Earlier this summer in between all of my weddings, I made some family portraits of family friends Bob and Sydney and their sons at their grandparent’s beautiful horse property in Livingston, Montana
Last week I photographed the Downtown Bozeman Montana Engagement Photo Session of my wedding clients Kiera and Collin.
I’ll be kicking off my 2016 wedding photography season when I get to document their wedding celebration in early January at the Gallatin River Lodge here in Bozeman, Montana. I’m so excited!
For their downtown Bozeman Montana engagement session, this couple wanted to highlight the downtown area where they love to go on dates with one another. We decided to explore some of the more colorful exteriors of the downtown Bozeman business scene. Cool temperatures and good light made for some lovely settings and nice portraits. When out photographing, I’m always looking for clean backgrounds that keep the attention on my clients in the camera frame. On this outing, we found numerous options that yielded great results. It was clear that Collin and Kiera were just smitten with one another and they both brought great energy and attitudes to our photo session. We spent most of the time laughing and cracking jokes with one another.
Here are some of my favorite photos from our session. I’m looking forward to Kiera and Collin’s wedding day this January at the Gallatin River Lodge! -Mike Greener
Winter engagement photo session of Heather & Andrew 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.
Wanting to have a fun outlet to entertain their guests, wedding couple Madeline and Chase opted for a Greener Visuals Photo Booth at their Broken Hart Ranch Fall wedding reception. Check out the fun photos!
I had the pleasure of photographing the Broken Hart Ranch Photo Booth at Madeline and Chase’s wedding celebration!
When considering their Fall wedding reception in Bozeman, Montana, in addition to dancing, Madeline and Chase wanted to have a fun, creative outlet to entertain their guests. In addition to hiring me to photograph their wedding day, they added my Greener Visuals Photo Booth to their wedding photography collection. I’m so glad they did.
My Greener Visuals photo booth is exclusively available only to my wedding clients! Photo booths are so much fun because you never know what hilarious results you will get. The photo booth is operated entirely by your guests. By simply pressing a remote control button, guests can trigger the professional DSLR camera and studio lights for an instant beautifully lit photo. Combined with boxes of funny costumes, there is no limit to your guest’s creativity and entertainment.
As the night progressed, their friends and family laughed, played, and dressed in wonderfully weird costumes were able to then take their own beautifully lit photo booth photos via wireless remote control. It was a huge hit. Their Broken Hart Ranch Wedding Photo Booth was a really fun addition to their great wedding day celebration. -M
A few weeks ago, I photographed the Broken Hart Ranch wedding day of Madeline and Chase outside of Bozeman, Montana at the peak of the Fall season change. Fall in Montana this year kicked into overdrive and the autumn colors were popping all over southwest Montana. To my delight, Madeline and Chase’s wedding festivities nailed the timing of the colorful season.
This couple has been dating for the last four years. Over that time, they have fostered a loving relationship filled with gratitude and many great funny stories. Many of those stories were shared throughout the evening by their guests during the wedding toasts.
The Broken Hart Ranch venue that day was surrounded by fire-colored flora from the nearby Gallatin Mountain range backdrop. Madeline and Chase created a fall inspired theme for their wedding using the same color palate with great success.
The newlyweds, along with their out-of-town guests, spent the evening dancing, singing, and raising their glasses in celebration long into the night. This crowd knew how to celebrate with vigor. At one point, the wedding guests suddenly busted into a flash mob dance routine to the delight and surprise of the wedding couple. It was one of the great highlights of the reception.
In addition, Madeline, Chase, and their guests also dressed up in costume to play in the Broken Hart Ranch wedding photo booth I provided for the reception. The photo booth was a huge hit with the guests, young and old!
The positive energy of the wedding day was infectious. Looking around the reception hall, it was filled with smiles of the couple and their loved ones. Here are some photo favorites from their wedding day. Wishing the newlyweds all the best! -M
Southwest Montana had an exceptionally long stretch of Fall colors this past season. I was fortunate enough to be able to get out to photograph all of it’s grandeur with a few late season weddings and a couple family portrait sessions like these of my friend Beth and her family.
I had the pleasure of photographing Courtney and Jordi’s wedding day at The Woodlands in Bozeman, Montana.
I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding weekend of Jenny and Ethan at the Rockin TJ Ranch on the outskirts of Bozeman, Montana a few weeks back. September in southwest Montana might just be my favorite time of year to be outside. Check out some of my favorite images from the day.
The evening before Jenny & Ethan’s wedding day, their close friends and family gathered at the bride’s parent’s house in Bozeman for their rehearsal dinner. The calm Montana evening in early Fall did not disappoint.
