Another year has come to a close...

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all have a safe and happy new year. I believe my photography has improved along with my post processing. I have been shooting manuel more, still learning with that. The biggest suprise to me is I have been blogging for almost two years now. I hope to keep going for as long as possible. I did not get to go out on too many photo shoots this year with friends, so Bradley. Shane and Rich..I hope we can do a few next year. I can't believe Wyatt is going to be 3 next year in a few months..Some days I wish he would slow down growing...But I am enjoying every moment..


Have a great new year!

The Pump Operator....

Hey everyone,

Hope your day is going good. I am not sure if I am going to be able to post tomorrow or Thursday, so if that is the case. Then I wish you all a safe and happy 2010.

Photo was taken the other day, we were dispatched for a reported vehicle fire assisting another department. We arrived with smoke showing from a taxi cab. Fire was very minor in nature in the passenger compartment.

Have a great day!

Front of the engine...

Hey everyone,

Hope your weekend was good and you all had a great christmas! This was taken yesterday at a local shopping center. A business reported an odor of propane outside and it turned out to be 3 small leaks from the meter. While taking some shots I saw the helmet on the bumper and thought it would be a cool shot with the patch on the door.

Hope you have a great day!

Merry Christmas

Hey Everyone,

From my family to yours. I hope you all have a great christmas today and you got everything that you asked Santa for. For Brad and Brian, I hope you guys have a quiet tour tonight.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the day today!

Roof and Engine OPS....

Hey everyone,

Hope your week is going good. I was trying to find something else to post other then fire, but I was unable to. Besides, It's my blog right?

Anyway. this was taken from a commercial business fire a few minutes from my house. Interior crews are inside trying to knock down fire in the ceiling which had extended into the roof area. Crews were on scene most of the night.

Have a great day!

Come on we're leaving!!

Hey Everyone,

Hope you had a good weekend with the exception of Mother Nature dumping two feet of snow in the area. Definatley makes me want to relocate to a warmer climate. Seems like everytime my platoon is working, we always manage to work the first major snow storm. UGH!

Photo taken back in September when I was in Philly. E50 had just gotten dispatched to a run and they were waiting on one of the other members who was just a few seconds behind..

Have a great day!

Fire in Boston.......Market

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the late post. This is my weekend to work and I did not get a chance to get these photos ready last night. These were taken yesterday at the Boston Market Restaurant. Initial reports were smoke pushing from the building. First arriving units found a slight smoke condition with a small fire in the walls. I had Wyatt with me as we were on our way home from me picking him up at school, so we swung in quick and I shot some photos.

I also would like to thank Capt Schmoe and FireCap5 for their kind words about my photos. I really appreciate that and I hope you continue to visit my blog and enjoy my photos.

For other great fire photos, Please visit Bradley Myers Photo Blog and Brian Bastinelli's Photo blog and also his other website, http://www.fire-ground.com/. Just click on the links to the right. Also Check out Jason Coleman-Cobbs Website, Capitalcityfirephotos.com, another great website.

Thanks again fellas and I will be checking out your blogs. Like I tell all my blog friends, I may not comment all the time, but I make an effort to visit at least once a day if not more.

Stay safe and have a great weekend!!

Brrr..It was cold last night...

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the late post today. Been a busy morning and still busy so I don't have a lot of time. Photos were taken last night. I was up watching a movie(could not sleep) I heard a chimney fire getting dispatched and a minute later was upgraded to a full structure assignment, report of fire in the second floor. So being that I could not sleep, I decided to take a ride down. When I got there, they still had some smoke pushing out but were getting things under control. So I stayed for about 15-20 minutes and left. Waaaaay too cold for my taste.

I think I'm going to use the method of not going out in subfreezing temps on overnight calls... Let the younger guys do it...


Have a great day!

Band Of Brothers...

Hey Everyone,

Photo taken from a house fire earlier this year back in March.

For those that do follow my blog, I apologize for doing this but I have also now added comment moderation besides the word verification as I was spammed again. I was actually close to deleating the blog all together but decided against it as I enjoy doing it..


Have a great day!

More from the railroad...

Hey Everyone,

Hope you are having a good day. This was taken inside the railroad educational center. They had a large layout set up of trains. This particular section, they were allowing kids to "run" the trains. Wyatt was operating the control and I took the photo.

Have a great day!

Christmas at the railroad...

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the late post today. Had a busy morning and did not have time to get things set up. I hope you all had a good weekend. This was taken down at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Every year they do a "home for the holidays" theme. I took Wyatt last year and I took him again this year. This photo was taken as we walked out of the railroad educational center. I shot it manually but I don't remember what settings I had. When I was doing editing on the photos, I thought black and white would look good for this one.

