Our Soldiers Are Coming Home

I am so thankful to see that our soldiers are coming home.  I can't even imagine how those of you with soldiers coming home feel, but I can be there to help you remember how incredibly touching your reunion was.  Don't miss the chance to capture those emotions on film.  You will be so overcome by love and emotion during your homecoming that you may just hug your soldier and keep that camera in your hand... I can be there.  I can capture your blessing for you at no cost at all. This is my gift to you, our military and their families.  This blessing comes to you through an organization that is very dear to me (Operation Love ReUnited) and it would be my great honor to be there to capture your celebration of this day.  Please contact me if this is a service you can appreciate.


Below is some text copied from the Operation:  Love ReUnited website http://www.oplove.org/index2a.php to familiarize you with these sessions.

**Please understand, Operation: Love ReUnited sessions are for deploying, depolyed and returning military families. Many of our photographers offer seperate pricing for military members if you are interested in family portraits. Thank you! You can also find more information HERE.**




Introduction To The Program:


If you have ever been through a military deployment, there are no words to explain how hard it is to send the father or mother of your children off to some foreign, dangerous land, leaving you all behind…. Alone. It’s indescribable to watch their faces light up as their mother or father comes up the stairs of the airport after months, possibly a year or more, of not hugging each other. Emotions fly through the main lobby, it’s so very good to have them home. Your base’s Family Support Squadron will help you with your deployment. But the last thing on your mind when your wife or husband arrives home after a 4 to 18 month tour, is capturing all this love– on film. Most people are so overwhelmed with emotions they forget to simply point and shoot the camera they are grasping of their child’s first hug, or that single tear of relief from a mother being able to hold her twenty year old son again. With the help of Operation: Love ReUnited and local photographers near your base, you can.


The Operation helps those long months go by a little faster. It’s designed to capture moments that you will never remember. It’s art. It’s love. And it’s all made possible by artists wanting to give something back to those who make the United States what it is, and ask for nothing in return- but to come home.


If you are a member or family member of the United States Military, and are interested in having very special and touching images with a patriotic edge taken of you and/or your family before a deployment or during, and at your reunion, please contact a photographer in your area now. You will receive a substantial package as a gift in appreciation for all you have been through as a military member. The package will always include a 4x6 album of pre-deployment images, such as a child’s hand clasped in his parent’s with the faint glimpse of a BDU sleeve, a marine in dress with his family, a salior with his parents right before departure, or a child playing dress up in combat boots and a helmet. The album will be sent to the deployed soldier by the photographer, at no cost to you. Also with your package, all session fees will be waived. Your photographer may have a designated package or other options for Operation: Love ReUnited participants at their discretion with a signed model release.


About Pre-Deployment & Deployment Sessions:


OpLove Pre-Deployment & Deployment sessions help you say goodbye and cope with being away. Anyone who has had to see their husband or wife, son, daughter, sister or brother off to war knows how hard it is to watch them walk away from you. Our photographers are part of the program as volunteers. They feel your pain, many of them being military spouses or family members themselves, they want to listen, they want to help ease your worries, they want to do what they can to help you through this deployment, and we do that with photography. Your initial session will be either with your spouse before he or she deploys dressed in their dress uniform or BDUs for most of the session, or if you find OpLove after your loved one has deployed, your session will be done without your loved one keeping a patriotic theme that could include dress, hats, BDUs, boots and other military gear, but they will still experience all the love & benefits that OpLove has to offer.


About Returning Sessions:


When your loved one comes home from a deployment, the last thought on your mind will be your camera. Most people are so overwhelmed with emotions, they simply forget they are holding it in their hand. Once you find out about the time your loved one is to return from his or her deployment, please let your photographer know. They will want to accompany your family to the welcoming home of your spouse or loved one, and capture that first glimpse, that first embrace, and all the love that surrounds every person who walks off that plane, into their families arms. From this session photographers have the choice of presenting you an album and/or a CD of images.


**Please note that orders may be requested. Pre-deployment sessions in which the deploying spouse is participating, should include their military uniform, dress or BDUs, being worn for most of the session. Some images may be taken in civilian clothes but please understand that this program does not focus on traditional family portraiture. If an OpLove session takes place and the spouse has already been deployed, the session should keep a patriotic theme including military gear such as hats, uniforms, boots, etc.


Sessions are limited to clients up to two times per year per deployment upon schedule availibility. Both sessions may be completed by different photographers, and are of the clients responsibility to schedule. "Rainchecks" are up to the photographers discretion and are not of their requirements. Photographers are NOT required to offer all types of sessions. Three types of sessions are made available; Pre-Deployment, Deployed, and Homecoming/Reunion. Only two (2) may be acted upon per client per deployment per year.