When people think of the Fire Department many things come to mind but not necessarily digital photography.
In going to photograph a new office building being constructed and the kinds of materials being used for potential future reference, or by creating a training video on a new respiratory mask, the Fire Photographer plays a crucial behind-the-scenes role in educating and ultimately saving lives. Digital photography, video, file sharing and presentation have yielded increased accessibility, productivity, and usability of many of today's modern fire departments from small towns and villages to the big cities for visual resources and preservation of history. A PowerPoint presentation can be easily distributed and displayed in the firehouse of  images from a three-alarm fire or practice burn for training purposes.

Many Fire Departments have gone digital. From Human Resources pictures that are taken of every uniformed member at each of their 12-15-month physicals, to dramatic documentation of three-alarm fires, to providing PowerPoint presentations on safety for training and education, the Fire Department's Fire Photographer is very busy and is usually well-paid for his/her expertise in their field. The Fire Photographer provides all still, and/or video photographic services for the fire departments and all their administrative needs. With a high demand and a big county to cover, efficiency and productivity are crucial. For this, a multi-talented photographer is faced with multiple tasks and switching to a digital workflow has made all the difference.

Up until January of 2001, all of the photographic work was shot on film then processed and printed in a traditional chemical darkroom. An expensive and slow process, the old photo archives take up many huge file cabinets and, if caught in a flood, could be ruined forever.

The primary goal of the Fire Photographer is photographing for documentation and education. The Fire Photographer produces huge quantities of files that need to be archived and accessed by a number of people for an array of needs. By January 2001, the cost of digital equipment had finally fallen to the point that going digital became a viable alternative for this Fire Photographer.

Documenting the Personnel

The long-standing protocol of only photographing firefighters when they first joined the Department can prove to be particularly challenging while searching through old personnel files to locate and then scan the photographic prints of missing firefighters - headshots that have been stapled or taped to personnel files, sometimes fifteen or twenty years ago are not always very helpful for identification purposes in an emergency.

Now a photograph of every firefighter should be had at every 12-15-month physical to keep up-to-date photos of each member and store the high resolution files in a digital personnel database. It is necessity for the image to be captured at the highest resolution possible, and files named properly and stored in the right location.

Fires are unpredictable, dangerous, and warrant immediate emergency response. Firefighters and their officers have their hands full working the fire and don't have time to think about the proper aperture setting on the camera but, on the other hand, the photographer is concentrating on the settings and not even thinking about running into the burning inferno. It is hard to prepare and train individuals for something you can't predict or necessarily control. This is why constant documentation of fires, changing equipment, and department protocol by the Fire Photographer is so important to the operations of all fire departments. All of the still photography, video, and PowerPoint presentations the Fire Photographer produce are key contributions not only for the local fire training academy and but also for keeping veteran firefighters up to date on changing conditions.

It's a little brisk this Saturday morning in March in the City of Delavan at Route 43 & Hwy "X" but you could not tell that to these brave men and women from Darien, Delavan, and Sharon Wisconsin fire departments who are learning the art of fire fighting. 

Inside their Nomex fire fighter's protective suits, known as turn-out gear, these firefighters can still feel the extreme heat that is devouring the building next to them.  Even the firefighters that are 50' away protecting other buildings by dousing them with continuous streams of water can still feel the heat from the monster.

Today it is hard to find people that have the guts enough to do this type of work.  It takes a very special kind of individual to go into a building that is burning to save a life or property for someone else, and sometimes they are even volunteering to get into these predicaments. 

Fire photography is the act of taking photographs of firefighting operations and the individuals that practice this form of photography are called fire photographers.  My name is Dennis Aitken and I am a fire photographer for fire departments within Walworth County with my priority being the Lake Geneva Fire Department.  Professional fire photographers are used for training, interdepartmental use, media and sometimes even personal use.

