Summer fires (bad for lungs, but great for photos)

On Wednesday (August 2), we woke up to a lovely clear day, with beautiful blue skies.  But half way through the morning, the smell of smoke was in the air:  the Adams Lake fire had flared up again, and the smoke has started wafting our way.   Bummer.   

But usually that suffering also translates into some beautiful sunsets.  As the sun was setting, I jumped in the car to head up to Lurene's lovely lot, for a view of the setting sun.  Here is a photo (where you can still see the blue high up around the clouds, but the smokiness building up around the hills, and on the water).

By Thursday morning, the air quality for Sicamous and Salmon Arm had dropped into the 'dangerous' realm again (ie. worst air quality in the province).  Ah well.  We mostly stayed inside (and also went to an afternoon matinee with the kids to get a repreive).   

From Arta's yard (after getting home from the Barbie movie with the kids), here is the sun between the trees taken on my phone.  

What is noticable to me is that you can't see any mountains in the background.

I switched to the 'real' camera, to get some better shots, and I got this beauty take from Glen and Janet's deck.

If I zoomed way in with the camera, I could catch the glimmer on the water way out on the Salmon Arm side of the bay.

I loved how the glimmer on the water seemed to wrap itself around the edges of the rock.

I did try capturing the shimmer of the sun on the water in video format, which mostly helped me understand that if I want to do video at sun a distant range, the tripod is essential (otherwise, each breath gives me jitter) [included here is a link that video, but don't watch if you have a tendency towards being carsick: https://youtu.be/LYTPc30kAr0  

So... I found a better spot on the deck where I could use their railing to stabilize the camera, and got some better footage of the water on the water.  First version starts with the wide shot, then zooms in on the shimmer: https://youtu.be/0zbv4_IKwGY  

Second version (longer), starts with the shimmer, then zooms out to put it in context https://youtu.be/gMdmaKr8N20:

From their deck, I also managed to zoom in on the ducks enjoying their evening swim. https://youtu.be/LTzy-g3t4TY

And finally, I headed right down to the water to get the last moments of the sun:

I really love tracking the sun in closeup, as it moves from being a singular ball of fire, from illuminating the trees as it begins to slip behind Bastion Mountain.

And then finally, the sun was gone, leaving us with orange-tinged smoke-filled skies on the right side of the bay, and cool-blue smoke-filled skies to the left.

Here is a last piece of video, to capture the quiet sound of the water lapping on the rocks at the edge of the beach: https://youtu.be/GlGBfCgwz7M