gwyneth colleen photography » portsmouth, nh wedding photographer

i really can’t emphasize enough how important this is to me…if you know someone in the military, PLEASE tell them about oplove.org

there is no cost to them…just people wanting to give something back to those who sacrifice so much.

was born on monday.  my sister, bekah (who shall heretofore be referred to as “bek-the-sister”), gave birth to william robert sometime in the evening.

(brand new babies are SO attractive.)

the happy family…well, mom and dad are fairly content…the pipsqueak doesn’t look so happy.

my brother-in-law is in the air force, and they were stationed in mississippi in march.  i knew they were planning to name the baby william robert (they decided this long before she was pregnant) after both of their grandfathers, so i joked that they were moving down south and naming their kid billy-bob.

they are going to call him “liam”…i think that’s a really cute nickname for william!

kid’s got attitude!

bek says he’s going to be the next lead singer for kiss…my nephew the rockstar.

it’s so weird to me that my little sister is a MOM!  (and that makes me an AUNT.)
i’m sure it’ll all become more real when i finally get to meet him in october.  stay tuned for auntie gwyn’s photos of bebe liam.

rob & ali are getting married in less than a week…so, i guess i should write about their engagement session, huh?

when i walked into starbucks–where we’d agreed to meet–the first thing they said to me was, “we like you!  you’re short like us!”  our time together just got more fun from there.  (just got more fun?  that sounds horrible.  how would you phrase something like that?)

starbucks has a rule against photography inside their stores, so…i told them, ‘get in position, and then i’ll real quick snap a few frames…’  i’m so sly.  and we didn’t get in trouble.

rob is a folk singer-songwriter (my favourite kind!)…he used to be on the board of club passim, which is like…THE venue for boston folk music.  he brought his guitar along, and i was ALL about that.

(i like this one of ali watching him play…she looks so happy and proud.)

and one last one…she loves hello kitty, and he loves bigfoot…and they love their mini cooper (i love that they drive a mini cooper…it’s the perfect size for them!–note that i am included in that.  my car is scarcely bigger than a mini cooper.  )

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they saw these photos a few weeks ago…this was ali’s email to me:

GWYN!!!!!
Holy cow!
(Holy Bigfoot?)
These are GREAT! Love them!
I’ve got a waiting room full of patients, and I keep making them wait more ’cause
I just want to look at pics! Can’t wait to get home and really savor them!
Wow- thank you so much… For taking the time, for making the drive, for
hobbling around with us, for giving me the opportunity to get comfortable with a
camera, for not getting annoyed with my inability to not make goofy faces, for
making my skin look better than it is, for being so, well, completely lovely.
We are lucky to have found you.
I’ll work on straight faces… Think the practice this weekend will help.
So so so sorry to hear about the poison ivy.

(i should point out that that was a DIFFERENT bout with poison ivy than i am currently suffering from.  i think i am the most sensitive/allergic person to p.i. i have ever met.  but that’s not what this post was about!)

rob & ali i can’t wait to come party with you at your campground/family reunion wedding!

i forgot to tell you…i’m on vacation this week in arizona. i’m visiting my friend monica…a dear, dear friend whom i have not seen for FOUR YEARS!

while i was out here, i got a chance to reconnect with some other people i have known for a million years…
one of them is kimberly jarman. she was a HUGE inspiration to me…and i might not be a wedding photographer today if she hadn’t started down this path several years before me. photography was not even on my radar, and i remember seeing the photos she took and thinking they were SO beautiful and romantic.  so when i started getting into photography…i was attracted to the adventuresome and romantic images she created from the weddings she photographed.

in the early days of my business, her work was definitely the ruler by which i measured my own photos (yeah, mine ALWAYS fell short) and the first place i went looking for inspiration. i’ve since found my own voice and style and no longer compare myself, but i’m still inspired by the way she sees the world.

she recently had a little baby, kailee michelle, and also opened a studio in downtown mesa. sounds like everything’s going well in the jarman world!