Willingboro NJ 2 Alarm House Fire

[JawsofLife252]

Well I had a tough choice to make today. I am a Firefighter in Willingboro (and in my home town).

ANYWAY, I was in my home town (about 45 minutes from Willingboro) when they were called out to a house fire. I heard the first report of heavy fire on division 1; the first floor of the house. So I went to take pictures. Not my best work, but considering the lighting i'm gonna give it an eh.

Comments please.

1.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2029/2202660855_a59c48dee8_b.jpg

2.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2046/2203453148_082bc3005b_b.jpg

3. I thought this image looked FANTASTIC in BW...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2121/2202660903_f7956b1ebf_b.jpg

4.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2179/2203453250_2432bdf5b9_b.jpg

5.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2370/2203453222_7045eefc84_b.jpg

6.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2153/2202661039_c397e732b0_b.jpg

7.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2001/2202661111_c6673c4604_b.jpg

8.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2147/2202661149_996a76049b_b.jpg

[medicdude]

All very nice. I agree, 3 is awesome. Be safe out there.

[bigbaby987]

very nice and extremely good focusing

[GilesGuthrie]

A good series. For me, #1 is the best. The exposure is spot on.

[fireplug]

We just had a house fire last night around 3:30am, nice pictures!

I like 1 and 3 the most, BW worked really well.

[IMARLOW]

Nice set of images.
4+7 for me.

[fireman93514]

NIce shots I also like 1 and 3. I like the chief on the phone with ith red reflection on the structure behind.

[JawsofLife252]

Thank you for your comments everyone!
:D
I like the chief on the phone with ith red reflection on the structure behind.

I do too, almost like a studio shot. It was not intentional but it worked out great!

-Dave

[Salman1]

Good photos! I'm also a career firefighter and have been doing fire scene photography/videography on and off for about 20 years. I'm very new to the DSLR photography though. Many differences in some sense to 35mm. Anyway, what were you using for your lenses and did you allow autofocus to work for you or did you utilize manual focus for some/all of your shots. Also, nice to see natural and available light being used. I'd be interested in seeing what you used and the setting you had. Right now, I have a 40D, 28-135, 75-300 and two Vivitar 285HV's and a Quantum battery pack for the flashes. I don't intend to buy many L lenses if at all due to price and the fact that on the fireground, you can trash equipment very easily. I'm sure you can agree with me on that.

[JawsofLife252]

Anyway, what were you using for your lenses and did you allow autofocus to work for you or did you utilize manual focus for some/all of your shots. Also, nice to see natural and available light being used. I'd be interested in seeing what you used and the setting you had. Right now, I have a 40D, 28-135, 75-300 and two Vivitar 285HV's and a Quantum battery pack for the flashes. I don't intend to buy many L lenses if at all due to price and the fact that on the fireground, you can trash equipment very easily. I'm sure you can agree with me on that.


Salman- First off, thank you for the comments, I appreciate it. All of these shots were done with 30D + 70-200 2.8 L IS although I did shoot some with a 24-70L but I didn't post those. All shots were taken with IS on at 1600ISO wide open at 2.8 and anywhere between 1/125 and 1/640 (to stop some action). Also, these were all available light, I hate flash photography on the fireground. The scotchbrite comes out too crappy and it also creates too many shadows.

Now as for equipment, I'm also a press photographer so having the ruggedness of the L series is pretty much a must. I can agree with you that you can trash camera equipment on the fireground, but an L series lens will hold up better than a cheaper lens in harsh conditions. I have two reasons why I'm normally not too worried though.

1. IF I bring my camera on a run with me on the rig, I'm probably driving, so I have the luxury of dumping the camera back in the bag in the cab if I have to.

2. When I shoot fireground photos I do not pass the hot zone unless the warm zone is too far away, and by far away I mean need to take a car to get there (i've done that for a pig farm fire.) I do this because I know certain firefighter/photographers that have run into problems because they were able to get closer to a scene than an on duty press photographer and newspapers like to argue that fact so they can get closer. "Hey, if he can be there why can't I ?"

[Mac Photo's]

Nice captures