ERICA & JUSTIN | STRIP DISTRICT | PITTSBURGH

Sometimes you lock your keys in your car in the Strip District and it’s the worst day ever; you have to suffer the embarrassment of the moment, call AAA, and stand by your car in shame while you wait for the truck to come. Sometimes, though, you get to wait for AAA over beers with some of the coolest, most genuine people in the world. Luckily for me, my situation was the latter and those saving graces were Erica and Justin.

Erica and Justin’s engagement session was one of those experiences that confirmed why I love my job. For starters, they are absolutely in love with each other and did not stop smiling and laughing the whole time. I get so excited when a couple is 100% comfortable together and takes the session as an opportunity to spend time together and sneak kisses about a hundred times for the sake of photography. It makes for some great photos, but I also want my clients to really enjoy their experience and not think of it as another check off of the wedding preparation list. Justin could not stop smiling every time he looked at Erica, and Erica could not master the serious face due to laughing and smiling back at Justin.  Their energy never went down even as we took them to every nook and cranny of the Strip District in Pittsburgh (one particular area had about a million black crows hovering over huge black tires…pretty creepy).

Besides the bad luck of locking my keys in my car that day,  not a single restaurant or store was open for Erica and Justin to change outfits. Justin had the perfect solution- let’s wait it out at Kaya over a few beers. A few beers were accompanied by some seriously great conversation ranging from favorite movies to future goals and getting to know this awesome couple even more. They are some of the most genuine, down to earth people we’ve ever met and we could have hung out with them all night. All of the things that happened that day would normally be bad news, but I’m really thankful it happened this way. Now I get to shoot the second half of their photos in the winter snow, which will give Abbey and I a good excuse to hang out with this awesome couple again soon.