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.