The Picture Door

In my kitchen there is a door.  

It is a plain ol', ordinary door just like all the others.  

It conceals a coat closet that has storage that runs deep under the stairs.  

This door is made of poplar and has hinges and a doorknob and matches all the others in the house.  

There really is nothing special about this particular door,
but I daresay we have a better recorded history of it than any other door on the face of this earth.  

You see, around these parts this door is simply known as 
The Picture Door. 

The beautiful picture quilt my Brie made for me,

photographed in front of The Picture Door.

How appropriate.

 In all the excitement surrounding the engagement ring, 

we nearly left out poor ol' Picture Door!  ; )

(There it is, just behind her thumb.)

Okay, so it didn't start out that way.  We built the house in '98 and moved in on Thanksgiving Day.  And it isn't like we walked through the house trying to find the perfect door in front of which to take  pictures, but doggone it...this door was just handy.  ; )

 Sometimes it's quite by accident, too.  This is from an outdoor birthday party

that ended up at my house due to some really gusty winds.  

Chairs were set up wherever they would fit

and STILL we end up with a shot in front of The Picture Door!

The lighting is usually pretty good there.  The French doors leading onto the deck are directly across the room from The Picture Door, therefore the subjects in front of said door are bathed in natural light. 
Or, if it happens to be dark outside when we're needing to snap a shot, the light over the table is to the right and the lights over my kitchen island are to the left, leaving The Picture Door right there in the middle with no harsh light to ruin the photo.

Well, except for those pesky sidelights on the front door.  

You have to remember to avoid having them in the shot.  A bit much back light at times.

And a bit much glare on the floor.  ; )

BTW, this was Halloween.

We're not just a bunch of weirdos.

PLUS, this door is in the heart of the main floor of our home.  If you are entering or exiting the kitchen/family room area, you will pass this door.  Therefore, if an adorable child is passing through the room he/she won't be able to escape the tortures of you won't miss another photo opportunity, because they're always within easy reach!  You can be grab them and force them to stand and smile encourage a pose right there in the perfect lighting by The Picture Door.

This particular smile is saying "Mom, PLEASE.  Snap it already!"

So you see, it was never planned that this would be the spot for all snapshots taken in this house.  It was, in fact, only pointed out to me in the last few years that we sure had a lot of pictures of the kids taken in that very spot.  And that, my friends, is how this ordinary, unassuming, six-panel hunk of wood became known as The Picture Door. 

Obviously when Brie snapped this one, she didn't pay enough attention.

She almost didn't get the door!  ; )

Now do tell.   Is there a particular spot in your home where it seems you take an awful lot of pictures?*  Flip through that shoebox of photos you haven't gotten around to organizing lovely family album and see if you find a common theme. 

*This question does not apply to those camera wielding goddesses who always post those great, spontaneous shots of their kids.  I am in awe of you.  I bow to you.  I am not nearly so organized or coordinated as to always have my camera in hand, nor do I have the skills.  My pictures pretty much stink, as you can see by the above shots.  ; )