Erica Rose Photography

Laguna Beach Wedding :: Mike & Katie

Erica — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:23:53 +0000

Last weekend Katie & Mike had a wedding ceremony on the sand in Laguna Beach! I had the pleasure of travelling down there to document their day. Destination Weddings are always a unique experience to be a part of as the photographer, because they are usually attended only by the closest friends and family. That means I get the chance to really get to know some of the important people in their lives. It was truly an honor to be included in this intimate celebration…both families were so much fun to spend the day with!
These are a few of my favorites…(if you want to see a few more check out my Facebook page!)Congratulations, you two! I’m already looking forward to your Chicago reception in a few weeks : )

Anchorage Senior Portraits :: Donald

Erica — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:54:03 +0000

Last weekend Donald flew in from Unalakleet to Anchorage for a Senior Portrait session. If you follow my blog at all you might notice that this is the first senior portrait session I’ve ever blogged. BUT, Jamie and I have known Donald since he was in Junior High, so I thought it would be fun to be a part of this important time in his life. The whole time I was photographing him I was picturing jr. high-Donald and was just blown away by how much he has grown up. If its hard for me to believe that he’s graduating, I can only imagine how his parents must feel!
Donald is an awesome person with a kind, genuine spirit and easy smile. He is a natural leader, so it will be exciting to see how he continues to grow in the years to come. Next stop, (after working at camp, heading to a youth conference in Tennessee and going on a mission trip to Cambodia this summer…no big deal) North Park University in Chicago!
Donald…these are some of my favorites from our session:Ow Ow! Look out ladies of NPU…not only handsome, but he’s got the personality to back it up!
Congratulations on graduating Donald! Enjoy these last few weeks.

Anchorage Engagement Session :: Maria & Christian

Erica — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:18:35 +0000

Last weekend I had my first engagement session since Levi was born! It was a beautiful day in Anchorage, Maria & Christian were so much fun to work with, and it felt so good to be back behind the camera…makes me excited for wedding season! About two weeks from now I’ll be on my way to shoot a wedding in Laguna Beach – what’s not to like about that?!
Christian recently proposed to Maria on the Grand Canal in Venice…umm, is that anyone else’s idea of a perfect proposal?? So amazing. I love how these two interact with one another, their love shines but their friendship and fun is just as as evident.
I think Maria looks a little like Cameron Diaz. Especially in this shot:Maria & Christian…I loved spending the afternoon with you on Saturday! It was great to get to know you both a little bit – hopefully you love this little sneak peek from your session!

Wedding albums done right!

Erica — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:35:29 +0000

Amy & Mitch got married in Fort Collins Colorado on New Years Eve, their wedding was beautiful in every way. I want to use their book as a jumping off point to discuss the process of designing a beautiful wedding album that will be a family heirloom for years to come.
Amy and I collaborated a lot on the design of their book. I always encourage couples to thoughtfully select the images that will be in their book, and to consider it a piece of art that tells the story of their wedding rather than a typical family photo album. Amy did an amazing job of this, and looking through the end product really brought me back to their wedding day…exactly what an wedding album is supposed to do!

Here are a few things I’d suggest when making album design choices:
1. No family photos…ok, maybe just a couple! Instead, why not a shot of your dad walking you down the aisle, your mom helping fasten your necklace? Those types of images capture emotion in a much more meaningful way than a posed shot.
2. Don’t skimp on the details. You spent so many hours designing tablescapes, choosing lighting, color palettes, florals, jewelry, etc…and they really help to fill out a wedding album! Start from the beginning of the day and choose photos that cover the whole event from getting ready to the dance party.
3. Don’t choose photos because you have to, choose the ones you love. No one else will look at this album as much as you will, so don’t let pressure from anyone else influence your decisions.
4. Heed the advice of your photographer : ) Haha…I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but I’ve seen a lot of these books, I’m a visual person and I know what is going to look good! I won’t ever push you in to a decision (see #3) and I can give as much or as little advice as you want.
5. Last but not least…think cohesive. From the outside in, the album should reflect the feel of your wedding day. Choose your colors for the cover & gilding, your title, and your images in a creative and thoughtful way!
Just a few shots from Mitch & Amy’s album:
(if you want to see another post/more photos of my albums…click here)

