Valley Fire again

[Diane Miller]

I'll be a winter contrarian, as our idea of winter out here is gray skies instead of blue, and when it's 50 degrees F the weather forecasters are warning how cold it is.

This is last of the three I worked up from a nearby huge and horrible fire in September. We drove through the area a couple of weeks after the fire was out and I shot some of the remnants. I used textures taken from burned-out cars and appliances. I didn't shoot as many scenes as I might have, because I felt like it was taking advantage of an awful situation. Most of the accessible areas were literally in people's yards (or what had been yards).

[Judy Howle]

Beautiful colors and textures! Very striking image wiht the beautiful orange and red colors and brilliant blue sky. Nice work!

[gary ellwein]

Your use of textures from fire casualties is creative and effective. I like how you have placed the various elements of the texture over the base image. The rust in the lower aspect of the texture blends nicely with the vegetation in the base image. The granular greys and whites of the texture transforms a mundane blue sky into something special.

[Anita Bower]

Gary's comments say it well. The angle of the shot, the blackened trees, the flame-like color and texture at the bottom come together to create a dynamic image. A creative approach that works well.

[Nancy Bell]

This is outstanding! With the perfectly imagined & created textures applied over the base image of the dead tree trunk and the lower vegetation still engulfed in flames. Looking up the bare trunk so it looms over the image is very strong and dramatic. This could be the artistic alternative to the Smokey the Bear poster on forest fires.

[Cheryl Slechta]

I love this, Diane! The texture in the sky creates so many possibilities - at first I thought it was snow but it also could be the night sky with constellations or the Milky Way. Or it could be a tree reflected in a pond. Very cool.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks everyone! I saw it as falling ashes. But any interpretation is equally valid! (Well, snow might not work too well...)

It never ceases to amaze me how these textures just work. I really don't think I have anything remotely close to ESP. (And my children would confirm that...)

[Glennie Passier]

Diane, I really like this image. To me it shows the devastation of bush fire. I can feel the heat and smell the burning. It's ironical with the beautiful blue sky above to have the raging fire below. We are having terrible bush fires here at the moment and every year they seem to be worse.