https://www.MOTphotography.com/

MOT Photography, 19671 Hollygrape Street, Bend, OR (2026)

07/07/2026

I was already laughing before they even started running. Then they actually did it and I totally lost it! 😜

Let’s be real: I started laughing before Gretchen and Darren even took their first step. They told me about a silly run they do together and thought it’d be fun to photograph. I had no clue what it would look like. I locked in my settings, chose an angle, hoped all would turn out well, and I was standing there in the woods trying to hold it together long enough to actually press the shutter button. Then they went for it and whatever composure I had left was so far gone.

Here’s the thing about a silly run through the woods during an engagement session. It is completely dorky, and that’s ok! Life shouldn’t be taken too seriously. The couples who commit to having fun and quit caring about looking perfect and instead just full-send into making memories, those are always the couples who end up with memories that actually look like them. Gretchen and Darren committed so hard I genuinely could not breathe.

What followed was one of the best engagement sessions I’ve had all year. Once you have sprinted through a forest together looking completely ridiculous and laughing until it hurts, every photo after that just flows. The walls come down, the stiffness disappears, and what you are left with is two people who are genuinely crazy about each other and not even a little bit afraid to show it. That is the good stuff toght there!

Gretchen and Darren, you two are so fun and so perfectly yourselves and I had an absolute blast with ya! Next up… your wedding! 🙌🏻

If you want an engagement session where you actually get to be yourselves and have a ridiculous amount of fun along the way, link in bio and let’s talk about making that happen.

07/06/2026

and may have looked at me like I was insane. Then they fully committed and went for it! 😂🤘

Here is what I told Noelle and Emily right before this happened: we are going to do some silly shots, you have a 20-foot radius, and Emily you are it. I said it fast on purpose because if you give people too much time to think about it they start to overthink it, and overthinking is the enemy of every great photo ever taken.

They looked at each other for about half a second and then just went for it. Full send! Emily took off after Noelle through the meadow grass right as the sun was hitting that perfect low angle where everything turns gold and soft and absolutely gorgeous, and I was standing there firing off frames as fast as my camera would let me… laughing just as hard as they were. This is genuinely my favorite part of the job: having fun!

The thing about couples who come into a session ready to have a good time is that they stop performing for the camera almost immediately. They forget I am there. They start reacting to each other instead of to me, and that is when I get the shots that actually mean something. Tag in a mountain meadow at golden hour with two people who are wildly in love and completely willing to look ridiculous for the sake of a good time? I could shoot that every single day.

Noelle and Emily showed up ready to laugh and they delivered. Every single frame from this session is exactly what engagement photos should feel like.

If you want an engagement session that actually feels like you and not like a Pinterest board you found three years ago, link in bio and let’s make something bad ass together.

07/01/2026

A soldier, his girlfriend’s best friend, and one codeword. This is how the perfect proposal gets pulled off!!!!

This one started with a phone call from Lauren. She was on a mission to help her best friend’s boyfriend pull off something Saylor would never see coming, and she needed a photographer who could make the whole thing work without raising a single red flag. That photographer was me. 👋

Matt is in the military and his time was extremely limited, but we carved out a web call a few weeks before the proposal date and talked through every detail. Location, timing, weather, the whole plan. Lauren’s role was to sell it completely. She told Saylor they were doing a celebratory girlfriends shoot, just the two of them, a fun excuse to get dressed up and take some photos together.

On the day of, I met Matt near the proposal spot before any of this started. We walked the location together, locked in where he would hide, and established our codeword. When my camera settings were dialed and I was ready to capture everything, I would say “PERFECT” out loud. That was his signal to step out of the bushes.

I then met Lauren and Saylor at the trailhead like a normal session. We laughed, we walked, I took some photos along the way to keep it feeling real. When we reached the spot I had chosen, I positioned Saylor so she was facing the right way and Matt’s approach would come from completely behind her. A few seconds later I said “PERFECT.” Matt crept out of his hiding spot and moved toward her. Lauren told me later she caught his shadow in the corner of her eye as the sun was going down and felt it before she even saw him. She quietly stepped back and Matt dropped to one knee.

Saylor said yes. We spent the rest of the evening up in the mountains above Bend shooting some of the most beautiful light I’ve had all year.

If you are planning a proposal in Bend (or anywhere really) and you want someone who will treat every detail like it matters (because it does) link in bio to get started.

06/17/2026

This proposal took 5 months to plan, two scouting trips, multiple cameras, and two very convincing strangers. Worth every single second.

Austin reached out to me in January with a vision, and from that moment we spent the next five months making sure every single detail was locked in. I drove out to this waterfall two weeks before the proposal just to scout the location, filmed videos of the exact rocks Austin needed to walk to, and coached him through every step so that when the moment came, he could be fully present without thinking about anything else.

