Okay, I am not sure where to start.....but let start with this little disclaimer....I am a photographer, not a writer, and though I did excel in English in college, I am still not a writer. I am the worst speller on the face of the planet. You will never meet a speller worse than me. So, while reading and enjoying my blog, please understand that I will spell check it once and then call it day. Good images speak for themselves.
On to the good stuff, I had the pleasure of shooting my very first military homecoming!! This has somewhat been in the planning works since January when me and my client, Debbie were talking about her husband Nicks upcoming deployment and how she was going to basically be a single mom for seven months and I asked her if she had ever thought of doing a military homecoming.
She had thought about it alot, in fact, so much so that she had an outfit picked out and purchased for her baby girl, Lillian, before she was born. So, we have been keeping this under wraps since January. This has been keep a tighter secret than my Christmas sessions!
So I had set the date aside in September, and I set aside the whole day because I knew I had to go through the security process and all and being it was my first shoot of this kind I had no idea how long it would be, I thought I would be there all day. And then the date kept changing!! Thank you to hurricanes, tropical whatevers and the government the date changed I think three or four times.
So the night before the 'big day' I am going through the details with Debbie and where to meet etc....here is the plan I was given lol
Set the alarm for 6:00, shower, get ready, here is where it gets funny. Debbie says to me, if I am doing okay in the morning lets meet at my moms house (closer to Mayport than her house) and I will come get you and her from there.
If I am freaking out in the morning you go to my moms and ride with her and I will pick yall up from the park and ride near Mayport. But I think I will be okay.
Morning off comes and I am ready to go!!! I call Mary, Debbies mom, and say I am a little behind due to traffic and I am freaking out that I am going to be late for this once in a lifetime event. So I will meet you all at the park and ride, she agrees and gives me directions to park and ride. Then Debbie calls me and she is freaking out! She will meet us all at park and ride, now that we are all riding separately lol she then gives me different directions to the park and ride. So I start to sweat and freak out more. I stopped on Mayport road to get a third opinion on directions to the park and ride from the nice gentlemen at the Kangaroo, he was right by the way. I get to the park and ride and I am the first one there. Uh oh. Mary is turned around, not lost, turned around. Debbie is close but not there yet.
Once Debbie gets there it is now time for us to be standing in front of the ship on base and Mary is not there yet, so she is contemplating leaving anyways and having Mary find us on base. So, after a few phone calls, we are doing just that, leaving the park and ride and going on base and Mary is meeting us there.
Once we get on base Debbie is so excited to see Nick, she is not the worlds best navigator, and I am in the backseat with her two kiddos, Logan nad Lillian and Debbies brother Dalton is in the very back of the SUV thingy we are in. And no one is in the seat up front, that was Marys seat. I am reading directions from the back seat while Logan is yelling, "I see the boat I see Daddy! I want to get out!!"
Side note, Logan thinks that his Dad is on Noahs Arc and he is expecting to see animals. LOL.
So, being that we see no road signs we are lost and Dalton and I are trying to help Debbie from the deep depths of the SUV thing over Logan yelling. I did offer to drive, several times. And I did also point out officials that we could ask for directions. We found the boat and couldnt actually get to it, so we had to drive all the way around and ask an officer who directed us to park in a certain lot and we were all good from there. From the back seat I am scouring the lot for open parking spots, I totally offered to pay the ticket for her and park in handicap, I know its wrong but I don't care at this point, I want to see this reunion.
I find the first spot that is so small I cannot open my door to get out. So I have to (THANK GOD FOR DALTON) hand over my equipment and climb over the seats and out the back of the vehicle. Meanwhile, Nick who is on the deck of the ship, can see us pulling in when we got there.
Once we got there and got out of the car, the military homecoming stars aligned, we immediately found Mary and we found Nick on the boat and he was one of the first sailors off the boat!! So, all this being said, I hope you all enjoy this little preview from my very first (and hopefully not last) military homecoming!!
If you or anyone you know are interested in scheduling a military homecoming or any other type of session with Unobstructed Studios please feel free to contact us at any time and we will be glad to work with anyone to get them the images they want from their special event. Our contact number is 904.657.0867 and email is contact@unobstructedstudios.com. We are always accepting new clients and welcome new faces :)
And this is where Debbie just went ahead and went under the ropes to great her husband and it was so touching to be there for that moment. I actually pushed a grown man out of my way to get this shot, I did apologize afterwards, but come on, who steps in front of a lens like that!! Jeez!
Someone clearly takes after their mother with going under ropes LOL!!!
This was so cute after everyone started clapping, and stopped clapping actually, Lillian started clapping too!!
I don't think that Logan is going to let Nick out of his sight for a while!
I have never, in more shoots together than I can count, seen this boy this happy, it was amazing! He had the hugest smiles as soon as he saw his Dads boat!
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