dglenn's Journal

Two Alarms At Least

Leg cramps have woken me, so I figured I'd upload and blog the thing that happened shortly before I tried to fall asleep:

The large shadows on the left are the grape vine that wants to come in through my back window; the row of trees is two houses away; that major column of smoke is one to three blocks south and a few to several blocks east (I'm pretty sure it's between me and the B&O Railroad Museum; it's definitely this side of MLK Blvd., and at least three blocks east because if it were any closer then the fire engines coming up Lombard from downtown wouldn't have been blocked by trees when they turned south as I watched out my front window).

When it dawned on me that hearing fire trucks approaching from both the east and the west meant it had to be at least a two-alarm fire, I got up to look ... but I was not feeling well enough to go for a walk or a drive to pin down the location more precisely or shoot firefighter action photos. (It's SoWeBo; I'll get another chance without having to wait too long. The Baltimore Fire Department is, unfortunately, kept rather busy.)

Exposure was a half second, with my hand braced on the windowsill and the camera angled up (so not exactly a 'handheld' shot, but not a properly-'supported' shot either ... at some point I need to make a windowsill brace with a quick-release tripod mount on it for things like this and lightning photos).

The amount and colour of the lighting on the smoke probably have as much to do with city light pollution (and probably the lights on the fire trucks) as the flames; the streetlights here are surprisigly reddish. I wasn't able to tell whether some of the bits of yellow/orange light visible between the branches of the trees were flames or not -- I probably could've been sure in winter, but with the trees in leaf I just couldn't see enough detail through those small gaps with the lens I was using at the time (or possibly at all).

Now if my right leg will stop twitching and cramping long enough, I really would like to get enough sleep to be able to think clearly later. *sigh*