# A little Fire & Ice in town last night



## jstuedle (Feb 11, 2008)

We had a fire start in an upstairs apartment in the town of Lawrenceburg IN last night. Before it was dowsed, 5 buildings, 5 businesses and 6 families were affected. Obviously the fire jumped the alley to destroy it's last building closer to frame right. Luckily the only injuries were slips and bumps suffered by firefighters on the frozen streets. The temp overnight dipped down to 13 F. 9 fire companies responded and fought for hours. Shot taken w/D3, 35-70 f/2.8 @ 70mm. ISO 3200 @ f/2.8 1/40 sec.


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## monkeykoder (Feb 11, 2008)

That has got to suck for a few people.  Nice picture though.


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## LaFoto (Feb 11, 2008)

Oi! No good! That looked like quite a "bit" of fire! Hasn't a similar fire destroyed a similar row of houses in Camden in London the other day? 

Good to hear that no one was hurt in that fire, let alone killed!!! :shock: 

Eerie scene ... the lights of the fire truck add a very welcome little extra and in their colours still reflect what must have been there (colourwise etc) some time earlier!


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## Corry (Feb 11, 2008)

That looks frightening to me, because the winter before last, I posted somewhat similar pictures (very VERY cold, fire on mainstreet business section where all of the buildings are connected) from here in my town....only my apartment was above one of those businesses connected to the building that was on fire.  Thankfully for me, there was a huge fire YEEEEEEEEARS ago that wiped out a good part of town, and because of this, it was rebuilt with firewalls in between each building....so the fire was pretty much contained to that building, with some minor smoke damage to the next business over.  

Yeah...4am, ice cold, NOT FUN!


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## Big Bully (Feb 11, 2008)

Holy cow! Fantastic shot there John! Sad for the apartments and businesses but, the shot is nice.


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## Mesoam (Feb 11, 2008)

great shot of a bad situation...


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## jstuedle (Feb 11, 2008)

I needed to return to town this afternoon, so I walked around the scene for about 45 min. It's unbelievable the damage, so many people affected by this fire. Id estimate 10-15 lost there home and 25 out of work. A couple of the business were running on shoestrings, they may never return.

Several brick walls are ready to collapse. The city is going to help so they don't fall and injure onlookers. The furthest building with red and yellow brick are almost unaffected. There are 4 side windows to the rear that broke and are already covered with plywood.







This ice covered dumpster is where the fire is thought to have started. 





The corner building to the left of the alley is the building with the dumpster in the previous shot. The corner storefront to the right was a little pizza place. I covered there "Grand Opening" a couple years ago. The two people in the forground are a news crew from the local channel 12 news.






I'd say it was a warm fire. These glass globes are about 1/2" thick and were gas lights before being converted in the '60s.






This had been Angilo's Pizza. I covered there opening in July 2005. 
Link:  http://www.pbase.com/jstuedle/angilos_pizza_grand_opening_july_21_2005
Such a shame to see so many affected by this fire. The fire had to jump the alley to get to the pizza place, but the building to the extreme left is almost untouched. It's owned by one of the more politically powerful and wealthy businessman in town. Sort of makes you wonder.







All 5 storefronts now have the 2nd floor apartments and parts of the roof at ground level. Nothing in any of the 5 buildings is salvageable.


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## ScottS (Feb 11, 2008)

Wow John! I feel like i was there. Its too bad for all who were affected. But very nice photojournalistic coverage.


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## jstuedle (Feb 11, 2008)

The police have a 10 Y.O. in custody. He admitted to his parents he started the fire in the dumpster and fed it Styrofoam to make the fire bigger. He didn't intend to burn the buildings he said.


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## That One Guy (Feb 11, 2008)

very nice captures of an unfortunate event.

very well documented  :thumbup:


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## kundalini (Feb 11, 2008)

Excellant shots John.  Thanks for the follow-up paricularly.  He may not have intentionally done the deed, but reprecussions are in order IMHO.


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## jstuedle (Feb 11, 2008)

Thanks all for the complements.


