To find a participating photographer in your area: http://www.oplove.org/oplovefinder/

Photographers, to join OpLove: http://www.oplove.org/

We love hearing your feedback, however comments on the blog are rarely seen by our volunteer photographers.  Please contact the photographers in your area using the finder above for information or to schedule your session. If you need to contact Oplove, please email oplove@oplove.org. Thank you for your ongoing support!  We could not continue to serve our military families without our amazing volunteer photographers, board, and clients like you!

Here’s some tips on getting into contact to become a photographer, get a session, or donate.

To participate with our organization you or your loved one must be deploying over 4 months (typically). The deployment must be out of the country and cannot be to a location where family COULD go. Korea is one of those locations, and unfortunately does not qualify at this time. You must have orders in hand, expected orders will not work.
Participants may partake in 2 of 4 sessions. The sessions must follow a patriotic theme and the military member should be in uniform for a portion if not all of the session, unless prohibited for traveling or safety purposes. Sessions are FREE, 100%. If you are asked to pay anything you MUST report this to Admin. The sessions provided are: a pre-deployment with the military member prior to deploying, Saying Goodbye (at the deployment) or While Away – Deployment session following patriotic theme without the military member who is deployed. Secondly, you may participate in a Homecoming session. So, one of the first three options, and the homecoming. Please know that not every photographer offers all the sessions. Some don’t do homecomings, and vise verse’. You do not have to use the same photographer.
You will contact a photographer directly from our OpLove Finder (http://www.oplove.org/oplovefinder)

IMPORTANT: The albums are sent overseas by the photographer and are NOT GIVEN to the family member still in the States, unless the session is a homecoming and the service member is obviously now home.

Because our ENTIRE organization is ran on 100% volunteer work, we cannot answer every email personally, or call unless it’s a specific matter. So, we do have an auto response set up that answers nearly every question you may have. Sometimes the auto response will hit your junk box, so if you do not hear from us, check that out and see if it was filtered.

To be a photographer in our organization, you must apply and be approved. To apply you MUST HAVE a professional website; Facebook, MySpace, etc will not work. We prefer a real .com, .net, .tv, .info, etc. site. Usually Wix and Weebly free sites are not developed enough to show a solid portfolio. We LOVE blogs because we can see how active you are with your online community and it’s a constant update to your work. The main reason we require a website is so clients can see your work before contacting you. You must also be acting as a legal business and paying taxes. We prefer 3 years of business, but if you have a portfolio and haven’t been in business that long, still apply because we do make exceptions. EVERY application is looked at by a panel of individuals. Not just one person is approving the applications.

We are volunteer work. We do ask for donations from our photographers to help with all the behind the scene stuff to make this organization run. If you are not a photographer and just want to donate, please go to our splash page at http://www.oplove.org and click on the DONATE link. We appreciate VERY MUCH all the help and support we get.
Sometimes funds are used to provide images for funerals. Funds are also used to provide prints and albums to families who photographers do not, for whatever reason, fulfill their obligations. Funds are used to maintain the website, blog, and event site for mass uploading from large events. We do have a Board Administration, and in respect of our 501c3 we follow ALL LEGALITIES and DoD regulations. If you cannot donate, that’s OKAY! Just let us know, and try not to send hateful emails.

Photographers that do not fulfill their obligations to the families are removed from the organization. In retrospect, families that abuse the opportunity to use our organization are also no longer able to participate. Respect goes 2 ways… it’s given and received. Please remember this.

If you need a photographer or are a photographer, please send an email to oplove@oplove.org or from our website. We DO NOT reply to blog comments.

Again, thank you so much for the overwhelming amount of simply touching comments. I am just in awe. <3

As of today, April 26, 2011, here is how OpLove sessions will work:

1) Each photographer in each regional area are to provide the same basic requirements: free session, album or disk (please see #6).

2) After the required free session and album/disk, any additional discounts or prints are at the sole discretion of the photographer.

3) Leaving/Farewell sessions are up to the photographer to decide if they will offer it. In addition, it is up to the family and/or the photographer if either an album or disk is sent and who it is sent to.

4) Homecoming sessions are done at the actual time of the homecoming, not afterward. It is up to the photographer to decide if an album or disk will be sent.

