Spirits of Silver



At exactly 6am on Sunday morning I was jolted out of bed by a tremendously loud explosive sound– just like in that recent Audi car commercial where the kid's bare feet hit the floor and of my mothers trick of getting me out of bed with the smell of pancakes on the grill. In the first couple of milliseconds before the feet hit the carpet I thought that a plane landing at nearby Hayward airport had crashed but by the time the feet hit the carpet I realized that it probably was thunder from a nearby – really nearby – lighting strike. This was followed with numerous flashes of lighting and some with a rumble of thunder.

Hayward is at the geographical center of the Bay Area and as of today is completely surrounded by the wildfires that resulted from Sundays storms – by far the most severe that I have experienced in the 36 years of living here. Smoke from the numerous and now major wildfires that resulted began moving into the area in earnest on Tuesday and today the air quality in the whole bay area has deteriorated into the “red” or “hazardous” stage. Hayward and most of the major urban areas are not currently threatened by the spreading wildfires but the air quality poses a health risk, especially to senior citizens such as myself, and to those with chronic respiratory challenges. This afternoon I took a drive around the bay and found that the smoke was beginning to clear on the peninsula (west) side of the bay but the east side of the bay, where I live, was still blanketed in it. Like most people that live near the bay shoreline I don't have air conditioning as it is seldom needed but keep the windows open at night during the summer. The Honeywell HIPA air purifier that I bought a few months ago has proven to be invaluable in the current circumstances.

A couple weeks back I drove a few bicycle routes in the Diablo Range for 35mm photography with two Nikon F6's: One loaded with Kodak TMY-2 for B&W and the other with Kodak E-100 Ektachrome for color using a Nikon AF Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8D and AF-DC Nikkor 135mm F2D for lenses. I had recently purchased a second F6 to replace an older F3 so that I could use AF lenses on both cameras. Below are 2 Ektachrome images from the trips taken in the current wildfire region:

 Spark Stoves

Calaveras Road