{"id":707,"date":"2014-01-16T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raquelmariadillon.com\/?p=707"},"modified":"2015-04-23T05:52:27","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T12:52:27","slug":"707","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/raquelmariadillon.com\/?p=707","title":{"rendered":"Water-dropping helicopters and worried residents: yet another SoCal fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"North<\/a>

driving selfie, North Co. San Diego fires, May 2014<\/p><\/div>\n

I shoot so many wildfires that they all tend to blur together.\u00a0This one was\u00a0above Glendora last January. I fed three times that day, which is impressive because up in those hills, cell phone coverage can be spotty.<\/p>\n

The challenge is always the same: Explain how weather, topography, or the people who live there make\u00a0a\u00a0particular natural disaster unique.\u00a0Get close to the action but not uncomfortably\u00a0close, which is even harder with the\u00a0short zoom on my little camera. Make the visual\u00a0details — firefighters’ faces or creeping flames or people’s precious possessions ravaged by heat — tell the story.<\/p>\n

NOTE: I didn’t write or edit this package (obviously, because the San Gabriel Valley requires a definite article, the copy makes it sound like\u00a0this\u00a0bedroom community is in the boondocks, and the Jesus statue at the retreat center\u00a0needed some set-up in the script). They didn’t even use the best stuff! Isn’t that the videographer’s lament?<\/p>\n