Photo Op!

 

These guys loved to get their photo taken, it never failed, they saw the camera and would group themselves together as though they thought they would get a copy of the photo right there and then. While I would walk around with my camera out, trying to take pictures of everything, most civilians did not want their photo taken, but the soldiers would without a doubt pose themselves, group themselves and ask for pictures to be taken. I don't know if there was some preconcived notions from other soldiers that inspired this but they ate it up.

 

I would like to add though that as I was working on this compsition, I used a few different photo references to get just the right grouping and mixture of what was going on. I think color would look great on this on and can't wait to block out some time and get busy!

Calling in the Bomb

 

I had the esteem pleasure of working with and hanging out with the FST'ers for a time before the deployment. I wonder if I would have had a better... I know my experience in the army would have been completely different had I worked more with the this group of individual.

 

I have had this sketch hanging at the battalion area for quite some time and just the other day the individual that 'posed' for the reference shot asked me if he was really hanging up at the battalion conference room. I guess not everyone understood what could happen when you get a photo taken of you during a deployment.

 

I am getting excited for great and wonderful things to happen as I more forward with my carreer. What a wonderful adventure the army has been and no one knows if this roller coaster will ever end or how the ride comes to a complete stop. Just remember to keep all arms and hands inside the ride at all times and hold on tight and scream through the drops!

Training the few

I think this is what I planned on doing a lot more of, and this was the mental preparation that I did before going over to Iraq, especially in the 'closing down' period. I can't say we did very much of this, although it did happen. But to cover my bases, it was a very different experience than I would thought it was going to be. Lots of ups and downs, too many expectations and the build up did not match the actual event nearly enough to compensate for the varied experiences that have caused a traumatic return home.