On August 27th, while on vacation, I got to practice some photojournalism skills. As we drove along our detour around the Big Meadow fire through tiny El Portal, we took a quick turn off the side of the road to witness one of the fire choppers drawing water from the Merced River to dump on the fire. It only takes seconds for the big helicopter to fill the water tank and head back to the blaze. This is a situation where I was less concerned with getting a nice, artsy photograph, and more concerned with the story unfolding. I put the camera on program mode and got several nice shots of the chopper. Later, as we drove back toward the park, I was able to get some good shots of the smoke rising. There, I was able to get back to creative mode...because unfortunately the smoke wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
The fire began as a 91 acre prescribed burn on August 26, and quickly got out of control when winds shifted. Immediately, Big Oak Flat Road was closed, causing long detours for visitors trying to get from Yosemite Valley (the Southwest side of the Park) to Tuolomne Meadows (center of the Park) and points east. Big Oak Flat Road just reopened today at 5pm. The fire spread to 7,425 acres before 100% containment yesterday.
I still think that the fire at this point looked more like a tornado. Such a cool shot.
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