Leaving Behind a Life Chapter | Military Airfield Session with the Payton Family

Some photography sessions I do just hit differently. Sometimes it’s the family, sometimes the story, sometimes a location or even the weather can turn an ordinary day behind the camera into a heartwarming journal entry for a family’s intimate life event.

Military Airfield Celebration Photography — Army Airfield | Military Celebration | Pilot |Father

The Family

Back in August, Jake’s wife, Amber reached out to me with the desire to capture the conclusion of her husband’s army career at Fort Rucker as a Chinook pilot as well as the Commander of Knox Airfield. After both of their children (Eve, age 2 and Eli, age 3 months), were born here at Fort Rucker and Jake completed two deployments as a Chinook pilot, the Payton family made the ultimate decision to leave the military to go back to Oregon to be closer to their family.

The Session

Airfield sessions typically take place mid-day because of scheduling with the Army. Lighting isn’t the most ideal and the sun can usually be a bit harsh. Since Jake was the former commander, we were able to do a sunrise airfield session and it was a game changer! Even though it was an overcast morning, the colors and sky were soft and gave us the perfect backdrop.

Amber let me know early on that these photos were for Jake and he was picking the outfits for her and the kids. I’ve gotta say, when she mentioned Jake was doing the outfit selection, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when they arrived. Boy did Jake deliver! Amber wore a beautiful rust colored dress which gave a little pop amidst the Army OCP neutrals Jake was wearing (you can’t go wrong with rust in my opinion). Eve wore a beautiful jean/navy dress to blend right in with Eli’s forest green pants.

From the moment I met this family in the parking lot, I could feel the love they shared. The patience exuded from both Amber and Jake for their kids was moving and allowed our time together to be relaxed and slow paced. One of my favorite parts was seeing Jake show Eve the different parts of the Chinook and watching how genuinely interested she was in learning. She even calls the helicopters “daddy’s chinook” — *cue tears*.

This session captured an emotional and heartwarming close to this season of life for the Paytons. I am so thankful to witness and tell just a small portion of their story as they wrap up their time here at Fort Rucker during their airfield session. If you are interested in booking me as your photographer for your own military airfield session, you can reach out to me here.