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## Big Bully (Feb 12, 2008)

Lets see a few years in Juvie ought to straighten him out.. But also I think the parents need to feel some of the repercussions for letting their 10 Y.O. out past midnight.


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## Battou (Feb 12, 2008)

Nice shots.


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## ScottyS (Feb 12, 2008)

Wow, that night shot with the firetruck is incredible.  Very nice man


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## ScottS (Feb 12, 2008)

ScottyS!!! your back!


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## Aw45 (Feb 15, 2008)

Constructive criticism:

I have a couple comments about this series.  First where are all the people?  I think the images start to get repetitive without anyone in them.  Was that the effect you were going for? If so I would wait for the reporters to leave than take the images, they are distracting in there bright blue and red jackets.  Also your highlights seem really blown out during the day shots, and your blacks fall off in your night shot.  Was the photos shot in auto mode or manual?  

I like the image with the frozen power lines the best.  My eye is drawn in by the power lines, down the pole and across the building.  That is good execution.  The only thing that bothers me is the blown out sky, and the man walking in the background my eye gets stuck on him for a sec.  Both things that you can fix really easy next time.


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## jstuedle (Feb 16, 2008)

There were few people out as the temp was about 20 F and 18-22 mile per hour wind. The only ones walking around were police, fire, news, and city officials. And most of them were only out a few min. at a time. The crowds were out when the fire was active and 9 fire companies were fighting it. Unfortunately, the more sane of us were sleeping at the time the fire was raging and were unaware of the emergency. This town is the largest in out county, the county seat and is about 17 miles from where we live. My my effort was to document the damage as I saw it. The thread was started with a single image, but I thought it might be interesting to see the extent of the damage in daylight. I shot these for my interest, the serious PJ work was done the night before by others on the scene.

You mention the blown out sky. Please enlighten me as to how an image can be shot were the foreground is in shade and the sky is bright and cloudless and not blow out the sky if the focal point must be properly exposed? I am not aware of any practical method without employing HDR. We are all aware digital has a more narrow dynamic range than film, although digital is catching up.


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## Aw45 (Feb 19, 2008)

Try this expose for the sky then stop your camera down a stop.

If you use editing software you can tone the image with a simple curves adjustment layer.


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## Big Bully (Feb 19, 2008)

I think if John was trying to get a "glamor" shot out of this, yes he could put it through some post processing. But the fact is, he was taking these shots more of a journalistic view. So therefore these pictures are very accurate. If you want a "glamour"/hang on the wall shot, the first one would be your bet.
Photos can always have PP done to them but, it also is determined on their function and purpose.


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## Aw45 (Feb 19, 2008)

There is a huge difference between a "glamor" photograph and an image that is exposed properly.  The image was slightly over exposed, which is distracting.  Even if you are shooting in a journalistic fashion the image should be exposed and executed properly.


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## jstuedle (Feb 19, 2008)

Aw45 said:


> Try this expose for the sky then stop your camera down a stop.
> 
> If you use editing software you can tone the image with a simple curves adjustment layer.




Difficult when they was about 8 stops difference between the harsh shadow on the subject and the clear winter noon sky. But thanks for the suggestion.


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## jstuedle (Feb 19, 2008)

Aw45 said:


> There is a huge difference between a "glamor" photograph and an image that is exposed properly.  The image was slightly over exposed, which is distracting.  Even if you are shooting in a journalistic fashion the image should be exposed and executed properly.



If you had been there to see it live, the burned out area was so black it was almost featureless. It it exposed to bring out some detail and features to give the shot some interest. But, again thanks for the advise.


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## Big Bully (Feb 19, 2008)

I think overall the picture looks realistic. It isn't a pretty scene.


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## ScottyS (Feb 22, 2008)

ScottS said:


> ScottyS!!! your back!


 
Hahah yup, when im on here im usually just soaking things up rather than making noob posts.


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## Big Bully (Feb 23, 2008)

How confusing.. ScottS and ScottyS... 

How can we make this interesting.. hmmm


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