Two Posts In One Week...

Two posts in one week, maybe I am getting back on track, now to make time to post on my Shippensburg fire history blog. Like I mentioned in my last post I have not been out using the camera so I will be digging into last years files. I do have some ideas for future posts like crappy photos of interesting subjects. We have all taken crappy photos, some of us more than others. Many times they were something that we would have loved to have nailed but didn't for one reason or another.

Today's shots come from the rut at SNP last November. The first photo is a small buck and one that many would not even consider photographing because of his size. As you all know by now from looking at my blog I photograph all deer from fawns to does and small bucks. This one begged me to photograph him standing behind the split rail fence. I just really liked the look and the lighting. The second photograph is a fine example of when the lighting is really bad. I followed a couple of bucks into the woods one morning only to find that there was five or six of them. They spent the next 30 minutes chasing each other around grunting and doing what they do best in the rut. They did make getting photographs difficult because of all the contrasting light and flat light. The break areas were also very small giving one little time to make adjustments and focus on the shots. I came away with what I would consider no keepers but really enjoyed the time I spent with them.

Catching Up...

Did you ever wonder how you schedule can get so full? That is what I have been trying to figure out lately. This winter was filled with work, scouts, bears games and everything else including work. Yes I said work twice, it seems like I spend allot of time there and this is the first time I have felt like it really interrupted my non working life. After photographing the whitetail in SNP for the rut I only made one day trip to the Connowingo Damn for the Eagles, and that trip was a bust. I never made there again, didn't get to Middle Creek for the migration, no walks around the local watering holes, no local wildlife, no Black Water for the foxes and worst yet no winter trips to SNP and Elk County for the big game in the snow. The cameras have sat doormat with the exception of one fire all winter. I didn't even take it along to the battle of the Buldge at the Gap this year. I hope all that changes soon. I really need a wildlife fix.

With everything going on my life has been going through many changes. Linda and I have begun selling off many of the things we have collected over the year in a downsizing process to make retired life easier. Most of my fire service collectibles and antiques are being sold, the fire engine should be gone soon. I recently purchased a new Harley Davidson that should be in this week. Wow! after 21 years without a HD I will finally be riding again and this one will last me the rest of my life. I just hope I find time to ride it. And speaking of Linda yesterday was her birthday soooo HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA. You still look like that young girl I married almost 27 years ago.

Now for the photos, when I last left you sometime last year I was posting about the whitetail rut in SNP. I don't remember where I left off and don't feel like looking back so I will start be saying it was not like the previous year. Acorns were so abundant that the whitetails were not as easily found and that you actually had to work for them. Even with that said it was still great to get away, be in the mountains and spend time with wildlife and great people. I will make time for it again this year no matter what. The first photo is sunset from one of the lookouts in SNP. I am not much of a landscape photographer but is was a beautiful scene and I had to snap a few photos. The other photo is a nice nine point buck that just got his butt kicked by another nine point buck. This buck came across the Meadows hoping for a chance at a couple of does only to be ran off each time. Of course this all had to happen during the mid-day harsh sun. The fight was exciting to listen to if only they had not been in such a thick area I could have seen it also. I was one of the few lucky ones to photographs this big guy as he came out all dejected since everyone else decided not to lay by the rules and approach the animals in the woods. The effect uneducated people have on the wildlife is the subject of a whole other post.

That's all for now, maybe I can get another one in this week since it is only Monday.

Catching Up On The HFD...

Battalion Chief Dan Hartman on his last night and one of his last runs with Emanual Stoute (T1).

BC Hartman on his last night with retired Assistant Chief Bownaze and retired Lt. Doug Bair.

Dustin Ventresca and Mike Souder getting signatures on our petition in the uptown section of the city. Dustin resigned last month to move into a more stable job (who would have figured the job of a firefighter would not be a stable position).

December 2010 uptown B platoon crews worked this accident after arriving to find a SUV on its side with a man trapped underneath it.

"B" platoon uptown extinguishes a tan bark fire next to the Governors mansion.

"B" platoon members Billy Holtzman, Wil Turner and Deshawn Dennis take a break after working a multiple alarm house fire in the gut earlier this year. This was the second day in a row that a "Mayday" was called by one of our firefighters in trouble in a burning building. For real!, one of us could die doing this, can't be this is the sweetest job on earth (sarcasm and I will leave it go at that).

One of those busy days from bank robbery crashes, gas leaks, automatic fire alarms to car fires uptown. The city firefighters just keep getting the job done no matter what.

Nothing like rolling in at 3 a.m. to find eight vehicles involved in an accident with ejections and truck well involved with a running gasoline fire like the "D" platoon did a couple of weeks ago.

