Team Emmerika have been our clients for such a long time now (since 2013!) and it’s been so wonderful seeing them grow. We knew them when they were living in an apartment with one cat whom Emmanuel was very allergic to but loved nonetheless. He was a homeless cat they rescued and took care of and his name is Lobo. Now, you should know that Erika and Emmanuel are very doting people. If they like you, you will know, and be a great recipient of their love (and snacks). So even though Emmanuel was allergic to Lobo, they took him in and cleaned him up and loved him fiercely. Then they bought a house! Then, with an adjustment of allergy medications probably?, they adopted two additional cats. THEN they adopted a puppy! THEN they adopted another puppy! And now Lobo lives with 2 other cats, 2 dogs, and one baby (not a cat!) named Felix. And I’m glad, because no one has more love to give away than Erika and Emmanuel… and every single dependent creature who lives with them has the BEST life. Plus, I am extra glad they had a baby because LOOK AT HOW CUTE FELIX IS. IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. LOOK AT HIS TINY CORDUROY PANTS. AND HIS LIL FACE. AND THE SIDE EYE HE OCCASIONALLY GIVES HIS PARENTS. I want to squeeze him and steal him and never let him grow up and out of those tiny corduroy pants. The cutest, handsomest gentleman who likes to give me high-fives and talk about cats. He is loved by many and will do great things. His name is Felix but he is not a cat.

P.S. Thank you to Quail Ridge Books, a favorite stomping ground of Erika and Emmanuel, for letting us take some pictures inside your store!
P.P.S. Thank you to Helen, who is always such a big help on shoots and a wonderful grandma to Felix!

Doing promotional photography for local businesses is such a fun job. Not only do we get to meet new people and discover new places, but we get to help them promote themselves which enables them to be successful. Plus, all small business owners are kindred spirits, eh? So it’s nice to be able to work for and with each other to promote everyone’s work. It especially gives me joy when promoting other female business owners in the area, so it’s with great pleasure that we introduce you to a wonderful downtown Raleigh business called The Design Gallery Salon! Heather and Lauren are the lady bosses there, and they have an incredible crew assembled with Casie (front desk multitasking genius), Terri (hair stylist who never complains), Lindsey (hair stylist with a fabulous sense of humor), and Neilie (esthetician who smiles a lot). They moved a few years ago from their previous location to a coveted spot in downtown Raleigh’s City Market where they’re quite established and have a loyal following of wonderful clients. We were brought in to take some updated pics of their crew and space, and we couldn’t have had more fun working with these wonderful women! So if you’re in the market for a trim downtown, visit http://www.designgallerysalon.com/. Also, much thanks and kudos to Erin Kelly Makeup for working with the ladies on the shoot!

These guys. They’re like us, only they don’t have two cats. But sometimes they borrow their friend’s cat, so they’re basically us. Gretchen and Jason are two of our favorite people. We first met Gretchen doing weddings as she is a fabulous wedding planner. She owns her own business called RedBird Events (go check her website out!) and if you hire both us and Gretchen, you may come across us whispering in a corner somewhere. And it might look suspicious, but really we’re just planning our Halloween parties and comparing notes on costumes. When we finally decided to hang out together in real life, we met her husband Jason for the first time. He showed up wearing this shirt, whose image has been my go-to Facebook timeline image every November for the past several years, and so we loved him immediately.

Interesting Fact about Gretchen+Jason: “Gretchen and I have both dislocated the same knee. It’s our left one. I don’t mean this as a collective shared knee, but that we’ve both dislocated our own knees. Although, now I’m wondering what a shared knee would look like. Assuming we were actually physically joined together at marriage into something like conjoined twins, I’m wondering where we’d connect and how it would look. I’ll ponder this a bit more today.”

Now we are lifer friends and we enjoy their company. Jason does a mean Morrissey impression during RockBand, and Gretchen sings adorable songs that she writes about Star Wars, so they’re kind of my favorite band when you put them both together. Here are some options for their future album cover: