Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In ‘Ugly’ Location, And Results Prove That It’s All About The Skill

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 portrait photography 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.”

“For this ugly location challenge, I wanted somewhere with horrible lighting and limited backdrops. Somewhere that made absolutely no sense for a photoshoot idea.” 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 to photo backgrounds;
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 photoshoot 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 photoshoot (I mean, never say never), but I was pretty happy with these cool photos! 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 | Instagram | Model’s Instagram (h/t petapixel)

“Instead of searching out the usual beautiful locations around where we live, I had the idea to do just the opposite”

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Image credits: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“Lowe’s seemed like the perfect option” Location 1: The Paint Samples

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Not edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Lowe’s Location 2: The Lighting Section

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Not edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Lowe’s Location 3: The Aisles

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Not edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Location Shot: Aisle 2

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Lowe’s Location 4: The Garden Section

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Not edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Edited

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

Lowe’s Location 5: Pillows Section

Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In 'Ugly' Location, And Results Prove That It's All About The Skill

“Horrible location for the win!”

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Read less »

What do you think ?

POST

just a thought ! 6 years ago

The locations are beautiful ? And also, I liked some of the unedited versions more than the edited ones.

129points

Nightpytt 6 years ago

True, it makes it seem almost more real, y'know?

14points

Load More Replies...

Kjorn 6 years ago

yeah... don't forget the beautiful girl are big part of beautiful portrait. even at a ugly place a beautiful girl do the trick

107points

RespectThePaiva 6 years ago

So all you need is a gorgeous girl to take professional good-looking pictures? If that's you're trying to say, you clearly haven't seen enough pictures. Besides, she's not even that pretty (sorry, but beauty is subjective). She's definitely photogenic and she has nice poses, but her beauty is not universal. There is much more to be said about the photographer's skill in a "dull location" (and if it doesn't look like it it's because of his experience on picking spots and angles), the editing and the camera itself than the girl/model.

1point

Load More Replies...