Military Homecomings have a very special place in my heart.  I can honestly say that they are my second favorite type of session (right behind births). This was a huge homecoming where roughly 300 service members were arriving home from one of our base's biggest deployments ever.   Whenever I am at the airport, or on the flight line waiting very impatiently for that plane to arrive, this quote always runs though my head.

 "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around." -Love Actually

The amount of love and anticipation in the room is really an adrenaline rush.  No matter who is coming home, my hands get clammy, I get butterflies in my stomach and my mind starts going a million miles a minute.  

The W. Family has been counting down the days for months for this one special moment.  I am so honored that Amber asked me to be there with them.  I got to document this homecoming a bit different than my normal homecomings because Amber also happens to live just 4 houses away from me.  I loved being able to be in their home while they finished their final preparations for Andrew to come home.  It was raining and cool out it was also 10:00pm.  Since this homecoming had so many people arriving home it was held on base which is always amazing.  The news was there, and so many of my photographer friends were there as well.  The happiness in this hanger was radiating well beyond the hanger it's self.  Thank You W. Family for letting me be part of this wonderful moment in your life~

I also wanted to put a little PSA here.. I get booked out for homecomings months in advance.  This specific homecoming has been booked since February- it also unfortunately overlapped with another homecoming booked out a few months ago as well and I could only be in one place.  It's is very important to communicate with your photographer and your spouse as much as possible when it gets close to the homecoming.  Please inform your spouse that you have hired someone to be there with you, this could alleviate a lot of confusion. For this specific homecoming I had people calling and messaging me all the way up until 5pm on the day of arrival.  

If you need a homecoming photographer I have two available spots open for the remaining of the year, one in September and one in November.