Clear Skies in North America

[faberryman]

And as far as smelly things getting squished under dainty ladies' shoes - what is crushing of the divets after a polo match all about?

Most women know the difference between horse divots and horse dung, which is why they participate in the tradition of divot stomping at polo matches.

 

[Cholentpot]

Well, at least you can blame all that coal burning ever since the start of the Industrial Revolution for much of what is happening now. But don't blame the horses, who didn't even need catalytic converters. And as far as smelly things getting squished under dainty ladies' shoes - what is crushing of the divets after a polo match all about?

There is a fascinating little coal mining area not far from here, a real photographic treat, where Welsh miners came over and dug tunnels, and even personal dwelling caves in the hills, from around 1880 until the 1920's, supplying coal to San Francisco. Otherwise, it's a pretty rare commodity on our West Coast per se. Lots of it in Utah and Wyoming, and of course, further east in West Virginia and Kentucky.

Nearly 200,000 horses in NYC 125 years ago. That's not a few road apples. That's mountains of poo. Rivers of urine. I'd imagine the roads were a mess. 100 years ago the USA had 25 million horses. Public sanitation was a nightmare. We're living cleaner than ever but we need to find things to get up in arms about. The internal combustion engine was one of the greatest forces of good for the average human on the planet.

 

[DREW WILEY]

My dad grew up working on old-style dairy farms, and I grew up among cowboys. On dairy farms, they wear knee-high rubber boots for a reason. I don't see how anyone in that occupation could drink milk, but they did, and made home-made butter and whipped cream too, and mountains of cheese. As far as the pros of the Industrial Revolution and its later amenities like the evolution of engines, versus the cons of the terrible social and labor condition it led to, well, I'm sure Matt is whittling his censor pencil right now... but there might be some remote possibility of tying the invention of photography right into that all, and getting away with a few more words - probably not in my case, however. Fox Talbot used chemicals that came from somewhere.... perhaps coal mine sludge the poor were wallowing in? Time to read some Karl Marx and report back when Matt is sleeping. (Disclaimer - I don't drink milk, but do love cheese.)

 

[Cholentpot]

My dad grew up working on old-style dairy farms, and I grew up among cowboys. On dairy farms, they wear knee-high rubber boots for a reason. I don't see how anyone in that occupation could drink milk, but they did, and made home-made butter and whipped cream too, and mountains of cheese. As far as the pros of the Industrial Revolution and its later amenities like the evolution of engines, versus the cons of the terrible social and labor condition it led to, well, I'm sure Matt is whittling his censor pencil right now... but there might be some remote possibility of tying the invention of photography right into that all, and getting away with a few more words - probably not in my case, however. Fox Talbot used chemicals that came from somewhere.... perhaps coal mine sludge the poor were wallowing in? Time to read some Karl Marx and report back when Matt is sleeping. (Disclaimer - I don't drink milk, but do love cheese.)

The computer/tablet/photo you're using came from material and labor from elsewhere. We're no better in that sense than 150 years ago. Kodak has to source it's chemistry from somewhere too.

 

[DREW WILEY]

People on even this continent were trading materials hundreds and probably even thousands of miles clear back before the end of the Ice Age, and obtaining things made by specialists elsewhere. Certain traits are almost universal to our species which seem to differ from other renditions of mankind like Neanderthals, who relied more on strictly local materials close at hand. But there weren't nearly as many of us back then! And they got around a lot slower than today's Amazon delivery vans. Even horses were coveted for eating, and not for riding! And even though there is evidence of them setting range fires long long ago, to improve forage and keep their meadows and trails open, I have no doubt that the skies were way clearer and bluer than today. Even the deep blue of skies I once took for granted up at high altitude are a rarity today - mostly due to jet aircraft, but also due to more frequent and far more catastrophic fires.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Let me add a little anecdote. Back when my older brother was just starting his commercial photog career, he entered a nature photography competition juried by judges from Los Angeles, back in its infamously smoggy days. He had taken a color shot up in the mountains and had it printed. The judges accused him of dyeing the sky, and kicked him out of the competition. Well, that was long before Photoshop, and it was an ordinary color print, and not a dye transfer print capable of such color manipulation. But apparently, none of those judges had ever seen a truly blue sky!

