Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire men.
I was fortunate over the past couple of years to spend time with fire fighters when they weren’t fighting fire. Police, fire and EMS crews are nothing to be afraid of. They’re there to help in times of emergency and when there isn’t an emergency, most of them are very friendly and just want to have fun and do good for the community.
That brings me to my photos for today.
Below there’s a photo I took of Santa and Mrs. Claus in the ladder truck at Central Texas Medical Center when they arrived for the Sights & Sounds of Christmas celebration in San Marcos last year. It’s a tradition that Santa arrives at CTMC, then is escorted to the festival in the park by local fire fighters. I happen to know that this is one of Santa’s favorite things to do all year long.
I wanted to highlight Santa, but still show the lights on the fire truck and the building, along with show some of the crowd. I set up my flash to point at an angle up to the top of the ladder, then zoomed it in so the flash would only shine on Santa and Mrs. Claus. The rest of the photo is under exposed a bit to show off the lights.
The photo at the top of the page shows a tribute that San Marcos and New Braunfels fire fighters created to welcome home a fallen soldier. It was an unforgettable thing to shoot.
They lined up on a bridge that was closed to traffic and draped an American flag between the ladder trucks. Then they had a bag pipe player climb to the top of one of the trucks and play patriotic songs. From there they waited for the family of the fallen soldier.
It was surreal because IH 35 was closed, allowing me to stand on the shoulder to take this photo. A few people lined the highway to watch, but everything was silent except for the bagpipes. The tribute was a perfect welcome home for the soldier’s family.