Luckier for me was the fact that I never made it out of the parking lot.
(Lately I've been trying to make a habit of always carrying my camera with me because I've learned that the best pictures present themselves when I don't have it.)
As I'd been walking in to the shop I'd seen four or five firetrucks in the next parking lot over and a two more engines pulling in. The ladies seated outside Forza had seen firemen in their turnouts on the roof stomping around and figured there had been a small structure fire earlier than morning.
I thought to myself, well I'll grab my camera from the Jeep and head over and wait for something exciting to happen. With both lenses, a full battery, and a nearly empty card I was set up wonderfully.
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I learned a lot of things that day. First of which, if you're running around with a decent camera, more than one lens, and a backpack - people tend to think you're with the newspaper. People, including fireman, asked me that more than once and I got tired of saying "no, just a kid with a camera". On the upside though, people start talking to you when they think you're with the newspaper and continue to do so even when you tell them you're not; so you end up getting a pretty good idea of what's going on.
One of the people I ended up talking to was the actual property manager. Once we got talking I quickly learned the whole story of how the elderly Chinese couple who had owned China South (on 29th Ave) decided to retire and had no one to take over the business and decided to simply leave the building for the property manager to do with what he pleased. As it turns out the whole shopping center there is being revamped and a new 8,000 sq. ft. retail space is going in there once the old building is demolished this week.
Apparently though, the property manager had gotten a call from the Spokane Fire Department looking for a building to do some training with. China South quickly presented itself as a venue for the men of SFD to practice awesome things like use chainsaws!
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| Check out my stream on Flickr for more of my photos! |
Regardless of what the back story I got an hour solid of just taking pictures.
Like I said, I was able to learn a lot about shooting in the field because the firemen tended to do everything a few times so everyone got a turn. That meant that I got to take pictures multiple times, multiple ways until I was able to get exactly what I wanted. Hence this picture (I can't tell you how many pictures just like this are on my computer that I hate): >>
The thing I've always known about my skills as a photographer is the fact that I need lots (and lots) of practice. I've always been a guy who learns by doing it; plus photography is one of those things that you can only teach so much and the rest has to be simply learned.
Thanks to the Spokane Fire Department, I got a solid hour of pure learning out of an otherwise normal Friday morning.
The final thing that I learned was just how much I enjoy taking pictures. It's been far too long since I've gone out with the sole purpose of shooting pictures (shout out to my best friend Nathan who was always my photo-shoot buddy). I'd forgotten how I can get lost in the camera for hours at a time. Or how much I truly enjoy seeing the world move around me through the lens of acamera. It's funny because you truly see things differently - it sounds ridiculous and my dad would probably laugh at that but it's true. I think it's because when you're looking through a camera, you're intentionally searching for the beauty in your subject rather than just looking at it. Makes a huge difference.
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| All fun I had aside, these guys work incredibly hard to protect us and our city. They deserve our ultimate respect and trust. Thank you to all those men and women who do this job. |
It's hard because I know that there were way more than three opportunities for a good picture, but I was only able to capitalize on these ones.
It's also nice because I know that I worked extremely hard to get these three pictures. And the most rewarding thing about these three pictures is that I consciously made them happen. It wasn't a random one-time snap shot that just happened to be good. These I set up, I made sure the angle and the lighting were they way I wanted them and I was able to bring all the elements together to end up with a picture that I myself enjoy. Of course I will always see things that I would change but for now I'm just happy to see myself learning to actually set pictures up.
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*Disclaimer* This is just a side-note and you don't have to read it if your busy.. this is more for me than anyone else.
An hour later, the firemen were wrapping it up. Everyone was off the roof and getting out of their turnouts. I had just one picture left and desperately wanted to get a close-up of a fireman who'd obviously been working hard (it's harder to describe the picture I had set up in my head so that will have to do despite it sounding weird). I finally worked up the nerve to go up and ask one if I could snap a quick photo.
Of course his first question was "Are you with the newspaper??" No. "Where is this going to end up?" I really wanted this picture so I told him nowhere (which might become the new name of my blog just for occasions such as this). He let me take is picture under the stipulation that I don't post it anywhere. So, knowing that I would respect his wishes and no one would see this picture I set him up for the photo.
It was at this point I learned my final lesson of the day. While people seeing my pictures is absolutely amazing; at this point in my life I still get joy out of the hunt for the picture. I'm sure, that if I keep this up and God-willing my photos gain popularity I will need people seeing my work to get the same joy out of it but at this point I'm proud to say that when it comes down to it - I still simply love the hunt for a perfect picture and I hope to stay that way for as long as possible.
Grab a camera and go play in a park for an hour. You'll get outside and have more fun that you'd expect.
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