+/- info/comments (37)
37 comments
03.08.05 • 9:06pm • Geo
Really nice shot Paul (whoever you are)
03.08.05 • 9:21pm • petrol11
Can we get some information about the view direction and the city where you took the photo?
Thanks
03.08.05 • 9:25pm • canuck
Impressive, I came along on the slashdot wave. I hope your site can handle it.
03.08.05 • 9:26pm • Pesmerga
Kaboooooooooom.
03.08.05 • 9:42pm • Dan
It's downtown Portland, OR.
03.08.05 • 10:09pm • steve
Excellent photography - enjoyed the bunch. I hope your server can handle the slashdot rush
03.08.05 • 10:09pm • JustJokin
It's downtown Milwaukee, WI.
03.08.05 • 10:12pm • canuck
crazy - in canada
03.08.05 • 10:13pm • kyle
Wow, I hadn't anticipated the Slashdot effect. My normal average of 60-80 daily visits has been dwarfed in the last hour or so by over 1400 visits. Insane!
More photo info. This was taken from the top of the building we live in in downtown Portland, Oregon, about eight stories high. The view is to the Northeast.
Thanks for the kind words, and lets keep our fingers crossed on my hosting service handling the load :-).
03.08.05 • 10:34pm • Miles
Great shot! My experience of today's eruption this evening was dealing with my 8 year old having a meltdown because I wouldn't drive him to look at the explosion (it was dinner time, he was exhausted, tommorow is a school day).
Good work!
03.08.05 • 10:45pm • Jeff Werner
Wow, 1400 visitors, and your URL wasn't even on the front page blurb (I submitted the article), but down in the comments. Did you hear the eruption before seeing it? Friend's of mine heard the original up here in Victoria, Canada.
Great photo, btw. Have sent the link to all me friends. Can't wait for morning.
03.08.05 • 11:08pm • paul
Paul the photographer here.
Gosh, it's all so thrilling - I've never been Slashdotted before! I wish I'd had the camera with me earlier and got more of the sequence of the eruption. We were on the roof and didn't even notice it until someone pointed it out. Funny thing - Kyle and I were just talking about how we're kinda sick of taking pictures on/from the roof deck. We'd taken every possible picture already. That is, except for the 30,000 foot ash plume just to the north.
03.08.05 • 11:20pm • Michael Amper
Beautiful picture. Makes me glad I didn't move to Portland, even though I was thinking of it, and talking about it, way before the Great Influx began.
03.08.05 • 11:24pm • Swami
Cool shot. Unfortunately I missed this. I'm getting the secondary slashdot effect on my web site from people who venture on to the garbage train photo and follow the link!
03.09.05 • 12:11am • Joe
I remember moving from Yakima to Seattle at 8:30AM on May 18th, 1981.
03.09.05 • 1:06am • Deling
Is the picture taken from Portland?
03.09.05 • 1:33am • Angela
Excellent photo, very impressive! Beautiful colors, too.
03.09.05 • 1:59am • john
amazing, snow looks like veins on the mountain
03.09.05 • 3:05am • hihi
that's the place where your ISP operates out of? :P
03.09.05 • 3:55am • Dereck
A very dramatic image indeed.
03.09.05 • 5:10am • Speed
I was about 7 years old, living in Vancouver, WA back in 1980 during the first eruption. I still have a picture I took that looks very much similar to this one. Hopefully it won't happen to that extent again. I remember ash was a couple inches thick on all our streets and the fire department had to use hoses to clear it. Everyone was supposed to put on a mask before going outside.
03.09.05 • 5:44am • carrie
That is an excellent shot, man. I like the colors that you were able to capture.
03.09.05 • 7:10am • Neil
Unreal shot!! Keep them coming....
Salem, VA
03.09.05 • 7:12am • btezra
~MY GOODNESS that looks so ominous...your persepctive really gives the viewer a sense of the sheer size of that plume of ash and the distance the city is from Mt. St. Helens...thnx for sharing the shot~
03.09.05 • 7:52am • Klaus
Wow - beautiful shot, very nice light. Well done! :)
03.09.05 • 8:02am • miles
wow, that's just stunning. I love the image but also just that sense of awe at the whole damn thing.
03.09.05 • 8:07am • Alec Long
Good stuff, guys. Must have been an amazing sight to witness in person.
03.09.05 • 8:31am • Saroy
Wow, incredible shot. Really gives you a sense of the size of the mountain's "burp".
03.09.05 • 9:10am • Philip Hooker
Nice image and I like seeing them, however I have to suggest that moderating elations might be in order. This guy could do real damage to even Portland if it blows anything like Mt. Mazama (Creater Lake). It sould actually kill everyone for 100 miles in all directions.
Having said that, it is a majestic and awsome thing to behold. Keep up the nice work. Cool site!
03.09.05 • 9:25am • stacie
Amazing Picture!
03.09.05 • 9:33am • Alan Canon
What a beautiful photograph. Kudos to the photographer.
03.09.05 • 12:50pm • prjames
Superb. What a view, so long as it stays put this time round!
Certified - /. resistant site - been up all day.
03.10.05 • 7:10pm • Peg
AWESOME photo. I spent 15 minutes looking for some decent photos on the internet, and yours is the best I've seen thus far....We were awe striken watching it live on TV here in Seattle. The Portland TV station camera man who was flying near the crater about 6:00-6:30 when the 3rd burp came.... put our local news reporters on TV to shame.
03.12.05 • 12:22am • challice moon
What an awesome shot Paul! Your the best! You must have been really intune the day the she volcano had something to say...she is talking to us all and her voice is wanting to be heard...
03.10.06 • 10:37am • kris
wow
08.09.06 • 10:16pm • barbie
fully sickk mountain man, can u do my home work, okay i need a full video of the euruption of Mt st Helens that hapend in 1980!? does anyone have it??
thanks xxoxo
08.09.06 • 10:16pm • barbie
who is paul
03.08.05 • guest: st. helens blows
D70 • f8 • 1/250 • ISO 200
Well, after many months of nothing since Mt. St. Helens reawoke, we finally got a pretty nice blow today around 5:15pm. I rushed home but was too late to get photos. Thankfully, Paul was diligent and got a few nice ones from the roof.
Since some have asked for more info, here you go. This was taken from the top of our 8 story building in downtown Portland, Oregon. We are located appoximately 50 miles from Mount St. Helens. The window of opportunity was small, as the upper level winds knocked the plume over in a very short time. This was taken probably 15 minutes after the initial eruption. There was no sound or appreciable earthquakes before or during the eruption. Supposedly there were some small tremors at the mountain preceding the event, but nothing significant enough to call a warning. It is true this could present a very dangerous situation in the case of a very large eruption. Winds carried the ash to the northeast, and there was some ashfall as far away as Spokane, WA. Most of the area nearest the mountain is not heavily populated, so ash is the most likely danger. Since most of the mountain blew away in 1980, there is little chance of another cataclysmic event on that scale.
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I've recently turned off comments for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which is that I haven't really had time to take many photos these days, and therefore get few comments. This means that largely, I just fight spam. You may still email me at the contact address if you wish.