Sunday Spotlight On: Being Inspired To Do What You Love

I have made it a point to make it known that I love photojournalism and documentary photography. I find myself on National Press Photographers Association's website daily looking at what other photojournalists are doing. Some of my favorites are Lynsey Addario with her strong composition and subject matter, James Natchwey with his ability to inform with his stunning visual graphics, and Tin Hetherington who will be forever my hero. I had the pleasure (even in wartime) to meet Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger when they were filming Restrepo while we were in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. There was not a day that went by that we had a break from direct fire. I lost many friends all while hoping that I was not the next casualty.

I was a Public Affairs photographer while deployed, aka "Combat Camera." My job was to document the things that was going on there but nothing sparked my love for photojournalism until I saw "Tall Tim" as we called him. I knew then that was my last deployment and I was going to follow my dreams and become a professional working photojournalist/documentary photographer.

My husband is still active duty and I got the idea to focus on who he was as a soldier. When we hear about a soldier dying for their country we get a sense of sadness, but at the same time we can only thank them for their service to our country. Who are these people who died for the sake of that flag? I wanted to photograph my husband first to start a series of portraits for soldiers to put a face and a personality to their name. I wanted to capture their personalities and their smiles to show that they are not just trained killers but are humans. With my husband I felt like it was important to show what soldiers go through while deployed or training to deploy. It is not like a video game. Much goes into staying alive. I know. I have done it for three deployments. This week I started my first session, one a Marine and the other a Seaman. In the future I hope to photograph more.

SSG Jackson. 2013. Quiana P Jackson

SSG Jackson. 2013. Quiana P Jackson

SSG Jackson. 2013. Quiana P Jackson

The reason I chose this as my blog topic was because sometimes we settle for series that are only a dozen or less images. I say, go hard or go home and create an ongoing series. My war days are over but there is still a war going on and there is still a military. Until then, I will carry on with my series until I no longer have any subjects to photograph.

Inspiration can come from anywhere!

I am your Sunday Funday Ambassador! Happy Shooting!