June Lion

Our family has used Kelly and June Lion photography for 3 occasions (Engagement, Wedding and Family Photos) and have referred her to a friend for a Maternity shoot. She is creative, whimsical, talented and hard working. We did not want the basic photographer shoots that some of my facebook friends get that make me cringe when they are posted. We wanted a unique perspective and eye. She captured intimate candid moments as well as was very creative with her use of light. She was also easy to work with. One thing you may not know, she has been a wedding photography business for a long time. She previously worked for a wedding photography company where she had time to practice and hone her craft on countless events. After she went off on her own some time ago, she was able to evolve her style into what you see today. It’s kind of like that Picasso quote: «Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.» We look forward to working with her again! Check @seewhyzhang on ig for some of our wedding photos.

Kelly is not only an amazing photographer, she is also a lovely person to work with. We fell in love with her work because of her raw photojournalistic style in capturing people in their natural state. We hired Kelly for our engagement session, wedding day, and a family portrait session in April. She has such an eye for detail and for capturing fleeting precious moments that would otherwise go unnoticed. She was very professional and responsive throughout our communication and is flexible on dates and finicky Portland spring weather. Go check out her Instagram! We highly recommend her to anyone (and already have!).

Kelly shot a family session for us and we couldn’t be more pleased! She put us at ease, she was laid back, and gave us a beautiful set of photos to remember this time in our lives as a young family. Trustworthy of your time and resources, I recommend her highly!

We hired Kelly aka JuneLion for our engagement & wedding photos now, gulp… three years ago. My husband & I immediately felt comfortable with her warm, benevolent, non-​judgmental presence. Despite the anxious, bubbly energy often felt during weddings; JuneLion made us feel at ease-​which allowed her to capture some of the most candid and authentic images that I cherish to the extent of which brings me to tears of joy and gratitude. JuneLion is more than a talented photographer but also a true artist, capturing the often intimate, felt sense of experiences. Since our wedding, we have hired her for our maternity and newborn photos. We are full of gratitude to have crossed paths with such a local gem. Hire her and you will not be disappointed. She truly captures the real you, allowing you to bare witness to your own, unique, perfect beauty.

Choosing the right wedding photographer is one of the most important decisions you’ll make when planning your wedding. Lucky for us, we decided to go with June Lion Photography.
Kelly is absolutely amazing! From day one she was warm & welcoming, easy to work with, flexible, and always quick with replies to our correspondence. Upon our first meeting & planning session we knew immediately that we’d made the right choice.
We had a small, intimate wedding in the gorge and Kelly & her assistant did an unbelievable job at capturing all the magic of the day. She’s always willing to go the extra mile to get that perfect shot — jumping in a wet canoe with us to catch the sunset on the lake, doing funny dances to get the groomsmen laughing, or instigating a dance party to ensure we had photographs of guests in full party mode — this lady does it all!
If you’re looking for a photographer, look no further. Weddings, babies, engagements, boudoir… Kelly has you covered. Book June Lion and you won’t be disappointed. The only difficult thing about working with Kelly is that she is so talented & able to capture so many unbelievable shots, when you get your photos it’s nearly impossible to pick just a few favorites to order prints of. :)
Thank you, Kelly!

We hired Kelly to shoot our wedding and an engagement session last year. The photos came out brilliantly and we couldn’t have been happier. Her and her assistant photographer did a wonderful job capturing the events in the moment, giving all the photos a relaxed feeling without any over-​posed stuffiness. She often managed to capture the complete personalities of our guests and ourselves in a single photo.
Leading up to both the engagement session and big day Kelly was super easy to work with. Always very responsive and full of great ideas that were a huge help to two camera awkward people!
We couldn’t have asked for more and would highly recommend Kelly as a photographer for any occasion.

