From my postings of the past few days, you might get the idea that downtown Glendale is a hell-hole of urban blight, and nothing could be further from the truth.  It’s actually a quite pleasant, quaint little downtown area with a family-friendly vibe, lots of character, and an abundance of community activities and festivals that draw crowds from all over the Valley.

In the past year, this memorial was erected in downtown near the Civic Center to pay tribute to the firefighters and police officers from Glendale who lost their lives in the line of duty.  It’s a striking sculpture depicting the men and women captured in a flame while performing their duties.  I shot some hand-held brackets to use for HDR processing.  Probably would have been better with a tripod, but here’s what I got.  These were processed using Photomatix v4, Topaz Adjust/DeNoise, and Paintshop Pro X3: