There are so many wonderful inspirational blogs out there and we love getting know some of them.  Beyond the Wanderlust is a blog that was created “for those seeking creativity and inspiration in their personal journey in photography!!”  In addition to beautiful inspiration, Beyond the Wanderlust hosts themed image contests that are a perfect place to show off your images.

Grace Hurtienne of Hurtienne Photography and Jessica of Jessica Klaus Photography are the ladies behind the blog and they sat down and answered a few questions about themselves and their blog that I wanted to share with you.  Check it out below.

What is Beyond the Wanderlust?

Grace- Beyond the Wanderlust is a blog created by photographers for photographers. When Jessica and I first started talking about creating the blog, we knew we wanted a place where people could find inspiration and creativity in their own personal journey with photography; we also knew we didn’t want to be just another blog. We wanted to create a community of artists who can learn, have fun, and become friends! 

Jessica- I agree! We want people to feel comfortable at our blog. Come and just enjoy themselves and not worry about fitting in. 

How did you come up with the name and what does it mean?

Grace- Choosing our name was probably the most challenging thing we have done so far. We must have spent hours and hours searching Google, checking a thesaurus, and asking our husbands and friends for feedback. I can’t remember who actually said it first, but as soon as we heard it, we just knew!

Wanderlust literally means the love of travel and exploration. I think in the heart of every artist, is the desire for a journey and adventure, and since we are always learning, exploring and growing in our journey with photography, and our personal lives, we felt Beyond the Wanderlust was a perfect fit!

Jessica-Yes I think finding our name was one of the hardest things so far. I think I stressed more over that, than my own business name! I truly feel it is just a perfect fit! When you have these other amazing blogs out there, it is hard to put your blinders on and to come up with your own unique name but I do think we have nailed it! 

Tell us a little about the women behind this blog?

Grace- HI!! I’m Grace Hurtienne, pronounced like Martini since I know you were about to ask 😉 I’m married to Jaden, the raddest guy around, as well as my high school sweet heart; and together we are Hurtienne Photography. We specialize in couples and weddings. And of course we also photograph our dogs way to much!! We are both Oregon native, and we just recently moved to Salem. I’ve been a photographer for several years, but I am also a critical care nurse. I’m also a HUGE goof, a terrible cook, and an 80’s music enthusiast. 

Jessica- Oh where to start! I reside in Ohio with my husband (who is also my high school sweetheart) with whom I have been married to for 6.5 years. Together we have three kids, all five and under! Our house is very busy and sometimes a little crazy. I, like Grace, use to work in the medical field, as an MRI tech. After five years at the hospital, I left and started my own personal business. It will be almost two years since I started on this journey. 

How did the two of you meet and come together to create this blog?

Grace- Sometime last winter my hubby and I started making funny videos for our blog. We asked our followers to leave us questions and Jessica left us one that we covered here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URdq7MCxTRI). Soon after we became Facebook friends and started chatting. It just so happened that we both wanted to start a blog and it kind of went from there. Before we knew it we were chatting daily, realizing we both had the same birthday, liked the same things, and it was just pretty obvious we were the perfect fit to start this together!  

Jessica-I can honestly say it has never been so natural to friend a stranger! We now are not strangers and I ask Grace for advice on pretty much everything in my life! I remember when I was going through a name change, I had followed Grace’s page. I reached out to her to figure out how Facebook was handling her change and the ball just went from there. I remember our REAL plans to get things going was New Year’s Eve. And we haven’t looked back!

What inspires each of you as photographers?

Grace- Being born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, I have always been inspired by the beauty in nature and by all of God’s amazing creations. Also, my husband is an incredibly talented musician, and watching him pursue his dream has been so instrumental in me pursuing mine. We have encouraged each other so much, and we both have such amazingly supportive family and friends! I am truly blessed by them all!

Jessica- I have always been a creative person. Love building scrapbooks etc. I remember the first moment that I held a DSLR and I was smitten.  I personally with three children know the importance to photography. I have to say that is probably my number one push, especially being in senior photography, is to give their parents these moments. I love a great sun flare, a warm summer sunset,  and anything urban! Now that kind of sounds like a dating video! 

Who are your favorite photographers and why?

Grace- My favorite thing about running Beyond the Wanderlust is that I am introduced daily to new artists. I don’t think I have a favorite. There are too many. Jeff Newsom said it best when asked what photographer inspired him most- “I am 100% inspired by awesome people. Everyone is so unique and wonderful! I am inspired by every photographer who is making art for themselves, for the sake of art.”

Jessica- I have to completely second that. I am floored by all the talent that I didn’t even know about. I find myself very blessed to be running this blog and being introduced to such amazing people!

 

What can we expect in the future from Beyond the Wanderlust?

Grace- We have SO many awesome things in the works! We just started offering E-Learn courses with mentoring by some pretty rad photographers. We also have a super-secret world-wide collaborative project coming soon, and we’re about to release a Wanderlust Shop. We’re also planning on attending Julie Paisley’s June workshop as her guests, and we’ll be live blogging the entire event!

Jessica-When we started this journey we had lots of future business plans. NEVER did we expect to be at a place to be able to start some of those NOW! We have such amazing things coming. Lots of education, blogging, and specialty projects to inspire!

How can photographers submit their work to your blog?

Grace- Until now, we’ve been pretty relaxed with submitted work, but we have so much happening now, and it’s really important that artists submit their work correctly. We ask for images to be correctly sized, and emailed to us directly, and that all the artists’ info is included, otherwise submissions may be declined. Please click here (http://beyondthewanderlust.com/submissions/) for more info regarding submissions!

Jessica-Grace said it perfect. Please check our blog and find some work that will be a little different than what we are getting! We love having variety for our fans to read!