There and Back Again - Aug 25th

The conference that was supposed to be in California got moved to North Carolina. At first I was disappointed that they did that but now after it's all done with, Im glad it ended up that way.
I got to spend some time with my old friends from my shop in the states, party, take some photos, oh and work too. And I get to do this all again in St Louis next month =D
Traveling back from Afghanistan was eventful, a 7 hour layover in Frankfurt Germany is never a good thing when there are 2 or more alcohol deprived Marines. This continued to be a pattern through the course of the week.
Ive discovered the easiest way to endure a really long, trans-atlantic flight. See below

What blog post would be complete without a portrait or two of a pretty girl ;)

July 17th 2009

On the subject of work: Busy
On the subject of the recent past: I am having a difficult time getting a flight down here at Bastion. It isn't as easy as it was in Kandahar. "Hey Sir, what time are yall taking off in the morning? Mind if I tag along? Cool, see you there." Here it's - "we have a combat camera guy for that", Me - "but he sucks" Ive got a few shoots in since I've been at Bastion, not as many as I would like to have had. I'm never satisfied. Things will come together though, resourcefulness and patience can only result in excellent results.
Here are a few recent photographs





On the subject of the present: Tired
On the subject of the future: Ive got 1 photo that I need to capture in the near future, if I do it will make my month. It may not be a huge deal to everyone else but it will to me and my readers when my book finally gets published. I'm attending a conference next month in California for a week and that will give me an opportunity to recharge my batteries a little. We have been sprinting ever since we got here and it takes it's toll after 3 months. A lot still has to be accomplished this deployment. The Marines over here are fighting hard everyday, living in old mud huts, showering with water bottles or not at all, and not getting the opportunity to contact their loved ones on a regular basis.
Since I will be here till April, I now rate to take leave between now and February. Which I kind of have mixed feelings about. I was wanting to save my leave for when I got back from this deployment, so that way I would have roughly a month off and travel to Mongolia. But 13 months is a long time not to have time off. I wont be coming home again. Much like my last year long deployment to Iraq, I will be traveling to a destination where Ive not yet been. Ive been pondering where I want to take this trip to. Australia would be very very fun. Rent a car, visit the Aussies, and enjoy the summer in January. Good times. Send me an email if you think it would be wise to go somewhere else during my 15 day leave period in January.
I'm very open to suggestions.
cory.smith@afg.usmc.mil
or
csmithphotography@gmail.com
Side notes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH CRAVEN!!! My sister turned 16 yesterday.
Why must I be surrounded by idiots?
Here is my address, just in case you want to send me something.
Cpl Smith, Cory M
MAG-40 / S-3
Unit 78368
FPO AE 09510-8368
Thanks for reading

May 26th 2009 - All sweet things will come

Interesting past few weeks. I haven't done any flying but I'm not going to complain. Like Ive previously said, if you don't find something to do and keep yourself busy then you'll find its real easy to get into a rut and the reality that everything you are accustomed to miss is going to be gone for a long time. family. friends. signifgant other. A bored mind is a dangerous thing. Its important to not let your mind get to that point. Ive been guilty of it in the past and it made things more difficult than it should have been.
I got some new music in the mail a few days ago, its been a few months since I got a new record so its refreshing to learn some new music. I went out on a limb and bought some music I wasnt sure if I was going to like or not. But Im glad I did because Im a big fan of two new bands. Sigur Rós, and No Man.
Sigur Rós is a band from Iceland. They have a unique sound, which is an huge understatement. Difficult to explain but its comforting to know that a country as small as Iceland can produce a high ratio of talented people. Guess that would justify another trip to Iceland in the future, to see them in concert when they are playing there again.
No man, a duo composed of Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree) and Tim Bowness. Being a huge Porcupine Tree fan, it was only a matter of time before I went all in and invested my money and time into this collaboration. After watching an interview with Steven Wilson, which he was asked "what is your favorite piece of work youve done thus far?", which he replied the most recent No Man record. I had to check it out at that point. Glad I did, I suggest you should too.

