#STOPASIANHATE

My heart goes out to the AsAm community, the Korean community and everyone who has been affected by the white supremacy that encompasses this country. With the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, I’ve been very on edge as I’m sure a lot of us have.

I am half Korean, but the majority of my family is not. To think that someone could just walk into my mothers business and murder her for simply being Korean, because they didn’t like the color of her skin, the slant of her eyes, or the languages that she speaks fills me with rage and sadness.

This attack was in the name of white supremacy and to call it anything else would be a complete insult to anyone who has been murdered at the hands of a white supremacist. They literally handcuffed this man alive after he had slain 8 people, 6 of whom were Asians.

This world has been degrading before our very eyes and the only thing we can do is take action. The government isn’t going to save us, and the police absolutely won’t save us. We have to save ourselves.

My friends and family shouldn’t have to worry about my safety, but unfortunately, they do. Thankful for my friends, family and colleagues who have reached out because I am truly drained. It’s 2021 and Black people and People of Color are still having to deal with racism on a daily basis and it’s literally killing us.

The best shitty advice I can offer at this point is to be prepared, stay armed, stay alert and if you hear someone say something sideways do not hesitate to check them. I can truly go on about racism in America forever, I can fill multiple pages full of the conflicts that I have dealt with as a half Asian woman being raised in this country. I can only imagine how it is to be fully. But saying that, that does not make my sorrow and anger any less profound.

So today, like everyday, I will put on my jade that my mother gifted to me and wear it proudly. I will scream until my voice runs hoarse and hope that my friends and family will continue to scream when I no longer can. I will continue to fight for injustices in this world and continue to bring awareness to them.

Hello!

Hey ya'll, so I've never properly introduced myself. I'm honestly no good at talking about myself, nor do I like to, but I guess it was time to let ya'll know about the lady behind the lens.

My name is Heather Hurtt, I'm a 25 year old Journalism major at Georgia State. Doing as college kids do, I juggle a handful of jobs. First and foremost, I work at an amazing music venue that's located in Underground Atlanta, The Masquerade, I cannot begin to describe how thankful I am for this job. I started off interning for their social media and worked my bum off to get to where I am and was lucky enough to be asked to join the team. I've learned a lot about the music industry through both interning and working here and I cannot be more grateful. I'm also a dog walker/ sitter, I work as a waitress at two restaurants, Midway Pub in EAV and New Realm Brewery off of the beltline. Next to being a hobby photographer I freelance as a social media manager for a coffee shop + cowork, Post-Office Cowork, the quaintest little coffee shop and most beautiful cowork space that is located in Underground Atlanta as well. I started off as a barista and after the owner, Michele, talked to me about why I'm in school and what I'd like to do after school she asked me to help out and be the one in charge of social media. I'm so thankful for the opportunities I've had with all of my jobs.

I grew up a little south of D.C in a city called Centreville located in Virginia. From there I moved to McDonough, Georgia where I resided until moving to Atlanta. Family has always been a big thing to my father, which is why we moved from Virginia to Georgia, to be closer to my aunts and uncles. I moved in with them and lived with them throughout my high school career and some of going to a local college. Combination of them, my father, and my mother, molded me to be who I am today.

I've always been curious when it came to cameras- as a little girl I would always want to be the one to take the photos, not be in them. Around the age of 10 my father bought me my first point and shoot, I took photographs of everything, the flowers, grass, the neighbors fence, everything. I went through a couple of point and shoots until I got my first DSLR at the age of 18. From there I got my friends to model for me, continuously shooting and putting myself out there to new people and and new possibilities. I found my love to portraiture and stuck with it.

I now live in a cute periwinkle two story home with a white picket fence and an old magnolia tree that sits outside my house. I live with my boyfriend, my pup, and my roommates (who also double as best friends). I would love to get to know you and photograph your story!

*Shout out to my good friend (@tijeritasss on Instagram) had made magic on my hair, which is why these photos were taken in the first place. And shout out to my boyfriend, Spencer Stroud, for pushing the button on my camera for these photos (he happens to be an amazing graphic designer (he is the one who designed my logo) so if you need any designing done, hit him up)

**I was recently interviewed by VoyageATL, feel free to check it out!

Jalyn Clemens in Grant Park

It seems that I'm starting to have a trend of short shoots in my neighborhood. It's spring and the flowers are blooming and what not better than to capture them in a photograph? There's been a small tree, or bush, whatever it is, that has been taken over by wisteria on my street that I've been eyeballing for some time and I made the decision to grab my roommate and photograph her in it. It was swarming with bumble bee's, there was more than 20 just hanging around, enjoying the smell and sights as we were.

