Family is one of the most important parts of my life so why not start there, right?

Recently some of my extended family got together to visit with my cousin while he was on R&R from the front lines. I am so proud of him for what he does and who he is! It was so great to see him, meet the sweetheart in his life, see his cutie of a son and of course enjoy the hamburgers and hotdogs Doesn’t he look mischievious in this picture? (You guess which one I’m talking about)

He just cracked me up the way he looked at me from the side like that!

Whenever I get the chance, I try to catch a picture for just me, something that just makes me happy. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted but it was a challenge to translate it to real life. You see, my grandpa is really hard to photograph, at least the way I wanted to. He seems to avoid the camera, especially if he is the only person in the picture.  So I obliged and took a picture of grandpa and my mom to test my lighting and then I stood there and waited for the moment. The moment he looked away and forgot I had the camera. It was perfect, just the light from the ceiling fan in the darkened kitchen. In my mind it was black and white and powerful. It reminded me of the hard life he’s lived, working long hours to support his family first as a farmer and then a painter up until recently when his health forced him to quit. It reminded me of the loneliness he feels after losing his wife of over 50 years to ALS 4 years ago, the one that he spent every night sleeping next to and worked side by side with every day. And it reminded me of how much I love him even though I’ve had a hard time getting close to him.

Keep your head down Conrad and get home safe! Thank you for what you do!