Last Tuesday, I gave blood in the morning (actually just red blood cells, which takes longer). I felt kind of wobbly and crappy afterwards, didn’t get much done at work, and finally decided to just cash in a sick day and head home early. But on the way home, I was greeted by the sight of an ENORMOUS plume of smoke rising from Griffith Park. This was the view from our apartment:

I decide to ditch my napping plans, and instead grabbed the 5D and headed out in search of a better view. The fire was burning just on the west side of I-5, in the easternmost bit of the park. So the western edge of Glendale was just across the freeway and the LA River from the burn area, and afforded some excellent sights.

Residential neighborhood next to the freeway:

I found a neat little park that bordered the LA River, and which soon became crowded with onlookers, many of whom had extremely fancy cameras with them.

We were only a few hundred yards from the flames, and it was really impressive to watch. A fire like this creates its own little climate zone, with insane winds lashing around in every direction. The smoke plume would lift away from the fire for a few seconds, giving us an unobstructed view – then the wind would push the smoke downhill again and right at us, bringing thick smoke and big chunks of ash. Every time a helicopter did a water drop, we’d get splattered with a mist of sticky stuff (water plus retardant?):

When I got tired of inhaling smoke, I drove into the hills north of Glendale to get a shot with some altitude. Here you can see how the plume headed straight over Glendale:

I took a break from fire-watching to go have dinner in Santa Monica with a friend, but brought my camera with me just in case. On the way home, you could see the fire lighting up the hills north of Hollywood. I took the 5 back to Glendale, which got me up close and personal with the flames dripping down the Griffith Park hill.

I’d stupidly left the tripod at home, and was too lazy and sleepy to go get it and come back, but I decided to return to the park next to the LA River to try and get some nighttime shots by steadying the camera on the car.

I thought I could get even closer to the flames, so I headed further south into a more residential district. It didn’t take long to find a cul-de-sac with a good view; I just followed the other cars full of photographers. One woman was nice enough to loan me her tripod for a few shots, and help me with camera settings (she also had a 5D – I’m not used to ours yet).

All in all, an exciting day. My clothes reeked of woodsmoke, and I felt like I’d polished off a pack of cigarettes, but it was a cool experience.