diana + peter: 7.24.10

Diana and Peter . . . their wedding will always be so memorable to me! It was genuinely a true country affair and I had such a wonderful time with these families as they were so kind and genuine. We hadn't worked together before but as soon as the portraits started, Diana, in her beautiful self, transformed into this beautiful, confident bride . . .



I love this! It really does take a team to get a bride into her dress :)















The slideshow has a ton more photos! Thank you Diana and Peter, for such a beautiful event that truly meant something to me! xoxo

miss adelaide

I looooooove portrait shoots oh so much and was so excited to meet up with Kelly and baby Addie this evening . . . I especially love baby shoots because the babies take the lead and I get to photograph them doing what they do. Whether it's laughing at Grandma blowing bubbles or nibbling on their toes, every moment is so beautiful and exciting. I have a feeling I will be seeing little Addie and her beautiful mama a bit more in this lifetime ;)

This is one of those situations, however, where a slideshow means so much more than a few random photos posted on this blog. Click here to enjoy a few moments from this evening!

elsa: i believe

Yesterday I was having kind of a bummer of an afternoon. I was muddling around the house, surrounded by the dreary weather. It was one of those days, almost like all of my days, that I didn't slow down either internally or externally. I had been up in the middle of the night with a sick man, up early to shuttle the girls off to a sitter's so I could drive to an out-of-town meeting, and when I finally settled in back at home, good news turned to bad news in regards to a silly financial matter. And then the phone rang. Elsa left a voicemail. I just kind of had a feeling you were having a not-so-great day, hon, so if you want to talk, call me. So I picked my jaw up off the counter, and did so.

I'm not a big cliche girl, but words really can't describe this woman, because she is such a spirit. She is magical and intuitive. I wasn't going to do this specific blog post today, but this morning I was going to pick Stella up from preschool and the song I Believe by Brooks & Dunn came on the radio, and I immediately thought of Elsa. I thought of how whatever she believes in, whatever she decides she is going to create in her life, is created. It comes from this deep, genuine core that is so brilliantly in tune with the people in her life that she loves. And that is how she knows what you need, before you even know what you need. She is a higher power, and she stays with you long after she's hung up the phone, or left your house.

We call each other The Assets because we truly do need each other, and each of us need the other for a completely different reason. I need Elsa because she pushes me to see my world without any black and white areas. She reminds me of the depth of every situation. She stays present with me, and leads me back to today when I am worrying about tomorrow. And she sees the positive in every single thing, naturally and effortlessly. You aren't a messy eater, Mo. You're just passionate about food and that is a wonderful thing! Yep. She tells me that even when there are meatballs at my feet.

Besides being the spiritual force behind the Assets, Elsa is the wonder woman behind The Woodlands at Cottonwood Canyon. She and her husband Chuck worked so incredibly hard to bring this vision to fruition, and in doing so have provided this valley one of the most intimate and beautiful wedding and event venues. I am going to choose to blog separately about The Woodlands because I have photographed there numerous times and I really want to talk about it in more depth . . . I want to tell its story from the very beginning, when it was just a thought in Elsa and Chuck's young, newlywed minds, and take you to today, and I'm not prepared to do so right now. Just know that if you choose The Woodlands as your wedding venue, there is magic there that no other venue has, and once you hear why, you will better understand.

I hope you all have an Elsa in your lives, and if you don't, then you should strive to be a little bit more like her. ;)

You should also strive to look like her. Rawr! (Just kidding, because Elsa would tell you that you're beautiful just the way you are, which you are :)





Elsa, we are all so very blessed to have you in our lives. Thank you for being everything I need. Muah!

how do I love flare? let me count the ways.

It's true, and you know it. Learning how to use the evening sun wide open and behind my subjects was a work in major progress, but incorporating this element into my shoots has helped me evolve my style of photography. Flare tugs on my heart strings just a little bit :)

Danielle and Dane were married on June 24, 2010, and we ran around the property out at the Gallatin River Lodge for their engagement session . . .



Lindsey and Drew were married on June 25, 2010, and we hiked through a foot or two of snow on a ranch in Helena for their shoot . . .



Emily and Tyler were just married on September 5th and their shoot was at the ol' reliable photo shoot location of Bozeman, the Storymill District . . .



Holly and Jeremy are getting married on September 24th. We were on a property south of Bozeman where Holly keeps her horses and the light was magical. I put them on top of a hill for this photo and squatted down even lower to put them at the bottom of the image.



