Capturing holiday with one shot

  • Published
  • By Maj. Richard C. Sater
  • Combined Joint Task Force 180
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  “Just like senior pictures.” More than one airman or soldier made that remark on a recent weekend as they waited their turn to pose for digital Christmas portraits.

The picture-perfect gifts were meant for family and friends.

A 455th Expeditionary Operations Group aircraft maintenance hangar was transformed into a tactical studio. Instead of an artificial backdrop, portrait subjects stood next to a genuine A-10 Thunderbolt II, a tan Humvee, an American flag and a Christmas tree decorated with lights and desert-brown Air Force insignia.

Tech. Sgt. Brian Davidson, public affairs chief for the 455th EOG, snapped photo after photo for almost 16 hours in two days on a first-come, first-served basis. More than 250 airmen and soldiers waited for their turn. Toward the end of each day, some waited more than an hour, but Davidson worked late both days, shooting more than 3,000 photos.

Part of Davidson’s job involved getting the subjects to be natural before the camera. He offered jokes and encouragement.

“Show some teeth!” he urged. Sometimes a simple prop like a red Santa hat was enough to get nervous troops to relax and even smile.

Doug Dotson, an air traffic controller who is part of the Air Force Civilian Augmentee Program, served as the photography assistant.

“Brian put out the word that he needed help,” said Dotson who was one of the first to volunteer. During the photo shoot, Dotson adjusted the lighting and posed the subjects.

“Square your shoulders!” he said. “Chin up! Look at me!”

Dotson had no photography experience except “years of family pictures.”

Davidson shot a dozen or more images of his subjects and then handed them the digital flashcard containing the images.

Master Sgt. Darrell Mahan, another volunteer, served as the photo technician by calling up the images on a laptop computer so everyone could review the digital proofs and select favorite poses. Mahan is deployed here from the 355th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

Later, Davidson did a little digital retouching and then downloaded the individual shots by name to a shared drive available online.

Subjects could access the photos, send them by e-mail or save them to a CD. Recipients at home have the option of making prints themselves or taking the images to a professional photo shop for high-quality prints.

The troops may have been self-conscious about posing for the camera, but all seemed enthusiastic about the results.

“It’s great,” said Senior Airman Missy Mantegna a personnel specialist with the 355th Component Maintenance Squadron at Davis-Monthan. “Sergeant Davidson devoted a lot of his time” to the project.

Mantegna sent her portraits home right away by e-mail, an unexpected gift just in time for the holidays.

“My family loves the pictures,” she said.

That is what Davidson had in mind. As chief of public affairs he is more accustomed to taking action photos to accompany feature stories, but he wanted to do something special for the troops far away from home for the holidays and decided to set up an improvised portrait studio.

“I got the idea from my grandfather,” he said. During World War II, his grandfather, Pat Spano, served in the Army Air Corps as a combat photographer. “He used to take portraits of the troops so they could send them home for Christmas.”

Photography is “something we have in common,” Davidson said.

Spano had shown some of his black-and-white photographs to his grandson; Davidson looks forward to sharing some of his own digital images with his grandfather.