and when you get two photographers and a camera in a place with that many colours and textures…some hijinks are BOUND to ensue. she took what is undoubtedly my new favourite picture of myself. enjoy.

and here’s one from beth and josh’s wedding in maine. beth is so freaking beautiful it hurts.

everyone is super friendly, and they ply you with snacks and after your first visit…a little goody box that includes a gift card to an area restaurant. and a few weeks after my first visit, i got a letter in the mail with a gift card for a free chipotle burrito. (granted, i don’t really love chipotle, and if i’m going to eat a burrito, it’s loco cocos all the way, baby.) but still!

anyway, they’re preparing to launch their new site (i’ve seen a preview…it looks sweet!) so they asked me to do some headshots of the men behind the ministry.

i don’t want to spoil the big reveal, so i’m only going to post one…(which is my favourite not b/c of WHO it is…but b/c i love the tones and clarity! photographer nerd alert!)

so, click back on www.nlc.tv i think…sunday? saturday? and come check it out.

we headed to their favourite spot on the island, rum point. there will be another, more exhaustive post later, but here are a few of my quick favourites!

rachel hadiashar of merge said this looked like he was captured on captain hook’s pirate ship and wendy darling was going to save him. i love that little story!

you see that light right there? THAT’S why we had to get up so early. that kind of light is only available just after sunrise and just before sunset…early was better for us; we had the whole beach to ourselves!

also, i cannot believe i’m going to show you this, but…knowing we were shooting on the beach, i wore my swimsuit. i wanted to be able to go anywhere…tam got this shot of me and one of my weird contorted positions (if i’ve photographed you, you KNOW what i’m talking about!)

tammy’s view.

my view

and then we saw a giant stingray. the end.

tammy and i are in grand cayman for raegan & joe’s wedding…and we are having an incredibly fabulous time! today we walked across the street to one of the prettiest beaches i’ve ever seen.

the water was PEERRRRFECT.

it looked like a postcard, and on top of that…it was the best swimming temperature ever. not creepy bathwater warm, and not too cool to be shocking when you step in…it was just…refreshing and perfect.

(this was on our return trip…first we played…then we played with cameras. bathing suits and cameras do not generally mix, unless you’ve got highly specialised (and expensive!) equipment.)

as we were walking back…this giant lizard, roughly the size of my cat, was startled by us…though, lemme tell ya…NOT AS STARTLED AS ME! i’m not afraid of it…except when i don’t know it’s there, and it suddenly darts past me.

tonight we shot the rehearsal (and partook in probably the world’s greatest rehearsal dinner) and hung out w/ raegan & joe’s super fun friends…in a weird twist…most of them are from the capital district in ny…where i grew up and my parents still live. tammy was amused that i was able to join in the conversation about restaurants, etc…

stay tuned for more from the caymans!

last weekend i was in boston photographing the rescue for invisible children.  it was incredible how many people came out!  the massachussetts senators were unable to be there, but a representative from senator kerry’s office read a statement signed by senator kerry, senator kennedy, and congressman mcgovern.  fox news was there to cover the event, and after the sox spanked the yankees (BOOYAH!), justin masterson (who…bit of trivia…graduated from the same college i did!  he started the year after i graduated.) showed up to lend his support for the cause as well.

this is charles. he was a former child soldier in joseph kony’s LRA. he’s why everyone’s involved. he’s a face to put to the atrocities. i was really bummed that i didn’t get to hear him speak, but it was time to head back to nh.

this weekend i’m going to NYC to photograph an engagement session…stay tuned!

i’ll get back from NYC on sunday, and thursday i turn around and head to the caymans for the fabulous raegan & joe’s caribbean destination wedding! tammy is coming with me, and we are going to make images that will BLOW YOUR MINDS. i promise.

return from caymans on monday, may 11…head down to providence for meg & dave’s fantabulous affair on friday.

then, my friends…an ENTIRE WEEK at home! but it won’t last. i’ll be in CT from 29 may-1 jun…shooting charles & mary’s nuptials and then 2nd shooting for fantastic ct photog christa bosco of dolce photography.