Love, love, love June Lion! Kelly is truly talented, and we are so happy we stumbled upon her on our search for the perfect photographer. Kelly and her assistant are friendly, professional, and so fun to work with. I’m not always comfortable in front of a camera, but she totally put me at ease and made the whole process fun. The portraits turned out beautifully (she somehow took a very un-​photogenic girl and made her look amazing), and the candids perfectly captured how much fun everyone had that night. I cannot recommend June Lion highly enough!

We interviewed with 8 photographers for our wedding and weren’t sold on anyone until we met Kelly. We met her at a picnic table outside a coffeeshop and she splayed out these amazing handmade photobooks with all these beautiful photos with people in them that were way too handsome to be us. We just stared in jealousy as we flipped through the pages of fabulousness, dreaming that we could look so good on our wedding day. Like who are these people who make a posed picnic look like a dreamland running through the meadow and giggling in the trees?
Little did we know, she would make us look even better! She kicked ass at our oversized wedding and took photos of us that blew us away. We got married in December in the freezing cold and even when I was bawling my eyes out after a brief flash of what some might call bridezilla, but bridezilla is really just hanger after not eating all day. But man. This lady whizzed all through our crazy, stressful wedding and charmed away the hearts of anybody that she came across.
I mean, really, we should’ve known how amazing she was when she gave us a fancy brown folder with all her pricing and packaging goodies inside, and then again, after we booked and she sent us our contract back along with a handwritten thank you card on cool stationary that made me write her an e-​mail just to tell her how sold we were on her. And then again, when we picked up our photos and she went above and beyond what we paid for.
Just wait.
You’ll be seeing it soon if you make the right decision. It’s got strings and fancy, papery, delightfulness all over it.
But the real amazement comes when you flip through your photos and remember all the best moments, and wonder when the hell you became so attractive.
Seriously. She is worth every penny.

Kelly was great! She was incredibly communicative through the whole process and answered all my questions right away. I was very nervous about having our photos taken, as I tend to get awkward, but she was approachable and put us at ease. She had a lot of great ideas of where to take pictures. I think if we had wanted to, she would have loved to do something really dramatic and crazy! Our pictures turned out fantastic, and she sent them in a really cute package. It was obvious that she was excited about making the whole photography part of the wedding a great experience, and she didn’t skimp even though we had a very small weekday wedding.

Kelly and her teammate Beth were SO fantastic to work with. They shot our wedding weekend over two days and were completely flexible with our non-​traditional wedding schedule. Their photos — both the candids and the set-​ups — are beautiful, and most importantly, feel like US. They were fun to have at the various events, but never felt overbearing… the perfect balance of fun friend to have at your wedding and professional photographer blending into the trees. Kelly delivered our gorgeous photos faster than we even thought possible — which was a lovely surprise to have when we got back from our honeymoon! Working with June Lion is easy and fun and relaxed.

We had Kelly shoot our wedding a couple weeks ago and she was fantastic to work with and super professional. She did a great job getting all the shots we wanted and took way more great photos we never would have thought of.
She did a great job getting portraits as well as catching great private moments. Not only is the quality of the photos great, but we also got a LOT of them. She made the most of our time and now we’re pretty pumped at all the great photos we’ll have in the future. It really felt like she went the extra mile for us and we both appreciate it.
Would recommend.

My husband and I hired Kelly to photograph our destination wedding at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport, OR. It wasn’t easy making arrangements from out of state, but Kelly was so wonderful to work with. She was timely to respond to our emails and even took the time to Skype with us so we could better communicate our wants and needs. After arriving in Portland she was sweet enough to met with us, in person, so we could discuss last minute arrangements and make a final game plan. The day of the wedding was perfect– Kelly and her team were prompt, prepared and didn’t waste a minute getting started. She was able to get so many beautiful shots in the time we had her, and she even made time to get some «woodsy» photo op’s (per our request). The thing we love the most, however, is that we can look through our photos now, several months later, and experience the same emotions we did the day of our nuptial. She captures more in a photo than just people and places; her photos are a reflection of the thoughts, feelings and honesty of that moment, on film.
She is, at the least, amazing and we rave about her and her work to everyone we know. Do yourself a favor and hire her already!
xoxo

