Bob Adams & Big Red

Meet Bob Adams, former USAF fire fighter, standing by Big Red, his 1954 American LaFrance 0-11A crash truck. The same truck he used to battle aircraft fires at Carswell AFB during the 50's and 60's.

Bob had been slowly restoring the truck at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum and wanted me to do a night shot of his truck once restoration had been completed. I was more than happy to oblige, on one condition... I wanted a live fire in the shot.

Not being a pyrotechnics expert, I quickly realized I was getting in over my head and needed help. My buddy Joseph Fischer, a museum volunteer and aviation enthusiast, who had originally contacted me for the photo session, felt confident we could pull something off.

At Joseph's suggestion, I had purchased a quart of charcoal lighting fluid at Target, naively hoping that would create the flames we needed. It would not.

A veteran fire fighter, Bob Adams was hesitant about a couple of untrained guys starting a fire on museum grounds, especially near his freshly painted antique truck. However he felt gasoline would give us a better fire effect, as long as we burned it in small amounts on bare concrete. We would get a big blaze that would last only a few seconds. We ended up using about three gallons of gasoline to get the shot.

Before the start of the session, we decided to move the truck out of the cluttered confines of the museum grounds, onto a security access road at next door Meacham Airport. This would give us the big open space I wanted for the shot. Joseph had called the tower to get clearance for starting a controlled fire and airport security dropped by, mostly to see the old firetruck for themselves. As long as the fire we started was contained to the pavement surface, they weren't too concerned.

The sun had set almost as soon as Bob positioned the truck and I immediately set up the tripod and began shooting. The first few shots were mostly to capture the early evening sky and the lights of the airport.

Over the next two hours would shoot a total of 171 exposures. I had brought my eleven year old grandnephew Jordan with me that evening, and gave him the job of holding the remote shutter release as I lit various parts of the truck with a LED light mounted to a long painters pole. The long adjustable pole allowed me to easily light the truck from up high and underneath. I appear in many of the shots, but would Photoshop myself out in post.

As it got darker, Joseph reeled out a water hose from the museum to wet the pavement around the truck. This made the roadway glisten as I bounced bright light off the pavement behind and beneath the truck. After shooting a few exposures of wet pavement, it was dark enough to shoot the fire. Joseph poured a trail of gasoline and I shot a few one second exposures before the fired burned out. The blazing gas was much brighter than I anticipated, so we laid down another trail, tossed a match and I shot a dozen more exposures between 0.6 and 1/30 sec. The flames at the left behind the truck, were added in post and made from the original dozen flame images shot.

Last, we brought in Bob, to pose by his prized firetruck. He didn't really want to be in the shot. Bob Adams just wanted a nice picture of his firetruck, but Joseph insisted and I completely agreed. Without the fire, this would just be a night picture of a truck. Adding the fire, gave the picture context. Placing Bob in the shot, tells a compelling story.

Photoshop compositing took another couple of days. Of the 171 exposures made that evening, only 40 were used in the final image.
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