Sunday, November 23, 2008

Call 911! There's A Fire!


The above photo is using a semi-sepia filter while the image below was captured by utilizing the morning sun which naturally saturated the rust color and the blue sky.

Where do "firemen", and later the use of fire trucks appear in history? When a courageous band of crusaders known as the Knights of St. John, fought the Saracens for possession of the holy land, they encountered a new weapon unknown to European warriors-FIRE. As the crusaders advanced on the walls of the city, they were struck by glass bombs containing naphtha. When they became saturated with the highly flammable liquid, the Saracens hurled a flaming torch into their midst. Hundreds of the knights were burned alive; others risked their lives to save their brothers-in-arms from dying painful, fiery deaths. Thus, these men became our first firemen and the first of a long list of courageous firefighters. Their heroic efforts were recognized by fellow crusaders who awarded each hero a badge of honor - a cross similar to the one firemen wear today. As technology progressed and fires became more numerous (not just during war) fire vehicles (trucks) became the mode to which fires were fought. Here is an "old" firetruck found decaying in a field on Rt. 29 North. I really enjoyed this "shoot". I really like what I was able to do by using different tools available to me as a photographer- lens flare (again, done purposely for affect), black and white, sepia and cropping.
I worked hard to take the above photo. It was difficult to use the blinding sun in a productive manner, rather than having it wash-out the picture. Below, black and white, taken during a passing cloud which filtered the sun, is my favorite. I've seen too many Stephen King movies but I get a "Christine" feel to the image. (If you saw the movie you may understand my feeling).




6 comments:

trishalyn said...

GORGEOUS!!! The last image...the close-up...is definitely my favorite. Love the composition and choice of b/w. It would make a wonderful image for our "show" next May. I also really like the first two...but can't decide if I like the semi-sepia or color image better. But I do love the angle of view you chose. Again, I commend you for going out into the COLD morning air. How about sharing some of these awesome photo ops you find? (BEFORE YOU USE THEM...HA! HA!).

trishalyn said...

P.S. I forgot to thank you for the interesting history lesson!!! :-)

Bridget said...

great pictures steve.the last one really is show worthy.i also like the colored one.
good thing the quality of our work doesn't count towards the trophy competition!(good for me that is:)

Linda said...

Great images, and great history lesson to go along with it. I love the last one--close up and b&w--two of my favorite photo techniques.

Joel MacKenzie said...

Nice shoots. I like them all.

J.L.Velez said...

Holy cow, how did that happen? I did leave a comment yesterday...but it isn't here! I said I really liked the black and white and that the last one reminds me of an eye looking out. I'm ticked now...where did my pretty little comment go?