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About me...
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Fire Service
I joined the Surrey
Fire Brigade (Surrey Fire & Rescue Service) in April 1984 at the age of 18
as part of the Retained Duty System
(RDS)
at Lingfield Fire Station. Over the years I progressed through the ranks
until achieving my present rank of Watch Manager
in
May 1996, I am currently responsible for one fire appliance and 14
personnel of both RDS and WT/RDS
status.
I hold the
Queens Golden Jubilee and
Fire Brigade Long
Service
& Good Conduct
medals,
and have a
Chief Fire Officers
Letter of
Recognition.
Between August 2006 and April 2007 I operated within the role as Surrey's on-call
incident photographer providing incident & training
images for the Services Publicity department. From May 2007 this same role
has
been provided through
the independent use of
Fire
Photos.
Photography
My photographic career began as a Freelance
covering the
conflicts
within
the Former Yugoslavian regions of Croatia &
Bosnia Herzegovina.
During the Croatian conflict I worked briefly as a Stringer for
the Reuters news agency prior to enlisting as a member
of
the Bosnian Croatian Army (Hrvatsko Vijece Obrane) serving
as a combat
and intelligence photographer covering combat
actions
from May 1993 to October 1995 alongside the HVO
forces within Central Bosnia.
During subsequent years as a
Freelance Press Photographer
I covered a variety of news events
including the conflict within
Kosovo, the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, the funeral of The
Princess of Wales
and Political and Anti War
Demonstrations
in Central London.
I am a member of the:
Central Bosnia
1993
~ Fire Brigades
Union
~
National Union of Journalists
~ International
Federation of Journalists
Fire Photos 2008
About Fire Photos...
Fire
Photos
is a
UK based stock photography agency located in the South East of
the country providing still images
of the worlds fire
services, from stock images of equipment and
procedures to the on-scene images of operational incidents.
Fire Photos
is continually adding new images to it's stock library and over
the coming months will be
working with fire crews worldwide
from Occupational, Public, Volunteer, Airport, Military,
Historical and Overseas Fire
Services on assignments.
Visual impact is an idiom used to describe the efforts of modern advertisers,
propagandists, film and television producers. It
is of no less
importance to a
fire service in the production of its
internal publications, fire prevention literature, publicity material, training
documents &
in the layout
and design of operational equipment.
While on a fire ground every opportunity is taken to capture images of any
latest
equipment in use under operational conditions for
training,
instructional, and publicity purposes.
Without the understanding of all fire fighters at incidents it would be
difficult to capture the images I do, and it is down to the
professionalism
and respect that we afford each other that we are able to complete our
roles effectively & safely. It is a sad fact that on occasion life is lost,
it is with respect that I
acknowledge our fallen on the
REMEMBRANCE page.
Incidents,
training scenarios and assignments so far photographed alongside fire fighters of;
Why shoot fires? “The scenes one covers, the pictures one gets
-
they run the entire spectrum of human experience
and emotion:
fear, panic,
pain and tragedy;
empathy, compassion, heroics, and even, at times,
humour.”
Thomas K. Wanstall
Incident response....
As a serving operational fire officer I have a high level
of incident ground
behaviour and procedural knowledge, including
safe working
and incident command which allows me to operate safely within an incident ground alongside fire crews at all
types of incidents and
training scenarios.
My operational
experience allows me a unique degree of access
that no
other
media photographer could safely be provided
without
the proper training.
This experience also allows me to understand
how an incident may develop
and any associated
risks, my own
understanding of the operational context and needs of incidents
allows me to operate without the need for close supervision.
Incidents of interest Nationally and Internationally are attended
speculatively,
at
the request of a County Fire Service
or on
behalf of a specific media publication.
Fire Photos
may attend the following levels
of incidents on a
speculative basis;
firephotos.co.uk
firephotos.co.uk
Fire Photos
provides a 24 hour
no cost
on-call incident
response on behalf of
any County Fire Service as
the sole
attendee or
in full support of a
fire services own resident
photographer.
Fire Photos costs
are be covered by
RETAINING THE
FULL
RE-SALE COPYRIGHT OF ALL IMAGES TAKEN.
Full copies of all images
are provided on disc to the relevant
fire service for
their
UNLIMITED FREE USE.
Whilst attending
any incident
Fire Photos
follows fire ground
procedure by
initially reporting to the Incident Commander &
Incident Command Unit.
An IC tally will be left for the full duration of
the
time spent in
attendance at any incident and I will also liaise closely with
any designated Fire
/ Police Press Officers on scene.
~ NO hourly rate (turnout
fees are covered by
Fire Photos agreed image
re-sale rights)
~ NO equipment costs
(cameras and there insurance protection are provided privately by
Fire Photos)
~ NO PPE costs (current
specification Tunic and Leggings are provided under agreement with
Bristol
Uniforms)
~ NO Injury liability (full injury
protection is arranged privately by
Fire Photos
with NO
liability being held by any County Fire Service)
~ Larger incidents involving
hazardous substances where additional appliances have been requested
~ Major incidents initiated
by a Fire Service or the Governmental Agency
~
International Fire Photographers Association
~
International Organization of Fire Photographers
~ Six pumps and above
locally, ten pumps and above nationally
(locally being Surrey, East &
West Sussex, West Kent)
~ Incidents of special
interest or significance, i.e. rail, air, motorway crashes, severe flooding,
substantial FDR3
