Kristine Paulsen Photography – Lifestyle Portraits, Editorial and Wedding Photography in Missoula Montana

A belated Happy Halloween to you all! It was another great night full of little goblins and ghouls ready for tricks, treats and pics at my Halloween Photo Spook Booth.

Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine, and last year I thought – what the hey – it’ll be fun to do this for all the little kids that come by my house on Halloween night. It was a great success last year, and such a fun time this year as well. I noticed there were a few returning trick-or-treaters from last year (I heard one boy shout, “This is the photo house! She’s a photo god!” Thank you, mystery boy – that made my night!) as well as lots of new kids armed with bags full of candy and chocolate-covered smiles.

Thanks so much for stopping by, showing me your awesome costumes, and taking a second to make some fun photos at the Halloween Photo Spook Booth. And now, on to the pictures! (This, of course, was just a fun Halloween treat for the kids, but if you’re a parent and would like a print of your child’s photo, please be in touch by either calling me at 406-240-3469 or by e-mailing me. All orders will need to be placed by the end of the month of November. Thank you!)

On the docket – more portraits, and “The Best of 2011 Weddings!” P.S. The Photo Booth is available to rent for parties and events. If you’re interested, hop on over to my website and read more about the booth.

Cheers!

-Kristine

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This past spring I had the wonderful opportunity to help produce a documentary about the Paxson Art Project taking place in Paxson Elementary School in Missoula, a program that was developed by the Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC). Visiting artists came into the school and taught kids from kindergarten through fifth grade new art concepts. Currently these kids only receive 6 hours of art per year. Yes, you heard that right – per YEAR.

I stopped by these visiting artists’ classes and put together an informative video about the project which will be shown to folks around the area to hopefully help educate them about the need for art for kids.

Please take a moment to view this video, and if you find this as important as I do, please feel free to share with others. Thank you!

The video is about 10 minutes long (but so worth the watch), so you may want to get the video started by pressing the play button. Once it begins loading, I’d suggest pressing pause until the video is fully loaded, then begin watching. Don’t forget to have your volume turned on! Also, if you’d like to watch the video in HD (high definition, please click the link below the video to be taken to the Vimeo site to watch in HD.)

On the docket: portraits and weddings!

Cheers!

-Kristine

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Getting back to my photojournalism roots a bit, last week I was hired by Cork Tree Creative to photograph a press conference with Governor Brian Schweitzer and Ray Stillwell at the old Smurfit-Stone mill site to announce Green Investment Group, Inc.’s (GIGI) acquisition of the site. This is the seventh Smurfit-Stone paper mill acquired since 2006 by GIGI, an Alton, Illinois-based company that acquires and redevelops Brownfield sites throughout North America. (A Brownfield site is an abandoned or underutilized industrial or commercial site that is well-positioned for redevelopment.)

Plans for the future use of the Missoula site are currently being formulated and will continue during the course of the coming months.  As plans are finalized, work will focus on clean-up and reconfiguration of the site to analyze the potential use of the existing facilities and land.

Ray Stillwell, principal of Green Investment Group, Inc., stated, “The Missoula property offers many opportunities for continued progress in the region. As with all of our projects, our main goal is to work with the community and local officials to develop a site that complements the other industries in the area and meets the economic needs and interests of its people by creating jobs in sustainable growth industries.”

Gov. Brian Schweitzer commented, “Green Investment Group has a proven track record of investing the necessary funds to save the industrial infrastructure and create good-paying jobs.  We welcome them to Montana.”

Thanks again to Cork Tree Creative and Ray Stillwell for contracting me for the shoot. It was nice to hang with the press folks again and make some images for you of this event. I look forward to working with you again in the future!

On the docket: engagement and portrait sessions!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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Can you believe that 2011 is a matter of hours away? I can’t really wrap my mind around it – 2010 flew by in a flurry of wonderful experiences, including so many memorable photo sessions and weddings. I wouldn’t be as happy with life and my work if it weren’t for all of my fantastic clients (seriously, you all are WONDERFUL), business friends and supporters of my work. I’m always so grateful and humbled that you choose me to document the moments in your lives – it means more to me than you may know.

To celebrate the awesomeness that is YOU, I put together a collage of some of my favorite images from 2010 – can you find yourself or friends?

Happy, happy New Year!

On the docket: engagements and senior sessions!

Cheers!

-Kristine

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No, not a photo of me (thank goodness!), but one of the photos I shot for the Missoula County DUI Task Force. Remember a few months back when I was hired by the Century Council to photograph their grand announcement of Cops in Shops in Montana? (See this blog post to read about it.) I made several images for them of a local Missoula cop getting tough on alcohol in a grocery store.

And now, it’s up on a billboard! Pretty cool!  I can’t get over just how large that photo is. I actually saw it after shooting a short and very sweet wedding at the Gibson Mansion. (Congratulations Stacey and Bryan!) They had a lovely ceremony and are such a nice couple and family. I can’t wait to post a few of my favorite pictures from their day.

But for now, I’ll leave you with billboard photos:

The task force was very nice and gave me photo credit.

If you want to check it out yourself, the billboard is near the Stephens Ave. and SW Higgins intersection, right around Romeo’s Italian Kitchen and near Pattee Creek Market.

Cheers,

-Kristine

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Missoula people (and other folks within a reasonable distance of Missoula) – please enter for a chance to win your very own FREE 45-minute photo session with Kristine Paulsen Photography! But wait – there’s more! Along with your photo shoot, you’ll receive a gift certificate valued at $20 for Missoula’s very own, deliciously delectable Big Dipper Ice Cream, just in time for these warm months coming our way.  Total value for this contest: $120!  Your cost? Free!

