Like the many before it, the viral #HobbyLobbyChallenge or #MichaelsChallenge is taking hold of the internet. Unlike the Tide Pod Challenge (please do not try this), the Craft Store Challenge is much safer and anyone can do it.

The challenge itself involves going into a craft store with a friend and taking pictures in the fabric flower aisle. But what makes the task difficult is it’s goal: to create a portrait where the viewer cannot tell that the photo was taken indoors at a strip mall.

Many things about the challenge are debated and remain unknown, such as the true founder of the challenge, if you will get kicked out of the store, and how challenging the task actually is.

Some of these questions were unable to be answered, however, to discover as much as possible, the challenge needed to be tried.

So myself, local photographer Vieda Paola, and sophomore Cristina Cuevas joined together to try this for ourselves to see what would happen.

Cuevas started out the challenge by creating a lovely warm pink eye look for me to wear in the store. While she did my makeup we spoke about the challenge.

“I would really like to go in before and match tones to create a look,” Cuevas said, but also added “I would love to take pictures too. Being able to take the pictures and edit them would be so wild and cool to do.”

With the eye look completed and Cuevas needing to get to her next class, Paola and I took to the road. Just under three miles away on Snelling, or four stops away on the A Line bus going north, in the HarMar mall, we entered Michaels.

Through our research we found that Hobby Lobby had many reports of people being asked to not take photos and to leave the store. On the other hand, Michaels issued a public statement across social media platforms welcoming all hopefuls to come and use their store.

As I squatted on the floor by the fabric flowers with my head surrounded by blooms I received a few strange looks from shoppers. Employees, however, maneuvered by our set-up with skill as if it was something they saw every day.

I spoke with Paola after the shoot and we discussed the difficulty of taking the photos. Finding what angles worked took a bit of practice, but once we got the hang of it we were able to successfully complete our shoot in just over 40 minutes. Working with the bright fluorescents of the store was a challenge for us, as was sliding into the flowers while hiding the tags on them.

We had a lot of fun completing this challenge, and I encourage any Hamline students open to challenging themselves to take a short trip down the street to get creative. You can share the photos with us at our email oracle@Hamline.edu.

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