Shooting in Hell: What It’s Like to Photograph Wildfires –Getty Images FOTO

When photojournalists cover fires we’re wearing the same protective gear as the firefighters. We’re wearing fire suits, helmets, carrying shovels, everything. I remember walking into a restaurant to have breakfast one morning with some other photographers while covering a fire and everyone in the place started applauding. When we told them sorry, we’re just journalists, we don’t deserve that, people said no, we did deserve it, because we were putting ourselves on the line to get the story out there. That sort of validation of what we do, by the people we do it for, is so gratifying.