Ugly Locations, Pretty Portraits: Photographer Goes To Lowe’s To Prove That Location Doesn’t Matter

Pro and amateur photographers see different things when they look at the same place, and this story proves that professionals can work wonders even with minimal resources. To challenge herself, Jenna Martin took her camera and her model to Lowe’s: “Instead of searching out the usual beautiful locations around where we live, I had the idea to do just the opposite,” she wrote on PetaPixel. “I wanted to go somewhere ‘ugly’ by all conventional photography standards and then see what we could do with it. Lowe’s seemed like the perfect option.”

“I wanted somewhere with horrible lighting and limited backdrops. Somewhere that made absolutely no sense for a photo shoot.” Before she started shooting, Martin set herself some rules:

1) They had to work with whatever was already there. The photographer brought just her camera, without any artificial lighting or props;
2) They couldn’t rearrange the displays or make any big changes;
3) They’d stop shooting if anyone else was in the background.

“As soon as we walked in an employee asked if they could help us and I asked, “We were just going to take a few photos, is that okay?” He replied, “Of course! I was just wondering why she was so overdressed for a trip to the hardware store!”” Martin and her model had about an hour before the store closed, so they began their photo shoot in narrow and wide aisles, against paint samples and trees.

“Overall, this was a really fun challenge! Not that I’d invite an actual client to ever do a Lowe’s photo shoot (I mean, never say never), but I was pretty happy with the result! Horrible location for the win! Next time you see an awful spot, maybe give it a chance, you never know what you might end up with.”

More info: jennamartinphotography.com (h/t petapixel)