Why Guarne
We'd been looking for a location that felt untouched — green hills, open sky, no power lines in frame. A friend mentioned a finca near Guarne, about 40 minutes east of Medellin on the road to the airport. We drove up one Sunday to scout. The moment we saw the rolling hills with low fog hanging over the valley, we knew.
Guarne sits at around 2,100 meters. The air is cooler than Medellin, the light is softer, and the mornings have this quiet fog that burns off by 10am. That golden window between the fog lifting and the sun going hard — that's what we were chasing.
The plan
We had two models, one makeup artist, and a small crew of three. The idea was simple: use the landscape as the set. No backdrops, no reflectors (the overcast sky was our softbox), minimal wardrobe changes.
The shot list had three setups:
- Morning fog — portraits in the pasture while the mist was still low
- Midday structure — using the old wooden fences and a stone wall as framing elements
- Golden hour — wide shots in the open hills with warm side light
We packed light. Two camera bodies, three lenses (35mm, 50mm, 85mm), and a single portable speaker because music on set changes everything.
What actually happened
We left Medellin at 5:30am. The fog was thicker than expected — visibility on the road was maybe 20 meters. By the time we arrived at the finca, the valley was completely hidden. You couldn't see 50 meters ahead.
Instead of waiting it out, we started shooting immediately. The fog gave us something we hadn't planned for: a kind of isolation. The models stood in a white void with just the green grass at their feet. It was moody, minimal, and way more interesting than what we had storyboarded.
By 9am the fog started to lift in patches. That in-between moment — fog pulling away but the sun not yet fully through — was the best light of the day. Soft, directional, with natural contrast. We burned through frames.
Then the mud. It had rained the night before and the paths between the pastures were slippery. One of the models was shooting barefoot and completely committed to it. The other was in boots that were caked in mud by the second setup. Neither complained.
The horses
There were three horses on the property. They weren't planned, but they kept wandering into frame. At first we tried to work around them. Then we leaned into it. Some of the strongest images from the day are candid moments — a model standing still while a horse grazed a few meters away, the two of them sharing the same calm.
No posing. No direction. Just presence.
Midday break
By noon the sun was directly overhead and the light was flat and harsh. We stopped, ate lunch at the finca (beans, rice, arepa, aguapanela — the Colombian photographer's fuel), and waited.
This is something we've learned: don't fight midday light. Use it to rest, review shots, adjust the plan for the afternoon. The best work comes when the team has energy, not when everyone is grinding through bad conditions.
Golden hour
Around 4pm the light started to warm up. The hills turned from green to gold. We moved to an open slope with a view of the valley below and shot wide — the models small in frame against the landscape.
These were the simplest shots of the day but they carry the most feeling. Two figures in a vast, quiet place. The scale does the work.
We shot until the light was gone. Packed up in the dark.
What we took away
Guarne gave us something we don't get in the studio: unpredictability. The fog changed the plan. The horses changed the energy. The mud changed the mood. Every "problem" became the thing that made the images interesting.
That's the thing about location shoots — you're collaborating with the place, not just using it as a backdrop. The best images from that day were the ones we didn't plan.
Want to see the final images? Check out the project on our work page when it goes live.