On a recent photo trip I was able to camp out at the beautiful Graham’s Island State Park, which I highly recommend, and then roam the area. The first thing I spotted in the morning was this farm. You can see how hazy the skies were from all that Canadian and Pacific Northwest wildfire smoke. This was a month ago, and much of the summer has been the same.

I wanted to get a closer look, but it wasn’t in the cards that morning. I had other targeted photo destinations to reach and a destination with a set timetable – picking up a kiddo from camp – so I just did the telephoto thang, marked it in my GPS “for next time”, then moved on.

In the morning and the evening, when it helps provide diffusion and color, this wildfire smoke is actually of great benefit to a photographer. Shooting landscapes isn’t as good, because the skies are uninteresting, but the smoke is really helpful for objects on the ground. In this case, I just accepted the sky issue while reveling in the fact that I didn’t have any shadows obscuring my old farmstead subjects! There’s supposedly a silver lining to every cloud, and for a photographer that includes this persistent smoky haze.