January Assignment: Fire

[brad]

Ok.. I'm going to do the assignments monthly for a bit and try to get them to last a little longer... and I, personally, will try to comment/critique on each one as well (other people are welcome to add their own comments/critiques as well)... hopefully these won't be too challenging and might actually encourage people to try some things they haven't tried before.

The first of such assignments: Fire

This can be a variety of things at this point.. PJ work covering brush or building fires, just simply a candle, or maybe a portrait illuminated by a flame... stretch yourself. I'll try to post the next one near the beginning of February.

[PeteQ]

Ok Brad, I'll get this started.... Here are three submissions as sort of a PJ entry. I did also post this in the PJ forum, but what the heck, it's an assigment, right?

The first photo I would caption as: Fort Worth Fire Department Deputy Chief Jay Peacock arrives on scene to survey the damage as a fire near I-35W and Meacham Road ties up traffic during Friday afternoon rush hour.

Second or third photo depending on which the editor likes (I think the one with no traffic is a better image, but the traffic in the second shot makes it clear they are near a highway. FWIW): Firemen from the Fort Worth Fire Department travel down the median near I-35W and Meacham Road extinguishing hot spots.

[evil4blue]

Here you go, creativity inspired by laziness.

[brad]

Pete: Nice .. wish I could see the fire they were fighting, but you did good catching the people doing their job. That's the kind of thing I understand is what the news people want to see shown when it comes to this kind of shot. Just fire isn't what sells.. its the people interacting with and affected by it.

Steve: Pretty cool for a "lazy" shot. I love the idea.. maybe eliminate the top right picture and make it a tryptic (sp?) .. 3 can be very powerful artistically, especially in a sequence like this.

[exposedmedia]

Just some fun with long exposure.

Shutter Speed: 6 sec
Focal Length: 50mm
Iso: 100
Aperture: 22

Edited: added new below

[Tim T]

Here is a good old fashion camp fire.

[JKH]

I know this is cheating because I didn’t take the photo in response to the assignment. But since the assignment was fire, I thought I’d share this here. Image taken near US-59 and I-610 (September 2004).

[brad]

ExposedMedia: Very cool.. I guess long exposure while you lit the three candles? It might have been even cooler if you had done more than move in a straight line from candle to candle.. swilred around or something if you'd had time... this would be a fun idea to play with.

Tim: Campfire (and fireplace) pictures are very difficult to shoot because it is hard to catch flame and/or embers and still leave something interesting for the viewer to focus on.. Here, there is no perfect element to be the subject of the photo and I find myself trying to figure out what the box in the background says. The fire exposure is really good.. maybe try to show what's in the pan, or better yet, try to show a person (even implication of a person such as just a hand) interacting with the fire? Another thought might be to zoom back and show the food cooking and no one around.. as if the fire and its food were mysteriously abandoned.

JKH: Woof, that's gotta hurt... what the heck is burning? Another tanker truck? You picked a great perspective to shoot this from to show the scope of the flames.. and catching a fire fighter there makes this a great stock image. I wonder if another photographer managed to get a ground level view and isolate that fire fighter against the flames.. I'll be that was an impressive shot, too... but this one could be a front page of a newspaper.

[exposedmedia]

Took your suggestion and had another go at it.




Candle lighting TPF style? lol

[Tim T]

Here are a couple more expanded views of the campfire. In the first picture I was trying to concentrate on the "fire" aspect.

[babybluetx23]

Originally Posted by exposedmedia

Candle lighting TPF style? lol

LOL OMG! That is GREAT!

[brad]

Originally Posted by exposedmedia

Took your suggestion and had another go at it.

The TPF one is cool, but this one rocks. That is exactly what I was talking about.. fantastic execution and a great example of how something simple can really jazz it up.

[brad]

Originally Posted by Tim T

Here are a couple more expanded views of the campfire. In the first picture I was trying to concentrate on the "fire" aspect.

Yes, that's what I was talking about with the first one... when I mentioned people, I was more referring to people cooking on (or stirring) the fire, but this gives a good perspective on what it was all about with the period uniforms.

[Joshua]

Fire :)

[brad]

Yea, Joshua.. I liked these in the other thread. The second one has a great "rule of thirds" going for it.. and the portrait is cool, even if the subject seems a bit flat.. almost like it was a picture illuminated instead of a person... very nice.