documentographer » life photographer

Friends,

I’m cruisin’.  It’s true. For the next two plus weeks, I’ll be rocking the boat.  A large boat.  On the Mediterranean. On a thing called “vacation”.  I know, it’s a strange concept, but I thought it was time to try it out.  And I’m going with family, which is also a concept new to the past 15 years.  What can I say, it’s a trip of firsts.

You can reach me by e-mail, but please be patient with any delayed responses.  If you don’t hear back from me, you will for sure after Nov 17.

You can also check back here for pics.  I’ll be adding some!

Until soon,

catherine

Not long ago, I walked into what I thought was going to be a relatively predictable social affair.  Wine, cheese, chit-chats along with the admiring of necklaces for sale.  However, as is often the case, I walked out with a new opportunity.  This time, it was to shoot a Creative with my friend’s mother’s jewelry, to help her expand the reach of her necklace designs.

She is 81 years old, and we all agreed that these beautiful necklaces would be appealing to people who live in places other than nursing homes.  Here are some selects from our fashion shoot.  It was produced by the talented Mehernaz Lentin, and styled by the visionary Rashmi Varma.

If you like these necklaces and want to buy some, let me know!  They are all made from semi-precious stones and are one of a kind.

One of my pet peeves is when people say the wedding is “the bride’s day”.  I’m a firm believer that the wedding is about the couple, and the relationship, not just one woman.  Shocking perspective, I know.  (-:  Knowing this, naturally my coverage is of both integral people equally.

However.  For this post, I want to focus on Sarah from last weekend.  There was something about her that was so honest, delightful to the core, and  full of infectious glee.   It wasn’t lost on anyone at the wedding, I know that for sure. And it certainly wasn’t lost on me.

(I think they call that feeling “true love” by the way, but don’t quote me on it!)

Oh, and she also had exceptional style, that she wore with a presence that is a photographer’s dream.  Look at her headpiece!!  Don’t even get me started about her purple shoes that matched her bouquet.

It goes without saying that none of this would be this way, if Sarah wasn’t marrying Scott.  Here’s the happy couple.

What a fabulous end to my (summer) wedding season.  Thank you so much for sharing this special day with me!

Mississippi, yes.  But also anywhere, everywhere.  In the sky, even!

If you are flying Air Canada this month, or in November, you can watch Prom Night in Mississippi in flight!!!

As well, I just found out there is going to be a THEATRICAL release in Canada next month.  You can go to their website for details: http://www.promnightinmississippi.com/the-film

Why do I care about this so much, some of you might be asking?  I care because I’ve cared about this film from its inception, but also because I was fortunate enough to go down to Charleston for the prom, and shoot the movie stills.  If you watch it, you will see some of the stills in the movie.

(If you search “prom” at the top of my blog, you’ll see lots of info on this, and if you hit “older posts” a few times, you’ll see some of the stills.  Or, you can watch this NPR audio slideshow, set to my images: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91371629)

Better yet, go buy a flight somewhere, grab some popcorn and treat yourself!!

What only some of you know, is that the fact I could be part of this trip was completely fated. Or at least, extremely lucky. Depending on where you lean.

When Girl Impact invited me to join them, I thought there would be no way I could make their dates.  I have weddings almost every single weekend.  But strangely, it *just* fit into their trip window.

The group left for Kenya on the Friday, I stayed behind and shot Natasha + Val’s wedding on the Saturday, and joined the others in Nairobi a couple of days later.

We returned on this past Friday at 4pm.  I was picked up by the very generous Jon Thorpe of Union Photo at the airport, where we proceeded to drive 5 hours to Sudbury to shoot Kate + Dave’s wedding the next day.

I know it sounds crazy with two days of travel and wicked jet lag.  But it was possible.  And when an opportunity like that comes along and it’s possible, you take it. Or at least, I do.

A very very special thank you to Natasha, Val, Kate and Dave for your understanding, patience and support.  I couldn’t ask for better clients.  Really, I am so grateful.

We made it!!! It’s a hot sunny morning in Moshi, Tanzania.  I have now showered for the first time in 6 days, and going to the rooftop of Africa seems like a dream. (And a nightmare, depending on which parts I choose to recall!)

Before I hop on that long plane ride home, I thought I would upload some photos to share. Unfortunately, many of the pictures I want to post aren’t uploading properly, so forgive me if this seems like a scattered collection!  As you can see, we walked.  And walked and walked.  For five days, we walked.

In fact, it was 80km that we walked from the bottom to the top and back.  We walked through rain forest, moorlands, up into the clouds, and what appeared to be across the moon.  

Then we climbed an old volcano called Kilimanjaro.  Just to give you an idea of our schedule for the climb, we walked for 7 hours to get to the base, “slept” for 4, and woke at 10pm to start our climb at 11pm.  It took us 8.5 hours to climb to the summit of 19,000 feet. It must have been -20C with the whipping wind in the darkness. We are so pleased to say that 19 out of 19 of us made it to Gillman’s point, 17 of us made it to the summit.  Many of us vomited, myself included. 

Somehow, despite my lungs feeling like the size of a tennis ball, my headspace being that of a burned out deadhead, and my fatigue being beyond anything I have ever felt before, I managed to take some photos.  

Here we are, fortunate enough to be able to climb by moonlight alone.  No headlamps!  Up, up, up, we went, mini step by mini step.  Every few minutes, one of us would collapse.  But, with team effort, and some dragging, lifting and pulling, they found some will deep deep within, and pushed on.

We made it to the rooftop by sunrise.  What a vision that was!!!  

(By the way, those are people on the right of the picture above.  I’m hoping that helps to lend some idea of scale to you).

Unfortunately, it’s a “false summit”, and we had to walk 20 whole minutes further up to get to the real peak.  The longest 20 minutes of my life.

I made it!  Here I am, dramatically posing with our fabulous videographer Roz Allen.   

This is really only a partial story.  For a more detailed account, and more of my photos, please see our Girl Impact blog: www.girlimpact.org/blog