree tops. The white areas in the picture at top center draws the eye out of the frame.

Registered on February 18, 2012, 534 Posts, 2755 Comments

Comment posted by Carl Battreall on April 1, 2013 at 1:38 PM

Lots of fire images shown in the EPJ gallery, however, your black and white image is one of the stronger ones.

Registered on August 29, 2007, 24 Posts, 222 Comments

Comment posted by Craig Myers on April 11, 2013 at 2:04 PM

Beautifully composed. The grounded trunks leading the eye to the ghostly silhouettes of the still standing trunks is very nice. I also like the foreground textures that juxtapose the flatness of the background. Congratulations on this WP.

Registered on September 1, 2008, 85 Posts, 757 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on January 10, 2014 at 11:41 AM

Congrats on the EPA, Scott!

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on January 23, 2014 at 3:57 PM

Love the lines, textures, and B&W treatment here -
Congrats on the 2013 EP!

Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments