Hey There, I’m jess
People get comfortable with me pretty fast. I have a few tricks, but, honestly, most of it is just 10+ years of doing this. Your wedding should be fun and you should feel at ease. It is the one day all your favorite people show up in one place, say the things they feel but never say, and dance like nobody's watching (even though I very much am). So, even if you hate having your picture taken, or have no idea what you're doing in front of a camera, that's fine, getting you out of your head and feeling like yourself is kind of my thing.
If those are things you want, then maybe we should Connect.
My childhood was spent on the back of a horse
in the corn fields of Iowa, and that quiet, open landscape still shapes the way I see the world. While “quiet” doesn’t exactly describe my personality, it’s the quality I treasure most in art. Our shoot may be full of laughter and movement, but the images I love the most hold a stillness, a kind of quiet poetry.
I never thought I’d leave Iowa. I had a lovely life there, incredible mentors and lifelong friends. But love has its own plans, and when my husband’s career led us west, I landed in Missoula, a move that felt like a gift. I left behind a career as a food photographer, but I found a community that felt like home from the start. Iowa will always be beautiful to me, but there’s something about the way the light rakes across foothills that stops me in my tracks.
These days, you’ll often find me doing all the outdoorsy Montana things - but truthfully, my happy place is at home, puttering. I live in a little bungalow that my husband and I are in the process of making a home. Creating spaces is my truest passion, whether that is inside tearing out old tile and putting in something one would find in 18th century France or planting cosmos on every inch of bare soil to be found.
My dream? Restoring a weathered, old farmhouse on a few acres, with a big garden, a couple of horses, a herd of golden retrievers and maybe a hive of bees. Probably some barefoot, feral children in the mix too. I think that deep appreciation for the old and the soulful shows up in every image I make.