Recently I had the pleasure of going on assignment for Cyclist magazine to photograph Tyler Hamilton for a feature the magazine was doing on him for their summer issue, which is on news stands now.

Tyler Hamilton was one of the whistleblowers who helped to reveal cycling’s doping scandal — including doping by Lance Armstrong, as well as his own use during his own racing career. Tyler detailed all of that in his autobiography (co-written with Daniel Coyle), The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France. (It went on to become a New York Times bestseller.)

We fit in our shoot during Tyler’s son’s nap time, and he was just so fantastic and gracious to work with. Thankfully, Missoula’s strange spring weather held out for us (though we did get snowed on, sprinkled on, and sunshined-on during our shoot…because, spring in Montana!). And I even was treated to some doggo snuggles with his sweet pup, who starred in a handful of our images.

The magazine’s story is incredibly interesting (you can purchase a copy of Issue 128 on their website, or access it via Apple News), and I’m looking forward to reading Tyler’s book, which I’ve been told is absolutely fascinating.

Thanks again for sharing your time with me and helping to create a stellar shoot, Tyler! And thanks to Cyclist magazine and their deputy editor and art director for being fantastic to work with, too.

Now, onto some tearsheets from the feature as well as some of my favorite outtakes from the shoot. (To be respectful of the magazine and their paid content, I’ve blurred out the article text.) Enjoy!

On the docket:

Lots of portraits and weddings — stay tuned!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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!

Behind the scenes from our shoot. Photo credit: Natalie Mourton

Prior to getting started with our shoot, Natalie, my photo assistant, was kind enough to model the light for me so I could determine ahead of time how and where I wanted to photograph Jeannette.

Jeannette’s husband, Rob, took a moment to hold the reflector since he said “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do after seeing it on TV.”

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

Way back in July I was hired by Politico, a well known political news magazine (it has both an online and printed presence), to exercise my Montana photojournalist background, and make images for them for an upcoming article they were working on about Montana’s newly designated 2nd congressional district (and the seat it opens up). My specific assignment was to cover a fundraising event held by the only Republican challenger of Ryan Zinke, as well as to document some of Zinke’s properties in Whitefish. Fast forward to today, and I’m happy to say the article is live (as of right now, it’s the cover story on Politico).

It was such an interesting assignment, and I’ve shared a few tearsheets from the article, as well as some outtakes that didn’t make it into the story. One of the great things about working as a photojournalist is that you really learn so much about what you’re documenting. And it’s always intriguing to hear so many different sides of a story. The reporter, Miranda Green, did stellar work (and I thoroughly enjoyed working with Politico’s director of photography, M. Scott Mahaskey), so definitely check out Politico’s entire story. Well worth the read, especially if you’re a Montanan! (And even if you’re not, too.)

On to the tearsheets and photos:

On the docket:

Portraits and brand sessions! Stay posted!

Cheers,

-Kristine

In early March I had the pleasure of heading north to photograph Cody Sifford for a Winds of Change magazine shoot. The Pohly Company out of Boston, Massachusetts had contacted me to shoot images of Cody who was their cover feature (along with a story inside). I always love doing editorial work (to hearken back to my photojournalism background), so I was super excited to hear how eager the Pohly Company was to work with me on this shoot.

Thankfully our shoot date didn’t get rained or snowed out due to the wet weather we’d been experiencing, so I met up with Cody to make some cover-worthy portraits to go along with his magazine feature. He was so great to work with despite being understandably a little nervous (magazine cover – no pressure, right?!), and was game to tromp around with me in search of cool locations, even though we had to wander through some mud puddles to get to the best spots.

As their description says on their website, “Winds of Change is the premier nationally distributed magazine published with a single-minded focus on career and educational advancement for American Indians/Alaska Natives/Native Hawaiians/First Nations, with an emphasis on STEM.”

Which is pretty cool, don’t you think? It was great meeting up with Cody and hearing more about his story as well, which you can read about in the latest Spring issue (scroll down to read Cody’s story, or you can read the entire magazine on the Winds of Change website).

Below I’ve included images from the magazine piece as well as other favorite images I made that didn’t end up in the publication. Enjoy! Thanks again to Winds of Change and Cody for a wonderful shoot!

On the docket: more editorial work and portraits! Stay tuned!

Cheers,

-Kristine