Jun
05
No, not “old school” as in an old photograph, or even a comedy movie reference, but literally… old school. Like… driving back to the small town I attended high school at, a place I’ve maybe visited twice since graduating about 11 years ago now. A defining moment I think is brewing in this old town. It’s something you can kinda smell in the air, lots of exciting things just around the corner for this place.
In short, the town of Toledo, WA is hurtin’. The community as a whole (including schools, residents, and the local businesses) is slowly eroding away, something Toledo has witnessed within the towns that share it’s very boarders. People new and old, past and present residents don’t want to see it fade away in the wind, and they are trying to do something about it. They’ve created “vision: Toledo,” a group of community members who are pulling together to see what they can do inject life back into Toledo. Being a past resident and student myself, I found it important to do what I could to join the movement. I think attending a small school, actually getting to call everyone in the school by their first names, literally knowing each and every person in the school, and feeling that true sense of community is a privilege. I’ve moved a lot in my life and I got a steady taste of larger schools. In the bigger places it seems like you are just another kid in the giant herd, another tally to an already large number of students, and never really getting that sense of community, cause… well that community is just so big you never really get the full scope of things. I made the conscious decision to attend the Toledo school, see what all the small town fuss was about. Turns out it really was a different kind of experience, something that felt more meaningful, more substantial. Everything from having a better relationship with all the teachers, to sports, to not having to use last names with every peer reference… it was nice. I think I turned out different, better than I would have than if I had attended a larger school, maybe even leaving school feeling like I had a better grasp on my own identity.
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May
24
Keeping the ball rolling, the camera clicking, and the flashes poppin’ this week up in Bellingham with quite the variety of shoots. Completed a photo/video shoot with a tango couple, and you’ll see that content soon. Until then, here are some BTS photos from the shoot!
The colorful/ugly drapes in the background windows are not really drapes, just fabric we’ve clamped in front of the windows to block the daylight so that we could blackout the room, improvising in a not-so-ideal location. What’s up with the funky couch? Well… I just found in hanging out in the hallway, I liked it, I worked it in the shoot.
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May
23
It’s finally here. I’ve been wanting to create an online store for years now, and just finally got around to doing it. What is the online store? Well, it’s place where you can purchase my work in any size and quantity you’d like. The prints are produced by BayPhoto, a professional print shop used by the photography professionals. They produce great prints, have great prices, and deliver right to your door.
I’ve made various photos of mine available at the store, however, I will now be using this store as the vessel for my clients to order prints of their photo shoots.
You can visit the store anytime by clicking the button at the top of the page. Visit often as I will be consistently adding new content!
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May
22
It’s been kind of a crazy week and a half, with all kinds of subject matter in front of my lens. Seven shoots in the last nine days, ranging from fashion to product to aerial photography. It’s been a couple days since my last post and just wanted to check-in with you guys. Lots coming your way via the blog here in the days to come. I don’t want to try and guess the sheer number of photos that have been imported onto my laptop during this last nine days, I just try to keep pushing on and pumping out photo album for my amazing clients. I think I should have something presentable by this evening or tomorrow, so stay tuned!
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May
02
Zoom, it passed right by, another workshop completed, another set of legit photographers roaming the landscape. This is a photo I snuck in of Shawna, one of the students from this last weekend. She’s been shooting for years, but had been letting the camera call all the shots. She was tired of that, decided to take the workshop so she can nail the photos she wants in life.
Still hearing inspiring stories from the first group of beginner workshop students, which is so great to know the benefits of the workshop are still coming for them. For more details on the past workshops, visit the workshop website by clicking on “workshops” at the top of the page.
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Apr
17
If you can remember back last December, I traveled to Maui to shoot a destination wedding. It was an amazing time, the wedding was beyond beautiful, and the Travel channel was there to document this particular wedding. They were doing a piece on destination weddings, and happened to pick Daymeon and Leeann’s event. The video was just released, and I’ve reposted it here on my site. You’ll get a glimpse of me working with the couple on the beach for their formal wedding shots. Enjoy!