And Nicole and Alex will wed the very next day on September 25th!



Happy Hump Day everyone! I'm off to Ennis for a floral design class with the most fabulous Leslie Lukas. Designing flower arrangements, sipping wine with seven other ladies, and photographing it all is sounding dreamy to me, and I get to end the evening with homemade calzones and Joe! Life is good :)

i got myself a kindy-gart-ner!

What a little sleepyhead. Ava went to her first day of kindergarten a couple of weeks ago now and is loving it, although she may easily get mistaken for a preschool-sized pint. She is soooo tiny, and seeing her amongst the other little dirtlickers reminds me of how fragile she is, also. She's sensitive, loving, challenging, stubborn, eats like every meal is her last, and flat out hysterical. I think there are many good things in this little punkin's future :)

timeless

When I first started this business three years ago, I was obsessed. As a night owl, it was no problem for me to hunker over my computer until 2 or 3 o'clock every morning, waking a few hours later to tend to the newborn and keep Ava from massively abusing her new sister. I researched the best equipment, joined every photo forum I could find, downloaded software after software after software. I believed in starting with the best I could possibly charge to my American Express, and a few blog posts later, I was shooting with Nikon's newest D300, my still-to-this-day-madly-beloved 50 mm f/1.4 lens, ceremony-favorite 70-200 mm f/2.8, and kept Photoshop open at all times for those random I must process images now! moments. And although the processing was a fun, creative journey for me, I have discovered the value of less is more.

Every photographer finds their style at some point, and for me, I kinda sorta gag at what I did to my images in the early days. With the power of Totally Rad Actions, I was combining action after action, my goal being to make my images a little different from what everyone else was doing with theirs. Once again, I have come back to my roots. Back to what I know and trust. And I leave a photograph a photograph.

Here is an image straight out of the camera, taken last month at Katie and Casey's wedding in Helena, Montana. It is a little cool to me, and Katie's dress is lost in all the white. As I have said before, I shoot without flash as much as possible, so I'm exposing for skin tones.

Before . . .



After. This is processed first with Totally Rad Actions' Pool Party at 24%, and Kubota Production Tools 2 Clarify Lite.



It's a very slight adjustment, but one I'm happy with, and it remains a photograph that looks as it should in 50 years.

Happy Saturday!

stephanie + matt: 7.17.10

Stephanie and Matt. One of my most beloved couples so far in this wonderful career of mine. Our relationship began as most do in this industry . . . an email inquiry as to whether I had July 17, 2010, open to photograph their wedding at Chico Hot Springs. It was followed by a few telephone calls, and a booking. And on a very cold winter day, we met in Willow Creek, Montana, for a very beautiful engagement session in the gorgeous, cold light, and a friendship began that has changed my life.

I can say the easy stuff, such as they are so kind! Or, they are so in love! Of course, those things are true, but they are so very much more than that. They inspire me. They have learned the most important things to their relationship is to be attentive, to be present, and most importantly, to make one another laugh. And they do it beautifully.

For 11 years, Stephanie and Matt moved along in their relationship before this wedding was held. A lot of people ask how I waited for marriage with Matt for 11 years, Stephanie wrote to me recently in an email. And my answer is 'because I wasn't waiting'. I spent the last 11 years trying to be present (which isn't easy) and truly enjoying and being thankful for what we have. Sh*!, if I'd been focused on marriage, it wouldn't have lasted. I'd have become frustrated and I would have missed out on something so good. Do you see why I love her so much? She's perfect and she swears. ;)

Stephanie and Matt, you know how much I love you both. I couldn't possibly post more than one photo without being accompanied by the voice of Eva Cassidy and a song to bring you back even more so. Thank you for everything you have taught me about love. Enjoy your slideshow!

jennifer and eric: some things are worth the wait

A few months back, Jennifer called me. This sweet, wonderful voice spoke through the phone, asking me about my availability for her wedding next summer. They were anxious to have their engagement photographs taken by the end of the summer, in good weather. So we waited for a bit. We waited for my car to be fixed. They waited for a storm to pass. She waited for Eric to travel home from work on the weekends. And when we looked at the forecast last week, we decided to wait for Friday night's light.

For 9 1/2 years, Jennifer and Eric have been falling in love and will marry each other next July in their quaint little hometown of Townsend. We chased the sun down across Canyon Ferry Lake and between these beautiful people and the beautiful evening, a beautiful engagement session was held.

















By the way, they are as kind as they are beautiful ;)