THE STORY BEHIND THE IMAGE

 This image was taken when I was covering a wildfire in Seagrove Beach, FL, for The Walton Sun. Having covered other wildfires north of the bay the previous week, I had seen the coordination of aircraft to dump retardant on the fires. There was a small spotter plane that would pick the approach ahead of the big aircraft.

When I saw the aircraft arrive, I went to the top floor of a condo building to get what I hoped was an advantageous point of view. Several other local photogs also followed me up but did not stick around long enough.

As I waited a little longer, the spotter plane came on approach from the water behind me and I knew I would get the shot. Using a Tokina 2,8/300mm ATX Pro lens with a Nikon D2H, I followed the dump aircraft in as the D2H and its autofocus tracking worked to perfection.

After the image ran on the front page of that week's edition, I got a call from the chief photographer at one of our sister dailies close by. He asked if the Sun had rented a plane for me to follow the other aircraft. When I told him the whole story, he congratulated me on my foresight.