I did a boudoir shoot with Kelly prior to my wedding. The experience was truly wonderful in every way and exceed all of my expectations– Kelly is incredibly professional and organized (we had the edited prints in less than 1 week!) as well as hilarious and incredibly easy to work with. We were both a little nervous but Kelly had wonderful ideas and made me feel at ease the entire time. Without a doubt, working with Kelly was worth every penny and I would recommend her to anyone interested in family portraits, wedding photography, or boudoir.
Kelly was also amazingly game for anything and got up super early to do an outdoor boudoir shoot (then handled every curve ball we encountered.) She also suggested (and provided) some wonderful additions/​props for the shoot. Finally, this girl knows her way around a camera. The pictures are stunning, diverse, and I’m sure I’ll have them forever. Thank you June Lion!

Photos have the magical ability to recall the sights, sounds, smells, and emotions of a moment. And they can transport you, even if you were never there in the first place, which was super important to us since many of our friends and family members were not able to join us for our wedding day. Kelly was a dream to work with! We wanted to be able to relive the laughter, the heat (it was over 95 degrees in Hood River and Mt. Hood was on fire!), the music, the loving hugs from all our friends and family, the smells of the food and the flowers, the tears that were gingerly wiped from the corners of eyes during our vows and the toasts, the unique setting where we chose to get married, and the people who joined us to make it an amazing day. Kelly understood our vision and she made it a reality. She heard our request to avoid boring, traditional posed pictures, so even our family photos come alive with the personalities of the people in them. Her work is real and makes you feel like you are a part of the day’s activities, even if you were never actually there. At least that’s what our friends and family who couldn’t attend tell us. They were so grateful that we had such wonderful photos to share and we were so grateful to be able to share them! Fast forward a couple of years and we welcomed Kelly into our home to do a family photo shoot with our 9-​month old baby girl. She documented this chapter in our life with a tender, fun-​loving, and creative eye. We are so happy to have such beautiful shots of our little family and she really brought out the best in all of us. I love looking at the sweet moments I share every day with my daughter, but never get to see (like nuzzling her cheeks and making her giggle) and I get teary looking at the photos of my husband playing guitar to his daughter and tossing her above his head to make her thrill with laughter. Babies grow into toddlers, who grow into big kids, who grow into teens, and before you know it they’re heading out the door on their own. Even at 9-​months it feels like life is moving at the speed of light! We are so happy that Kelly photographed us as we are at this moment is our lives. The photos she has taken of our family, both at our wedding and of our little family, bring sweet smiles to our faces every time we look at them. What more can you ask for?

You don’t have to look any further. You’ve found your photographer.
Kelly has an eye for all the things you don’t see. She’s a photographic ninja. Nabbing intimate moments and disappearing before anyone has a chance to put on their cheesy «smile» faces.
Leading up to the wedding I warned her that when I’m laughing really hard I make a horrible horse face. And when I cry (and there was a looooooot of that) it can be even worse. I told her «I’m not too self conscious about it so just do the best you can» but somehow she managed to make my horrible faces seem emotional and sweet and wonderful.
It’s easy to look at all the wedding photos of attractive, stylish, slender couples and think «well, of course THEIR photos look good but I’m chubby and I sweat a lot when I get excited and I make those horrible horse faces when I laugh really hard.» You don’t have to worry about that with her. Nothing phases Kelly. She rolls with the punches, experiments and explores, she’s passionate about documenting your day and making you look as awesome as you are.
Don’t think she won’t make you work for it though. She’s been doing this a long time and while you’re walking around in a daze of bliss and conversations and hugs and attention she’s keeping her eye on the clock to make sure you stay on schedule. You’ll be so tired you’ll want to say, «meh, fuck the portraits I’m feeling overwhelmed and just want to sit here.» but she won’t let you because she knows, after a good night’s sleep you’ll be kicking yourselves for the next 50 years for not taking 10 minutes to do them. And then you’ll see the photos and how amazing you look and you’ll know without a doubt that it was worth every penny 10 times over!

