On Veteran's Day I photographed the Veteran's Day Ceremony at Beal Memorial Cemetery. In the hour-long ceremony, members of our military lined the grass by the flag pole with colorful wreaths for veterans in different cities and wars. The Fort Walton Beach city wreath (pictured below) was one of the components.
The event was meaningful and sentimental, but also very predictable from a photographer's standpoint. I looked toward the crowd for some versatile images and discovered a mother holding her daughter while they sat in a lawn chair (top picture). I watched them intently and captured an image of both of them gazing up at a miniature flag. The moment doesn't tell the story of the event too well, but it adds a special touch to the overall setting. Both images were published in the daily paper as well as the Eglin Dispatch.
On Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, Tropical Storm Ida made landfall on the gulf coast near Mobile Bay. The Navarre, Fort Walton Beach, and Destin areas prepared for strong tropical strength winds and heavy rain leading into Monday night. The storm had passed through by Tuesday morning leaving a handful of damage in the areas close to sea level. I took a drive out to Destin today and photographed some of the damage found in the Destin Point and Jetty East condominiums. The top photo is one of the houses that had severe damage in the garage area. Below is an image of a worker at Jetty East cleaning up the parking garage area.:
The driveways were broken in half as well:
Another house a few doors down that lost the entire garage floor just a couple days after they repaired it. The paint was still drying on the walls when the storm hit and pounded the cement to the shore with a sound that resembled "bombs dropping" as the resident said.
The same house as a few pictures up, but with a wider view of the area. Trees were on the ground, garages were destroyed, and driveways were almost non-existent:
On my way back, I stopped on Highway 98 between Okaloosa Island and Destin to capture an image of some of the flooding by the road:
Before I returned home, I stopped by Meigs Park in Shalimar to see if it had any damage. I saw some of the wood by the seawall was uprooted but nothing else noteworthy. I took a snapshot of this woman walking along the damage:
PRE-IDA:
Before Ida make landfall, I drove to Okaloosa Island to look at the impact the storm was having on the beach. The waves were roughly crashing against the pier:
One guy was skim boarding on the water until he was told to stop because of the danger. I'm sure there were plenty of skim boarders finding a wave that day:
Underneath the pier:
A woman and her child walked along the beach before the storm:
Florida's fallen military members were honored during a memorial ceremony at Healing Field in Crestview Saturday morning. About 239 flags were placed throughout the field, one for each soldier killed in the Iraq war, and will remain up for the entire week. I studied the crowd throughout the ceremony to locate family members and friends of those who knew someone who had fallen so I could capture a photo of them by the individual flag that represented the person they knew. Not many people walked over to the flags after the ceremony, so I worked with who was there. After taking a few unexciting photos, I caught this girl leaning against a pole and gazing out onto the street. The look on her face, the position of her legs and feet, and the flags blowing in the background inspired me to capture the moment (top picture).
The girl was with her mom and dad, who came to remember a long-time friend of theirs. The soldier was killed only two weeks after he arrived in Iraq. As she told me the story, I held back tears as she struggled to do the same. My heart really went out to her and I expressed my condolences sincerely. She thanked me for coming out to take pictures and made me feel like my presence was of some importance to her. After I finished taking pictures, my heart was so moved that I retreated back to my car and played a song by Phil Stacey called "Old Glory". I've listened to it a few times today and feel as if this assignment was a bold way to remind me of those who died in the war. I truly respect those who put themselves on the line for our country and commend their boldness, for I know I would not have the strength to do what they do. May God bless these families and friends as they deal with one of the hardest tragedies in life. Below is a photo of the rows of flags:
Friday night fooseball...well I like the sound of that. Once again I hit the road for a game and after being sidetracked for a bit, I finally made it to South Walton High School for a rivalry game. Walton (in blue) made some amazing plays and really pulled through the game with a 43-7 win. Normally I would submit a photo that shows the dominating team scoring, but I used my best photo instead:
VIDEO:
This photo shows and obvious face mask penalty, but the flag was withdrawn and dismissed after review. Well, I have the proof...but who listens to a photographer? Ha.
Here is a fumble caused by Walton and recovered by them as well:
Touchdown!
Feat of the week for football was a few kids just playing the game behind the endzone. I took this photo between plays so I was unable to get much closer and capture more action, but I liked how this one turned out:
