48 Hours With the US Marines

Over the weekend, I was invited to Outdoor Odyssey, which is a multi-faceted nonprofit corporation founded in 1998 whose primary mission is to serve area youth with a mentor and provide a unique wilderness experience at its 500-acre camp.  In addition to providing guidance to local youth, the camp is also active with the Wounded Warriors program, which was the reason for my visit.  During the previous week, Outdoor Odyssey hosted several dozen US Marines who were recovering from various wounds they received in the military and now preparing to reenter civilian life again.  I was fortunate enough to spend most of Thursday and Friday with the men and women at the camp and in that short time, I was inspired, intimidated, honored, ashamed, and simply amazed.

Pine Richland Baseball Seniors

My last few posts have all been updates on my veterans portrait project so I think it’s time for something a little different…

I’ve always loved sports and photography so naturally it’s my goal to be able to combine the two and make a living at the same time.  A couple days ago I spent the afternoon photographing the seniors on the Pine-Richland High School baseball team for their senior poster.  It was a really cool job as I had almost no guidelines on the final image and could shoot whatever I felt, I didn’t even have a time restriction but ended up spending only about an hour with the team.

Veterans Project Update

I just wanted to give a brief update on my veterans portrait project.  I finally uploaded all of the portraits I’ve shot up to this point along with a brief bio of each veteran.  Seeing all of the images next to each other really helps to give me a good look at the direction of the project and where I can make a few changes as well.  When you get a chance, spend a few minutes browsing the images and learning about a few World War II veterans.

All of the images can be seen here:

http://marchesephotography.photoshelter.com/gallery/Veterans-Breakfast-Portraits/G0000NYk2ROb4Iaw/

More variety in my posts to come! (I promise)

What It Means To Be An American

Over the last month I’ve met veterans from WWII, Vietnam, and more recent wars.  A question I like to ask them is how they become involved in the military.  Every one of them has their own personal reasons but they all shared a common theme; it was their duty as a citizen of the United States to do so.  While some enlisted, others were drafted but they all performed the duties assigned to them in combat and peace with pride.