Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jessica on February 9, 2009 at 12:05am

I shoot mainly for my department, but all of my friends and my boyfriend (soon to be fiance!) All work for the other fire stations close by. So sometimes I get lucky enough to wind up on scene with them. There's been a couple of times that I've come across a car wreck or something that my department doesnt go to and usually I'll start snapping those too

Permalink Reply by Janine on February 11, 2009 at 7:30pm

Mainly for my department, but if something good comes across on the scanner, I will go. One of these days I'm sure I'll be out of our township when something big happens.

Permalink Reply by Bierly on February 18, 2009 at 4:38am

So do both of you belong to more urban departments? I live in Central Pa and I must say, the only calls that I can get to fairly quickly are going to be our own. There are a few surrounding departments that I could probably make some of their scenes but I somehow feel like I'm invading. LOL! :-)

Oh, and congratulations Jessica! ;-)

Permalink Reply by Janine on February 18, 2009 at 10:42am

Well, not exactly urban, most of my "out of area" calls would take over 10 minutes to get to and I admit I don't get the real early stages of anything. We have mutual aid agreements and see enough of each other's people that it's not too unusual. I always try to report to the incident commander or safety officer before I start shooting to let them know I'm there. I also try to give the departments involved a CD with the incident pictures. I have software that lets me assign keywords to the pictures so I try to tag as many as I can with department names, locations, etc. It does feel a little weird shooting when no one else from your department is there.

Permalink Reply by ChrisK on January 10, 2010 at 3:06pm

I am not formally attached to a department though you will see that most of what I shoot is St. Johns County Florida. I have a great working relationship with the PIO here and as a retired fire fighter, I feel like I fit pretty well with these guys.

I am a freelancer with the local rag and a local online news paper so I have media creds that get me into most scenes around here. The county is so large though, most of the time I am lucky to get from one end to the other in time for calls on the other end from me.

Permalink Reply by Tim Arndt on March 19, 2011 at 9:41pm

what software do you use for agging your pictures?????

Permalink Reply by WARD on July 8, 2011 at 10:20am

Bierly - I see this is an old post, but just getting around to checking out some of the group discussions. I started out with just my volunteer FD for photos. I now take photos/videos regularly as a member for over 1/2 dozen volunteer FDs and 1 paid FD. I am also free to come onto the fire scenes of about a dozen other FDs in my tri-county area and take photos/video whenever I want. I also now get calls from FDs requesting me to take photos/videos of training sessions. Even FDs I am not a member of. Several FDs, when requested, I joined just from the legal point of being on the fire scene. Also so the FD's/chiefs can say to the new media, keep out, but he is allowed, he is a member. For a while, I was the only FD photographer in the tri-county area. Now a couple others have started taking photos with their FD, but I am still permitted to come onto their fire scenes and also take photos/videos. I carry full fire gear in my personal vehicle which includes a reflective vest that has "Fire Photographer" on it. Depending on the type of call I sometimes just wear the vest and fire helmet, or full gear with vest over the bunker coat. What started out as a photo here and there has turned into most of my time off being spent running to fire calls around my tri-county area. You can see my the listing of Station numbers on my photo site, my main station is Station 37, but there are all kind of other station number photos. My photo site is - http://ward17219468.fotki.com - Thanks - WARD

Permalink Reply by Ron Briggs on October 11, 2011 at 11:53pm

I shoot only my dept. scenes right now though I have had some members that are also on other stations talk to me about it for future possibilities.  Also had members ask talk to me about me getting permission from the mutual aid depts. so I would be able to respond on the mutual aid call outs for photos for the dept.

Permalink Reply by Ron Briggs on October 24, 2011 at 11:31pm

I recently was out of the area on an over night trip to see relatives just a couple hours away acroos state line and while on my trip I was able to talk to two departments about fire photography and how I do it.  One of the dept's has a ff's sister do it when she is visiting otherwise no one.  Now they are interested.  I told that dept. that I always have at least one camera at all times with me so if I am in town and they have a fire while I am close I could take some photos for them.  They immediately said please feel free to do it, it would be appreciated.  When I go back to that city in Dec. of this year, I am going to stop in to go over details with them.  The other station was in my state about an hour away from home.  They have one camera on only one truck and instruct whoever arrives on that unit to try and get a couple of photos upon arriving otherwise they relie on the general public for photos to be donated to them.  I told them I am in the area once in a while (used to be up to 3 dozen times a year, now about 12 times a year) and always have a camera with me so if they have a fire and I am in the area I would stop and get some photos if they would like.  That dept's responce was please do.  I told them I would also talk to them about how to find someone or train someone to be their photographer if they would like.  We'll see what happens.

Permalink Reply by john on March 28, 2012 at 10:54am

shoot at my station only.mvc and fire some times other company when we help them

Permalink Reply by Ron Briggs on May 9, 2012 at 2:59am

That's cool. What kind of response area and how many stations? I have 2 stations for my dept. and cover a decent size small city (13,000+ population that live here but that doesn't include tourists staying here or people in the city to work at any of our large industrial buildings) for fire calls but the dept also covers a wide part of the county for ems as either primary or secondary so when I am doing a ride-along I sometimes get to get photos in those areas as well.