I got the opportunity to help out my friend Kevin, along with Rick and Davina, to help out with a fantastic good cause. It started out with Kevin (a long time music photographer in the Vancouver area) being asked to do “just a couple” of quick photos at Honour House Society for use in some promotional materials. Originally the idea was a couple of photos on the front porch of the house. Then, as projects like this tend to do, it got bigger and bigger, and turned into far more of a job than one guy could handle. He put out the call on Facebook and got three other photographers there to help out.

Honour House Society is a refuge, a home away from home for Canadian Forces personnel, emergency services personnel and their families to stay, completely free of charge, while they are receiving medical care and treatment in the Metro Vancouver area.

Honour House Society

Honour House Society is essentially a Ronald MacDonald house for anyone who wears a uniform.  RCMP, Army, Navy, Air Force, Border Services, Vancouver Police Department, Corrections Canada…. anyone.  If they need a place of refuge, or a place to recover and have family visit, anything like that.  The house itself is gorgeous.  Huge, big open rooms, wonderful bedrooms and amazing architecture.

The idea of the photoshoot was showing men and women in uniform using the space.  So we had two or three members from pretty much every branch of the armed forces, police departments, and all the aforementioned areas come down in full dress uniform, to get their photo taken.  I was manning the bedroom with several different shot locations inside, and group by group the subjects showed up.  I’ve never asked so many men and women in uniform to “please get onto the bed for me”! 🙂

They were all amazingly nice and whether they were here because they were volunteered by their senior officer or they had a long connection to Honour House, they were easy going and willing to be ordered around by little ol’ me in terms of where and how to sit, what to do, and so on.  They couldn’t answer why they weren’t so easy going when I get pulled over for a ticket though….

This guy was a great guy, and with a service dog he was the centre of attention.  He served in Bosnia and came back with some pretty severe nightmares.  His dog can tell when he’s in one and wakes him up, as well as being able to detect when he’s getting in an agitated mood (driving for example) and with a bump of her head can snap him out of it far faster than another person would be able to notice.  Both of this duo were incredibly nice and fascinating to talk to.

I had a wonderful time and hope that the shots will work for the promotional material that they need.  I’m glad that the house exists and am honoured (so to speak) to help out!