By Erick Galindo

Daniel Belis has a green wristband around the barrel of his camera lens that cautions, “When the fire strikes, get out and stay out.” But the 22-year-old Pasadena (Calif.) City College student isn’t afraid of the heat.

“I like chasing fires,” he said. “I love being up close and going wide with the lens.”

When Belis was 14, his father gave him a police scanner. The gift enabled him to monitor reports of fires so he could photograph the scenes. But he did it so often that he became desensitized. A conversation with a firefighter set things right.

“He told me that to the victims, it wasn’t just another fire,” Belis said. “It was more significant. He taught me that I had to have compassion.”

Belis sees photography as a challenging way to tell a story.

“Photographers make something out of nothing,” he said. “You can shoot a picture of a dead body and that doesn’t tell you anything. There is no story. But if you shoot the photo with someone crying in the background of the dead body there is the story.”

Belis photographed the California wildfires this past November. He has also started to record video footage. He has an internship with KABC-7 in Los Angeles and has interned for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group.

Belis says he hopes to move into broadcast journalism and use techniques he has learned as a still photographer.

“My wife’s going to be a doctor,” he said.