F-1s survive another fire

[2F/2F]

I had a fun time shooting the Tea Fire here in CA last night. Walking into totally leveled multi million dollar homes was quite an experience. These houses were not just totaled or ruined, but burned literally *to the ground* with nothing left but piles of smoldering junk, and the concrete. I have shot plenty of brush fires, but this is the first time I have seen such destruction to residences. In one area, all that was left of a hillside mansion were the huge concrete pilings that supported the house, and a metal front gate, leaning out over the cliff.

As usual, the firefighters were totally cool with photographers, unlike police officers, and let me work right alongside. They were trying hard to save what they could, but they were just understaffed and undersupplied. I witnessed numerous water drops onto houses that would go on to burn to the ground in as few as two hours. I was soaked by one water drop that was a bit off target because the chopper hit the tall tree it was trying to extinguish, and started flopping back and forth. Luckily, the pilot was able to recover. Otherwise and the chopper would have crashed about 50 feet up the hill from me. The water drop knocked my friend to the ground, but he was OK. My flash died for about 20 minutes, but the pair of F-1s worked fine afterward. I was sure that they were done for the night, but nope! Pretty impressive for cameras that are nowhere close to being protected from moisture, let alone a water drop.

I was there from 2 till 8 a.m. and shot three and a half rolls of Press 800 with flash and a 28-90, and almost two rolls of Delta 3200 with a 50mm 1.2. If anyone is interested, I will post once they are ready.

Unfortunately, I did not have my flash diffusers with me, so the flash pix are going to be pretty garish. Oh wellz. Gotsta make do with what you have...and get used to grabbing everything you need really quickly!

P.S. link to some of my buddy's pix (digital): http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=6280

 

[Poohblah]

what an experience! i would love to see the photos.

 

[Marco B]

Yeh, definitely post, we don't see enough here on APUG of reportage kind of work. It will be fun! Don't bother about any issues with flash or otherwise, it's the fact that you were even there at that time that matters!

 

[white.elephant]

Yes, please do post. I'd love to see the Delta especially.

 

[Poohblah]

Those digital photos are quite impressive!! I recall some similar photos in Nat Geo a few months back.

 

[eli griggs]

Please do post when you have a chance, I'd like to see your work as well!

I love F-1s and have had them in all their flavors, in all sorts of harsh environments, the worse probably being on Enwetak Atoll in the 70s while serving with a Dust-Off unit. The sea salt spray was a constant, a 16th of an inch of salt or more overnight, every night, built-up on chopper windows as an index, passing showers every day, flying through clouds that left water on every metal surface, the heat of being 11∘off the equator and the constant vibrations of the choppers with fine sands thrown up by rotor wash every time we took off or landed, none slowed my F1n down at all. I used it mostly to photograph small marine life with macro lenses and spent many happy hours on the reef doing my thing, reloading film as I went, without much regard to the wind and surf.

I think the worse any Canon F1 of any sort suffered with me was when I dropped a F1N AE about 5 feet off the back of a truck, while wearing an 85 1.2 L series lens, a real monster piece of glass. The sacrificial filter shattered on the lens when it hit the black-top and a small dent over the asa dial kept if from the very highest settings, which I didn't use anyway... and that was it.

I am not surprised your wetted cameras kept working, I never once owned a case for mine and they went everywhere, still have one that mostly does, rotating it with a Leica IIIc. Of course I don't go near anything nearly as harsh as I did in my youth, but I'll sure be disappointed if this camera doesn't out live me and I'm only fifty last May.

 

[gerryyaum]

sounds like quite a bit of FUN....I have a pair of those cameras and they are tanks, well made and tough! I always thought you could chuck one of those old style F1s out of a airplane and it would still work. Looking forward to seeing the work.

I also like the shooting report style, will try to post a few of those types of reports, makes for interesting reading!

 

[Dan Henderson]

I am glad to hear that the firefighters were cool, but I am surprised that you were allowed into a hot zone without a wildfire credential.

As far as being understaffed and undersupplied, there probably are not enough firefighters and equipment anywhere to suppress some of these wildland fires. There have been enormous wildfires in places such as southern California ever since the planet assumed its current form. They were not a huge problem until people started building in indefensible places, using materials such as wood shake roofs, and not taking proven protective measures. Then firefighters were expected to protect them. My brother and sister firefighters will continue to risk their lives on these fires, but when mother nature really wants a fight, she always wins.

 

[budrichard]

I have covered a number of large fires as a legitimate newspaper photographer.
I would never describe the experience as 'fun'.
Being witness to the terrible destruction and attendant misery is very sobering.-Dick

 

[jmcd]

Canon

F1—My personal favorite slr.

 

[removed account4]

i'm looking forward to the photos!

 

[2F/2F]

I have covered a number of large fires as a legitimate newspaper photographer.
I would never describe the experience as 'fun'.
Being witness to the terrible destruction and attendant misery is very sobering.-Dick

Hello, Dick.

I did not mean fun in the sense that I enjoy events that bring misery and destruction. I meant fun in that I love shooting journalism, and I haven't done it very much this year. It was fun to be out shooting anything, but especially news events. It is, after all, my main photographic interest, and I have shot hardly anything this year due to my schedule doing other things.

