Chance may favor the prepared mind, but sometimes you gotta plunge headlong into The Suck. Okay, you don’t have to, but if there’s a certain groove in your shoulder, you probably will. Just ask Billy Dry. That’s him in the cargo shorts, looking strangely out of place amid a forest of turn-out gear. Is it proper attire? Depends on who you ask. Some news shooters I know won’t so much as sit in the sun without a Nomex Snuggie. Others chase hurricanes in flip-flops. Me, I’m somewhere in between. I got hip-waders in the car in case of flash-flooding, but I once covered a mud-slide in deck shoes and Dockers. I’m kidding, I don’t wear deck shoes and Dockers. As far as you know, anyway. But, hey, this isn’t about me! It’s about Billy Dry and how he ended up at a forest fire dressed like a third-grader…
As any photog would do I was following the action, this shot led to the next, to the next and next thing I knew I was in the middle of some of the hardest working volunteer fire fighters. I really wanted to show folks at home what these guys did and how they did it because no one EVER sees what goes on inside a grass fire. They see the helicopters dropping water, they see the pumper trucks going in…but inside that wall of brush and thorns, is the story…
See what I mean: passion over planning. It’s that kind of fire in the belly that can lead to indigestion, not to mention a life devoid of leg hair. There are worse things, I guess – provide you get the shot. Billy did, as evidenced by the outstanding clip he enclosed. I don’t know about you, but from where I safely sit, that shot at 1:15 is worth a singed shinbone or two…
Provided they’re not mine, of course.