Random Facts {Just for fun}

Random Facts:

1. The wedding band is placed on the left  hand's ring finger, because it is the only finger with a vein that goes all the way to the heart.

2. No matter how hard you try, you can never remember how your dream started.

3. in 1982 a study predicted exactly how technology would have on todays society.

4. Sarcasm strengthens the right hemisphere of the brain which controls our creativity.

5. Your thumb = the length of your nose.

6. Kissing strengthens your memory, the more the better.

7. Psychology says, friendship is not who you spend the most time with, but who you have the best time with.

8. The average person spends 25 years waiting for something, i.e. microwave food, text message, phone call.

9. To burn off one M&M candy you need to walk the full length of a football field.

10. McDonalds salads are more fattening then their burgers


That's 2 minutes of your life you will never get back :)

www.erinlynphotography.com

Inversion {1/2 inch of hair growth in one week}

A few weeks ago I talked about the dramatic hair cut I had to have and how I have been desperately trying to grow it back. Well I was getting pretty close when my mom convinced me that my hair looked ragged and I need to even it out on the ends... Well I listened and lost about 2 inches of hair in the process. In my anger I researched everything to make it come back! I found something and I tried it out! Inversion. It's an ancient method that his been around for a very long time not just for hair growth, but for lots of other things too. Basically you hang upside down and your hair will grow. :) Just kidding there is more to it than that.

For 7 days you heat up an oil of your choice, massage the oil into your scalp while hanging upside down for 4 minutes. Then leave the oil in your hair for about 2 hours, then rinse with water. Seems simple, but please take caution, this is not the safest of methods. Check out this LINK for more info and safety measures.

What I did.

I took olive oil and heated it up in a small bowl in the microwave for about 1 minute. Then I poured the oil onto my scalp and hung with my head down for 4 minutes massaging my scalp with the oil. I started off first in this position.

As the week continued I ended up hanging off my couch upside down. After the oil was rubbed into my scalp for the 4 minutes, I left the oil in for either 2 hours, or over night. The next day or 2 hours later I would wash out the oil with water. By day 2 my hair was getting oily, so when I rinsed out the oil, I'd also scrub my scalp with some baking soda to clean my hair and the oil. Baking soda is a light alternative to shampoo. You do not want to shampoo at all during inversion. The process will not work if you do! After my hair was washed, I wore it up  so no one would see if my hair got greasy later on in the day. 

After 7 days of this, I came out with 1/2 an inch. Not a lot, but it's something for me. I will continue this every month and monitor my progress. Inversion only works as long as you space out the inversion times. Do not do this straight for 2 weeks. Your body will get used to the blood flow going to your head more and it won't work. do this once a month at most. 

My result

Before and After

It is hard to see a 1/2 inch, so be sure to measure before and after! Not everyone will have results. Some will grow an inch others, none at all. Every little bit helps though.

www.erinlynphotography.com 

Best movie snack ever!

I'm a reader, I love books and more so I love series. I also love to read books series that become movies. When do I read all these books with my busy life? I read at the gym, while I'm running on an elliptical. It takes my mind off the pain of the workout. I'v read hundreds of books doing this and one series I read was the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I loved them! I won't give any secrets away, but I cried my eyes out in the gym while reading the last few chapters of the third book. So, being a reader of the series with the movie now out, I had to drag Billy to go see it with me! Long story short, we both really liked it! Its a good movie, but of course, the book is always better!

For our movie date I decided that we needed a fun treat, something sweet and salty to satisfy. With it being a movie date, it had to be popcorn. Salty snack, check! So, how to make it sweet? I ended up making some carmel sauce and chopping up "fun size" snickers and placing them into my popcorn mix, creating, "snickers popcorn." SO GOOD!!!!



1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Make a bag of popcorn then pour the popped corn into a baking pan.

3. Make your carmel sauce. 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup Corn syrup. Boil and stir until light brown. 

4. Pour carmel sauce onto the popcorn.

5. Bake your carmel covered popcorn for 45 minutes. 

6. While popcorn is baking chop up some snickers. I used 6 "fun size" snickers. 

7.Once your carmel popcorn is baked, remove from oven and stir in the snickers. Chocolate will spread around your popcorn and the snickers chunks will collect popcorn making a delightful snack!

