The days we always dread in summer. The days where the area is covered in a thick layer of smoke. It’s disheartening, it’s frustrating, and worst of all it means the area or somewhere near is on fire. Washington gets some pretty bad fires. We deal with a lot of smoke, and a lot of times it just hangs. Yesterday was mild for smoke, but that was mainly because the wind was blowing away from us. But a new big fire started by the city of Skykomish which is now blowing smoke back over onto us. My hope is that all affected by it are safe and their homes protected, but I’ve seen the way fires can destroy with reckless abandon.

Due to this my ability to snap photos of the moon and other planets with my friend’s telescope has been restricted. I will definitely keep y’all updated on being able to get out with the camera. Hunting season is rapidly approaching so I definitely need to get out scouting soon.

Updates to gear! I finally snagged a PolarPro Circular Polarizer that I’m excited to get out with more. I ran down to the river to snag a couple shots recently to test it out and I’m excited about what I’m going to be able to do with this polarizer. As you can see there’s a light haze in the photo from the smoke but it is much less pronounced in this photo than it is in real life.