Fontaine Heaton Family Session | Missoula Family Photographer

I love it when families come together for the holidays, but this is so much more! This is actually two families merging together to make one!

I've been doing family pictures for both of these families for a couple of years, and FINALLY I'm getting to do a family session for all of them at once! Yes indeed this was an Engagement/Family Christmas session! It was so much fun! Living in Missoula, home of the Montana Grizzlies, this family showed their Griz pride by doing their session on the Oval of the University of Montana campus.

Enjoy the fun and love shared by this beautiful family! 

Paige Senior Session | Missoula Senior Photographer

VioletRay Photography is an all natural lighting photography business out of Florence, MT. Serving all the greater Missoula areas, I get to partake in all the joys of being a photographer in Montana!!! There are many wonderful reasons to be a photographer in this Big Sky state, and I was fortunate enough to have a senior who wanted to showcase Montana at her finest!

First thing off, as a opening to this session, the first thing you have understand is that in Montana, you can any one of the 4 season at any given point in time of an average day. No jokes, it's snowed in July before! So when Paige, a High School Senior student from Sentinel High, chose to go to a remote location up Rock Creek, a wilderness area where he grew up on a ranch, I knew there would be a spark of "epic" to his session. 

The started off slightly blustery, when we met at Starbuck (yay for coffee!) and headed out for our spot, and by the time we got there the sun was showing its golden glory. We managed to find golden fields of wheat and a terrific old fashioned fence. As we moved down the back roads heading towards a swinging bridge the weather definately started to change towards the more "snowey" side giving us some great in-depth dimensional looks! 

Brooke Rugger Chic | Missoula Senior Photographer

Living in Montana can sometimes be challenging for a natural light
photographer. But most of the time, it gives me the most amazing
photographic opportunities! Missoula is an old school city, with unique
buildings, great landscape, and super fun and awesome people.

I felt extremely blessed and had so much fun with this shoot! This
beautiful young lady, Brooke, was in charge of picking the location for
her session. She wanted unique and not commonly used, something totally
different from the "normal" session sites. So, what better then an old
dilapidated abandoned railroad track running through the heart of "Old
Missoula" and through some crazy coloured residential area!

Brooke totally brought this session to life. She's an awesome rugby chick,
who brought chic and stylish all together! It really wasn't hard at all do
"my job". As a photographer, I'm not afraid to get up and personal for a
session to make sure that I capture their best features. Brooke used her
own incredible sense of style to accent her sharp stunning blue eyes, and
intertwined golds and creams to bring out the fall colours that surrounded
us. Pulling together her amazing fun and life filled personality and the
rich crisp fall atmosphere, Brooke rocked her session, and I'm certain
she's going to go far in life!

"Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind... don't matter" ~Dr Suess

CHIC CRITIQUE COVER CONTEST | Missoula Fashion Photographer

WOW! So I'm not gonna lie, I'm REALLY REALLY excited about this! I get to share this image with everyone as not just a beautiful young lady, but a potential for the NEXT COVER MODEL for Chic Critique Forum! The magazine Chic Critique is doing a contest for photographers to share their work and have it featured on their cover! Each image will be judged by a professional and a panel of Celebrity Photographers, so we know that care will be taken in choosing "THE" image!

So it is with great pride, that I enter this image. Taken in the lovely river that flows through the Rattlesnake Wilderness of Montana, this young woman shows the poise and beauty that runs through the veins of this rugged state.

©VioletRay Photography for http://chiccritiqueforum.com Cover Contest

Kyleigh Senior Session | Missoula Senior Photographer

Kyleigh came to me with ideas of her session. She wanted clean and
country. She wanted to stand out from all her classmates, in form of theme
and location. That got me REALLY excited because I live out in the country
of Florence, MT. We planned her session in her almost 3 weeks in advance,
and started praying that the smoke would all clear out! (Montana and Idaho
have been under extreme fire conditions since June!) When her session time
finally arrived though, the fires of Montana were in full force and
socking my 5 acre parcel of land in with heavy smoke. Kyleigh and her mum
were worried but I just kept reassuring them it was okay! I told them,
"lets just look at this smoke as a natural haze. A nice light diffuser.
It's going to be FINE!"

And it was!!! Each one of her images just naturally glowed! I'm so proud
of this young lady! She really let her inner beauty shine, and I'm also
thankful for the smoke. Not very often you'll hear a person say that...
but without it... this session wouldn't have been the same!

Enjoy the beauty and remember that each individual is beautiful! Inside and out!