Winter Wonderland ~ Montana Documentary & Fine Art Photography

Deep, thick fog in the Flathead Valley froze and created hoar frost on nearly everything this week. On the north shore of Flathead Lake at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Waterfowl Production Area Sugar ran through a winter wonderland of frozen flora.

African Wild Dogs Book Cover ~ Montana Documentary & Fine Art Photography

Interesting use of one of my photos on a recent UK book cover. Not sure I would have even recognized it as my image nor even as the American Museum of Natural History's diorama where it was taken. Beautiful compositing. Below is the original image I shot on Kodachrome with my Nikon FM2 (no auto anything just a light meter!) and beneath that is one taken this past summer with a Nikon D3 - a camera four times the price at least. Not sure it made any difference having the fancier equipment. Ah, Kodachrome I loved you...!

Whitefish Review Launch Party ~ Montana Documentary Photography

Come down to the Crush Wine Bar in Whitefish this Friday to help celebrate my inclusion in the newest issue of the Whitefish Review. The Whitefish Review is a literary journal that publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art, photography, and interviews, with a slant toward mountain culture. I have a photo in this issue along with a short essay. Also included in the issue are Russell Chatham, Edward Abbey, Henry Real Bird (Montana's Poet Laureate), Bill Kittredge, Doug Peacock and more, with a reading Friday night by Rick Bass.

I'm honored to be a part of the local literary community and hope to see you there! Details about the evening are here.

ISPWP Contest Winner ~ Montana Wedding Photography

The results of the latest wedding photo contest by the ISPWP (International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers) was just announced and I'm pleased to have one of my favorite wedding images of the summer earn 8th place in the wedding details category. And the best thing of course is that it combines both my areas of expertise: weddings and dogs! The photo was taken while Katie-Jane was getting ready and her sweet maltese, Kohl, was resting on the shelves trying to stay clear of all the going-ons. You can see more of Katie-Jane and her dogs getting ready here and her and Mike's entire wedding here.

If you have some time check out all the winning entries of this current contest. Since the ISPWP is an international organization the work of all the photographers is a real anthropological study of cultures, customs, family, and fashions.

See the winning photo and the others in the wedding details category here.

Sugar Got Boots! ~ Montana Dog Photography

-10º this morning here in Bigfork so Sugar needed some serious cold-weather protection. Got her some boots yesterday and reluctantly she let me put them on her today. She was not a happy camper as you can see in the first shot. But they did keep her paws warm and dry allowing me to do a study of her first seriously cold Montana day enjoying the snow despite those annoying things on her paws.

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy!!

Nick & Sempi~ Montana Dog & Documentary Photography

I've been documenting the relationship between people and their dogs for over 3 years now. Last week I was there for the deepest, saddest part between a dog and his human. This was the most difficult shoot I have done and Nick felt it would help him to have me there. Nick, a teacher in the adaptive world of disabled skiing and wilderness adventurer and guide, and Sempi, a 14 year old Siberian Husky, have jored together over 8000 miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Nick got Sempi at 8 weeks old and over their 14 years together Nick's understanding of love deepened as happens to all us dog people. But most beautiful is the definition of the name Nick gave his young pup: Sempi, defined on wikipedia as "a relationship with reciprocal obligations, somewhat similar to a mentoring relationship." Wow.

Sempi passed four hours after Nick curled up with him to say goodbye. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving week I love celebrating these two beings that were so grateful to have had each other in their lives. Let's all be thankful for our wonderful friends both canine and human this and every week. And if you know someone that would like to donate a pup to Nick's future wilderness adventures please be in touch.













Nick and Sempi during the summer when we first met

Lucky Boy

Teresa contacted me about booking a dog portrait session which would be of just one of her and her husband's four dogs. Lucky, this handsome border collie/karelian bear dog mix, has a special relationship with her husband. Lucky came into their lives shortly after they lost another dog tragically and knew intuitively how to comfort him - by keeping him busy by throwing sticks of course! So this session was to document the energy of Lucky and his passion for sticks to get the perfect image for the perfect dog lover's holiday gift: a large print on metal (see first image) by the great vintage sign makers at Meissenburg Designs. We of course also got some great images of just Teresa and Lucky that her husband is sure to love too.

Danielle & Jon ~ Montana Wedding Photography

I'm not sure there's any words to describe this wedding except to be clear that this took place on the Jersey Shore and not in Dubai! Really incredible venue (The Mallard Island Yacht Club) not just for the architecture and the location but because they allow dogs!!! Gotta love that. And Jon & Danielle couldn't have both looked more amazing and been more of a pleasure to spend the day with and photograph. Thank you both for thinking of me 5 years after meeting at the Serban's wedding.