 

[takilmaboxer]

The intensity of those fires is due to human influence. Forest management (preventing any and all fire) plus climate change (fossil fuel burning) = nastier fires. As photographers we should be photographing it, documenting it and (heaven forbid) making art of it. Future generations, should they actually come to pass, may use those pictures as they strive to understand our collective history. Just as we study photos of the Civil War or the Holocaust.

 

[albada]

SoCal is under different circumstances

Beautiful and clear here in SoCal. But wait till our fire-season hits in September...

Mark

 

[BAC1967]

The intensity of those fires is due to human influence. Forest management (preventing any and all fire) plus climate change (fossil fuel burning) = nastier fires. As photographers we should be photographing it, documenting it and (heaven forbid) making art of it. Future generations, should they actually come to pass, may use those pictures as they strive to understand our collective history. Just as we study photos of the Civil War or the Holocaust.

I’ve been photographing West coast wildfire damage for years. Wildfire

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Fireball sunrise this morning through a band of thick smoke hugging the mountains on the northeast side of our 7 Km wide valley. No smoke on the mountains to the southwest. Must be close...

Hasn't been really hot, but it's been dry enough to stress cottonwood trees who's upper branch leaves are starting to turn a bit yellow.

 

[takilmaboxer]

I’ve been photographing West coast wildfire damage for years. Wildfire

Thanks for the link! I survived a major fire in Oregon back in 1987, but my camera didn't

 

[GregY]

Well immediately after the OP posted it's now rained in Alberta for the past 2 days and the air quality is great!.....not that it wasn't before.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Just checked the BC fire map...one 22 Km to the south and one 32 Km to the southwest, both down the channel.

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Side story...

My brother was a faller for decades and would get calls from the forestry department to cut down lighting struck trees. Imagine getting flown in by helicopter to cut down an old growth cedar on fire. Those old trees are basically hollow inside and are challenging to fall in perfect conditions...once you cut through the outer shell they can fall apart. He said it was pretty intense making the first cut, when air rushed into the trunk and sparks started really flying from the top.

You can see the old burns on mountainsides around here, where there are huge sweeps of younger, more closely packed trees without old mans beard flying from their branches. When you hike through these sections, old burned out cedar trunks still stand.

There's one spot near the river that hasn't burned in probably over 1000 years. There are several places where sitka spruce trees about 7' in diameter are standing on their roots (you can easily crawl under & through them) all growing in straight lines. This means they grew on old growth nurse logs about 7' in diameter which have long since rotted away, so the area hasn't burned in several generations of fully mature sitka spruce. Pretty impressive.

 

[mshchem]

Well immediately after the OP posted it's now rained in Alberta for the past 2 days and the air quality is great!

Here in Iowa City IA USA, we just this morning got a wonderful rain. We have had 2 months of very little rain, the crops have been stunted. Nice gloomy, rainy, morning is glorious. 2 hours from now, it will be like a jungle, but that's OK for Iowa, normal summer weather.

 

[Tom Taylor]

The Clear Sky Chart for Iowa City shows light smoke from 12 to 1500 today and again starting at 2300 tomorrow. Check the box on the left in image control to display the info.

 

[Tel]

Let me add a little anecdote. Back when my older brother was just starting his commercial photog career, he entered a nature photography competition juried by judges from Los Angeles, back in its infamously smoggy days. He had taken a color shot up in the mountains and had it printed. The judges accused him of dyeing the sky, and kicked him out of the competition. Well, that was long before Photoshop, and it was an ordinary color print, and not a dye transfer print capable of such color manipulation. But apparently, none of those judges had ever seen a truly blue sky!

