The Muse, from the Unraveled Academy

muse (noun) a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist

The Muse is a new way we want to bring inspiration to the creative world. Seeing a photographer for just one picture is not the whole picture… so we are bringing you more, to give you a deeper look into the artists who inspire us and we call, muses.

Marcie Weiszbrod | SLC, Utah
INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE

What gear did you use for this shoot?

Canon EOSR and Canon 35mm

I also used a polarizing filter, which I like for shoots that are in more direct sunlight. I find that it helps give the color more of a “pop.”

What was your “muse” or inspiration for this shoot?

I think there were a few things that inspired me. The first being where I live. Utah is obsessed with all things pickleball. It’s everywhere here! The same goes for Chic-Fil-a. It feels like there’s always a line wrapped around the building and you can’t go to any public park without seeing a handful of families picnicking with their white and red bags. I wanted this shoot to feel like an ode to the Utah culture.

The second part of my inspiration came from the outfits. I’ve been experimenting with more color in my work this year and when I started dreaming up this session back in March, I knew I wanted to incorporate the fun, vibrant outfits that in my mind, are synonymous with pickleball. I had this family in mind from the beginning because I knew that they loved playing pickleball. I had no idea that they had a pickleball court in their backyard until I reached out to see if they would be interested. Our original plan was actually to do the shoot at the public courts down the street from their home. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the courts ended up being full, so we resorted to Plan B, which was their backyard.

Creatively, this shoot was a huge challenge because of all the backyard obstacles I had to work around. I had to be very intentional with angles and spent a lot of the shoot on the ground to avoid shadows. Madison (the mom) is also a very well-respected wedding photographer, so it was intimidating photographing someone with so much expertise. I had to give myself a pep-talk on the way over to get out of my head and just be present and enjoy our time together.

All in all, this session was SO much fun and a great reminder to get out of my comfort zone more often!

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