Young gun

"Young Marine Brandon Yeager, 13, of Conowingo, pretends to fire a gun from a black hawk helicopter that was on display after ceremonies honoring those who fought in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, during World War II."

I still have some random assignments I wanted to share before I jetted over to Europe; this assignment in particular being a D-Day ceremony near Baltimore.

Nothing seemed to be going my way though. I was told to get there between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. to document a black hawk helicopter land.

When I showed up, the chopper was long landed and empty.

Second, I was told to get some photos of a World War II veteran that always comes to this certain ceremony. He has written a book and was apart of a certain infantry group. Well, he was a no show and there were no other veterans, at least from World War II, at this remembrance.

At this point, I am shooting whatever I feel tells the story of the day. But not much is happening. Yet I always remember that some of the most subtle moments make the most telling photos.

My confidence began to rise as I started making some keeper photos for the assignment.

Alas, I was about to call it quits after the ceremony, but my own curiosity led me back over to the black hawk helicopter. The marines had opened it to the public to sit in and such, so I took advantage of that.

Afterward, I was standing outside of the chopper talking to the leader of the "young marines" since I realized they were from my small hometown near my parents place.

As I sat there chatting, I started shooting from the hip of these kids, young marines goofing off. I thought it was so funny how young they were, yet so serious about wanting to go to war.

This picture ended up running over all the serious D-Day images I had shot. Funny stuff.