Through His Lens: Sometimes Your Purpose Begins Before You Do

There are moments in life when we discover pieces of ourselves we never realized were handed down to us. Not through conversations. Not through lessons. But through the quiet traces a person leaves behind.
This is the story of how I found my father again through a camera he never told me he loved.

For most of my life, I had no idea my father was passionate about photography. I didn’t grow up watching him shoot film, frame moments, and vaguely remember him carrying a camera. That part of him lived in silence for years after he passed away. One day, my mother found his 35mm camera tucked away alongside several rolls of undeveloped film. The metal was worn. The shutter was stiff. And the film still held stories he never had the chance to tell. Opening that box felt less like discovering equipment and more like uncovering a conversation we never got to finish.

As a cinematographer and photographer myself, the moment hit deeper than I can explain. For years, I believed that my passion for creating visuals was something I had discovered on my own. But holding his camera, winding the film, hearing the first click of the shutter, I realized something powerful:

Some passions live inside us long before we know where they came from.

My new reel, “Through His Lens,” is a tribute to that discovery.
It is a cinematic reflection on legacy, connection, and the unseen threads that link us to the people who shaped us even after they are gone. In the reel, you will see his original camera, his undeveloped rolls, and a moment where I load the film he left behind and take a shot in his honor. It is symbolic. It is personal. It is my way of finishing the stories he never got to. But more importantly, it is a reminder to anyone watching:

Sometimes we inherit more than memories.

Sometimes we inherit purpose.

If you have ever uncovered something about a loved one that changed how you see yourself, if you have ever felt a piece of someone live on through your work, your art, your passion, then this story is for you.

Thank you for taking a moment to experience this part of my journey.

Through his lens I found mine.