Why am I doing this?  #1. I love photography.  #2.  I love meeting new people.  #3.  Ice cream rocks my socks off.  #4.  I want to spread the happiness of photography and ice cream!  Hey, why not?

You’re probably wondering how you can enter to win.  All you have to do is comment on this blog post with your favorite of all favorite places in and/or around Missoula to take photos, and then tell me why you love that spot so much.  (Feel free to list more spots if you’d like!)  Do you love Caras Park?  Do you have an absolute favorite spot in Pattee Canyon?  Does the Bitterroot River make you weak in the knees?  Tell me!  And be sure to tell your friends about this contest, too.  There needs to be at least 10 comments on the blog for the contest to take place.

I’ll randomly select a winner who will be notified via e-mail of their fabulous new prizes (free photo shoot and ice cream!).  We’ll set up a time to talk and meet in person to discuss the type of photo session you’d like (yep, folks – this photo session can be an engagement shoot, a senior/graduate session, a “just because” shoot with your best friend or maybe a portrait of your child or even your pet!).  And, we’ll also figure out where we want the photo session to take place.  (Please note: I don’t do traditional in-studio portraiture, but instead focus on on-location, dynamic shoots that make for unique and stunning images.  Take a look at some of my past posts in the blog archives or go to my web site to get a feel for my work.)

When I meet you for your photo session, you’ll receive your gift certificate to Big Dipper, we’ll start shooting and it’ll be a blast!

You’ll receive 5 free images for use on your own blog, Facebook, MySpace, e-mail, what-have-you, and additional (high-resolution) prints can be purchased through me at reasonable prices.  Trust me, these prints will make your jaw drop.  They’re gorgeous!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me – I’m happy to hear from you.

And now, tell your friends, and comment away!  (P.S. Your e-mail address won’t be shared.)  This contest will be active for a week – I’ll notify the happy winner Tuesday, April 6th!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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I recently blogged about an event that I photographed Wednesday, the Cops in Shops kickoff event for the state of Montana.  The Century Council blogged about it the other day and put up a few photos of the Attorney General Steve Bullock.  I’m going to include a few more that I thought were kinda fun.  One of the police officers posed with his motorcycle in the beer aisle of the Safeway on Broadway looking very stern (he was such a good sport!)…don’t try to fake your age, folks!  We also did a few shots with him acting as a cashier checking someone’s ID.  These may be used on some billboards, too – I don’t know if that’s a for sure thing or not yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I hear!  In the meantime, here’s the screen grab from the Century Council’s blog…scroll down to the end of this post for the motorcycle photos:

Also – the Chronicle of Higher Education published their story about Susie, the woman whom I photographed in Pablo, Montana.  I took a screen grab – here it is!

And now, some police photos:

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It has been a while since I shot these photos of a group of friends (it was way back in September! agh!), and I’ve been meaning to post some of my favorites, and I’m just now finally getting around to it.  I hope you like them!  We all had so much fun on our walkabout session – just going from spot to spot and soaking up the beeeeeautiful light.

Also, before I post those gems, I just wanted to mention that I had a great shoot for the Century Council this morning.  Today kicked off the state of Montana’s “Cops In Shops,” and I was there to photograph Attorney General Steve Bullock, Director Jim Lynch of the Montana Department of Transportation, Alcohol Education Coordinator Lisa Scates of the Mt. Department of Revenue and Missoula Chief of Police Mark Muir. We even managed to squeeze in some photo ops from a few other members of the Missoula police force and had a great time doing it.  Some of those photos may even run as billboards!  Super exciting!  I’ll keep you posted on that.

Also, I’m still waiting to hear about when the Chronicle of Higher Education is running the article for which I shot photos – I’ll let you know when it’s up!

And now – the long awaited photos from Sepetember – ohhhh, how I adore the light…mmmm.

Cheers!

-Kristine

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To ring in the new year I decided I had to grace my blog with the presence of some pretty awesome fireworks. Guilty admission: they’re from July 4th at Seattle’s Gasworks Park.

But, they’re still pretty epic, don’t you think?  Enjoy!

AND, have a happy and safe New Year!

Cheers!

-Kristine

Happy New Year, my friends!

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It was a good night for dancing at the Union Club this past Friday since the Whiskey Rebellion were the music-makers for the evening.

I had a great time shooting some quick (very quick – 10 minutes quick!) portraits for the band out back of the Union Club.  Handily enough, there happened to be fire escape on the building, which we used as a portrait prop.

We all dashed back inside so the band could get started, and they’re great!  I highly recommend checking them out at their next gigs – one of which will be at the Jack (bar and saloon) in Lolo.  (And this bar is awesome, too!  In fact, from what I know, it’s kind of legendary.  I highly recommend checking it out too – you can’t go wrong with a bar that has a hollowed out tree trunk set up as a swing, right at the bar!)

Anyway, check out some of my favorite shots from the evening – and take a listen to the Whiskey Rebellion when you’ve got a chance – and don’t forget to kick up those heels and dance!

Cheers,
-Kristine

Fun with fire escapes!

I was seriously digging the lights.

And some couples came out to dance, which was nice to see.

Crooning into the mic.

Having fun with an upbeat piece.

Working the chords.

Some drumstick action.

Singing away.

The whole band!

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