A Weekend with Freedom Hunters — Nashville

Not everything I photograph is a wedding.

For the last four or five years, I've had the chance to photograph for Freedom Hunters — a military outreach charity that takes veterans, active duty service members, Gold Star families, and the wounded or injured on real outdoor trips. Hunting, fishing, time in the field with people who've earned every bit of it.

This year the weekend was in Nashville. Sunday night was a dinner and auction; Monday, a golf outing. My job both days was the same as always: stay present, stay out of the way, and come home with honest photographs — the candids, the group shots on the course, the conversations between the scheduled moments.

People ask if one moment stood out. Honestly, it's the room itself. When you know who's in it and what they've carried, the whole night feels different from anything else I shoot. I'm lucky they keep asking me back.

Freedom Hunters is worth a few minutes of your time — they've put more than 11,500 members of the military community into the outdoors.

— Justin