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While firefighters are pointing hoses at a fire, Kimberlee Hewitt is pointing a Nikon camera. As a photojournalist, she takes photos that tell the story of the fire. These photos are useful for documenting the activity of the fire department and for fighting fires in the future.

When she is not at the scene of a fire, Kimberlee may be taking photos at a press conference, activities at Ground Zero or other fire department events. Her photos may then be seen in fire department literature to recruit new members, in the media to show the work of the department or in training manuals.

Besides taking the photos, Kimberlee also edits the photography of other photojournalists and keeps archives of thousands of fire department photos. She works closely with a computer program called Cumulus, which is a photography archiving software system that stores photos. It allows users to search thousands of photos in many different categories.

There is no typical day for Kimberlee. One day she may be shooting photos of the fire commissioner and the mayor at a press conference, and the next day she may be covering the graduation ceremonies of new FDNY firefighters. At the end of each day she downloads her photos onto the computer and edits her own work to make sure the best photos are saved.

To succeed at this job you need a good eye for photography. Kimberlee first developed her skills in high school and college, taking photography classes, and working on the yearbooks and student newspapers while majoring in photojournalism. She considers her work on her college newspaper as an important step in her career.

She then went on to be a photojournalist at Newsday and a photographer at the Brooklyn Art Museum before beginning work with the FDNY.

Kimberly feels you need a love of photography, determination and organizational skills to do this job well. She also says, "The more you take the camera out and shoot, the better you will become, so take every opportunity to do so."