Car Fire

[dphoto]

Hello all,

My wife and I were driving back from sister's high school graduation when we came upon this car fire. My camera was all bagged up, but luckily it was in the back seat and not the trunk! I pulled it out, checked a couple of settings, and started shooting. These were taken from the inside of the car while my wife was still driving. Settings for both shots were as follows: ISO 100, 18-55mm lens zoomed to 55mm, Tv set to 1/160. For the first shot, the aperature was f/6.3 and for the second f/5.6.

I was in kind of a hurry when I took these, but any input would be appreciated. Maybe I should have used a faster shutter speed? Next time I'll try to keep the dash board out of the shot. :D Also, should I try to add some color to the sky in the first shot? It looks a little too washed out to me. I was just excited that I got any shots at all. Recalling the number of shots that I have completely messed up when I had all the time in the world to think, I was pretty pleased. :D

Thanks again for any input concerning futre fires and/or natural disasters!
-Deva

http://capitalcityphoto.com/tmp/CarFire_3024.jpg

http://capitalcityphoto.com/tmp/CarFire_3026.jpg

[clos]

What exactly are you trying to accomplish here?

If you were practicing shooting quickly, good job. It's not easy shooting under pressure.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to make of it.

-CLos

[roanjohn]

Rubber-necking delays!!! They're the worst.

Interesting shot.........more photojournalism type as opposed to artistic.

Good capture though............and nice reflexes to get the camera out and ready.

On shots where I don't want to think about setting and etc.... I always do it under "P" mode.

Ro1

[dphoto]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the comments. I guess the only thing I was trying to accomplish was to capture the moment, but make it look as visually "appealing" as possible. As for the camera's "P" mode, I'll have to give that mode another chance. I generally avoid that mode because unless there's a lot of light, it often chooses a shutter speed that's too low for me and I end up with slight camera shake blur. Also, if my subject is moving, I typically need a higher shutter speed. I don't know why, but I see almost everything as shutter speed first, and then if I have enough light, I'll worry about aperature. I think this way of thinking happened after shooting a lot of indoor stuff.

Yeah, this looks more photojournalistic than artistic. Maybe I'll turn the first image into a black and white and add it to my portfolio. It's not every day that I can capture a burning car. :D

-Deva

[roanjohn]

I don't know why, but I see almost everything as shutter speed first, and then if I have enough light, I'll worry about aperature. I think this way of thinking happened after shooting a lot of indoor stuff.


-Deva

Interesting........I am quite the opposite. I almost always base everything on aperture. If for some reason there is not enough shutter speed for my given focal length - then I bump up my ISO.

Ro1

[dphoto]

Hehe... that is interesting. Oh well, that's the beauty of the game... so many different techniques! :D

Happy shooting!
-Deva

[quickben]

I wouldn't turn the first one to B+W, you'll lose the vibrant colour of the flames. The second one is a one for the recycle bin, though IMHO. Too much blurred dashboard visible.

The first one is sharp enough, I'd say. Desaturating would make the flames less prominent, as they'll end up about the same tone as the sun-lit road. The contrast between the flames and the black smoke really pops.

You must of made your wife slow right down as there's a big gap between you and the car in front !

Did you get beeped at ? :D :D

Gary.

[rick barclay]

You're exactly right. This is a journalistic photo opportunity. What I would have done, circumstances permitting, of course, is pull my car off to the side of the road, take my pictures, identify myself as a member of the local press (some creativity may be needed there), and then interview to find out what happened. After you get all the gory details, including names and addresses, take the story to your local newpaper and ask them if they're interested. They probably won't be, but look at all the fun and excitement you had, anyways.

Those are actually pretty good photos for a news story. I think you might
have had a shot, and might still if you take them to your local paper and
show them to an editor.

If I were an editor looking at these, I'd buy the top one. I'm sure you could have provided me with enough details that I could write a paragraph or three. You really wouldn't even need that much--just enough for a caption.

[dphoto]

Gary,

Yeah, that second picture is for the trash... I only posted it for perspective's sake (I should have mentioned that). That's the picture uncropped with a 55mm lens, so we were very close to the burning car. In fact, when we drove by it, the heat was unbelievable! No, no one beeped at us. We were already driving slow because it was a construction zone that was only one lane wide. I think as each driver approached the car, he/she had to think for a second, "Should I really drive past this? What if it explodes?" But being a single lane with no where to turn out, you kinda felt forced to pass it. BTW, when you say the contrast between the flames and smoke really "pops", is that a good thing or a bad thing? :)

Rick,

As for the jounalism stuff, that is excellent advice! I did think of sending the photo into the local paper (the first one), but I never did. We were out of town, and by the time we got home 5 hours later, it was late and we just got busy with other stuff. But that is great advice and I think I will do something like that next time. If I do, I will share it here. :D

Thanks for the encouragement. Do you do photojounalism type stuff? I never really thought of doing it, but it seems like it could be a lot of fun!

Talk to you guys later,
-Deva

[rick barclay]

I would love to do pj, but I wouldn't make near as much money as I do now. I emailed one newspaper recently about pt work it but no reply.
I didn't really expect any, though.

In the 1970's, I forget exactly which year, I reported for a bi-weekly
newspaper called the Freehold Transcript. Freehold is the county seat of
Monmouth, New Jersey, and I covered borough council meetings, planning
board stuff, local news events, and features. It was a great job. There was
a lot of interesting stuff going on in Freehold at that time regarding civil
rights and Vietnam. Unfortunately, I was much involved in the anti-war movement, and my idealism and peer pressure got the better of me-got me fired after about six months.
One of the things that struck me about working for the press is the utter
respect total strangers have for you, even when you only work for a local
rag like I did. It was awesome and a hell of a lot of fun. And I was good at it. No bragging, just a fact. For a guy like me, with no college degree, losing that job was a kick in the butt. No regrets, though, thankfully. I've
been very lucky at landing on my feet in the game of Life, so I can look
back on it all and manage a laugh at everything. A lot of other
people haven't been so fortunate. I try always to keep that in mind.