Developer and Photographer | Amber Wilkie

20 random facts about me

This post comes to you thanks (or no thanks) to my favorite place on the internet that every wedding photographer – aspiring or established – should be aware of.  If you are a wedding photographer reading this and you know me, you probably already frequent the site.  If not, drop me a note and I’ll fill you in on the deets. For the rest of my audience, just know that I had fun writing little facts about myself and so thought I would torture my readers.  I’ll probably do some more of these at some point.

1. I’m better at the game Boggle than you or anyone you know.  I’m happy to prove that at any point.
2. I was born on Leap Day, February 29, 1984.  I only get a birthday every four years, but I (or in this case, my husband) make it count.
3. I’ve got three siblings – they all live in California.  One is an auto mechanic and the others are in high school.
4. Hurricane Katrina roared ashore during my senior year of college at Tulane, in New Orleans.  I spent a semester at American University here in DC and it’s a major reason I came back after graduation.  The only reason I came to DC for the “Katrina semester” was because I vacationed here over the previous summer and didn’t have time to see a lot of stuff.  Fascinating how little things can make a huge impact on your life.
5. I curse a lot.
6. My car is a 1998 Toyota Corolla, which my uncle and mother financed for me when I was 16.  I have never owned another vehicle.  Up until I bought my first full-frame camera, it was the most valuable thing I owned and now it’s trumped by two cameras and a computer.  Soren is my car’s name.  He has 170,000 miles on him and still kickin’.
7. I don’t own any makeup – not even a tinted lip gloss.  When brides ask me questions about makeup, I am almost 100% useless.
8. I have never broken a bone, but I have needed stitches twice, in nearly the exact same place.
9. I practice yoga twice a week.
10. My major in college was Latin American Studies.  I was supposed to be a doctor and was told I could major in whatever I wanted as long as I completed the required science/math courses (I did).  Truth is, pursuing the MD was always a really arbitrary motive and when it came time to sign on the dotted line for $50k a year, I quickly realized how little I wanted to be a doctor.
11. Actually, I’m not big on touching people and I faint at the sight of needles.
12. I’m Jewish and was raised in a kosher home, but my parents were never particularly religious.  They just clung to this one incredibly restrictive dietary thing while ignoring more traditionally observant practices like, say, going to temple.
13. I never had a bat mitzvah (see above) but I had an opportunity for an impromptu one at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.  Apparently those who have never had the rites can do it without all the hoopla and ritual at the site of Beyt HaMikdash.  I chose not to, because I didn’t feel worthy.  It’s the same choice I would make today.
14. My favorite food is french fries, as long as there is something to dip them in.
15. I have enormous feet.  George and I wear the same size shoes.
16. I’m a voracious reader and I switch genres constantly.  My last two books were The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Fail and the third Hunger Games book (I recommend both!).
17. Speaking of books, I’ve written two.  For NaNoWriMo (that is, unfinished pieces of garbage books that will never be seen by anyone, ever).
18. I have a ridiculous eye phobia.  I once passed out after an eye exam because I thought they were going to do the eye puff test (they weren’t).  I am 100% sure I will never wear contacts.
19. In high school, I used to dye my hair red all the time like Claire Danes on ‘My So-Called Life.’
20. I have an obsession with black leggings.  I don’t care that they’ve gone back out of style.  I wear them sometimes 3 or 4 times a week.