I had a similar experience. I used to be a member of a photo club in New York in the 70s. I went to Dublin in '76, flew into Shannon and took a train across the country to Dublin. When I got back home I showed some of my slides of Ireland to the club, and was harangued by some of the members for refusing to admit that I'd used filters to get the colors I had. Of course I hadn't used any filters; they just couldn't imagine colors like that.

 

[BAC1967]

Thanks for the link! I survived a major fire in Oregon back in 1987, but my camera didn't

Sorry to hear that. I've worked on several fire cleanups and have seen first hand how devastating they can be. I couldn't imagine loosing everything like that, nothing is left to salvage after these fires. You can see in some of my photos where people have sifted through the ash to try to find anything they can.

 

[mshchem]

The Clear Sky Chart for Iowa City shows light smoke from 12 to 1500 today and again starting at 2300 tomorrow. Check the box on the left in image control to display the info.

Thanks for the info. It's been a while here with no rain. Today's nice steady shower washed out a lot of crud. Of course there's a seemingly endless supply of fire. By the way, I received your beautiful postcard photo today, California is so beautiful.

 

[Kilgallb]

Fireball sunrise this morning through a band of thick smoke hugging the mountains on the northeast side of our 7 Km wide valley. No smoke on the mountains to the southwest. Must be close...

Hasn't been really hot, but it's been dry enough to stress cottonwood trees who's upper branch leaves are starting to turn a bit yellow.

Same in Calgary this morning. AQHI is a 7 today. I cannot see the mountains for the SMOKE. THe new normal.

 

[GregY]

Same in Calgary this morning. AQHI is a 7 today. I cannot see the mountains for the SMOKE. THe new normal.

Sure changes day-to-day. US AQI in Banff this morning is 156 "Unhealthy"

 

[Tom Taylor]

You're welcome Mike. Being an observer of the night sky, I've have been using the Clear Sky Chart for more than 30 years now for both astronomy and photography. Glad to hear that you liked the postcard. I'm thinking that further enlarging will differentiate the areas of contrast better making for a better print. So I'm going to make an 8x10 and see how that turns out. It's a 6x7 negative so I could go up to a 16x20 easily without any loss of detail.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Well, it's rare that we have clear night skies here on the foggy coast. Some 4th of Julys, you can't even see big official pier fireworks well. It's a whole different experience if forest fires happen to be quiet, and you're up on some high summit or pass, where one can make out the polar cap on Mars even with ordinary binoculars. I have a P67 system replete with the superb 300EDIF prized by amateur astro photographers. But I'm in no mood to spend the kind of money necessary for a serious clock-drive support. I've encountered some of those guys towing forty or fifty thousand dollars worth of gear up to high places in the desert for some special shot. But others have their own little automated mini-observatories and specialize in comet hunting.

 

[je55eah]

There were some bad days that made my eyes burn, but I there have also been some clear blue skies here in southwest wisconsin. As others said, the sun has been looking red through the haze. It's an interesting situation.

If it gets too smokey for your taste, maybe you could add more smoke until you start to like the effect.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

My dad grew up working on old-style dairy farms, and I grew up among cowboys. On dairy farms, they wear knee-high rubber boots for a reason. I don't see how anyone in that occupation could drink milk, but they did, and made home-made butter and whipped cream too, and mountains of cheese. As far as the pros of the Industrial Revolution and its later amenities like the evolution of engines, versus the cons of the terrible social and labor condition it led to, well, I'm sure Matt is whittling his censor pencil right now... but there might be some remote possibility of tying the invention of photography right into that all, and getting away with a few more words - probably not in my case, however. Fox Talbot used chemicals that came from somewhere.... perhaps coal mine sludge the poor were wallowing in? Time to read some Karl Marx and report back when Matt is sleeping. (Disclaimer - I don't drink milk, but do love cheese.)

I still drink milk. Fortunately, I was born in The Bronx where we didn't have too many cows.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I’ve been photographing West coast wildfire damage for years. Wildfire

Nice photos. Very interesting. The damage is incredible.