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Photo of the Day - September 2021
- Thread starter stillcrazyman
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Not normally one for toy photography, but this was just a test shot. I've always liked 50mm (FF) for indoor work. Not a portrait lens, but wide enough to be great for candids, IMO. I managed to pick up a Pana-Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 (mark I) for pretty cheap in another forum I frequent. With such a fast lens, it offers more potential for flashless indoor work (especially great since I still haven't even put batteries in the flash I own (hope it works)). Just messing around here with one of my daughter's "Seed babies" in low light. 1/25, f/1.4, ISO 200
Two flowers, two bees - on a back of property fence - walkabout in garden behind Harrison Hot Springs Resort (15 Sept/21).
That's probably true for West coast's populated areas. But the wild fires in Alaska, and probably Northern Canada, result in new growth of plants and forests. For example a forest of white and black spruce that burns this year, could be replaced by a new forest of birch and other trees a few years later. In the that follows a wildfire, numerous plants, including fireweed, show their colors all over the landscape. With the new growth, wildlife benefits most.
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Welcome
Tillamook County Oregon. Entrance to the Tillamook Creamery. We were greeted by the cow.
Tillamook County Oregon. Entrance to the Tillamook Creamery. We were greeted by the cow.
Shepherds Bush yesterday - and some graffiti.
The burned trees in that and this image are called Fire Pine. They would all be the same age, having got their start when a previous fire swept through and released their seeds. Without fire they cannot regenerate. That said the fire swept down the 15 kms of the Akamina Parkway in less than an hour pushed by 100km/hr winds. No pictures but there are little seedlings all over the area, most are about 10-15cm tall.
Transversal view of the Arc du Cinquentenaire, Brussels
You are right
I remember we visited Yellowstone years ago and it was all green and lush for miles . Then suddenly we started driving trough a huge part that had burned and the trees were standing black like coal but everywhere you could see the young green regrowth.
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You are right: I heard Natives complaining that when they were taking care of the forests there were less extensive fires than now and forests were healthier.
P.s. Tried to do multi-quote but somehow doesn't work
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It reminds me of the young spruce forests in Alaska, nearly a year after a wildfire takes place.
I was at a nearby lake recently, and this bird was "hanging around" the shore. I don't know what bird this is, but am certain that it's not an Alaska resident (or maybe it is? I have never seen it before) 
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.. a Harrison Lake view caught during a stay in Harrison Hot Springs, BC, last week. Camera on iPad Mini 4.
In regard to wildfires, they are indeed a part of the natural process of regemeration, not just out west, but anywhere drought normally occurs. Many of these species are so adapted to this that their seeds will not germinate unless they land on bare soil, and several conifer species have serotinous cones—that is, they remain closed until sufficient heat melts the resin and opens them to disseminate. Fire is a critical part of forest health. If you travel many western states, you’ll see nothing but green until you get to the other side of the mounain pass, only to find almost every tree on the other side completely dead from pine bark beetle. These dead trees sitting in a mostly arid ecosystem are destined to catch fire, which results in widespread clearing of the hillsides for regeneration. As ugly as we might think forestry clearcutting can appear in such areas, it actually mimics nature’s own process by creating a bare site for native species to regenerate.
As a Forestry graduate, there was a saying we had back in college: “even doing nothing is a management plan.“ Whether humans clear a hillside for harvesting or leave it be, eventually that stand of trees has the potential for this very thing. Sometimes even worse, invasive species (both non-native and exotic) take hold, which might flourish for a time, but then succumb to an extreme weather condition, like drought or cold, killing them off, leaving fuel for the next big fire. The thing is, fire is great at cleaning out a forest of these invasive species that are not accustomed to this existence, so afterward, the forest returns in a much healthier state. The complecation of all this is that humans have settled in these areas, putting lives at risk. This makes managing fire impacts in such forests more difficult. If you live out west, it’s best to think of it as all flamable, eventually, anyway.
I don’t know if the situation is any better, but back in college, I remember reading something about Great Sequoia National Park. These massive trees are over 1000 years old, even though their native landscape is ripe for forest fires. They have extremely thick bark, which protects them from ground fires, and the flamible canopy is so far above that it does not catch fire when the normal ground fires occurred in dry years. The problem now is that fire suppression allowed fir trees to come up in the understory, and those trees are now tall enough that if they happen to catch fire, it could potentially reach the canopies of the sequoias. Our intervention in something we perceived as bad might actually jeopardize trees that managed to live about 1500 years without our help.
Sorry for the long story! None of that is to take away from the sufferings of people when wildfires occur.
As a Forestry graduate, there was a saying we had back in college: “even doing nothing is a management plan.“ Whether humans clear a hillside for harvesting or leave it be, eventually that stand of trees has the potential for this very thing. Sometimes even worse, invasive species (both non-native and exotic) take hold, which might flourish for a time, but then succumb to an extreme weather condition, like drought or cold, killing them off, leaving fuel for the next big fire. The thing is, fire is great at cleaning out a forest of these invasive species that are not accustomed to this existence, so afterward, the forest returns in a much healthier state. The complecation of all this is that humans have settled in these areas, putting lives at risk. This makes managing fire impacts in such forests more difficult. If you live out west, it’s best to think of it as all flamable, eventually, anyway.
I don’t know if the situation is any better, but back in college, I remember reading something about Great Sequoia National Park. These massive trees are over 1000 years old, even though their native landscape is ripe for forest fires. They have extremely thick bark, which protects them from ground fires, and the flamible canopy is so far above that it does not catch fire when the normal ground fires occurred in dry years. The problem now is that fire suppression allowed fir trees to come up in the understory, and those trees are now tall enough that if they happen to catch fire, it could potentially reach the canopies of the sequoias. Our intervention in something we perceived as bad might actually jeopardize trees that managed to live about 1500 years without our help.
Sorry for the long story! None of that is to take away from the sufferings of people when wildfires occur.
