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!

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.

The email clip was fairly vague, so here is the link to the snopes.com article and what it says:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/gebhardt.asp
This moving photograph shows Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt, superintendent of the 22nd Wing Medical Group at  McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, holding an injured Iraqi girl.  The picture was taken in October 2006, while Sgt. Gebhardt was deployed to Balad Air Base in Iraq.  According to the Air Force Print News, the infant girl Sgt. Gebhardt held in his arms “received extensive gunshot injuries to her head when insurgents attacked her family killing both of her parents and many of her siblings.”

Sgt. Gebhardt is now back home in Wichita, Kansas, with his wife and two children.  An Air Force Link article about the sudden fame he gained as the subject of this photograph reported that:
The chief had a knack for comforting [the injured Iraqi girl] and they often would catch a cat nap together in a chair.

“I got as much enjoyment out of it as the baby did,” he said. “I reflected on my own family and life and thought about how lucky I have been.”

While deployed to Iraq, the chief tried to help out any way he could. He figured holding a baby that needed comforting that would free up one more set of arms that could be providing care to more critical patients.

“I pray for the best for the Iraqi children,” he said. “I can’t tell the difference between their kids and our kids. The Iraqi parents have the same care and compassion for their children as any American.”

Please support our Troops.
If your a troop, family of a military member, we love you! Come home soon!! We MISS YOU! We ARE proud of you! Thank you….

If your a photographer, please join our operation.