We’re making waves!!

 Check out this touching article @ http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/sep/07/capturing-memories-for-military/

(as published @ http://www.bnd.com/news/spiers/story/135312.html)

Christie Kohlhaas Photography

U.S. Army Maj. Dan Duvall gets a hug from his wife after returning from Kuwait on Sept. 11.

WHEN U.S. ARMY Maj. Dan Duvall came home from Kuwait on Sept. 11, his reception committee included his family as well as a professional photographer to capture the emotional moment.

Christie Kohlhaas, owner of Christie Kohlhaas Photography of Millstadt, was at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and took a series of pictures. She presented the family with a photo album to mark the occasion.

Her work is part of Operation Love ReUnited, a group that encourages professional photographers to photograph families of service people who are going to dangerous assignments or returning home.

“I was wondering how I was going to get pictures and a hug at the same time,” said Colleen Duvall, Dan’s wife.

That is one of the concerns the organization is trying to take care of, Kohlhaas said.

“You don’t have to worry about snapping pictures of the moment when you are so overcome with emotion,” she said.

Although there is no guarantee photographers won’t be overcome as well.

“It was emotional,” Kohlhaas said. “It was so cool. I think I was crying more than they were.”

She said she heard about Operation Love Reunited on a photographers’ online forum. It also was featured recently in the magazine of the Professional Photographers of America.

Photographers are required to register with the organization. The Web site: www.oplove.org, lists Kohlhaas and Caleb Heal of Caleb Heal Photography in Waterloo as the only two local photographers involved.

The organization requires photographers to offer a small album and the photo sessions for free. Participants have the option to purchase more pictures at a discounted rate.

“It takes an hour of my time and to pay for a small album and some prints is no big deal,” Kohlhaas said. “These people are giving up months of their lives.”

Colleen Duvall said she heard about the program from a fellow leader in the Girl Scouts and wants to spread the word. More publicity also might help attract more photographers to the program.

Heal said he has some appointments pending and is looking forward to participating.

“It’s something positive and I have a lot of military people in my family,” he said. “I wish I would have thought of it.”

Angela Beene is the registered secretary for Operation: Love ReUnited. OpLove is currently a registered Charitable Organization in the State of Colorado. Hopefully in the future we will be Nationally recognized!

LOVE’S REUNION
-by Jeff Kent

“Sometimes charity finds you. PPA Member Angela Benne operates ABC Photography in Edmond, Okla. One day last November, a photographer from Texas called to ask if she’d be interested in doing a photo shoot for Operation: Love ReUnited. The photographer had found Beene through an online search and he liked her work. A Love ReUnited photographer himself, he’d been asked to do one of the organization’s photo sessions for a family in Oklahoma, but they lived too far away. Would Beene be interested in taking them on, he asked.
Before answering, Beene did some quick research on Operation: Love ReUnited, a.k.a. OpLove. She learned that the organization supports United States military families by providing family portrait sessions with patriotic themes. The sessions focus on soldiers and sailors just before they’re deployed, and more important, when they return to their families. Participating photographers waive all fees, and provide a 4×6 album of images to the servicemen and women at no charge.
Initiated in September 2006 by Tonee Lawrence of Denver, Colo., OpLove is a growing network of photographers who are eager to volunteer their time and talent. They also do sessions with families in the absence of the servicemen. The goal of the sessions is to document their special time with loved ones, and provide the images to help sustain the morale of the servicemember while he or she is overseas. having a photographer capture the reunion frees the family to fully enjoy and remember the moment without worrying about taking photographs. Impressed by the OpLove’s motto, “giving back to those who want nothing more than to come home,” Beene said yes. Immediately inspired she got more involoved with the organizations, the perfect charity for her. It focuses on a special group of people who get little attention from photographic charities, and the charities are appreciative.
Most important, OpLove allows Beene to say thank you to the men and women who serve this country, “The members of the military sacrifice an invredible amount,” she says. “Before that first shoot, I read some testimonials of how emotionally overwhelming it was to do one of these sessions. It truly is a humbling experience. You walk away wish such greatefull feelings toward these people whom you’ve never met before. You just want to help them out.”