Day 2

Today we began our two-day Forensic Photography component of the course. We began by attending the morning meeting. Again, there were several cases, which we are not quite used to in Halifax. There were quite a few interesting cases, including two Gun Shot Wound (GSW) victims, one found floating and one burn victim (which none of us had ever seen before). After the meeting we were given a tour of the photography lab by Mr. Leonard Wolfe. He told us that everysingle case that comes to the morgue is photographed a minimum of 9 times but some cases can be photographed into the hundreds of times. He showed us all the equipment including a printer that could print over 400 pictures per hour. Next, we headed to the Auditorium for the lecture component. I was incredible to see how precise pictures must be and how easily a picture can be distorted bases on an incorrect angle, lighting, focus, distance, as well as many other factors. During the lecture he told us stories of the worst things he had ever photographed, and some of the storied were quite surprising! He also showed us how to enhance pictures in order to emphasize a certain characteristic.
After eating lunch, we returned to the auditorium where a salesman named Nathan showed us a high-tech digital microscope he was hoping to sell to the ME's office. It was incredible to see the amount of detail that this microscope could see including the blood cells travelling through the vessels under the surface of the skin. After the digital microscope presentation, we had about 2 hours until the bus would be there to pick us up so a few of us decided to go see if there were any autopsies left in the autopsy room. Unfortunately, the doctors in the autopsy room were just finishing up the final two autopsies of the day. However, we were able to obsere one of the bodies being fingerprinted and photographed. We were quite interested in seeing the burn victim case so we asked Dr. Rodriguez about it. She said that the body was probably still in the freezer and brought us to see it. Although the body was not severly burnt, it was still so interesting to see how the skin was charred and to note that it actualy smelled like barbecue charcoal, which is not what I was expecting. On our way out of the freezer we saw a partialy opened bag that contained animal remains. After leaving the freezer, we began to exit the autopsy rrom and observed a victim's clothing articles laid out to be photographed. The shirt was soaked in blood and had a few holes in it. We then exited the autopsy room and joined the others, that had gone to the bone room to pack up bones, in the auditorium. Although we spent most of the day in the auditorium listening to lectures, it was still an extremely interesting and eventful day, and I cannot wait until tomorrow!