5) At no time will a disk of photos be “required” to send to the client.

6) Clients are allowed 2 sessions per year/deployment. Here are the session options:
a) Pre-deployment session with service person and family (an album is sent directly to the service member overseas by the photographer)
b) Leaving session at the time of the actual departure (see #3 above)
c) Mid-deployment session with the family while service person is deployed (an album is sent directly to the service member overseas by the photographer)
d) R&R session done when service person is home for R&R (an album is sent directly to the service member overseas by the photographer)
e) Homecoming session at the actual time of arrival (at the photographer’s discretion, an album or disk will be sent to the family)

Interested families will continue to locate participating photographers on the OpLove Finder, http://www.oplove.org/oplovefinder/ .  We hope that these policy changes will prove to be beneficial to everyone!  If you have questions or concerns, please use the contact tab above.  Comments on the blog may not reach the administrative volunteers in a timely manner.  Thank you for supporting OpLove and our service members!

Besides being an awesome couple, they were so much fun!  This is probably one of my favorite OpLove sessions, ever!  We traveled to the beach in time to get some amazing shots before sunset.  The time flew by on this breezy Southern California afternoon.  And when I went home, I couldn’t wait to get those portraits off my CompactFlash card and onto my computer!  We had the perfect setting, a beautiful nearby beach.

I only hope that I touched T&T as much as they touched me.  I now try everyday to remember the love in their eyes, and to always appreciate what I have.  Here are a few from their session.

Thank you to Powell Woulfe Photography for sharing these images!

My name is Lacey, married to Lucas, who is currently serving overseas.  This is his second tour to Iraq.  He is assigned to Fort Hood, TX.  We are both originally from Stevensville, MT.  While planning our vacation this summer back home to visit friends and family before my husband left, a good friend of mine from college mentioned that her husbands cousin lived near our hometown and had recently become a member of Oplove.  I had heard of Oplove before but knew it would be nearly impossible to find a photographer by Fort Hood to do our pictures.  I have always wanted to have them done and had seen the Oplove website and was blown away. I was so excited when I contacted Trina Weingart from VioletRay Photography and she agreed to meet up and do a shoot with us!!

The day of our shoot the weather wasn’t the greatest but Trina was so persistent and wanted to give it a try anyways and it was amazing!

The rain cleared just long enough that day to shoot our pictures.  The location of our shoot had a lot of meaning to my husband and I.  We are high school sweethearts and have been together for almost 14 years.  July 19, 2003 we got married in his parents back yard surrounded by family and friends.  It was honestly the most amazing day of my life, second being his return from Iraq the first time.  To be able to have beautiful family pictures with our 3 precious children had such great meaning to us both, as well as my in laws.  In what short break we had in the rain that day, she used that time to document the love and pride within our young Army family.  My heart skips a beat every time I see our pictures.  Our youngest was only 3 months old when the pictures were taken and Lucas left a few weeks later.  The moments that Trina captured in time with her photos will forever be ours to keep and share with others.  I have had so many people tell me what great emotion they feel when they see the work Trina did that day.  She was so patient and warm to us all.  I can honestly say that I made a wonderful friend that day that has been so supportive of us both during this hard time.  I am so unbelievably honored that we were Trina’s first Oplove shoot.  We cannot make it to Montana during the deployment but I cannot wait to have our return shoot with her when my husband comes back!  I wish I could fly her down here for his welcome home ceremony.  I cannot thank Oplove or Trina enough for this amazing opportunity.  I am so thankful to have such beautiful pictures to cherish during these long 12 months.

God Bless,

Lacey

Some of you are welcoming home your service member this holiday season, and some of you may be preparing to say, “See you soon.”  Remember that OpLove is here to support all of the families who so proudly serve.  If you are a family seeking a photographer for a pre or post-deployment session, or an upcoming reunion, please visit the OpLove Finder to locate participating photographers in your area.

