Have you ever received a love letter?
They come in all different shapes, sizes, and forms. I love writing letters, although I don't do it very often. I love sending letters to people that I care about tremendously because I love being able to express what an impact they've had on my life, how much of a blessing they are, and how deeply I love them. Tonight, I wrote two of them, and half of a third. There are so many people in my life who have impacted me in such a way that words cannot even begin to describe the blessing they are, but I sure do try with words. I think there are a lot of reasons for this:
- I want to try to express my deep love for them (even though I can't do it justice)
- I want to express my gratitude for the impact they've had on my life
- I don't want to take them for granted, and recognizing the first two helps me see just how incredible they are
- I don't want to idolize anyone, and tying their relationship back to a blessing from God and how they have pointed me to Christ tends to ground me and give me strength to avoid this
Sometimes I agonize over the words in the letter, and sometimes the words flow faster than I can write them. I think the same can be true with photography.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
The letters that photos could write... could you imagine? As I sit here writing this, I look at my wall of portraits from my wedding day. Each photograph tells its own story, writes its own letter. Letters of love, gratitude, blessings, encouragement, tears, joy, laughter, hope, excitement... I could go on. When you read a love letter, you can almost feel the emotions of the one who wrote it. When you look at a photograph, you can almost feel the emotions of the one(s) in it.
Photography is an art form in many ways. But until tonight, I never compared it to written word. Photos tell a story. What story can I help you tell?
