Farewell to the (blue) Fiat, it's been a journey!

If you were to walk into my home, every single thing has a meaning - some sort of story behind it. Even every house plant came from a piece of another houseplant from someone from my history. It’s borderline ridiculous. But if you pointed at anything, I could tell you the story.

When it comes to buying cars, it’s harder to buy something brand new that has a story attached, but the story that unfolds while in my possession is so special. It’s you! 

I am leaving Monday morning to drive my car to Denver to give to my niece. She was born on the night of my senior prom and now I’m handing her the keys to my car. Yikes! It will be the last adventure in my Blue Fiat. Not really a huge deal, and I didn’t think much of it until yesterday when I was in my parents driveway scrubbing it clean for her. 

The Blue Fiat has driven 125,000 miles, with 95% of those being for shoots, it is 5 years old. It has endured many, many, many flat tires - 3 of which were on days I was driving to weddings. It has gotten in one major accident which too was on the morning I had a shoot and a wedding, and the number of small accidents it has endured - the time a coyote ran out of nowhere into the street, the time I backed up into my brother’s Jeep, the time I was rushing home to edit and slipped on ice. But it also inside, has about a million tiny little scratches. And as I tried to buff them out I just started tearing up.  So many times have I shoved a big red wagon, a vintage chair, 9,000 blankets, and the most random of things into the back of this car for props to use in photos. So many times I shoved up to 25 balloons into the back, and got so many laughs in the parking lots of Party City throughout Chicagoland. It has served as a way to know I’m “in the office” when I had my studio and was parked outside. It was a way to connect with clients when they would text me and say they saw me driving around.  And the enormous number of times little kids giggled and asked “Is that your tiny car?” always made me smile. So many of you saw this little car as a representation of Luved Photography, even more so than my logo,  as I saw it as more of my office than any studio could ever be. It was my safe space. 

As life has changed for me so much recently, as I was cleaning up the car I reminisced on all the happy times I had in that car and all the sad ones. So many times I had bad moments because of what was going on behind the scenes in life. All the times I literally felt like my only solace was riding around in that car doing my work. But most of the happy moments I remembered, all had to do with you guys, my clients, my friends. That car always took me to a place of peace, a place where I could have fun and not worry about what was going on in life - it took me to all my sessions. Thank you, for being the story, the joy behind that piece of my life. 

A new car has been purchased, another Fiat. This one has less room, as I try to force myself to stick to the type of photography I love - less props, more moments. There is no studio to park it in front of this time around, and not as many overly sized props to shove in it, but I just know that it will lead me through a new season of life, of my career, and some of life’s best moments - which I truly find in my work, in you!  


Xoxo,
​ed 

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PS - Follow my journey to Denver, on my insta story - @Iamluv_ed. I leave Monday!