The biggest event that happened recently was one that caught me by complete suprise. A marine from Head Quarters Marine Corps working for Marines.mil came to me wanting my story to publish in the Marines magazine. After waking up at 3:30 am one morning to take this photo:

We were 'priviliaged' enough to have a nice ass chewing by a highly motivated, highly angered, highly uninformed chief warrent officer.
"Do you have permission to take photos on the flight line?!?!"
"Ive always had permission from the unit"
"Ive got combat operations going on in the background, you cant take photos on the flight line."
*turns around and looks at the dark sky and no aircraft flying in that whole direction*
"Roger Sir, we were just leaving"

A few hours later a few marines from the same unit came to me apologizing for him.
"Cpl Smith, sorry for what that CWO said to you. Fuck his couch, you've done nothing but help us". Certianly made my day :)

But back to the interview for the magazine, we went and had breakfast and spent a good 30 minutes talking and as he took 3 or 4 pages of notes. I was quite honored to get the opportunity to explain the chain of events that lead me to where I am currently in my career, life, and photography.

My book is coming along quite nicely, I've had a lot of help and support from people who know Im working on it. If any of you read this thank you! Thanks for reading. Here are a few more photos.

May 8th 2009 - Trance

Battle rhythm.
In the midst of the odd chain of events that occur day to day, its easy to find yourself doing the exact same thing you did yesterday, the day before, and the week before. I noticed this when I was posting my daily reports onto my website at work.
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:10pm, May 8th 2009"
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:06pm, May 7th 2009"
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:15pm, May 6th 2009"
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:11pm, May 5th 2009"
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:14pm, May 4th 2009"
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:07pm, May 3rd 2009"
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:02pm, May 2nd 2009"
"Posted by Cpl Smith, Cory M 1:18pm, May 1st 2009"

Guess I should break the monotony every once and again.

I'm going to be writing a book upon completion of this deployment. Many people have been encouraging me to do so. It would be a great opportunity to actually make some of my work tangible. Ive printed very little of my photographs so far. I meant to do it a few months ago before I found out about this deployment [/whining & making excuses]

I was thinking about what I think about while taking photos when flying, and I couldn't come to a conclusion of what was going through my head past few times. I remember what it used to be 2 years ago "OMG I CANT BELIEVE IM FLYING IN A HELICOPTER"
Now its like just nothing. However I do remember quoting family guy scenes out loud since no one could hear me over the engines. "Home of the Whopper?"
Here is some photos.

April 28th 2009 - Kick off

My time at Kandahar nearly at its end. Moving to Bastion soon to kick off my deployment with my unit. My main priority is getting shop set up and functional ASAP. I think I'm off to a good start on getting some photos out here. Ive received some awesome comments and support so far from a lot of people, thank you all! I was fortunate enough to find a terrific model for the next installment in my ‘Women in War’ photo series I started in Iraq. She did an awesome job and we walked away with some photos that I feel accurately portrays what I see and who is really over here. People often think of this war as another news story, especially people who don’t know someone that is/has been here. I feel its my job to allow the rest of the world to see that there are real people here doing very real things that are important to the safety of the world. They do it selflessly and without asking anything in return, except a bigger pay check and to go home on time ;-). I do find it amazing how the people in every unit have this unbelievable motivation to do their job to the best of their ability day in and day out. It is very easy to let the redundancy of day to day activities can take its toll on your moral and attitude. Below are the photos from the shoot with Jennifer.

April 17th, 2009

After flying with HMH-361, I feel like Ive made good use of the short time Ive been here. One of the worst feelings a photographer has is being in a place where great photos can be taken and not taking any. So for now my craving is satisfied, but who knows how long that will last..... A few of my photos are available for viewing on here, and facebook but I will make them available on Flickr as well as my website www.corysmithphotography.com
Sometimes when I lie awake at night I wonder what will happen the next day, every day so far has been different which is good because it helps pass the time. But I also get too busy to do some of the things I need to do. As the days pass rather quickly I wonder if Im making the most of them, I guess you could say so....

Apr 9 2009 - Like Clockwork

its becoming a pattern, 19:58 go to the bunkers because at 20:00 there is a rocket attack. I had no idea it would be this frequent. But what can you do other than hope it doesnt hit near you? Eh....On the other hand I am not wasting any time getting photos. I should be flying sometime next week, Im pretty stoked as you could imagine. Getting to work is a pain. There is supposed to be a bus that goes around every 20 min or so but thats in a perfect world. Its literally random, sometimes you can luck out and wait 5 min, but other times you can be waiting like an hour. On top of that the bus drivers think they can treat the bus however they want to because its a govvy and they dont have to pay for it. Thus they take the worst roads on the base. I think I should start wearing a helmet when I ride on these buses before I get another concussion...