Smokin'
Oct, 2017Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Everything Smoke Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
All Star
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at the old Monte Ne Chicken House outside of Rogers, Arkansas, a well known local family dining restaurant famous for its local chicken. The old restuarant was long since abandoned and replaced by a much newer and larger restaurant, and local Volunteer Fire Departments, Highway 94 East and Hickory Creek, were donated the property to use for a training burn.Time
Training burns can last all day, so this was a relatively early start if I recall - around 6am. The fire crews met at the property to discuss tactics and what was expected from the teams which included experienced and probationary firefighters from both fire departments, along with multiple pieces of apparatus including engines to pump water through the attack lines and tenders (large water carrying trucks) to keep the engines supplied with water throughout the burn.Lighting
Light changed throughout the course of the day. If I remember correctly, the day was very overcast at 6am and damp, throughout the morning it brightened considerably but some cloud cover remained, and then towards the end of the burn it had become more overcast once again.Equipment
I am 100% a Nikon girl. I shoot with a D4s and for my fire photography I usually stick with my Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I have never used a tripod for any of my fire photography and this is because I move around the fire scene as much as possible. As a firefighter myself, I wear my bunker gear on these shoots and am permitted to go where the firefighters go, so I aim to be as versatile as possible. The 24-70mm gives me the best range for most of my fire work, allowing me to transfer from outside a scene looking on, to entering the structure and shooting from inside the fire. I have even been lucky enough to create a little bunker gear shroud for my camera, thanks to an amazing supplier in South Carolina who was willing to hlep me out when I was unable to find anything pre-made on the market that would protect my camera and glass from the extreme heat inside a structure fire.Inspiration
My inspiration for this photograph comes from my love of being a Volunteer Firefighter, which I have done for nearly 9 years now. Being able to be on scene and take photographs and share just what firefighters do everyday, even in a training capacity is a real passion for me. Being able to use my passion to provide a service to fire departments so they can have documentary photographs for training purposes, or simply just for the firefighters to have for themselves is putting my passion to good use. I am always thrilled by what I see when I am on scene with the crews and just being able to do this for them is a huge inspiration for me. When I see a picture like this one unfolding before my eyes with the smoke unfurling skyward as the next firefighters wait to go internal watching the line and assessing the scene is a dream training image for me.Editing
I would love to say that I took this image and it came out of the camera perfectly like this, but I don't shoot in black and white, so yes there is definitely some post-processing here. The image is not a composite though, I have created my own presets that I use in ACR and Photoshop to give all my black and white's the same look, that people who know me tend to recognize immediately as my work. I work initially on the color image, then make my conversion and then have a couple of final tweaks I do before saving, and I am obsessive about the number of times I save an image and the format in which I save it - everyone has something they're a little ocd about, mine is saving my files!In my camera bag
As I already said, for my fire photography, I always start off with my 24-70m f/2.8 attached to my camera, but I will also carry with me my Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8, and my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 to ensure I have every eventuality covered should I need it. For other photography I do, I also carry a Tamron 35mm f/1.8, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8, Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3, and then I usually carry a couple of speedlights and cowboy triggers as well. I'm not a huge fan of flash; I'd much rather use natural light where ever possible, but sometimes you have to give the natural light a little help.Feedback
Its hard to give advice to anyone on this type of photography. If you are a firefighter - go for it! If you are not, you should probably give this type of photography a hard pass! Seriously, you can't just show up on a fire scene and start wandering about - thats just not safe. Fire is deadly and unless you know what you are doing, you are risking the lives of firefighters as well as yourself. If you have a great telephoto lens and can still get good shots from behind all the apparatus and at a safe distance then thats brilliant, but if not, please do not put yourself or others in a dangerous position.