Fall in Montana this year has kicked into overdrive and the autumn colors have been popping all over southwest Montana. To my delight, last Saturday I was fortunate enough to photograph the wedding day of my clients Madeline and Chase at the Broken Hart Ranch outside of Bozeman, Montana. Four years of dating has led them to a relationship filled with much gratitude and many great stories. These two and their wedding guests told many funny stories about them and went all out to celebrate their union amongst the fire colored Montana backdrop. What a day! Here is a preview of some favorites I come across so far. Many more photos are en route. Stay tuned… -M
A few weeks back, I photographed the wedding day of Sara and Cory at the Springhill Pavilion outside Bozeman, Montana near the base of the Bridger Mountains.
What a weekend! I had the pleasure of photographing Jenny and Ethan’s wedding rehearsal and wedding day this past weekend at the Rockin TJ Ranch on the outskirts of Bozeman, Montana. September in southwest Montana might just be my favorite time of year to be outside. The weather on their big outdoor wedding day was perfect and the Fall colors were showing up in the local flora. I had a lot of fun throughout the day celebrating with these two newlyweds and their out of town wedding guests. I’m looking forward to showing the rest of the photos from the day. More to come. For now, check out this sneak peek preview of some favorites so far. Congrats again to Jenny and Ethan!
Photograph the wedding day of Elizabeth & Ryan at Chico Hot Springs in Pray, Montana
I recently photographed the Gallatin Valley Botanical Labrador Puppy Family Portrait of Matt and Jacy!
For the past 7 weeks, I’ve been making a weekly trek to the outskirts of Bozeman to the Gallatin Valley Botanical farm with my girlfriend Lora to scope out her new puppy and best friend. Ten labrador puppies equal awesome. Our Wednesday visits quickly became the best day of the week for us to play with the kids.
Matt and Jacy, the owners of the local Bozeman farm, had a litter of ten puppies and one of which would soon come bouncing into my life. During my youth growing up in Illinois, my family bred labs on our five-acre wooded property. I have some good family memories growing up around Labradors. Now by association, I would get to be around once again. Awesome indeed.
Before the puppies all went to new homes, I ventured one evening over to the Bozeman organic farm with my camera and made some fun Gallatin Valley Botanical Labrador Puppy Family Portrait photos of Matt and Jacy along with their kids and an army of labrador puppies. After all, it’s not often an opportunity like this happens. We had a great time. In the end, Lora got a yellow male and is calling him “Timber”. This will be fun. The dog adventure begins. -M
A few weeks ago, I photographed the Bozeman outdoor maternity photo session of Jessica in her home and around downtown.
This will be her first child and she wanted to have herself and her belly documented. Having never photographed a Bozeman outdoor maternity photo session before, I was intrigued and happily accepted. It was a fun challenge.
We got together in the morning and I brought my mobile photo studio to her apartment. We spent our time sipping coffee and having fun creating different photo setups. I wanted to simplify things, eliminate distractions and make the photos all about her. I’m all about versatility in my photographs and I want to give my clients options in their photo sessions.
From her place, we ventured outside and walked around downtown Bozeman chatting, collaborating, and looking for interesting backgrounds. It was so fun to see her excited anticipation. Jessica is two weeks out from having her life completely change into her upcoming motherhood. I’m so excited for her. Congrats to the mama-to-be! -M
A couple weeks ago I had the chance to return to Montana, my favorite place on earth, to photograph the wedding of an old college friend Christina and her new husband Ryan. I got to know Christina during my time tromping around the Big Sky state while attending The University of Montana in my pursuit of my degree in Photojournalism. In between my time fly fishing mountain streams and trying to make it to class on time, I came to know her through mutual friends and her involvement in the Missoula art scene. Christina, a Montana native, is a very talented painter and ended up getting her degree in the Fine Arts. From there, it was off to New York City for her where she eventually met her fiancée Ryan randomly at a friend’s apartment. Oddly enough it turns out that they both were from the same western Montana town of Whitefish located up close to the entrance of Glacier National Park. I’m always amazed at the curveballs of coincidence life can through at people sometimes. Two years apart in age, Christina and Ryan never new one another growing up but found each other in one of the biggest cities on earth. Go figure. As they grew closer in their relationship, the two parted ways with the “Big Apple” and have since made a life together living and working in Portland, Oregon. When it came to plan their summer wedding the location was an obvious choice.