Most often, the way wedding photography is done these days is all digital and couples want a disc of their edited photos, and rightfully so! I think its great to be able to have access to all of your digital files, and to easily share photos with friends and family (and a disc is part of all of my packages). BUT with the industry changing from film to digital I think something important was lost, and that is the tangible prints and albums that a lot of people miss out on. Why not have the best of both worlds? I think there’s something special about having an album of your wedding photos or some prints framed on the wall rather than looking at everything on a screen. No matter what budget you’re working with, there is an option for you…take the disc and have a few prints made. Pick one of your favorites and splurge on a canvas. Go all out and order an heirloom quality album that will tell the story of your day, I guarantee you won’t regret it!

Introducing…Levi James!

Erica — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 01:40:45 +0000

You probably know by now…he’s a boy! Levi James Rose was born at 12:29pm on March 17th – 20.5inches long at 7lbs 0.6oz (he wore the blue hat home from the hospital)
These past 17 days have been amazing. The time has both flown and dragged somehow, and every moment is filled with Levi.

Every day for the past 2 weeks I’ve been wanting to blog some photos of our new son…but somehow my hands have been so full lately, and any free time has also meant nap time. The first week of Levi’s life I doubt I could have written a coherent sentence anyways : ) Thank goodness my parents are on their second week up here to help and hold Levi, they’ve even taken shifts during the night to give Jamie and I a chance to catch up on sleep. I’m pretty sure that they’re the only reason I’m able to sit down here and write.
Of course, there are already about a thousand photos of this little one so it was hard to choose what to share, but it seemed right to start at the beginning:
Jamie captured these two shots just a few minutes after Levi was born, and I absolutely love both of them. They bring me right back there…and wasn’t he so cute already?!The rest of the photos were taken when Levi was 12 days old. I needed a passport photo of him, and he usually has a really awake time in the morning…so I took advantage. This was his first photo shoot and he seems to really love the camera!
His little legs just get me…I LOVE his little knees.Such an expressive little guy! He has so much personality already.
Its amazing to compare the photos from day one and day 12 and see how much he has already changed. I just want him to stay little for a while longer…I can’t get enough of his skinny little legs!

Blue…or Pink?

Erica — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:22:16 +0000

I am dying to know! {Yes, I might actually be dying to know…}
We’ve had guesses all across the board. My sister is absolutely convinced we’re having a girl…almost everyone else seems to think boy, except Jamie who is kind of expecting a girl at this point. Either way, I’m going in prepared. I made two hats last week. One pink, one blue.Trust me…there is no more room in the inn.
And yet, sometimes it seems like this baby is never going to come!

“…the ring, your spouse and your photographs.”

Erica — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:05:21 +0000

A few days ago I read an article by Elizabeth Messina…one of the quotes that stood out to me was “There are few things you get to take home with you after your wedding day: your spouse, your ring and your photographs.”
…and your photographs.
Not only do you spend months planning the wedding day celebration, but this single day is the beginning of a new marriage. It is probably the most important day of your life…and the only things you get to take home from it are your ring, your spouse and your photographs.
Wedding photography is about documenting the story of a couple’s wedding day in a way that will preserve their memories forever. Often when I get feedback from my brides & grooms, the images that speak to them and bring back the most emotion from their wedding day are of the unscripted in-between times or the images that capture the scene. It is my responsibility to preserve the visual details and those moments that can’t be anticipated.
I am definitely not undermining the importance of capturing beautifully composed shots of the bride & groom, the wedding party and the family. Not only are those shots important, but shooting them well probably takes the most skill and experience as a wedding photographer.
What I am saying is that a half of the story lies in those other things that you can’t plan for…images capturing the scene, the emotion, the candid moments. I think that a lot of couples make the mistake of underestimating the importance of those photographs and therefore not booking their wedding photographer or their wedding photography package accordingly. I also think that some photographers out there miss the moments…the better half of the story.

