la county fire air operations

if you read my blog often you’ll remember that a few months ago we had to have our dog jones, rescued from zuma canyon. if not you can read about it here. oh by the way, yesterday i got the full story that THEY DID offer eric a ride but he insisted on hiking out! so, not what he told me by the way! oh and the other correction needed is that it was la county fire helicopter 18, lafd is la city.
anyway, i sent those pics in that blog post to chief marrone at air ops with a card. on the night of my dads birthday, he left me a message inviting eric, me and of course JONES to say hi and, hold on for this, get a ride! i have barely been able to contain myself the last week or so waiting for this. we showed up yesterday at 10am, jones in tow, with a full plate of my famous homemade chocolate chip cookies, just to keep the thank you’s going.
it was a truly amazing day. everyone i met there was so so nice. we got a tour of the facility, got to hang out with chief marrone, and then got to tag along on a official ride out to camp 8 in malibu! i learned so much and there are so many amazing facts about the helicopters and what these guys do each day that i wish i had brought a pen and paper so i could tell you guys and actually get it right. what struck me most was their bulletin board in the conference room. the only thank you card up there was mine. i just figured everyone sent personal thank you’s to these guys for their amazing work, but sadly its not the case

as our luck would have it we got an upgrade from the bell 412 helicopter that picked up jones to the sikorsky S-70A firehawk! which meant an even more awesome experience and definitely better perspective for shooting. hello, i sat next to an open window! if this was a military blackhawk, i would have been in the gunners seat shooting at things when needed ! instead i got to do the kind of shooting i do best. the open window is kind of crazy that high in the air. but the fresh air and cool breeze is pretty amazing. not to mention that L.A. is gorgeous from that perspective. thank you thank you thank you, chief marrone, our pilot tom, and everyone we met yesterday. you gave us an experience we will never forget. i hope i never (again) meet you under real conditions, but my heart is full of gratitude for all you do. chief marrone is now a fan of my blog, though since he isn’t interested in my wedding work, will keep me seeking out other side projects. he has a print from my route 66 shots on its way now. here are some pics.

there is helicopter 18! jones’ savior.

jones is super excited to ride on the blackhawk.

chief marrone loves jones as you can see. i seriously think he needs his own fire weimeraner.

eric and jones

jones looks ready to go.

me. soooooooooooo excited.

our trusty pilot

jones just realizes we left the ground!

i was literally hanging out the window for these. i kept thinking, what if my lens falls off?

even the freeways look beautiful from up here. i love the lines . . .

downtown, and sadly, lots of smog

hollywood sign, kinda small but i had no time to change to a longer lens

the wilshire corridor, again, very cool lines

trying to show you how big the blackhawk is.

i think jones would make a perfect trauma/rescue/fire dog don’t you. he was sooooo good. he sat there like a perfect dog. he was born to fly.

i love these shots of malibu. i shot these on auto white balance, imported to lightroom and just converted to jpeg. the water really looked this beautiful from our perspective. the kelp beds were pretty extraordinary.

jones eyes started to pop out of his head when he realized we were landing. i think when we were in the air he could only see blue but as soon as he saw the tops of trees he realized he should be freaking out.

the crew we rode with.

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