then…home again…for 10 whole days! before i head to NC/SC to visit friends at ft bragg and 2nd shoot with tomme hilton in charleston. (let me know if you’re in that area and interested in a photo session!)

i’ll be home about 2 days from NC before it’s time to head down to RI again for a wedding on block island. (stay tuned for brittney & david’s engagement session). the extremely talented (and recently featured on blu domain) tracy lynn of three heart photo is coming to shoot with me for that wedding.

so.  i’m going to be all over the place, is basically what i’m saying.  lots of exciting things in store.  i’ll still be accessible, so call/email/text/twitter/fb me if you need anything!  and if you want to connect, let’s make it happen!

there’s an incredible organisation called invisible children that is making a difference in one of the worst atrocities our era has ever seen…and one of the least publicised. in fact…until i saw a presentation of their most recent video…i basically hadn’t even heard of it. (of course, i try to stay away from the news at least 4 days of the week.)

quick recap: a bad dude in northern uganda named joseph kony started kidnapping children and forcing them to serve in his army…these kids were made to kill or be killed. it didn’t matter who got in joseph kony’s way…family members, tribesmen…no biggie. children orphaned by the war were forced to walk into their city centers and sleep overnight to protect themselves from the same fate as many of their friends or relatives.

invisible children is doing their best to draw attention to this and get ppl with power on board to effect change.

this april 25, there is going to be a national event called “the rescue”.  it will be in cities across the world…people will “get kidnapped” and walk to their city centers and sleep overnight in solidarity with the children of northern uganda.

one thing that really struck me about invisible children was the fun and effective way they use multi-media to further the message.  i was blown away by this video they made of one of their past national events.

anyway, if you’re interested in offering your services to document the event, please email me gwyn[at]gwynethcolleen[dot]com.  if you’re in the boston area, apparently i am coordinating this (that’s what i get for volunteering, huh?!), and if you’re elsewhere in the country, i’ll find out the right name to pass your information along to.  there are hundreds and thousands of ppl across the country right now working tirelessly to make sure this makes an impact.  they’re talking to local and state politicians, news crews, soliciting donations, etc, etc…it’s worthwhile, and only 1 night of your time!  (and if you’re not a photographer, consider simply attending.  every person there makes the collective voice louder!  click here to see if there’s an event in your city.)

i don’t wear jewelry often enough that i’m willing to buy it for MYSELF…but if anyone wanted to win some MAJOR points with me…i’m just saying, this would be a surefire place to start.

also, gail is full of win because she is using an adorable font for her logo.  i ALMOST feel like i’ve seen it somewhere before. 

and actually, it’s not the st paddy’s day kind of green, it’s the reduce, reuse, recycle kind of green.

i think this is kind of awesome, and anne is awesome, so…check it out, kids! (if you’re already my client, you’re ineligible. if you are thinking of becoming my client…go with that . if you want awesomeness and this economy has punched you in the gut…well, i wish you well, and i hope you win!)

2 5ds SOLD
24 1.4 L  SOLD
100 2.8 macro  SOLD
70-200 2.8 IS  SOLD
28-70 2.8  (this is NOT the 24-70 w/ the sharpness issues. i love this lens!)  SOLD
430ex flash  SOLD
580exII SOLD
st-e2 wireless flash trigger  SOLD

anyone interested? send me an email: gwyn [at] gwynethcolleen.com

i have returned, and i am currently sitting in the dark on my friend patrick’s absent roommate’s bed in pasadena. (that was a lot of qualifying prepositional phrases, wasn’t it?)

i’ll write more about my adventures later, but for now…i am reopening print orders. i’ve got a LOT of upheaval and transition in the next few weeks, but i will have access to all of my files very soon and can get those prints out to you. if you’ve got any questions, just shoot me an email! gwyn[at]gwynethcolleen[dot]com.

i was super excited, because shane is a marine fighter pilot, and nicki is a photographer. (check out her website–if you need portraits or…anything…covered near corpus christi, she’ll do a fantastic job for you!)

and if that wasn’t enough, it was a GORGEOUS fall day, and the amazing shyla came with me!