All photos were taken with my point and shoot, I may not be the best photographer but I wouldn't want you to think that this was the quality I get from my DSLR's.

The last time I left you with the HFD we were fighting for our jobs. We managed to keep them for a number of reasons but we can't leave our guard down as I am shore we will be going through this in just another few short months.

The department still dwindles down as the once proud department of 105 is now down to 78 after BC Dan Hartman (32 years), Robbie Sullivan, Lt. Andy Weaver and firefighter Steve Snoke have all retired long before they wanted to. Along with firefighter Dustin Ventresca resigning to take a job in HAZMAT in our nations Capitol after working so hard and long to get on the HFD. In all the slots and seats still need to be filled no matter how many men are on the job and overtime is the norm instead of the occasional. I remember when I hired on you took every o.t. offered to you because it only happened a few times a year. Now you can work one, two and sometimes three in just your four day break.

Through all of this the men and women of the department continue to come to work and provide the citizens and guest of the city with the best fire and ems protection possible. Calls have not decreased even thought manpower has and even with the quantity going down the quality remains the same. I just hope that the toll does not become to much that one of my brothers has to make the supreme sacrifice. This year alone we have had two mayday calls and three near misses. That is more than should occur in a lifetime.

Next post I will bring you up to date on my outside life.

It has been a long time since my last post...

Hello everyone, it has been a long time since my last post. I have plenty I could post but nothing is prepared. I could be revisiting the Elk and Whitetail ruts that I was posting when I stopped or I could be posting a few HFD calls I photographed or even bringing you up to speed on what has been happening at the Harrisburg Fire Department, but I won't for now. Instead I think I will bring you something new since it is prepared.

If you have been reading my blog for sometime then you all ready know that Shane and I are very much into history and World War 2. His paper work is in everything he needs to go to war (summer time anyways) from the HBT uniform to the belt, haversack and small items right down to the Springfield M1 Garand have been purchased, now it is time to face the enemy. His first encampment should be the beginning of June in Reading. If I have everything I need for battle I just may join him in camping out that weekend.

We have already attended one event this year, the Battle of the Buldge with about five more planned. Now it is time to read all we can on the 45TH infantry to really play the part and pass on the living history. It is always fun to find things to do with your children and even more so when it is remembering those who served this country. It will be an honor to keep their memory alive and pass along history to the next generation.

I guess now is the time to give you a little back ground on the photos. Late last year Nikon came out with a new body the D7000 that took what was good about many of their DSLR's and incorporated new features like full 1080 HD video capabilities with auto focus and stereo audio recordings. Needless to say I was a little excited about a new camera body. The camera had been unavailable at every location until about two weeks ago when one of the large New York dealers got some in. I had been very active selling items on eBay and other places in an effort to downsize with retirement potentially nearing. Along with that I sold the D70 and passed along the D90 to Shane with the intent on getting the D7000. About two weeks ago the camera arrived at the front door and from the time I unpacked it the excitement level rose.

Things have been busy and weather lousy so I had not used it except to photograph my feet and the cats as I played with it learning the new controls and menu. A couple of days ago Shane's M1 helmet arrived and before you knew it he was dressed and ready for battle. Wanting photos for his face book page was perfect, I can try out the new camera. It felt great, I played with high ISO settings and was surprised at the low noise on the LCD, it even sounded different than the other four Nikon DSLR's I have owned. Now it was time to download the card and get his photos ready for him. With the card downloaded and in Adobe Bridge it was not allowing me to open them in camera raw, I could not even open them in Photoshop. It was time for some research even though I already had an idea of what the problem was. Shore enough CS3 is not capable of handling the new NEF files from the D7000 just like CS2 was not able to handle the new NEF files from the D300 when I purchased it. I found that the only way to work the files was to upgrade to CS5 or Lightroom 3. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time so now I have to.

I have not gotten the new programs yet, I am excited about them but not the learning curve required of someone with my computer skills. So you are wondering how did I post these photos if I didn't purchase the programs yet. I remembered that if you use the in camera editing features and save the new file to the camera it keeps the original raw file but the new file is saved as a jpeg. That is exactly what I did then opened them in Photoshop cropped and resized them for Shane too use.

For all you bloggers out there that I frequent I know I have not been commenting lately but I am still looking, Willard is still teaching me thing and posting great stuff, Coy's photos are always awesome and I enjoyed your Florida birds (I am not getting there this year), Woody, I am glad to see some new post, you catch to many jobs to not share them with us and Haney's is always interesting. Are you shore that is you at the snow bank, wow we looked young once. I am hoping to start posting more often on both sites very soon, but for now thanks for stopping by.

