My favorite thing about the holidays has got to be the lights! I love the candle lit service on Christmas eve. It makes Christmas real. It reminds me that there was a light given to this world to change it for the better. A light we each hold in our own hands and have the ability to either use it or extinguish it. We use lights to celebrate big moments in our lives, to remember the past, and to wish hope for the future. I hope the light in each of us shines brightly this upcoming new year. Go out and serve your world, be the better version of yourself, embrace the light you were given and offer hope to those fading! We make new years resolutions in the hope of change for the better, this is my resolution for 2012! Will you join in?

Spring is here and I’m spring cleaning my equipment room. I have been holding on to equipment I don’t use for over a year now, cuz I just like my stuff, but its time to let goooooooooooooo! From my death grip to your gentle one is the goal. When I started I bought when I could to try all the new stuff. I for some reason don’t believe in renting to try ( wish I did it would have saved me some major moola). Over the trying and buying period I figured out what works for my style of shooting and what doesn’t.  I have a ton of stuff that I got cleaned last year and ready to sell off but  just now getting around to doing it. Most of my equipment has been lightly used other than the camera bodies which is what I started with and so got used a bit until I moved up to my D700!  Everything is in good shape, otherwise I’d never sell it to you,  some pretty much brand new. I’ve done my research on all that I’m putting up and gonna be very fair to what you’d find online at Amazon.com and much better than B&H. If you’re interested or you know of someone shopping around send them over to the blog to check this out, contact me by email at elle@elleticulaphotography.com and I’ll send you an invoice on how to proceed through paypal. Thanks so much and happy shopping!

I know a little cupboard,
With a teeny tiny key,
And there’s a jar of Lollypops
For me, me, me.

It has a little shelf, my dear,
As dark as dark can be,
And there’s a dish of Banbury Cakes
For me, me, me.

I have a small fat grandmamma,
With a very slippery knee,
And she’s Keeper of the Cupboard,
With a key, key, key.

And when I’m very good, my dear,
As good as good can be,
There’s Banbury Cakes, and Lollypops
For me, me, me.
- Walter De la Mare

All that and a big fat THANK YOU for my lovely cousin Daniela who sent me some goodies from the awesomely delicious SUCRE to enjoy!

Yes, the movie was about my life. I’ve been in about 27 weddings, I may admit to more but I might just sound pathetic or easy (take your pick)! Since the age of 11 I’ve played bridesmaid to about every aunt, cousin, friend, and sometimes even to unfamiliar family acquaintance! I think that’s how I got to love documenting such a day, by having been part of so many of them!

One thing I do wish, especially for those early 90′s weddings is that the dress selection would have been more me. I can count on 1 hand the dresses I’ve loved and kept rather than all the others that have been strictly a one day affair. Now on to the good news! BHLDN an Anthropologie special addition has just been released this Valentines Day, and it caters to the whimsical inclined bride and bridesmaid! I’m in love with some of their offerings and really wish to see some of these on my future brides and bridesmaids! I might just be stoping in to buy a few “work attire” dresses for myself! Check this out!

Since I have been a blogging failure, I figure a good way to come back to town would be with a great cause that I got to be a part of this past Saturday! My best-friend Joanna has been a major activist for her uncle who has knee cancer. She’s been putting together raffles and contests and every which way to help raise money for his surgery. One of her recent awesome ideas just took place and I along with some fun ladies had a ball getting our nails done by the amazing Ela! I got a chance to see some high school friends, meet some cool new ppl and get my nails done in my favorite nail polish ESSIE! I took my mom for a chance to get her pampered and have a bit of a day off! She got to meet my best-friends mom which she’s heard about since high school but never really met! (Yes this happens)  It was one of those gentle lull days where time flies and you’re having a great time. I stuffed my face with some great finger foods and just getting a look back is making me hungry, he he!

Joanna you are an inspiration with your persistence and warm heart for such a great cause and I am ever grateful that I have a person such as yourself as a friend in my life!

When her next idea comes to fruition I will be the first to announce it here on the blog but if you want to stay in touch there’s a facebook page she’s keeping for anyone interested. Click Here

I have to say, I’ve missed you all so very dearly! This technical transition has not been an easy one, but I would love to thank you all for being patient and only asking once a month of what’s going on! :) The sites are officially up and working, I will be updating with more current work in the upcoming month and also adding some cool pages with info and pricing on products right in the website mainframe.

