This afternoon, I was sitting in front of my computer, when the familiar smell of something burning wafted into the room. I turned around and saw the entire park outside of my house enveloped in smoke! I grabbed my camera, strapped on my cleats, and rode the bike down the street, using my nose to track down the point of origin.
It turns out a grassfire was running loose in an area just off of Highway 101 in Mountain View. A number of fire trucks and police cruisers were on the scene. Because of a lack of a nearby water main, the fire department kept radioing for trucks from Palo Alto and Los Altos to provide a steady supply of water. I noticed two photographers, one from the fire department, and the other from nearby Moffett Field (judging from his fatigues). It’s all about access. Like a good map, access can get you in and out of a lot of places. Don’t have access? Then you get to stand on the other side of the road!
I ran into a guy who was checking out the fire like I was. Edwin and I shared a nice conversation about photography while taking photos from along the Stevens Creek Trail. He had his Canon PowerShot G2 with him, which certainly wins points on the portability scale. It was hard riding the bike with 10 pounds swinging back and forth in a shoulder bag! In my haste to get out of the house, I neglected to put on my bike helmet. It’s been awhile since I last went helmetless on a bike ride. As a kid and during college, I used to laugh at people with bike helmets. Now, I wear them whenever I ride. Fancy that.
In other news, after a couple months of worryfree lens changes and photography, a few dust mites have invaded my camera’s sensor. Guess it’s time to crack out the blower to clean the sensor.
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