AS Canberra looked fearfully south yesterday (January 28) to the Orroral Valley Fire, all sorts of photos came to hand, all sensibly from a safe distance. They all seem to share an eerie, menacing beauty.

Editor Ian Meikle legged it up to Red Hill to get some evening photos, he found a veritable parking lot of fellow snappers popping lenses through the bushes to get that shot of the billowing smoke. News-trained photographer Andrew Campbell caught the smoke brilliantly from out on the Barton Highway and Mike Welsh shot the evening glow from Whitlam.

The smoke plume from the Orroral Valley Fire. Photo: Ian Meikle

Orroral Valley Fire. Photo: Judy Scorpecci.

The smoke plume from the Orroral Valley Fire.

The Orroral Valley Fire from William Hovell Drive at Whitlam. Photo: Mike Welsh

Master snapper ANDREW CAMPBELL took this remarkable photo of the menacing Orroral Valley Fire from the parched Kaveneys Road, off the Barton Highway, 35 kilometres away from the fire on the afternoon of January 28.