WENDY HURST PORTRAIT

Dylynn Beckstead, Danika Ott, Stephanie Crenshaw, Mikelle Pace, Taylor Anne Johnson (models) Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder Wayfinder Photographer Collective is this thing I do on the side with friend and colleague Ashley Gardner. Once a month we bring together a group of models of varying experience and crowdfund our shoot by inviting other photographers to join. For our last shoot of 2018 we opted for a more casual meet-up rather than a proper styled shoot, where we decorated some casual spaces with everyday glamour instead of incorporating complex props and sets. And by "casual" I mean CASUAL, like back rooms and spare office spaces and under stairways--wherever Eleve Event Center could graciously fit us. We're adaptable peeps. Fun fact: tulle fabric--that netted fabric stuff--and electricity don't like each other. Lighting the Scene The group shots were all photographed with the other photographers in the room--a small office space w...

Kirsty Stalder, Model // HMUA: Elyssa Anderson @elyssa.anderson.hair Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder Kirsty has a timeless face that I've featured in the past as a pirate on a dock and a peacock in a circus (just click the links, it's faster than explaining, wink). It seemed only fitting to place her into a scene that could have come right out of an Agatha Christie novel. Lighting the Scene This space was a little tricky. It was big enough to fit at least 50 people if they touched each other. Directly to camera left was a cream-colored metal door, and to camera right was an archway leading into a smaller space where we put up the newspaper "room" for a different editorial scene at the same event. (This one! If you've recently made a backdrop like it, you'll likely click it several times because your fingers will stick to the button like mine did. Wear gloves, people.) So like anyone who needs a fill flash but the room is so large th...

Mikelle Pace @mikelle.pace, Model // HMUA: Emily Brooksby @brooksby_beauty Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder Published in  Rising Model Magazine  Issue #70 THIS. Making order out of chaos makes my heart beat. Simple lines and minimalistic sets tend to speak to me more than background distractions. But what is life for if not to try new experiences? I stepped into the storage closet at OHM Studios in SLC for a quick moment to regroup from the chaos. This , I heard my inner voice say, is your next spot. With the right light and a quick shift of minor distractions (cleanser bottles just didn't fit in), I reminded myself if no one else that any space can become the "best" space. Call me crazy, but I want to go back... Lighting the Scene This storage space had everything--including extra tall ceilings. I stretched the light as high as my light stand would go (maybe 10 feet?) and angled the 43-inch softbox umbrella downwards. In the photo...

Trang Satterlee @trang.satterlee, Model HMUA: Elyssa Anderson @elyssa.anderson.hair Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder Trang Satterlee is an enigma of complex angles and backward glances. She can even make the simplest of foyers with pineapple-patterned lounge chairs and houseplants feel like the Ritz. Lighting the Scene Earlier in my experience as a photographer I may have been intimidated by this space; a simple room with windows, at night. Such is the power of knowing how to control light instead of letting it control me; I walked into the room with two speed lights (one main and one for fill) and got to work.  With the right light and positioning, any space can feel like the "best" space.  #studioanywhere Bonus Info: The elevator was dark so we popped a speed light into the corner. It took two rides downstairs by itself.

Sabrina Wright @sabswright, Model // Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder Magazines collect me. They draw me in and even if I don't read the words, the fact that they have words and images in a pleasing aesthetic inflates them into valuable artifacts awaiting a mysterious future potential. That's just a fancy way of saying I hoard magazines for a rainy day. Spray adhesive, two foam insulation panels from the hardware store, and 77 magazine pages mixed with Black Friday advertisements came together to form this newspaper "room", which was really just a corner in a studio in Salt Lake City. Ashley Gardner (my co-host at Wayfinder Photographer Collective ) and I dragged our supplies into my freezing cold garage and stuck each individual piece of paper to the foam backdrop. Tip to anyone who wants to build a backdrop like this: Use gloves.  We apologize to anyone out there whose hands we shook in greeting for this shoot. We didn't want to ho...

Sharese Taylor @shar_ific, Model // HMUA: Emily Brooksby @brooksby_beauty Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder I don't usually photograph high key portraits, but when I do it's because Steve Berlin (another local photographer and the owner of the studio where we photographed this series) taught me.  Technical Notes The room was completely white, ceiling to floor, wall to wall. That was problem one. Problem two was the fact that we chose to bring white balloons to a white space. Too bright and the balloons would vanish; too dark and the room would look gray and dreary--the opposite of the look I hoped for. This was lit with a single key light at camera left and two fill flashes from behind. My method wasn't super scientific. I just turned up the light and fired test images until I saw the kind of shadow I wanted...more or less. Then I made some minor adjustments in Lightroom until it looked how I wanted. And boom! Sharese Taylor, tattoo artist ex...

Sabrina Wright @sabswright, Model // Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder Good people win out. (And I mean a good team.) Every slowdown in traffic, every accident I passed, every moment that ticked by, I panicked inside as the wise words of Tim Gunn on Project Runway flashed in my head. Make. It. Work. 3 out of 5 models cancelled. A photographer dropped out last minute. The shoot we'd planned for, prepared for, and sacrificed precious time for was falling apart before our eyes like sand through our fingertips. And it was Monday.  Make. It. Work. Then destiny presented two gifts as good as Christmas. Gift #1 : Good people who knew good people who were available and coincidentally--if you can call it that--close by. Gift #2 : Traffic, which delayed the participating photographers almost exactly the extra time we needed to finish models' hair and makeup prep. By shooting time, all vacant model spots were filled and we were ready to go. Good people wi...