Hello! As the name of the website implies, my name is Erica and I love photography. I would like to use this space to explain who I am, as I believe that it’s important to know who you are doing business with when you are looking for a photographer. There are a million different personality types in this world and you need to be able to work with, and trust, the person who will be shadowing you on your wedding day, taking photographs of your babies when they are just days old, or getting your children to giggle and smile on a day that they might not much feel like having their portraits taken.

I have been taking photos for about ten years, but it wasn’t until 2006 that I decided to become properly educated in photography, and began attending classes at Nossi College of Art in Goodlettsville, TN. In the years that followed I had several opportunities within the industry to work with other photographers, on location as well as in the studio. Upon my return to my home state of Pennsylvania, I set out on my own and began shooting weddings, portraits, and events in Pittsburgh and Erie, and all of the little towns in between.

My style is a combination of commercial photography and photojournalism, photos that capture the story of your day without ignoring the tiny details that express your personality and style to your guests.

I shoot completely digitally, and use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to post process photos. All photos, both raw and edited, are uploaded to an off-site storage server, as well as kept locally on hard drives. Not only will your receive your photos on a DVD, but I also create a permanent, password protected, client area on the website for you to share with your family and friends.

As for myself personally, I am a born and raised Pennsylvanian currently residing in Pittsburgh, but originally from the Erie/Edinboro region. Having roots in both cities is great, I am familiar with both regions and because I am frequently traveling between the two anyway, I don’t charge an additional fee for anything along the I-79 corridor.

I am married to a wonderful man named Alan, we were married in 2006 after being together for 7 years. Yes, we were high school sweethearts! He is absolutely my rock, and every day I thank my lucky stars that we have had the opportunity to grow up together and that we still love each other just as much as adults as we did when we were teenagers back in Edinboro.

Alan and I are both animal lovers, and we share our home with 3 cats and 2 bearded dragons, and it’s so hard for me not to bring home every other stray and shelter pet that Alan has actually had to enact a “No More Alive Things” rule into our household. To see cute photos of our current brood and hear their rescue stories, check out this blog post: Meet the Family!

I am a music fanatic, from classic rock like The Who, The Beatles and Zeppelin, to modern independent rock such as Butch Walker and Frank Turner, it’s almost impossible to find me working without music on in the background. I love those rare opportunities when a club owner doesn’t restrict dSLR cameras in a venue and I can capture the raw emotion and passion that takes place on stage.

Not surprisingly, or maybe most surprising of all, I love weddings. I get so excited when a friend calls with that post-proposal phone call because it means I have someone to talk for hours with about dresses, flowers, centerpieces, and on and on! I think that love of weddings is what really pushed me into the field of wedding and event photography. Every single wedding I shoot makes me want to do it all over again, because weddings are just that much fun.

If you feel that I have left anything out, or are interested in more information, please feel free to email me at erica@ericabickel.com.