Fighting Fire with Photography

Afterwards

As I mentioned in Up in Flames, I spent Saturday morning shooting firefighter training for the Chapel Hill News. The local volunteer fire department in Hillsborough, together with some other local departments, teamed up with Habitat for Humanity to practice with live fire exercises. I was assigned to shoot a Hillsborough town official who is doing a guest column in the paper. My wife brought the puppies and we made a morning of it.

Apparently, Habitat lends home designated for demolition to the loacal fire department for training. Many fire departments in the area do not own their own practice building. Habitat saves itself the cost of demolishing the homes. It seems like a good deal all around. The neighborhood even has some fun, with many neighbors coming over to see the action.

Break

I did not go in the house while it was on fire. I had permission to do it, but the room was crowded and I had a decent vantage from a front window. It was quite hot and smoky, though, and that was enough for me. As is normal for these thing, it was hurry up and wait, with action coming in short bursts over the four hours I stayed.

Burning Hot

I shot with a diffused sb-400 for the indoor shots and to fill the harsh shadows of the strong late morning sun. I had an ISO of 200 for the day, just to make sure I could catch the indoor shots. I left the camera in shutter spped priority, but changed the speed for the circumstances. I had trouble with the autofocus, as is usual for me. It often focuses on the wrong object and I can’t tell through the viewfinder. This makes for some frustrating losses!

Firefighter

I have learned a bit though and I think it shows. It helps that I am better at Lightroom now, but the RAW files had some quality this time around. Good lighting helped too on the bright day.

Attention

More images to come when the photos are published sometime in the next week. Comments are not only welcom, but appreciated!

Tags: assignment, chapel hill news, CHN, fire, firefighting, habitat for humanity, hillsborough, lightroom, localnews, volunteer fire department

This entry was posted on March 9, 2009 at 2:43 pm and is filed under tim's photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.