Since fire photography involves being relatively close to incidents that are potentially dangerous, fire photographers need to have special skills and knowledge about emergency incident scenes, operations, health and safety. Additionally, fire photographers are often required to wear the same protective equipment as firefighters do.  I met my first fire photographer many years ago out west.  He was in full turnout gear and his helmet shield had PHOTOGRAPHER where either Chief or Captain or the Lieutenant shield would be mounted and his name was written across the back of the jacket just like all the rest of the crew.  He was also a county wide photographer and did not have a department name on his coat, just the word PHOTOGRAPHER so that he could be easily recognized and sometimes called on at the scene.

To be considered in this field you must first prove that you know the photography end of the business by showing your work to the heads of the departments that you would be working for.  This would be for their  evaluation.  Next is gaining their trust to get into the department's "family” at the station or anywhere near a fire for that matter.  This can be done through years of emergency service related organizations and / or organizations like the Emergency Service and Disaster Association (E.S.D.A.) where you go through many of hours of training weekly before even going out on "real" calls.  Having any type of medical background is an added benefit in this field and makes your fellow workers feel more confident if an emergency occurs.

In general, fire photographers are not directly employed by fire departments unless it is for a big city. Instead, they provide a specialized photography service, which may involve a fee on a per-hour basis, per-call, or  per- photograph basis because their equipment runs into the thousands of dollars not to mention all the gas they go through chasing after each call and let's not forget the turn out gear that has to be purchased by most photographers. Not being a paid firefighter through any particular city means that access to safety perimeters can be an issue. As such, fire photographers usually develop good relationships with their local fire department to improve access to fire scenes. Such access may, at the fire department's discretion, require additional training or other arrangements. I have been part of an organization for some time now that is called the International Organization of Fire Photography (IOFP).  A formal fire photographer's certification process is now being drafted by IOFP and this is the certification that I am trying to achieve after all these years of being a photographer. The intent of this certification is to attest that an individual has sufficient training, skills and knowledge in relevant areas (health & safety, firefighting operations, etc.) to operate safely within a safety perimeter on an emergency incident scene.

A personal Thank You note

Personally I have a few people that I am very grateful for helping me get started from my younger years up to this point.

     I started out volunteering in the Emergency Services & Disaster Association (E.S.D.A.) located in Elmwood Park, IL, where a gentleman named Philip Schwartz headed the operation and was one of the best in his field of communications amongst other traits that he has.  He is the one that started getting me interested in Emergency Services and many of its operations.  Now known as Chief, Philip Schwartz is now serving the Village of Melrose Park, IL. and is the head of operations for their Emergency Services Public Safety which encompasses a full search and rescue team that covers all of Cook County.  From working with the E.S.D.A. I had my tuition paid for by the (late) chief of the Elmwood Park Fire Department (Chief Ozzie Hjellum) for E.M.T. classes at Loyola University in Maywood.  That lead me to volunteering over a few 1000 hours in the ER at Loyola Hospital in Maywood Park learning from some of the finest doctors and nurses.  Loyola Medical Hospital is a major trauma hospital in the area of Maywood Park, IL..  After working the ER for a substantial period of time I felt confident enough and I worked at 2 different ambulance services and was also a captain on a first responders team called The Chicago Rescue Squad.  Also I have a childhood friend named Randy Landis who started the first responders team in Minocqua, WI whom I have looked up to all my life.  His dedication to his team and his job is to be commended. 
     Now,  I must  thank a couple of the local fire chiefs in Walworth County  for their efforts in helping me obtain my fire photographer's certification starting with Chief Brent Connelly from the Lake Geneva Fire Department and Assistant Chief Timothy O'Neill from the City of Delavan Fire Department.

They say that once it's in your blood you can't help but want to be there in the midst of aiding a fellow human being in time of need.
 You know what?
It's true and I feel good about it.

Walworth County Emergency Services
www.walco-es.org

Questions and Answers

Walworth County Emergency Services .org currently holds specialized photographs of fires, rescues and paramedical ops, taken exclusively by
Dennis J. Aitken, and listed by emergency calls covered since April 1st 2008. The site has received more than 375 visits even before it went public on July 4th, 2008 and then the counters were reset.   In comparison to other FD sites, walco-es.org is one of the largest specialized fire & rescue photography site in the county.

