Fire!

austinado16

Some of the shots from a fire last week.

I've never shot outside before, let alone action outside. The only thing I've done with this gear is shoot gymnastics. So there's a bit of a learning curve, and as you can see, some of the photos are blown out. I stayed way back at first because I didn't want to get in the way...although there were plenty of other photogs there and they were right up in the mix. I didn't get up close until they had it controlled and the ladder truck had arrived.

I started off with the camera in automatic mode. It was still set to what I shoot at in the gym, and I didn't want to miss anything while trying to adjust from one extreme of light conditions to another. I never shoot in automatic, and I'm disappointed in how those first "overall" shots turned out. The focusing beams were grabbing everything from the smoke, to the power poles and power lines, and it made for some poor shots. Luckily, I took a break for a few minutes and switched back to manual, dialed it all in, and kept shooting from there making adjustments on the fly just like I've learned to do in the gym.

Not to sound crass, but it wasn't much of a tradegy. Ours is a "college town" and instead of the students living majorally on campus, the city thought it a great idea to let people rent homes in neighborhoods (or build second homes at the rear of their 50x150 lots, or for developers to knock down single homes and put in 4-plex apartments where a family once lived) to 18-25 year olds. So, that is a Fraternity house, about 3/4's of a block away from our home. Run down, full of typical Frat house activity, and on Friday and Saturday nights, the typical party which "we" get to listen to and pick up after. So about 10 kids get to find a new place to rent, and an insurance company will cut a fat check to the Frat Alums who own the place. The cause: one of them was varnishing something out on the front porch. He left his pile of whatever, there in the left corner of the porch where you see the biggest flames. That smoldered and eventually combusted. He'd also left a paint thinner can next to it. So once the can got hot enough, it exploded and fragged the porch with flaming liquid. That first photo was taken maybe 4 minutes into the fire. I'd left our house, driven about 6 blocks, turned around and was coming back when I saw smoke from our neighborhood. By the time I got here...maybe 3min total....the front was fully involved in flames and one police car was on scene watching it burn.

The firefighters were very appreciative of me being there taking photos and talked to me quite a bit. They said they never get photos of themselves in action, and were very interested in seeing the results. I burned them a CD with 145 shots and delivered that on Monday.

This was all shot with the 50D and a 70-200/2.8ISL.

Your CC welcomed.
1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.


11.


12.


13.


14.


15.


16.


17.


18.


19.


20.


21.


22.


23.


24.


25.


26.


27.


28.


29.


30.


31.


32.
Here's the Investigator showing one of the kids the pile of whatever that started the whole thing.


33.

TonyCooper

If those were mine, the next thing that I would do is have some prints made and deliver them to the fire station for their bulletin board. I'd even pop for several prints of each shot so the firemen could take some home.

You've got some great shots.

PS...the fraternity is Theta Chi...my fraternity when I was in college back when firemen arrived in pumpers pulled by horses. (Not in California, though)

lifeLike

You can tell that you really got into the groove as time went along. The earlier shots are hesitant but then you really start to get in there and into the nitty gritty with the guys working. For someone who hasn't shot outdoors, you've really nailed it!

austinado16

Thanks for the comments. I actually burned a CD for them and delivered it yesterday. I gave them the size you see here, 900xwhatever, so they could enjoy a slide show on their computers, email them to friends, family, and the crews from the other stations that helped out, and make small prints if they wanted to do that. I left my name and # with a note that I could supply the fullsize 15meg images if they wanted to do big stuff. There are 145 photos total, so plenty more action shots, candids, and a bunch of trucks and engines that were on scene.

The Investigator was very interested in my first shot and the time stamp, and I showed it to him on scene. It helped him find where the fire originally started.

At the risk of sounding like I stalker, I'd like to shoot more of this kind of thing. There's a lot going on, great colors and textures, and some great opportunities for all sorts of different shots.

austinado16

lifeLike wrote:

You can tell that you really got into the groove as time went along. The earlier shots are hesitant but then you really start to get in there and into the nitty gritty with the guys working. For someone who hasn't shot outdoors, you've really nailed it!