8. Place popcorn mix in a bag and go enjoy your movie!

Billy and I loved this snack! 

www.erinlynphotogrpahy.com 

The Magic Gray Card

As a photographer we all have our moments in light room or another Raw file program that we can spend hours in color correcting our photos until they are perfect and ready for our clients to see. It can be tiresome and frustrating, but guess what, I have a fun secret for you to make that color correcting a thing of the past. All you need is an 18% gray card. The digital gray card is super helpful when photographing in hard lighting situations, such as tungsten or florescent light scenes. All you have to do is place your gray card under the light situation you are photographing under and snap a photo.

Ugh look how yellow and awful that looks! 

Then in your color correcting program or in photoshop, select the gray card photo as well as however many other photos you took under that same lighting situation and place your eye dropper on the gray card and just click. Then all of your photos will instantly color correct! That simple!

On this photoshop screen I have all the yellow photos highlighted.

Then at the top of the screen just click on the eye dropper.

Then all of your photos will instantly color correct making your job done!

Perfect color after fine tuning with the gray card edit! 

This is a super helpful item to have in your camera bag! It makes your life easier and is well worth the money to keep your screen time with your computer to a minimum! This gray card can also be cleaned when you dirty it up too, the card is water proof! Which is very nice, because in order for this edit to work, you need to make sure your eye dropper was on a clean spot on your gray card to make it 100% color correct! 

www.erinlynphotography.com 

Healthy Chicken Fajitas

For dinner I will be having three dirt bike racers (four including me) and it is race season! So, these boys need to watch what they eat to keep their bodies going strong! And me, I race too, so it's a plus for them that I'm cooking for my benefit as well as theirs. :) The boys like Chicken fajitas, but instead of greasing up a pan and frying the ingredients, I decided to bake it instead! The chicken came out so moist and tender, they were thrilled with the new rendition!

What you need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into strips

Red bell pepper sliced

Green bell pepper sliced

1 onion sliced and chopped

{add other ingredients that you enjoy to this}

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp salt

Serves 4

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Place your chicken strips and veggies in a greased baking pan. 

3.Take your olive oil, chili powder, garlic powder, died oregano, and salt and mix together in a small bowl. Then drizzle this sauce onto your chicken and veggies and mix so the sauce is all over your fajitas. 

4. Bake for 30-35 minutes uncovered.

5. Take out your fajita mix and serve!

Add salsa, sour cream, ranch, cheese ect to a tortilla along with your fajita mix and enjoy!

The dirt bikers in my family loved this! 

www.erinlynphotography.com 

More Fudge less Pudge Cookies

As many of you have probably picked up on, I like greek yogurt. So, here is a yummy chocolate cookie recipe with greek yogurt to replace using a large amount of that fatty butter! The cookies are so moist and gooey and, they aren't all that bad for you either!

What you need

2 cups flour

2/3 cup dark chocolate coco (regular coco is fine too)

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 tsp butter softened

1/2 cup greek yogurt (Plain or vanilla works for this)

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate semi sweet chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl add all your dry ingredients together.

{2 cups flour, 2/3 cup coco,  1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar}

3. In a large bowl mix your wet ingredients together and blend well.

{2 tsp vanilla, 4 tsp soft butter, 1/2 cup greek yogurt 2 eggs}

4.Once it is all mixed, add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients bowl.

5. Stir all ingredients then add 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips. 

6. Take your cookie batter and on a greased baking sheet scoop cookie dough into small balls and place them on the cookie sheet with an inch of space between each cookie dough ball. 

7. Bake your yummy cookies for 8-10 minutes. Then remove cookies and allow them to cool on a cooling rack. 

Once cooled, bite into these yummy cookies, guilt free! About 100 calories per a serving of 3 cookies. 

Enjoy!

www.erinlynphotography.com 

Honeymoon jitters!

When people ask me about my wedding, one of the question I get is, "have you decided on a honeymoon?" My response is, "The honeymoon has been decided for the last seven years, so yes, we have decided and have booked our honeymoon." When they hear the "seven years" line, they normally give me a questioned look, so I go onto explain what I mean.

