The last shot is nice as well. I remember seeing this and a few others on the fire thread. 18mm gives a nice wide angle. The street poles gives a nice tallness to the image even though it looks like you are hand holding, standing up? I have a filter that would have really brought out the sky/smoke.
As for my dad, I think he has been into photography for about about 45-50 years now...
Eh, here's his website. He rarely lets anyone know about it...
www.melmason.com