You posted while I was typing, so I'll answer yours seperately.

Thanks for the kind words, and yes, you nailed me. I was really caught in the "What should I do" which is not like me. I drove right next to the house when I first came by. Normally, I would have bailed out of the car and done something....like make sure no one is inside, BTDT. But as I drove up, there was the PD parked out front and the cop was just standing there watching. So I figured everyone was out, or he had cleared the building....or he just wasn't going to get involved, so I was "too late." Even then, I still was hesitant to grab the camera and take that first shot. Finally, I just went for it. Still, I felt like just another rubber necker getting his jollys on a house fire. I actually came inside after taking the distant shots, and put the camera away. Then I thought, "What am I thinking? This is a great opportunity to see what this camera can do in real light, with real action, and heck maybe the shots will come out cool and some one will even want them." I still kept my distance though and took advantage of a crop body and 200mm lens. Between shots I started noticing that most people had their cameras and phones out taking pictures, and there were even a couple of pros there toting multiple cameras. At that point I just waded in, started talking to guys as they were in between doing things, or getting dressed down from having been up in the roof, and from there it went a lot better. Turns out, they're a bunch of hams and like having their pictures taken. So I took advantage of my lens reach and started getting the shots.

rutt

Some great stuff here. As is I'll take this one:



The ones with fire and smoke could stand a little post to cut the haze. This might be too much, but blend it back with the original to taste:

Justiceiro

When you are more zoomed out I don't really dig the shots. Too much clutter, and not well framed- as a previous poster said, they look "hesitant." That being said, once you hit your stride and start focusing in tight on the firefighters they really start to get very, very good. Nice and dramatic- which is the essence of what is interesting about a fire. The fire itself, unless it is spectacular, isn't so interesting. What is interesting is the human drama of man vs. fire. You've captured that well.

bdcolen

lifeLike wrote:

You can tell that you really got into the groove as time went along. The earlier shots are hesitant but then you really start to get in there and into the nitty gritty with the guys working. For someone who hasn't shot outdoors, you've really nailed it!

My thoughts precisely!

austinado16

Thanks guys. I wound up with quite a few "inside the window" and a few good "inside the cut open roof" shots, and I like those also. I agree about the overall scene shots. I wanted something that showed the whole scene and maybe showed the chaos of those initial few minutes, but shooting over the tops of parked cars, from half a block away, and in automatic mode, just didn't make for the best combination. That, and me shaking the camera didn't help either.

The photos I've posted are PP'd as much as I could tweak them using Canon's software. I've got PSE7 and LR2, but didn't try them in PSE and have only started playing with LR2 (and am really struggling with it).

lizzard_nyc

First --We don't get many real photo journalism shots, but this fits the bill IMO.

Two please number your shots and leave a space between them if you can--makes it easier to comment and to view them.

You have some real wonderful shots here and I bet the firemen loved them.

I really like the one of the fireman pouring water on the other fireman's head, the shot immediately below that, and the close-up shot of the fireman going down the ladder.

I enjoyed looking at the entire post.
Bravo.

austinado16

Hey, thanks Liz. I was just getting ready to number them at Richard's suggestion.

Is "photo journalism shots" a good thing ?

lizzard_nyc

austinado16 wrote:

Hey, thanks Liz. I was just getting ready to number them at Richard's suggestion.

Is "photo journalism shots" a good thing ?

Sorry, I missed his suggestion--but he's right.

Well the title of the forum is Street &PJ--and I'd say the majority fall under "street".

Do not open up the can of worms that is "what is Pj and what is Street" . Hang around long enough and you will see what I mean.

Great post.

austinado16

lizzard_nyc wrote:

Sorry, I missed his suggestion--but he's right.

Well the title of the forum is Street &PJ--and I'd say the majority fall under "street".

Do not open up the can of worms that is "what is Pj and what is Street" . Hang around long enough and you will see what I mean.

Great post.

He PM'd me about numbering them. I hadn't thought of doing it because I wasn't sure anyone would care that much about these, since they aren't artistic and I didn't think they were any good.

Being a newbie, I have no idea had no idea what the PJ stood for......and I just got it....photo journalism.