Topic: Napa County Wildfire

[Bryan]

I was recently working on the Napa County Wildfire cleanup in California, these are a few photos I managed to take.  I took my new Olympus XA and a roll of Ferrania P30 Alpha film.  The film was shot at an ISO of 25 and developed in Berrenol.  Since I was shooting at such a low ISO the camera was always set at f/2.8.

There were two major fires that burned in Napa County, the Atlas Fire and the Nuns Fire.  The Atlas fire was on the east side of the county and burned through communities in the hills above the valley and into more dense neighborhoods in the valley.  Besides burning 51,624 acres of forest, farms and grass land over 500 homes were burned.   Most of these photos are from the Atlas Fire.  The Nuns fire is the other major fire that burned on the West side of Napa and proceeded into Sonoma County where it did a great deal of damage.

I was surprised at how many burnt motorcycles I saw at this fire. 
Burnt Hog by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

A child's toy fire engine with the remains of someones home in the background.
Fire Engine 287 by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Pottery that survived the inferno.
Pottery by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Someones fishing tackle box in the burned out remains of a home.
Burnt Tackle Box by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Bryan]

Usually all that is left of a home is the foundation and the chimney.
Chimney by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Remains of a child's bike.
Burnt Bike by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

This burned redwood tree was in the Nuns fire on the West side of Napa County.  I was surprised at how bad this tree was burned while the others around it fared much better.
Burnt Redwood by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[jharr]

Very good shots Bryan. Being a So. Cal. resident these are truly terrifying. We didn't have a bad fire season this year, but we all know that it's coming. Frames #2 and #4 are particularly striking I think because of the personal nature of the objects.

Thanks for sharing.

[Bryan]

Very good shots Bryan. Being a So. Cal. resident these are truly terrifying. We didn't have a bad fire season this year, but we all know that it's coming. Frames #2 and #4 are particularly striking I think because of the personal nature of the objects.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks James, these wildfires are very terrifying.  Sadly too many people didn't make it out this time.  I saw some homes that only had one way out with small wooden bridges that were burned.  Hopefully they had enough notice, there was no way to outrun these fires on foot.  One thing that was very striking to me was how random the fire destroyed homes.  There may be one house on an entire block burned to the ground while all the surrounding houses were untouched.  Virtually nothing survived when a house burned, if you think you can protect your valuables think again, even "fire-proof" safes burned up.  I live in an area that doesn't have wildfires but it makes me think about how I would cope with the loss of irreplaceable items like family photos and movies.  When I talked to people that experienced these fires many say they grabbed the photo album, the dog and the wife (not necessarily in that order) and got out.  Some people keep a bag of irreplaceable items where they can grab it and go.

[Bryan]

This really puts things into perspective.

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/11/07/watch-a-santa-rosa-cartoonists-a-fire-story-come-to-life/

[Bryan]

I returned to Napa for a 3 week tour in December, this time I brought my Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 531/2.  This was shot on Ilford Delta 100 and developed in beer.  Hopefully more to come once I finish a roll in my Leica IIIc and develop it. 

Burnt Tea Party by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Bryan]

This is the last round of photos from the Napa County fires.  These were all shot with a Leica IIIc using a Summitar 5cm f/2 lens.  The film is Ilford Pan-F 50+ developed in Caffenol C-H (rs). 

Burnt Dump Truck by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Burnt Bikes by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Burnt SUV by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Bryan]

Foundation by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Burnt Tea Set by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Burnt Toad by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr