Tag Archive for: engagement photos
A few weeks back, I photographed my 2023 wedding clients Riki and Lee for their Butte, Montana Engagement Photography experience.
It’s been wonderful to get to know these two this year. Right from the start, the shared, rich intellect and loving kindness of Riki and Lee were a clear, magnetic force.
Lee and Riki met four year ago back when they were pursuing their PhDs at Northwestern University. They are now both budding powerhouse chemists on the East Coast.
In our first conversations, Lee shared what they admire most about Riki. They love how Riki is so good at truly seeing people. Riki is kind and doesn’t hesitate to help others. “Whether it be her colleagues, students, friends, or their community of loved ones, Riki shows me how to be a better partner.” Lee said. They also admire Riki’s intellect, “She is extremely smart and was the best in her class. I love how she challenges me.”
Riki feels the same – she loves Lee’s mind. This couple’s roots began first as friends. Riki immediately felt that she could be herself around Lee and with their first conversations, they dove deep. Riki, who describes herself as straight-edged, admires the diversity of Lee’s rich life experiences. Lee’s adventurous approach to life makes it easy for Riki to walk outside her comfort zone, in all the best ways.
Visiting Lee’s hometown in Butte, Montana has quickly become a favorite annual destination for them. It’s a place they really wanted to showcase in their Butte Montana Engagement Photography experience.
With their excitement growing the closer we got to their photography session date, Lee and Riki elected to book a second hour for their Butte Montana Engagement Photography experience. They wanted to really explore this historic place which means so much to them. I was happy to oblige.
With so much to see in a old industrial town like Butte, Montana, this additional hour gave us more creative freedom to take our time and investigate our curiosities.
If you know Butte, you know that its heritage and history runs a mile high and a mile deep.
By the end of the 19th century, The Butte copper mines had become the largest copper producers in the world. They would operate until their closure in the late 1940’s. Old stone skyscrapers and the steel engineering relects of another time have now perfectly blended with the weathered Montana landscape. The result is a mountain town with a lot of soul.
We all agreed it would be a perfect, rustic Montana landscape for us to play in. We began at the Original Mine and explored the industrial bones of the headframe and the character of the surrounding buildings.
Next, we shifted from the playground of the Copper Kings and went off trail to Lee’s beautiful family home. Tucked back in the Butte foothills, their family property offered a more intimate landscape to explore thick aspens groves, dramatic rock formations, and catch the sunset views of the Pintler Mountains.
In all, this couple’s warmth, adventurousness, kindness, and focus on each other created such an incredible energy to be around. In their photos, smiles came naturally. Their excitement for each other was uncontainable. I love the photos we created together and I can not wait to photograph their wedding day June 2023! -M
In early May, I had the pleasure of photographing the StarWars-themed Ellen Theatre couples portrait experience of Lisa and Shawn in downtown Bozeman.
This couple have dated over the last seven years. In that time, these two have fostered a solid relationship and family home with Shawn’s two children.
They are self-described “goofballs” and commented that “their inner nerd matched each other’s.”
For Lisa it was his kindness and loyalty to their relationship that she cherishes. She loves how everything he does is for the family and is constantly putting others before himself. Shawn loves that she accepts him for who he is. Together they give each other forgiveness and grace both in their relationship and professional lives.
But of all their shared values and appreciations for one another, these two have fostered a passion for watching fims, especially their mutual love of the Star Wars saga.
So much so in fact that their entire upcoming wedding celebration theme will revolve around their love of movies. In fact, their wedding will be the first wedding ever at The Ellen Theatre in downtown Bozeman, Montana.
It was only appropriate that we highlighted their favorite film into their Ellen Theatre couples portrait experience.
These two love the archecture of old theaters and they maintain hopes of someday owning their own. We decided to explore the historic Ellen Theatre where we created a movie date night/Star Wars theme portrait experience for them.
We had a blast “nerding out” and creating some personal, unique photos of their relationship in a place that truly resonated with them.
The force is strong with these two. Clearly, the love as well.
Here are some favorite photos from their couples portrait experience.
I am so looking forward to their wedding celebration this Saturday! -M
A few weeks back I had the pleasure of visiting the Washoe Theatre in Anaconda Montana for the Couples Portrait Photographic Experience of Amanda and Harley.
Amanda and Harley met ten years ago and were high school sweethearts.
I had an amazing time discovering all that they cherished in each other and their relationship.
For them, it was those times growing up together around Butte and Anaconda, Montana where the foundations of their relationship and support for one another really solidified.
Growing up, some of their fondest memories was going on dates to the historic Washoe Theatre in downtown Anaconda and then dine at one of their favorite restaurants in Butte, the Pekin Noodle Parlor – the oldest Chinese restaurant in the country and housed in a formal brothel.
We wanted to highlight these two places that held a lot of wonderful memories for them.
We decided to recreate an ultimate date night for them!
Here are some favorites from their couples portrait photographic experience.
This January, they will be getting married here in Bozeman. I can’t wait to celebrate with them. Congrats on your engagement you two! -M
The other day I traveled up to Ousel Falls in Big Sky, Montana for the Portrait Photographic Experience of Taylor and Josh. I love a couple that is game to get outside even in early Spring weather.
In fact, it was their love of games and hiking in the outdoors that brought them together. They met playing an intense game of parchesi at a friends place where he won on the last roll. As the Denver Bronco football season went on, they cheered and bonded over their shared passions and growing connection. He made her laugh and always knew how to cheer her up. She was loving and helped him open up out of his introverted tendencies.
In Taylor’s words, “Our weirdness meshed well.”
These two have been dating for 5 1/2 years and in early March they were engaged.
For their Portrait Photographic Experience, we decided to check out Ousel Falls which is one of their favorite places to hike in Southwest Montana. The contrast of the light snowfall and ice intermingled with the lush green of the coming Spring made for the perfect backdrop to their portrait session. Here are some of their favorites from our adventure in Big Sky. Congrats on your engagement you two! -M
Fairy Lake, in the heart of the Bridger Mountains, is one of my favorite places in Montana to take destination wedding couples for their engagement photography session.
A few weeks back, I met up with my childhood friend Mark and is lovely wife-to-be Jennie during a stop on their Rocky Mountain road trip in Bozeman, Montana and took them out on an adventure.
The first time I talked with Jennie and Mark was during a video chat and instantly we reconnected over similar interests and many laughs reminiscing about stories from our youth growing up playing hockey together in the Chicago suburbs. It was clear to me from our online visit that these two were the perfect match for each other.
Mark’s tribe has been good family friends with my family for many years now. Despite going our separate ways almost eighteen years ago after high school, we kept tabs on each other through the parental telegram over the years and where I learned of this awesome woman named Jennie he had met. Suddenly here we were picking up where we left off years later planning out their Montana engagement session and the intricate details of their wedding day this upcoming summer in Springdale, Arkansas.
It’s always such a treat for me to photograph old friends. This was going to be fun.
Upon their arrival into Bozeman, we all saddled up into my 1984 Land Cruiser and made our way up into the beautiful Bridger mountains for our engagement portrait session. The Montana Fall colors were in full array and we took full advantage of them.
Here are some of my favorite images from our time together. I’m so excited for these two and can’t wait to celebrate their wedding day next October! Congrats to the newly engaged! -M
Capitalizing on a recent break in the rainy weather, I met up with Allison and Matt for their Hyalite Canyon Bozeman Montana Couples Portrait Photographic Experience.
Over these last few months, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know these two.
They recently moved to Bozeman from Davis, Montana where they attended school as Ecology grad students. Back during my time working in California newspapers, I too lived in the city of Davis. As we got to know each other, we quickly realized we had many overlapping UC Davis friends and shared leisure activities. We quickly hit it off and had a blast exploring the scenic local landscape during our photo session. These two are great.
And their big wedding day is quickly approaching. I’m looking forward to documenting and celebrating them at their Springhill Pavilion wedding day in a few weeks! -M
To see all of their photos from our session click here.
The other day I drove out to the banks of the Madison River to meet up with my friends Sky and Tara for their evening Madison River Couple Portrait Photographic Experience.
I’ve known these two for years and the news of their engagement had been a long time coming. It’s so exciting to see them together as their wedding date approaches and their love and excitement grow.
I would be hard pressed to find a better match of personalities.
