Water Dropping Helicopters

anonymouscuban

Not sure if the National news is covering the fires here in Los Angeles. A couple of weeks back, there were major fires here in Porter Ranch, where I live. Luckily, my home was never really in danger. Still very scary because I could see the mountains on fire from my backyard and my neighborhood was full of smoke and ash.

Well, the Santa Ana winds are back and so are the fires. This time, a little further East of me in a city named Sylmar. Again, my neighborhood is full of smoke and ash. This fire has been worse. Has claimed over 1000 homes. No reports of human loss, thank God.

I was driving by a local park and stumbled across the LA Fire Dept. refilling the water dropping helicopters. Luckily, I had my camera with me and I was able to take a few shots. Unfortunately, I only had my 17-70mm lens so I couldn't get really tight shots. I even got yelled at a point for trying to get in too close.

All shots were taken with a D300 & Sigma 17-70mm.

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eL eSs Vee

Very nice, Anon. Good thing you had your camera with you. I really like number two.

A sad day. I live in the San Gabriel Valley, and I'm watching the Brea fire work it's was a bit further south of me. I can smell it, even inside my home. The Corona/Yorba Linda fire, along with too many homes, has also destroyed a park where a big, yearly custom truck show, that my brother attends, is held.

Keep up the good work.

anonymouscuban

eL eSs Vee wrote:

Very nice, Anon. Good thing you had your camera with you. I really like number two.

A sad day. I live in the San Gabriel Valley, and I'm watching the Brea fire work it's was a bit further south of me. I can smell it, even inside my home. The Corona/Yorba Linda fire, along with too many homes, has also destroyed a park where a big, yearly custom truck show, that my brother attends, is held.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks!! It was quite cool to watch and especially to have my camera too. My wife makes fun of me because I rarely leave the house now with my camera. She was with me and I couldn't help to give her one of those "who's the nerd now" kind of looks when we drove by the park and saw the helies. BTW, I took all of those on full manual!! Aside from the crop, no PP on them.

It's scary how many horrible fires we've had lately. Yeah, the smell is pretty bad here too. The smell from the last fire hung around for about a week. Then it rained and that brought back the smell again. It's funny because the ash from this fire seems worse than the last, even though it's further away.

I just hope no one loses their life before they can put them out. :

Skippy

anonymouscuban wrote:

Not sure if the National news is covering the fires here in Los Angeles. A couple of weeks back, there were major fires here in Porter Ranch, where I live. Luckily, my home was never really in danger. Still very scary because I could see the mountains on fire from my backyard and my neighborhood was full of smoke and ash.

Well, the Santa Ana winds are back and so are the fires. This time, a little further East of me in a city named Sylmar. Again, my neighborhood is full of smoke and ash. This fire has been worse. Has claimed over 1000 homes. No reports of human loss, thank God.

I was driving by a local park and stumbled across the LA Fire Dept. refilling the water dropping helicopters. Luckily, I had my camera with me and I was able to take a few shots. Unfortunately, I only had my 17-70mm lens so I couldn't get really tight shots. I even got yelled at a point for trying to get in too close.

All shots were taken with a D300 & Sigma 17-70mm.

Aren't you glad they have such wonderful machines to fight fires with these days.... imagine if they had to fight by hand like they did in years gone by.

Hooray for Fire fighters and volunteers who risk their all to put these fires out.

Hopefully they will get the fires under control quickly, without loss of lives.

Got some good on the scene shots there, hope all goes well
.... Skippy
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