ELP September $125 Holiday Special.

OH YES OH YES!  It’s that time of year… to start organizing the address book, start writing the annual update and start piecing through photos to send to the inlaws/outlaws, neighbors, co-workers, friends, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, etc… Make it fun and easy this year and take advantage of ELP’s Special… $125 will get you one on location two-hour session, two online galleries, and three digital files… the only hard part will be trying to figure out which one’s your favorite!

But seriously… I’ve got much love for family but ELP’s availability is limited this fall!  So take advantage quick.  Email fun@erikaleighphotography.com for more details!   Tacky sweaters not required, but appreciated…………. jokes, jokes.  :)

Can’t wait to hear from you!  erika@erikaleighphotography.com!

Lifetime Love

I never stop loving this photo.  So I suppose the title of the photo describes both the subjects feelings for each other and my feelings on this image.  I am so very lucky as a photographer who specializes in babies and weddings (because I love them) to work with people at two of the happiest times in peoples’ lives… all circle around authentic love.  I never shot a wedding were I felt like the couple couldn’t make it to someday take a shot just like this.  A lot of small things make me deeply happy… live music, green arrows for left hand turns and 10 for $10 deals at Kroger… another one of these things is the look on the face of people like you see above when I ask them if they’ll kiss for the camera.  I urge all people out there to take a photo of your grandparents kissing (I got to just a few months ago, even though this isn’t them above) and remember their face when you ask them to do so.  I truly believe if you know to look for it before you do it, you will never forget the look.  You will never forget their excitement and almost fear of such a public display of affection… but you will also never forget what a lifetime of love looks like.

I think I must have been having a rather intuitive day when I organized this countdown as everyday I get up and get to write about these amazing people/things with title quotes and images that somehow always have this fun little way of fitting together.  It makes me wonder if all these things in my life just align so wonderfully or if I just find these correlations because I’m a classic ‘overthinker.’  Either way… my beautiful Aunt Deann hails the number 24 spot on this countdown… below a photo of lifetime love… just one way she inspires me in fact.  She’s married to my Uncle Dan, no easy task, he’ll admit himself (joking, of course) but they are and always have been, since I understood love and relationships, the great story of love!  They met in high school and have stayed together through thick and thin (though it never seemed like there was a ‘thin’ for them) and have always done so with this adoring look for each other.  Anyone in our family can attest to this.  Despite having two parents in love and not knowing divorce in any of my extended family, they just have an air about them that screams soul mate more than any other.  Though she found her ‘perfect love’ in high school, on a personal level, she inspires me to love all my life… and to find that someone you can do that with.

Professionally, her inspiration is much along the same lines.  I must admit that I have the best family in the world… I’m sorry to all you others out there… because this is one fact (yes, fact) I do not budge on.  My Aunt Deann represents all my cousins and aunts and uncles that root for me every day.  I know that this title quote was probably true for my Aunt Deann once but now it is true for all of us nieces and nephews and her three children that she so adamantly inspires just by her support.  I have been known to say that even if I murdered someone my family would probably still love me and I know it would be my Aunt Deann that would be bringing me Special K bars in prison.  :)  She is a kind person.  She remembers all birthdays, inside jokes and sends cards just to say hello.  She is an animal lover and an easy crier.  She is so much of what I look at as good in people.  And it is all enduring.  Her love will last for forever.  Her support is unending.  Her ‘Were so proud of you’ letters will continue to come.  She is timeless in that what she stands for will never get old and when she is gone everything she stood for will remain in all of her kids and nieces and nephews and all she has touched.  She inspires me to support others in the same way she has supported me… through cards, special K bars, words, hugs, and time.  I love you so much Aunt Deann… thanks for inspiring me with your support… it’s so much easier to build wings on the way down with you there to help!  :)

Shout out to all of those checkin out erikaleighphotography.com and erikaleighfun.com both sites it record numbers last week!  AMAZING, in August… generally the off-season!  Thanks for your continued referrals… Kari P.  Ashley T.  and Sheyvone F. for just passing my name along (and doing some serious PR work for me!)   Still running my $250 off weddings for 11.01.09 to 11.01.10 if they are booked by August 31!  Still going to give away $150 in ELP money at the end of August… HOW DO YOU WIN THAT?  Comment on one or all of these daily posts to be entered!

Gosh, life is grand.  Stay in touch… erika@erikaleighphotography.com!