On assignment for People magazine :: “Half Their Size” Shoot in Stevensville Montana

I’m so excited to start off the new year by revealing that I was recently on assignment for People magazine for their “Half their Size” shoot in Stevensville, Montana. The lovely Jeannette Asbury was featured in this article, and this week the story went live — both on the front page of People’s website, and in print. You can read Jeannette’s story in the new issue on newsstands as we speak!

This shoot was such a blast! People magazine’s photo editor, Sarah Fernando, contacted me in early December to ask if I’d like to do the shoot (but I didn’t know what I’d be photographing), and it was a no-brainer to say yes. Fast forward a bit and it was revealed to me that I’d be photographing Jeannette, who was just beyond wonderful to work with!

Because Jeannette had made changes to her lifestyle following the method outlined in Rania Batayneh’s book The One One One Diet, and had become healthier through biking and running, it was important that I picked out a location that could facilitate both, wouldn’t be dangerous, and boasted gorgeous backdrops close to where she lives. Stevensville has no shortage of beautiful scenery, but I’m not gonna lie — I was more than a little nervous that our December 10th shoot was either going to be 1) freezing 2) snowy 3) freezing and snowy 4) blizzarding 5) foggy 6) muddy. I mean…December weather in Montana is a bit of a crapshoot!

But somehow we managed to luck out! Missoula got some snow that morning, so I was bundled up, ready to be tromping through some snow-dusted scenery, but as we drove into Stevensville, it was pretty apparent I was a little overdressed. 😅 That said, it was chilly! So I’m grateful I was wearing warm clothes.

As Natalie Mourton (my friend, photo assistant, and photojournalism grad school classmate) and I waited for Jeannette and crew to arrive, we watched it go from sunny, to completely foggy and socked in (hiding the mountains! the horror!), back to on-and-off sunny again. Thankfully, as the shoot time got closer, the clouds mostly behaved and the sun popped in and out from behind the clouds and was just gorgeous! While we waited for Jeannette to arrive, Natalie was kind enough to pose for me as I determined how and where I wanted to shoot. (She had some fun with this, as you’ll see in our behind the scenes images below.)

Soon, Jeannette drove up with crew in tow, and we were ready to get rolling. Jeannette’s husband, Rob, also accompanied her, and their dog, Stella, waited patiently in their truck. However, Stella was a little confused as to why she wasn’t going for a walk since Jeannette had her “fun clothes” on — poor Stella! 😆

Candace Corey (the fabulous traveling hair and makeup artist) styled Jeannette’s clothes to the tee (per over-the-phone direction from the stylist for the shoot), she perfected Jeannette’s hair, added a touch of gloss to her lips, and we were off to the races!

We started out making images of Jeannette biking, and big thanks to Rob and Natalie for making sure none of us were run over as we made these images. In between shots, I’d text images I loved to People‘s photo editor so she could have an idea of what we were creating and let us know if we needed to change anything up (we were all good!). After we finished Jeannette’s biking images, she had a quick wardrobe change, we changed up our location, and were ready to get going again.

Jeannette was such a good sport for her shoot since she did a lot of biking and running that day for us! And she absolutely dominated her photos! (She got the main image for People‘s story!)

Just as the sun decided to sink behind the mountains, we declared our shoot a wrap! (See a fun little behind the scenes video below.)

Thanks again to all the wonderful folks who made this shoot possible! What an absolute treat! And congratulations again, Jeannette! It was such a pleasure to meet you, hear your story, and get to document your beauty — both inside and out!

 

 

 

We were all pretty stoked to have finished up such a wonderful shoot (and were very ready to get warm!). Video credit: Natalie Mourton

On the docket:

Portraits and weddings!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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