This shoot was a quick 10- 15 minutes and we were done ! Here is the outcome.

Elizabeth Day in Grant Park

Tuesday while at work I was gawking over the weather and how beautiful the sunlight was dancing across the table tops and pavement. I luckily got off around 6:30 pm, and while driving home found a really beautiful gate being overgrown by these little yellow flowers that are growing all over Grant Park and Oakland Cemetery. Honestly, they're probably a weed, but who cares (unless they end up taking over the world then I take back what I just said.) ANYWAYS, I got home and was trying to figure out who I could photograph in front and inside of these delicate little things and remembered that early in the week I had spoken to Elizabeth Day, we talked about getting together and photographing each other. I was really hoping that she would be available with such short notice and she was ! I messaged her via facebook and she got back to me asap, which was great. We met up behind Grant Park Market (where the gate was located) and made our way to the corner with the pretty little flowers. Our shoot lasted maybe 15 minutes total. Short, sweet, and to the point.

I always love meeting new people and photographing new faces, so if any other photographer ever wants to shoot or feel free to contact me !

Natalie at Oakland Cemetery

Today was so nice I had to go out and photograph something or someone ! I made a post online looking specifically for a couple, but it was so short notice no one was available. My good friend Natalie responded to my post, so decided on a place and time.

She met me and we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to my house to get my pup and walk to Oakland Cemetery. Oakland Cemetery was built in 1850 and originally named Atlanta Graveyard, or City Burial Place, it was then renamed in 1872. There's so much history on this lot of land that I could go on for days, but I'll keep it short. I use this land to take Apollo on long-ish walks, play fetch with Apollo in the back grassy lot, and take photographs of the beautiful light that emits around it.

Hannah Crump's Maternity

Hello ! It's been a while since I've actually made a blog post... sorry about that. This years goal is to take more photos, and make more posts so that way I can showcase more of my photography for ya'll to see 🤗

I photographed a beautiful mama, Hannah Crump, in my home Monday afternoon and cannot be happier with how these photos came out. Hannah is also a wonderful local photographer, we actually met on tumblr years ago when we were both still in High School. Wild how life works.

If you haven't noticed, I mostly photograph outdoors, it's just easier for me with the natural light, so working indoors is definitely a struggle. But, thank goodness for photoshop, lightroom, and my rooms natural lighting that these photos were made doable !

We decided to do three different looks and incorporate flowers to have more of a mother nature vibe to this session ! I would like to think that we nailed it. The first few photos are comfortably posed in bed, lounging around, doing what mama's do.

The next few consist of a maternity boudoir in the same location which Hannah was nervous about, but totally came out of her shell and rocked it.

Those eyes !!!
The next few photos, we moved to my bathroom where I have a large garden tub. Originally we were going to do a milk bath, but Hannah hates milk ( I don't blame her, because I hate milk also, haha, so I was relived to say the least). We decided instead to use the flowers we've been incorporating into the shoot.

Her tattoos peaking out made this session all the more intimate.

I focused more on her baby bump in these shots to make them as intimate as possible.

I cannot wait to watch Hannah and her little family grow and to see her be the best mother she can be.

Rebirth

For the past few months I've been stuck in a creative rut. Wanting to photograph images, coming up with ideas, but when it's time to execute those ideas my mind goes blank or I end up hating what I create. I recently told a friend that I was bored with my camera, his response was "if you think your camera's boring, your images are going to be boring." Which I can't agree enough with. I don't have the finances to purchase a new camera, or lens, currently, so instead I mess around with different techniques which has seemed to help me come out of this rut.

I'm currently in a digital photography class at my college, just something to get an easy A in. A lot of what I'm supposed to be "learning" I've taught myself years ago, but it's always nice to have a refresher. I was hoping that this class would help me create better images and learn more about my passion. It has a little, but since it is an intermediate photography class, I'm kind of going over where I'm "supposed" to be in the class. I have learned a lot more about lighting though, and I am currently learning how to properly print out an image, which is very nice.

