Photographers can often see things in a way that the rest of us cannot.
It is why they are the professionals! You might see a muddy barn door, but for a photographer, it might just be the perfect location for a rustic wedding photo shoot.
A place might seem ugly to one person, but to another, it can become an inspiration. At least, that is how photographer Jenna Martin sees it!
Jenna wrote:
A few weeks ago, a model friend of mine, Rachelle Kathleen, and I were planning to meet for a fun little photo shoot. Instead of searching out the usual beautiful locations around where we live, I had the idea to do just the opposite. I wanted to go somewhere “ugly” by all conventional photography standards, and then see what we could do with it, and Lowe’s seemed like the perfect option.
Jenna and her model Rachelle Kathleen chose the hardware store, Lowes, as a way to challenge themselves. They wanted somewhere that “made no sense for a photoshoot.”
The creative women decided to come up with three rules before they went in to get started.
1) We had to work with whatever was already there. I brought in just my camera, without any artificial lighting or props. She simply brought a small bag with a couple outfit options.
2) We couldn’t rearrange the displays or make any big changes.
3) We’d stop shooting if anyone was in the background.
With these three rules in mind, they went through Lowe’s and took some amazing photos in otherwise drab parts of the store. The collection is called “Ugly Spots, Pretty People:”
Here is a photo of the scene without Martin in the photo. This is the “Paint Samples” location in Lowe’s:
And here is the unedited photo of Martin in it:
The photo above is completely unedited of Rachelle and the one below is an edited version of the shoot. Both photos are equally stunning.
Here is the “Lowe’s Lighting Department,” another location that you wouldn’t expect would be good for a photoshoot.
The photo below is one that Jenna took and did not edit of Rachelle in the Lowes lighting department.
As you can see, the boxes are a little askew in the photos in the department, and the lights are not even staged for these photos.
They even shot in a random aisle that had carts:
As both women worked in the service industry previously, they didn’t want to make the jobs of any Lowes employee harder by making a mess. The used a cart in one photo and then put it right back.
They didn’t want to give any other shoppers a reason to complain. They tried their best to shoot in empty areas of the store. If anyone happened to walk into the shot, they took a break then and waited until they left.
They also showed up when the store was fairly empty, about an hour before closing.
They didn’t run into any issues when they first got to Lowes. One kind employee asked if they needed any help and when Jenna told him that they were going to take a few pictures, the employee had this hilarious response.
“Of course! I was just wondering why she was so overdressed for a trip to the hardware store!”
While shooting, the women picked some great locations in the hardware store.
They filmed in the paint samples section, the lighting section, the store aisles, and the garden section.
“I have to admit, I have always wanted to shoot in front of these paint samples, so as soon as we walked in the door I made a bee-line right to them.”
Aren’t these photos incredible?
Please SHARE this incredible photo shoot with your friends and family on Facebook today.