On their wedding day, I awoke early to drive north of Missoula (where I had been visiting my parents) past the cherry orchards along Flathead Lake and eventually made my way northeast towards the entrance of Glacier National Park. Christina and Ryan chose a cute little 40-acre ranch just outside of Coram, Montana called Glacier River Ranch that was bordered by the gin clear blue waters of the Flathead River. There are few things in life more picturesque than a Montana backdrop and that day I couldn’t think of any. I arrived early so I could scout around the area and get a feel for the place. As family members were helping to set up, I decided to walk around the grounds for possible portrait locations. As I came around the side of a big ponderosa pine tree I startled a young black bear (about 30 yards away from me) and he quickly stood up on his hind legs to get a better view of the blond haired photographer that had interrupted his mid morning berry feast. Soon uninterested, it sauntered off until the delicious smells of a wedding reception food brought it closer to the wedding location so much so that the ranch owner had to scare it off with some warning shots of her deer rifle. Only in Montana. Love it. The rest of the day mimicked the visions of a good Norman MacLean novel. The late August weather was perfect and their afternoon streamside reception was stunning as the golden Montana light lit up the trees as it slowly made its decent behind Teakettle Mountain. Like any proper Montana wedding the rest of the evening was spent eating roasted pig, drinking fine wine and Montana microbrews and dancing to live music from a local string band. It was so great to spend the day photographing such a fun couple and an honor to be asked to photograph the wedding of a old friend. I wish them all the best. -M
You can view the very best images from Ryan and Christina’s wedding under my portfolio wedding stories section here. Or…
To see the entire wedding take you can see them all on my Photo Archive here.
I’m almost finished with my latest wedding photo shoot where I returned to the Big Sky state to photograph Christina and Ryan’s Montana wedding. Stay tuned for a big post soon.
I am thrilled to share with all of you guys my brand new logo for Greener Visuals Wedding Photography. For the past year I have been debating redesigning my wedding logo. My original homemade logo with the film canister shown down below was one I had designed myself but I felt it wasn’t conveying the essence of my business.
From the beginning of the creation of my wedding photography business, I had focused my attention on the basics of building a successful business; high quality photography, good customer service, business cards and a functional website. What I wasn’t paying attention to was the subtle yet important facet of having a solid brand and identity. One valuable lesson I’ve learned during the past year is that I can’t always do everything myself. Certain areas of expertise are worth paying for. I’m confident in my photography skills but I needed the help of other professionals to make this change while I juggled a wedding business and my daily newspaper job. With this season’s boost of wedding bookings that I have been getting, I decided it was a good time to rebrand myself. But, I wasn’t exactly sure how to formulate the identity of my business. I opted to go with the online company Crowdspring.com. The site hosts a network of talented graphic designers from all over the world who compete for job bids on the Crowdspring site. You start off by naming your goals for your logo, what your business is about, etc.
I wanted my logo to have a fun look, but still maintain a sense of professionalism, show that I am a creative photographer and wedding storyteller, and complement my style of photography. After posting my ideas to the site, designs poured in. I found a mix of really talented designers as well as some less than ideal ones. As each design concept came in, I gave detailed feedback about its components, from color schemes to typography. Like in so many things, I ended up succeeding in my hunt for the perfect logo because there was good communication between me and the designers. Here are some of the logo concepts I considered:
For two weeks, I sorted through more than 250 different logo concepts from designers all over the world. We played with the fonts, color schemes and symbol concepts. The trick was trying to figure out what logo identified with my business. It wasn’t an easy thing to to do and there were numerous times I was panicing that I wouldn’t be able to find the right one. Then I found 
Marc Griesinger, a German marketing professional and graphic designer. Marc came to me with the book pages idea with the oak tree. I liked the symbolism of a couple starting their new family tree through marriage and the subtle concept of conveying the idea of me being a wedding storyteller through the page concept. I liked it but it still wasn’t saying weddings enough. Through the great communication between Marc and I, we came up with the idea to put the grey couple under the tree. I knew right then and there that I had found what I was looking for. Marc is incredibly creative and worked with me to fine-tune the perfect logo for my business. He understood that I was a creative just like he was. I really appreciated Marc’s punctuality. There wasn’t a time when I could not reach him and he was very responsive to my requests. Building a logo was a very personal journey for me and at times there were disagreements between me and the other creatives. Marc is very proud of the work he does, yet he was willing to entertain my creative concepts and in the end I think my logo was stronger than it originally could have been. I appreciated that a lot and I can’t thank him enough for all of his hard work. I think Marc also felt proud of the end result because my logo is now included into his logo portfolio on his website. I couldn’t be happier. -M
You know you’ve done something right when one of your past wedding couples refers you to their friends. I consider those gestures one of the highest compliments a photographer can receive. It lets me know that I am doing my job well.
Back in 2006, Abby and Johnny asked me to photograph their Teller Wildlife Refuge Slack House and Barn Wedding in western Montana after hearing about my photojournalistic style through their friends and my former clients.
It was the ultimate picturesque Montana cowboy wedding. Their outdoor wedding was held at this cute little ranch where the men were decked out in their cowboy boots and hats. They twirled the women in their summer dresses as they danced to the upbeat rhythms of bluegrass music. Summer was ending and with it, the days grew longer. Because of it, we were blessed with beautiful afternoon sunlight that made the dried wheat fields glow with a golden hue as the sun set over the Bitterroot Mountains. What more could a photographer ask for?
I welcome and support everyone.
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