travel on the cheap

holy cows, guys!

i've been booking travel for some out of town weddings i have this summer (one in columbus, one in indianapolis). i live fewer than 10 miles from portsmouth, so...

www.skybus.com is my new best friend! i do not feel guilty asking someone to drive me 20 mins to the airport. and my roundtrip ticket to columbus in may was only $106!

so...my friend suggested that for the indianapolis trip, i should fly skybus again and then take megabus. (dot com) i was a little skeptical, because budget airlines are a hassle, and then to take a 3 hour bus ride after flying...blugh. worth the money i'd save? so...i pretended to make a reservation, and then megabus told me that my fare would be $2.50. ROUNDTRIP.

dudes. that. is. AWESOME!

jess & brian: engaged

jessica and brian are getting married in bedford, nh. in 9 days. getting married in january...they had their pick of vendors, so i am so honored that they chose me to be their photographer!

we didn't have much time to try to fit in an engagement session...especially with the holidays right bang in the middle of our 1.5-2 month window. but we made it happen! amy of ardent photography (in neenah, wisconsin--they're the ones who make all the grates in our roads and sidewalks, apparently) flew in to help me photograph that amazing 12/30 wedding i keep referring to (be patient...it's coming!) and i met jess & brian at south station.




(i had a hard time letting go of any of the ones from this series...these two have those amazing blue eyes, and the connection between them was just wonderful.)



















you guys are great...usually i have a lot more to say about the images, but i think these speak for themselves. i can't wait for your wedding in...only...9 days!

surprise!

a few months ago, i got an email from a lovely young man named fred. he wanted to surprise his fiance for her birthday with a photo session.

they're both archaeologists, and in addition to organizing everything with me, he also did his homework. he went scouting and had lots of ideas for locations. (usually, during these types of sessions, we agree to meet in a particular area, and then we kind of wander around with me randomly going, "here! here's good! stop. ok, um...where do i want you to stand." i always wonder if it's strange for me to be mid-conversation and then suddenly start flapping about and issuing directions...before pausing to figure out what i REALLY want them to do.

anyway...fred kept his secret right up until i met them at the copley square t-stop. he introduced me and then explained that i was a photographer, and we were going to do a photo session...he was so thorough, and he'd thought of everything! he even had her dress extra nice.

he wanted to bring in lots of structural and architectural elements, so i kept an eye out for those details while shooting.






i even noticed the spikes on the lamps outside the public library, and made him stand still so that i could make it look like he had the same headdress as the witch king of angmar-lord of the nazgul. (ok, for the record: i knew it looked nazgulian, but i have a LOTR geek friend whom i consulted to remember that he lived at the top of caradhras, and what is name was.)



i'd never been inside the boston public library before, but...it's amazing! i thought it was a museum at first.








i think this one is inside trinity church.


i love this outtake...it's not perfect, but it's a real and sweet moment.



fred even managed to WILL himself not to shiver so that they would look relaxed instead of just cold...i think he did a great job!

thanks fred and jessica for the great boston outing. i had lots of fun with you, and jessica--you're a lucky girl!

chris & kate: engagement

a few weeks month and a half ago i went up to south portland/cape elizabeth, maine to do engagement photos with kate and chris.

i love their story...they grew up on the same street...then met randomly 15 years later in a bar. she heard someone go, "is that katie?" and turned around to say, "who is calling me katie?" and left knowing he was going to look her up. she was right.

we met at fort williams park (which is SERIOUSLY cool, and i could go hang out there and jump around on rocks and climb on old fort structures for days.) and TRESPASSED...to get inside this area. yep...just ignored the signs...i felt so rockstar and dangerous. (hey, i'm a goodie-two-shoes...it doesn't take much.)


this is kate climbing into the abandoned structure that had "no trespassing" signs all over it. please note chris's head below her elbow. he was the short-girls' human stepladder.


more trespassing. woo.


chris was a ranger in the army a few years back, and he's still very much the "running, jumping, climbing trees" sort. "follow me!" indeed. i loved watching him with kate...he thrived on being her protector and helping her navigate all the precarious positions i asked her to get into. (to be fair, her jeans were very long and she was wearing some very hott purple heels.)


she looks so america's next top model FIERCE in this one...plus, you can see the hott purple heels.


when i saw this one, i actually gasped. out loud. i know...that's a little embarrassing, but...c'mon...it is steamy!


i do so love a good silhouette.

then we went to explore the fort part of for williams park. there were these forgotten and colourfully graffiti-ed bunkers that i, well, i guess we all had some fun with. in different ways, of course. mine involved crawling onto a ledge 100 feet above the rocky sea, theirs was a little more conventional...(and no, i do not have photos of me in precarious positions, but hire me...and you'll get to see for yourself. )




chris is a hoot, and he kept us laughing the whole time...kate's a lucky girl...if you don't have laughter, what do you have?




i love how peaceful and content and in love they look in this one. like everything is right in the world.



chris also made the two of them an awesome website... www.chrate.com
their tagline is: "stronger together"...i love that. that's what it's about, right?

belated.

happy new year, everyone!

what's the deal with time? it just barrels at you like a freight train, and NEVER gives you a break! i feel like i'm always on the run...anyone else?

and, because of that, and my oldest child penchant for "being right" and "doing it well"...combined with my fierce procrastination tendencies...i am always loathe to make new year's resolutions. because as i've been told...i'm "self-intelligent"...and i KNOW i'll probably give up after a couple months. (so why set myself up for failure? i mean, come on now!)

that said...i am also quite a goal oriented person, and i think i'm fairly good at making things happen in my life. SO...i guess what i'm trying to say with all this random psycho-babble is: i am so very, very cognizant of the fact that it has been a MONTH since i posted here. a month. and that is in no way because i've had nothing to say. so, one of my goals for 2008 is to be a much more prolific blogger. i don't have to have all 20 of my favourites ready to post here...it'll be o-k. :-D

keep me accountable, peeps!

before i go...amy flew in from WI to second shoot for me at the VERY fabulous 12/30 wedding i just photographed. (stay tuned!) we explored the north end of boston the next day, and she grabbed this shot of me...she loves it because it's so very quintessentially me: polka dots, camera, red, and you can even sorta see my red chuck taylors.


(ps: the super blonde is going away soooon...i am not the kind of girl who can handle maintaining those roots every 3 weeks. GROSS!)