Evening SunThis shot was from my yard about 7 PM and it is of the sun, not the moon. I used spot metering rather than matrix. Matrix metering looks at the overall image in the viewfinder and then “averages” the exposure for the entire image. In this case the area surrounding the sun was just a featureless gray.

On to the Little Goose Fire. This morning the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) website reports the fire is now at 4827 acres 45% contained (up from 4807 acres and 40% yesterday). Progress might seem slow to those of us with no fire fighting experience, but we have to remember they are working with limited resources and manpower due to the other fires in the west.

Speaking of the west, the fire in Yellowstone has jumped the eastern park boundary and evacuations of some of the lodges and campgrounds are underway according to the Sheridan Media website (more on the Little Goose fire there as well). I just talked with my cousin who owns the Elephant Head Lodge, 10 miles from the east entrance to Yellowstone, and the Forest Service says at the moment they appear to be OK, but as we all know, that can change quickly. This fire may still be burning when the first snows fall. For those of you who haven’t been over there in some time, the Bark Beetles have been working overtime east of the Park, and if the fire gets into those areas where 50 to 70% – or more – of the trees are dead…. well, I can’t even imagine.