Silver Springs Fire Continued...

When I posted last time I spoke briefly and showed a few photographs from a fire last week behind my house. You could tell from the photographs that I arrived before the fire department and began photographing and videoing the fire. In the video before the FD arrives you will hear the sound of a 20 pound propane tank as it relieves pressure and begins to burns. For those of you not in the fire service you will be able to see the flames intensify from this in the front right hand corner of the building. For you old timers like me it is in the 1-4 corner, quadrant A, first floor. For you new fangled talk like rocket scientist it will be the AB corner on division 1.

Response to the 31-02 box brought companies 31 (Silver Springs), 33 (New Kingston), 27 (Citizens Mechanicsburg), Truck 28 (Washies Mech.), 25 (Monroe Twp.), E23 (Upper Allen for R.I.T.) and Air 45 (Carlisle). Manpower was pretty good for a daylight as enough men showed up to handle numerous buildings this size. The blaze was knocked down rather quickly and further damage was averted. There appeared to be no injuries in battling the blaze and companies remained on the scene for several hours. I did not speak to anyone concerning cause or damage dollar amount but according to the local paper the occupant started the car went back inside and came back out to find the garage burning.

Garage Fire Close To Home...

Wow! it really has been a long time since my last post. I want to thank those of you that posted supportive comments on my last post and that went out and signed our petition. Soon I will make a new post on what has happened in the last 25 days in Harrisburg. Lets just say it has been a crazy and busy time period.

An incident that occurred yesterday morning (12-30-10) prompted me to make a post today as I planned nothing more for today except for hockey, football and beer. Did I say beer?, I meant good old Porter beer and winter ale. After getting home a little late from work yesterday morning I was making breakfast when at 9:16 a.m. Cumberland County 911 toned out area companies for a reported garage fire at 160 Texaco Road in Silver Springs Township, Cumberland County. With Texaco Road being just behind the house I though I would get the camera out dust it off and see if it still worked. Looking out the back window at the header gave me all the incentive I needed and off I went. I arrived the same time as the incident commander and ahead of the fire apparatus. The photos go on a time line in order and as you can see the garage was well involved upon my arrival. It was a one and a half story block and frame two car unattached garage with one car inside. In photo two you can see when the springs left loose that held the door up allowing it to come down. This is just one of many dangers a firefighter faces on these types of calls along with flammable liquids, floor pits, pesticides and other items stored in the building. Photo three shows the lines man on the first in engine stretching an attack line to extinguish the blaze. I must say he did a very good job in deploying the line. In the last two photos he and his partner begin attacking the fire.

Within the next few days I will make another post on this fire with a few more photos and some video. And hopefully next week I will post about what has been going on in the city recently. With any luck I will be back to posting regularly again in another week or so.

For now I hope everyone out there had a safe and joyous Christmas and an equally safe and Happy New Year.

Help My Brothers Out..

I need to be very careful what I type in here to insure that I am not in the unemployment line also. For those of you that live in my area you already know what is going on since it has been the main attraction in the papers and news for the last 11 plus months. For those of you that do not live in my area then I will tell you that I have been a Harrisburg Pa fireman for more than 20 years know. Because of decisions NOT MADE BY THE FIREMEN the city finds itself in debt by almost $300 million dollars. It was decided that it would be fixed on the backs of the hard working firemen so effective January 1, 2011, 10 of my brothers will be laid off. These guys worked hard to get this job, passing numerous tests waiting long periods of time, completing a fire academy and most of all uprooting their families from their homes and moving them into the city as a condition of employment. Our work schedule will also be changed to 24 hours on and 48 hours off raising our work week an additional 14 hours per week. Along with the downsizing to three platoons nine officers will be demoted. I would like to point out that this is all in violation of our contract.

Please if you live in my area work, play, live or visit Harrisburg please sign our petition to attempt to stop this. Someone is in the Union Hall 2048 Derry Street every evening from 4 to 7 p.m. and firefighters are out walking door to door in all neighborhoods, one can also be found online at http://www.saveharrisburg.com/. Feel free to write city hall and the local rag we call a news paper. Our men did not create this problem, in fact you will see none of our names on the documents to borrow all the money that put us here. I really do not see why we need to be the only ones to feel the pain when the FOP, ASCME, and managers in city hall do not miss a beat this holiday season.

