Photographer's Narrative

This image was taken during firefighter training. I had spent more than six months trying to get attached to the firefighters for training, and once they allowed me to document them, I wanted to take advantage of it. I noticed one airman first class training on donning his helmet as quickly as possible, and every time he put his equipment on, he was hunched over. When I started taking images of him he became solider-like and stood straight up. It took some convincing, but I asked him to just be himself and not to worry about the camera. Next thing I know, he was putting his helmet on again, and I saw this image in my viewfinder.