WENDY HURST PORTRAIT

Salt Lake City, Utah |  FanX is a space of raw reality. Cosplayers emerge from their everyday self to an elevated version of self--or, someone/something else entirely. Artists become shapeshifters, inhabiting a character through what they're wearing, or what they hold, or what they say. Craftspeople from all walks of life swarm the halls with colorful excitement. It doesn't matter who you are, or where you came from, or where you're going. FanX is for everyone, like a moving, shifting, swirling, ever-changing exhibit of living art. I just bring my camera. :)  All the portraits I captured during the event can be found at my website, wendyhurstportrait.com .

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 ...

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...

Savannah Carlson, model "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Leonardo Da Vinci An antique writing desk, an old steam trunk, antique books and more made Modern Vintage  the second and latest styled shoot and mini workshop for photographers I've ever hosted. The event is called Wayfinder Photographer Collective , and I'm trying to host an event once every 1-2 months. Promotional video created by Kelsee Boyer at KBoyer Film & Photography Mini Workshops A completely optional and totally informal experience to learn the nitty gritty of topics like how to direct subjects into the poses you need and how to create the kind of light you want. The workshop is less a presentation and more of an interactive conversation designed for participants to learn just as much from as each other as they can from just myself. The workshop lasts 15-20 minutes unless the topic is more complex, such as learning off-camera flash (coming next!). Styled Shoots Pa...