A Tale of Two Firefalls
A brief history of Yosemite’s Firefall phenomenon.
Back in 1872, before “Yosemite” became “Yosemite National Park”, the owners of a hotel situated at the top of Yosemite’s Glacier Point – aptly named the Glacier Point Hotel – treated their guests to a nightly campfire.
As the night wound down and the time came to put the fire out, the owners would simply kick the coal over the edge of the nearby cliff. To visitors and inhabitants across the way, the sight turned into a spectacle, for as the embers fell, they created an illusion of molten lava pouring down the great granite monolith. Subsequent requests to see the “Firefall” – also aptly named – sparked a tradition that lasted nearly a hundred years.
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Early Forest Fire Detection
These archival images of early forest fire lookouts will make you want to drop your keyboard and head to the hills.
A ranger locates distant forest fires using a map and compass from the top of the Mt. Silcox Lookout Station in Lolo National Forest, Montana. August 3, 1909. Photo by Lubken, W. J.
There are few things, and when I say things, I mean things, that awaken our inner Edward Abbey more than looking at photos of fire lookouts. The isolationism, silence, starry nights, cabins, analog gear – the mere thought of it grips us and makes us want to drop our keyboards and flee to the hills. Our infatuation is well documented.
Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean recently turned us onto a stunning series of archival images from the Forest History Society that only further stokes the flames of our desire to spend a summer in a fire lookout.
Fjällräven: Behind the Scenes
The perfect setting to put our Fjällräven gear to work.
San Francisco is surrounded by rocky sea cliffs, mountainous hiking trails, and endless ocean views, but finding these things within the city is a bit more challenging. So when tasked with photographing some of our favorite Fjällräven in action, Zach "The Model," Eli "The Hanger-Holder," and Jeff "The Picture-Taker" put their collective San Francisco geologic knowledge to use, grabbed the gear, and took off towards Corona Heights.
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Robert Landsburg's Brave Final Shots
As soon as he realized that escape from Mt. St. Helens was impossible, Robert Landsburg created a human shield to protect his camera for posterity.
When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, photographer Robert Landsburg was there – within a few miles from the summit, shooting away. Landsburg had spent several weeks prior to the eruption documenting the volcano, putting himself on the precipice of danger.
On May 18, Landsburg’s luck ran dry. Seeing the immanent explosion in the not-so-distant distance, Landsburg decided he could not escape the eruption in time to save his own life. And so, he used his body to save his film.
Living Root Bridges
The hills aren’t the only things that are alive in Northeast India. Behold: living root bridges.
America has built 13,000 miles worth of road in the last decade. 22 of the 30 longest bridges in the world have been built since 2000 (take it easy, China). The Burj Khalifa, Dubai’s modern-day Tower of Babel, was built in less than six years.
As astounding as some of those numbers are, it’s become a matter of course these days. As technology and processes advance, economic success demands bigger, better, and faster construction. Time is money, after all.
So it’s hard not to take notice when we come across something that stands in total contrast to this breakneck pace. In the hills of Northeast India, in the jungle of the Cherrapunji Valley, the War-Khasis have taken a much different approach to their built environment (pun intended). Behold, the stunning living root bridges of Cherrapunji.
What Ali Wore
A doctor turned tailor turns viral style celebrity.
Zoe Spawton and Ali's story is a story about going viral. After seeing Ali walk by the coffee shop she works in nearly every morning at 9 am, Spawton, a Berlin-based photographer, approached Ali to take his photo.
The resulting Tumblr entitled "What Ali Wore" is at once a street style blog capturing the vast spectrum of Ali's Monday through Friday attire, and a journal of a budding friendship between an unlikely pair.
Missile Mail
Sure, missile mail sounds cool, but what happens when a package (missile) goes missing?
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Today it's hard to imagine the U.S. Postal Service and rockets mentioned in the same breadth, but in the late 1950s the USPS partnered with the Department of Defense to explore and launch a missile-based mail delivery system.
The first official instance of missile mail occurred in June 1959. The missile, which had its nuclear warhead replaced with a mail container that held over 3,000 pieces of mail, was fired from the USS Barbero submarine off of the coast of Virginia, and landed at its destination at the Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida, just 22 minutes later.
The missile mail carrier’s contents were then taken to a Jacksonville post office, where they were sorted and routed across the country to recipients which included President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Cafe Racers, Part 2 of 2
An original two-part series exploring the many faces of Brooklyn’s motorcycle culture.
We asked friend of Huckberry David Infante to hit the streets to see whether Brooklyn's robust bike culture was legit or whether it was just the latest sign of the yuppficiation of Brooklyn. Herewith, Part 2 of 2 (part 1 here) from the front lines…
THE IRREPRESSIBLE BARBECUE-BIKER
Three blocks away from Torres’ garage, the nondescript two-story warehouse at 290 Metropolitan Avenue stands uninhabited. Two years ago, this 1,350 square foot space stored rows of Triumphs, Ducatis, and Harleys owned by neighborhood riders, and was fronted by a restaurant/bar space with a lofted hangout area. Masterminded by Dan Lyle, The Shop sought to overcome motorcycling’s sometimes-xenophobic reputation by pairing it with stuff that knows no socioeconomic boundaries: St. Louis slow-’n-low, and rock ‘n roll.
When I met Lyle at his former location for an interview, a moving crew was furiously shuttling boxes stamped “e-Scooter” through the open overhead door. Inside, I heard someone yelling.
“F**k, f**ck, F**K!” The annoyance in the disembodied voice bordered on derangement. “F**KERS! Stop locking your f**king forks!
The dude behind that anguished tirade emerged from the fracas. It was Lyle. A sizable Midwesterner with an armful of ink, a full beard, and American Gangster Russell Crowe hair jammed under a mesh ballcap, he’s not the picture of person you’d envision graduating summa cum laude from business school and steering an NYC tech company to sale, both of which he’s done.
Trains at Night
Bay Area photographer Aaron Durand turns trains at night into laser beams.
As a kid, I was into trains. Thomas the Tank Engine, Brio train sets, Big Trains Little Trains on VHS… I loved it all. Sadly, unlike this guy, my love of trains soon faded as adulthood set in. I should probably qualify that further: my love for commuter trains, B.A.R.T. specifically, faded as a result of having to ride them every morning. The interesting smells, torn upholstery, blank stares etc., etc.
So it's pretty easy to see how one could become jaded to such a strong boyhood adoration. This is what drew me to Aaron Durand's Trains in Motion photos. Aaron, a Bay Area local, goes out at night and turns the trains I've grown to dislike into abstract pieces of art that bring my childhood memories rushing back.
Hovercraft Golf Cart
Hovercraft golf carts. Golf needs this. Defending Masters champ, Bubba Watson, has this.
This Thursday, defending champion Bubba Watson and 92 other players will tee it up in the 77th edition of The Masters Tournament in Agusta, Georgia.
Noticeably missing from the action will be Bubba's Hover, a hovercraft golf cart that Bubba recently built with Oakley as a publicity stunt, and which we sure hope he gets to keep.
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