Charity Fest: Poignant Moments With The Military by Brady Withers
What I loved most about Brady Withers’ giving back project was the “we” aspect. Here’s a group of friends, all photographers, looking for a way to give back together and take advantage of their combined expertise and energy! It’s a great concept and one that we’ll continue to follow and maybe I can talk Brady into doing a guest post after their next military shoot if it happens in June! Come on Brady – you did so well on this one, time to add some images of the day’s event.
About three months ago a group of friends and I were discussing how we could “give back”, we wanted to do something different, we came up with the idea to photograph families of soldiers serving overseas and then sending the soldiers the pictures. As I began sending out emails to the Utah National Guard, Air Force and Military, something much bigger happened, and has become the single most rewarding thing I have had the opportunity to work on.
I received an email from a contact at the Utah National Guard asking me if I would be interested in photographing the soldiers and their families during their deployment. 11 of us went to a deployment in March and Photographed 87 soldiers and their families. It was 2 of the most humbling and emotional hours I have ever had as a photographer.
The reality of what the soldiers and their families are giving up really hit home when I took a picture of a soldier with his 4 month old daughter, the same age as my youngest. He placed an American flag in her hand and cried as I took his picture. Each photographer involved called me the day of the deployment asking if they could be involved again. Everyone had the same awesome experience.
Working with a local print shop, I delivered 2 4×6’s of each family to the Utah National Guard, one for the soldier and one for the family. I was honored to be able to meet the General and was able to talk about future deployments, all of which I am hopeful to be involved in. As fate would have it, the unit I took pictures of was my fathers unit when he served in the military! Sometimes you can’t help but be amazed at how things work out. In June we hope to be going to a deployment of 300 soldiers and we are in talks to photograph the same soldiers when they return. Brady Withers May 3, 2010
This post has 4 comments
May 5th, 2010
Thanks for putting this up! I have really enjoyed reading about other photographer’s events and look forward to reading more. If we do end up Photographing the deployment in June, I will make sure to get some sort of release so I can showcase some of the photos, thanks again
May 6th, 2010
I am one of the photographers also involved in this project and I have to say I enjoyed what I could do for these soldiers and their families. It is the least I could do for them.
May 6th, 2010
I also was lucky enough to be invited to this special photo shoot. This was a very surreal and emotional experience for all of us.
While we were outside waiting to go in someone mentioned that “some of these people might not come home and we may be taking their last family photo”. I think that really struck a chord with all of us. We were humbled.
May 6th, 2010
Words can not describe the emotions involved with photographing familes that may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice. The shared love, kindness, pride, sorrow and tenderness exhibited by the military families still makes me misty eyed. My thoughts and hopes are with them. It was an honor to be a part of this special project. My thanks to the families for allowing me the priviledge of being part of their special day.