I was in downtown Birmingham looking for the Photowalk gang mojodenbow.info/2008/03/31/april-fools-magic-city-photo-w… and saw a huge plume of black smoke up in the mountains (10 miles away) I couldn’t see what was burning but it was big and so I set off to capture it. Upon arrival, the area was swarming with onlookers and emergency workers.
I rushed to the gate with cameras in tow and was stopped by the police, even with my media badge. Reason being it was private property and the apt manager (The Enclave at Mountain Brook apartments) was insisting no press because of the negative images it would portray (faulty safety guidelines)?
A police officer suggested I get creative if I wanted any photos. Th place inside the complex had hoards of kids running to/from the fire on the back side of the complex just to see what was going on and could care less about their safety.
What made this worthwhile was the fact I had beaten the mainstream media by 10 minutes.After getting my shots, they came running down the hill towards the blocked entrance where I stopped them and told them no luck and why.
Eat your heart out again, mainstream media!
**UPDATE**
I wonder how the hell the Birmingham News got these photos?? blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/04/large_fire_reported_at_apart…
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