I am as passionate about wrought-iron gates as I am about varnishing teak trim on boats. I love to discover these gates and then photograph them, just as much as I love each layer of varnish that eventually makes the wood reflect like a mirror. Then, I love writing verses to match the images.

But my beginning as Carolyn CJ Jones the photographer and author was far removed from gates and varnishing boats. I invite you to scroll down to read my story and the story of the magical creation of my book.

Growing up in various places on the East coast and then Ohio, I graduated from Kent State University School of Nursing in 1974. Shortly after graduation, I moved to Colorado, where I practiced nursing and photography for the next 22 years.

During those 22 years, I discovered alcohol and drugs, which numbed long-standing feelings of low self-esteem, despair, and worthlessness. Rather than deal with the underlying issues that led to my drinking and drugging, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1996 in order to live aboard a sailboat and to go cruising one day. I did live aboard for three years, at which point, I left my troubled marriage and the boat.

After leaving, I started on a road trip to “find myself” and to get sober. Sixteen months in San Diego found me learning to live as a sober woman. While there, I bought an old Dodge van, rebuilt it in cherrywood, and began to travel in my “land yacht,” beginning the task of resolving years of deep-seated depression and feelings of hopelessness.

My passion of photographing iron gates began with my travels. I found myself back in the Bay Area in 2004 and I started photographing these lovely gates I had stumbled upon three years earlier. Soon the gates began to represent my heart, closed from life’s pains.

After I realized this, my long-standing daily practice of journaling changed, as I started to write about my closed heart and the emotions I was feeling. Then one day I wrote in my journal something that described a gate photo I had just titled. I was flabbergasted, as it gave voice to the image way beyond the visual element!

This discovery prompted a search of all my journals, in which I found words that matched three-quarters of the photos that now appear in the book. When this occurred, the idea of a book was born and I began to pair together verses of inspirational quotes about life and love that I had found in my journals with gate photographs I had titled.

In 2010, I became Gate Lady Publishing to publish my book Opening the Gates of the Heart: A Journey of Healing, which I did on October 8th, 2010. Since then, it has won awards for spirituality, inspiration, and photography/art. The book is a recent Silver Medal Winner for best gift/specialty book from Nautilus Book Awards. It has also received the DiVinci Eye Award for best cover art from Eric Hoffer Book Awards.

In addition to gates, I photograph colored light as it is shined through cut glass. This produces vibrant and magical images. Down the Straightaway, pictured to the right, won First Prize in a publicly juried contest. Other images which have won awards are listed in my biography.

All of my images can be found on the Photo Galleries page.