We met outside their home in Stevensville, Montana for their family photos. Baby boy was just about to turn 3 months and mom was wanting to remember those final days of maternity leave before heading back to the work force. Their yard gave us plenty of variety and a beautiful backdrop with the mountain views in the Bitterroot Valley. Unfortunately the cloudy morning meant that Saint Mary Peak was blocked from view, but we made the most of this early October day. We started out in their yard and made our way to the neighboring farm that offered up hay bales and a corn field. I obviously needed to bring along my new Ultraviolet Backdrop in a bag to add a little more color and texture for fun.

I captured the bulk of the family portraits on Kodak Portra 400. This has been a long time favorite film for me when capturing families. The colors and skin tones are most consistent with plenty of flexibility when it comes to available light. Recently, though, I have been playing around with having all my film scanned on the Noritsu rather than Frontier. In the past I have loved the punchiness of frontier but have recently been struggling with accepting the blue shadows of Montana. Noritsu has been a welcome change this fall. I might change my mind again some day. Thats the beauty of being an artist willing to experiment and evolve.

For the most part my family photos are captured on a Pentax 645n. I did bring along two fun cameras with me to add some creativity and interest to the gallery. In the Fuji GA 645 I loaded a roll of XP2. This simple point and shoot medium format camera did exactly what I had invisioned for this monochrome film. Interestingly enough, XP2 is developed as C-41 and a cheaper option when wanting to add “Black and white” to a gallery. The second fun camera I brought along was the Contax G2. This camera is still new to me and I am getting more familiar with it. I bought an “ugly” 28mm lens from KEH that I believe might have a bit up fungus or haze inside the glass. I’m actually really enjoying the effect that is has had on some of the images, making them feel a bit “dreamy”. For this camera, I had lomography 800 in 35mm loaded. I generally set my ISO to 400 with this film and go to town. The punchy colors are becoming a favorite. After that roll was finished, I pulled the film leader our and reloaded it into another camera to create some leaks throughout the roll.

A couple of goals that I have for every session is to 1) capture the truth of who is in front of me, showing them just how loved and cherished they truly are and 2) to had some creative elements that give a unique feel to each gallery.

I loved my time with this little family and I’m so looking forward to photographing them as baby continues to grow.