actually had two or three fatality fires thus far this season in Cal- ifornia, a testament to how aggressive and extreme the fire behav- ior is this year. SEJournal: How’d you get started in photography? Palley: I started taking pictures in high school for the year-
book. And then when I was sixteen I went to Thailand where my uncle lived, and we ended up touring some of the areas that the 2004 tsunami had hit six months earlier. I was kind of taken in by this feeling of natural disaster. I responded by taking pictures and really connected to the situation by photographing it. SEJournal: When did you get into journalism? Palley: When I was in college, I worked with the newspaper, and got close to journalism that way, and decided that I wanted to try to be a photographer. So I went to grad school for photojour- nalism (at the University of Missouri). SEJournal: What motivated you to make such a strong com- mitment to covering the fire story? Palley: The summer before I returned to Cali- fornia, 2013, I interned at a paper that assigned me to cover a brush fire. There was this million- dollar home that was burning down, and the firefighters were trying to save things out of the garage. And I was very caught off guard by the
Most firefighters know that jour- nalists really aren’t prepared. … So when they know I’ve taken the basic training and have some experience under my belt, they feel much more comfortable around me.
whole scene, this interaction between nature and man, this natural force, our suburban sprawl in the wild and urban interface. I was really interested in documenting something that was going on in (the) backyard of where I grew up in Newport Beach, about an hour south of L.A. I grew into it and started photographing at night. I started get- ting an interesting response, so I decided to keep rolling with it. It’s been nice that it’s been published in places that have helped to fund the project. But if it hadn’t been published, I’d still be doing the same thing, because it’s something that I personally enjoy. A lot of it’s hard work, (and) being out there away from civilization for days sometimes gets a little old, but it’s all worth it. SEJournal: Do the firefighters you encounter also take pic- tures of the fires you cover? Palley: In both the Forest Service and Cal Fire, you can’t take pictures on the job, because they’re paying you. And if you do, they own them. Sometimes they’ll take them on a quote/unquote ‘lunch break’ or something, but they’re really not allowed to otherwise. SEJournal: How have you gotten around the administrative restrictions encountered by many journalists when they cover fires, and gain the access that you’ve achieved? Palley: There’s really no set way to go about it. In California, we have the Media Access Law, which allows credentialed media to cover fires, earthquakes, floods and other disasters, but they’re on their own. It’s actually becoming a real problem. You have a lot of people who really aren’t journalists going to fires now, causing traffic jams. So I decided two seasons ago, that if I was going to do this, I wanted to do it the right way. I wanted to have the same train- ing that a basic firefighter has, the same safety gear that I own, that I use, that I take care of, that I know is safe, that I know works.
Good boots that don’t give you blisters, and a fire shelter — I keep one in my car and one in my pack, in case something happens. SEJournal: When you get to an incident, can you just head out on your own, or do you work with public information officers? Palley: Sometimes it’s just a matter of going up, showing your credentials, letting them know what’s going on, and going into the fire. Sometimes if I have time, I’ll check in with the command post in the morning, and the PIO shop, and they’re usually pretty cool with it. I have what’s called an “arduous duty” red card issued by the Forest Service, and that gets me a lot more access. I’m also tech- nically on a Type II initial attack hand crew on the Cleveland Na- tional Forest. They brought me on to give me some idea of what it’s like to be a wildland firefighter, and also to document the crew, and help them with their recruiting. So having those credentials has been incredibly helpful. SEJournal: Has being part of an actual fire crew influenced the approach you take to your own fire photog- raphy?
Palley: Most fire- fighters know that jour- nalists really aren’t prepared, don’t have the right gear and don’t know anything about fire behavior. So when they know I’ve taken the basic training and have some experience under my belt, they feel much
more comfortable around me, and know I’m not going to be a lia- bility for them. And it really helps for access (to individual fire- fighters). It’s been a really cool lifestyle to learn about. And that really helps when writing a caption to try to tell a better story. Some of these relationships have taken years to cultivate. Some of these people I consider my friends that I’d like to have a beer with. A lot of people on the crew are my age, really good, hard- working people that care about making a difference. And it’s just awesome to share time with them. They don’t get the same recog- nition that the municipal firefighters do, especially the Forest Serv- ice and BLM guys. So, I also try to shoot what they do. Sometimes I’ll just take their picture working and send it to them. And they’ll share it with their families, who’ll say, ‘I finally get to see what you do!’ For me, that really makes the project to hear that. SEJournal: Does the work that you do during the fire season essentially pay for itself, or is that something that you support by your other off-season work? Palley: It’s pretty close. I have to sacrifice some income to photograph the fires. It depends on how much camera gear I end up breaking during the year. But I’ll shoot for newspapers or string for wire services, and sell photos here and there. It certainly helps pay for the gas, the food and the car maintenance. I’ve tried to trade (photos) with companies for Nomex (fire resistant clothing) and things like that, which keeps the costs down. Overall it’s pretty close to breaking even. But regardless, there’s a huge value at being able to work on a project and being able to produce something cre- atively that you can’t put a price on. SEJournal: How do you handle your photography business when you’re out on a fire? Is there somebody back at your office, or do you do it all yourself?
11 SEJournal Fall 2016
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