[4] His mother taught sixth grade, and his father worked as a professor's assistant (PA) at Cornell University.
[9] Hurlbut moved to Los Angeles in 1987, where he began work in film as a driver, key grip, and gaffer, before becoming a cinematographer.
[1] He met director Rob Cohen while working on the Donna Summer/Bruce Roberts music video for the 1996 disaster film Daylight.
[1] Hurlbut assisted friends from Southern Cayuga in their film careers, including Dan Wade and Tim Carr.
[15] "With 300 students dancing, running, jumping, singing and playing, Stone and cinematographer Shane Hurlbut bring you right inside the brassy band, nudged between the tubas, saxophones and clarinets," wrote Clint O'Connor of The Plain Dealer.
"[16] Hurlbut worked with director Barry Levinson, as cinematographer for The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman advertisements for American Express.
[21] In a review of Into the Blue for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Hartlaub noted, "director of photography Shane Hurlbut does some nice work in tight places".
[22] Though Associated Press writer David Germain gave a negative review overall of Into the Blue, he wrote positively of Hurlbut's cinematography work, commenting: "Shane Hurlbut's cinematography buoys the movie, but his lovely pictures of the actors swimming among jellyfish and shimmery aquatic vegetation cannot compensate for everything else.
"[23] Bob Strauss of the Los Angeles Daily News also wrote positively of Hurlbut's work in his review of Into the Blue, writing: "The undersea photography, much of it shot amid schools of wild sharks, is exquisite..."[24] Strauss also commented positively on Hurlbut's work on the 2005 film The Greatest Game Ever Played, writing he "does a great job of making golf look cinematic".
"[28] Kevin Canfield of The Journal News noted that Hurlbut assisted director Sanaa Hamri with "one lovely scene of the lovers bathed in the orangy light of morning and another, shot from overhead, of couples twirling on a dance floor".
[30] Hurlbut worked as cinematographer on the 2008 film Semi-Pro starring Will Ferrell, and Steven Boone of The Star-Ledger noted: "...Shane Hurlbut's widescreen sports cinematography does conspire with two notorious disco covers of classical music to give us a thrill along with the cheap laughs.
[32] Hurlbut and McG decided to use vintage lenses and film stock from the time period to evoke a feeling of the 1970s.
[38] Bale acknowledged the two worked together for several hours after the incident, and "at least a month after that", and noted "I've seen a rough cut of the movie and he has done a wonderful job.