Being there...

When I first got into photojournalism, one of the first adages I learned was, "F-8 and be there." The F-8 is an average lens setting, and the being there part is obvious: The photojournalist is the only one in the news profession who absolutely, positively has to be at the location of the event to do his job.

The corollary to this is what my dad and grandfather told me over the years, "I'd rather be lucky than good." Luck plays a huge part in the being there end of our profession, and luck was there when I was shooting exclusive fire rescue video on Wednesday.

Just to make this blog a little longer for the folks who have been giving me a hard time about that, I'm going to go back to Tuesday and start from there...

My normal shift on Wednesdays is 9:30am to 6:30pm, but on Tuesday our Assistant News Director asked me to change and work nightbeat to cover a vacation.

So, Wednesday afternoon, Zack Ottenstein and I were on our way around town to collect information on an alleged rapist. Our trip went from the jail to the detective bureau downtown to the courthouse and finished at the Northwest Police Station near Sylvania and Douglas, where the Special Victims Unit is.

With a mug shot and a news release in hand, we were headed back to the station. We were at the corner of Douglas and Central when I heard the police and fire dispatch units for an occupied structure fire. Shooting a fire seemed very much preferable to going back to the station and being handed a stack of editing chores, so I said we should go.

Zack knew where the street was, and we were only a few blocks away. As we headed there, I heard the radio traffic that there may be kids trapped inside.

We pulled onto the street just as the fire trucks were coming to a halt. Not seeing any smoke or fire, I parked just past a hydrant at the middle of the street, figuring that we didn't want to get caught inside the hoses if the FD decided they needed that hydrant.

I pulled my gear and headed toward the house. About three houses away, I could hear the firefighters hitting the door with an axe, but it was the sight that really got me moving. I saw a woman with a baby at a second floor window and a ladder going up. Figuring this would go quickly, I dropped my tripod in the front yard of a house, shouldered the camera and started running.

I came past a tree that partially obscured my view of the scene and started rolling. I watched in black and white (we don't have color viewfinders) as a baby was passed down the ladder, and then a small child. Then the firefighters broke out the window with an axe and brought out a bigger child and finally their mother.

Thankfully, everyone was all right and the fire turned out to be fairly minor, started by a candle in the dining room.

We interviewed the battallion chief at the scene, and later, we interviewed the firefighter who was at the top of the ladder. Both said that it was a very easy rescue. They were pretty matter-of-fact about it, but it seemed pretty impressive to me.

In the interview, the firefighter talked about all the problems and obstacles that could have kept them from making that rescue: fire coming from the windows, being unable to get into the building quickly, having to negotiate around parked cars, trees, and hoses with the ladder, and that none of those obstacles were there for them. At the scene of the fire, one of the other photogs was talking to me about the obstacles (the distance he had to travel, the traffic, etc.) that kept him from getting there when the rescue was happening.

On this day, the fire department didn't have any obstacles, and neither did we. So, an "easy rescue" became exclusive video.

In breaking news, so much of the time, being there is at least 2/3 of the battle and as my dad and grandfather have always said, "I'd rather be lucky than good."