Montana wedding photos are typically taken in a lush meadow with a mountainous backdrop. This is the typical approach for a classic photo and it yields predictably nice results. Couples come to Montana to get married here for that reason, those mountain photos are beautiful and timeless. With Bre and Wilds, who eloped with me in the Gravelly Range in August, we took a different route. We traversed the top of the range above the Madison and Ruby Valleys at sunset, stopping along the way to get some of those top-of-the-world moments, but we also came across the remnants of a forest fire burn from the previous summer. Things like this, which are out of the ordinary locations, stand out to me. I look at something like this and try to figure out how I would photograph it differently than anyone else. For this stand of trees, I wanted to hit it after sunset to minimize the highlights, of which I knew there would be a lot. I wanted that late light to keep all the black tones subtle and flat.
Along our walk Wilds happened to find a little yellow flower poking up through the forest floor. He picked it for Breanna but her hands were full with her dress in one and his hand in the other. I love the juxtaposition of that life against a landscape of outward death. Of course the fire brings life, but this burn needs a little longer to really start showing that.
Location: Gravelly Range, Montana 59729.
