Friday, March 28, 2008

Fire Photo: Cal Fire Tanker 80 - Wildland fire


Nice action photograph of Cal Fire Tanker 80
Credit:Copter 406 (please view original at Gallery > Mark Sweeney > Photos > Fire

Mark Sweeney

Cal Fire Tanker 80

Found at: Photo.net
Source: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6492012

Fire Photo: Cal Fire Copter 406 -Wildland fire

Fire Photo:  Cal Fire Copter 406 -Wildland fireNice action photograph of Cal Fire Helicopter 406
Credit:
Copter 406 (please view original at Gallery > Mark Sweeney > Photos > Fire

Mark Sweeney

Cal Fire Copter 406

Found at: Photo.net
Source: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6492012

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Amazing Photo of fire that is burning in Running Springs, CA

THE BEAST
Photo of fire that is burning in Running Springs, Ca, This picture of the firestorm was taken from the photographers home in Redlands California.
Credit: lateott_156's photostream

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Forensic Engineering and Fire Investigation: Lighting Fire Scenes for Digital Cameras

Forensic Engineering and Fire Investigation: Lighting Fire Scenes for Digital Cameras:

Lighting Fire Scenes for Digital Cameras

Yesterday I was in Beverly Hills doing a fire scene with an experienced fire investigator. It was a house where a fire started below the ground floor. The fireman tore up the floor in various rooms and removed sheetrock as usual and dumped it outside.

The scene was a confusion of possible causes. The house had workman in it doing staining of the kitchen cabinets, there was a mass of electrical wires at the area of origin, and after seeing the fire department photos BEFORE it was overhauled we had some very nice inverted-V pattern suggesting liquid flammables.

In any case, it was the usual mess of trying to take pictures in a deep space with a flash. A flash's light falls over with the square of the distance from the flash. This means that doubling the distance decreased the light power to 1/4. Dark deep spaces look like caves in the images.

The thing to do is to turn off the flash. Preferrably lean the camera, brace it, against some wall or door frame or,k even better, use a tripod. The exposure takes longer to happen, but the results are considerably better.

I intend to do a study on this for fire scenes to give some quick rules of thumb to make it easier for insurance adjustors, fire investigators, expert witnesses and forensic engineers to get some good images. Also the trade offs in various lighting techniques.

Derek Geer
Forensic Engineer
San Diego, California
www.geers.com`

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