CPT Nolan Retirement | Military Event | September 2015

Hello friends!

One of my favorite parts of being in this unit here in Germany, is when I get asked to take photos of events that involve my coworkers. Earlier this week I was asked to photograph the Retirement ceremony of one of our Captains. 

I had the fortune of originally meeting this gentleman back in Afghanistan in 2012, when his company replaced mine before we came back to the States. He was a company commander at the time, and I always thought he was a little goofy. Imagine my surprise last year in 2014, when this same gentleman walked into the food court with his family one day at lunch, and remembered who I was. We had only known each other for 3 weeks during our time in Afghanistan, before I left, so I was incredibly surprised that he would remember me at all.

He came here to be a pilot, flying helicopters until his official Retirement date in November of this year. When you first see this guy, most people just think he is goofy, you have to know him to know all of the awesome things he has done. He spent the first part of his 26 years in the military as an enlisted man, then when he got bored with that he decided to become a Warrant Officer, and then we he got tired of that he decided to become a Commissioned Officer. He's done a lot of awesome things, he's Air Assault qualified, he's got a Ranger Tab, I can't remember all of his awards. Needless to say, this man has done a great many things that most people probably aren't even aware of. 

He's been a hoot to be around since he got here. He's a goofy guy and he likes to come stand in my office and we talk. We discuss our deployments to FOB Shank, my old company commander that we both knew, and other shenanigans. He's going back to Florida, near where my parents live, and is going to open a pizza shop. 

Captain Nolan is the man on the left of this picture. He is highly decorated!

Of course I had to get a picture of the flags before the ceremony began. I just love practicing these pictures, it gives me a chance to get my settings correct before everything starts!

These are the three gentleman that presented everyone's awards and such to them (there were about 7 people that were a part of this Retirement ceremony). The gentleman on the left holding everything is the S-1 Captain, the gentleman in front of him was the one that presented everything to the retiree, and the SPC in the background took everything back once the pictures were all taken. For the most part, they would collect all these items after the ceremony once they were all officially ready to leave the Army.

This is CPT Nolan's Retirement Certificate for serving about 26 years in the US Army. 

CPT Nolan about to be presented his Retirement flag for his years of service.
These are always my favorite series of shots to get during a retirement ceremony!

Once given his flag, he is then saluted for his years in Service.

This is Captain Nolan after his portion of the ceremony. He was about to sit down and forgot that I wanted a final picture of him. Silly guy!

I just love being able to capture these moments for fellow Soldiers and their families. His wife was stoked to know that I would be there to take pictures (she had already returned to Florida to get their house set up and the business things finalized).

Once I leave the Army, I plan on going back to Ft. Bragg and continuing this part of my photography.  I want to continue taking pictures for Retirement Ceremonies, Promotion Ceremonies, and other awesome military events like this.

And hey, I am willing to travel for events! 

Just get in touch with me to work things out!

Falcon Softball | Sports | August 2015

Hey friends!

Here with another round of Falcon softball pictures. 

I was asked to attend a game and take pictures, so of course I agreed. I happen to adore a couple of my NCO's, so I was more then willing to take photos for them. 

This is one of my favorite NCO's in the picture above.

One of the best NCO's I had while in Germany.

This is my new NCO

Trying out some new editing techniques!

I love getting group shots of the team!

I just wish I had gotten a group shot of them all facing me.

I will definitely miss these guys when I leave!

They won first place on post!

And second place in the Europeans!

Eilene & Bill Hope Mini Session | Cancer Mini Session | May 2015

Hello friends!

Happy Wednesday!!!!

So you guys might remember when I was talking about my Hope Sessions. For those that don't, these were 15 minute sessions whose proceeds are going directly to The American Cancer Society for cancer research for Relay for Life. My post is hosting it's 2nd Annual Relay for Life event in June and I wanted to do a cool fundraiser for the event.

Eilene is our event coordinator and her and her husband Bill immediately signed up for two slots for the mini sessions. Here are some of the photos from their sessions.

I had the fortune of meeting Eilene last year when she was recruiting people to be part of the committee for the 1st Annual Relay for Life event and I am so blessed to be able to call her a dear friend of mine.

The best part was Bill wanted that photo above with them kissing!

He also really wanted a silly picture!

Bill is a cancer survivor himself and is just a FANTASTIC man to know. He is always so sweet and funny to be around!

These are two Cancer pillow monster's I've made.

I made the Purple one for Eilene and the Pink one is Hope, my Breast Cancer Monster.

Eilene is a Breast Cancer and Skin Cancer survivor, and her entire family has been effected by Cancer, which is why she Relay's.

She immediately wanted to do a session with her pink shirt and tutu!

Again, this was all Bill's idea

She was acting as a balerena!

I gotta say thanks to Eilene and Bill for participating in my first ever Hope Session. Afterwards they asked me to stay for dinner (which Bill grilled) and then we walked to a small fest nearby.

