PHOTOGRAPH INFO

This photograph was taken last Friday when the Ottsville Volunteer Fire Company held a demonstration night for the community. In this shot, a firefighter was lighting a bale of hay (in an old washing machine?) on fire with a flare (hence the very red light) and another firefighter (out of the picture) was about to put the fire out with a hose containing fire-fighting foam (that's what's all over the ground).

There was also a demonstration where rescue workers took an entire car apart with the jaws of life and another demonstration showing how thermography (thermal imaging photography) helps firefighters find people in dark rooms filled with smoke.

Thanks to the volunteers at the Ottsville Volunteer Fire Company for a very impressive event!

Special thanks to Matt Judd for all the info!

(Now I'm trying to figure out how I can get my hands on a non-toxic smoke machine and a thermal imaging camera... oh, the possibilities! :) )

Post-processing: Shot with the Canon EOS 5D and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens at 24mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, shutter 1/100s. Curves adjustments and color balancing.

Thank you for visiting Durham Township!

--Kathleen

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I love your ability to make something special out of an "ordinary" scene. Great work!

Excellent. Awesome clarity in the shot.

I love these demos. The parking lot behind the church where my kids had youth orchestra a few years ago was used for training and demos for the local vol. fire dept. I used to go out and watch the demos. It was really interesting.

I have a smoke machine. I haven't "played" with it in a while, well since I almost burned the house down with it! Not really, the fuse blew before it had the chance, but they are pretty dangerous. I think I would only use it outside from now on.

Mark works with those thermo imaging cameras for his job. He uses them for finding problems in power lines, sub stations, transformers, and other power transmission equipment. He uses cameras made by Flir which is the same company that makes the ones on the planes my son flies in Iraq.

I actually "played" with one of those cameras and posted some photos from it on my site. I think Mark actually took the shots that I posted. Here are links:

http://www.capturethisphotography.com/2006/05/now-for-something-completely-different.html

This is the actual camera:

http://www.capturethisphotography.com/2006/05/flir-system-p60-ir-camera.html

New "reality based" Bachelor's Cooking Tips program to air this fall on a TV...eerr, blog near you. (very near you).....tentative sponsors are Pepto Bismo and Johnson & Johnson.

Anyone hurt?

at first i thought it was some kids being kids. well done, like the contrast, different colors in the smoke.

....really...like in this pilot episode where we learned how a guy can warm up leftovers when the microwave is on the blink....first gut the old washing machine from behind the garage, then fill with five hand-fulls of dry brush from along the fence (you were meaning to cut it anyway) then check your trunk for a handy "safety" flare which you can light on the driveway......and for a little extra touch, ask your girlfriend to pick up one bag of marshmallows and two eight foot willow branches on her way over......if it doesn't work out, there's always the fire department.

The second show of the season features an in-depth comparison of various techniques a guy can use to repair that "assemble-it-yourself" furniture when that little screw-lock-thingy-bobber burst out of the 74 pound chipboard panel that has a picture of simulated wood grain glued to one side and colored paper glued to the other. It's a "must-see" for anyone who owns--or is thinking of owning--some modestly priced furniture-in-a-box.

If the furniture repair techniques are not working out for you, you can always burn your furniture in your old washer.....just tell your girlfriend to pick up some more marshmallows on her way over and check to see if there's another flare in the trunk....now where'd you put those branches?

(Where's that idiot, Anonymous?)

Cheap fog machine....Target or Wallyworld have Halloween $20 water-based fog machines with fog juice. So much fun for $20.....

Is this a bonfire, clam bake and beer party at the beach with sea foam at their feet? Not hardly!

You are looking at men and women who are practicing the art of putting out fires. People who have volunteered on a continuous basis to go into your home, your place of business, your vehicle and those of all of your neighbors to save life, limb and property, even at the risk of their own. Their compensation is not material but ethereal. They work for the greater good.

They don't crave the spotlight but they do crave the equipment to do their job. So, the next time you see them standing on the street corner with a fireman's boot in their hand, don't pretend you're on the cell phone, you spilled your coffee in your lap or your window doesn't work as you wish the light would hurry up and turn green......give them some money! Just the change in your console will do! After all, isn't it a pitifully small price to pay for one of these brave men and women to willingly run into a burning building to save the life of someone you love?

Welcome back Willow!!!!