Seven years ago I fell in love with the idea of photography being more than just my hobby. I started exploring photography as a career, I searched wedding photography and decided that I could make that work. When exploring the subject further I ventured upon "Trash the Dress" photography. I was hooked! I couldn't get enough of it! There was one company in particular that caught my eye, Del Sol Photography! They are seriously so incredible! I learned of their location and began planning the day that I became engaged I would tell that man of mine, "We are going to Rivera de Maya for our honeymoon and we are trashing my wedding dress in a cenote!" Billy has been informed of this dream of mine for a while now and was on board with this idea! We went to a travel agency and booked ourselves a 9 day trip to Rivera de Maya Mexico in an all exclusive resort! So pumped! The best part is on our second day there, we are meeting with the wonderful Del Sol photographer Deborah who is taking our gorgeous photos! Once I signed that contract I was so ready for my wedding day just to come so I can go to Mexico and wear my gown in the water! Some of you may think I'm crazy, but when you see the images that they produce, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will not miss out on! We all have something that makes our wedding day special to us, mine is going to be my dress photos that will be taken on my honeymoon! Please visit the Del Sol Photography website to see what I mean!


http://delsolphotography.com    < You'll be blown away!

This is a snapshot from the Del Sol Photography Trash the Dress page! How amazing are these images!!!???

www.erinlynphotography.com 

Yogurt Bars {healthy snack time}

As a bride and someone striving to live the fit life, I have a hard time with snack time. "I would love to eat that cookie, but no, I better not" is my struggle. So, I'm constantly trying to come up with healthier options to bite into. This recipe I'll share with you, is tasty and wholesome! A Perfect match!

To make these yummy yogurt bars you'll need:

Yogurt (I used Greek)

Fruit (I have blue berries and strawberries)

Nuts (I have walnuts)

Seeds (I have flax seeds, great for helping to slim down the mid section)

Dark chocolate (I have Wilbur buds, those of you from Lancaster PA know the joy these chocolates bring to those who eat them)

Of course though, you may mix it up and add whatever you would like to your yogurt! This is an "as you like it" recipe. 

1. Take a pan about 13x19 or 8x8 depending on how many of these yummy bars you would like to make. Take your yogurt and spoon it into your dish. 

2. Add your extras to to the yogurt and mix it all around in the pan. For the chocolate I used shavings just to add a light sweet taste.

3. to make it look nice, add your left over extras on top.

4. Freeze your creation, then cut it up and enjoy!

Note: Keep the bars cold so they hold their shape :)

www.erinlynphotography.com

Confessions of a Wedding Photographer

I Love being a wedding photographer, it's the icing on the cake in the wedding business (in my opinion that is). There are so many pros to the business, but like any job there are always a few cons.

PROS:
1. You're there for the whole wedding day process. The bride getting her hair and make up done, the bridesmaids oohing over their beloved friend in her white dress. It's a special time.

2. Then you go over to the guys, joking around with the groom that his life is over so he better take another shot. These guys can be so entertaining. :P

3. The first look is my favorite! Being able to share and witness that moment between the bride and groom is so powerful to me, I start crying behind my lens. Doesn't matter if I just met you an hour ago, or if I've had an engagement session with you before your wedding, I cry. If the first look is at the alter, I can bet half of your guest will tell you they saw a tear roll down my cheek, if it's before the vows, you will/have personally witnessed my tear streaked face. Ah, water works are forming just thinking about it!

4. My favorite part is seeing the love story unfold... Stealing those moments with the bride and groom to get alone photos are the best. Watching them exchange the brightest of smiles, sharing light kisses, and whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears, its precious! 

5. The reception is a highlight! I love food! I love trying all the different foods that are offered at the wedding, I mean who doesn't love eating a great wedding dinner? And ummm cake, duh!

(This was the biggest cake at a wedding I've seen! It was pretty awesome!)

6. Cake smashes aren't just for babies.

Nope, grown ups do it too, I'm still trying to learn how this tradition was started....

7. Dancing is fun, you can be an amazing dancer, or have two left feet, throw a few drinks in you and you're the next Michael Jackson. My favorite is the "Wobble." I love it! It's not a wedding without those group dances to get all your guest out on the dance floor! If your DJ plays the "Wobble" and your guest do not know the moves, never fear, I'll get out there, camera equipment and all and dance with your guest. No shame in admitting this. Those of you reading this who have booked me for your wedding, beware, those of you who have witnessed it, yup, no shame!