I turned in my photo project today, that helped me get out of the creative rut I was feeling all these months. The warmer weather helped a lot with that also. I had my best friend and fellow photographer, Irma Ali, pose for me in and around my home. Since the first day of spring was the day before I took the images I decided to do a "spring" vibe. Something that signified rebirth and how pure new beginnings could be. Here is what resulted.

My class loved my photos and the only critique that was said was said by my professor who pointed out that one of my prints had a little more magenta in it then it should've had, but also that it was an easy fix. After class my professor pulled me aside and said that she loved all of the images I had created and that I seem very advanced for the class that I'm in. Probably one of the nicest things I've heard in a while.

Spring Break in Savannah, GA

Hi hello! I guess I'll give you a little history on myself, my name's Heather Hurtt. I'm a 23 year old freelance photographer specializing in natural light photography. I'm currently enrolled in Georgia State University, majoring in Journalism. I live in an adorable house that's located In Grant Park (Atlanta, for the out of towners) with my boyfriend, two other roommates, and 2 furry hellions.

I fell in love with photography at a young age. Playing with my parents point-and-shoot cameras and looking through old film photographs, making up the stories that I imagined went along with them. Photography is more than just a hobby to me, it's an outlet, a passion. As cliche as it sounds, photography saved my life. I try not to leave my house without some type of camera, whether it be my Canon T3i, my Instax, or my Minolta.

Anyways, this past week was Spring Break. My boyfriend and I really wanted to get away for a few days with our pup, so we decided to go to Savannah. We invited our two good friends, Hailey and Dillon to come along with us. We had our days set and a place to stay. Two days before we were supposed to leave the place we were supposed to stay fell through. Lack of communication was to blame, but the day before we were going to cancel the trip, another friend pulled through and said that we could stay at her apartment that was a couple miles away from downtown Savannah. So, we packed the car, picked up our friends, and drove 248 miles to our destination.

We arrived in Savannah at around 10 pm all beat from the 3 hour drive. When we walked into our friend, Skylar's, apartment, we were greeted by a beautiful hairless Sphynx named Lu, and a fluffy white cutie named Bleu'. We hung around for an hour then all headed to bed.

We had our days planned out...

Day one, Fort Pulaski and Burke Beach (one of the only dog friendly beaches we could find).

We got up early to go walk around Fort Pulaski, that's now taken care of by National Park Service. We adventured through the tunnels and massive hills that rested in the walls of the fort. Walking up and down the spiraled brick stairs made me realize just how out of shape I truly am, I definitely got my yearly work out on this trip.

Second half of the day we traveled to Hilton Head to go to a pup friendly beach, called Burke Beach. Before the beach we stopped at a little restaurant that's name escapes me at the moment. We ate an appetizer and drank a little to pass the time.

At Burke we all ran around and played fetch with my pup, Apollo, and just relaxed on the beach.

Day two was Saint Patrick's Day, so downtown Savannah it was. Sadly, no eligible photos were taken on this day. We got to downtown at around 11 am and watched the parade for some time, then carried on with St. Pattie's Day festivities, and all ended up asleep by 10 pm that night. I'd go more in depth with the what we did, but I'm sure those of you who know about Saint Patrick's Day in Savannah know all that happened.

Day three was made of packing back up, Wormsloe Plantation, and heading home. That morning we went to an adorable breakfast restaurant in downtown called, J. Christopher's with our friend Skylar, who also graciously opened her home up for us.

After breakfast we headed towards Wormsloe Plantation. Most people can recognize the overhang of trees from the movie Forest Gump. While there I took portraits of my friends (you can view the photos here, http://heatherhurttphoto.com/work/#/hailey-and-dillon/). Our time there was cut short due to an unfortunate event. While walking beside the dirt road a truck drove near us and my little Blue Heeler decided that it had gotten too close and tried to herd it. The truck ended up herding him. Luckily, Apollo wasn't hurt at all. Somehow after getting wrapped around a tire and thrown, my tough little boy walked away from the incident with no broken bones, no scrapes, ruptured innards, nothing. Seeing your dog get hit by a large truck is one of the scariest things I've ever witnessed. I swear my heart stopped until I saw him get up and run towards me after I called his name. We rushed him to the nearest walk-in veterinarian clinic, thank you to the technicians and doctor at VCA Greater Savannah Animal Hospital for checking my little pup out and making sure he was all intact. Very lucky to still have this little yapping fluffy bum by my side.