Also, I highly recommend Zach as expedition-master. He does things most people wouldn’t…but it makes it a way, way good time. (For instance, during low tide in NS, the morning after the wedding, we were walking on the tidal flats…getting attacked by crabs, digging up oysters…the usual. He found a shrimp…and because he was “in character” as the crocodile hunter, he ate it. I believe his exact quote was, “The regret I feel from that decision is intense and ongoing.” or something like that. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Do not eat raw, unpeeled, living shrimp.

Some of these pictures are theirs nicked from facebook, so please forgive the aesthetically inferior formatting.

My foot being attacked by a crab. He was really going after me…unfortunately for him, those boots of Sarah’s were, like…kevlar or something. A wimpy little crab wasn’t going to make much of a dent.

Then we hopped a ferry to PEI. AWESOMETASTIC fact about PEI…you only have to pay to leave there. We took a car ferry…4 people + vehicle…for FREEEE! (It costs about $45 to drive back across the bridge to New Brunswick…but I liked our ferry + bridge circuit.)

(I was having a crazy good hair day. so flat. so not frizzy. Amazing.)

Stella was totally into the ferry.

There’s a winery on PEI that shares Sarah’s last name…so that was our first top. They had a friendly winery dog that was…seriously…the cutest dog I have ever seen in my life. Also, he won points because he TACKLED zach. SRSLY. Was a takedown. It was wicked awesome. (Unfortunately, I do not have photographic evidence.)

Stella totally agreed that he was super awesome.

Zach & Sarah convinced me to take a 24 hour hiatus from my no-sugar-October-plan because when in PEI…you MUST eat Cows.

in the corner…that’s gooey mooey. There’s some crazy high ratio of caramel to ice cream.

I’m going to need to go back sometime…I was racing to beat the clock so I could still eat my ice cream within my 24 hour time limit…so, I was eating that ice cream at about 10:30 in the morning…TOO EARLY. (I KNOW! I wouldn’t have thought that was possible either.) I…I can’t believe this is even true, but…I didn’t even finish my ice cream! I threw more than half of it away!

Then it was time to head to Green Gables!

Anne’s room. It’s not at all how I pictured it!

After that we had to indulge Zach’s manly expeditionary heart…headed over to the coast for some adventuring.

Zach running down the sand dunes near Cavendish.

me preparing to run down the dunes near Cavendish.

me being awesome-but out of focus-after running the dunes.

me running out on a cliff near Cavendish. All the roads/dirt on PEI are this red color. It’s kind of awesome. Especially when it turns the ocean that color. Surreal to wake up to! O NOES! It’s a plague! Oh. Wait. JUST KIDDING.

and then we stopped in the middle of the road because a fox wanted to come say hello. (That shadow is the shadow of our car.)

This post is already out of control, so I’ll stop here, but stay tuned for the portraits of the super cute Zach+Sarah+Stella family!

last weekend i went up to the maritimes to photograph the amazing and wonderful sean & sarah.  perhaps you remember amanda & matt?  well, amanda’s maid of honor was sarah.  i stayed in touch with her and her boyfriend zach through facebook (wooo, facebook!)  zach works with sean…who happened to be engaged to a different sarah.  zach sent me a message asking if i was available 10/10…and the rest is history.

i’ve got a LOT of favorites from this wedding.  so, please bear with me. 

i started the day off with sean, and his brother/best man sandy.

i know. sandy SHOULD be a male model. i already told him so.

sean really wanted a picture of the two of them…in wellies, of course…down in this boggy marsh area. of course i said, “sure! let’s go for it!”

when you’re in the middle of rural nova scotia…you can walk up the middle of the road, and it’s no big deal.

then we headed back to the family farm (where the wedding was taking place) for one of my favorite parts of the day: the first time the groom sees his bride. when i was going through the images, i had to keep every single one from the series. i don’t know if i’ve ever seen a more emotional first look.

the moms and sarah’s sister and friends looked on. i don’t think any of them had dry eyes!

next up was bride & groom portrait time. my other favorite part of the day! (shut up. i have a lot of favorites.)

(yes, this does look beautiful and romantic…but it was also sort of practical. it POURED the day before the wedding and drizzled off and on the day of, so sean was protecting poor sarah’s dress. very gallant, no?)

we headed over to sarah’s family’s cottage…they lived in halifax, but the essence of their family resides at this cottage. her dad was there, so i made him turn around before he could look at her.

then sarah got carried around the yard for some more photo ops. in keeping with his forebears, sean scrapped the romantic threshhold carry and went for the village raiding method.

sarah doesn’t look like she minds much, does she?

sean works for the canadian version of REI…most of his friends are of the intrepid, wilderness-junkie types. there was a whole village of TENT-CAMPERS. in the muddy, wet, wet, wet fields. and yet, they look so happy! amazing.

k-ris and megan–you guys are my heroes.

the fam has a vintage, mint jag that was slotted for the getaway vehicle. and sarah looks totally fierce, right?

continuing in the transportation theme…i actually flagged sean down as he was whizzing around the property on this old scooter…photo op time!

sean’s dad showed up in military bagpiper regalia…which, of course, was AWESOME.

i thought this image of sean’s mom, carol, perfectly encapsulated the feel of the day. no one let the elements win. everything was still graceful and beautiful and elegant…but the boots were never far from reach.

i could, of course, keep going, but since i think there are already 30 something photos in this post, i’ll stop. it was an amazing day, and everyone made me feel so welcome and included. their families were simply amazing…no one let the rain or changed plans get them down.  ugh.  i’m leaving so much out…basically, i love canada & sean & sarah (& zach & sarah for the introduction!)

next up:  my adventures with zach & sarah & baby stella around the maritimes.  (yeah, i went to green gables.)

