Fire at 298 Beacon

Boston, MA 032614 Firefighters fought a 9-alarm fire, the highest of its type in the City of Boston, at 298 Beacon Street in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. Two firefighters died in the fire and several others were taken to local hospitals for injuries. (Essdras M Suarez/ Boston Globe©) Behind the Scenes: Yesterday I was at the Museum of Science doing a very elaborate lighting portrait of a scientist and shortly after setting up the lights and the background I noticed a couple of people pointing towards a plume of smoke in the Boston side of the Charles River. I immediately called my office to let them know but they were already on top of it. I was asked if I could get there but much to my chagrin I had already setup for the portrait and it wouldn't have been a quick thing to disassemble the lighting set up I had created. And the subject had yet to arrive. He finally came and I did my job as fast as I could and packed up as quickly as I could and then tried to make my way to Boston. Traffic had become pure gridlock and because of lane closures. I decided instead to see if I could photograph it from across the river with whatever limited focal length I might have had in my car. These were the resulting images. I was so far away and I could tell this was a horrible scene. I wished I would have had my 500 mm with me in the car. But as I always tell my students: The best photo is the one in front of you, and the one you can make with whatever equipment you have at hand. TECH STUFF: Nikon D4, Nikon D3s, 70-200mm 2.8 and 300mm 4.0, ISO 80, WB: cloudy, Speed 1/640, DOF 5.6 and 9.0