I can’t say enough nice/​awesome things about Kelly of June Lion! She was so amazing throughout the entire process — communicating well and flexible with all our needs. On the day of, she didn’t stop moving and captured every moment beautifully in an extremely unobtrusive way. Many of our guests mentioned how impressed they were with the stealthiness of our photographers. I could not have imagined a more gorgeous/​fun set of wedding photos. She beautifully captured our day and was such a pleasure to work with. I can’t recommend her enough!

Kelly has the golden touch. There’s just something magical that Kelly of June Lion is able to add simply by clicking her camera. An absolute professional, she has such a natural feel and passion for photography that shines through each and every one of our photos. Not only are my wife and I blown away and immensely please with our wedding photos, we’re in awe of all the other photos from her other shoots.
You can’t go wrong with June Lion.

Wow! Seriously. Just wow.
I’ll start by saying I’m not photogenic. Spare me the «yes you are» stuff and let’s be real, it’s rare I take a good picture or at least one my scrutinizing eye can be happy with. My husband is like-​wise photo challenged, love the guy but this is some real talk. I’ll fast forward a bit and let you know that we had to re-​shoot our Engagement session for this very reason. None of this was due to Kelly, it was strictly due to all the weird faces and strange postures we insisting on making. Now Kelly knew what to look for and prompted us which was just what we needed. So we did a re-​shot ! With that little speed hump behind us we soared on to what is now our amazing engagement session and wedding photos.
June Lion, and more specifically Kelly Wilde, is it. One of the comments I most received post wedding (after how gorgeous I am, duh) was how impressed they were with the photographers. Kelly is like a ninja, there is no obstacle to large to climb atop or to low to crouch under that will stop her from getting the perfect shot. They captured every moment — my wedding could be a flip book!
I love Kellys style which is very modern and artsy. Like a real live Instagram she uses different lenses, and even double exposure, to turn out some amazing and timeless photos far beyond the scope of that app I assure you. In our package we also added a Photo Booth which her assistant manned. She brought chalkboards and all types of props so it worked out to be a guest book of sort which was a nice touch.
Another thing I feel is worth mentioning is Kelly herself. She is so so kind and fun. This wasn’t specifically something I was thinking when I hired a photographer but I’m so happy it worked out this way. She was with me the whole day from getting ready to going back to the house. You want someone with you who you feel comfortable around. Even more so — she made me smile — genuine teethie smiles because she was so fun. That’s who you want as your shadow on your big day, not some stick in the mud or someone with no personality. You choose the guest list, why invite someone to your big day who isn’t as wonderful as everyone else there.
Still on the fence? Check out our photo blog she created with pictures from our wedding, she is magical.
. We were even approached to be featured on a major wedding blog. Now, my wedding wasn’t that ground breaking I strongly believe that this is all due to how beautifully it was captured. See for yourself. I would recommend her for any occasion in need of an extremely talented photographer.

I have only seen a fraction of our wedding pictures and they are off-​the-​chart awesome! Kelly and another photographer just did our wedding in Benton City, WA at our friend’s winery.
Her way of taking pictures and capturing the essence of an event are second to none.
I can’t wait to see the balance of our pictures!

Kelly is an amazing photographer! I knew I’d like her right away by the e-​mail she sent me. It really made me know who she was. She recommended venues, which one she recommended is the one we used (we wouldn’t have found it otherwise and it was amazing!). She is very fun and really listens to what you want. So many people complimented on her work, even my best friend and maid of honor who is a photographer and very picky. I would recommend her for every style of wedding (though ours was classic vintage and that’s what she loves, I’ve seen her do other styles just as great!). You won’t go wrong with Kelly:)