"A firefighter works to estinguish a fire aboard a District 47 and 155 school bus on Waterford Cut near Sandalwood Lane in Crystal Lake, Thursday, June 4, 2009. No one was aboard the bus when it caught fire outside of the driver's home during her break."
I once read on Seattle photographer Rod Mar's Blog that the mantra for shooting spot news is "f/8 and be there." For all you non photo nerds reading this that roughly translates to "be there, get the shot and make sure its sharp." That mantra was the key to these pictures.
I left home about a half an hour early today to head into work because I had to pick up some long glass before driving to a baseball game that was over an hour away in Dekalb. I wasn't 30 seconds away from home when I spotted the black smoke billowing into the sky. I called the office to find out if they had heard anything on the scanner and when they said that they didn't I flipped a u-turn in the middle of traffic and headed into the neighborhood. When I drove up on the scene a few seconds later I could see the flames from about a block away. I quickly pulled over, grabbed my gear as fast as I could and began to sprint towards the scene. When I saw that it was a school bus I was a little rattled and scared for the possibility of what could have happened. However, I didn't notice any groups of children standing around so I figured that everyone was ok.
I snapped a few frames with my 70-200 from a distance and then moved closer. There was only one truck on the scene and just one lonely fire fighter working to extinguish the flame so I decided that I wouldn't be getting in the way if I tried to get something with a wide angle from up close. By now most of the flames were dying down and the fire fighter moved around to the door to put out what was left inside the front of the cab. I saw this as my window for opportunity to get really close. I moved to within 10 feet or so and worked the situation as best I could before backing off.
Most of the time getting sold spot news pictures like this are pure luck. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
-JCE
No comments:
Post a Comment