Please do not believe everything you see and hear on the television, for some reason they all appear to be on the take. We have presented cold hard facts about just who did create this mess and why our overtime is so high along with many other items to channels 43, 27, 8, 21 and the bathroom wipe my ass with it Harrisburg Patriot but for some reason the never air or print any of it. Yet just this morning (SAT.) channel ABC 27 Dennis Owens was quick to point out that we (HFD) were given a four year contract extension by Mayor Steven Reed before he left office tying the hands of Thompson and creating her more heartache. Why do they never mention that the other two unions were also given extensions or even that ours does not go into effect until January 1, 2013, so how is that effecting us now. I will not even go into the differences between the contracts and what the police get compared to us. But if you visit the cities web site the contracts are on there.

Because of my work schedule and other commitments and the lack of anyone looking at my site anymore with the exception of Sparky this will be my last post for some time. I will start posting again sometime in the future so please stop back from time to time to check.

Thanks
Tired, pissed off, confused and just plain fed up, Brad

10 Point Close Up...

Not much to say again today other that WOW!, can you believe it is December already. At this time when everyone is to be happy and thinking of pleasant things I find myself only worrying about my future and the jobs of my fellow brothers in the HFD. I wish I could get it out of my head just for one day but I can't even get it out of my head for five minutes. This photo was taken during the whitetail rut in SNP in early November this year. He crossed the road in front of me and went down a hill into a thick area leaving me to photograph nothing but a close up.

Back To The Elk Rut...

Away from the whitetails today and back to the Pennsylvania Elk. My brain has not been working right these days leaving me at a loss of anything to type so I will just leave you with these photos taken along Dewey Road during the rut in September.

Pre-Rut Whitetail Sparring...

Sorry I missed an extra day of posting on the site, I have been a little preoccupied lately. For those of you that live in my area and watch the news you will understand. Depending on my schedule with helping the union and trying to save jobs this may happen more frequently in the near future. I would like to elaborate more but I am scared my anger will take over and I will type something in that I regret.

Today's whitetail photo and video are from my pre-rut trip to SNP during the second week of October. I think I posted a video from this encounter earlier and I know I mentioned it. This was early morning when it was not light enough to capture good still of the action without raising the ISO higher than I like, but it was a good time for shooting video. The video is the first one I recorded from this experience, you will see four nice bucks in the group. There was one other buck and a number of doe's and first year deer in the herd. The still photo was one of the few that I captured that was worth posting.

Happy Thanksgiving...

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully you are all spending time with your loved ones, eating big meals and watching football. If you are traveling I hope you have a safe time of it. As for me I find myself working once again this year (this is three years in a row). With any luck no turkeys will be burnt in the city and it will not start out with a cardiac arrest as it did last year. It is hard to imagine how the volunteers coming from the suburbs would be able to save the mans life like we did last year after we are replaced with a volunteer force in this time of declining volunteers. But while we are still on duty we will continue to protect the citizens to the best of our abilities at all times.

I photographed this flock of turkeys in late September while in Elk County to photograph the rut. There was maybe 20 in the flock but they did not give me much of a chance as I had to shoot them through the opposite window in the truck.

Follow the link to view more great Camera Critters from all over the world.

Same Buck Different Lighting...

This is the same buck as yesterdays second photograph but in a different lighting. Once again I tried to incorporate some of the environment but not as much. With this crop the emphasis is still on the buck but he does not fill the entire frame, I have left him with a sense of space and a place to look and walk to. The lighting is also much different than those of yesterday, this photograph was taken early in the morning when the sun was barely up. One can tell just how low the sun is by looking at the shadows from one antler onto the other. At this time of the morning in the Big Meadows often times the images take on a golden yellow to reddish color lighting. This is not something that is just captured on memory cards but is plainly visible to the eye when there. The one thing you will note from my trips is that you will see many of the same animal in different poses and actions. When working a small area you see the same bucks and does or bulls and cows everyday.

Learning To Incorpotrate The Environment...

I have been trying to tell myself when I am out photographing wildlife that I need to get different shots than I am used to taking. One of my favorite photographers is Thomas Mangelson, the one thing that sets him apart from others is his ability to incorporate the environment into his wildlife photographs. Often I find myself filling the frame with the wildlife and not enough of the environment that tells the story of what the animal is doing. I also have a bad habit of wanting to take those portrait type photos. None of these things are bad as long as I take in the whole picture and photograph the wildlife and its surroundings and habitat. While in Shenandoah National Park earlier in the month for the whitetail rut I attempted to do just that many times. Sometimes I was successful other times they found the delete button with me wondering what I was doing. These are just two of the examples that I kept, what do you think. Should they have found the delete button also? In the first photograph this nice nine point buck was driven off by another nine point numerous times, on this occasion after running aways through the big meadows he decided not to try it again. In the second photo this buck was working one doe in the back part of the Big Meadows one cold morning, I spent a fair amount of time alone with him and her snapping away.