(hilarious: we had the dress out in front of the motel where everyone was getting ready, and then i saw a bunch of uniformed men come out…and started freaking out. shane isn’t with you guys, is he?! as i tried to shield the dress w/ my 5’3″ frame…while it hung in a tree…apparently he was too nervous to really notice anything that was going on, so…it was ok.)

these gorgeous shots of nicki and her bouquet and the girls lining up to walk down the aisle were taken by shyla.

my view

shyla’s view

i happen to know that the one on the left here is one of nicki and shane’s favourites–they both use it as their facebook profile picture! (both of these taken by shyla)

and because the sabre arch was basically my favourite part of the whole wedding and about 94% of the reason i so desperately wanted to shoot a military wedding (and would be happy to shoot them once a month until i honourably discharge my camera), i am going to gratuitously post every slight difference in sword position. commencing…now:







yes, they stopped them and made them kiss at each point of the arch.
by shyla

whew. that’s about 400 photos, and i’m only at the end of the ceremony…i think i’m going to have to break this sucker into two parts, because there were some ROOOOCKIN’ family portraits, bridal party portraits, and general awesomenesses which occurred at the reception.

(ps, shane…i threw a special tag on here JUST FOR YOU!)

we went over to her place, where we didn’t do much, and after about 40 minutes or so, i confessed that i was really quite tired.  she didn’t have a car…she rides a scooter…some of you may recall The Incident With The Scooter from earlier this year, which disabled me for nearly 2 months (it was the cause of the sprained ankle), so i opted for the walking home option.

so then this morning, she emailed and said, “hey, come over and we’ll walk to point chev beach and have a swim.”  since 94% of my plan for my time in new zealand is to walk a lot and rid myself of the pesky holiday cookies which are stubbornly maintaining their residence on my mid-section, i was like, “ok.”  so i walked 2kms to her house, then we walked 5km to point chev beach…had a swim…i discovered what a horrible, wretched, no good, very bad idea it is to walk barefoot on wet, sandy concrete after not going w/o shoes + socks for nearly 6 mos.  my poor, tender, winter-feet.

then we i was too much of a wuss to walk all the way back, so we caught the bus…with a detour to the library.  hey, i need books or i’ll get bored.  of COURSE the library was closed.  (nz-ers take more days off that we americans do.)  she’d told me she knew a fantastic place for pad thai, which is basically my favourite ever, so we headed there…after i’d eaten, i was about ready to fall over.  you see…i did not walk 7-8 FLAT kilometers.  auckland is built on the auckland volcanic field…and it is very up and down…a less extreme san francisco, if you will.  knowing how to do a hill start (handbrake on, disengage clutch, handbrake off…no rolling.  voila) became a valuable addition to my skill set when i last lived here.

after i came home and took a delightful nap, i walked another 2km or so to go get food from the market for dinner.  and i figured walking that much in one day (10km = 6.2 miles), i was allowed to eat ice cream.  and ice cream didn’t require cooking.  so i had jelly tip and cucumber slices.

and just so this post isn’t without images…here is a photo of our garden.  new zealanders call their backyards gardens.  they also call it a garden when they plant vegetables.  which my only as-yet unmet flatmate has done…very green of her, wouldn’t you say, to reduce/reuse/recycle the auckland recycle bins?

(the driveway is a bit sloped…)

(hello and welcome).

i have arrived safely in new zealand.  i travelled for, oh, approximately 800 million hours, and death seemed like a welcome respite (dude, you get to STRETCH OUT in coffins.  i’m just saying.) by the time i landed in auckland.

(if anyone cares, it was a 2 hour flight from albany-detroit, 5 hours from detroit to los angeles, 5 hour layover in LAX, 11 hours from los angeles to fiji, 3 hour layover, 3 hours from fiji to new zealand.)

fiji will get more coverage later…after i’ve spent more than 3 hours there, but these lovely chaps serenaded us as we all went through what is arguably the least efficient transit processing i have ever experienced.

pacific island music has a very distinctive sound and rhythm to it.

