365 Project Day 224: Doors

Canon 5D Mark ll 24-70 2.8L, 24 mm focal length, 3.5 aperture, 1/1000 shutter, 100 ISO

I am so grateful for the title “photographer”, not because it gives me any kind of special status, but because of the many doors it has enabled me to walk through. With my trusty Canon around my neck, I am able to walk into places that I would not otherwise be allowed or welcome.  I have met  amazing people, and been invited into their most intimate settings, just because I am a photographer. I do not take these invitations lightly. I am so deeply honored as I get a front row seat to their joy, and sometimes, their pain. With my gear, I have been invited into a hushed room, where a bride wiped tears from her freshly powdered cheek, as she prepared to take her vows. I have  photographed people in their deepest moments of worship, as musicians played softly on stages large and small. I have waited with mothers and fathers as they anticipated their baby’s first cries.

I have met great leaders and hard-working restaurant owners. I have photographed five generations of beautiful women, and a family as they prayed over their baby born 12 weeks early. And more. So many more wonderful people. Honestly, I cannot count the doors that photography and God together have taken me through. He put this gift, this love in me, and I am the rich one now. All the doors, they are really hearts that open to me, and I am changed every time I walk through them.

People wait behind these doors, and the truth is, getting to know and love people is the best part of life.  My camera helps me to do that, and for that I am deeply grateful.