Fire and Ice? Fighting fires in single digit temperatures, with a wind chill below zero, thankfully only confronts area firefighters a few days of the year. New Year’s day was one of these days. This morning’s 3 alarm fire in Newton was one of the coldest of my 16 years as a photographer at the Herald. Below are some of my photos. A good job goes out to the Newton fire and police departments and to the mutual aide that worked the fire. BRRRRRRRRRR!

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The scenario: A gunman holed up on the third floor of a waterfront building. Massachusetts Port Authority and State Police inch closer to the gunman. Without warning he starts firing at the officers. Thankfully this was only a scenario during Friday’s training exercise at the fish pier. The bullets seemed real enough, except for the paint that came out of them after discharge. All involved, including me, had to where paint-ball masks and adhere to strict and disciplined commands. State Police STOP team (Special Tactical Operations Team) members including Sergeant Pardo Montagano and Joe Recine strategized scenarios from a computer in one room as the gunman, Trooper Kevin Callahan, did his thing in another. This is the fifth year that State Police have provided this training for Massport officers. The State Police STOP team provides similar training in offices and schools for other police agencies throughout the state on a regular basis.
According to Massport’s Lisa Langone, “Training such as this is part of an overall layered security approach. Massport police work with the State Police, Department of Homeland Security, U.S Customs and Border Patrol, Coast Guard and other city and state agencies to protect our port.” Needless to say, it was quite difficult photographing through that mask. Please see my photos below as Port Authority Police inch closer to me..

Tonight’s celestial show, starring the moon, Venus and Jupiter, posed a photographic challenge. That is, where to view the show. I needed a strong foreground that localized my photo. I hopped in the car and drove north on Route 93. I noticed the trifecta to my left as I was on the Zakim Bridge. I exited Rte. 93 and drove to Charlestown’s Chelsea Street. There, everything lined up, including this airplane. I snapped this photo at 6:55 tonight (Monday night). My lens was a Canon 70mm-200mm set at 153mm, 100 speed ASA, a 13-second exposure at an aperture of f6.3 100asa. The airplane appears as a streak due to the very long (13 second) exposure, and, like a Tiger Woods’ hole-in-one, the jet hit its mark.

I received a phone call and an e-mail from readers in the wake of the devastating fire that struck two Cambridge apartment buildings last week. Both commented on what they thought was a figure, or shape, in the heavy fire in the photo below. One suggested the shape reminded her of the devil. The other said it looked like Mother Teresa. Any thoughts?? See below

I’ve been meaning to upload this photo for two weeks. I photographed Dwayne Scruton, 21, of Westford, and his friends doing jumps on trick bikes at a skate park at Hadley Park in Lowell. Here, Dwayne takes flight off a jump. There was no room for this in the paper so I wanted to get it up on the web as a way to say thanks to Dwayne and friends for letting me have a front row to their show…