heirlooms.place has huge significance for some couples.Paul and JJ were married in the same church where her parents were married, almost 40 years ago to the day.
Sometimes its the shot on the way to the shot you’re about to pose……or between the posed shots.…during the posed shots when something unexpected happens.
Jill made 1,000 paper cranes by hand…all of the paper goods for the wedding…bouquets for herself and the bridesmaids.People choose their venues, and style their decor because it speaks to who they are. I’ll leave you with just one more:
This is my absolute favorite picture of Jamie and I from our wedding day. If Vanessa had tried to pose us specifically into this position I’m sure it would have been a super awkward shot! But, I’m sure glad she captured this moment, because for me this is a priceless image of our wedding day.

Photographs are my memory-holders.

Erica — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:24:10 +0000

Something has been brewing in my brain in the past week about photography and why I love it…why its important to me personally, apart from business. Something struck a cord when I saw one of my 2011 brides change her profile picture on Facebook to a picture of her and her grandpa dancing at her wedding. It was a picture that I had taken. That week her grandpa had sadly and unexpectedly passed, just a few short months after the wedding day.
Pictures are memory holders for me. A single image can often bring me right back to an experience, so strongly that its like I’m seeing that moment flash through my brain for the first time. That is what makes photographs so powerful and meaningful for me, and why I love to create those kinds of photographs for other people.
The funny thing is that often, the photos that strike that cord in me and seem to contain moments of time are not always the photos that you would expect to be able to do that. They’re definitely not always of people smiling and looking at the camera, often they aren’t technically perfect. They are always triggers because of the way they capture the feel, the emotion and the detail of a moment that you want to hold on to…those moments that you try to visualize so that you’ll remember it forever. Sometimes without capturing a photograph those perfect and important moments are lost, or at least diminished in our imperfect memories.
Last night I looked through the last few years of our personal photographs. There aren’t as many as you might think! I have to admit that before I started shooting weddings full time, I had my camera out way more often…really, always. In the past 5 years or so I’ve taken way less personal photographs, which is something that needs to change (actually, I’m sure it’ll change when we have the baby, you know I’m going to be one of those crazy camera moms!) I pulled out a few photos from the past 4 years that are powerful to me. You’ll see they’re not perfect, and most of them won’t make sense to you as ‘powerful’ but that doesn’t matter, because they’re my memories and no one else’s.
The first night after moving to Unalakleet in 2007, Jamie and I had gotten engaged about 8 weeks before.
Winter in Alaska teaches a new appreciation for the sun. This is us on a snow machine ride out of Unalakleet in February. One of those ‘umm…is this my life? How did I get here?’ kind of moments.Paris, on our honeymoon. Amsterdam, also on our honeymoon…this is not a technically awesome shot (obviously) but I’m wearing TWO rings in it, and I look pretty happy about it.Our first married Christmas with Jamie’s family. When we got there, Norm just curled right up to Jamie like he never wanted to leave.
My grandma and grandpa’s house in Minnesota, I hope I always remember it like this.One of my favorite trips with Jamie. Cold and rainy in Newport RI, eating some of the best clam chowder I’ve ever had.We took the train into Grand Central at 5am. I felt like I was in a movie.He looks like one of those keebler elves, right?! I loved this photo instantly.Blackberries in my mind = BC in summer, and being engaged.Our second anniversary. I love this one for no reason I can put my finger on. Its our desktop right now.Coffee date in Milwaukee.
Me and my momma in Mexico last February! Take me baaack…..At a market in Oaxaca last springTwo of the sweetest boys…also in Oaxaca.Lost in New York.Sweet home Chicago! My sister took this one when she came to visit once…downtown, freezing cold, a billion Christmas shoppers, perfection.I’m working on another post…a kind of ‘part two’ to this one. Its got a hundred wedding images right now (literally)…I guess I want to show you more about why I shoot weddings the way I shoot them, why sometimes the unexpected, unplanned, unposed photos are the ones that have the ability to speak, and therefore why I think its such a good thing that wedding photography has been evolving into something different in recent years.

