11/05/2025
People throw around the term “once in a lifetime opportunity” pretty loosely, but I think I may have had one of the most awesome photography opportunities of my lifetime last month. About two or three months ago a guy named Ken Scar messaged me something like “How would you like to spend a week at a ranch in Montana teaching photography to some fellow veterans?”
I had to play it cool, but in my mind I was thinking, “man, I’d gnaw off my right arm to do that!”
October 19-24 I had the amazing chance to join Ken, and three other former combat photographers, Mike MacLeod, E.J. Stroud and Russ Klika, in Bozeman, Montana, as mentors of the Warriors and Quiet Waters photography program. I was not familiar with Warriors and Quiet Waters before, but let me tell you about it. In their words, WQW “…are a purpose-driven veteran service organization, offering nature-based experiences, a sense of community and belonging, and guided personal growth designed to restore the minds, bodies, and spirits of post-9/11 combat veterans and their loved ones.” There are a lot of people who face all sorts of struggles when they leave the military, and WQW offers classes and skills through three programs, hunting, fly fishing, and photography to bring them together to sort some things out. In August, I will give up something that has at many times been the central point of my own life, the Army or Army Reserve, so I definitely get that. Fortunately, I’m really busy with so may other parts of my life – my civilian job, fixing up my house, photography, playing drums, etc., etc., that I think it will all be OK, but I really haven’t had much time to think about or process it yet. WQW offers the chance for veterans to do that, and it was amazing to spend time with other veterans sharing something we all love.
Anyway, Mike MacLeod and his team threw an absolute s**t ton of information and instruction at these guys, and they ate it all up. Honestly, I learned a ton more than I could ever teach anyone, but one of the things we were asked to do was make a presentation on what inspires us to take photos. Below are the YouTube links to those videos and some photos the other photographers sniped of me working with the group during the week. In the next album are some photos I shot during the week, not just of our participants, but also of wildlife at Yellowstone and around Bozeman, and of a soccer practice with the Montana State University women’s soccer team.
I’d close in saying that everyone struggles and if you are a veteran who hasn’t quite been the same since leaving the military for whatever reason or just can’t seem to find any peace in your daily life, there are some really great groups out there who are willing to help. I found out about a good one in Montana, and there’s some in Tennessee too, like HeroHunt, out there. They’re worth looking into, or supporting if you can.
