March 10, 2023

Ammie & Blake’s Courthouse Ceremony and Glacier National Park Portraits

My friend Katie with An Epic Elopement texted me one evening as she and her husband were having dinner with one of her neighbors to see if I was interested and available for a weekday portrait session with them. They were going to be getting married at the courthouse soon and were hoping for some portraits at the courthouse, and then 'somewhere epic' later on.

Well, it doesn't get much more epic than Glacier National Park in this neck of the woods, even if it is winter and there are low clouds everywhere. We left the sunny, blue skies of downtown Kalispell to the completely socked-in winter setting of Lake McDonald and took advantage of all the beauty it has to offer.

February 17, 2023

Glacier National Park Honeymoon Portraits, Morgan & Eric

Morgan & Eric visited Montana for their honeymoon after their Florida wedding. Going from one corner of the contiguous United States to virtually the opposite corner. Trading beaches for mountains and sun and warmth for winter.

They were absolute champs though, and Morgan fully embraced the winter setting by pelting Eric with snowballs—with a little bit of warning at least—to close out the session. Because if your winter portraits don't break out in a snowball fight, did they ever happen?

October 28, 2022

West Glacier National Park Engagement Portraits, Morgan & Bryan

It's always a great idea, if the schedule works out, to do an engagement session with your photographer prior to the wedding day. For one, it insures that you've got a good rapport with them ahead of time. There's nothing better than when I roll up to a wedding day and the couple are already "old friends."

Morgan & Bryan have grown up visiting Whitefish with their families and thus are here often so it made sense to meet up for a portrait session. I loved meeting their dog Bruno—we always talk about Bruno—and wrapping up the session at the Bulldog in downtown Whitefish. I can't wait for their summer wedding at Snowline Acres this year.

October 12, 2022

Whitefish Portrait Photographer, City Beach, and Riverside Park

This Fall we have been blessed with the most absurdly nice weather. Normally by early October, we'd be expecting much cooler temps but we've been enjoying highs in the upper 60s. Maybe not the best thing in the grand scheme of everything, but it sure is awesome for portrait sessions. Jena booked a simple one-hour portrait session before dinner while they were visiting the Flathead Valley, so we hit up Whitefish City Beach and Riverside Park, two of my favorite locations right here in Whitefish.

October 10, 2022

Tanner’s Surprise Glacier National Park Proposal

Shout out to Tanner for all of the pre-planning on this one. Way back in June, he contacted me after booking a private tour with Whitefish Outfitters for October. Over the coming months, we touched base periodically to make sure nothing had changed, and I liaised with Whitefish Outfitters directly to be sure we were synced up on the timing when they would be arriving at Lake McDonald.

As you can see from the photos, everything worked out great, and she did in fact say yes.

October 5, 2022

Lauren & Spencer’s Glacier National Park Adventure Portrait Session

When Lauren and I first touched base they still had not nailed down all of their wedding plans. They were either going to get married here in Whitefish, or in Northern California. What they were certain about was wanting portraits in their wedding attire, in Glacier National Park. I was more than happy to oblige.

September 15, 2022

Glacier National Park Couples Portraits, Alison & Dylan

What's better than a perfect fall night, Glacier National Park, a lovely couple, and wrapping up with some Ice Cream at Eddie's afterward? Not a whole lot when it comes to a portrait session it would seem.

August 5, 2022

Glacier National Park Adventure Portrait Session, Paige & Chris

This was one of my favorite days all summer, even though it was very much my longest day of work. My previous post featured Natalia & Ben's sunrise Glacier National Park portrait session. Well, that very same day I got to hang out with Paige & Chris again for their adventure session. It truly was a day that cemented in my head why I love doing what I do. The weather was perfect and we simply took our time meandering our way through the park and stopping when the opportunity presented itself. Prior to that, we did stop just outside the park to take some photos with their dog who was unable to attend their wedding day. That way he could be let off leash briefly which is generally frowned upon when inside the park, and explicitly denied on trails.

Paige & Chris once again proved themselves to be more kind than I could've imagined, and I can't wait for our paths to cross again.

August 1, 2022

Glacier National Park Sunrise Adventure Portrait Session, Natalia & Ben

Northwest Montana is an almost unbelievably beautiful place, and Glacier National Park is a perfect illustration of that. And sunrise pretty much anywhere usually provides really great light for photography. That said, in this part of the world devotion to that morning light comes at a cost. The cost of waking up very, very early in order to arrive at your destination for said light. It's bad enough living in Whitefish and traveling to the Western entrance to the park, but it's even worse when you live about halfway down the Western edge of Flathead Lake like Natalia & Ben do.

They had to get up and on the road a solid two hours before I did in order to make it to our session on time but I'm so thankful that they made the effort and were good sports about it all.

June 22, 2022

Glacier National Park Maternity Photographer, The Dittmans

The Dittmans had quite the adventure in order to arrive at their portrait session on time. First, their flight was delayed coming into Missoula, so they arrived a day later than expected, arriving the afternoon of our scheduled session. Along with that flight delay, their luggage somehow managed to not arrive with them, so they had no clothes for the session (though a quick trip to Target on the way to the Flathead Valley made up for that.) Finally, it was the week of historic flooding throughout Montana, making some areas impossible to get to for several days and even weeks, though thankfully that did not impact their drive. I met them at Lake McDonald Lodge, which is where they were staying for the first part of their trip, and they literally arrived 15 minutes before our session. Thankfully, that was just enough time to get settled and we had a delightful evening ahead of us as we documented this time before they moved from a couple to a family of three.

Prints & Canvas

Matt Wetzler is an editorial, motorsport, portrait, and destination wedding photographer based in Whitefish, Montana.

Copyright ©Matthew Wetzler 2008–2023