Everyone has their thing. The thing that calms them down and relaxes them. Their anti-stress. For me, that's my camera.

The first time that I realized that looking at things in a different way was helpful for me was about a year after my spinal cord injury. I spent a lot of time first in the hospital, then at home, and didn't have much to actually DO. I started college, but I needed a hobby. I had loved photography in high school and decided to buy a DSLR and get myself out of the routine of just doing homework.

I wasn't even sure I could HOLD a DSLR with my weak hands, but guess what, I did. And it made my hands and wrists stronger. It became a kind of therapy for me. I photographed things mostly, flowers, trees, that kind of thing, and eventually ventured into photographing my nieces and nephews.

Now I am a full-flown portrait photographer with an even heavier camera, but for me, it still feels the same as it did then. It calms me. It excites me when my clients LOVE their photos. It makes me proud when they want to display photos I have taken in their home.

It helps me focus on what I am capable of, instead of some of the things I'm not.

It's my things, I guess.