BILLINGS MONTANA PHOTOGRAPHER – HAPPY SUPER BOWL!

Today is the Super Bowl and I’m up way earlier than usual on a Sunday! I’ve got fresh coffee, beautiful morning light, and a smoker filled with pork. I’d say that bodes well for the day ahead! When the pork is ready I’m off to Ken’s for a day full of football, family, and of course, abusing his massive photo book library. In honor of the football season, I’m posting one of the few football photos I made this year. This is an outtake from a helmet shoot I did with Ken Jarecke for Hail Varsity Magazine. The Huskers were unveiling an alternative uniform against Northwestern, and had been struggling, so I wanted to make something a bit ominous. We lost. But oh well, today is about the Super Bowl!

I love the super bowl, regardless of who’s playing, but it’s always a little bittersweet because it’s the end of football season. Strangely, I feel more reminiscent about the year that’s past on the day of the super bowl and not on new year’s eve, when the year literally ends. It’s the end of the 2015 season, so it’s kind of like 2016 starts tonight at midnight. The ball drops when the game ends and we look forward to a great year ahead. 2016 came early for Nebraska fans this year, as the season ended on December 26 when the Huskers beat UCLA in Levi’s Stadium where the Super Bowl will take place today. I started the year sitting at a bar in London, watching my beloved Huskers from across the pond. I missed the season opener for only the second time in 10 years, and we lost the opener for the first time in my lifetime. Of course I feel guilty about it, but just like the players, I have to put it behind me and focus on the 2016 season, and not missing another opener.

For the record: I want Denver to win the Super Bowl and make the AFC West proud, something that I hope my Kansas City Chiefs can do next year. I’m also throwing my good karma behind Denver because some of my best friends and family are Denver fans, so I want them to be happy. For people who would say that I should hate Denver because they are the Chiefs rivals in the AFC West, I just don't have the energy for that and I've always been all about loving my own teams rather than hating on someone else's. I do like Carolina a lot too, just by the way they play, I love teams with good defense and a running attack/mobile QB. What self respecting Nebraskan doesn’t? I’ve been rooting for them in the NFC all season (along with the Seahawks for my bro-in-law). I also like Cam Newton and I hope he gets a chance to dab against Denver’s #1 ranked defense. I think we’re in for a good one and I’m not making a prediction. Happy Super Bowl!

Tips for photographers: Photography can be so strange sometimes. Why did I light this helmet like this? I was heavily influenced by the modern masters Marco Grob and Dan Winters around this time in 2015 (still am) and was doing a lot of portraits inspired by them. So I lit the helmet like I was lighting faces at the time, with hard light and flags. The Huskers were going to unveil this helmet against Northwestern, whose colors are purple, so I tried to put a purple-ish light on the front of the helmet to signify the upcoming game. The red light is for Nebraska, since there isn’t a lot of red on this helmet I decided to add some. Nebraska was off to one of its worst starts in history so I wanted to keep the overall image dark and ominous. The key light on the N of the helmet is a bare strobe, flagged to create the pattern you see and only highlight the N, while keeping the rest of the helmet black, as it was a matte black helmet. It was kind of fun playing around with this helmet and I’m thankful to Ken Jarecke and Hail Varsity Magazine for the opportunity. www.portraits.paulbellinger.com

BILLINGS MONTANA FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER – BEAUTY HEADSHOT

I promised on Instagram that I would show the color version of this photo on the blog so everyone can see Arley’s stunning blue eyes. She is really a Montana treasure, and such a joy to be around and work with. I can’t wait to work with her again soon on a fashion shoot that we are planning now. Thank you to Sydney Ross for hair, makeup and styling, as always, you are the best. We’re definitely trying to raise the bar for fashion photography in Montana. It’s not just flannel and cowboy boots in a field of grass. We’re inspired by the amazing fashion photography that is happening around the world right now, and we want to show that we can make high quality work in Billings Montana, or anywhere else in the world. Check back to for updates in early 2016! www.portraits.paulbellinger.com

Tips for photographers: This is one of my favorite window light setups. It’s a go to lighting technique to start the day with because it’s easy, starting with natural light always get’s your model relaxed, and this soft lighting is great for beauty shots, which you want to get out of the way right when the model comes out of hair and makeup. Arley is standing just in front of a large window, with a piece of white diffusion cloth over it. I am standing a few feet in front of her, and Sydney is holding a white styrofoam reflector in between Arley and I that you can clearly see in the catchlight in the bottom of her eye. Behind me is a pair of 4x8 foot white reflectors creating a beautiful soft fill light that is flattering for all skin types. I made this picture with the Sony A7 and Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 at f/2.8.

MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER – KALLI AND BRIDGER’S FAIRTYTALE WEDDING IN BILLINGS MONTANA

Kalli and Bridger’s big day went off like a fairytale complete with prince charming, a princess and a castle. It was a big wedding at St. Thomas and featured some of the best wedding vendors in the state of Montana under the helm of coordinator Patricia Clark. But like most fairytales, at the center of this big day was something incredibly simple: a true and passionate love. I have had the honor of being able to spend a couple of weeks with Kalli and Bridger, and I find their young love and positive outlook on life to be so refreshing and so simple. They’re in love and nothing is going to stop them! Thank you Kalli, Bridger and all of their family and friends for sharing your precious time with me!

Thank you to all of the vendors that made this amazing wedding into the fairytale that it was.

Designer/Coordinator – Patricia Clark (visit Pat’s website here for links to all vendors)

Floral – Mac’s Floral

Decorator – Moments in Time

Hair and Makeup – Sammie Semmler

Lighting – DiA Events

Wedding cake – Jayne’s Signature Sweets

Rentals – Party Time Plus

Venue – St. Thomas Catholic Church and Lonewolf Energy

Ceremony music – Stillwater Symphony

Reception band – Bucky Beaver Band

Carriage/Limo/Trolley – Total Transportation

Thank you also to my team of incredible photographers Jenna Masters, Trevan Hiersche for your hard work. For Montana wedding photographer Paul Bellinger please visit www.paulbellinger.com.

BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – NINI AND ME

This is one of my favorite portraits of my wife and myself! I am such a lucky man, Nini is definitely my better half. I am also lucky to have so many great photos of my wife and I, and many of them are printed so that we will always have them. This is one that we are definitely going to print. It was taken at the Comedy BeCause event put on by the Center for Children and Families. I set up a portrait studio on location at the VIP party before the comedy show, and made portraits of the distinguished guests. Trevan Hiersche assisted me for the day and made one for us after the event was over. Thanks for all of your help, and mostly, for this photo Trevan!

This was a really cool event and making portraits on location was a fun way to give back to the VIP guests who helped make the show possible. I don’t think most people were used to seeing an actual portrait studio on location and the portraits turned out amazing. I’ve been doing this kind of VIP portrait studio on location a few times recently and it has really been a big hit with guests.

Tips for photographers:

This photo is lit with two large softboxes stacked on top of each other to the camera left and in front of the beautiful couple about 5 or 6 feet. There is a large 4x8 foot reflector camera right, also about 5 or 6 feet in front of the lovely couple that is isn’t really doing much in this photo. It is giving a very small amount of fill light on the shadow side of the faces. I’ve used this lighting technique before, click here for more information. On a non-lighting note, it was really crazy shooting a bunch of portraits on location at an on going event. This was not my first time doing this kind of studio on location, but it was the most busy and tightly packed event that I’ve done it at. Time and space were very limited. I had to keep it small and simple and having Trevan assisting me helped a lot too. I highly recommend trying this at some smaller events before attempting it at a big event. We pulled it off because we had a good team with my wife Nini helping out too, but it was not easy.

Billings Montana portrait photographer Paul Bellinger specializes in modern, stylish portraits classic tradition of the great masters of portrait photography. Please visit www.portraits.paulbellinger.com to schedule your sitting.

BILLINGS MONTANA PHOTOGRAPHER – BILLINGS FOR BILLINGS’ SAKE

I love Billings Montana. No it’s not my hometown, which will always be Omaha Nebraska, but Billings is my home now, and I couldn’t be more grateful to live in this beautiful place.  Billings doesn’t get enough credit.  It’s often overlooked as merely a place to fly into, or gear up before heading off to Western Montana where all of the mountains and beautiful national parks and forests are located. Even the city slogan “Montana’s Trailhead” implies that Billings is just a convenient starting point and not the final destination.  Granted, few places on earth can stand out from the long shadows cast by Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, and being relatively close to those places is what attracted my wife and I to Billings in the first place. But Billings is it’s own place, and has it’s own charm that goes beyond it’s proximity to beautiful places. 

Billings the biggest city in Montana and it’s the only city in Montana that really feels like a city and not a college town or resort community. It actually has a city culture, complete with all the hustle and bustle that Montana can offer. It has a real downtown, where business goes down, and not just shopping like some of the more touristy downtowns of Montana. It’s a beer town.  Downtown Billings has 6 micro-breweries and two distilleries, with more popping up across the city.  There is a great food culture to go with all of our beer too, with everything from artisan fine dining, to street food, and a massive seasonal farmer’s market.  There are several ethnic restaurants, including Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Thai and Montana’s only Indian restaurant.

