Lynn Guthrie Finds Magic in Photography

As a kid, new Anderson Artists Guild member Lynn Guthrie once received a Kodak Instamatic camera for Christmas, a moment forever enshrined in—what else?—a photograph. While she enjoyed taking pictures and eventually got herself a “real” camera, it wasn’t until years later, after her kids were older, that she became serious about photography.

One reason is her job as an administrative assistant at the South Carolina School of the Arts at Anderson University (AU). There, she is surrounded by artists of all types, including photographers. “From my office, I can hear someone singing opera and someone else playing Christmas music on a flute,” she said. “It’s phenomenal to see the amount of talent in that building.” She especially enjoys shooting the theatre and dance productions at AU. Many of these artists have encouraged her, and she has learned a lot from YouTube videos. She especially enjoys trying new techniques. One is high key photography—black and white shots with very bright backgrounds. She has also been taking shots of water droplets. “It’s a lot of fun seeing how drops hit a plate of water and can look so different. One picture I took looks like a crown coming out of the water.”

She also takes a lot of pictures of birds, using her Canon R6/100-500 lens to get close. However, her home backs up on some woods, so some days she has only to look out her bedroom window to see a hawk or a trio of bluebirds perched on the deck. One lucky shot at the Riverbanks Zoo occurred when a king vulture straightened out of a hunch. The resulting image looks like a bird’s head on a person’s body, and when she posted it, some insisted she had created a false image with Photoshop.

Guthrie grew up in Florida but moved back to the Upstate (where she’d been born) in 1984. She has a degree in education from a junior college but worked in the medical field as a secretary for 12 years, followed by 16 years doing medical transcription from home. Her greatest professional fulfillment has come with her job at AU, though. She’s the go-to person for everything from student scheduling to the box office. “It’s high energy and high paced and can be very stressful, but I thrive on that,” she said.

For more information about Guthrie, visit Lynn Guthrie Photography on SmugMug or Lynn Guthrie Photography on Facebook.