Twenty years ago, Kyle Miller took a disposable camera on his first wildland firefighting assignment to Alaska.
Since then, the Cody man’s camera equipment has continued to improve, as have his photographs. His shots are now being used in National Geographic, and other magazines and newspapers around the country.
Now the Wyoming Hotshot’s work is finding a new audience in a recently opened exhibition in the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s John Bunker Sands Photography Gallery. Miller’s exhibit entitled Fire on the Mountain is a mix of photos showing the visually stunning aspects of firefighting, while also presenting a more educational behind the scenes look of what being a hotshot is like.
“The Fire on the Mountain photography exhibition at the Draper Natural History Museum intimately connects visitors with nature by sharing the wildland firefighter’s perspective,” said Corey Anco, Curator of the Draper Natural History Museum, and co-curator for the exhibition. “The exhibit focuses on two primary interpretive themes: the role of fire on the landscape and the human element of wildland firefighting.
“Kyle Miller’s selected photographs capture breathtaking landscapes enveloped in flames, juxtaposed with intimate and candid photos of a highly trained and hard-working crew. The accompanying interpretive labels describe the fire behaviors, the tools and techniques employed by wildland firefighters and provide an intimate look into life on the fireline.”
Fighting Fires
Miller started as a wildland firefighter in 2004 in Montana, and continued to advance, eventually taking a position with the Wyoming Hotshots in 2010.
Hotshot crews are highly trained, specialized wildland fire hand crews that perform some of the most demanding and hazardous tasks in wildland firefighting. He’s served in various positions with the crew, currently as a captain.
“I enjoy getting to see all the different places that we go,” he said. “It's one of those jobs that I'm not in an office, I'm not doing the same thing every day, and I really like that aspect of it.”
Miller also appreciates the challenge of the operational aspect of fighting fires and trying to figure out the best way to utilize resources, as well as the camaraderie with the crew.
In a typical fire season, the seasonal crew joins the regulars in early May. The hotshots are usually on the road on assignments around the country by the middle of the month and continue until October. Assignments last two weeks, with a couple of days added on each side for travel.
The dramatic scenes Hotshot crews encounter made Miller want to improve his photography abilities to better capture what they see during fires. So he began using a DSLR camera in 2013, and dedicated himself to learning the process of photography rather than just the point and shoot method.
“It's definitely been a learning curve,” he said. “I didn't have a clue about aperture, shutter speed or ISO. Once I kind of got that figured out, then I started to look at the light and say ‘Oh, this is the kind of light that makes a good picture. I need to look to try find where my subject is highlighted.’”
Looking For ‘Kyle Light’
As an active firefighter and leader of the crew, Miller’s time with a camera is extremely short, so he’s gotten good at recognizing potential photographs.
“I've got limited opportunities to take the camera out, so I'm trying to take advantage of good light so that it actually makes a decent picture,” he said. “Otherwise, it's kind of a waste of my time to hold a camera because on a normal roll (assignment), I would say, in a two week roll, I bet it's out less than 15 minutes a roll. So it's not out very much.”
Miller shoots in low-risk situations when the crew is mainly monitoring a fire. But he’s always on the lookout for just the right light and an interesting subject.
“The crew joke about the light and call it ‘Kyle light,’” he said. “That nice, diffused, low light coming through the smoke is what I’m looking for.”
And while it may not be out much, he started carrying his camera in his pack at all times after missing what he feels would have been one of his best photographs. Working with Cal Fire a few years ago, he didn’t think there’d be anything worth shooting so he left his camera back at camp. While they were working though, a sawyer – a trained professional who cuts down trees and clears vegetation to help control wildfires – was cutting a big burned out oak with the sun dead center behind him.
“There were flames out one side of the tree and the crowns were coming through the smoke, so the sawyer was silhouetted, and it's just this crazy light coming through,” he said. “It definitely would have been hands down, one of the coolest pictures that I could have gotten. I always kick myself for that one.”
Because he often doesn’t have time to set up a photograph, he shoots a little wider and crops the photo to make sure he gets the composition he wants. After years of taking photos though, Miller usually knows when he has a winner.
“That's always exciting,” he said. “It's like, I know that this is going to be a good one. I can't wait to see this on the computer.”
Miller’s favorite picture to this point is one he took on the Alder Creek Fire in 2021. The photo is a 20-second exposure that shows a couple of hotshot crew members unwinding by the Big Hole River near their spike camp. He had one hold a flash behind a black coat to freeze the subjects, while the fire can be seen in the background.
“It's kind of a picture of back home too,” he said. “I mean, I could have walked to my uncle's cabin from there and I went to school just up the road from it. I also enjoyed the technical aspect of it.”
Other favorites include a photo of the crew on a tree limb which he took with a remote and a nearly hour-long exposure of a tree at night. The tree is smoldering and the long exposure shows the ember and star trails.
“I set the camera on a tripod and left the shutter open for a 52-minute exposure,” he said.
It took a while to master night photography and Miller admits his early photographs were awful.
“I went into it like everybody else does, you see flames and it looks really cool, so you try and take a picture but that dynamic range is so big it’s just instantly really contrasty.”
Eventually he learned that extremely low light is needed to make a strong photo so everything can be properly exposed and the flames don’t get blown out.
“It's pushing what your camera can do,” he said. “I'm shooting right at the limit of what I can do and not have an overly noisy picture.”
