Days 17-22 of 365

I don't really like doing these multi-day updates, but since I'm still at training and have limited access to the hotel's internet tubes it's just gonna have to be that way. So here are the photos from days 17-22.

Day 17
Raven Over Lake Powell

Day 18
Engine 2

Day 19
Badge of Honor

That's soot on my helmet from my first live fire exercise!

Day 20
Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River

Day 21
Lake Powell's "Wildlife"

Day 22
Inferno

Today was our "propane tree" exercise. The objectives were to give us experience working with a large, hot propane fire, demonstrate how to envelope a fire within a cone of water, and build confidence in our equipment's ability to protect us. Seeing as how I was able to stand less than 2 feet from that blazing "tree" without much discomfort I think the stuff works. This shot is of one of our instructors observing the exercise.

Days 13-16 of 365

Playing catch-up...

Day 13
Storm clouds over Page, AZ

Day 14

Day 15
After a tough day

Day 16

Day 12 of 365

Day 12
Got to spend the evening back at the Castle for a special evening program. Good to see they're carrying on the tradition of offering night programs periodically. Did I mention how weird it is to be back here and not have to work? I had to keep reminding myself to turn off my "ranger face".

Day 11 of 365

Day 11
Ok, so I missed a day. I would blame it on traveling, but that was today. I suppose I could have just posted a random picture, but the truth is that I didn't even touch my camera yesterday, except to pack it in my suitcase, so I don't even have the excuse that I just wasn't able to upload it.

Anyway, I may end up running into a situation over the next two weeks while I'm in Arizona at structural fire training when I won't be able to post for a couple days, but at least I'll continue to take photos each day. I'll just have to do multiple posts or something.

So today's entry is my friend's dog, Fiona. She's the most adorable bloodhound I've ever seen (he paid me to say that).

Day 9 of 365

Day 9 -- "Morning in West Glacier"

Day 8 of 365

Day 8

Day 7 of 365

Day 7
I'm beginning to see a trend starting the past couple of days. I think I need to broaden my repertoire a bit. But at least I'm experimenting with perspective.

Day 6 of 365

Day 6, March 15, 2009

5 of 365

Day 5
One of the skills I need to work on is indoor photography. Birds, mountains, flowers and rivers I think I can handle. But for some reason, when I bring my camera inside the small skill I have seems to fly out the window. I struggle with composition as well as the more technical aspects of photography (shutter speed, ISO, aperture, depth of field). I also seem to lose all inspiration. This evening, for instance, I spent a good 45 minutes just wandering around the house whining that I didn't know what to take a picture of.

The good thing about this "365 Days" project is that it will force me to work under conditions that are less than favorable, particularly those times when I procrastinate until the last few hours of the day. It will be interesting to see how (or if) my photography improves over the next year.

4 of 365

Day 4
I had to help perform the bi-weekly check on engine 2 today. While I'm not officially a firefighter yet, I will be as of a week from Monday. I'm heading to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area for structural fire training. I've somehow got to figure out how to pack all my fire gear (boots, helmet, SCBA (like SCUBA, but without the "underwater"), turnouts (fireman suit), etc.) into a single duffle bag. Should be interested. The cool part is that I get to spend two week playing with fire!

365 Days if Me: Day 3

Day 3: "Commute"

Every morning my commute to work involves a three-minute walk along the middle fork of the Flathead River, which forms the southern boundary of Glacier National Park. This was my view this morning.

I don't know what everyone complains about. This whole commuting business isn't so bad!

365 Days of Me: Day 2

Day 2

And here's an extra one that Sonja actually liked better than the one I chose. So it's today's honorable mention:

365 Days of Me: Day 1

I just haven't felt the blogging bug lately. I don't know if part of it is the fact that it takes forever for blogger to load each photo or if I just haven't been inspired much, but I just can't seem to get in the mood to post much on here. So, I decided to try a project.

For the next year, I will try to take and post one photo every day. I'm hoping that this will challenge me to improve my composition and technical photographing skills, plus force me to get online and make a post. I'm going to keep it pretty open, so some days I might comment a lot about the photo, the process, etc., while other days I may just post the picture. I can't guarantee that I'll actually follow through with this, but I'm sure going to try.

So here it is: Day 1