On the day of, I arrived an hour early to finish setting up multiple cameras around the falls and get into position. When Austin and Hanna hiked in, I was already blending into the background thanks to two incredible strangers ( & ) I had recruited on the spot who graciously agreed to make it look like we were all just out for a hike. Hanna walked right past me and had no idea.

Austin stepped out onto that rock without hesitation, dropped to a knee, and Hanna absolutely lost it in the best possible way. I was not far behind her. I go feral at proposals and I am not sorry about it.
This is what I do. I do not just show up with a camera. I scout locations, I build the plan, I drive the five hours, and I make sure the moment you have been dreaming about is captured from every angle possible. Austin and Hanna, thank you for trusting me with this one. It was an absolute honor.

If you are planning a proposal and you want it done right, let’s talk. The link in my bio will get you started.

06/15/2026

I locked in on Stephanie’s words like a golden retriever who just heard the word “walk.”

Stephanie and Roby were mid-portrait session at The Griffin House in Hood River when she turned to look at him and just blurted it out. “Your eyes are crazy!” And she’s not wrong because Roby’s eyes are unreal! I immediately stopped what I was doing, set them up, and made a portrait of both of their eyes side by side, and it is now one of my absolute favorite images from this entire wedding day! Yeah… I love getting this shot and I may have captured it that day, but it’s thanks to Stephanie who could not keep that thought inside her head for one more second.

This is the exact kind of stuff that makes me absolutely love what I do. Couples are handing me pure gold all day long without even realizing it, and my job is to be tuned in enough to catch it and turn it into something they’re going to want on their wall forever. The offhand comments, the little glances, the split-second reactions that happen between two people who are completely obsessed with each other… that’s the real gold I’m chasing all day long and I am never not fired up about it.

Oh, and photographing all of this with the Columbia River Gorge sitting right behind them at golden hour at ? These two were practically doing my job for me!

If you want a photographer who is going to be completely locked in on every moment of your wedding day, let’s talk. Your date might still be open.

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05/28/2026

No I will not be seeking help for this. I’m completely fine with my intrusive thoughts while “working!”

If you want someone who is absolutely feral with excitement at your proposal, hit me up.

05/21/2026

Juniper Preserve is one of those venues that does half the work for you. The high desert landscape, the sweeping views, the way the light hits in the late afternoon – it’s a photographer’s dream. But what made Carrie and Troy’s day really stand out had nothing to do with the backdrop.

These two were just flat-out fun to be around. The kind of couple that keeps you laughing between shots. I had a blast from start to finish.

If you’re eyeing Juniper Preserve for your own wedding, I’d love to be there with my cameras and energy. Days like this are exactly why I do this.

05/01/2026

No AI BS here… Every single one of these was a real moment.

A wedding day moves fast and it hits different every single time. The chaos of getting ready, the stillness right before you walk down the aisle, the laugh that sneak-attacks you mid-ceremony, the way the light falls on the two of you during golden hour when you’ve forgotten I’m even there.

Some couples want it clean and intentional. I’ll pull you somewhere with incredible light and make something beautiful on purpose. Some couples want pure candids captured. Some want both. My job is to figure out what you actually value and then go get it, all day long, without stopping. Challenge accepted!

The best wedding photos are the ones you never want to stop looking at. Let’s go get ‘em!

If you want someone locked in from the first look to the last dance, let’s talk. Your date might still be open.

04/23/2026

Tumalo Mountain at sunset is just unfair.

Emily and Mark earned every single one of these photos. That hike is no joke, and by the time you reach the summit your legs are burning and your lungs are working overtime. But then the view hits, the golden light starts doing its thing, and suddenly none of that matters anymore.
Here’s the thing about engagement sessions people don’t expect: they sign up feeling awkward and uncomfortable in front of a camera. But somewhere between the trail and the summit, something shifts. You stop thinking about the lens and start just... being with your person. My job is to stay out of the way of that and catch it when it happens.

With Emily and Mark, I was locked in from the moment we started the hike. I love this stuff. The adventure, the big views, the light that makes everything feel a little unreal. I was just as hyped at minute one as I was at the very end, and that energy is contagious.

These two made some incredible memories up there, and I’m so damn lucky I got to witness it. What a “job” I have!

If you and your person are the type to chase a summit for your engagement session, I want in. Send me a message and let’s build something worth the hike.

MOT Photography

07/07/2026

07/06/2026

07/01/2026

06/17/2026

06/15/2026

05/28/2026

05/21/2026

05/01/2026

04/23/2026

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