American LaFrance fire trucks

A visit to Jasper County, SC for the American LaFrance calendar several years ago gave me the opportunity to photograph these pumper/tankers that were built on Freightliner chassis. The idea to create this shot of these rural units on a farm came as we were diving around the area doing site selection. I thought the stark contrast of the yellow straw would be dramatic against the bright red and white American LaFrance fire trucks.

We received permission to drive into the field and I positioned the units to enable a view of all sides. This highlighted both the Freightliner front end, and the American LaFrance back end.

Freightliner fire truck
The original image shows a dull gray sky. Larry Shapiro photo

Sadly, the sky clouded up on us, but that wasn’t going to stop of from completing the assignment. It was an easy task to mask out the sky and replace it with one that was much more interesting from my file of sky images.

Freightliner fire truck
A blue sky with clouds replaced the original sky to enhance the final image. Larry Shapiro photo