We decided to photograph their engagement photos in a spot near and dear to them, the Madison River.
Both Sky and Tara are love fly fishing and spending their free time being close to the rivers around Montana. As friends, we’ve we have all spent many a day together trying to entice the Montana trout to eat.
We loaded up Sky’s drift boat and cast off into the current.
As we floated downstream, we stopped to take photos along the way. It was an absolutely fine way to spend an afternoon – floating a blue ribbon trout stream and documenting the love. This couple tie-the-knot in two weeks! I am so excited for them. Congrats you guys! -Mike
To see all of their Portrait Photographic Experience, click here.
A few weeks back I got to meet and photograph Heather & Andrew for their winter engagement photo session at Hyalite Canyon outside of Bozeman, Montana. I’ll be photographing their 2016 wedding day at Chico Hot Springs next April and while they were in town for Thanksgiving with family, we found a window of time to drive to the nearby majestic rocky mountain canyon. The snow had just recently fallen a couple days before and now cast a white blanket across the surrounding Hyalite Reservoir and Gallatin National Forest. It was a cool ice covered scene to explore. With the mixed overcast clouds, I was able to play with the cooler winter color palette of the Montana landscape. These two were a lot of fun. I appreciate a wedding couple that is up for an adventure. I’m looking forward to documenting their wedding celebration this Spring. Congrats on your engagement you guys! -Mike
The other day I was able to meet up with my wedding clients Courtney and Jordi from Big Sky to make some engagement photos of them before their wedding happening later this summer. Rainy, springtime Montana weather had unfortunately postponed our two prior meetups. Alas, we finally found our weather window and spent some time utilizing the green Montana landscape and abundant wildflowers around Peet’s Hill and the surrounding bike trail system. We rode our bikes around to different spots. These two were all about having an adventure. I’m looking forward to documenting their big day later this summer. Congrats on your engagement you guys! -M
Check out more photos from their engagement photo session here.
Wedding season is upon us here in the Big Sky state and I’ve been having a lot of engagement photo sessions lately. Last week I met up with Bobbi Jean and Chris at the Triple Tree trailhead in Bozeman Montana to photograph their engagement photo session. Engagement photos sessions come complimentary with all of my wedding collections. I like it because it gives me and my clients a chance to get to know one another before their wedding day and make some fun photos in the process. The two brought along their dogs as we hiked and explored the popular Bozeman trail system. Knowing Chris worked as a logger and Bobbi Jean as an employee of Yellowstone National Park, I wanted to photograph them in their element. From their, we ventured over to the wood shop of Montana Wildwoods artist and friend Tom Benedict where we played amongst his juniper tree sculptures. These two were great and I’m looking forward to photographing their wedding at the Old Faithful Inn later this summer. A fun day. -M
To view all of their engagement photos, click here.
Last week I photographed the Story Mill Park Winter Engagement Portrait Session of Samantha & Jonathan near downtown Bozeman, Montana.
These two Manhattan, Montana natives hired me to photograph their wedding day this upcoming August and wanted to showcase the winter Montana landscape in their engagement photo session. We decided to take advantage of the wonderful winter evening light we’ve been having lately here in the Big Sky country and walked around the historic Story Mill park area and Gardner Park in Bozeman for a couple of hours.
This time of year, the outdoor color palette yields a lovely mixture of golds, oranges, and blues and I wanted to maximize it. These two had a great attitude and were up for a fun adventure. Our Story Mill Park Winter Engagement Portrait session time went quickly as we enjoyed exploring the landscape and playing with their golden retriever.
These two are great. I’m thrilled with how their photographs turned out and I’m looking forward to photographing their big day later this summer. Congrats on your engagement you guys! -M
Last week, I photographed my wedding clients Julia and Peter for their Bozeman Montana Winter Engagement photo session.
We had the opportunity to venture out into the surprisingly mild Bozeman winter weather for their Bozeman Montana winter engagement. These two have a great park near their home in southwest Bozeman where they often walk their dogs. It’s a place that brings a lot of happiness into their lives. We started our photo outing there.
On this day, I loved the winter color palette of blues, greys, and oranges that were standing out from the white snow blanketing the ground. It gave me some great negative space to play with. I was really pleased with the results.
