Fire Fighting

On Sunday October 18 District II Fire Department had a controlled burn of a house that had previously been damaged by fire. The structure was unsafe so interior operations and training were not possible. Some entry techniques were discussed and then the fire was lit.





The fire quickly got rolling and hose lines were use to keep power lines and other items cool.







A couple of the guys that were manning the pump, tanker and supervising has left their helmets lying around. Some of these made for some nice shots.







Thanks for looking.

Enjoy

Fall Photography Workshop

This past Saturday I attended Eric Hoffman's Fall Photography Workshop. The workshop was held at the Old Bear's Den. The shooting was done at Hocking Hills State Park. The weather was cold, overcast and a light rain. We headed to Rose Lake to shoot the reflections and the changing fall foliage.

I enjoyed the morning of shooting, but I was hoping for pictures with more "pop". The mood of the pictures matches the weather of the day. They just feel gloomy.

The first picture was at the end of the trail to Rose Lake. An old log was laying in the lake and the reflection of the trees in the still water was very strong.



Next I turned my camera down the shore line. I wish I could have gotten more separation of the reflection of the trees from the shore.



Walking down the shore line I came across another tree lying in the lake. Due to the overcast I could not get the highlights and shadows to expose properly. So I took a series of exposures and used Photomatix to create an HDR.



Walking back up the lake I shot another shore line shot that included the path along the shore.



Using a tree and vegetation for a natural frame I captured some of the wetlands area at the head of the lake.



Again using natural framing I shot the lake using a tree on the right and sapling with red leaves on the left.



The leaves were just starting to change color and on the trail there was a variety of leaves of different color. Just a simple shot that is oversharpened.



Along the trail there is a large group of pine trees. One had fallen. I got down low and shot along the tree. Due the high contrast of the scene this is another series of shots making an HDR using Photomatix.



Almost back to the cars looking back up the trail I shot another HDR. I am not really pleased with this image. I was hoping for a better shot but sometimes it doesn't work out the way you want.



Crossing the road back to the cars I could not resist this shot. The typical fall colors with the road winding through the scene.



We went back to the workshop center and had a wonderful lunch. We headed over to Old Man's Cave. It was the weekend of the fall hike so the crowd level was overwhelming. Since I really did not want people in my shots I did not take very many. The first is looking up some old tree roots through a mossy opening in the rocks.



Next Eric directed us to a small water flow across some rocks that easy to use natural framing.



If you are in the area when Eric is offering one of his workshops it is worth looking into.

Enjoy,

Chris

Creek Stompin'

Friday after school was a rainy afternoon. Shortly after 5:00 it cleared up and the boys were dyin' to get outside and play. I wanted to go down over the hill to the creek to look for some walnuts and what better way to have some fun. The hill behind our house is very steep to say the least and the 4 of us(me, the boys and Duke our lab) got down to the creek. Since it had just rained and the moisture was rising off the foliage you could easily see the sun's rays dancing through the leaves.



We walked along the creek, Duke in the creek, for a while. Isaac decided to kick at something on the ground and off came his shoe into the creek. It was a deeper section of creek so fortunately Duke rescued the shoe. After that Isaac decided that since his foot would be wet he would just go ahead and slosh through the creek and have some fun.



Trevor was not so inclined to get wet so he wanted to skip rocks so as we walked along he skipped every flat rock he could find.




After about an hour or so the light was fading due to fall arriving so we headed back up the hill. After bathing 2 kids and a large wet dog we called it a night.



As always click on the images to take you to my site to see a larger version.

Enjoy,
Chris