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Apr
06
As a thank you to all my future clients (who ever you may be) who schedule your photo shoot with me any time in the month of April will get 5 free prints of the size of your choosing, all the way up to 18×12. Your shoot does not need to be in April, you just need to schedule it during April to get this complimentary offer. And if you live within a 15 minute drive of either my Tacoma or Bellingham photo studios, I will hand deliver the photos, along with your photo disc myself so that I can shake your hand one more time and tell you thank you for choosing Matty Photography. For those who live outside of those ranges, your disc and photos will be carefully packaged and mailed.
My client’s satisfaction with their photography experience is so important to me. I want to make sure you get to see your beautiful photos in large print form so that you can see the amazing quality and care that I invested into creating your photos. My photo shoots are fun, the clients always have a good time. It’s not a time where you are stuffed into a room with a stranger who doesn’t want to make a connection with you. My shoots are spontaneous, anything goes and unique pictures are made. I want to know what you want, so we make pictures that are a culmination of both of our ideas. All of these factors shine through to the final print, which you will now get, free of charge! I can’t wait to get to know you guys and take your photograph!
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Mar
15
Just as the first beginner workshop was wrapping up, I already had people asking when the next one will be. The short answer to that is in about two months. I’ll be presenting the first advanced workshop in roughly a month from now, so keep your eyes peeled on the workshop site for the date/location info!
I’m revamping the workshop website right now, moving to a completely new look. Lots of cool things shortly down the road, and a good momentum off of the very successful beginner workshop.
Photo above, in-class demonstration of some lighting techniques.
Stay Tuned!
Mar
13
The second and final day of the very first beginner workshop has come and gone. The weekend went by SO fast, just whizzed right on by! Lots of information, lots of shooting, and a lot of laughs and smiles through it all. Today was a lot more applying all of the photography knowledge and techniques the students learned from the day before. Example above, Bailey, the brave soul answering my volunteer call for a subject to use for lighting examples. With getting exposure knowledge and techniques all squared away yesterday, the students got a taste of light and how important it is to our composition, and were able to apply everything learned yesterday to refine their photography with light techniques today.
If you are interested in learning about photography from the beginning, or would like to up your game with an advanced class, please take a minute to look over the Matty Photography Workshops site!
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Mar
12
What a great day of photography. The workshop went from 9am to 5pm, only breaking for lunch, so we got a lot of information covered. Everyone in the class is doing great. We have a wide variety of photography experience in the class – from people who have never really touched a DSLR to people who have used DLRs for a while now, but either shoot in automatic modes or do not fully understand how to manipulate the camera to create a wide variety of photography. It was so much fun today to see the students learning the fundamentals and then watching them successfully execute those skills just minutes later during the shooting sessions. I’d have to say the most fun parts of the day were the shooting adventures outside of class. After each major topic section we break for a shoot to adapt the newly learned material. The students quickly fell into a groove and were roaming around the Bellingham streets taking photos, working on the new objectives. A few funny moments as the group of photographers all stood in a line and took photos of passing cars, working on shutter speed techniques. The reactions of the drivers were hilarious, them not quite knowing how to react to their own personal paparazzi snapping photos of them. I love the sound too, 8 DSLRs just capturing away all at once.
Below, the group getting some last quick pointers before going out to do their thing.
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Mar
11
Wow, ok… so finally, the workshops are here and coming at full force. The first beginner workshop kicks-off tomorrow in the morning. Really excited for this, I have more hours in it than I’d like to admit. Creating instructional material is one of those things that you can work on forever, constantly refining, adding to, until you feel like it’s to a point that will make sense to the audience, and not a 225 slide presentation rant by a crazy person high on speed.
It’s a packed class, I just hope that the weather gives us a couple breaks so we can venture outdoors for our “learn by doing” photo sessions. I’m hoping to snag some photos of the class, as well as steal some of their photos at the end of it too (to share with you all). I’ll try and post up some updates if I have some time. It’s gonna be a long, fun, informative weekend!
Feb
14
It’s not really a functional postcard, just advertising material printed on postcard stock, and the standard 4×6 size. These babies are great and ready to be released into the wild. Clean and simple is the theme here. The front of the card at the top of the screen (I’m sure a fun surprise for the model, Myrriah), the back design is below. Gets the point across what I do, right? Leave the rest up to imagination, besides… 4×6 inches doesn’t leave a lot of room to showcase photography if you clutter it up with all them fancy words like “creative” (eye roll). If any of you would like any for shops, friends, whatever, let me know and I can toss you a stack (I got a lot of these things).
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