SkyPix

A digital photographic storybook of clouds, weather and water by Roger Edwards.

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Zoom to the Heat

2024-07-25 By Roger Edwards

Zoom to the Heat

Setting up well in front of a lightning-started grass fire, and aware of the ambient winds, I knew I had a few minutes before it grew too close. This allowed time to whip out a zoom camera and shoot some close-up views of the growing inferno, its smoke and the superheated air immediately adjacent.  Roiling along with temperatures of several hundred to over a thousand degrees, the superheated air was far less dense than the ambient air between me and the fire, or behind it.  The density differences cause light to bend fluidly, warping the view through the hottest air, in a far more fast-changing but physically similar way as a solar-heated surface on a calm, cool day can cause mirages. 

2 N Aroya CO (8 Jun 24) Looking E
38.8892, -103.1268

Filed Under: Burnscapes, Visual Effects Tagged With: aroya, clouds, Colorado, convection, deep zoom, Great Plains, landscapes, smoke, weather, wildfire

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About

Welcome to SkyPix, an online photo book of clouds, weather and water by Roger Edwards. As in a printed coffee-table book, every image has its own page with a unique story. After all, meaningful photography is much more than just picture-taking; it is visually rendering a moment in place and time from a perspective like none other. As a scientist and an artist, I hope my deep passion for the power and splendor of our skies and waters shines through in these pages. If you are a cloud and weather aficionado, outdoor enthusiast, outdoor or nature photographer, art lover, or anyone who craves learning, enjoy...

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Further images from this photographer may be found at:
Roger Edwards Image of the Week
Roger Edwards Digital Galleries
Storms Observed Chase BLOG

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