I doubt that I’ve ever written with as much confidence and excitement as what I feel this morning, especially with being the new kid on the block here in Charlotte, NC.
I’ve just completed my second move within a 12 month period, although this time, I’m trusting God for this to be my final move. Whilst the move itself was hectic, painful in some instances, there was the excitement about being able to do photography on a higher level. I’ve been believing God for a new beginning, new opportunities, new challenges that would allow me to push myself to a whole new level. I believe that opportunity was handed to me when I accepted to move to Charlotte.
I’m thrilled about being able to work with the brides and their families here in Charlotte. I’m excited about being able to share my faith through my work. This is one area of my life that has suffered a lot in the past 6 years…I know that I gradually placed a wall between my work and my faith, and as such, there was very little or no identity to what I did as an artist. This is not to say that I did not give my ALL to what I did; on the contrary, I hungered for a higher level of creativity but I lost track of WHO gave the creative juice. My spiritually went out the window both in my personal life and on my customer-facing sites. When I started shooting some 12 years ago, it was not unusual to read about my faith on my websites. I even had a prayer that I recited before shooting every wedding on my site. As I got better as a photographer, I also gradually moved away from publicly acknowledging him. It was a conscious effort to remove God from my websites because I didn’t want to lose some clients because of my faith and because my life did not examplify HIM at all times; as I’m finding out now, you can’t straddle the fence and please HIM.
With the distance came some of my darkest moments - periods of wants and needs, when all I could do on my own were no longer sufficient to sustain me and my family. It was soon obvious that I was nothing on my own and that I was no good on my own. And here comes the public declaration, that whilst I WILL falter and MAY fall, because I’ve seen HIM bring me back up from the pit of hell, from the depth of despair, from ruins that words can’t explain, to Him and only Him do I attribute all that is good in me. To Him do I attribute the ability to see what others don’t see! To HIM only do I attribute the desire and pant to want to see so differently like never before!
So, as I start here in Charlotte, I’m relying on my God who is the giver of all that is beautiful to give me the humility, wisdom and understanding to build a business that is built on integrity, honesty, and love. I’ve heard some of my peers in the past question why I always talk about my faith within my business. Well, the answer is very simple, I have no one else to thank for the GOOD that is in me and the happiness and joy that I have within my heart. I have no one else to thank for the good that I feel on the inside for the opportunities given me to do something that I tremendously enjoy. No one else was around when I crawled on my hands and kneels in search of help. So, even if I don’t shoot another wedding again in my life, or another portrait session, I will forever be grateful because the pangs of want and need has been totally removed.
So, here I come Charlotte! I’m so pregnant with so many ideas, and I’m so looking forward to being the yardstick for Wedding Photography in this market - praying and hoping that the Lord will use me in a way like I’ve never been used before and that the city, my new clients and their families would be blessed as a result HIS work through me!
AMEN!
