Discovered how wildfire smoke changes sunset photos over just 3 days

I was going through my photo archive from last summer (August 2023) and found three sunset shots I took from my backyard in Denver. The first one from Tuesday was a normal orange and pink sunset, pretty typical stuff. By Thursday that same week, the sun looked like a glowing red marble behind a thick brown haze. What changed was a wildfire in British Columbia that sent smoke plumes 800 miles south to us. The smoke particles scattered the blue light way more than regular clouds do, leaving only deep reds and oranges to get through. I had no idea the atmosphere could shift that dramatically in just 48 hours from a fire I couldn't even see. Has anyone else noticed how different your photos look during fire season depending on the wind direction?

3 comments

3 Comments

thea_mitchell201mo ago

Whoa wait, so the smoke traveled 800 MILES and still changed the color that much? That's insane. I live in California and I see the orange skies during fires here but I always thought it was just because the fire was relatively close. I had no idea particles could stay suspended that long and still mess with light like that. Honestly makes me look at my own sunset photos from last summer a lot differently now lol.

julia_miller241mo ago

800 miles? That's wild, I thought smoke faded after like 100.

anna_fox715d ago

Yeah it's one of those things where you think you know how something works until you actually SEE it happen. Kind of like how I always thought wind just travels in straight lines until I moved near some mountains and realized it swirls around in ways that make zero sense. Nature doesn't care about our assumptions lol.