Honoring Those Who Serve...

While I never served in the military I have a great respect for those who have. I guess having so many members of my family who currently or have served makes me realize how important members of the military are and how much they are appreciated for all they and all veterans have done for this country. So, despite my often complaining and cynicism as well as my hatred of shooting parades. I'm not going to complain about having to cover the annual Veteran's Day parade.

This year, shooting the Veteran's Day parade was especially humbling. while trying to get some shot of the Dyess airmen marching by while framing them around people waving flags and cheering as they marched by I got a nice shot of a lady and her family waving flags. After checking the LCD screen on the back of my camera I liked the photo and went to get names for my caption information. After talking with her I found out her son had been in the Army and was killed in Action in Iraq four years ago. She told me she was out there to both support the veterans as well as honor her son. Over 13 years here I've dealt with plenty of people, but there are a few that I won't soon forget and Aurora Fernandez is one of them. I couldn't imagine losing a child like that and she was out there with her family honoring him, it was touching.

70 Years Ago...

Wednesday I worked a very rare morning shift in order to be able to go to my wife's Christmas party. So, I had to go shoot the remembrance ceremony of the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Stuff like this is often tough to cover, I'm always trying to find good images but at the same time the most important thing is to be respectful and not running all over the place and drawing attention to myself. The good part about this is the event was being held outdoors, which is always nice and allows me to feel like I can fall into the background a little easier. The shots I got from the flag raising gave me a little more confidence and allowed to me work things and take a few more chances. The event wasn't all that long, about 20 minutes and much of that was speeches so there wasn't a whole lot of variety to shoot. So, at the end of the ceremony the bugler playing Taps, with the flag in the background and the pretty blue sky as a backdrop was the shot I knew I wanted. It was exactly what I wanted, simple, clean and told the story well.

Honoring Those Who Served...

Last Thursday, in preparation for Veteran's Day I had to shoot some airmen from Dyess Air Force Base placing flags at the headstones of those buried at the Local Texas Veteran's Cemetery. This was the second year I had shot it and it's good that I had done it last year, since last year I noticed there were almost as many airman putting out the flags as there were grave sights. Knowing this, plus knowing the right places to shoot to get the best light helped since the whole event is over in a snap. This year I just stayed in one spot and basically staked out where I was going to shoot, it was just a matter of waiting for someone to place their flag. It worked out really well, everyone was only putting out 2-3 flags. So, there were quite a few out while I staked out the spot I was at. In a period of only about 2 minutes I was able to get both my shots. From relatively the same spot. That was a good thing given that the whole cemetery was finished in less than 15 minutes. Thank god for nice light.

Veteran's Day...

Abilene is an incredibly patriotic town. Therefore, Veteran's Day is a big deal. Now here's the problem... Nobody has Veteran's Day activities the day BEFORE Veteran's Day, but in order to get it in that day's newspaper that's pretty much what has to happen. Luckily, the local veteran's cemetery puts flags in front of all the grave sites the night before. So, when I called out there to check they were happy to have us out to shoot the volunteers putting flags at the grave sites. So, when I showed up the volunteers started coming and coming and coming. That would normally be great, but this cemetery just opened last year and there are only 281 grave sites. And with 70+ volunteers putting the flags out, it goes by REALLY quick. I literally had about three minutes to shoot and it was over! Overall I was happy with what I got, but wish I had more time to work the situation. It was nice that some of the airmen who put out the flags stuck around to pay their respects and read the grave stones.