the journal
The Badlands have a way of pulling people in. Faith and Tyler traveled all this way for a couples session in Badlands National Park. It’s quiet in a way that feels different than other places. Wide open. A little raw. Like there’s space for you to actually feel what’s happening while you’re in it. For […]
Senior guys don’t usually wake up thinking, “I can’t wait for my photo session.” I get it. Cooper’s senior photos took place over two weekends — one in the dramatic landscape of Badlands National Park and one along Spring Creek Trail near Rapid City in the Black Hills. Two totally different backdrops. Two different energies. […]
Some wedding days feel like a celebration that’s been waiting to happen for a long time.Colten and Alyssa’s wedding at Diamond Spur Events Center felt exactly like that—full of warmth, deep joy, and the kind of love that shows up in laughter just as much as it does in quiet glances. Set just outside Rapid […]
And where I am hoping you will come along too. Lately, I’ve been feeling a shift. Not a dramatic pivot. Not a rebrand with confetti and declarations.More like a gentle but insistent tug, one that keeps showing up in the quiet moments when I’m editing, or watching my own kids move through an ordinary evening, […]
I'm Michaela mader Tully
The Michaela you'll find making beautiful images of your family.
I’m a storytelling photographer based in the Black Hills of South Dakota, specializing in family connections, intimate weddings, and elopements.
My style? Think warm evening light, authentic moments, and a dash of Mary Oliver poetry—because life’s best stories are a little wild, a little soft, and always real.
When I’m not behind the camera, I’m probably chasing my kids, hiking trails that smell of Ponderosa pine, or sipping coffee that’s gone lukewarm because, well, #momlife.
