Ashley + Colton | Sand Dunes Adventure Session

Ashley + Colton made the drive from Albuquerque, New Mexico to meet us at Great Sand Dunes National Park. We arrived the day before and slept in the van (secretly) in the backcountry parking lot overlooking the dunes. We fell asleep to the quietest, pitch black night and woke to the white, hot sun trying to melt the sand and the van.

This place is incredible, vast and other-worldly. The wind sweeps sand in every direction until it's swirled into massive mounds that harmoniously blend into the pale blue sky at every vantage point. We sat back and watched as Colton and Ashley danced in awe; The most beautiful story, their love for each other, for adventure and for the moment. In the heat of the setting sun, at 10,000 feet elevation, they let the grains of sand sting by the millions against their skin and curled into each other for shelter; a sentiment worth documenting in any place but especially a place as beautiful at this.

Dress from KII Boutique, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

Vintage Camper Couple | Rocky Mountain Sunset Adventure Session

We've been so lucky to meet so many great creatives through Instagram in the last few years. It's such a powerful resource for connecting us with the people who see the world the way we do! 
That's how we met Chelsea + Lyn, these camper-dwellers from southern Ohio who are living the rocky mountain life in a beautiful campground in Colorado right now. We obviously bonded over our love of alternative living, travel, adventure and mountains!

We were on our campervan tour, heading through Buena Vista and these two just happened to be on our route! They saved us a campsite and we met at their camper-home just before sunset. 
Lyndon + Chelsea live a beautifully tiny, big life on the road. They invited us in, made us pancakes, offered us beer and then took us for a true mountain drive in their Land Rover. We headed up a private road as far as the Rover would go and hopped out to get to the top of the ridge where we could see all the peaks surrounding the valley and their little camper below us! Lyn kept saying he didn't know where the best light would be for photos but he knew this view couldn't be beat. We laughed and wandered until the last bit of amber light fell behind the peaks and then we finished the evening with dinner cooked over the campfire. We've never had a more authentic experience getting to know strangers than with these two! And what a beautiful home they have!

Follow their adventures on their Insta @mobile_millers

Gail + Toby | Honey Run Falls Session

We met Gail and Tobias at the trail head, just a few feet from a little stream and a 25 foot waterfall. A place none of us had ever been. We got to know each other briefly as we sat on top of a big boulder. They sank in to the cool breeze, only noticing each other, quietly and affectionately while we watched the light drape itself, like ribbons of white chocolate, over everything. Gail + Toby have this slow and quiet way about their love. They were a joy to explore with, to have conversation with and a dream to photograph. Check out the video of this session here.

Source: https://vimeo.com/192079274

Natalya + Charlie | Peacock Ridge Farm Wedding

 

Adventurers, world-travelers, always hand in hand, lovers of photography. That's Natalya + Charlie, so naturally you know we hit it off. Charlie proposed in Iceland (bummer we missed that!) and they planned a close-to-home wedding at Peacock Ridge Farm in Ohio. A perfect backdrop for their adventurous spirits. This was our favorite wedding this year mainly because at sunset Natalya jumped up and down in excitement for their portraits in this giant golden field. It was breathtaking and they took in every single bit of it. 

Meet Nat + Char! 

Venue: Peacock Ridge Farm
Floral: Bouquet Studio
Catering: Casa D'Angelo
Dress Designer: Liancarlo
Hair & Makeup: Eyedomakeup and Hair

 

In the direction of the mountains

 

I have to start this first entry by saying that not all posts in this new journal space will be this long. This is a special announcement about some changes that are very important to us and in that there is some back story to be told. 

I have a hard time articulating what it is I love so much about the wild. Most people probably think I just like taking pretty pictures and posting them to Instagram. Although, that's true there exists a more inherent love of wilderness areas. It's the place I feel indescribably myself. Growing up we'd spend days wandering through the woods. The eighteen acres of farm and forest behind our house was all the space that we needed to feel away from everything. Long summer days were spent wandering in the woods. The fern covered hill and fallen logs over the creek became a second home. There weren't trails or tree-houses to hang out in, just trees and the space below them to create whatever kind of adventure we wanted. 

It wasn't until our road trip across the country last year that I realized we'd slowly been making a transition back to that notion. Since our first time in the mountains, our heart strings have been pulled gently and ever so slightly in that direction. We took the long way here. And I'm grateful and humbled by that. I remember being graced with these ideas, so long ago; On a plane home from WPPI or while ordering at a restaurant in Denver my first time there. Ideas that took years to come to fruition. Ideas that I thought of and wrote down and then never thought of again until I started putting this together. Those ideas were who we we wanted to be, they are who we've become.

It's more than a re-brand. We've done that too many times before. It's more than graphics and tag lines, those can be changed with a click. Those are just how we look now. And it's hard to be entirely original in that respect. To us, this is a risk we're taking. It's an entirely new direction. It's how we feel that really matters. All this; Imagined on long roads between forests of tall trees. Fostered in the many mountain ranges of the western United States, during sunsets and sunrises. Over the last four years.  And built to the sounds of Bon Iver and Ben Howard over red wine and the occasional cigarette. 

We introduce to you (sans drum roll) Mallory & Justin, Adventure Wedding Photographers. 

What's that mean, though? Well, it means we're actively pursuing couples who choose to have free-spirited, outdoor weddings in unique and nontraditional venues. We're hoping that means National Parks, mountain tops, canyons and cliff-sides but we're OK with it if not. We want to meet couples as strangers, to venture down unknown trails and climb steep hills with them...then share a meal and a beer at the top as friends. We want our work to be ingrained in the authenticity of the experience and laced with a spirit for adventure. 

We chose to have elements of our rebrand designed for us by local folks who could add a bit of their vision to our story. Bespoke. Because the sentiment really matters this time. We wanted a collaborative vision, eraser marks, a hand-to-paper process... we wanted something deeper than what we had before because it feels deeper to us.  We wanted something that said 'handcrafted goods' were being sold here with intricacies and wear, like they'd been around forever. Artistry. We wanted something a little  vintage and rustic with a wild & naturalist vibe. We looked at shipping crate art and old lithograph prints as well as the wilderness for texture and design inspiration. My tattoo inspired our logo. M & J in the mountains. Yes. 

We'd like to thank:
Chad Austin Design for his work on our logo.
Letterpress Jess for her magic with our collateral.
Blair, Eric, Erin and Mark for taking me on adventures in Colorado. 
To Squarespace for this template and for many things, mostly being awesome, simple, user-friendly and cheap.
And the mountains for being bigger than we are and inspiring us so much.