SO if you’re interested in that, stay tuned! As long as theres no baby, I’ll probably be posting that in the next couple of days.

37 weeks, 2 days

Erica — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:23:45 +0000

I haven’t written a lot about my pregnancy on the blog, but I’ve been feeling like I want to share a little bit about how things have been going…and a couple pictures too.
Here I am at 16 weeks! I took a picture at 5 weeks when I found out that we were expecting a baby, but I LOST it. It was wedding season, my cards were in constant use and somehow my little self-portrait was lost. So this is the first documentation of my pregnancy. Tiny little bump, 16 weeks in. At this point I was feeling pretty great. If there was a word for my first trimester experience it would be: hungry…or tired…but probably hungry. I wasn’t sick, but I was always hungry and almost always tired. By 16 weeks I was feeling great, not pregnant at all really. Here I am at 20 weeks! This is when I decided to finally make an announcement about our news on Facebook & my Blog. I was nervous about sharing this, mainly because I was nervous about being pregnant, about the pregnancy going well and the possibility that I might lose the baby. I don’t know if every other pregnant woman feels that way, but that was me. By 20 weeks I was still feeling great, and had felt the first flutters of the baby moving. At this point we were also preparing to move to Alaska where Jamie would start a new job. I was so overwhelmed with all of the changes going on and the prospect of moving away from Chicago, that the coming baby hadn’t sunk in by this point. Maybe thats why this pregnancy has flown by. The word of my second trimester: Transition.Here we are at 28 weeks, about 2 weeks in to our move to Alaska. It was cold, and I was finally starting to really ‘show’…at least the belly has kept me warm this winter! This is the most recent picture I have. 35 weeks, almost full term! As I write this I am 37 weeks and 2 days, so I should probably keep taking pictures…but I don’t really want to : ) As of today’s doctor’s appointment I had gained 40lbs – yikes! My face has gotten rather…er…full? I don’t like it. I know, I know I’m pregnant and its normal and all of that. Maybe I’m too vain. Whatever.
I’m still feeling pretty good most of the time, and I go back and forth between readiness to have the baby and being completely fine with the 3+ more weeks that we’ll be waiting (I think) for the arrival. I am so thankful about how ‘easy’ (relatively speaking) my pregnancy has been so far…Jamie keeps telling me how great I’m doing, and I like to hear that. We’re still toying with names and getting things settled but really I’m just trying to stay relaxed, spend good time with Jamie, see friends, and get lots of sleep! I think it’ll be easier for me to handle labor than the weeks of sleep depravation to come, I’m an 8 hours a night kinda girl.
I’m nervous about the labor and about the nursing and about the lack of sleep, but more than all of that I really am excited about this baby. To see if we’re adding a boy or a girl to our family, to see what our baby will look like, to watch Jamie as a dad, to introduce him or her to our family and friends. Its going to be pretty amazing, I know it.

Happy Love Day…

Erica — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:00:51 +0000

When I was younger my parents would often get me a gift for Valentine’s Day. I’d usually wake up to find a card and some kind of cute gift on the kitchen table. Pink and red socks, some flowers, good candy…something like that. I still love little surprises like that, the excitement over cheesy Valentines Day socks or red nail polish is not lost on me!
V-Day shouldn’t be a crazy day of pressure where we have to live up to someone else’s expectations for the day, but why not turn the day into an excuse to show a little extra love – right?
It doesn’t take much.
Even just some red paper hearts or a cupcake with sprinkles on top….see?