Hope you all have a great day!

My attempt at Photoshop...

Hey Everyone,

Hope your week is good. Thank god it is Friday. So this is my attempt at photoshop. The real basic skills I think I am ok at but when you try and do the Brad Myers/Brian Bastinelli photoshop ADVANCED level..I still need lots of practice on.

This is actually a model of the Philadelphia Fire Department Fire Boat 2. I was trying to recreate a look from the 70's during Philly's war years. The model is actually on a display stand with the photo in the background.

I cropped in as much as I could but still had some of the stand exposed. So I tried to add the water in the areas where the stand was and tried to blend it together but it did not go as well as I planned.

I really did not have anything else today, so I thought I would throw this out there and see what you good people in blogger world really think.


If you were curious as to how I got the idea, Brian Bastinelli had a photograph of a piece of fire apparatus that actually turned out to be a toy. Looking at the photo right away, you could not tell. That's what I was trying for, I'll need to keep practicing some more...


Have a great weekend!

Briefing the chief...

Hey Everyone,

Hope your week is going well. Today is my Friday at work and off the weekend!! Woohoo!! I'm taking Wyatt to the Strasburg Railroad Museum on Saturday to meet Santa and to see there displays they put on for Christmas. My wife has to work, so I am looking forward to doing that.

This is another photo from the fire back in September. This is one of the Captains from Eden Fire Company giving a report to the Deputy Chief from Eden Fire Company who was the incident commander for this fire.


Have a great day!

Getting the roof...

Hey Everyone,

These are some photos taken from an Industrial Building Fire my department assisted on back in September. The first photo is of my truck, Truck 6-7 setting up to the roof along with Truck 2-3(East Petersburg) and an engine from the department we were assisting, Engine 2-11-3(Southern Manheim TWP)

The second photo shows where the fire was. The facility we were at has a on site fire brigade and they are one of the better ones in the area. We usually know if we get a call for this business, we have a job.

The third photo is of the Lancaster City Fire Department Engine 1 and members from Eden Fire Company acting as the rapid intervention team relocating to another part of the fire building.

Hope you have a good day!

Old Buildings..

Hey everyone,

Hope you are having a good week. I took this photo near the train yard I was at the other day. I was standing in the parking lot of Clipper Stadium when I took the photo. It is of the old Lancaster Arts Hotel right along Harrisburg Ave just before you get into the city.

On a seperate note, I want to extend my sympathies to my friends in the Harrisburg Bureau Of Fire on the loss of one of their long time volunteers.

December 7th 1941...

Hey Everyone,

Hope you had a great weekend. Please remeber what today is. "A day which will live in infamy" Thank you to all that have served, past, present and future. So that we can enjoy the freedoms that we have today.

For great Pearl Harbor Photos. Go to my good friend Bradley Myers photo blog for his excellant tribute he has up today.


Have a great day!

At the train yard....

No words today...Just photos from a local train yard...

Have a great weekend!

Wyatt and a statue...

Hey Everyone,

Hope you are having a great week. These were taken this past summer along Front Street by the Harvey Taylor Memorial Bridge. Wyatt and I were attending the KAPONA festival and were taking a walk when he noticed the series of statues. I believe it is actually a tribute or a memorial for PENN DOT workers that were killed on the job. The first thing he spots is the dump truck. He walks over and says hi to the little boy holding the truck. He kind of stands there for a moment checking things out and then decides he wants to play on the truck.

He kept wanting to leave with it till I had to explain to him that it was not real. He still had fun though..

Have a great day!



PS... I also want to say Welcome to a few new followers of my blog that I recently just noticed. Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you keep coming back and don't be afraid to leave a comment or two...

Fire in Da' Burg...My favorite fire photos from the year...

Hey Everyone,

Hope your week is going well. I cannot believe it is December already!

Ok, before I talk about the photos. Has anyone else been having problems with blogger?? Everytime I go to do a scheduled post, when I check the blog it shows it reverted back to draft. This morning, someone left me a comment and it shows 0 Comments initially but if you click on the post, the comment is there??


Any advice, suggestions???


Now to the photos, these were taken back in March of this year. I had buffed one fire in the city at the old Spot's restaurant on 2nd street in the downtown. As I was leaving the city, I hear Harrisburg Wagon 3 go available on my scanner. The dispatcher states for "Wagon 3, standby and prepare to copy" So I kind of pulled off to the side of the road, The box was then struck for a house fire on S 13th street in the 100 block with multiple calls being received. I was right at S 13th street, so I made a left turn and away I went.

