Firefighters battling a fire in Chicago

I spent much of the day photographing firefighters battling a 4-11 Alarm fire in Chicago. I post images of the fire scene and trucks at shapirophotography.net and chicagoareafire.com, but I thought I’d show the personal side of the scene here instead of the actual fire.

I’ve written in the past photographing firefighters and how I try to mix my on-scene coverage between all aspects of photojournalistic coverage; the fire and smoke, the trucks, the overall scene, the tools, and the people doing their jobs.

firefighter portrait
Simple closeup portrait with shallow depth of field. Larry Shapiro photo
fire chief portrait
Generally I prefer candid images, but I couldn’t resist that face. Larry Shapiro photo
firefighter portrait
Great contrast and detail here with the stark difference in between light and dark. Larry Shapiro photo
firefighter portrait
Another example of the stark contrast in shades. Larry Shapiro photo
firefighter portrait
Taken from a distance to show his exhaustion. Larry Shapiro photo
firefighter portrait with a dirty face
Classic post-fire dirty face shot. Larry Shapiro photo
firefighters hamming it up
Sometimes they ask me for a photo. Larry Shapiro photo
Chicago FD District Chief Tim Sampey
The haze, the dirty face … and his passion. Larry Shapiro photo
firefighter portrait
Full length image here because I wanted to show the deep water in the street. Larry Shapiro photo
fire chief portrait
The shallow depth of field makes the difference between a picture and a portrait. Larry Shapiro photo

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