This is a somewhat old shot of mine by now, but I wanted to throw it on here and give a little blurb about these guys. My girlfriend Trista and I were driving from Freeport, IL to Crivitz, WI and stopped for gas in Fitchburg. I saw behind the station a fireman sitting out in front of his big green fire truck. The light was so soft with the cloud cover and I knew just had to take a shot of this guy. Trista and I walked over and I introduced myself, “Hi, I’m Chad McClarnon, I’m a photographer from Nashville, TN and just saw you sitting here, I’d love to take your photo, do you mind?” He said he didn’t so I started shooting.
The stuff I was getting was good, not really great, but right when I think that it’s missing something the man pipes up and asks if he can run and grab the rest of crew to be in the shot. Obviously the answer to that question is always yes! Below is subsequently what the scene turned into.
Thankfully a couple weeks after I shot this I was able to drive back up to Fitchburg and drop off a print for these guys. The response to it has been wonderful, if any of the guys in this shot happen to read this, please leave a comment or drop me another email, I’d love to hear from you. And if Trista and I ever make it back up to Fitchburg, we will definitely call and take you guys up on your offer for dinner at the station.
And if anyone reading this is a photographer…Always stop, Always ask, you just might find some buried treasure!
This shot is the frontmost image in my portfolio book at the moment.
The symmetry of the four fireman’s hands and arms intrigues me. Arms crossed, fingers laced, arms crossed, fingers laced. I am wondering did they just do this at random and you happened to capture it, or was this planned?