Our 4th of July Operation: Love ReUnited event at Liberty Station was a lot of fun for the photographers and families who turned out.

Besides myself, the photographers who turned out were Nancy Wagner and Paul Pratt, all the way from Orange county, Tony Eisenhower, Fritz Harmon, Rebecca Helpling, Leon Li, and Amanda Carson. Operation: Love Reunited photographers are all volunteers, doing the sessions on their own time and paying out of their own pocket for the album, prints, and postage to get it to the deployed service member.

The day started out overcast and gloomy, which the photographers loved! Makes the light beautiful , people don’t squint, and colors just look fantastic.

KUSI came out and talked with a couple of the families about the event. Each family that participated has a parent who is currently deployed. The deployed service member will get an album of 24 or more images from the portrait session mailed directly to them, where ever they are in the world.

Here’s Dan Plante talking with a family Amanda Carson was working with.

This mom is herself active duty. Dad was deployed two days after the baby was born.

This little sweetie was quite taken with her pink balloon.

I think all the photographers got shots of her!

The sun did come out, about noon.

So we moved under cover to control the lighting.

Full sun made for some classic summery images

A little patch of shade under a tree is a great place for a group portrait. This ought to warm daddy’s heart.

These three charmers have a mommy who is deployed. I can’t even imagine being away from my kids for such a long time.

I’ll be posting more photos from the photographers soon, so check back to see more.

Operation:Love ReUnited is an on-going program that provides professional photography to military families at no charge. Three types of sessions are offered: pre-deployment of the whole family together, during deployment of the family at home, and homecoming as the family is reunited. Each family is eligible for two OpLove sessions per year. It’s a world-wide program.

So, if you know anyone who qualifies but didn’t find out about the event on July 3, or couldn’t make it, send them to the OpLove website: www.oplove.org.

Oh, and here’s one of me at work!