SOCAL FIRE HELICOPTER FIREFIGHTERS

This image is actually an awesome Photoshop® composite of three images in one: 1) the San Diego firefighters with their crew buggies, 2) their BIA firefighting helicopter and 3) an American flag.

At the shoot, the superintendent started talking about wanting to have the helicopter actually hovering over the crew during the photo, but I suggested we just shoot the copter separately (for safety reasons) and Photoshop it in later on the computer.

It obviously worked and made an awesome end-of-season 2008 crew portrait for the wildland firemen — it is a good example of a photograph we could have produced without the digital compositing, but the Adobe® imaging technology made it a lot safer to do.

GOLDEN EAGLES

The crew Superintendent is Juan Mendez (center of image), Golden Eagles Interagency Hotshot Crew 63, Golden Eagles Flycrew, and Golden Eagles Fuels Crew, based on the Sycuan Indian Reservation. The Chief and founder of the department is Hank Murphy, a Kumeyaay Indian. G. BALLARD worked with Mr. Murphy for some 20 years and they established the now defunct department websites www.gehotshots.org and www.sycuanfire.com.

Professional Photography and Photoshop Artist by Gary G. Ballard, San Diego, California.