I've probably never been more nervous on a shoot and just wanted to make sure I captured some stuff worth keeping - I wanted the images to truly reflect the day and when they look at them 20 years from now, I want them to feel like they did on Saturday.
I realized a few things on Saturday:
One, being that I cannot emotional handle a Marine coming home to his family and watching his daughter run to him. I don't care who you are, if you don't have a frog in your throat - you aren't human. Two, I sat at a local Frozen Yogurt parlor and hung with the family and snapped a few more shots. At one point, I caught the man of the hour, Staff Sergeant A. Kelly, alone with his daughter.
He sat with her, each just enjoying the other's presence and he kissed her on the head. I realized this day was way bigger than I thought. Here's a guy sitting in New Jersey, eating frozen yogurt with his family at 11 am on Saturday morning - when not even two weeks ago he was in Afghanistan fighting for my freedom. Boggles me. He's a different breed of human being, and I thank him for that.
OOH-RAH
