Photography Thread

rjsterry

A bit of hedgerow hogweed from this morning's walk.



And a bit of bracken from the day before.

briantrumpet

rjsterry said:

Wot masjer said. Glad this ended well.

Thanks all... well, it's not ended yet for the forest, as they'll be keen not to let it kick off again into the 1000s of hectares of forest as yet unscathed, and with even worse accessibility (planes would be totally unable to help). Rain's forecast for Sunday, so everybody will be out doing rain dances to make sure it's a really good dose.

Th irony was that the lightning that started this fire was in a storm that only lasted 15 minutes, and had just about 15 minutes of moderate rain.

briantrumpet

Meanwhile, elsewhere... bloomin' 'eck!

https://www.leprogres.fr/environnement/2022/08/10/incendies-repises-de-feu-pres-de-landiras-darmanin-attendu-dans-l-aveyron

jimmyjams

briantrumpet said:

It does seem that only certain trees frazzle properly, but when they do, it's scary

Glad your house/you survived.

Some trees 'frazzle' like phosphorus, e.g. eucalyptus - which is why the fires in Portugal a few years ago were so devastating and fatal, there being large eucalyptus plantations there for the (Norwegian) paper industry.
Those trees which are more resistant to fire usually have thicker bark, like red and sessile oaks, even cork oak – the former two unlikely to be found your (french) area, but maybe the latter? By contrast, holm oak, the evergreen oak, also likely your way, isn't so resistant.

A leafy deciduous woods is less susceptible than a coniferous woods, especially if the conifers are somewhat dry due to a long warm dry spell (as much of Europe has had), and have dropped a lot of needles (as pines do in such weather) which then act as kindling. The resin and various oils in pines and other conifers also make them more likely to burn ferociously. From some of your photos, I would guess there are many pines in the Die area.

Exactly why is still being investigated by experts but copses of 35-50 cypress trees (the trees Tuscany is well-known for, although they are not commonly in large groups there, rather in spaced-out rows) also show resistance to fire – a decade ago there were big fires around Valencia/Spain but the cypress groups mostly remained unscathed although they are conifers. But I would guess the winter climate in the hills around Die is not ideal for them.

(I am not a forester or a fireman, but did once work a lot in landscaping, thus my vague knowledge of such things)

jimmyjams

briantrumpet said:

Meanwhile, elsewhere... bloomin' 'eck!

https://www.leprogres.fr/environnement/2022/08/10/incendies-repises-de-feu-pres-de-landiras-darmanin-attendu-dans-l-aveyron

The trees burning in the first photo of your link will be pine trees for sure, The Landes area is full of them. Landiras is inland from Arcachon (highest sand-dune in Europe and lovely beaches N&S of there) so many tourists/holidaymakers will be affected! No wonder 10,000 have been evacuated.

briantrumpet

jimmyjams said:

briantrumpet said:

It does seem that only certain trees frazzle properly, but when they do, it's scary

Glad your house/you survived.

Some trees 'frazzle' like phosphorus, e.g. eucalyptus - which is why the fires in Portugal a few years ago were so devastating and fatal, there being large eucalyptus plantations there for the (Norwegian) paper industry.
Those trees which are more resistant to fire usually have thicker bark, like red and sessile oaks, even cork oak – the former two unlikely to be found your (french) area, but maybe the latter? By contrast, holm oak, the evergreen oak, also likely your way, isn't so resistant.

A leafy deciduous woods is less susceptible than a coniferous woods, especially if the conifers are somewhat dry due to a long warm dry spell (as much of Europe has had), and have dropped a lot of needles (as pines do in such weather) which then act as kindling. The resin and various oils in pines and other conifers also make them more likely to burn ferociously. From some of your photos, I would guess there are many pines in the Die area.

Exactly why is still being investigated by experts but copses of 35-50 cypress trees (the trees Tuscany is well-known for, although they are not commonly in large groups there, rather in spaced-out rows) also show resistance to fire – a decade ago there were big fires around Valencia/Spain but the cypress groups mostly remained unscathed although they are conifers. But I would guess the winter climate in the hills around Die is not ideal for them.