You will notice a difference in the photos even though they were both taken in the same general area. This is attributed to the lighting. The first was taken on a warm sunny afternoon and the second on a cold morning after the sun came up and went behind the clouds (ISO 1000). Lighting is so important to photography and the natural light and time of day can drastically change what an image looks like.

Back To Elk Country...

After leaving the elk alone for almost the last two weeks to post coyote and whitetail deer photos, I thought this might be a good time to give you a break from that and return to the elk post for a day. These were taken along the Dewey Road in Elk County late September during the rut. I have spoken on the elk rut that much that this is not much left to say. I need to begin posting something other than big game, I have visited Wildwood lake recently and just visited Conowingo Dam yesterday with Haney. Maybe some bird or military photos are in order for the future.

More From The First Day At SNP...

After photographing the buck I posted yesterday I traveled onto the Big Meadows area in search of more whitetails. But not before running into another photographer that was shooting Nikon equipment and top of the line new products at that. As always that was a mistake as I now have it in my head that I need the new D7000 body to replace the D90. If I only had my last purchase of big lens and wimberly paid off so I could buy it.

Back to the whitetails, the deer did not come out to great me and ask me to photograph them like they did in the past. In fact the deer seemed to be scarce sticking to the woods and really making me work for it. On of the first things I noticed was that there were none in the meadows, then I noticed all the apples laying under the apple trees. That seemed strange until I ventured into the woods to find many acorns at ever step. I guess the combination of many people being there on the weekend along with all the food in the woods gave the deer no reason to venture out. I did see a few but nothing worth photographing until the sun was almost setting behind the horizon. At that time in SNP along with early sunrise everything takes on a golden color that can be found in the first three photographs. Note the little buck with the broken antler and broken tine off of the other beam. The one thing I have been trying to get at SNP with no luck is some silhouette photos of the deer during sunrise or sunset. I had no luck this trip in getting them with the exception of this one shot, which happens to be the little buck with the broken antler. The trip did pick up but not the way I expected, more on that later.

To enjoy more great Camera Critters from around the world follow the link.

First Buck Of The Rut...

On Saturday November 6Th I traveled to Shenandoah National Park to photograph the whitetail rut. The plan was to leave early in the morning and stay until Thursday morning November 11. As usual things didn't go exactly as planned. It was almost noon until I got leaving, brother firefighter Randy O'Donnell called me about a retired mans breakfast they were having that morning for guys that worked at the Mechanicsburg Navy Base Fire Department. I worked there before leaving for Harrisburg in the 80's. They have had the breakfast before but for some reason I was never able to attend, I decided I was not going to miss this one. I am glad I went, I got to see men I worked with and have not seen for over 20 years. It was a great time and I hope to get to do it again next time.

On to the rut, after reaching the park I was greeted with temperatures of 28 degrees and a strong wind with snow flurries. Not what I hoped for but great for wildlife. Before reaching the Big Meadows I spotted a guy sneaking along the road, that could only mean one thing. I found a place to get the truck off the road and walked back to find this ten point buck laying in the woods. What a way to start the trip. I was content to photograph the buck where he lay but the other guy with his point and shoot camera just felt he needed to get closer. As almost always happens he spooked the buck and that ended the session. Unfortunately that happens much to often. More on the trip later as this was not like any other trip I have ever had to SNP.

My Real Coyote Keeper Photograph...

This is it, note the vole spread eagle just inches from his mouth.

Today as promised is my real keepers of the coyote with the vole he captured for lunch in SNP. I know there has been other photographs taken by many other photographers that would top this but the first photograph with the coyote jumping and the vole in mid air is one of my best and favorite wildlife photographs I have taken. The lighting was decent but I was trying to keep the ISO at 400 or below, that kept the shutter speeds down causing me to miss a number of the action photos from this encounter. In hind site I would have cranked up the ISO a bit more. That is a dilemma I struggle with many times in the field often making the same mistake.

After playing with his capture (yesterdays photos) he finally picked it up allowing me to see what he had. This lasted only seconds as he walked a few feet away with it and ate it in what seemed like one gulp. He then walked away ending our two day encounter. While in SNP for five days recently to photograph the whitetail rut I only seen him one more time and that was early Wednesday morning yielding no photographs. As often as I visit SNP I have to believe there will be more encounters in the future with this fellow and other coyotes. The rest of the week I will begin to post photographs from the recent whitetail rut.

Please visit my son Shane's blog today for a new post.