The blog is finally blogging, and boy do I have to blog! I feel like my fingers are itching to show the new stuff that’s been on my plate, because its AWESOME! The blog is not 100% fixed or done with where I want it to be, but it will do perfectly for now. So changes are inevitable while I continue with the tweaking.  I love feeling the work finished and off my check-list ! Facebook has been great to keep everyone in the loop and want to give a shout out to all those who have faithfully kept in touch through it. Keep coming back and I will consistently do my best to give more and more visual art into your lives as well as placing what inspires me to do better and hopefully will inspire you as well!

Lots of love and God Bless!

E

Some recent yummy-ness for an appetizer before the full posts come into play soon!

Hailey’s – 1 year portraits!

This is a test to see if my blog is in working order again. :) Thanks for your patience as I’m working the kinks out.

Hello Blog world,

So to update to you all on why I haven’t blog recently, here it is: I have a new website finally in the works, but due to the html I can’t figure out everything seems to  be out of wack! So until I can get everything back to working order, thanks for your patience. If you would like to see some sneak peeks or just become a fan , you can visit the Elle Ticula photography Page on !

Sorry I’m not up to my blogging self but I’ve been having trouble getting my blog to update with a new look. As you can see the banner has changed and I was hoping to add a new flash banner as well, but its been giving me so much of a headache that I’ve decided to scratch that until I have the wedding site finalized. Let’s pray that happens soon as well. I’ve gotten a chunk of work on that done as well but its not done with all the details I would like it to present before the grand re-veil! Be patient a bit longer and I promise soon you’ll see the awesomeness that I’m so excited to show you! I’m revamping everything as I’ve evolved to a different place from where I started. Its a good evolution but its daunting to have so much to do and so little time before Wedding season hits!! The weddings I have coming up this year are amazing!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to shoot that I kinda wish summer was here already. But then I remember I still have a bunch of work to do and I’m glad its only the end of March. lol I’m bipolar with work sometimes, yes, no, maybe so! See its 1am here, I’m exhausted and you can tell by my writing mood. Thank God for spell check! So in the next few short weeks look forward to the new Wedding Website! Some new features for Weddings. The albums I am going to show you will blow you away!!! They struck me speechless anyway, and that’s a hard thing to do! Plus no one on here has gotten to see the new studio! Next post will feature some fun in there!

Spring is in the air!!! Can you feel it?

There’s a new photography exhibit featured at the DIA from March 3-July 3 of Robert Frank. I am going to attend at least once. If anyone is intrested here is some info I got from the DIA newsletter. YAY i love exhibits at the DIA. Seriously, some of my fondest and earliest  memories of realizing how important art is in life came from this Musem.

 Exhibitions

Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955
Special Exhibition Galleries: Central
March 3-July 3
While traveling the country taking photographs for his groundbreaking book The Americans, artist Robert Frank stopped in Detroit, where he was inspired by autoworkers and the cars they made, local lunch counters, drive-in movies, and public parks such as Belle Isle (above). Through his images, he transformed the everyday experiences of city residents into an extraordinary visual statement about American life.
Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955, showcases more than sixty rare black-and-white photographs from the DIA’s collection, including eight images that were published in The Americans. In addition, an in-depth body of work representative of Frank’s view of Detroit’s working-class culture and automotive industry is exhibited together for the first time.
With funding from a Guggenheim grant, Frank set out in 1955 and 1956 to create a large visual record of America, which was to become The Americans. According to the photographer, the book documented “things that are there, anywhere, and everywhere…a town at night, a parking lot, the man who owns three cars and the man who owns none…the dream of grandeur, advertising, neon lights…gas tanks, post offices, and backyards.” Whether in the disorienting surroundings of a massive factory or during the solitary and alienating moments of individuals in parks and on city streets, the Swiss-born photographer looked beneath the surface of life in the United States and found a culture that challenged his perceptions and popular notions of the American Dream.
Frank developed an unconventional photographic style that was innovative and controversial in its time. Photographing quickly, Frank sometimes tilted and blurred compositions, presenting people and their surroundings in fleeting and fragmentary moments with an unsentimental eye. Beat poet Jack Kerouac expressed the complex nature of the artist and his work in a passage from the writer’s introduction to The Americans, stating, “Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world.”
Robert Frank, American (born Switzerland); Belle Isle, 1955; gelatin silver print. Museum Purchase, Forum for Prints, Drawings and Photographs Purchase Fund
© Robert Frank, from The Americans