(I am not a forester or a fireman, but did once work a lot in landscaping, thus my vague knowledge of such things)

Thanks. Yes, was rather assuming the pines that communicate with volatile chemicals were probably the ones that seemed to suddenly go 'whoosh' then send up plumes of black smoke. The woods are pretty mixed, lots of pines & oaks, but not being an expert, I don't really look closely, but maybe I should. A friend I've met down here is a Flemish botanist, and would tell me for certain, as he's just written a book (sadly, in Dutch - well, not sad if you're Dutch) on 'trees for your garden' but giving all sorts of in-depth scientific reasoning for his choices.

https://www.amazon.fr/Bomen-voor-tuinen-bloemlezing-soorten/dp/905615883X

I had a fascinating walk with him. Would have taken about 3 hours as a walk, but I got half an encyclopedia along the way too so it took 5.

Ben6899

Just catching up with this thread (sorry, haven’t been posting). Glad you’re okay, @briantrumpet !

briantrumpet

Ben6899 said:

Just catching up with this thread (sorry, haven’t been posting). Glad you’re okay, @briantrumpet !

Thanks Ben. Must admit, it's been fascinating being a local photo reportage supplier, and until I scarpered, trying to document what was going on and catch some decent shots. Two days I did find it harder: when it looked like they were losing it: Monday, when it just looked like the mountain was exploding in front of my eyes, and Tuesday, as the fire edged towards the village, and everything was covered in smoke.

It's also been impressive to witness the work of the firefighters: the Canadairs and Dash planes perhaps were the most fun to try to catch in pictures, but the helicopters have been the workhorses (one was going till 9pm last night), and up to about 600 pompiers have been on the ground, doing things like running a 3km hose to the heart of the fire all the way from the valley floor, burning and bulldozing firebreaks during the night, and so on: less dramatic than the flying, but part of the co-ordinated effort. And all that where the population is only about 250... but the consequence of 'letting it burn out' in an ecologically delicate and important area with 1000s of acres of historic natural forest would have been devastating.

Anyway, fingers crossed, it doesn't look like any of the hotspots have taken off overnight, so they might really make progress on the remaining smouldering sectors today. Hopefully this is the last of my 'active fire' photos, but this morning I spotted what looks like an observation station perched on the edge of the 6.500ft cliff that overlooks the village. When it's all out (rain forecast Sunday-Tues, so fingers crossed), I'll probably wander into the affected area to document some of the damage.

pblakeney

More from my drip feed. The race to get home starts here, and why.
(PS - Click on a photo and you will see it in full size, and all the others that I haven't posted).

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briantrumpet

Oops, spoke too soon. Strong winds today...

pblakeney

Good shot.
Not good news.

masjer

Damn. This `new normal` isn't looking too good.

briantrumpet

Oops; spoke too soon: Strong zinds todqy

masjer said:

Damn. This `new normal` isn't looking too good.

At the moment, the flare-up is a reasonable distance away from my house, though after the delight of not waking to the smell of smoke, it's back again this morning somewhere, so the laundry will be lightly scented. But there are fires breaking out all over the place in France of various sizes.

On the technical side, I don't know if forest fires will revisit where they've been before, or whether once they've been through they've burnt out their 'corridors'. Maybe a contributing factor has been the devastation on the box plants wreaked by the box tree moth, which arrived about four years ago and pretty much wiped out the box plants everywhere below 1000m, but left the plants dead/desiccated in the undergrowth.

In the longer term, if there are going to be more years like this, France is going to have to look at how to cope: investment in planes & training of pilots, investigations into best strategies, etc. It was frustrating to have seen how 'under control' they seemed to have it on Sunday/Monday, but when they should ideally have been continually damping all the hotspots while the wind was down, the planes & helicopters were elsewhere dealing with higher immediate priorities, and when the wind whipped up on Tuesday, everything went pear-shaped extremely quickly.

