Karen & Steven Hunter, Let There Be Light (2024)

“We hired Payton Hayes as an editor for our self-published photography book. It was definitely a learning experience for us, not having need of an editor for our three previous books. Payton endured through us not reading the entire packet of information she first sent, misunderstandings (due to both of us communicating to her but not with each other), us sending changes to her before they were actually ready (in the wrong format), delays for a variety of reasons, and our stubbornness or lack of compliance. She was probably quite frustrated with us, but Payton adapted and adjusted for us over and over again. She sent new communications and re-sent information, including the first communication, several times to be sure we understood why she was doing the edits she was doing. She explained and expounded on where she was coming from with the edits and on what she wanted us to know. And in the middle of it all (when we switched horses in midstream, so to speak, on what we wanted from her) Payton never missed a beat, smoothly reorienting herself and forging onward. Let There Be Light: Images of Oklahoma is a better book due to Payton Hayes’s editing help. She did more than edit our work and words; it was vividly apparent that she did massive amounts of research into the animals and locations in Steven's photographs.”  —Karen & Steven Hunter, Let There Be Light: Images of Oklahoma (2024)