One question that I am asked a lot is if anyone can submit a photo or if you have to be a firefighter. Anyone can submit photos, it doens't matter if you are associated with the fire service or not. If you took a photo or photos that others might be interested in seeing, then by all means submit it. With that, there are some guidelines that must be noted.

Vehicles and Stations: 3/4 angles for posed vehicle shots are preferred, but not required. Those are best especially if you want to see your photo featured on the spotlight page. It takes a great deal of time to update the site, so please take a look and see if your photo is different than what is alredy available as I'm not gonig to post a ton of photos of the same truck, especially if it's an active rig. I will use as many photos as I can, but I do reserve the right to not use anything that is submitted. It's a submission, so just because you send it doens't mean I'll use it. The main focus of the department pages is apparatus and primary response vehicles. Support vehicles, such as fire prevention and chief officers, are a case by case basis as to whether I'll post the photo and information for them. I know some like complete fleets, but I only have so much time and there has to be cut offs. But, if the vehicles are posed nicely in the sun, then I'll most likely add them. I do not post trailers or non motorized vehicles. As of this writing I do post boats that the agency operates.

Police Vehicles: I will accept photos of police vehicles for the Spotlight page. I no longer have a police vehicle archive due to space and time constraints.

Fire Scenes: I will post fire scene photos to the weekly page as well as the archive. However, when submitting these photos, please send the date of the fire and location of the incident. You were there, so you should know unless it's a photo you took years ago and don't remember. I will post multiple photos of an incidents, but may limit ones that are fairly similar to each other (like two photographers taking the same shot or two shots taken in rapid succession).

MVA's and other incidents: Please send in the location of the accident and the date it took place when sending in the photos.

Candids: Candids are great, but for some reason I get a lot of these with no information. If you can, please include the names of people in the photo and where it was taken (IE after a fire, at a training drill, ect). If you don't know the names, that's ok, but please include where and when it was taken.

Other: If it doesn't fit in the above category, ask. I like variety on the weekly page and enjoy posting different types of photos. Being former Coast Guard, I like photos of USCG cutters, boats and aviation, so if you send it in I'll probably use it on the Spotlight page.

When submitting photos there are a few things that are a must. Please sign your full name to the email, even if you've contacted me before. I get tons of emails every week and I don't always remember everyone's last name or who is connected to what email address. Credits are a must on the photos. I know that some photographers would rather not use their names for various reasons. As long as you took the photo, we can ajust the credit for you. I can use your initials, say it's courtesy of the department, or I can say it's a "Firenews Photo". I will not use handles like "Battleship Bill" or "DowntownTruck53".

If you didn't take the photo the actual photographer's name MUST be included with the email. And, you MUST have his/her permission to use the photo. And please tell me this when you send in the photo, not 3 days after I do the update. It wastes a lot of time having to go back and correct things when the info should have been included in the first place. I understand it's not intentional, but help me out and try and remember all the info when you submit the photo.

You may submit a photo that is not yours if:
A) You own the rights to the photo. Or, in the case of candids, you are in the photo. My view is that if you are in the photo, you should be able to share it as long as no money is being made. If you are in the photo, please still include the photographer's name if you can.
B) A department official may grant permission to use a fire department photo. This means the chief or his designee such as the deputy, PR officer, or webmaster. The guy that just got hired last week doesn't count unless the chief told him to send it to me.
C) Photos that are over 25 years old that you own and are part of your collection may be submitted so long as you say they are part of your collection and don't lead me to believe you took the photo. You can not say a photo of a brand new Pierce that was delivered ten minutes ago is part of your collection. If you know who took the photo, please include that information as well.

Photos are posted at a resolution of 800X600. Please keep that in mind when you submit photos via email. If you send in a small image, it won't look good when it's resized, thus I can not use it. Large originals are ok, just watch the file sizes as many email servers have a 10MB per email limit. Photos can be submitted to me via email at WEBSITE EMAIL. I answer all email submissions/inquiries, so if you don't get a reply within 72 hours then I most likely never received your email. If you are on Facebook, you may also post photos to the Facebook Group if you want to. CLICK HERE.

This is my site and is privately owned and operated by myself. I reserve the right to accept or reject any photo submitted. Just because you submit a photo, doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to use it. With that said, I try and make every effort to give every photographer a chance to have their work displayed. I have to set limitations, but this site is for the benefit of everyone and I make the best effort to acknowledge anyone that wants to contribute.

As always, thank you to the countless photographers that submit photos. You make the site what it is. Keep taking photos and keep sending them in.

PHOTO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

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