I arrived right behind Harrisburg Tower 1 after parking well out of the way(Golden rule of fire photography, Don't get blocked in and in the way) and walked up and shot some photos. Out of all the fire photos I have taken this year, these seem to be my favorite ones. I honestly don't know why.

I don't know if it was because I got there early enough and was able to get some decent shots, I just think these are my best photos of the year. Don't worry, I divide my fire photos and family photos. I'll post my favorite family photos down the road.

Hope you have a great day and I hope my scheduled post works this time!

Waiting for the engine and get well wishes for an old friend

Hey Everyone,

Hope your weekend was good. This was taken  from Engine 45 and Ladder 14's firehouse in Philly. The Engine just went out on a medical run when we arrived. Standing in the back of the house, I thought it would be cool to take the shot. I think it turned out ok with post processing but I think I could have done better.


Now for the get well wishes..

A great friend of mine who is a Captain with Lancaster City Bureau Of Fire, was seriously injured this past Friday when he fell off the turntable off of Lancaster City Truck 2. He suffered 8 broken ribs, fractured a thoracic vertebre, bruised a kidney and had a lung collapse. He initially did not remember the accident. I went right to the Hospital Friday night after his wife called me and told me it was him, he was starting to remember what happened and I stopped in to see him Saturday night and he was doing a little better. Still in  alot of pain though(8 broken ribs I can imagine..)

So to my buddy Kenny Barton, Get well soon brother and hope to hear you riding the truck again soon!

Have a great day folks!

Stepping into a whole new world....

Hey Everyone,

Hope you had a great thanksgiving! I had to work. We had the usual calls for oven fires and for fights that family members picked up from last year's thanksgiving. Oh well.


This was taken at my wife's cousin's wedding a few weeks ago. The wedding was held outdoors and this is the happy couple walking outside of the tent for the first time as husband and wife. I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the talent or knowledge on how to shoot a wedding, for that go to Brian Bastinelli's blog. I thought I would try and see how I do. Hey you have to start somewhere right??


If you are one of the crazy people that likes to go shopping on black friday, more power to you. Just stay safe and have a great weekend!



Woody



PS. If you like the photo or don't, Please comment. I would love to know what you think...

First Due Apartment Fire...

Hello Everyone,

Hope you had a great weekend. This photo was taken yesterday morning at a apartment comcplex in my department's first due. I could not sleep and decided to get up a little early and grab a shower and head to work. I got done getting ready and saw my phone was flashing. I checked and had a text page for the apartment fire. So I checked our webcad page(It is a page that you can go to and it shows all the incidents occuring in Lancaster County. http://www.lcwc.co.lancaster.pa.us/ and click on live incident status if you are interested) I saw the event and saw they had a transfer engine started to our station. As I am watching, the webcad refreshes itself and it went from a first alarm to a second alarm.

So I quickly packed my lunch for work and headed out the door. By the time I got there, the fire was knocked and companies were doing overhaul. I shot some scene photos and then headed off to work.

Have a great day!

Summer photos from Harrisburg...

Hey Everyone,

Hope you are having a good week. This is my long weekend to work UGH. Oh well.

These were taken this past summer, well 3 were and one was taken last year. The 3rd one was when Wyatt had just turned about 13 months old, I took him up to the annual Fire Expo in Harrisburg and this was his first ever photo with a fire truck. I saw Tower 2 in the parking lot and decided to take his picture. The other photos were from this year when we went to the Kapona Festival. Wyatt is sitting on Tower 2 in the famed uptown firehouse and then we stopped by Station 6 and Wyatt wanted to pose on the bench in front of the firehouse.

I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. I look at the photo when he was in a stroller to now and can't believe how big he has gotten and how he has developed into his own little personality.

Brad or any of my other Harrisburg friends that read my blog, can you tell me the history or the story behind the plaque hanging on the outside wall behind where Wyatt is sitting??

Have a great weekend!

Woody

E50 L12, Northside Philly Cowboys...

Hey Everyone,

Hope things are well. These are photos from E50 and L12 of the PFD from when I was there In Sept.

Very cool house to visit. E50 is one of the busiest engine companies in the city due to their location from what I was told. I was playing around in photoshop with some of the photos and I would like to hear you're thoughts on which photo you like better or think was processed better.

The front side of the house, I had to crop in tighter on the right side.  One of the guys I went down with was walking towards the station with his girlfriend and did not hear me yelling for him to stop and he walked right into the shot. Oh well

Please don't be shy, If you don't like how one of the shots came out or If you do.. Please say so...

Have a great week!

Woody