In the tropics, you’ve got the wet and dry season. In temperate regions of the world, there are four seasons -- winter, spring, summer, and fall. In Southern California, there are two seasons -- boring non-weather with a perpetual blue sky, and then fire season. After months and months of no rain and ultra dry conditions, the Santa Ana winds arrive in October and all the arsonists rub their hands with glee and start wildfires. One of the worst fire seasons in recent years was the 2003 Porter Ranch fire, and at the time I lived in Porter Ranch. Many residents evacuated their homes, and in my subdivision we were waiting and watching the direction of the fire and wondering if we had to evacuate as well. I took this photograph from my driveway with my medium format film camera, the Mamiya RZ 67, on a tripod and with a lens equivalent to a 125mm focal length. It shows a wall of fire cresting a hill above my home at night, and the winds were making the flames swirl almost like a tornado from Hell. It was a fearsome sight. All I could think about was how to throw my entire photographic collection of hundreds of thousands of slides into the car at a moment's notice and make a fast getaway. Fortunately, just after I took this shot, the winds shifted and the flames didn’t come down the hill toward my house. They were blown back the other way and no one in my immediate area had to evacuate. Six months after this event, I sold my house and left California.
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