We also wish to thank the photographers and other volunteers who make OpLove possible.  Thank you for your ongoing support in 2011!  You are what makes this organization run, and your time and dedication has brought thousands of smiles!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

While there are quite a few changes, we’re committed to them, as we know they will better protect our clients, our photographers, and our organization.  A few to point out among others are:

• Disassociating the organization from any sales, if they were to come up
• The Privacy Act
• There is now a policy that if a photographer is reported to be charging for any service or album associated with the OpLove name, that said photographer may be removed from our list without warning.
• It is now a requirement that if an image is to be displayed publicly the DoD disclaimer must accompany it, and any surnames be removed from the images, by means of cloning or otherwise where they may not be technically recovered.
• We are now a 501c3 and have decided to implement a yearly membership due of $25.00, which you will may write off at the end of the year.  The dues apply to all photographers, those who are current and those who wish to join.  If you are a current photographer, but haven’t paid the subscription before, please do so before June 1st, then you will be good for a year   These dues help our foundation out to buy banners for events, and will help to support our photographers more thru this struggling economy with printing, marketing, etc.  We know it’s rough!  We are all feeling it, so if you must have the membership fee waived, please write to us and we’ll discuss it privately.

For our current photographers, we’ll be posting the new policies on our collaboration forum.  At this time you will NEED TO REVIEW THEM, and simply if you do not agree, let us know and we can remove your listing.

These policies are in the best interest of everyone and must be followed in all aspects.  They are put in effect for a reason, to make this organization grow and grow and support every person that is affected by a deployment.

Thank you SO much for sticking thru all this mess with us.  It should be pretty smooth sailing from here out.  We’ll be electing additional board members before the 15th, we have the Texas event that we are planning for THIS WEEKEND, also the San Diego event is under way for planning, and we are organizing a Denver event.  These are just a few of the great things we do for our families each day.  In turn it’s a wonderful feeling to know that we have brought them closer together, and that they have welcomed not only our organization into their lives and families, but also the photographers personally.

OpLove members, give yourself a pat on the back… We LOVE YOU!

If you are a client and have been asked to pay for your session, or been given a price quote for the session or session album, -OR- if you are a photographer and know of other photographers doing this, please send a private email to oplove1@gmail.com.  Your name and information will NOT be disclosed.  Any photographer who is charging will be emailed personally about the allegations.  If that photographer does not reply within 3 days, their listing will be permanently removed.

Clients, please remember that if a photographer is NOT listed in our Finder, then they are NOT an OpLove photographer.  It is OpLove’s goal to make this organization MORE OF an organization and less like a group. To do that, and to grow successfully we all need to stay updated on the ever changing policies per the DoD’s requests, and we need to make sure our Finder is accurate as well.  We need EVERYONE’s cooperation to do this.

Thank you.

There are a few times in everyones lives when your heart warms your entire body- and you actually feel it.  Making eye contact with your new baby- for the first time in his or her life… Paying for someone’s lunch who was kind to you because of a simple friendly conversation- a stranger… Mowing your neighbors front yard, and they bring you cookies as a thank you because they would like to pay you- but can’t afford too.

As OpLove photographers, our heart is warmed everytime we send that album overseas. I know that I envision our finely dressed military opening their package from this unknown person and inside are images of most beautiful people he or she knows, the photos they will cherish for their duration away from our great country and the ones they hold close to their own hearts, and at that moment, we the photographers of OpLove, become angels.

As this Holiday Season quickly approaches us, we are left to remember the thousands of military who are deployed from their families, and forced to celebrate together, thousands of miles away from their homes.  We remember the thousands of wives and husbands who sleep alone in a bed that used to be warm, clenching a pillow that they pray never looses scent.  We remember the hundreds of thousands of children who are missing their mommy or daddy so much… They ask Santa to bring them home.

Many months ago, my amazing sister Sara, suggested an annual album to be made of the prior years images that we acquire from our sessions, in celebration of the previous year, the safety that was blessed upon our military members, and to help our foundation grow larger.  I proudly announce that with the gernerous donations from Jessica Dittmore, Digi-Labs, and our OpLove photographers, our 2008 Annual is underway!

The Annuals will be ready for production around December 15th.  The 10×10, hard black cover albums, will be around 20 pages (but not less then) and designed with Jessica’s stunning “The Brave” template.  These Annuals, which will be produced yearly, will make the perfect gift for any person who is touched by the ultimate gift that our fine military men and women give to us every day of their lives- Freedom.

http://www.oplove.org/Album/OpLove Digital Album/index.html (flash needed)

Please keep watching the blog, the annuals will be sold from here.