I love homecomings. They remind me so much of that scene in Love, Actually (one of my FAVORITE movies) where he's talking about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. This scene gives me the butterflies every single time I watch it. And I've seen this movie literally hundreds of times.
Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. - Love Actually
This describes a homecoming perfectly. There is so much LOVE filling the space around us, you can feel it in the air. So when Stephanie contacted me about photographing her husband's homecoming, their first one together, I was immediately so excited.
Stephanie and I talked a bit the night before about how she didn't think she'd be able to sleep, she was so excited and anxious and happy. The amount of emotions you cycle through before seeing your love again after months and months apart is staggering. Alas, she did get a little bit of sleep and I met her bright and early the next morning.
For those of you who have never been to an aircraft carrier homecoming, I'm going to let you in on a little secret: they take forever! An aircraft carrier houses thousands of sailor, it's a massive ship. So I arrived early in the morning and the ship was almost completely pulled in. Almost there, one would think, right? WRONG. It takes over an hour to safely dock the ship and prep for the sailors to leave. This is one of my favorite parts though. Everyone waiting in the bleachers cheers and looks to see if they can see their loved one lining the ship in dress whites. There is screaming and hollering and clapping and little ones eating two pounds of goldfish to keep them happy while we wait.
When the sailors finally began their trek off the ship Stephanie and I moved from the crowds on the bleachers to the crowds who were waiting at the end of the pier. I watched Stephanie carefully and was ready to run when she did and man, did the girl TAKE OFF the second she saw her love. Can you blame her?!
We waited for the rest of his family to join us and I just hung back, careful not to get in their way but careful not to miss anything, either!
Best. Day. Ever.
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