Photographers are trained to bring out the most beautiful aspects of anything, anyone and even any place.
For her latest project, Jenna Martin of Billings, Montana, decided to set herself up for a test, deliberately seeking out the ugliest place she could think of to try and stage a glamorous photo shoot in with a beautiful model. Her choice? Lowe’s.
‘The point was to challenge ourselves. I wanted somewhere with horrible lighting and limited backdrops,’ Jenna wrote on her blog about the shoot.
A challenge: Photographer Jenna Martin of Billings, Montana, decided to stage a photo shoot at Lowe’s as a challenge to make an ‘ugly’ location beautiful
Before and after: In her blog, Jenna shared the images before (left) and after (right) the editing process
First stop: She and model Rachelle Kathleen started their shoot with the paint color samples
‘Somewhere that made absolutely no sense for a photo shoot. Our local Lowe’s Home Improvement Store hits all those points.’
Before getting into the shoot, Jenna and her model Rachelle Kathleen outlined a set of ground rules.
‘We had to work with whatever was already there. I brought in just my camera, without any artificial lighting or props,’ Jenna wrote, adding that Rachelle just brought a couple of outfits.
Second, they avoided touching or moving any of the displays in the store, with the exception of slightly rolling one cart into an aisle.
Making way: The women set themselves rules for the shoot, such as not adjusting the displays
A touch of magic: The lighting from the samples booth gave the images an ethereal quality
The before: The next section the ladies used was the lighting, with Jenna snapping a pic of each location bare before working her magic
Before and after: Even before she edited the image, Jenna’s photo makes Rachelle appear surrounded by beautiful lights
Tactics: Jenna left some of the background blurred to only use the best of the background
The tough part: The most problematic part of the shoot came from making the aisles look nice
Making adjustments: According to Jenna the aisles had ‘horrible lighting, lots of plastic surfaces, nothing that would be considered aesthetically pleasing, but that was the point.’
Walking the walk: Rachelle is seen walking one of the slimmer aisles in the store
Lastly, Jenna wrote: ‘We’d stop shooting if anyone was in the background,’ just to avoid imposing on anyone’s shopping experience or provoking any complaints.
With the staff being perfectly happy for the pair to go about their picture-taking business, starting with the paint samples. The resulting photos show how Jenna used the lighting of the display to create an ethereal effect surrounding Rachelle.
The next section the pair headed to was the lighting area, which brought its own set of complications such as the displays sitting so close to the ceiling and the clashing brightness of the fixtures.
Despite those difficulties, Jenn’s tactic of keeping the background just a bit blurred made it appear like Rachelle is surrounded by fairy lights.
Only a touch: The only thing that the ladies moved for the shoot was this cart
All glam: Rachelle didn’t seem to fussed about the dust-covered locale
Working it out: The final spot scouted for the shoot was the garden section and this display of fake shrubs
A little trick: Rachelle kneeled in front of the shrubs, making it look like a wintery forest
Brightening up: Jenna declared the challenge to be an overall success
More to come: The photographer now has plans to do even more ‘ugly’ location shoots, already hitting LP Anderson Tire (right) and World Market (left)
The aisles caused the biggest trouble for the pair, purely because they are the least picturesque areas of the store.
‘Horrible lighting, lots of plastic surfaces, really nothing that would be considered aesthetically pleasing, but that was the point,’ she wrote. ‘This was the essence of Lowe’s, and we wouldn’t have been doing the challenge justice to steer away from it.’
They finished off the shoot in the garden section, where Jenn used a bit of perspective to make Rachelle appear as if she was strolling through wintery woods.
‘Overall, this was a really fun challenge!’ Jenn concluded. ‘Next time you see an awful spot, maybe give it a chance, you never know what you might end up with.’
Jenn has pledged to create a whole series of ‘ugly’ locations shoots, and has already experimented with shots at LP Anderson Tire and World Market.