Fire downtown
Every now and then you get called out of a very "intoxicating" dream to be told that something photographically momentous is happening. 28th June 2010 was one of those nights that I went to bed early, before 10.00 PM. It is said that drinking Soursop bush tea helps one to sleep peacefully, and I needed to do that, but I am not going to draw the tea so strong that I sleep for a week. My herbal tea leaves don't come in bags. My Soursop tree grows eleven feet away from my computer room door, so when I feel like "drugging up" myself I pick three leaves and put them in my Black & Decker VersaBrew DCM1300 device. I am not into this one tea bag in a cup of hot water story, that is too much 'drugs' for my three score plus body, which I am trying to take the best care of. So for me, it is one tea bag in 12 cups of water, 60 ounces according to the B&D VersaBrew, or three Soursop tree leaves.
So I was rudely awakened from a dream which I was beginning to re-program to last for a couple hours, to be told that FIRE was downtown Basseterre. Now this is supposed to be impossible, because all that was to burn down, done burn down donkey years ago. But if that is the report, I need to verify this alert. So in 5 minutes I am dresses and downtown looking for a parking spot, and it is a FIRE for real, and a real fire. So out comes the camera, always loaded with a fresh battery, just in case something like this happens, and I start shooting from my first view of the flames in the distance. Some folks always want to be up in the face of the action to start shooting. Good for them, but I have to record everything, and my CF card can take 873 RAW images tonight if I have to.
At ISO 100 and that kind of flame and light intensity you are supposed to be able to hand hold the camera comfortably, so long as you are not excited and agitated. Some people get discombobulated and loose all control, so this kind of photography is not for them. Flowers may be okay, if no bees. Event shooting is no big thing so I go to work, for myself and Facebook. It is usual for some photographers to psyche up themselves for an event, but in an emergency situation like this one there is no time for that psychological preparation , you can either deal with it in real time, or go stand with the spectators, or stay home. I saw a few quality DSLR cameras at this event, but only one other photographer was snapping around.
After the blaze and flame was extinguished the area was dark so I switched to ISO 1600 and continued shooting hand held with the occasional flash from the pop-up. I had the 580EX but elected not to use it as it would subtract from the natural ambiance of the scenes. The main subject for me was the Fire not the spectators nor the fire fighters. I was not into capturing the facial expressions of the fire fighters, nor the spectators. Some photographers want to capture everything, but I learned a long time ago not to be greedy, but to be selective, specific and focussed. But, if you are on assignment kindly follow your instructions.
This was the first time for me shooting ISO 1600 digitally, and I did not have to look for any special software to process the digital negatives. I could live with this ISO 1600 image quality, given this content. The last time I used ISO 1600 was some 30 years ago experimenting with FFDD techniques. Fast Film Dilute Developer, and now I think of it I must search for the FFDD digital equivalent. For the FFDD technique we exposed a fast film, ISO 400, like Kodak Tri-X film, at ISO 1600 and higher and developed them in Dilute Developers for about 30 minutes and more. The regular film developing times were usually under 10 minutes. Photographers then even ventured into Fashion photography using the FFDD techniques, with surprising results. Towards the end of the age ISO 3200 film was made probably with fashion photography in mind. Those were the days.
Technically it would be better to use ISO 800 and ISO 400, but hand holding steady at the longer exposures becomes problematic, and even though using a tripod would work wonders, the inconvenience of the tripod at this event would not be worth the effort. Occasionally one had to duck and run for cover from overshooting water from the fire trucks that can shoot water a few hundred feet. Shooting from the spectator gallery, is not without its difficulty. ISO 1600 and 3200 resolves many issues, and if you can live with the image quality, then you have no problem at all.
This should be the very last of the BIG City fires. Given the technology available today, the knowledge and art of fire prevention, we should not see anything like this ever happening again for whatever is determined as the cause of this fire. In my opinion, any entity that threatens our City with fire again should be locked up and the key thrown away. But accidents and incidents, like Murphy, are no respecter of persons or things, so let us keep our fingers crossed and pray that our City remains Fire Safe for the next 1000 years.
So I was rudely awakened from a dream which I was beginning to re-program to last for a couple hours, to be told that FIRE was downtown Basseterre. Now this is supposed to be impossible, because all that was to burn down, done burn down donkey years ago. But if that is the report, I need to verify this alert. So in 5 minutes I am dresses and downtown looking for a parking spot, and it is a FIRE for real, and a real fire. So out comes the camera, always loaded with a fresh battery, just in case something like this happens, and I start shooting from my first view of the flames in the distance. Some folks always want to be up in the face of the action to start shooting. Good for them, but I have to record everything, and my CF card can take 873 RAW images tonight if I have to.
At ISO 100 and that kind of flame and light intensity you are supposed to be able to hand hold the camera comfortably, so long as you are not excited and agitated. Some people get discombobulated and loose all control, so this kind of photography is not for them. Flowers may be okay, if no bees. Event shooting is no big thing so I go to work, for myself and Facebook. It is usual for some photographers to psyche up themselves for an event, but in an emergency situation like this one there is no time for that psychological preparation , you can either deal with it in real time, or go stand with the spectators, or stay home. I saw a few quality DSLR cameras at this event, but only one other photographer was snapping around.
After the blaze and flame was extinguished the area was dark so I switched to ISO 1600 and continued shooting hand held with the occasional flash from the pop-up. I had the 580EX but elected not to use it as it would subtract from the natural ambiance of the scenes. The main subject for me was the Fire not the spectators nor the fire fighters. I was not into capturing the facial expressions of the fire fighters, nor the spectators. Some photographers want to capture everything, but I learned a long time ago not to be greedy, but to be selective, specific and focussed. But, if you are on assignment kindly follow your instructions.
This was the first time for me shooting ISO 1600 digitally, and I did not have to look for any special software to process the digital negatives. I could live with this ISO 1600 image quality, given this content. The last time I used ISO 1600 was some 30 years ago experimenting with FFDD techniques. Fast Film Dilute Developer, and now I think of it I must search for the FFDD digital equivalent. For the FFDD technique we exposed a fast film, ISO 400, like Kodak Tri-X film, at ISO 1600 and higher and developed them in Dilute Developers for about 30 minutes and more. The regular film developing times were usually under 10 minutes. Photographers then even ventured into Fashion photography using the FFDD techniques, with surprising results. Towards the end of the age ISO 3200 film was made probably with fashion photography in mind. Those were the days.
Technically it would be better to use ISO 800 and ISO 400, but hand holding steady at the longer exposures becomes problematic, and even though using a tripod would work wonders, the inconvenience of the tripod at this event would not be worth the effort. Occasionally one had to duck and run for cover from overshooting water from the fire trucks that can shoot water a few hundred feet. Shooting from the spectator gallery, is not without its difficulty. ISO 1600 and 3200 resolves many issues, and if you can live with the image quality, then you have no problem at all.
This should be the very last of the BIG City fires. Given the technology available today, the knowledge and art of fire prevention, we should not see anything like this ever happening again for whatever is determined as the cause of this fire. In my opinion, any entity that threatens our City with fire again should be locked up and the key thrown away. But accidents and incidents, like Murphy, are no respecter of persons or things, so let us keep our fingers crossed and pray that our City remains Fire Safe for the next 1000 years.
Comments