Jul
01
Portraiture, it’s a pretty simple idea… taking photos of people. Wait… it’s not so easy… dang it. As simple as a portrait concept may be, anyone who has consciously gone out and attempted to take photos with a purpose finds out real quick it is not such a simple job. The translation from idea to materialization is not so simple and quite hard to make these two matchup well. We are talking nearly infinite avenues in which to photograph a person when factors like location of subject, style of lighting, actions of subject, etc. come into play. It’s telling a visual story, no words need be spoken. What kind of story do you want to tell for viewing eyes? The idea drives the photographic work, sculpts the final product. On the topic of bringing mental visions to live, it goes beyond, “hey, I want to photograph _____,” and loosely photographing a subject matter for a few hours in a location that roughly works and produces the basic idea. No, this rough/loose approach won’t work 90% of the time for those who want that image in their mind. It’s really drilling down, not compromising, nailing that exact image in your head. Is the image in your head the image that you want to produce, or simply an inspiring idea to branch-out to some other visual? How do you make this all come together in the concept and planning stages so that you setup for success at the actual shoot? These are things I ask myself, being realistic, and not expecting magic to happen without giving a major contribution on my behalf before I even walk-in to the shoot.
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Jun
21
A few months ago, I began a relationship with Talk It Up TV, a video production business in Bellingham. I produce on-location photography for the team, capturing behind the scenes stuff, fun things that catch my eye, etc. They’ll use the photography both on their website as well as some stills in the shows themselves. It’s been fun, it always brings something fresh for me to capture. My favorite shoot to-date was with Jesse Brand, a talented country artist who is steadily making his claim to fame in the music industry. Better yet, he is from the small town of Ferndale (if you don’t know the place, it’s one of those you swear you could toss a rock from one side and hit the other end of town). Talk TV got whiff that he was going to be in the area and snagged an interview with him.
The Talk TV productions are swift, always around two hours for a shoot, from arriving and scoping out the environment, to shooting and packing back up. They are quick and dirty productions, but they always amazingly piece together an entertaining segment. This leaves my shooting fairly light, I kinda play the fly on the wall for most of the shoots, taking a snap when I can. It’s a challenge to capture a good chunk of visually engaging materials since I can’t be popping off flashes, heck, even taking pictures in general when they are filming (the shutter on my camera is pretty loud, and it’s not a good practice to have a camera shutter competing with the voices of our interview). The photos are hit and miss, and I’m ok with that, it’s what I have to work with.
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Jun
14
A pop, a flash, a split second later, a photograph is made. But this photograph… it’s got some spice to it, something you can’t see with your eyes, and there is a lot more going on than you might think in order to make that photograph. Spoiler alert… it’s off-camera flash lighting. Most of us know about flash, and how it “helps” us take photos, but most don’t know what you can do with it when you know enough to control flash and manipulate your environment (photographically). I’ll spare you non-photographers the details, but this is the method I use 85% of the time I have a camera in front of my face. A literal carload of lighting equipment follows me to every shoot. It’s a giant pain in the ass, a couple hundred pounds of equipment, cords, battery packs, etc. to lug around from shoot to shoot, but in the end, all of it is worth it, well worth it. Photos with or without lighting is a night-and-day difference. To light, or not to light, it’s not really a question in my book, as I’m lighting my compositions every chance I get. After the first shoot I ever did with off-camera lighting a few years back, I was hooked, and I haven’t looked back since. These are the photos that make people stop and look, appreciate the uniqueness that otherwise couldn’t have been achieved without some kind of lighting intervention/manipulation.
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Jun
08
Last month, one of my regular clients, Tiare Floral Design, was chosen to accent the Gala Fundraiser at the Northwest African American Museum with his floral designs. Owner, Tomasi Boselawa, asked me to attend so that I could photograph his work that would be spread throughout the museum. I have captured Tomasi’s work many times, but this was the first at a live event, as all the other occasions were in a staged setting and lighting. This time around I’d be capturing it with the existing lighting. The assignment was just that – capture the flowers in an event setting, to showcase this in a realistic event environment. It’s funny how you have to present things to people like this, as if seeing well-photographed floral designs in a studio doesn’t translate to the possibility of it sitting on a table at an event. But I get it, and I was happy to attend and photograph the designs in such an environment.
