They mean something different to each of us. You may think of football and tiaras or traveling to see relatives for the holidays, but for military families a homecoming is so much more. Yesterday, the USS Winston Churchill, a destroyer that is part of the Truman Carrier Strike Group, came home to Norfolk after a 7 month deployment. The weather was bitterly cold. (Well, it was bitterly cold for Norfolk!) But the piers and heated tents were still crowded with families carrying signs, flags and a lot of nervous anticipation.
Asthe owner of my own business, military homecomings can be a pit of a pain. The schedules are always changing; I basically have to block out an entire day for one homecoming photoshoot because I can't risk the time changing to interfere with another appointment. I have to drive 30 to 45 minutes to Norfolk or Virginia Beach, fight the crowds, find parking and wait in the cold or heat. (For the record, I think the heat in July is worse!) And, because I do these sessions for free for military families through Operation: Love Reunited, I don't make any money.
But I take every homecoming session I can.
Read the rest of this post and see the photos on LightHearted Photography, the Blog.