Kyle Miller, second from right, took this picture of the Wyoming Hotshots Saw Squad in Douglas fir in Northern California using a remote. (Photo by Kyle Miller) 
A crew member uses a fusee to clean up an interior pocket during a small scale burnout operation on the Britania Mountain Fire. The light shining through is known as "Kyle Light" by the Wyoming Hotshots. (Photo by Kyle Miller) 
In this 20-second single exposure, the Alder Creek Fire burns along the Bighole River in Montana with the Pintler Mountains in the background. This was taken from what is called a spike camp, which is a small campsite where a wildland firefighting crew spends the night. It is Miller's favorite photograph he's taken to this point. (Photo by Kyle Miller) 
A fire whirl forms when intense heat from a fire creates a rotating column of air. This rotating column can draw in burning embers and debris, potentially causing the fire to spread rapidly and unpredictably. Fire whirls pose a significant risk to firefighters and nearby communities, as they can create their own weather conditions and spread flames beyond the main fire perimeter. (Photo by Kyle Miller) 
To the eye it was almost hard to tell this tree in Custer State Park, left, was burning except for the occasional lonely ember drifting down. Miller used a pocket tripod and left the shutter open for nearly an hour creating the wild ember trails. Right, a wildland firefighter walks along the edge of the Dixie Fire in northern California in 2021. This firefighter’s job is to help monitor the ongoing backfiring operation and to watch for any embers falling onto the wrong side of the control line. (Photo by Kyle Miller) 
In “Sawyer Silhouette,” a wildland firefighter carries gear including a chainsaw against a backdrop of thick smoke and an orange glow. Sawyers cut down burning trees to reduce the risk of canopy fires and produce firebreaks. (Photo by Kyle Miller) 
In "Reflections," the crew hikes out for the night during a fire in Colorado. Each member of a hotshot crew carries a pack weighing an average of 35-55 pounds. (Photo by Kyle Miller) 
Wyoming Hotshots during a night firing operation. Thick wildfire smoke can significantly reduce visibility by scattering light and create a haze in the atmosphere. (Photo by Kyle Miller)
Creating An Exhibition
Buffalo Bill Center of the West Registrar Rebekah Childers found Miller’s photos on Instagram and pitched the idea of presenting them in the John Bunker Sands Photography Gallery.
“I was scrolling through my feed one day and realized his images would make a great photography exhibit,” she said. “His images are striking, which is what initially drew me to them. He captures the beauty and power of wildfire in a way that makes one stop their scrolling to take a closer look. And of course, the subject is timely and relevant to the contemporary West.”
Miller pulled 50 photos from his portfolio showing various aspects of wildland firefighting that were eventually narrowed down to 30 by himself and co-curators Childers, Anco and Gretchen Heinrich. The images highlight two primary themes: fire ecology and the human element of wildland firefighting.
“The photographs provide a rare glimpse into the world of wildland firefighting, a phenomenon that most people only experience peripherally,” Anco said. “Wildfires burn an average of 7 million acres annually in the United States, based on data from 2000-2020 (NOAA NCEI 2024). Longtime residents and seasonal visitors alike experience the side effects of these fires every summer, with thick, lingering veils of smoke obscuring ridgelines and degrading air quality, exacerbating respiratory conditions.”
The show had been in the works for more than a year, giving Miller time to print the photos and hand make and burn each of the frames. The dynamic photos are printed on metal.
“I was out in the garage for a long time,” he said. “To develop a little bit of charcoal in any of them without burning it out takes a long time. And then you have to clamp everything together, sand it and get multiple coats of finish on them.”
While he got the majority of his photos for the exhibition completed before the start of the fire season, Miller said it was a race to finish by the October deadline. The Wyoming Hotshots set a crew record for overtime at 1,100 hours, with the fire season extending thanks to extremely warm fall. Around 900 hours has been the recent average.
“Normally my expectation is things usually wind down before October, so I was like ‘I've got that buffer to have it all done by October 11,’” he said. “I had to break away from the crew at the end to get it done. We still had people over on the Elk Fire trying to finish up.”
The crew’s first assignment was in Colorado, then New Mexico, before heading back to Colorado and on to California and Oregon. Their next role was in Idaho, and then in Wyoming for the Fish Creek Fire, back to Idaho and and then Wyoming again for the Elk and Pack Trail fires.
Miller also took an assignment as a fire line photographer with the Diamond Mountain Hotshots in Idaho. It was a nice change for the firefighter.
“Normally the photos I take are when it's very slow because I'm operational, so I'm heavily involved in anything that's going on,” he said. “It was kind of nice actually, things are going but my job is to try to capture it now. It was a lot of fun. It's not something that I've ever had the opportunity to do.”
There was an opening reception for the show on Oct. 25. Intense flames, dramatic skies, firefighters at work, aircraft dropping fire retardant, ember trails and a fire whirl ascending are just a few of the dramatic images on display.
“I hope visitors get a chance to see a side of wildland firefighting that they may be unaware of and that they may understand a small bit of what our brave firefighters face on the frontlines,” Childers said. “Fire has always played an important role in shaping the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but our changing climate also impacts their frequency and severity. Several people have commented on the fire shelter that we have opened on a wall – especially while viewing the images of billowing fire, seeing the small shelter that a firefighter may have to climb into in an emergency is humbling.”
Miller hopes people learn more about wildland fires and the job of firefighters through the exhibit. He said many people don’t understand what it takes to put out a wildfire and the limited resources available to do it.
“A lot of people on social media say ‘Why didn't they just put it out?’” he said. “It's not a fast process, it's a very time consuming process. And there's only so many people working because we only have so many people available nationally and there are fires all over the place. Everybody's doing their best to allocate resources.”
Fire on the Mountain will be on display at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West through July 25, 2025. Miller’s photographs can also be viewed at kylemillerphotography.com.
