It was great getting back into the swing of things today, as we had perfect weather to shoot! After a week of being at the mercy of thunderstorms, our first full day in Kentucky allowed for a full day of shooting. I was beginning to get worried having not shot anything until now.

This week’s shoot is a completely different project than the Ranger stuff in the swamps from last week. We’re shooting groups of college students in ROTC programs undergoing a 2 week training course to prepare them for the Army, and to give them financial aid while completing college. It’s not Basic Training, but they are learning Army skills during their stay. All of the images from these few days of shooting are going to be used by an agency promoting and advertising this program.

The first half of the day was spent learning knot tying, and learning repelling tactics off a 30 ft. tower. This is a shot of the top of the tower just after they let off a few smoke bombs to get the kids fired up, and to create some atmosphere:

Some knot tying and repelling:

Some camaraderie after completing a task:

After lunch the kids were taken to a large indoor pool to learn basic Army techniques in the water. They were taught to swim along with their gear and rifles, remove gear underwater, how to use their clothes as flotation devices, and other tactics.

Swimming across the pool with gear attached:

You could tell this was not standard basic training, because this girl was way too happy:

This event involved putting a hood over the faces of the kids, and then having them step off a 10ft diving board into the pool. Fun!

Here are a couple “face” shots. I love these because they show the sense of accomplishment, pride, enthusiasm and fear all of these kids are feeling when training.

And lastly, here are a couple of detail shots just for fun:

More tomorrow!