*guilt, guilt, guilt*

a lot has happened this month.  i had tomme hilton and january newbanks fly in to shoot weddings with me…and oh, monday was my birthday.  my best friend came up (with her baby and almost-3-year-old-who-likes-to-sleep-in-boxes-when-she-visits)

she gave me the most beautiful fascinator for my birthday.  (please excuse the mobile upload picture.)

(brides looking for something special for your wedding day hair-do…check out that link.  lo boheme’s etsy store has some GORGEOUS bridal fascinators.  i covet…most of them.)

today i had a shoot on a garlic farm!  the wonderful allison and jon gave me some of their (very own, handmade) garlic powder and some of the largest non-elephant garlic you’ll ever see.  (pictured behind the garlic are some of the apples i picked for my day-after-my-birthday traditional apple-picking outing.  if you live in the northeast and have never tried macouns…hurry up and rectify that!  best apples EVAR.)

and, for allison, my loyal blog-reader and guilt-inducer…here are a couple teasers from today!

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.

i met billi & lauren (and billi’s best friend and her son seth, who flew up from fort bragg for lauren’s birthday soiree) in kittery on a HOT july day.

i’m not a mom, but if i were, i couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be being separated from my baby for a year. billi, thank you so much for the enormous sacrifices you’ve made (and are still making) to serve this country. i appreciate your service, and it was an HONOR to capture this time in lauren’s life. i hope the pictures can in some small way make the rest of your separation easier.

(if you’re a photographer or military family interested in documenting the unique struggles and rewards of family life and military service, check out www.oplove.org)

look at the legs on that one!  whoooooohee!  she promised me she could do anything in those shoes that i could possibly ask her to do…(i tested her on that a little later in the evening.)

and now…my favourite from the session…

ashlee & jesse…you two are wonderful, and i can’t wait to laugh laugh laugh some more with you in just a couple months.  aah!  this year is flying by!

if not, you should probably watch it. 100 times. and laugh every single one of them.

anyway, the last few weeks were a whirlwind in gwynland. (funny story: i used to know a girl named gwen land. ok, not that funny, but…mildly interesting.) my sister came up to visit from mississippi (does anyone else go m-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i in their head when they type that word?) with my nephew. we hung out in nh, and i took her to all the delightful restaurants we’ve got. (the culinary offerings in columbus, ms…well…SUCK.) then we headed to upstate ny to see the parental units. my mom’s cat just had kittens, and while i am a sucky aunt and took no pictures of neffypoo (in my defense…he’s got separation anxiety, contracted a cold on the plane, and was away from home and routine. he was delightful once you take all those factors into consideration), i am a good…um…kitten aunt? (if it’s my mom’s cat, that would make it my feline sister, yes? so her babies would be my kitten nieces and nephews? right? i mean, assuming i want to have some sort of slightly creepy familial relationship with them. which i don’t. because that’s weird. totally.)

enough parenthetical expressions. KITTENS!

i think the one on the far right is the cutest.

i won’t tell you what my parents named this one. it’s funny, and not offensive, but TOTALLY not politically correct.

this one’s the runt…and it’s also the most fearless and friendly. it will explore anything…in a bumbling 5-week-old-kitten sort of way. dad named it inspector clouseau, natch.

i kind of can’t stand looking at this picture. it’s unbearable. as my friend becky would say, “sugar headache of cuteness.” i suggest pairing it with an insulin shot.

the poor mama cat lost her ruff, and now she looks RIDICULOUS. all pin-headed and, um, voluptuous? curvy? everywhere else.

i also tag-teamed an engagement session with tammy last week. i’m going to try to get a few of those up here, soon, because it was fun times!

gina and i did some scouting earlier in the day…and then, in the way these things go…didn’t use ANY OF THEM. but it’s ok! that’s one of the things i really like about this job. learning to let go of the ideas i had and take the situational lemons and make some ROCKIN’ lemonade. or lemon sorbet, or italian ice…or LEMON BARS. mmmmm. (and if it’s morning, i wouldn’t say no to a batch of lemon poppy seed muffins.)

(can you tell it’s almost 1am, and i am…distractable?)

r & g…you know i love you guys, and your little childrens…and i’d even let you set me up again. (but roger, let gina get to know him first next time. :-D)

he’s so big you’d expect him to be fearless, but he was FREAKED out by the waves! his big brother was no beach n00b and frolicked with abandon.

what i love about them is that they really are a family, and those dogs really are brothers. waldo (that’s what she calls the big boy) wants to mimic his “big” brother, and is uncomfortable being away from him.

are you seeing the sibling interaction?

(i think this one might be my favourite.)

and of course…THE shot. the one they’d BETTER frame BIIIIGG and put on the wall.