Letter #35 - Bob

One of my many hats is photographer.  I discovered my love for photography sometime in high school, and, wanting to encourage my love, my dad made me a deal.  If I could keep my room clean for an entire month (by his standards), I could have his canon rebel to call my very own.  It is the only month in the history of my life that my room was spotless.

As I continued to develop my skill, I was fortunate enough to meet Bob.  Bob became one of my photo-mentors.  I was introduced to him through his brother-in-law (another one of my photo-mentors) at one of our church's World Conferences.  Bob and Jim were both staff photographers, and allowed me to tag along with them the whole week, learning, shooting, stealing their gear (with their permission...) and feeding my addiction... :o)

Several years ago, my work took me on a short trip to Denver (where Bob lives).  I had planned to stay an extra day to hang out with two of my colleagues who were going to be there from Mexico.  When I arrived, I discovered that my colleagues had neglected to inform me they were no longer able to extend their trips, and so I was stuck in Denver for a day all by myself.  It turned out to be a really really cool experience.  I hadn't had many opportunities to ever really travel solo before... for a change, I got to plan my whole day doing everything that *I* wanted to do, without having to worry about everyone else's interests.  It was really neat.  Somewhere in my planning process, it dawned on me that Bob lived in the city with his wife.  I got a hold of him, and he offered to meet up with me when he got off work, and take me up into the mountains to possibly get some good nature shots. It ended up being a really lovely evening, but I missed out on some photos as my batteries were pretty much dead by the time we connected.

I never write to Bob.  He and his wife get our Christmas card each December, but beyond that, I send the occasional email or we connect in person every few years at church events.  It was neat to be sitting down to intentionally send him a note.  I didn't write a whole lot, but it felt good to be connected to him in my heart in that moment.  I look forward to continuing to run into him over the years to come, and continuing to compare our photography and admire each others' work.