Last week I spent some time at the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind in Smithtown (Long Island) making portraits and photographs for the Foundation's affiliate, America's Vet Dogs. For the first time in the history of the United States Army, skilled therapy dogs, provided by VetDogs, will be deployed to Iraq to help relieve combat stress of soldiers in the field. It was a great experience meeting the people (and wagging tails) behind this effort, and we had a lot of fun making the images together.

I've had more than a few soldiers in front of my lenses lately, from fund-raising events to casual encounters, and can say that they all take their jobs seriously - and that often, that means I'm not likely to get a smile out of them! I understand completely of course - no one wants to represent their branch of the military as looking anything but their most serious, professional selves. But this shoot broke down our uniformed servicemen rather quickly, as shown left - which I think is a great indicator as to how well the program with the dogs will go as they head overseas, bringing unconditioal affection and attention to service men and women who could likely use a paw, or...a lick.

Following the portrait session, I joined cameras from CNN and many other news stations and newspapers to photograph the hand-off ceremony, clicking away through a flawless presentation that gave us some great speakers and history on the landmark proceedings. With studio strobes and light modifers in another room for the images shown above, I also made some headshots of GDF's Chief Executive Officer Wells B. Jones and others, taking advantage of the VetDog backdrop in place for the event.

Great job to all involved, and thanks for having me.