Boot camp graduation.
A friend of mine pointed out to me that I hadn’t shown any photos or written any adventures on here about when I traveled to Georgia in December for my nephew’s boot camp graduation. I thought she was crazy, but after looking back through the blog I realized she was right!
There really weren’t too many adventures, unless you can call absolutely horrible bumper to bumper traffic an adventure, which for me it was because I am NOT used to that where I live.
I drove 6 hours from where I live to Nashville, Tennessee and stayed overnight then drove another 6 hours the next morning in the final lap of the trip to Columbus, Georgia where Fort Benning is located. I spent the night in Columbus very close to the base and headed over the next morning for graduation. Graduation was pretty neat. The speaker talked a lot about the history of the infantry, and some chosen soldiers put on a “show” of sorts. Here are some photos of that:
There were flags displayed for every state.
The show or demonstration started by them throwing out some canisters that smoked in different colors.
Then the “strikers” drove in loaded up with soldiers and they ran out and got into formation.
It was a little scary, because they were walking toward US, the audience!
And then out of the woods appeared the graduates.
There were MANY. This is a small portion. I couldn’t get them all in the photos!
My nephew didn’t want to hang around too long after graduation, as you can imagine, but he did let me make a few stops to take photos and we made a visit to the National Infantry Museum on base.
I think this is fairly new, and it’s beautiful. We didn’t go through the whole thing because he was just wanting to hit the road, but I saw some really cool stuff.
There was this beautiful walkway that I saw as soon as I pulled into the parking lot and knew I wanted to get a photo of it. I’m not sure what the flags represent, perhaps one for every state? I didn’t count them. As I was trying to find a place to stand where I could get them all in the frame, I thought it appropriate that the 2 soldiers chose that moment to walk down the path and I like the photo even better because of that.
The walkway is lined with bricks engraved with the names of soldiers.
Inside the building, this is the entrance to one of the most amazing museum displays I have ever seen.
Behind that wall you enter the exhibit. There were scenes depicted from 8 different battles from all the different wars we have fought. There were glass display cases full of different uniforms and gear from the different wars. The statues used in the scenes were so lifelike it was crazy. Like this guy:
Sometimes there would be a video playing of the actual war from that scene. Like this one. That’s an actual full-size helicopter with the doors open so you could see all the way through, but in the opening of the door in the back there was a “movie screen” for lack of a better word with old Vietnam footage playing on it.
Lots of history here. I would have liked to have had more time to go through the exhibit slowly, but that nephew of mine was in a hurry to leave. ha ha
Then there was the lovely Birmingham, Alabama 5:00 p.m. traffic. Oh. My. Lord. If you look closely at the photo below, you’ll see how the line of cars kind of curves to the right and then goes up that big ol’ hill and then curves to the right again. Yeah, bumper to bumper the whole way. And yes, I took that photo from the car IN that traffic because I was SITTING STILL. And let me just tell you…..for some individuals such as myself who live with stupid anxiety disorder, sitting in a car and not being able to move for long periods of time (hell, even short periods of time)….. is NOT GOOD. But I was okay and made it through, even though that same stretch from Nashville to Georgia that only took 6 hours this time it was 8 hours on the way back from Georgia to Nashville. Lesson learned. Time your trip before or after rush hour traffic.
I also learned that due to my neck troubles (disk spurs in my spine) 6 or 8 hours is TOO LONG of a drive all at once, and I will not be able to do that ever again.
Of course, after we arrived back at my house we took time for a photo shoot. I don’t know when I will see this young man again, and he’s going to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in August or September, so I wanted to document it. Here he is in his “dress greens.” Is this “kid” handsome or what?
This one is my personal favorite:
Please go check out all the photos I took of him in his dress greens on my photography site here. I couldn’t be more proud of this kid.
Filed under Photography, Life | Comment (1)Shutterbugs.
Yesterday Edie and I posted our photos on the Sunday Shutterbugs blog. We are doing E again this week and our word was EEK. Good Lord, that was a hard one to come up with a photo idea. My photo is creepy because it’s DEAD. Edie’s is awesome as always. Go here to check it out. Show us yours!
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)Shutterbugs.
Yeah, so it’s Thursday and I’m just now getting around to mentioning that Edie and I have put our photos up this week on the Sunday Shutterbugs blog. This week our theme is EARTH. Go on over to check us out and shows us your photo that represents the earth!
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)It’s that time again…
Monday has rolled around, which means Edie and I posted our pictures on the Sunday Shutterbugs blog yesterday. This week our theme was EARTH. Go check us out here. Leave us a link to your photo somewhere on the web!
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)It’s Monday….
Which means Edie and I posted our photos on the Sunday Shutterbugs blog yesterday. This one was HARD for me and it was my idea! Go here to see my photos along with Edie’s and maybe show us one of yours!
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)New Shutterbugs.
Edie and I have the theme of BIRD going on over at the photo blog. Come check out our photos and share your bird photos with us until Sunday! My photo is actually of a very rare bird………Go here.
Filed under Photography | Comment (1)Shutterbugs.
Edie and I posted our photos on Monday and this week our theme was BLUE. Man, I’ve gotta tell you I am so in love with Edie’s photo. I want to frame it and hang it up in Summer’s art room! Go over here to check out both of our photos and share yours with us!
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)Daniel.
How absolutely adorable is this kid? For real. During my senior photo shoot in November I took a few candid photos of this darling boy and his big brother. I could seriously take pictures of this kid all day long. When spring gets here, I will be traveling back to Indiana to take some pregnancy photos of his mom and some family portraits, so you’ll be seeing him again in a few months.
This kid seriously makes me smile……
Go over to my photography website to see other pictures I took of these two boys here.
Filed under Photography | Comment (1)We’re animals….
over at the Sunday Shutterbugs photo blog. Go check us out here. Show us your photos!
Filed under Photography | Comment (0)Senior Photo Shoot - Anastasia.
Frankly, this girl is so cute as a button it would be hard to take a bad photo of her. This was my 4th senior photo shoot I did back in November. I traveled to Indianapolis and we did a few shots in a small town outside of Indy and then traveled to Eagle Creek State Park for the “woodsy” and “watery” outdoors photos. These are some of my favorites, and you can see more of my favorites from the entire shoot on my new photography website here.
Go check out the full photo shoot here and tell me what you think!
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