A Masquerade Ball | Utah Portrait Photographer Studio on Location

Model: Kade Llewelyn | Cake: Sweet Cravings | Venue: Copper Creek Event Center | Photo: Wendy Hurst

My photographer bucket list is long and ambitious, but here's a peek.

Host styled shoots for photographers as a way to build portfolio, skills, and professional network. (Doing it!)
Build a photo set from scratch. (Did it! (This one. It was sticky.))
Photograph an aerialist. (Done! Two, actually. It was GREAT.)
Photograph a mermaid. (Someday.)
Host a masquerade ball. (The post you're reading now!)

The list goes on.

When Ashley Gardner (colleague at Gardner House Photography) and I set out to plan a photoshoot at Wayfinder Photographer Collective, we start big. Our Pinterest board is big enough to crash the system. Professional hair and makeup! Decked out fireplace mantle! Glamorous evening gowns with elaborate props! A heavy table with live roses and velvet cloth! Cake! (The last one makes it to every list, even if if it doesn't have a chance to make the cut, because...c'mon. It's cake.) From the big list we scale down to a smaller list, budget our costs and figure out how many photographers we'd need to invite in order to fund our dream. Usually too high, we scale back slowly until we find a count and price point we can live with and launch that rocket.

But this shoot just took off on its own.

We connected with the creative director at a beautiful, intimate venue called Copper Creek Event Center, whom we later learned had a connection with a business called Utah DIY Wedding. The business owner is a no-nonsense, do anything for you lady who can find a handful of diamonds in a handful of sand. Flea markets and thrift stores are her sanctuary, and she has ample space to store the treasures she claims. Then she rents those treasures to brides all over the state. You ask "do you have this?" and she'll say "Five." Put simply, she's the kind of connection every photographer wishes they could have--but can't, because she doesn't work with photographers. She doesn't supply props for styled shoots. Unless you know the owner of Copper Creek Event Center.

We may have big dreams, but Kathy is the reason we were, for the first time in a year of hosting photo shoots, able to get every single thing and more on our list.

This was our Masquerade Ball.