These two are a great pair.
Looking forward to photographing their wedding day at Chico Hot Springs in June. Stay tuned. -M
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going out for an afternoon with my wedding clients Sara and Cory for their engagement photo session throughout downtown Bozeman, Montana. I’m looking forward to photographing their wedding day at the Springhill Pavilion in September 2015. With the holiday season upon us, they wanted to get out and use their complimentary engagement photo session for a Christmas card/wedding announcement and wanted to take advantage of the unusually warm weather we were experiencing mid-December. It was a great time for us to get to know each other while breaking the ice and making some fun photographs. I always am inspired by my surroundings when photographing – be that a walk through Lindley Park, using the architecture along Main Street or even cool window displays like at The Bent Lens Optical Boutique. These two were up for the challenge and we had a fun day collaborating on making images. I feel lucky to know that in my line of work I get to meet and hang out with such fun couples like these two. September can’t come soon enough. A fun day. -M
I’ve been excited to share these photos for a while now. Three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hanging out with my engaged clients Molly and Brian during our engagement photo session in Sonoma, California at Jack London State Historic Park. Having recently moved back to Montana, the trip was a fun adventure back to sunny California for my first engagement session of the 2012 wedding season. The spring California weather was predictably gorgeous as we ventured out for an afternoon of exploration and portrait making. Molly and Brian, by way of my sweet home Chicago, were looking to have a California wine country wedding and engagement photo session and found me and Greener Visuals Wedding Photography through a recommendation from a local wedding coordinator friend of mine Fearon, of Fearon May Events and Engaged Now What , (an up and coming wedding resource website) when they were looking for a photojournalistic styled wedding photographer in the Sonoma Wine Country. We got in touch and hit it off from the get go. When we met for the first time, I recommended we check out the ruins of the famed American writer Jack London’s mansion and state park just north of Sonoma. It was a pretty surreal place to photograph and it would make a perfect starting place both to avoid the harsh mid day sun and it presented beautiful shade with interesting directions of light shafts. Back in 1913, a fire destroyed the famous writer’s dream house deemed “Wolf House”. The stone walls still stand with an ancient, architectural beauty surrounded by old growth redwood trees. It’s a truly beautiful place. From there we drove south towards Sonoma and explored the sights and sounds of the wine capital’s downtown streets and photographed the gorgeous afternoon golden sunlight illuminated the buildings. These two lovebirds were just awesome. Together we made some creative images that I think turned out great and I am really looking forward to returning to California in June for their wedding day shoot. Congratulations on your engagement you guys! See you at your wedding in June! -Mike Greener
To see more photos from the engagement shoot go here.
I’ve been meaning to post these pics for a while now. A couple months ago, some friends of mine, Ben and Charlotte, approached me about making some fun portraits of them that they could send to their families both here and overseas in Germany and Belgium. They had never had professional portraits taken together and wanted photos that would accurately show their relationship. I really enjoy going out and making photos of friends. Having watched their relationship blossom over the past couple of years I was excited to try to capture it in a formal portrait setting. We ended up checking out the trail along side Putah Creek on the outskirts of Davis and as a added bonus, they brought their puppy Timo along for some entertainment. I find having dogs on a shoot can either be hit or miss. At times they can be very distracting to the subjects but more often than not they can be a fun addition to bringing out the best in my subjects by helping to make them laugh. Timo behaved perfectly and I think added a nice touch to their portrait session. Another fun afternoon with friends. -M
I love this time of year. The rains are subsiding and California is enjoying its brief window of green before the summer heat scorches us to our usual golden brown hue. More importantly, the early springtime signals the start of the wedding season. My bookings are really starting to fill up. Always a good thing. Two of my good friends Zack and Anna recently got engaged and hired me to be their Davis California engagement photographer and wedding photographer.
Both are ecology graduate students at UC Davis and through their studies have come to really enjoy bird watching. They came to me looking for a creative photographic twist to capture their relationship. We spent an afternoon playing around one of the beautiful Davis parks and made some traditional and nontraditional images. We had a great time and I think their relationship really shows in their photographs. I’m looking forward to shooting their Lake Tahoe wedding in August.
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