Photographers in uniform

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tory C. Groschick
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Editor's note: This is part one of a three part series detailing the Public Affairs mission.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Multiply this number by the 44,000 photos the 2nd Bomb Wing photographers here took in 2011, and one can see there are a lot of stories to be told about the base and its Airmen.

Photographers have a highly visible and highly rewarding job. However, many additional responsibilities come along with the camera bag.

"A picture captures a moment in time," said Maj. Bryan Purtell, 2 BW Public Affairs chief. "People that aren't there count on photographers to capture those moments for them."

It is a military photographers' responsibility to document historical events around base, cover alert missions; to include crime scenes for base authorities, and provide customer service for studio appointments.

In addition to that, they are responsible for populating the base paper and website with their photos and stories.

The pictures captured around base highlight the fantastic Airmen on Barksdale and the work they do every single day, said Purtell.

Photos also add imagery to written articles so a reader's mind doesn't have to wander and creates the mental image.

"Everyone can read a story but, if they don't know how it looks then sometimes the reader loses interest or they just can't grasp what you're trying to convey," said Staff Sgt. Chad Warren, 2 BW/PA photographer.

However, military photographers don't just tell the base story, they also work nights and weekends covering after duty and off-base events that Airmen attend to tell the Barksdale community as well.

"I like this job a lot. It's unlike any other job in the military, because the better I do, the better the Air Force looks in the eyes of the community," said Warren.

Photography training takes place at Fort Meade, Md., at the joint services Defense Information School. The initial schooling takes 16 weeks, but it doesn't end there. Photographers are constantly learning and training throughout their career to develop their own style and creative eye.

"It's an art, not a science," said Warren. "You can get better, but never be the best, so there is always a challenge each day."

According to the Air Force Times website, still photography is the ninth most frequently deployed career field in the Air Force. As one of the only services that maintain photography as a specialized skill set, the Air Force is tasked to support the other services with photographic needs.

"We have to prepare ourselves for the scenes we may photograph," said Senior Airman Sean Martin, 2 BW/PA photographer. "Being the only photographer on my team while I was deployed, it was vital to not crumble under the stress."

Whether deployed or at home, photographers are hard at work behind the scenes each day capturing historic photos, recognizing someone at a retirement ceremony, or instructing a patron to smile during an official photo.