Not On the Ice
If you’re a subscriber to The Continuance at The Westerville News this is one of the photos you saw in today’s edition. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be.
“Firefighters and medics assigned to Station 111, the main firehouse in Westerville, spent part of their shift Monday training in ice rescue techniques. Using rescue suits designed for buoyancy and to keep the operator warm and dry, the nine firefighters took turns being both the rescued and rescuer.
“The guitar-shaped lake between the Renaissance Hotel and the DHL building was used because the fountain sprinkler keeps a section of the pond unfrozen simulating the open water rescue scenario most encountered in a winter emergency.”
I thought this photo was the best of what I shot yesterday because it looks like I’m standing on the ice getting a close-up view of the training. It’s a good storytelling photo showing the training action against the background of the hotel.
It puts the viewer in a point of perspective that looks like they could have been standing with me on the ice.
Only I wasn’t standing on the ice.
I was safely perched on a slab of concrete quietly standing at the edge of a group of firefighters watching from the shore of Guitar Lake. The photo was made with the drone flying at my height at approximately the location where I would have stood if I was allowed on the ice.
Recently, during a Zoom meeting with a group of college photo students, I explained that I liked to use the drone as a platform to put a still camera in a location that would be difficult or impossible to put a photographer. Like on a lake being used for rescue training by firefighters.
Finding a unique angle to help tell the story separates my work from other photographers. Part of my process is to find the perfect location and get there just as the light is great and the action is happening. Sometimes the drone is the only way to get the photo.
It’s a wonderful tool added to my toolkit giving me a slightly different way of making good photos.
There are other photos from the rescue training at the link below.
