Happy Halloween...

Happy Halloween Everyone..

After just checking Brian Bastinelli's Blog. I decided to do a quick second post for Halloween. This photo is of the Strasburg Railroad and it was one of the very first photos I ever did in photoshop. I had posted it once, but decided due to the "holiday" to bring back the photo of the "Haunted Railroad"...


Enjoy!!

Woody

Skywatch...Clear For Landing

Hey everyone,

This will be very brief as I just got home from work. First, Happy Halloween and Skywatch!!

This is a helicopter that was landing at the airport while waiting for the drill to begin.

For more great SWF, click on the link to the left...


Have a great weekend and for those that visit and leave a comment or for those that just visit..I will attempt to get to as many sites as I can today...


Woody

PHILS WIN!!! PHILS WIN!!!! PHILS WIN!!!

Photo Credit to Gene Puskar (AP)


Hey Everyone,

WOOHOO!!!!! The Phils have won it all!!!!

I have to admit this year was kind of a bittersweet moment. I have been a Phillies fan since I was about 5 years old and can remember when they won their first World Series back in 1980. So I've waited a very long time for this moment..

I am a little sad though that this is the first World Series I've watched without my dad. For those that don't know, he passed away in March of this year. My dad was a HUGE Dodgers fan and of course, this year they make the playoffs against the Phils. So I was a little worried about what to do If the Phils won or lost. I think my dad would have been ok with me still rooting for the Phils and keeping my loyalities to them even if the Dodgers would have advanced.

Oh well, time to enjoy it now because I hope I don't have to wait another 28 years for a 3rd World Series Title..


Have a great day!!!


Woody

Clear for take off...

Hey everyone.

Hope your having a good day. Today's photo is from the runway of the Lancaster Airport. The plane that you see is the plane belonging to VP Canidate Sarah Palin as she was here in Lancaster giving a speech at Clipper Stadium. The plane has just gotten clearence from the tower and is waiting to take off. The same day we had the diaster drill at the airport was the day she was in town. It was kind of cool to see her motorcade pull into the airport. We could not see her at all as obviously, we were not able to get that close.

Have a great day everyone!!

Woody

Space Filler...

Hey everyone,

Hope you are all having a good day. I'm still under the weather and with the crappy weather we are currently having, I have not been able to go out and photograph anything. So basically, these two photos are space fillers for today.


The first photo is from a house fire down in Quarryville that my department's rescue assisted on as the RIT.

The second photo, is the same one as yesterday. Brian Basitnelli was kind enough to work on it with his photoshop and improve the photo and dispense some of his wisdom to me. Brian, I sincerely thank you for that and you are more then welcome to work on any of my images at any time. I have NEVER seen a bad photo from you and I don't believe I ever will.

Have a great day folks and hopefully tonight, the PHILS will get it done...


Woody

How can I have made this photo better??

Hey all,

Well I have to apologize for the technical error that my blog has seemed to experiance. I have no idea what happened to the last two posts that I had on here..


So anyway, Sorry this post is late. Remember when I said I was taking care of my little guy because he was under the weather?? Well now, I'm taking care of my wife and myself and my little guy as we are all now sick...UGH! Oh well...

So anyway, this photo. I am throwing this out to the people alot more smarter then me with this. How could I have made this photo better?? This is one of the photos shot at the recent rowhome fire. I shot it manuel.

My goal was to try and get the fire venting out the window a little bit more visible then what it is. I wanted to try and get more of the color of the fire in particular.

When I worked this photo up, I sharpened it and changed the contrast abit. Unfortunatley, If I remember a lesson from Brian B. I can't do anything about the yellow in the background with the smoke. I also added some fill light to the photo and that's about it. Without cluttering the photo with noise, I don't think there is anything much more I can do.

Please feel free to comments...Good or Bad..

Have a great day and GO PHILS!!!!


Woody

Going to the roof...

Good Morning Everyone,

This is another photo that I shot manuel. This is a photo of a chief officer going to the roof of one of the exposure homes from the fire Saturday night. Obviously, you can tell my lens does not have the vibration reduction feature on it. Otherwise, I don't think it came out that bad.

Hope you all have a great day!!

Woody

Engines on the scene, heavy fire middle of the row..

Hey everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend. I just got done watching the Red Sox/Rays game. Tampa Bay won, now it's time for the Phils to step up. Hopefully, they can and will.

These photos were taken Saturday night at a multiple alarm row home fire in Columbia. The first in units arrived with heavy fire, middle of the row. The fire went two alarms and a total of 4 houses were lost. These were taken about 25 minutes into the incident. I ventured out of my comfort zone abit and almost shot this entire fire manuel with the exception of a few photos, I was switching back and fourth.

I'd love to hear what you think, Please don't be shy...

Have a great day!!

Woody

Fire Thru The Roof...

Hey Everyone,

This is a photo that was taken last year of a two alarm house fire right down the road from me. I thought it came out pretty well. This was taken before I got my Nikon and converted to a Nikion.

Sorry I had to pull another one from the archives, I've been so busy with work and other projects, I have not had alot of time to get out and photograph things...

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!


Woody

Phils win the PENNANT!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!

One more step and the World Series Championship is back in Philadelphia!!!

This photo was taken from the game I attended back in August against the Pirates which the Phils won...


That is all for today as I have to be back into work very early to teach a class..

Have a great day folks!!

My two favorite people...

Hey everyone,


I wanted to change things up and post a photo of my two favorite people in the world. My beautifull wife and my baby boy. This was taken at a local park close to where Lisa used to live back in the day. Beautifull weather and a nice relaxing day with my family, could not ask for anything better...

Have a great day!!!

Woody

Heavy Smoke Showing...

Hey Everyone,


I hope your week is going well. Phillies won tonight!! One more game and they are in the World Series!!!

