Kalenich Family

One of the many reasons why I love being primarily a wedding photographer is the connection I make with couples over the time I spend with them. Between engagement shoots and wedding days, I really get to know couples well and become like a third wheel (hopefully in a good way).

What’s interesting about shooting portrait sessions is that I don’t get to spend near the same amount of time with these clients but I tend to walk away feeling like I know them just the same. Maybe it’s because of the countless hours I spend staring at their faces in post-processing – but portrait clients become even more real and important to me. That might sound weird, but even the smallest bits of information I know about people translates into an understanding and appreciation for them – what they do, who they are, what they’re going through in life, their story, etc.

Let me elaborate for this shoot. I believe I spent about 2 hours with this extended family. Steve, the brother-in-law in the blue button down above, serves our country and was headed back overseas the monday after Easter. They wanted to get some portraits done before he left so they could have some updated pictures to hold on to while he’s away.

As I sat editing these photos it became clearer to me the exact sacrifice families, who have loved ones serving in the armed forces, make. Those that serve make the biggest of all sacrifices, but so do their families and I think it’s easy to forget that – the heartache they deal with in being so far apart for so long, not knowing what the future may hold. I couldn’t image living in that reality myself.

So as I processed their photos I simply prayed over them – for safety, for peace, for decades of life and love together, and that when they reunite again, when he returns home, that it will be a time filled with joy and happiness. So please pray for Steve, for his family, for his friends who hold him dearly. Pray for those you know serving overseas and their families who make the sacrifice of living everyday without them near.

I hope the images from the shoot will help them remember their Husband and Father as he serves our country so far away and that in years to come they hold them dearly.