I want to thank the man who pulled his smoking van onto the sidewalk directly underneath my dining room window. It afforded me an amazing photographic opportunity and I didn’t even have to pay for it!
I was crossing the street from the grocery store when a man pulled off the road and jumped out of his van. Smoke was coming out from underneath the hood and it seemed to me that the vehicle would burst into flames at any minute.
I didn’t have a camera with me (after all, I was shopping for supper) so I ran to the elevator and punched the up button. Good photographer that I am, it never occurred to me that I should call 911.
Once in my unit, I dumped my groceries on the floor, pulled out my 5DS, & attached my 70-200mm lens. Already, I could hear the siren approaching. I opened the window and leaned out with the camera. Sure enough, the van was engulfed in flames. I watched as the firetruck arrived and the firemen went to work.
I had the usual reactions: this is totally cool; geez I feel sorry for the guy who jumped out of the van. But after they subsided, the photographic/aesthetic responses kicked in. The fire, the smoke, the S-curve of the hose, the lines of the sidewalk, the angle of the van, the position of the firemen, the oil/water mix at the curb–all these elements came together as I clicked.
By coincidence, this morning I noticed a bus shelter ad for the firefighter program at Centennial College which features a photo of firefighters putting out a car fire.
