Birthday self portraits

A few years ago, I started taking self portraits on my birthday—as many self portraits as my age that day. This Thursday I took 52 self portraits on the occasion of my birthday.

A couple notes : That morning I was scheduled to be in Salt Lake for a shoot with Utah Business Magazine. So the first pictures are me packing up, making my way to the shoot, and some of the people I photographed for that shoot show up in these pictures. Later in the afternoon my family met me in Salt Lake and we spent the night in a hotel. You’ll also see I am holding my cell phone in a lot of them because I’m addicted to my phone. Just kidding, it’s because I’m using an app on the phone to trip the shutter on my camera. Just kidding about the just kidding. I am addicted to my phone, but that’s not why it’s in these pictures.

As always, who knows what next year brings and if I’ll do it again, but I’m glad I had the chance to do it this time around.

Click any image to view it larger.

Enjoy!

Working

Here’s a couple pictures of me, working, photographing weddings. Both were taken by my assistant, Tia Horito, who has been at Justin Hackworth Photography for six years. Both were taken the same week.

sundance-wedding-photographer.jpg
wedding-photographer-Utah-justin-hackworth.jpg

Joanna Gaines

Joanna finished her keynote speech and Gabby, the conference organizer had mentioned earlier that she wanted to get a picture of her with Joanna and then I could do a portrait of Joanna, but that there wouldn’t be much time.

I arrived at the location where Joanna was speaking and the green room was…..let’s say, pretty gross, and the hallways leading to it were bleak. Well now what? I knew I wouldn’t be able to take her anywhere and needed to stay close to the venue.

Across the parking lot was a pretty tall hedge and luckily, one side was in shade. After the speech, I was able to get Gabby and Joanna to walk to the back side of the hedge, in the shade, and even more importantly, out of site of all the conference attendees who would surely want to get a picture with Joanna.

I had less than two minutes to do a picture of Joanna with Gabby and Joanna on her own, but I was able to get something I liked.

joanna-gaines.jpg
joanna-gaines-justin-hackworth.jpg


Yes, to answer your question, yes, she was awesome.

Hand painted backdrops

Yesterday I took a workshop from Mathew Peterson on how to make your own hand-painted backdrop and learned very quickly, it’s a lot harder than it looks. It’s the reason why the undisputed master of hand-painted backdrops, Sarah Oliphant, charges $1,000 just to RENT one.

Mine turned out ok. It’s got flaws for sure, but I can’t wait to shoot with it, and I also can’t wait to try painting one again and yet again and see what else I can come up with.

I’m always looking for ways to improve my photography, whether that’s getting better at responding to people’s gestures and expressions, or adding things such as hand-painted background to my arsenal.

Once painted, it takes 24 hours to dry, so Mathew and Ashley delivered the backdrop to me today at my house and I thought the very first time I used it should be a picture of Mathew, since he’s the one that showed me how to do it.


Alt Summit portraits, 2019

This year was the 10th anniversary of Alt Summit. I’ve been all ten years. It’s how I met and became best friends with Martha. (You may know her as Martha Stewart).

Martha Stewart at Alt Summit
Martha Stewart

Ok, fine. We’re not best friends, but Alt is how I met her and others. Like Joanna Gaines, this year, and last year that lady that played Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights —Minka Kelly— and Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christy Turlington and I think you get the idea.

This year I was hired to photograph Alt attendees. Here’s a tiny sample.

If you have an interest in seeing more, here’s one of each person: http://www.justinhackworth.com/alt-summit-2019 Thanks for looking!

Don't wait until it's too late. Let's schedule your family portraits today!

Every year around the holidays, a number of people contact me about getting family pictures in time to send something out with holiday cards. I always do what I can to work that out, but some people wait until it’s too late. I don’t want that to happen to you! (One time I pulled a drawer out too far and it landed on my foot. I don’t want that to happen to you, either, but that one is pretty much out of my hands).

The next couple months are the perfect time to book a family portrait session so give me a call or email me and let’s set something up!

Family pictures can be done at your home, some outside location, or at my studio in Provo. 

If I’ve photographed your family before, you know how easy it can be. If I’ve never photographed your family before, it’s possible you have some apprehension about the process, perhaps feeling like it’s too big of a hassle. Well, you’ve got nothing to worry about.  One of the comments I hear over and over from families that come to be photographed, is just how easy and fun it is. In fact, just last week, I received this text from a mother who brought her five kids and husband to the studio. “Thanks again for your work with us yesterday. That was a really great experience on our side and far less painful than everyone was dreading. You’re awesome.” See, nothing to worry about!

To make an appointment, there's contact information here.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

New York City

A walk around town.

Headshots

Comedy writer Dave Vance came to the studio for some non-stuffy portraits of himself that he could use for all his promotional material. Here's a handful that I favored. 

Portraits of the BYU Broadcasting employees

It took four days, but we got it done. In September, I photographed every full time employee at BYU Broadcasting (nearly everyone--some were out of town). 

I really love how these turned out, and I've got to hand it to BYU Broadcasting for not settling on the safe, straight-forward, head and shoulders shot, but instead, be willing to get something with a little more personality, pizazz, and quirkiness. They told their employees they could bring a prop if they wanted that reflected something about their personality, job, or outside interests (so that's why you may see a dog or fly rod in some of these, among other things).

The shoot was set up so that I'd have a decent amount of time with each person. Long enough for me to learn something about their life, their job, their personality, and then make a portrait that was a reflection of that in some way.

Meet the folks at BYU Broadcasting! Click on any image to view it larger.

Utah wedding photography

The wedding of Tiia and David.
Click on any image to view it larger.

Provo Family Portraits - Quigley Family

If you don't already know about the company Chatbooks, well, there aren't very many of you left. They're taking over the planet! It's a brilliant idea and a great company. That's because brilliant people cooked up the idea. Founder Vanessa, and co-founder Nate (they're husband and wife!) have a wildly successful business but say they're just getting started and I can't wait to see how Chatbooks continues to grow. (And if you really haven't heard of Chatbooks, check out this hilarious video). 

So Vanessa and Nate run a great company, but they've also got a great family. And they came to the studio a few months ago to be photographed. Their kids are growing up, moving on, spreading their wings, and they felt it might be one of the last times to get a picture of them all together for a while.

Meet the Quigley family.

Justin photographs big families with lots of kids or families just starting out and he wants to photograph you.
Let's talk.