Military homecomings are crazy. Anyone who’s ever experienced one will tell you that. They are wildly unpredictable– the dates and times are constantly changing, and a bunch of them happen all at the same time but in different locations for different units. You never really know what’s going on until the marines are walking off the buses and into the arms of their loved ones. But homecomings are also filled with joy and excitement and love, which makes the time and energy so worth it as a photographer.
This particular homecoming was super last minute for me. I was baking cookies and wrapping gifts, preparing to head north for Christmas and connected with Kendall, whose photographer could no longer make it. I’m so glad that our paths crossed and I could capture these moments for her. The timing was still unpredictable (we may or may not have camped out in her car for an hour or two to make sure we were there in time), but the marines ended up arriving just after sunrise, which gave us the most gorgeous creamy light for Kendall and Joey to be together again, finally.
I can’t think of a better way to start a day.
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune / North Carolina homecoming photographer
My husband is home! HOORAY! After being in the desert for a while and then finding out the night before he was supposed to come home that he had to stay an extra week, Frank is back, and we are so, so happy. I made him a little naked cake to celebrate– it’s a white cake with strawberries and homemade whipped cream cheese frosting. I had to post a few pictures because it turned out so cute (and I’m honestly shocked it’s even edible at all because I was so excited to pick up Frank that I barely had a two minute attention span). Here’s to husbands coming home. ♥
A lot of things are taking adjusting to down here. One of them is not the weather.
It is SO nice here, but it’s definitely interesting to see just how relative “nice weather” really is. Most of the parks near us are closed for winter, so it’s sometimes hard to find things to do outside– which we can’t wrap our heads around because it’s usually sunny and above 50 or 60 degrees… Area schools have even closed down a handful of times since we’ve been here because they forecasted ice the next day. If our school had done that growing up, we’d have had a four month snow day every year! While we await winter’s end, we’ve resorted to some rather touristy sight seeing so that we can still take advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures. This weekend’s location was Fort Macon State Park.
I LOVE this park. Not only is it just gorgeous (really, it’s a photographer’s dream!), but the fort has mostly been left in its original state. They haven’t even put up railings or fences or anything. We just walked through the entire thing looking and touching and taking tons of pictures. Frank even took a lot of good ones, which is super impressive because it took him something like 10 minutes of practice to learn how to shoot with my 5d mark iii in manual mode (I’m having visions of a second shooter in the making!).
Until next time, enjoy Frank’s newfound talent and this beautiful park.
Atlantic Beach, North Carolina / North Carolina portrait photographer
