Well today definitely does not feel like a typical summer in Montana. It's chilly out there! I was freezing yesterday, but I was excited to see some sun this morning. Thankfully we've had some sunny days in Bozeman this past June, not many but enough to get in some beautiful family sessions for some sweet clients! 

This family just makes me smile! From the first time I met their sweet girl celebrating her first birthday to now seeing them as a family of 4 with their handsome little boy. 

We did get eaten alive by mosquitos, they were terrible! We have had so much rain that they have been terrible this summer. 

But in between shots we were swatting them off of us (because I forgot bug spray, my camera bag is now stocked full!) We got some amazing images for this beautiful family to hang on the walls of their home to cherish forever!

So many clients ask for the beautiful backdrop of the Montana mountains in their portraits, but some clients want something different. I love finding new locations to give clients something different each year. 

I love how these turned out! I spend hours driving around looking for new unique locations and this spot has become one of my favorites! 

Gahh.....look at how cute these all turned out! One of the fun things about family portraits is all the fun combinations of shots you can get! I love capturing the unposed images, just having fun and interacting as a family.

One thing you will get from me when you book a session is a fun & relaxed session....yes we do some basic poses with everyone looking at the camera....but the fun is twirling, laughing, letting the kids run, lots of kissing and hugging and more laughing! I don't tell great jokes, so I fake laugh and then my clients laugh at me! 

And then there are sibling pictures! Aren't these two just the sweetest! 

And I had to share these...there are way more, but this little cutie pie I think may just be a future model....so many super cute modeling faces from her! These were some of my favorites! 

This beautiful Montana family brought a smile to my face as I edited their images. This is why I do what I do and I stay up late at night to get images to my clients and book myself silly over the summer months....because of this....because if these images bring a smile to my face as I am editing through them....I know my clients are going to cherish them forever and when they look through them....they are going to smile again and again. 

Thanks to this sweet family for allowing me to capture their forever portraits! 

Love & Light,
​Mariah

It was such an honor and privilege to capture this family and their forever portraits! There are so many stages of life in having children, raising them and then giving them wings to fly! 

It was fun to reconnect with this family. We all went to church together many years ago and through a donation I made to the Montana State University rodeo team, we reconnected through this family session. Every year the MSU Rodeo team has a fundraiser called Cowboys & Candlelight. I love donating family portraits to the fundraiser and this year I was so excited to find out it was a family that I knew! 

​We had so much fun shooting these portraits...so many laughs and a few cries! It was a pretty cool to document both the celebration of their oldest son being accepted into the Naval Academy and the sadness of saying goodbye. The proud parents and siblings all wore their Navy shirts in celebration of their brothers accomplishments. What an honor to be accepted into the Naval Academy!

Enjoy looking through this fun family session! I am still laughing at some of the sibling photos! From the high fives, to the piggy back rides to the hand stands and fake punches....it was sure entertaining with this sibling fun!

Thank you Dykstra family for all the fun on your farm!  

Another amazing family up on the blog today! I know I occasionally post about how long I've known people that I end up photographing and this family is one of those long time relationships that are so fun to share & blog about! I've known Kevin & Anna since my college years! We all worked at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT together. Anna and I worked at Family & Graduate Housing at the university, while her & Kevin finished up their bachelor degrees. Its been fun to keep in touch with them since then! They were here on vacation from the Seattle area, so I was ecstatic when they contacted me to capture family portraits for them under the Big Sky! 

I feel so lucky to have the back drop of Montana to create art work for my clients to display!  I could've shared so many more great images from their shoot! The lighting was perfect and the boys had fun skipping rocks and just being in nature. A couple skinned knees didn't stop us from getting lots of smiles! I truly love being a portrait photographer and love being able to see old friends through my photography business!

I so enjoyed working with this sweet family and hope to visit them when I am out in the Seattle area next time! I am so blessed that they chose me to capture this time in Montana together!

Out of state clients are always welcome to book sessions with me to capture their vacation in Montana! Montana portraits can be something that is treasured forever in a scrapbook, canvases on your wall, or in a custom album! 

Meet the Parsons! Ahh, I just love them, they are from Texas, with roots here in Montana. I was so excited to get to know Kim and be their photographer while they were here visiting. She grew up here, but now resides in Texas. From mountain shots to downtown photos, our time was super fun. I also got to meet their sweet Chloe, and she did so good for her portion of the session. 

We made a quick stop at the old historic Wilson School....

And our last stop was the Cannery downtown....such a fun night hearing here history of growing up in Bozeman! Till we meet again Parson family, I am so glad we met this summer!