Q: What territory is covered by walco-es.org?
A: I mainly cover the Lake Geneva & 5 miles surrounding as my primary coverage.   I cover farther and farther depending on the event's magnitude.
Of course it will all depend on where I am at when tones go off.

Q: What equipment is used to do fire photography?
A: Bunker: coat (identified: "PHOTOGRAPHER") and pants Morning Pride gifted by Darien Fire Department,  and a Cairns Orange helmet with 4" visor
gifted by Bloomfield/Genoa City Fire Department; my own professional digital camera is the Olympus E-500 8.0 mega pixels SLR with a 14-45mm zoom lens good up to about 40-50', a 11-22 wide angle lens, and a host of macro lens for investigative photography.

Q: How are photographs published?
A: Photos on this site are archived, sorted, organized, signed and published (with previews and protection)
by a server who hosts walco-es at Maria's Internet Access or ( www.mia.net ).   For image processing, I use PhotoShop® software on
a HP Laptop nx6325 with AMD Turion 64 x2 mobile technology 1GHz hard drive with a 15" monitor.

Q: Do other photographers publish on walco-es.org?
A: No!  The Walworth County Emergency Services web site (walco-es.org), is completely exclusive to Dennis J. Aitken. The photographs currently published and accessible on walco-es.org have therefore all been taken by Dennis J. Aitken. If you have photographs related to fires or emergencies, you are invited to published them on another web site that will accept them, because they will not be published on walco-es.org as this site is my own personal exclusive portfolio.   In due time when this grows to a point where I will be accepting other professional photographers under my wing I will have their photos signed by  them.

Q: Why are many night photographs blurry or grainy?
A: Night-time photography (or in low-light conditions) presents special challenges. For a scene to be visible on a
photograph, the camera must first be able to capture enough light to get a good image. The only perfect photo, in all lights, has been given to us by God through our eyes.  Technology has its limitations.  When the scene is dark and there are too few light sources, the photographer has three solutions: use a powerful Flash (which does not always produce an ideal light), slow down the camera (which creates blurry effects when there are movements on the scene), or use a more sensitive film (which produces more grainy effects). One of the three solutions must be chosen, which inevitably compromises quality. In some cases however, that compromise can produce interesting artistic effects :)

It is also possible that the grain in the photo will emerge if the photo was too dark and that it was enhanced by
computer to improve lighting, exposition and contrast. These three properties are often retouched when a photograph
shows something important or representative but was taken without enough light. I then prefer to sacrifice part of the
photograph's quality to retain the photo's informational value.

Q: Why are there exaggerated light glares on some night photographs?
A: Reflective stripes on trucks and fire combat uniforms are very reactive to light. The use of the camera's built-in
flash often causes noticeable glare. The effect is however sometimes minimized when the scene is sufficiently lit.

Q: Why are some published photographs of very poor quality? (often the very first photos on a call)
A: It is important to understand that the photographs of walco-es.org are used at many levels. For example, the very
first pictures on a suspicious fire help investigators to better understand the initial condition of the affected
building; it is therefore more important to publish the very first pictures which may not always be of premium quality
(even some very bad ones!), but that show the initial characteristics of the building.

Q: Why publish photographs of street signs?
A: Many visitors of walco-es.org, notably the direction of fire departments, appreciate to be able to know quickly
the location of an operation. What better way to do that than a photo of a street name sign with the fire scene in the
background!

Q: Why publish photos that do not show the fire or the event directly?
A: The interest of real fire photography is to present a global portrait of firefighting and emergency services in
general. It is therefore quite normal for example on a major fire scene to see photos of firefighters carrying hoses,
installing a security perimeter, communicating by radio, relaxing, etc. Only at practices is the situation more of a relaxed atmosphere.

