Let's start this blog off with a Bang.

Battery Weed sends off Brig. Gen. Hugh C. Van Roosen with a roaring display of 11 cannon salutes during his change of command ceremony at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, New York, on June 24, 2012. Van Roosen relinquished command of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command to Brig. Gen. Daniel R. Ammerman. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

A little bit of luck, a little bit of patience, and a whole lot of being at the right place at the right time. This is probably my personal favorite. Could it have been better? Sure. I could have had a huge bank of lights (I had to do some fill lighting in post, I dislike doing much in post to be honest) I could have had access to a slightly wider angle lens. But I didn't have either. Sometimes you just make do with what you got.

What's funny is that I really did not want to be here. I had just gone to Africa for a quick two week trip, I shouldn't be complaining really because it was a lot of fun, but I just wanted to get home. The General's Aid came up to me and said, "We're going to take you with us to Staten Island for a change of command."

If you know anything about me as a photographer, you'd know, change of command is a dirty word.

   Don't get me wrong, they are important to commanders, and I don't blame them, however, I feel that the best stories come from our junior soldiers.

   And then I show up and three other co-workers are there. In my opinion they could have covered the story just fine without me. Again, I really shouldn't be complaining. However, I'm just letting you into my state of mind at the time.

   So, after chatting up my teammates I case the joint. I look down, I look around, I go up to the top of the Fort. I had an idea of what was going to happen. But I didn't know what exactly I was going to capture. I was picked to get the passing of the flag; for those of you non-military types, passing the flag from one commander to another symbolizes the passing of leadership.

   Okay, no big deal, it's probably my favorite part. But I really wanted those cannons. I knew I could get the shot of the flag being passed around, and get these beautiful cannons going off, I just had to figure out how. I figured I shouldn't even think about going up high, I might not make it back down in time to get the flag being passed, and if I did I'd be scurrying to get my camera settings right and that always leads to mistakes. So I set up on the ground floor.  I took a few test shots and waited.

   I tried a couple burst shots, but I was working with a Canon Rebel T2i, a couple 3 frame bursts was all that I could hope for. Luckily there was more than one cannon fire. Of the 20 or so shots I took, I missed, pretty much all of them but this one. What can i say, I was lucky.