Stranger

I'm part of the Digital Photography School Forum (http://digital-photography-school.com/forum) and each week we have a mini contest/assignment where we are given a topic or theme and have to go and specifically take a photo to meet the criteria.

For example a few weeks ago the assignment was music and I posted this photo.



And then the past weeks have been 'Transport' and 'Red' with these two photos.



This week the theme was "Photograph a Stranger and get their story", a challenge to get the nerve to actually ask someone to take a photo of them. I ended up doing something a bit different, and hopefully something that may have a touch of an impact on others reading the forum.

This was my submission and story for this week.

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I liked the idea of this assignment, went to a bakery to get some photos of strangers there.

But in the end I've come up with something a bit 'out there' and different.

Here's my stranger story.

Life goes by so quick, before you know it you're somewhere you never thought you'd be, doing something that really isn't you. I went on a work trip this week, and it was something different to my normal life. It was just enough to shake up my world.

I realised I'd fallen into such a rut of life. Wake up go to work, do my thing, talk to the same people, come home, crash in front of the telly, then go to bed just to wake up and start again. My friendships were stale, my life was slowly churning into a worthless mellow thing that wasn't doing myself or anyone else any good.

Now I believe in a God who created me and has a plan for my life. I truly believe I'm here on this earth for so much more than just doing stuff for me. Jesus taught 'Love your neighbour as yourself' and 'Go into all the world telling people about the Father'. God took the slight change in the life I'd fallen into and used my trip to Yeppoon on the Central Queensland coast as a bit of a wake me up.

I'd photographed the bakery, I'd thought about the stranger topic, but walking along the beach there... taking in the beauty of God's creation I realised that I was the stranger... I'd become a stranger to a plan thought out for me before the creation of the earth. I'd let myself move away from someone who loves me more than anyone ever could. I'd become a stranger to the one who'd given the very most, just so I could live.

I was sitting on some rocks, thinking about it all, praying as well - and I decided to take a photo. I was a stranger even to myself. My life is so not where I ever thought it was, and I have to introduce myself, my passions, my dreams and plans to me again... so I can live properly.

So with all that in mind this was the self portrait I took.


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I think that says it all, but I'm glad God took a moment to teach me a lesson, stemming from my thoughts about a photography assignment. He uses everything in our lives as a stepping stone to wisdom, and I love the way I can use photography to worship Him.