Beyond food and commerce, the natural geography of Billings is quite pretty too.  In this photo you can see downtown Billings and the Yellowstone river valley behind it, followed by the Pryor Mountains even further in the distance.  To the West we have a view of the Beartooth Mountains, while the North and East are encircled by the cliffs of the Billings Rims.  The weather is mild, sitting in a bowl that borders on arid prairie and badlands to the East and the Rocky Mountains on the West, we’re sheltered from the extremes.  For all of these reasons and more, it’s no wonder that the population of Billings is growing fast, attracting over twice as many newcomers per year than any other city in Montana.  I was sold on Billings right away just because of the proximity to the Beartooth Mountains, Yellowstone, Glacier, and all of the mountain wilderness of the West.  But the city of Billings has grown on me too and I don’t think there’s any other place I’d rather live in Montana.  www.paulbellinger.com

BILLINGS MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER - CIRCLED IN LIGHT

Julie and Carsen made their fantasy engagement session come true!  It was an airy, sun filled, bohemian dreamlike fantasy.  They came all the way to the country for a sunset.  They had props, including a bohemian tent and a book to read in the sun.  Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate and it was 95 degrees with insane humidity in the jungle of East Texas, but Julie and Carsen toughed it out and we made their fantasy come true anyway!

MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY - VINTAGE BUG LOVE

Justin is a bug man, right down to his cuff links!  Lindsey puts up with him and let us do a mini photoshoot with the bug.  It was a nice change of pace from the winery, but boy it was so hot!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! - BILLINGS MONTANA WEDDING AND PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

It's July 4th and I'm on vacation back in Omaha Nebraska hanging with my awesome family for the holiday.  Last year Nini and I were sitting on the dock of the bay watching the fireworks with my family in Bayview Texas.  We made the trip from Columbia Missouri down to Texas to find a place to live in Nacogdoches Texas, where we were hired at Stephen F. Austin State University.  One year later and I'm in Omaha while Nini stays at home with our injured and recovering pup Sala.  I'll be in Omaha for a few days before heading up to Billings Montana to once again find a place to live!  We're moving to Billings Montana and plan to stay for a long long time.  I've always wanted to live in Montana, my favorite place for summer adventures ever since I was a young kid standing in awe of Glacier National Park.  So when Nini got an offer at Montana State University Billings, we jumped.  And I jumped at the opportunity to leave academia behind to follow my passion as a fine art wedding and portrait photographer.  Now we couldn't be more excited to be moving in just a few weeks, and Paul Bellinger Montana wedding photographer is about to hit the ground running!

OUR WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN - BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Well this is a sad story, but it’s yet another that reaffirms the power of photography for me.  I’ll start at the end and let you know that Sala (our nine month old crazy mixed breed dog) is okay.  He’s going into surgery this morning to repair a broken leg and should make a complete recovery within 6 to 8 weeks.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Dad on the banks of the Missouri overlooking our hometown Omaha Nebraska!  It was probably 0 degrees fahrenheit plus a cool breeze coming off the river.  Hence dad's snow suit!   Happy father's day dad!  I can't wait to shoot some landscapes together again soon!

My stepdad Bruce posing with my beautiful wife Nini in front of Bruce's huge smoker at our Husker tailgate party!  We had the smoker up and running before sunrise!  I wish father's day was during Husker season, so we could celebrate appropriately.  Happy father's day Brucey!


Paul Bellinger Montana wedding photographer Billings Montana wedding photography www.paulbellinger.com

PAUL BELLINGER MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER, BILLINGS MONTANA

It's time for this blog to take off like Sala leaping for the Frisbee!  My new Montana wedding photography business is launching and I can't wait to get to Montana and start photographing weddings!  I specialize in fine art wedding photography a perfect fit for nature's fine art landscape in Montana.  My unique wedding artwork is dramatic, romantic, fantastical and dream like.  Visit my site www.paulbellinger.com to begin making your Montana wedding dreams into artwork that will be cherished for generations.

This is our youngest pup, Sala is just about a year old.  He's our favorite part of Texas we'll be taking with us when we move to Montana.  His breed is a crazy mix, but he is ripped to the bone!  Mr. Muscles has been learning to catch the frisbee and, birds be warned, he can fly!