November 1, 2014

When Hell Freezes Over: Upstate South Carolina. (PHOTOS)

Alternate title: "What About Your Global Warming Now (You Prius-Driving-Pointy-Head Liberal)?"

The alternate title, is, BTW


Woke up to an 8-inch "dusting" after a night of howling blizzard. This is on Caesar's Head mountain in upstate SC, near the NC line.


Fall or winter. How about "Finter?" Next week "Fummer" will be back.


Oh, look at the stand of White Birch! Wrong! These are mixed hardwoods, snow-blasted during the 0430-0630 blizzard. They got blasted from the east first, then from the northwest. Must have been wet snow that froze as the temp dropped, because it stayed around all day (even in our 50+ mph winds).


Color amongst the Rhodys.

October 25, 2014

My three best photos for 2014 (so far)

I don't often post photos in GD. But when I do, I usually get away with it.

Barn on the French Broad River (Middle Fork), Transylvania County, NC


Sunrise, Memorial Day: Arizona Burning


Sunset, With Friends

October 7, 2014

My PBS mini-documentary (eight minutes)

I did about 99% of the still photos and 60% of the video on this Arizona Public Media/PBS mini-documentary. It played Arizona last week. As my first involvement with PBS, I am very proud! My voice-over in the second half, or so, was done in the WCQS (NPR) studios in Asheville, NC. What a great group there!

August 9, 2014

Last sunrise of the 2014 fire season, for me (A Two-fer!)

I'm outta the fire lookout, today. Headed home. I hope to be on I-10 by 1PM, eastbound. It was a nice, short season (April 6 - August 9). If I were in Oregon, I'd still have about 2.5 months left.

This morning's sunrise was spectacular. The sun came up, then came up again! The first "sunrise" was a reflection of the sun (which was still below the horizon) in high cirrus clouds. Then the "real" sun came up, and both the sun and the reflection continued to rise together. Can't remember ever seeing that before. What a send off! Two sunrises for one early morning wakeup.

August 3, 2014

DUers': How weird is this and, also, WTF?

I don't do Twitter, but I did signup a couple of years ago. Cut to the chase: "stevedeshazer", a long dead DUer (an Oregonian with the rabbit icon) sent me a tweet a week or so ago. I know that after Steve's death, his daughter posted for a short period. WTF is this scam?

July 29, 2014

GOOD NEWS! My Fire Season is so OVER! Outta here on 8/9/2014! (PIC HEAVY CELEBRATION)

July 27, 2014

Solving problems the old fashioned way (triangulation)

Today, plotting a fire, the old-fashioned way, deep in a drainage about five miles to my east-southeast. It was a lightning fire that I would never see, unless it got really big. Various fire crews called in azimuths from high points where they could glimpse the elusive smoke.

The fire was eventually located. But a big difference (31-degrees) in a shot taken 1/2 mile from where they actually located the fire - a shot down another drainage - has convinced me there is a second fire over there. A helo recon is ordered for tomorrow morning.

This is just about as much fun as you can have in a fire lookout. The team work is amazing. All of this is done on a tactical frequency, so officialdom is cut out until determinations are made. It was an intense day, but a different "intense" from yesterday's 1500+ strike lightning bust.

This plotting board reminds me of my aircraft cockpit in Vietnam. But that was then; this is now.


GPS vs. Map? HA! Try this with your GPS.

July 15, 2014

"Wilderness High-Tech Fire Lookout Overlooking Major Metro Area"

This is a "still" from the PBS video b-roll that Arizona Public Media has asked me to do. B-roll is background video or film that will be used with voice-over or music. They want to do an expanded documentary on my lookout job (they did a short feature a few weeks ago). They think I am almost as good as their photographers, so they have asked that I do B-Roll and multiple stills. OK!

I'm off tomorrow, but I'll hang out in the lookout for a prescribed burn 3.5 miles east of me. Smoke is smoke. It will make for great B-Roll video!

Autographs by appointment only.

July 14, 2014

South Arizona Fire Season: Stick a Fork in It!

Who said (it was a DUer) this wasn't monsoonal weather? What a day! I got POUNDED with close lightning and heavy rain, but nary a fire. The Tucson area had about 1500 lightning strikes between 3-9 PM. Still flashing in the distance.


Spillover the Santa Catalina front range. This happens very quickly, and to get it illuminated in a setting sun is rare!


Barely above the clouds at almost 9000 feet, with Tucson lights below.


A dark and stormy night!

July 13, 2014

A Democratic Party icon visited me at the fire lookout today!

"Jasmine"

Jasmine and her "mom" hike the trails of the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona picking up the litter the human jackasses leave. They are fixtures on Mt. Lemmon.