As for why they let me continue to shoot; it's because my friend and I have L.A. County Sheriff's press IDs and the proper protective gear, and I am an AP contributor due to some evergreen shoots I did for them last year. Also, I wasn't creating a scene or getting in anyone's way. Firefighters always seem to want you there shooting. My friend who I used to work with on the college paper was shooting B roll video for ABC and asked if I would like to come along. It had been a long time, so I said yes! No batteries in the digital, as I so rarely use it, so I grabbed what I had.

One nice thing about shooting film for these sorts of events is that it lets me be more myself in the way I shoot. I know for a fact that nothing I shoot on film is going to get printed, period. Also, by the time I could get there, the fire had been burning for 8 hours and all the daily papers were already put to bed. I can't compete with the speed of digital, so why bother shooting the same things and the same way I would shoot if I were expected to provide daily news pix? It lets you experiment a bit more and try to be more "artistic", as much as I hate that word. Frees you from having to provide complete coverage via formula to an editor. So, yeah. I did it for practice and for personal use. That does not mean that I relish in watching people's houses burn to the ground.

Got the color pix back. Took them to Rite Aid, and BOY does their scanning look like dog crap. Will post a few when I get around to it.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

F1—My personal favorite slr.

Me Too!

Jeff

 

[rafaelagustindelgado]

California Penal Code Section 409.5

409.5. (a) Whenever a menace to the public health or safety is created by a calamity such as flood, storm, fire, earthquake, explosion, accident, or other disaster, officers of the California Highway Patrol, California State Police Division, police departments, marshal's office or sheriff's office, any officer or employee of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection designated a peace officer by subdivision (h) of Section 830.2, any officer or employee of the Department of Parks and Recreation designated a peace officer by subdivision (g) of Section 830.2, any officer or employee of the Department of Fish and Game designated a peace officer under subdivision (f) of Section 830.2, and any publicly employed full-time lifeguard or publicly employed full-time marine safety officer while acting in a supervisory position in the performance of his or her official duties, may close the area where the menace exists for the duration thereof by means of ropes, markers, or guards to any and all persons not authorized by the lifeguard or officer to enter or remain within the enclosed area. If the calamity creates an immediate menace to the public health, the local health officer may close the area where the menace exists pursuant to the conditions set forth in this section.

(b) Officers of the California Highway Patrol, California State Police Division, police departments, marshal's office or sheriff's office, officers of the Department of Fish and Game designated as peace officers by subdivision (f) of Section 830.2, or officers of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection designated as peace officers by subdivision (h) of Section 830.2 may close the immediate area surrounding any emergency field command post or any other command post activated for the purpose of abating any calamity enumerated in this section or any riot or other civil disturbance to any and all unauthorized persons pursuant to the conditions set forth in this section whether or not the field command post or other command post is located near to the actual calamity or riot or other civil disturbance.

(c) Any unauthorized person who willfully and knowingly enters an area closed pursuant to subdivision (a) or

(b) and who willfully remains within the area after receiving notice to evacuate or leave shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(d) Nothing in this section shall prevent a duly authorized representative of any news service, newspaper, or radio or television station or network from entering the areas closed pursuant to this section.



Section D is the most important section that applies when covering such an event like the Tea Fire.

I will post more of my coverage of the Sayre and Carbon Canyon blaze when time allows.

 

[budrichard]

2F/2F, I appreciate your response and can understand your wanting to learn and exercise a craft. Having been witness to more 'disasters' than I care to remember, I usually go the other way and let the responders take care of things. Good luck in your photography.
-Dick

 

[Vaughn]

I have covered a number of large fires as a legitimate newspaper photographer.
I would never describe the experience as 'fun'.
Being witness to the terrible destruction and attendant misery is very sobering.-Dick

True, but at the same time there is an element of excitement. I have been on a few wildland fires in my younger days with the US Forest Service. You don't want fires to start, but once they do, it is exciting to be pushed to one's limits, and to earn that hazard pay and over-time. Towards the end of my time with the Forest Service, I was just as pleased to be assigned look-out duty on a mountain top. Fire in one's face is for the younger ones.

Vaughn

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

Boy, did you guys bring back memories!

Back in Maryland in the late 1960's I had my first taste of wild fires. As a young guy, I picked up one of the Indian tanks and pumps. With that on my back, I learned just how much my arms could take working that pump. I was thanked when I noticed a burning branch floating on the air go over us and land down hill from us. I ran down the hill and put out the small fire that had just started below us. That would not have been fun.

Out here in the Pacific Northwest, we also get fires occasionally. While driving up US 97 in Eastern Oregon, I watched another bit of burning embers float down out of the smoke and drift across the highway and land in the brush on the other side. I stopped my car and got out my shovel normally used in the wintertime for snow and used it to put out the little fire that had just started there. While walking back to the car, I noticed a guy up on the hill on the fire side of the highway looking down at me. A couple of minutes later, a pickup truck with red lights was driving down the hill toward me. The driver thanked me for the observation and quck action in extinguishing the small blaze on the west side of the highway. He said that if it had not been stopped, it would have kept going until it hit the Deshutes River, and they probably could not have caught it.

Then we also had the wild land fires out here in Eastern Washington in 1994. I was not fighting fires then, but I did work in a supporting role. There were 14 hour days, a couple of 16 hour days, and one 19 hour day. There were a couple of times that I really should have said that I could not do any more work until I had some needed sleep. It would have been safer.

That last point is probably the most important. I can understand why police officers do not want people in a fire area. Both of the stories I just related above show that fires are not always predictable. The concern for the safety and even the lives of people is on the minds of the Incident Commanders, Emergency Managers, and other public safety officials.