If you read my blog, you remember this post where I finally started participating on the 52 weeks challenge that my friends, photographers Whitley and Kate, prepared for our photocommunity to keep the ideas fresh. I need to admit:

I am so behind the schedule! This is meant to be week 9 – hats, yet I am only posting the theme “water”.

This is from our spring trip to my home town in the Czech republic. My father is a small aircraft pilot and enjoyes much hanging out with his buddies on the airport and taking care of the machine… And the flying of course. The flying … a dream the human kind has had since the dawn of time. Once a year or so at my home town’s airport the firefighters have an excersise with a helicopter – learning how to fill the sack with water in case of bigger fires where a helicopter has to help from the sky with putting out the fire.

I, of course, took the opportunity to be there. Not only because of my little boy, who was absolutely thrilled and smiled the entire three hours in the wind, noise and flying little stones. Also because I wanted to try a reportage or event type of photogaphy. It required much different skills than portraits, as you can well imagine. This is what I got.

The theoretical part … my home town’s firefighters, in orange are firefighters from Prague, the helicopter belongs to the police force, in black jacket a police officer from my home town and in blue overall the pilot of the helicopter.

Waiting around and getting the sack attached to the helicopter…

It was loud and windy … and my lil princess doesn’t like either of those conditions … well well well.

Firefighters had no problem, put the helmet shields down and no wind or harsh sun could harm them. Filling the sack was not an easy task, everyone had to try.

Hitting a marked spot with water. The pilot was really skilled. (And also listened well to all instructions that I asked from the local guys to give him. “More between me and the sun!” and such… hehe.)

And then it was time to pack up and leave back to Prague, where the helicopter flew in from. It was almost noon and at 1pm the air space above the Czech republic closed for many days because of the volcano eruption. We got stuck in my home town for another week, but we enjoyed the extended time with my family much much much.

The 52 weeks current topics are these:

1. Time
2. Trees
3. Books
4. Candy/treats
5. Chair
6. Water
7. Money
8. Shoes
9. Hats (yesterday)
10. Tools (next Friday)

Roger and out.