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I remember when trying to make it to five years in business was my goal…here I am sitting at my kitchen table with FIFTEEN years to reflect on. wow. I’ve said it plenty of times before, but photography was never in my plan. I have a Master’s degree in education, and I planned on spending life teaching. Clearly, life had other plans.  Fifteen years ago was not when I started taking photos - it was when I started doing it as a “business”. It was a very, very small business I did here and there while I was subbing, trying to find a permanent teaching job. A wedding here and there, a gig some weekends. I did love to travel, and always brought my camera and that’s pretty much the extent to what I thought my photography would be; a fun hobby when I traveled. But slowly word of mouth got out and more and more people were calling me to take their photos. It was starting to get busy and I thought wait... could I make this a business? I was in Europe traveling, just wandering, taking photos and dreaming about what I wanted my business to look like, to feel like. I knew it was a far fetched dream… making your passion your career. My friend at one point looked at me said "you can’t make enough doing just this". I remember thinking “watch me”. Little by little word kept spreading. And little by little I would find locations and started meeting people more and more. I would post it, it would get shared and soon enough It was turning into something. I needed a formal name. At this point it was mostly men in the industry and they usually used their name as their business name. One thing I KNEW was that I didn’t want it to be 'Photography by Erika', or anything remotely close to that. I don’t like a lot of attention so naming my business after myself just wasn't my style, and I wanted it to be something that could last, something here to stay. One day I was writing a letter to someone (remember this was 15 years ago) and I signed it as I always had. I would draw a heart and then put “luv, ed” -- "ed" being my initials. Luved Photography....perfect!  Soon I was asking friends to be models, my niece was posing any chance I could get and I was getting a portfolio together. I advertised at craft fairs to begin and the response was amazing. To this day, some of the people I met at those fairs I still take photos of and keep in touch with. They are my true originals and have been there to watch me grow and have a very very special place in my heart. They trusted me before I was trustworthy (looking at you, Gina!)  As things got even more busy, I still felt like I had something to prove. I had to show that I was legit, that this was an actual business that wasn’t going anywhere, I had no plans to let it falter. And then one day I drove past this very raw little storefront. This was it. I could picture it. THIS was going to be my place. It was small, manageable, quaint. Little by little I was going to make it my own.   And I did.... I loved that little studio, and for the time I had it, it was perfect. It was such an exciting time! I had moved to a new part of town where I owned a business, I was getting married, everything was falling into place. Unfortunately, life threw me a curve ball. My marriage ended, I had some pretty tough medical issues, the building was sold and it was time to move on. Then covid hit. My medical issues continued, everything was shut down …… but NOBODY forgot about Luved Photography. It survived. I survived. And since I have been even more booked and busy than that dream of having a business I talked about way back when.  Fifteen years is a long time to do what you love. Luved Photography and I have almost grown up together. I am proud of how far it has come and also how far I have. Thank you for spreading my little business name so I can do what I love. There have been so many nights spent in tears… but in tears because I didn’t know how I was going to keep up with the demand. What an incredible problem to have! It feels like a huge circle of friends that I get to hang out with day by day. And what I'm most proud of, that someone reminded me a few weeks back, I did it my way.
Cheers to 15 years. I LUV you all!
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