Photographer Challenges Herself To Shoot In ‘Ugly’ Locations To Prove It’s All About The Skill, And Here’s The Result
A good way to put your photography skills to the test is to find an ugly location and try to make the best of it. Following on from a previous post, we have another photographer who has taken on the ‘ugly location challenge.’ Kelsey Maggert, 22, from Indiana has created some seriously awesome images with limited physical resources at her disposal.
Coming from a small town, unremarkable in its ordinariness, Kelsey has to use all her creativity to maximize the potential of her backdrops. She can make the local KFC, Walmart, Hobby Lobby and a variety of gas stations into incredibly artistic scenes. “I’ve been doing photography and learning for 3 or 4 years,” Kelsey told Bored Panda. “I use a Nikon D750.”
“I prefer more of an abandoned or run down look,” she told us. “A lot of my town just looks like that anyhow, so it wasn’t hard to make that a part of my style.” How does she choose her models? “Most of my models are my friends and sometimes when someone has a specific look I’m aiming for, I’ll reach out to them,” she explained. Location is normally the last thing I worry about.”
So there you go, budding photographers, the old adage ‘location, location, location’ doesn’t hold water here. You don’t need to travel to exotic places to get amazing shots, your own town, a decent camera and a creative mind is all it takes!
Scroll down to see some of Kelsey’s work, and let us know what you think in the comments!
More info: Behance | Instagram | Twitter (h/t)
22-year-old photographer Kelsey Maggert can make gorgeous photos even in the ‘ugliest’ locations
For example, a gas station is not usually what springs to mind for a photoshoot location
Or a brick wall
Christmas tree sale
Front yard
Convenience store
Fence
Abandoned house
Trees
Car wash
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Tbh location doesn't matter if you are going blur the background that much
I was gonna comment the same thing. I've seen other very similar articles, and it's all basically about having a good looking human subject, zooming into them as much as possible and blurring the rest of the background. To me, "it's all about skill, not the location" would be about shooting the actual "ugly" locations and making them look nice. Actually have seen articles here about that too - it *is* really impressive.
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True. I'd like to see that photographer try it without the model.
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But really, anyone can do this…all you need is a gorgeous model and a lot of blurring…
Even after all the photoshopping, these just really aren't even great pictures. Some of them looked decent like the Christmas tree ones, but for the most part, like why would anyone want to look at these a second time? They don't actually look good at all.
nice, but the model has the same face expression in every picture...
And why is she holding her hair the same way in a bunch of them? This is what happens when you use your wannabe insta famous friend instead of hiring a professional.
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My dad took a photo of my dog at the park, and it looks amazing. F27F2935-1...3-jpeg.jpg 
So basically, just blur the s**t out of everything except the main subject. Here, hold my beer while I grab my iphone and put it in 'Portrait Mode'....
a) do a closeup, or b) make it very blurry That's so skillful, and so creative!
So. . .heavily rely on shallow depth of field to blur out the ugly background. Got it.
Found a version of this challenge that doesn't rely on gorgeous models and doesn't blur. https://www.boredpanda.com/ugly-locations-beautiful-portraits-jenna-martin-lowes/?utm_source=duckduckgo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic
There's a lot of post-editing here, these aren't 'raw' images, so everything looks warm and soft.
honestly I love the bokeh at that gas station, I wish I knew how to control how much the background blurs or not, vs. how clear the subject is. I've tried making one thing closer than the other and that does sometimes blur the background a little, but not always enough to create bokeh. Is it a special lense, a photoshop technique?
This post should be call "how to pretend you are a professional photographer by using 'portrait mode' in your iPhone'
to blur the back ground work with 200mm and full open diafragm120/s
A lot of the 'ugly pics' are beautiful. Just sticking a young girl with too much makeup on, doesn't make it beautiful. MEH
All the commenters thus far are correct. Maggert hasn't done anything that a reasonably competent amateur can't do.
W T F ? are you going on about he hasn’t shot a thing!!!!! All he has done is plonk a distraction in front of a bad background!!!..... anyone can plop a that... A N Y O N E..... Fail .
Forget the location, I want the lens with the creamy bokeh and the fatty fastness...oh and throw in the tasty sharpness.
you just need tons of photoshop skills, not really skills to take pictures
Load More Replies...
Tbh location doesn't matter if you are going blur the background that much
I was gonna comment the same thing. I've seen other very similar articles, and it's all basically about having a good looking human subject, zooming into them as much as possible and blurring the rest of the background. To me, "it's all about skill, not the location" would be about shooting the actual "ugly" locations and making them look nice. Actually have seen articles here about that too - it *is* really impressive.
Load More Replies... True. I'd like to see that photographer try it without the model.
Load More Replies... But really, anyone can do this…all you need is a gorgeous model and a lot of blurring…
Even after all the photoshopping, these just really aren't even great pictures. Some of them looked decent like the Christmas tree ones, but for the most part, like why would anyone want to look at these a second time? They don't actually look good at all.
nice, but the model has the same face expression in every picture...
And why is she holding her hair the same way in a bunch of them? This is what happens when you use your wannabe insta famous friend instead of hiring a professional.
Load More Replies... My dad took a photo of my dog at the park, and it looks amazing. F27F2935-1...3-jpeg.jpg
So basically, just blur the s**t out of everything except the main subject. Here, hold my beer while I grab my iphone and put it in 'Portrait Mode'....
a) do a closeup, or b) make it very blurry That's so skillful, and so creative!
So. . .heavily rely on shallow depth of field to blur out the ugly background. Got it.
Found a version of this challenge that doesn't rely on gorgeous models and doesn't blur. https://www.boredpanda.com/ugly-locations-beautiful-portraits-jenna-martin-lowes/?utm_source=duckduckgo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic
There's a lot of post-editing here, these aren't 'raw' images, so everything looks warm and soft.
honestly I love the bokeh at that gas station, I wish I knew how to control how much the background blurs or not, vs. how clear the subject is. I've tried making one thing closer than the other and that does sometimes blur the background a little, but not always enough to create bokeh. Is it a special lense, a photoshop technique?
This post should be call "how to pretend you are a professional photographer by using 'portrait mode' in your iPhone'
to blur the back ground work with 200mm and full open diafragm120/s
A lot of the 'ugly pics' are beautiful. Just sticking a young girl with too much makeup on, doesn't make it beautiful. MEH
All the commenters thus far are correct. Maggert hasn't done anything that a reasonably competent amateur can't do.
W T F ? are you going on about he hasn’t shot a thing!!!!! All he has done is plonk a distraction in front of a bad background!!!..... anyone can plop a that... A N Y O N E..... Fail .
Forget the location, I want the lens with the creamy bokeh and the fatty fastness...oh and throw in the tasty sharpness.
you just need tons of photoshop skills, not really skills to take pictures
Load More Replies... 
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