Q: Why publish photos that only show the accident car (without firefighters)?
A: Many walco-es.org visitors appreciate to have a clear image of an accident vehicle (with extrication), allowing
them to visualize damages in relation with extrication procedures used. They can therefore get better knowledge of the
structure of certain types of vehicles which they may not be very familiar with. Further more, photographs of the
position of a car and his position on the road provides a better understanding of how the accident unfolded for the investigators.

Q: Why publish photos of burned objects?
A: On a fire scene, officers frequently ask a professional fire photographer to photograph particular objects before or after they have been moved. These photos might sometimes be published on walco-es.org, which is the easiest way to make them available to all the fire departments involved. (if they photos are not deemed classified). Classified photos are burned directly on CD for fire and police department investigators.

Q: How much do you get compensated for all your time, equipment, fuel & etc. and who pays you?
A: At this time I am taking on the entire expense myself.  Since I am not sponsored by any city, village, township, or county I can only count on gifts as seen on the Donations page.  One day, I am in hopes that this position will become a county position but until then I can only count on the generosity of others that appreciate all the dedication and hard work that has made this web site what it is today.

Here are some people that I have had correspondence with that I look up to for advice and admired for their work and dedication:

Sylvain Pedneault - Sylvain Pedneault is the Official Fire Photographer for the St. Hyacinthe City Fire Department in Canada. He started taking photographs of firefighters in action in 2002, and has been actively responding to emergency calls since then. He currently publishes more than 25,000 photographs of fires and emergency responses on www.firelens.com , a web site dedicated to his work.

In 2005, Sylvain was designated honorary firefighter for life by the St. Hyacinthe City Fire Department. This nomination confirmed his status as an established professional fire photographer. His department offered him a sponsorship which allowed him to get many NFPA certifications: Firefighter I, Firefighter I Haz-mat Awareness, Engine operator, Firefighter II Extrication, Firefighter II Haz-mat Operations, Firefighter II Operations, and more. This training allows him to better understand the world of firefighting, and improves his skills as a firefighter & a fire photographer.

Sylvain Pedneault is also the director and chief architect of SYPECom Inc., developer of the Collaba platform
( www.collaba.com ). His extensive experience in software engineering helped design FireLens.com and the entire automated photo management system behind the site.

Daniel Alfonso -  F.D.N.Y.'s most notable fire photographer and book author of 'Big Apple Fire Photography'

Thomas Bishop, M.S., CCC - The Founder of the International Organization of Fire Photography and is the author of FireDailyNews, is known as California's most respected fire photographer's in the state.
     Tom is a retired Fire Captain, Truck Officer, Training Officer and EMS Coordinator. He has been voted as Firefighter of the Year and, upon retirement, was voted an Honorary Firefighter for life with the Saint Helena Fire Department in Northern California where he also worked as a Press Photographer with a weekly fire photography section in the St. Helena Star Newspaper and featured the Saint Helena Fire Department and the Napa County Fire Department as their Fire Photographer introducing a variety of state-of-the art photographic techniques.
     As an educator and clinician, Tom has worked as an assistant professor, providing courses in anatomy / physiology, diagnostic methods, treatment of disorders of cognition (including attention, orientation, memory, thought organization, thinking and reasoning, problem solving and executive cognitive functions), development of Bishop Short Cognitive Exam (BSCE), swallowing disorders and advanced laryngeal function and airway management, communicative impairments, as well as issues in professionalism. 
     As a licensed clinical specialist in speech pathology and swallowing disorders for over twenty years, Tom specializes in advanced diagnostic and therapeutic techniques including transoral and transnasal fiberoptic and stroboscopic endoscopic imaging techniques, as well as radiographic and videoendoscopic instrumental assessments. He has developed clinical techniques for cervical auscultation and invented a variety of intraoral instruments and advanced endoscopic systems for imaging the oral, nasal, pharyngeal and laryngeal cavities. This experience has advanced fire photography to include advanced medical imaging techniques for the education and ongoing continuing education for firefighters, paramedics, nurses and other medical professionals.

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