Hoping that the forecast rain on Sunday really arrives.

Meanwhile, here's a better fragrance from yesterday's ride.

TheBigBean

You may be interested to know that Canada used to let forest fires burn as they considered them natural and a benefit to nature. Not sure of their current policy.

briantrumpet

TheBigBean said:

You may be interested to know that Canada used to let forest fires burn as they considered them natural and a benefit to nature. Not sure of their current policy.

For sure, the forest will regenerate in time, and as noted earlier, it doesn't look like anything like everything is gone in the affected areas. The problem comes when, as in current situations, everything is like a tinderbox, and populations and ecologically important environments are involved. I think that the fire in the Gironde, which involves 1000s of hectares of commercially-planted forest will be managed for the protection of human habitations... though in retrospect, they might consider whether it was wise not to include massive firebreaks in such enormous forests, and for them to be so close to habitations.

Pross

The fires in the Gironde even made the main BBC news yesterday.

briantrumpet

Pross said:

The fires in the Gironde even made the main BBC news yesterday.

Not surprised. It's massive.

@pinno - just wondering if I should start a forest fires thread...

pinno

briantrumpet said:

Pross said:

The fires in the Gironde even made the main BBC news yesterday.

Not surprised. It's massive.

@pinno - just wondering if I should start a forest fires thread...

Is this a case of departmentalisation I wonder.

briantrumpet

Apart from my house not burning down, it's not been bad for my page views & interactions...

Pross

You need to call yourself an influencer now and start charging people / get them to send you free stuff to big them up on your page.

briantrumpet

Pross said:

You need to call yourself an influencer now and start charging people / get them to send you free stuff to big them up on your page.

Tried that with a local clairette producer and got a big fat discount of 0% first time. Second time he doubled it.

Did get a free cycling jersey out of offering to publicise the La Drômoise sportif.

It's probably just as well I've got a day job.

briantrumpet

Maybe I should say I'll keep an eye out for fires near his vineyards, as I'd hate to see another fire in the area.

Pross

New phone just arrived so I've been testing out its macro capabilities







I had to crop the bee quite a lot as I couldn't get in close enough and it unfortunately shows in the definition.

Ben6899

Pross said:

New phone just arrived so I've been testing out its macro capabilities

I had to crop the bee quite a lot as I couldn't get in close enough and it unfortunately shows in the definition.

The flowers came out great though.

Ben6899

Fingers crossed for you, @briantrumpet

Pross

Ben6899 said:

Pross said:

New phone just arrived so I've been testing out its macro capabilities

I had to crop the bee quite a lot as I couldn't get in close enough and it unfortunately shows in the definition.

The flowers came out great though.

Yeah, I don't think I got the focus correct on the bee due to it being small on the viewfinder and then when I've cropped it / blown it up it isn't as sharp as it should be.

Hopefully the phone will offer me better photos when I don't have my proper camera with me though. One slightly frustrating thing is that for things such as long exposures that were standard on my Samsung this one (I've gone back to an iPhone for the first time since the iPhone 6) requires a third party app but there seem to be some good ones out there at sensible prices.

briantrumpet

Damn, the fire took off again in the last couple of hours (for now, well away from the house), but at least we've got the cavalry in again for a couple of hours before sunset (when they stop flying). Firstly a Dash (didn't quite get the framing right, but happy I didn't chop anything off), and now four Canadairs doing their 15-minute round-trip to Lac du Monteynard. Sunday's forecast for rain had better be right. This is exhausting.

Pross

briantrumpet

Pross said:

I do like photographing butterflies, but they are difficult normally, unless one lands on you... flit here, flit there. Dunno why they don't just sit down and have a bit of a rest sometimes.

pblakeney

briantrumpet said:

I do like photographing butterflies, but they are difficult normally, unless one lands on you... flit here, flit there. Dunno why they don't just sit down and have a bit of a rest sometimes.

...and sometimes they simply photo bomb. 🤣 Although this is probably a moth.
(Cropped from a photo of our granddaughter in the paddling pool).