WENDY HURST PORTRAIT

I'm not a stranger to shooting outdoors. Counterpoint: Using a backdrop outdoors is definitely strange to me. But if we never got to know strangers, we'd never make new friends. VIEW THE WHOLE GALLERY The Utah Renaissance Faire is a plentiful measure of meager extravagance, an opportunity to escape modern everyday life and appreciate times long past through costume, music and dance. The scent of mutton floats through the air, disturbed only by the swirling of juggling batons and the spinning of aerialists on fine silks. Children laugh, boots scuffle, and ribbons whirl. For a photographer the event is a goldmine of colorful fantasy. For a photographer with a backdrop, though, it poses some obstacles. Shooting indoors eliminates many foes of a photo studio. Wind, rain, direct sunshine, distraction. Outdoors anything can happen. I wanted my studio to fulfill three simple goals: 1) Small enough to fit and relatively blend into a crowd, and 2) 100% mobile on a ...

Blue Mind:   A mildly meditative state characterized by calm, peace, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment.  I feel a connection with calm bodies of water. I often visit them in my mind during meditation and even in my dreams. Its touch, its sound, the gentle ripples as one steps through the strange liquid come together into an ethereal, even spiritual, experience. Photography has taught me to slow down and really study the often unseen details of things. All the things. Especially calm water. Maybe it can do the same for you. Sarah Abraham @livthelovelylife photographed at Palisades Reservoir near Manti, Utah, USA. Hosted by Wayfinder Photographer Collective. All natural light. (I wanted to add a pop of fill flash off camera but logistically it was impossible.)