Burning Man

Although the man was burned 5 days early this year, they constructed a new man in two days, it was finished and lit up by Thursday evening.
Burning Man was incredible this year as always, The weather was hot, and the dust storms were more severe than anything I have seen in the past 12 years, demolishing our shade structure and our tent.

>" Crude Awakening" by Dan Das Mann, Karen Cusolito, Black Rock FX, Pyrokinetics, Nate Smith, Mark Perez and MonkeyBoy, featured Nine figurative steel sculptures, weighing 7 tons each and standing 30' tall, embody the faithful. In their various poses of worship from around the world, they bow down and reach forth to the Revered Oil Derrick, that icon of the religion which now stands above all others. The Derrick is a 90' tall wooden tower with stairs all the way to the sky. At any time, 200 people can amass on its upper platform while below, the nine faithful belch their fiery prayers from within and around their bodies. Each figure is bound by a participant-activated fire effect, created by Pyrokinetics. (from the Burning Man website)
There was a beautiful sunrise Friday morning, but I am very tempted to clone out the mechanical lift in the center of the frame.

On Saturday night, after midnight, as the air raid siren wailed and the battleship smoke generator poured forth clouds of smoke, the Revered Oil Derrick lit up with an amazing fireworks display, followed by a flame gusher that exploded from the center of the tower, creating 2.4 gigawatts of raw power and a huge mushroom cloud of smoke and flame. Some say it was the largest flame cannon ever.

Tent Revival

During a recent old fashioned tent revival, preacher Doc Van demonstrated that "Hell" is an actual place of suffering, not just a state of mind.
You can hear Doc Van and watch a Barbie fry on the hot coals here - http://166.70.44.68/multimedia/tentrevival/index.html

Key Bank Implosion

I was allowed in to photograph part of the clean up about 30 minnutes after the implosion, my eyes and my throat are still stinging from all of the dust.
More than 50 people gathered on a hill just below Ensign Peak to watch the Implosion.

Hope for the 6 Trapped Miners

The candle light vigil at the Huntington Fairgrounds was very moving, despite the corney Country and Western music and repeated playing of "Your Raise Me Up." I have nothing against Country and Western Music, just Hokey, and sappy Country and Western Music. I do have something against "You Raise Me Up" It sounds like "Danny Boy" sideways.

All the Mod Cons

A Native American dancer, participates in the inter-tribal dance, with an iPod in one hand, and cell phone in the other, at the Liberty Park Pow wow on Pioneer Day.

Back to Salt Creek

A flattened Cat was the most interesting photo I took the entire day. We waited for hours in our fire gear, for the TV crews to do their stand up shots, miles from the actual fire. It seems each day that a wildfire fire continues to burn, the photo possibilities decrease drastically. The flat cat reminded me of a very beautiful Tim Kelly photo of a flattened Fox, he shot many years ago.
Mike Johnson trudges up a hill near the Big Hollow Road, where firefighters had been back burning. He is the PIO, so we didn't use the photo.

Poseidon or Pareidolia

Many years ago, Trent Nelson introduced me to the Weekly World News, and the fact that you can buy a subscription and have it mailed to your house. Being a past subscriber, I was always intrigued by the photos stories such as "Satan's face appears in a cloud." I always thought they were airbrushed or touched up in some way. Yesterday as I was covering the Salt Creek Fire, I shot several photos of a Helicopter dropping water on the flames.
As I was editing, I was amazed at what appeared to be the face or the Greek God Poseidon, or as the Romans called him, King Neptune, falling on the flames in Nephi Canyon.