Hi everyone-

Back in March of '09 I got a notice that there was going to be a structural burn training held at the York County Fire Training School. I thought it would be fun to go up and catch some shots of the departments involved in the training.

Until recently I forgot that I even went up and shot these images. However I have recently started to organize and relocate some images and while I was doing so I came across the fire from that day.

Since it's been a while since I have shot anything fire department related I thought it would be a good change of pace.

Here are a few of the images that I shot that day. Hope you enjoy.

Have a Great Day!

Hi everyone-

I just received word that one of my images (shown below) has won first place in the 2009 International Association of Firefighters Media Awards.

The image is of Lt. Doug Bair of Harrisburg Fire's Squad 8. In the image he is working on overhauling a building, checking for additional hidden fire, during a multi alarm arson fire on Derry Street on September 1st of 2008.

The image is included in the awards article in this month's International Fire Fighter, the union's member publication and will be a part of the 2010 IAFF Burn Foundation Calendar.

You can purchase a calendar and support the burn foundation by following this link:---> IAFF BURN FOUNDATION

You can learn more about the foundation by going to their website here:----> IAFF BURN FOUNDATION WEBSITE

or by watching the video's here:-----> BURN FOUNDATION VIDEOS

Hi everyone-

Continuing with images from Carolyn and Scotty's engagement shoot we moved to the county fire training school. Scott is an Assistant Chief at the Grantley Station of the newly created York Area United Fire and Rescue.

So it was only natural that we included some fire department related images in the mix. I thought some more emotional images would be in order here...

Hope you enjoy...

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Hope you all had a great weekend. This was the second weekend in a row that we really didn't have a lot to do. Which is certainly a really nice change from the busy weekends we have been having.

We basically stayed close to home and on Sunday my family was down to celebrate Tonya's Birthday. So we went out to eat and then hung out at home playing her new Wii. Tooooo much fun!

On Saturday night I did run out to photograph a small fire in West York. The guys made quick work of the fire. It started to rain shortly after I got there so it was a quick shoot. I got there shot some of the action, talked to some friends and got out of dodge before getting to wet.

I was able to get a few nice portrait shots of some of the guys I know. In this shot Jimmy who was part of the Rapid Intervention Team was hanging out after throwing ladders, taking out windows and making sure the firefighters inside had good egress and the safest possible conditions to work in.



On Another Note... An image I shot a while back at a very smokey house fire not far from where I live was used in this months Fire Engineering magazine. It was used to illustrate a point in an article written by Sam Hittle a firefighter from the Wichita, KS Fire Department. Fire Engineering is the top fire service training journal in the US.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

I thought I'd take a little diversion today from what I have been posting to show something I have been working on for a few days.
I was asked to create a recruitment poster for The City of Harrisburg Bureau of Fire. Nothing special, 12x18 and get the info out.

So I thought about a lot of concepts, a few would require shooting new stuff, a few would compile various images from different things we do but none of the ideas really were that great. Well that's not really true, a few I liked but the logistics of creating the scenes made them impossible to pull off. At least with no budget and little time.

So I decided to look through the images I have shot with the Bureau over the last few years. I also decided to stick with something simple and visually catchy. I want the poster to catch some one's eye and pretty much draw them and get the message out all within that first glance.

I wanted an image of a firefighter that is somewhat iconic and easily recognizable. Yet it had to be simple and uncomplicated. I found the image that I liked but it lacked anything special. The moment, and the pose were OK but the over all feel of the image and the color didn't do it for me. Here is the original version of the image:



After narrowing down the overall concept for the poster I set out to transform the image to look more like I had imagined it would or should. A few hours later this is what I have come up with:



I was pretty happy with the results to this point. It was certainly one of my most involved image transformations yet. I am not sure if I am done, at least to my satisfaction, but I am running out of time to deliver the proof.

This image will basically make up the entire poster with some very catchy looking text and a cool slogan as well as all of the necessary small print that a city would add. Once it is approved I will post the finished product here.

Have a great day!