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Funeral For a Friend

On April 19th, 2019, Santa Monica Police Officer Rashad Riley, a friend of mine, was visiting Hawaii with his family and friends. While swimming in the ocean, he got caught in a riptide and, unfortunately, drowned. Delta Airlines did an outstanding job transporting him back to L.A. and giving all of us the opportunity to receive him with honor. His wife, kids, and best friend were given a moment with the casket before the Honor Guard loaded him into the hearse so he could be transported to the funeral home.

This is a difficult photo for me to post, in part because it brings back memories but also because I want to respect his family. They received copies of the images I shot that day, but this is the first time I've shared one so publicly.

Shot on a Nikon D750 using a 28-300mm lens. Shot at 1/125 sec at f/5.3 and ISO 400 in the early morning hours around sunrise.

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4 Comments

A great shot, but shuch a tragic story behind it :/

Thank you very much. It was hard to post it, so I really appreciate the feedback.

Btw, I sent you a DM, as a reply to the feedback you gave on one of my photos (as I decided to delete that photo from the contest, and wasn't sure if you'd get my reply if it was deleted)

I got it. Thanks for that, and for looking at it objectively.