i’d arranged to rent a car for the time i’m here, and as the rental guy was going on holiday the day i arrived, he dropped it off at my new flat that morning.  my brand new flatmate (with whom at that point i’d only emailed), very kindly agreed to pick me up (all my friends were out of town…it was the new year, after all, which here is full on summer.  they’re all at the beach.)  his car was running low on petrol, so he decided to drive the rental car.  (which, as it turned out, was running low on fuel as well.  more on that in a bit.)

so, first thing i did after landing was go buy a new sim card…my old prepay one was 4 years old…didn’t work.  i texted him first off, “hey, i’m here…out of customs…i’ll wait outside.”  i found out after he found me that he’d never gotten those texts.  hooray technology!  anyway…get this.  he FOUND me, because he saw this:

(only the big one).  i said, “wow, that’s awesome that i told you i had a polka dotted suitcase.”
“i’m not sure you did…but i thought to myself, ‘well, of all i know of this girl…she would totally have that suitcase.’”  i think that is tremendous.

so, we go to the car, i figured it wouldn’t hurt to give me a day or two to get back into the habit of looking right THEN left before crossing the road, so i said he should drive home.  we’d been driving about 2 minutes, and he said the tailpipe had just puffed some grey smoke…if it did it again, i might want to get it looked at.  i wasn’t too fussed, to be honest; i’d rented from a guy i know provides cheap, older, but reliable vehicles…i bought a 20 year old beater from him when i lived here in 2004; it ran dependably the whole 6+ months i drove it.  well, about 30 seconds later, the engine started making a HORRIBLE grinding noise…he took it out of gear…the noise didn’t stop.  he pulled over.  noise didn’t stop.  he took the key out of the ignition.  the noise didn’t stop. by this point, enormous clouds of grey smoke were issuing from the tailpipe.

“i think we should get out of the car.  now.” i figured that was probably a good idea, so we clambered out of the car and stood 20 feet away listening to the grinding noise become increasingly high pitched and watching the clouds of smoke obscure the road.  we’d just gotten on the motorway, and all the cars were stopped at least 100 meters away…i’m sure they thought the car was going to explode.

apparently the car didn’t want to disappoint, because that is exactly what it did.  in a sort of anti-climactic fashion.  the noise kept getting higher until POP.  a disconcerting noise triggered a flow of brown fluid which seeped from under the hood over the sides of the front of the car.  and all was still.  so there we sat, on the side of the motorway, eating the reeses peanut butter cups i’d brought for brand-new-flatmate.  (they don’t do choc + peanut butter here.)

i called the guy i rented the car from (oh sure, sim was working NOW.), who said he’d get a mechanic over right away.  scratched our heads a bit at that one…i mean, i’d just explained the POP and the brown fluid…dunno what a mechanic was gonna do.  3 minutes later he called back and said his mechanic wasn’t answering and could we take a cab.  he also expressed how mystified he was by this incident; he’d been driving it a lot lately.  you see, someone had returned the vehicle with a full tank of fuel, so he was using it up.

i’m sorry, what now?  who rents out a car w/ an empty tank?  i mean…have you ever heard of that?  i haven’t.

anyway, we caught a $50 taxi into town (i am debating whether i am going to try to get that guy to pay for it or not), and the rest of the day was almost entirely uneventful.  also, i am happy to report that the kebab i walked 5kms round trip to procure from my favourite kebab place…was every bit as good as i remembered.  heaven in a foil wrapper.

when i got mao, i got a brown tabby, because what i REALLY wanted was a bengal.  bengals are awesome, but i wasn’t in a position financially to invest in a pet like that.  fast forward two years, and i’m no longer subsisting on ramen, and a bengal is not out of reach.

enter stacey of niema bengals in chicopee, mass…i visited today, and picked out the little man who will come warm my heart when i return from new zealand.

meet the malaysian prime minister.

i am weird about pet names; i want it to be culturally relevant and also funny.  (the same sort of applies to car names, but you can ask me about that later.)  mao was named mao zedong, which was sort of funny and shocking because he was horrible and killed lots of people, but also, mao in a different tone means ‘cat’ in chinese.  so…bengals are bred from domestic tabbies and wild asian leopard cats–indigenous to china and malaysia.  and zoolander was supposed to kill the malaysian prime minister.  culturally/geographically relevant?  check.  funny?  check.

