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