SWAT Mom

I have some excellent friends.

Getting the cover right for a novel featuring a woman police officer is tricky. Most of the stock photos available have no authenticity, or lack any sense that the model - hard as they may try - knows what police women feel. So getting  The Heart of the Matter completed has, through no fault of the artist, taken some time. Enter a friend (and former coworker), her husband and their 6 week old daughter.

Kim and Cory brought Ella to Jennifer Rohling's studio this morning to try to get a photo suitable for a novel about a new mom's struggle to balance work, husband and the baby she can't stop staring at. Who better than an LE couple, photographed by a professional married to a police motor officer?

The results could not have been any better. Kim was patient, Cory had a lot of great conceptual ideas and Ella put up with the whole thing, so long as someone held her. Jen's eye for facial expression and details made this a quick process, yielding almost a hundred quality pictures.

Police employees, their families, and their friends are an amazing group. The "usual" adversity surrounding the profession, enhanced by the feeding frenzy of political self interest, should make us all very defensive. Uh huh. This young family is typical of who we are. Drop everything, drive across town with baby in tow, dress in police uniform because a friend needed to get a book published. Asking nothing in return. The photographer, opening up her studio on a Saturday, disrupts a family weekend to get things done.

Of course I appreciate the help. More than that, I appreciate being part of a profession that brings people like Jen, Kim and Cory into it. This is why, more than anything, we are stronger than the times.