i got home from meeting this lil fella, and i googled “malaysian prime minister” (incidentally, the one in zoolander was mpm hassan.  hassan just doesn’t roll off the tongue like i’d like.  “here hassan!  c’mere hassancat!”  it’s not TERRIBLE, but it wasn’t perfect.  i had to find a different mpm name.)  wikipedia told me that the incoming mpm in 2009 is named najib tun razak.  najib.  i like it.  it’s also similar to ‘habeeb’, which was my cat in high school.

so expect come march to see many more photos here of little najib (and maybe a few more of his bros and sisters)

see that round belly?  najib’s a good eater just like his future mommy…i just hope *i* don’t get so fat and round i can’t walk.  it’s cute on him, i don’t think it would work for me.

yes, i do feel a bit funny arranging to adopt another cat so soon after mao died, but with bengals you have to plan ahead 2-3 mos as they are in such high demand. najib is only 3 weeks old right now, and he won’t leave until he’s at least 12 weeks old.

2.  i have a few wedding and engagement posts started…i am going to try to find time today to sit down and finish cranking one out.  they take me upwards of an hour each, because i try really hard to pick images that tell the story…while remembering the things i saw and felt and what set that celebration apart.  so, please be patient!

3.  i have about 2 hours before it’s supposed to start snowing (and at which time i am supposed to be at the salon for a haircut) to get some more boxes packed up and into storage.  so…i’d better dash.

4.  (please forgive the blatant search engine whoring…if you google portsmouth nh wedding photographer…i don’t even show up.  i kind of suck at SEO.  i’m working on it.)

secondly, i am surviving “the great ice storm of 2008″.  we lost power shortly before midnight on thursday.  48 hours sans power is rapidly approaching.  i didn’t get much done yesterday (though a pajama party and lentil soup at a friend’s…warmed on the gas grill in the garage was pretty fun)…but i’ll just have to be satisfied with the small amt of packing i did before the candlelight was no longer cutting it.

i am currently camped out at panera in dover…a kind samaritan left us her power strip so some friends and i have been camped out for several hours churning through the to-do lists we didn’t get to touch yesterday.

when i left my house this morning, my delightful over-the-garage, well-lit (read:  6 windows on 3 sides of the room) room was approximately 47-48 degrees.  here’s hoping the pipes don’t freeze tonight!!  it’s supposed to get down to about 5.  5 degrees.  with no heat.  AWESOME!  i’m glad i have 2 down comforters on my bed.

anyway…to all who submitted print orders by the deadline, never fear…you WILL have your prints!  i am working on submitting the orders RIGHT NOW.  i appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.  to say i am stressed and feeling torn in multiple directions would be like calling joseph smith a polygamist.  (that is…a major understatement.)

ok, back to work!  (also, the floor to ceiling windows in panera at winter…SO not my friend!  brrrrrr.)

i’ve heard stories from other photographers’ clients…”my grandpa died a few months after my wedding.  this is the last picture we have of us together, and he looks so happy.  thank you so much for preserving that moment for me.  i will always treasure it.”  and that’s just theoretical to me…i never expected to be glad for my own sake that i took pictures of things that were important to me.

my cat died today.  some neighbours called to say they’d found him.  he’d been hit by a car.  we weren’t totally sure it was him when we went to look.  i couldn’t even do it; my landlord did it for me.  but, as i’d known driving up…of course it was.  i’m so glad that i took pictures of him throughout his life.  if you don’t want to see…just don’t press play.  but there’s a slideshow just below.  i both smiled and wept as i searched through my archives for pictures of his life.  he was really a tremendous cat.

**i KNOW that some of these are terrrrrible photos, from a quality standpoint, but i couldn’t bear to let them go…i hope you can understand and forgive me.**

this one is probably my favourite of him.

goodbye mao-cat. you were the best cat i ever had, and i will really miss you.
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i can’t imagine not having any pictures of him…so, when i get back from nz, i will be posting a special on lifestyle portrait sessions…you with your furry beasties. if you’re interested, comment here or email me, and we’ll schedule them for march or april.