J. Willis Photography

Hi! My name is Jessica, and thank you for stopping by! I was born and raised right here in Missoula. Of course in those teenage years, I was ready to pack up and move to wherever life took me, or realistically...wherever I ran out of money and gas. As I grew older, I learned to appreciate how close my family is and Missoula a bit more, so this is where I stay. I am a graduate of Sentinel High School and attended the Rocky Mountain School of Photography shortly after that. (2002 SI Graduate) I have that loving family that is very present in my life, I mean...like....very present. You cant go a day without some calling or texting telling each other about the latest in the family news. Trust me, I get updated all the time. :) I guess you can say we are a very closely knit family, that lean on each other on hard times, and celebrate with laughter, food on the good times. We are the family at gatherings, that tries to talk over each other because we have a funny moment that needs to be shared right NOW and not a second later. There is a lot of love but also, disagreements...I mean, we are only human, right? Growing up, I had a pretty "normal" childhood. Riding my bike in the streets with no helmet or pads of any kind, riding with no hands, even down a hill. My best friend had a banana seat bike and I had a pear seat bike....I always wanted a banana seat...lucky girl. Feeding the horses that lived down the street, spending my summers swimming the man made lake in Lolo, Mt, riding my pear seat bike in the little BMX track that we had in the field in the back yard. I also remember practicing my stellar dance moves I was taught in dance class..cause practice makes perfect you know. In the winter, it was ice skating on that same lake, sledding down the huge hill that was our yard, making snow men and snow angels. Everything about my life was normal, graduate High School, learn who you are as a young adult, maybe meet a nice young man somewhere in your 20's get married, buy a home, etc and so forth. Which is what I personally did. I met my husband at 23. I was working in a local hotel as the front desk clerk. He was our Sysco driver. I never really was interested cause I thought maybe his jokes were dumb? Trust me....they were. The more I worked that shift, the more I thought he was cute. I know that probably "fishing off the company deck" was forbidden but maybe if I ran across him somewhere else, then it would be different. Little did I know, that going to church with my friend for the first time in ages, would change my life. Troy was there....so without skipping a beat he saw me, walked up to me, we started a conversation. He invited me to sit with him, and after the service he exchanged numbers. Now I know the "three day rule" and all about not calling someone and all but, I was so eager and so ready. I felt in my heart that this wasn't just a conscience. So, I called him...we talked and talked and talked, I found out we had the same birthdays, he was 9 yrs older than me...(what?! I though he was 25-28!!!) and we planned our first date to be the Circus. We were married in 2007 and the Kings Ranch Golf Course in Frenchtown, Mt. June 16, 2007. One of my favorite days thus far in my life. I got to finally wear my beautiful dress, and get married so the one and only man that made my heart sing. We bought a house a month later. Two dogs and a cat later, we still fell into that "normal" wedding bliss. We loved riding our motorcycles together, taking trips. We rode our bikes to Sturgis in 2009. That was such a neat trip. So many things to experience there and enjoy! Everyone should go!( its really not trashy like the stigma around it. ) I don't know if you have caught on to me talking about Troy in past tense? Troy unfortunately lost his life in a motorcycle accident in July of 2012. I was with him that day, on my own bike. We decided to take an all day trip into Idaho with my dad and a mutual friend. Troy has always supported me getting into my own business. Doing what I love. He allowed me to leave my full time job, he basically supported us with his pay wage. He was so proud of me and would always pass my cards out to his Sysco stops. He always made me laugh. Through that big grieving period I questioned if I even wanted to be a photographer anymore, my biggest support system (besides my family) was gone. As I thought more heavily about it, I pursued more and I pushed more. Not only did my life change but my career changed as well. My images became better, more of what I wanted my style to become. Poses became clearer, and I found a new love in photography. Photography became more IMPORTANT to me, because a photograph is a moment stopped in time. A memory now, for a lifetime. I cherish all the photos of Troy and I, because now, that's all that I have. We are only here for a short time, and I love being a part of someone's memories. The next moment we may blink, they will be gone, but those photographs will still be t