I look forward to doing these again in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Be on the lookout for the flyer and post about those coming up later this year!

Hope Mini Session | Information | June 2015

Hello friends and happy Friday!

 

I do love Friday's, don't you?!?!?!?

 

 

If you follow my Facebook page, then you probably already saw this flyer there, but I wanted to share more information on what is going on!

 

 

 

 

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am very into volunteering and participating in Relay for Life. This started back my senior year of high school in National Honor Society. Our big volunteer project that year was participating in Relay for Life. One of the girls that I graduated with lost her father our senior year to Pancriatic cancer, and both of our ensamble choir's attended his funeral to support her family (we were two small close knit groups of chorus kids that had been together the entire time we were in high school).

 

So last year shortly after I arrived to Hohenfels I spotted a blurb about Relay for Life needing volunteers for the committee in our base newspaper. I immediately emailed the event coordinator and signed on to be part of the committee and I became the Social Media coordinator for the event. I set up an email, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to cover most of our social media bases, and started to help spread the word of our event.

 

We only had like 2-3 months to plan this event. Since we're overseas we don't have a branch of the American Cancer Society, so we technically fall under the one in McKinney, Texas, where our Event coordinator's family lives and participates in their own event there. So we get everything shipped to us from Texas! Amazingly enough, we got the entire event set up and ready in our short time frame, and it was quite a success between you and me. Our event raised over $18,000 for Relay for Life, I ended up being a Team Captain last minute for the Army Community Service (ACS) team, and most everything went off without a hitch.... but I wanted to do something more!

 

Last year I played with the idea of combining my love of Relay and my love of photography, but I was so busy with work and getting the event ready, that I didn't get much done with that (although I did make a lot of ribbon keychains to sell and they were quite a hit!) So a couple of weeks ago, I got in touch with a local photographer and pitched my idea to her, and she LOVED it! So my Hope Sessions were born!

 

Thankfully, we started planning the 2015 Relay at the beginning of this year, so we have more awareness for our event, more time to plan and get things together, and more time to raise money. I looked at our event page when I planned this post on Tuesday, and we had already raised almost $3,400 with like 18 teams participating already! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!

 

On 24 May, myself, the photographer I contacted Jessica of Jessica Mann Photography, and three other local photograhers are getting together in a field in a local town and conducting 10 mini sessions each. A mini session is a 15 minute session and they recieve 5 digital images and a print release, all for $50. All the money will be donated to our Relay event on the 6th of June!

 

My plan is to conduct these themed mini-sessions twice a year (once in Spring before the Relay and once again during the month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness month). All the money I raise will be donated either to Relay for Life (Spring time) or the American Cancer Society's branch of Breast Cancer Awareness. I will be making this a yearly fundraiser event and look forward to spreading awareness for both of these events!

 

If you would like to donate to my team for Relay for Life, please visit this link and donate there. Any amount is helpful and most welcome!

 

Stay tuned for 29 May, where I will share pictures from the first Fundraiser mini sessions and again 12 June for pictures from the actual Relay for Life event!

 

 

 

 

 





MSG Givings Promotion | Military Events | April 2015

Hello dearest friends! 

About a week after photographing MAJ Meinder's promotion I was honored to be asked to photography MSG Givings' promotion and induction into the Knights of the Honorable Order of Saint Michael. MSG Givings was a friend and a mentor to me during my time in Germany. MSG Givings is a Flight Medic with the Army and he is moving on to bigger and better things once he leaves our team. I am thankful to have known him and look forward to seeing him again!

At any ceremony on a German base, they always display the American flag and the German flag crossed to show the partnership between the two countries.

MSG Givings being inducted into the Knight of the Honorable Order of Saint Michael

His plaques

The amount and caliber of people that showed up to support MSG Givings was phenomenal. He was only stationed at Hohenfels for 3 years, but most of the senior medical staff from the hospital and the entire Falcon team showed up to support him.

Congratulations again to MSG Givings. Good luck in your future endeavors and you will be missed amongst the Falcon Team.

MAJ Meinders Promotion | Military Event | April 2015

Hello friends, today I am sharing some photos from a promotion I am honored to have photographed. 

MAJ Meinders is one of the officers on my team and I was asked to take photos of his promotion and induction into The Honorable Order of Saint Michael.

The awesome part of being the team photographer is that I get to use the images to help build my portfolio and capture the memories of these men and women of the Armed Services. These are big moments in our lives and it's nice to be able to capture them!

The Honorable Order of Saint Michael is part of Army Aviation, an order created to recognize outstanding Aviation Officers for all their service and hard work. 

MAJ Meinders standing with his wife and his sister, both of whom flew from the States, just to attend his promotion ceremony as well as pin on his new shoulder boards. 

MAJ Morgan helping MAJ Meinders to reaffirm his oath as an Army Officer.

Congratulations to the new MAJ and his family.