Weddings are a celebration, and I'm blessed to have a career that allows me to celebrate with people and capture their love story! 

This is me in action, a guest of this bride and groom took a photo of me taking a photo, I love it!!!!

CONS:

1. Weddings are on the weekends and there comes a time when you're going to have to miss things. It can be a down fall, but it's in the job title. However, missing some very big events can really crush a person. This year, two of my life long guy friends are getting married and I have weddings booked on both of the dates that they selected and it's not their weddings I have booked. Confession: when I learned of their dates and knew I had weddings, through the tears I considered quitting and canceling all my weddings and drop out of the industry for good, I never felt (still feel) guilty for missing these two amazing guys (and their incredible brides) weddings on the count that I'm working someone else's big day. After some time, I finally came to terms that this is in the job title, things like this happen, as awful and heart breaking as it is. Thankfully, they are both pretty cool friends and have pushed their times back so I can hopefully make it to some of their receptions and dance with them! ("Wobble") of course! 

My two tall summer grooms! I can't wait to make it for as much as your weddings as I can!

2. You get yelled at by your friends. Well not yelled at really but they do get a little frustrated planning out activities months ahead of time. (My planner and I are close friends, can't double book.) My bridesmaids are having a hard time planning my bachelorette party because they can't surprise me, I have to be told what weekend I can't book a wedding or shoot. My dear mother is sad she can't make my bridal shower a surprise because of my job. But then you get the friends that call you from their wedding venue and say, "Hey Erin, so the venue has this date and this date open, which one can you do?" I love phone calls like that, totally makes my day to know they want me there that badly. :) Then when we pick a date they yell at me to put it in the calendar so no one can take their date for a wedding or shoot! To all of my friend who have done that  to me this year, I gave all your wedding dates away! Just kidding! :P 

With all of this, I love what I do, and I wouldn't give it up. In fact, I love wedding photography so much I joined a one stop wedding service as a wedding photographer, so now I'm not only shooting my businesses' wedding but adding on double the weddings this year with this other business I joined. Whoo! Can you guess what I'll be doing all summer? The answer is not going to the beach, it's going to weddings every weekend, even twice in one weekend and there are a few three day wedding weekends! AH, CAN'T WAIT! I have two weeks till it's wedding season for me officially and I'm over the moon excited! Stay tuned this summer to hear about the wedding business!

www.erinlynphotography.com

DIY Gifts {For both guys and girls}

I love giving my friends personalized gifts. One gift that I've been known to give is painted glasses. This is easy and inexpensive, but it does take time to create. I will go to places like T.J Maxx or Marshalls and pick up one of their 4-8 piece sets of some type of glassware. As a friends birthday would come around I'd go reach into my discounted glass box and find one that suited them. The guys would get beer glasses and I would tend to paint a team logo on their glass. Easiest thing to do is paint a team logo. Why? because you can print out the logo and tape it inside the glass and paint on top of it accordingly. For my ladies, they were always a little harder, I would normally grab a wine glass and cover the whole glass in a fun design. The samples I will show you are prints such as cheetah and zebra print.  How I did these is I printed out a pattern of the print and had it next to me and used it as a reference. Then to make the end of it look nice, I'd end the paint about two inches below the rim and line it with glitter. So, lets talk about what you need.

1.Paint- Acrylic paint for glass. I have a few colors, but remember, you can mix colors so no need to go too crazy with buying a bunch of colors.

2. Glasses- T.J Maxx. Marshalls, ect will have cheap glassware sets you can stock up on.

3. Paint brushes.

4. Print outs of your designs (If you need them)

Here the logo is tapped inside the glass.

Easy enough to just paint over top of the logo. 

Here are a few samples of just a FEW of the glasses I have painted as gifts.

One last thing that I'm sure you're all thinking, "how do you wash it?"

Simple I tell you, bake your glass after you have painted it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Or paint your glasses 30 days ahead of time and the paint will stay. I personally always bake then spray it lightly with a coat of "Clear Acrylic Sealer." However, to be safe, suggest to your friends that they hand wash the glass. Enjoy!

www.erinlynphotography.com