These photos were actually taken earlier tonight. I was watching the game when I heard Lancaster City Fire Department get dispatched for a buiding fire on the scanner. That perked my attention so I turned the scanner up abit. I heard the City Batt Chief with heavy smoke showing. This was at a pretzel bakery. I grabbed my shoes and the camera, told the wife I was going to a fire and left. While I was heading over, I heard the first in engine crew report they had heavy fire in a industrial sized oven, they believed it was contained but were checking for extension.

When I arrived, they still had a good smoke condition but had the fire contained to the oven. Since I was there, I decided to still shoot a few scene photos. I was pretty happy overall. A few could have been better, but I think they look good...


Have a great day!!!


Woody

Defensive Ops...

Hey everyone,

Hope you had a good weekend. These photos were taken at a early morning house fire in the Southern end of Lancaster County. My department was on the first alarm with our Rescue as the Rapid Intervention Team. Basically, for the non-fire folks that visit my blog, what that means is it is a group of firefighters that are trained to assist and remove a firefighter should one get into trouble. They do not take part in any suppression operations at all.

I was at work still when the fire came in, I took a ride down once my shift was done and shot a few photos. Fortunatley, no one was hurt. Unfortunatley, the house was a total loss. The FD arrived with fire out all 4 sides and through the roof of the house.

These two photos, I used the new filter in photoshop. I don't think they came out too bad. They could have been better. I shot about twenty photos all in Manuel. One mistake I think I made was I set the ISO too high and in doing that, gave me more noise in the photos then what I would have wanted.

Hey, we learn by practicing right? Now I know for next time..

So, Brad, Brian or Rich or anyone...I'd like to hear what you guys think...

Have a great day!!


Woody

Why I do this....

Hey everyone,

I was asked the other day, why I enjoy fire photography? Do I enjoy taking photos of people at their worst moments?? Do I enjoy seeing things destroyed by fire??



Why I take the photos?? I take the photos to try and show the positive things that firefighters do. A wise fire photographer once told me to try and get your photos to tell a story, to potray the dangers the the FD faces on a call and what could be a routine call could go to hell in a handbasket rather quickly.

With as much bad press as the FD gets at times, I hope that my photos can remind the public that for the one firefighter that is a bad apple, there are hundreds of firefighters who bring honor to the profession and should not get lumped in with the one bad egg.

I do know some fire photographers who I would say, have questionable morals. I've been to accident scenes where there are patients still in a vehicle and there are the photographers right there in the car, sticking their camera in the persons face. I won't do that. I've seen photographers stick their cameras in a vehicle with a deceased person with other family members around. I won't do that.

I have also assisted my local police department at accident scenes with photographing the scene. The only way I would photograph a person in a vehicle if a police officer would ask me to as part of an investigation.


Otherwise, I won't invade a person's privacy by sticking my camera in their face. If that works for some, fine, I prefer not to photograph that way.

I also have given my photos of incidents to departments to use in training. If my photos can help a department see a mistake that was made at a incident and if it helps them prevent it from happening again, then it was worth it.


Since I have started blogging, I have tried to become a more well rounded photographer If you will, by photographing a variety of things. The sky, my son, landscape. I hope it has made me a better photographer. I don't think I am at the level of photography as some of the other great photographers on here. I'll keep trying though. This is why I appreciate the SWF posts, before I would have just brushed that off, but now I really enjoy the photos that are posted by the folks. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoy yours..

Ok, now for the photos...

I did not have anything planned for today, so I had to pull some from the archives. I've been playing around with this new filter that I've downloaded trying a few different things. I've been really busy with preparing to teach a few classes at work and other projects going on..

Hopefully, I can get out here soon and photograph some new things...


I hope you all have a great weekend!

Skywatch...

Happy SWF,

These photos were taken over the weekend at my wife's aunts house. They are looking south towards the Lancaster Airport which is about a mile from where they live. I was proud of myself, I shot this photo manuel and I think it came out pretty good. I've been practicing alot more with the manuel features and not trying to rely on the auto unless I need to.

I know the powerlines are in the way. I tried in Photoshop to remove them. It did not work, I'll have to keep practicing with that...

Have a great day!

Woody

Apparatus Housing...

Hey Everyone,

These photos were taken last Saturday at a neighboring departments housing of their new Rescue Engine. I played around with the new filter I have in photoshop and did some minor adjustments. I really like this new filter.

Hope you all have a great week!

The 100th Post....

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Post #100!

Thanks to everyone who has visited my blog, left comments and gave me advice on photography. I especially want to thank Brian Bastinelli and Brad Myers for all the photography advice and for getting me interested in blogging. I followed their two blogs for awhile before I decided to venture out on my own.

Now for the photos..

These were taken this past weekend at the annual Columbia bridge bust. Basically, for those of you that are familiar. They shut down the Route 462 bridge between Columbia Borough, Lancaster County and Wrightsville Borough, York County for the day and they have a variety of arts and craft stands set up on the bridge. They also had some photography stands set up.

I did not shoot too many photos as I was there for work with our Field Communications Unit. On a break I went out and shot a few quick photos of the event.


Hope your having a great week!

Woody

PHILS WIN!!!!!

Hey Everyone,

Hope all had a great week and weekend. I know I did because the PHILS beat the Brewers to advance to the National League Championship Series!!! It's been a long 28 years since the World Series Title has been in Philadelphia. Hopefully, It will return there in just a few weeks and the Liberty bell will be ringing loud and proud!


These photos were taken from the Phillies game I went to back in Auguest when they beat the Pirates.


The top photo I worked up in Photoshop with a new filter called Topaz Adjust...I really like it, so far all the photos I've played with using that came out pretty well...


Have a great week everyone!