Airport crash truck at fire scene

Here are a few images from a cold winter night when a call was made to the Chicago Fire Department to help out a suburban neighbor with a stubborn fire in a tire warehouse. CFD at O’Hare sent an Oshkosh Striker airport crash truck to the fire scene. It was a rare opportunity to see this type of deployment and I had to wait at the scene a good hour longer than I’d planned to get these shots.

Oshkosh Striker airport crash truck at fire scene
This image was captured with a flash and provides full detail of the ARFF. Larry Shapiro photo

As in previous posts … here, here and here, I used a mixture of pure ambient light and on-camera flash. Although some images were taken from relatively the same spot, the feel is vastly different.

Oshkosh Striker airport crash truck at fire scene
An existing light image showing the front turret in operation. Lights in the background above the smoke are from a tower ladder working on the other side of the building. Larry Shapiro photo
Oshkosh Striker airport crash truck at fire scene
A similar shot with a flash … shows great detail of the truck and stops the motion of the water, but has minimal smoke and mist because of the flash’s power. Larry Shapiro photo

Here’s another shot without the flash. It shows enough of the truck and doesn’t create a distraction with the bright snow that might result from the bright light. Additionally, the smoke and steam along with the spray from the turret give this image much more character than animate with the harsh light from the flash. You just have to be careful of the digital noise that is introduced shooting a high ISO settings in a very low light scene.

Oshkosh Striker airport crash truck at fire scene
Another image without a flash picks up all colors from emergency lights on the other trucks in addition to the great effect from the steam. Larry Shapiro photo