4-24-21 Here is something different from me. I was recently invited to attend a multi-agency training session with the local law enforcement, ambulance and several fire departments. The training was being held at the local small airport and the scenario surrounded a simulated plane crash with several victims.

This is all pretty straight forward on who and why. I was given free rein to be anywhere in the training area, but naturally not interfere with the process. The only “issue” was there were two other photographers there also. The reason I say this was an issue, is all three of us were potentially taking the same photos. Now the challenge is how can I make my photos different from the other photographers.

Both photographers were known to me and very competent. So I definitely was challenged with the mindset of how to make my photos different from their photos. To be different, I changed lenses to a 70-200 lens with the thought of trying to ‘compress’ my photos for a different perspective. Plus this also allowed me to stand back further and not be in anyone’s way. Being able to stand back allowed me the opportunity to get some photos of people without their knowledge (sure they knew we were there), so it would not make them uncomfortable.

Once the photo day was done for me, I still felt I needed to do something different from the others. So I thought I would try some different post-processing techniques to make things even more unique. That is when I changed this photo from color to black and white. I did like the original photo but wanted to make it truly unique. So I played around with processing until I finally came up with this final photograph.

I like that I took a normal photograph and was able to change it to a truly different feel. The background is more artsy, yet maintains the crispness and portrait-type look of the firefighter. Definitely accomplished something that wasn’t presented by the other photographers. For me – Mission Accomplished.