Man Drives Four Hours for a Blind Date Photo Shoot with a Girl He's Never Met Before — and the Photos Go Viral (Exclusive)

• A photographer in Oregon set up two singles with a blind date photo shoot
• Traci Hume tells PEOPLE she got the idea after meeting Baleigh Richards and hearing about what she was looking for in a partner
• Lane Hersha answered a casting call, driving four hours for the shoot. And then the photos went viral

Imagine the show Love Is Blind, but with a twist!

An Oregon-based couple went viral on TikTok after their photographer shared a roundup of pictures that were taken on their blind date photo shoot in July, marking the beginning of a potential romance for the two in the future.

Baleigh Richards and Lane Hersha were the pair at the heart of the shoot, while Traci Hume was the photographer. In two exclusive interviews with PEOPLE, both the romantic hopefuls and the lady behind the lens opened up about the unique date, how it came to be and what the duo's status is today.

Hume met Richards prior to the date when they worked together on a separate photo shoot about four weeks before the blind date. At the time, Hume recalls Richards mentioning that she was single and thought it'd be "fun" to do a blind date photo shoot.

"I wrote up an ad for Baleigh and what she was looking for," recalls Hume of the casting call. "Someone outdoorsy, someone with a good personality and being an overall a good person" were some of Richards' "wants in a man," Hume tells PEOPLE.

"I'm 5'10" so I wanted someone that's a little bit taller than I am," Richards adds.

Hersha, who lives approximately four hours north of Richards in Oregon, came across the ad through a mutual friend who had shot with Hume in the past. "I would've never considered myself to be someone to do a blind date before this," he tells PEOPLE.

"But at the time, it just sounded like a good time," adds Hersha, noting that he knew little information about Richards prior except that she was a horse trainer. "I was like, 'Oh, that's it, right there', " he adds of what sealed the deal.

Hume, who says nearly 200 people responded to her ad, continued her "matchmaker" role and selected Hersha as the person who'd pose opposite Richards in the photos. "He totally looked like her type," Hume says.

The photo shoot took place at a park in Medford, Oregon, in July. Richards met at Hume's house to get ready and drove with her husband to the set in a separate car so she wouldn't see Hersha before it was time for the shoot.

Hersha, meanwhile, journeyed approximately four hours to the location where he was tasked to put on a blindfold upon his arrival. Hume then guided him to a beautiful spot situated on an old country road where he was placed back-to-back with Richards, who was also blindfolded.

"I am a very extroverted, bubbly, go-with-the-flow person," Richards says, recalling "slight nerves" before the big reveal. As for Hersha, he says he felt "a lot of excitement" in the moment, especially because he was "hyping it up the whole drive" and "listening to music" to mentally prepare.

Richards, though, was quick to jump in and clarify. "Let me start by saying this man is way more nervous than what he is leading on," she jokes as he laughs. "So we started out by holding hands ... This man was shaking to death."

Ultimately, the time came for the couple to remove their blindfolds, a moment Hume was sure to capture both on camera and video. Richards' initial reaction? "Oh my God, he's cute and tall. Thank the Lord," she remembers.

Plus, Richards says "his personality was great." She thought to herself in the moment, " 'Okay, this is going to work out. This is a good match' ."

When Hersha took the blindfold off and saw Richards for the first time, he says that's when "the oh-no really set in" and made him think, "I got to be on my A-game here." Once the jitters went away, he says he "started following in her footsteps" and the photo shoot date "became a good time."

Hume sensed their chemistry immediately. "She was just batting her eyelashes," she says of Richards. "You could tell he really liked her and she was there for it. She was all for it."

The couple's "physical and emotional attraction" influenced Hume's decision to pose them the way she did throughout the hour-long shoot. "They liked each other — and if they didn't, I wouldn't have posed them the way I did," she says. "It would've been a really short photo shoot!"

Richards and Hersha took a variety of photos, many of which "were a bit more intimate" because Hume says she "wanted to feel them out." Still, she made sure to go at the new pair's "own speed," especially since it was only the first date.

One of the shots sees Hersha sweetly kissing Richards on the forehead as she sits in his lap, smiling as they're cozied up on a picnic blanket in the country field. Another image sees the pair dancing on the country road, while a third captures their back-to-back moment upon first meeting.

"I've been told they look like engagement pictures," Richards says of the final product. "I think Traci's epic for how good her editing and overall photography skills are ... we probably couldn't have had a better photographer than her. She absolutely knocked it out of the park with those pictures."

Hersha adds, "They are awesome. Every once in a while, I'll still go back and look at all of them just because it was so much fun." He notes, "Traci's setup was amazing, too!"

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While the newly introduced couple were able to chat between takes and spend time together during the shoot, they chose to continue the date once it had wrapped.

"After the shoot, we ended up going to the county fair together," Richards shares. "We went on some of the rides and he actually won me a little alien on the sledgehammer thing." She continues, "It was fun. We hung out, drank some beers — and then after that, we called it a night."

Hersha says, "We were having a really good time and getting to know each other outside of the photo shoot vicinity. This was our time to dig into details with each other, spend some time and have a good time at the county fair."

"We're both kind of more country style," he notes. "So I think it was the perfect second date."

In the months that have followed the photo shoot, Richards and Hersha haven't been able to reunite in person due to the distance between them and their respectively busy work schedules — however, they're optimistic about the future.

"We're hoping to definitely have more time together. It's just hard right now because of work," Richards says, though notes that they "do talk all the time." If they were able to, she says, "I'm sure we would spend a lot more time together."

"It is a bit of a drive," Hersha emphasizes with a laugh.

And while "there's no label" on their relationship at the moment, Richards says she "definitely can see that being a thing in the future ... hopefully."