On Saturday morning I went out to the Lady Bird Wildflower Center for the Statesman to cover a firefighter memorial ceremony.
Three families were there to remember three firefighters who died while fighting fires in Texas. The ceremony started around 11 a.m. with several speakers and a gift presentation in a courtyard, then at noon moved to an area along a walking trail where a tree was planted in honor of the firefighters.
The Wild Flower Center is usually a beautiful place, so going in to the assignment, I was hoping for some beautiful photos. However, I knew that this would be a situation I’ve been in many times before where there would be a small crowd sitting in rows while a speaker addressed them from a podium.
That brings me to the challenges of this assignment. I’m going to address each challenge and how I handled it.
Sensitivity
During memorial ceremonies, I think it’s important to be sensitive to mourners. It’s a privilege for them to let me take photos during their private moments, and I never want to take advantage of that. So Saturday when I got to the Wildflower Center, I kept my distance from them during the formal ceremony and used my 80-200mm lens to shoot from the outskirts of the seating area.
Then, during the less formal tree planting ceremony, I was able to move in a little closer. But emotions were still high when it came time to write down their names. I tried to approach them humbly and be sensitive to their loss. They were all very nice and I didn’t have a problem collecting their names and the stories of their loved ones.
Lighting
Possibly my biggest challenge during this assignment was the harsh lighting. The ceremony took place in the summer in the middle of the day, when the sun is brightest. And for the comfort of those attending the ceremony, they were seated with their backs to the sun, meaning they were harshly back lit. Because of the sensitivity of the ceremony, I had to stand back from the crowd and use a long lens, so a fill flash was out of the question.
What could have been a nice moment between a mourning grandmother and her grandson, ended up like this:
Unfortunately the highlights are far too bright. I did my best to rescue what I could in Photoshop, but it didn’t salvage the photo.
After this shot, I played around with my exposure and ended up with shots like the one at the top of the post.
Multiple Locations
As I said before, there was a formal ceremony that occurred in a courtyard at the entrance of the Wildflower Center and there was also a tree planting ceremony afterwards at a location along a walking trail. After the first ceremony, everyone was supposed to walk together to the second location.
During the whole assignment I was trying to figure out how to capture the firefighters who came in support of the families. For the most part, they just stood in the background far from the other guests, but there were two times where firefighters were featured. The first was at the opening of the ceremony when the honor guard displayed the colors…
And when they lead the processional to the tree planting…
I walked with them along the trail to try to get a better image, but this was the best I came up with that day.
The Tree
When we got to the location of the tree planting, the families were invited to help fill in dirt around the Texas Mountain Laurel tree and help water it.
Iwas thinking before we got there that this portion of the ceremony would definitely be the most visual. I even had a shot in mind – a low, wide shot of family members on either side of the tree with shovels in hand filling the hole with dirt. The tree would have the sun peaking through it’s branches and I would use a fill flash to light up the people and the tree.
Why don’t situations ever turn out like you expect them to? The tree was a lot smaller than expected. It was really more like a bush, very full with a short trunk. It was lovely, but there’s no way I could’ve gotten the shot I had in mind. I had trouble even seeing people around the branches as they filled in the hole.
My best bet was to get as low as possible and try to shoot from the vantage point of the shovel, looking back at the people, without burying my camera. I turned on my fill flash did what I could. Here are two of the better shots I got.
Overall, I was a little disappointed with what I shot. It was a situation with so much potential and, while I documented what happened, I don’t feel like I captured the emotion of the day as best I could.
I’m sorry for the families of firefighters Caleb Hamm, Elias Macias and Greg Simmons for their enormous loss. I hope they know how appreciative we are for their sacrifice.