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May
24
This has to be my favorite family portrait shoot to date. It also happened to be the largest yet, with 14 (if you count the bulldog). Where do you effectively prop this many people without it looking boring? You have to find the right location which is a good compromise of lighting everyone well, everyone looking naturally posed, and make a fun looking photograph. After all, if we wanted everyone standing uniform, lacking any kind of creativity, they may as well get their portrait at Sears. To ensure I accomplished all of the above, I went scouting the day prior to the shoot, making sure the location would foster the right kind of fun, natural shots I was after for such a large group.
I picked a location in the North end of Tacoma. Within a small area we had lots of options, lots of different props to stand, lean, and sit on. This made my job easier, allowed the family members to situate themselves without much direction from me, and that lead to more natural looking photos. If people sit themselves you get a picture of “them.” It made things move much quicker and we got a lot more photos take. Was the posing “picture perfect?” Absolutely not, and that, in my opinion, is what makes them work that much better. It’s a half posed, half candid style.
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May
15
They are hectic, exciting, sexy, exhausting, exhilarating, and chaotic all at once. I’m talking about fashion shows. Sure, sitting out by the catwalk waiting for the show to start, everything seems normal, maybe even down-right boring, peeking to see when the models will start to strut their stuff. Well, the pre-show catwalk is the ying to the backstage’s yang. Ironically, the backstage is where I wanted to be to capture the Fashion Night Out event that London Couture was hosting. It was the busyness, the prep, the inside look into what goes into a fashion show, but at the same time, snag some seemingly calm images of the models before they hit the runway. I spoke with the owner of London Couture, Tina London, a couple days before the event, and was able to snag the backstage access. I knew there was going to be a herd of photographers there to click away on the catwalk, but if you know me, you know I’m always out to get the shots and the look no one else is getting or thinking of.
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May
04
Mother’s Day, it’s just around the corner, and what better way to tell your mother you love her than surprising her with a photo she can enjoy for years to come. I ventured down to the Rochester elementary school and photographed three 3rd grade classrooms.
Kids are funny, flat-out. It was kind of a harmonious occasion, as I was once on a path to becoming a teacher. As far as college credit goes, I’m about three quarters of classes short of my education degree. I even went through some student teaching experience. I was interested in teaching elementary school, third grade to be more specific. I found that age to be the most fun. You can still have a lot of fun with that age group, they are smart enough to have interesting conversations, maintain wild imaginations, but have not yet hit that “too cool” stage. The questions and topics that pop up with these kids are hilarious. It’s the sweet spot if you ask me.
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Apr
29
Lots of things in the making here at the base of operations for Matty Photography. It’s gonna be a really busy next week, so I’m posting a little goodie for you guys while I know I have a chance. Speaking of not getting a chance, I never posted up on the last Upfront shoot that I did a month or two back. Love working with these guys, all I have to do is setup my lights and pull my camera up to my face, the Upfront crew takes care of the rest. I’d really love to actually take the time and setup a concept with them, as we’ve only shot in and around the theater. The shot above literally taken of Galen (doing the ‘thinker’) and Morgan (doing the serious face, patent pending) in the recycling dumpster out back. All of the photography with them so far has all been shot from the hip (pardon the pun), and somehow we come out with something that works. I guess that’s cause of the sheer amount of character they can stir up from thin air at the word “go.” Need one of them to make a face? How about 30 different faces, a new one after each pop of the flash? They can pretty much all do it, and do it well. Over 700 photos, yes, that’s right 700 photos, which of that all have the cast expressing something different, whether that be a face or body expression. The variety of our shoots only limited by the amount of time I have to capture it all. The tough part comes down to having to pick your favorites out of 700 photos, all which truly are good. Hence this post’s photos are just a blind pick of the bunch, and in no particular order. Enjoy, and be on the lookout for more photos and video productions waiting in the hopper to be presented…
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Apr
27
Variety, it’s a huge perk to a few lucky photographers out there. I’m happy to say that I feel like one of them. It’s really fun looking back to see where my camera has taken me. A few places my camera has seen this last year – Alaska, Maui, all over the PNW, and coming this late June, Arizona. But sometimes the fun stuff is right around the corner, or in this case, right down the tracks.
Good friend and P-51 Pictures video director, Andy Lahmann, is always helping out my photo biz when he is available and within a reasonable proximity to my photo shoots. So when he asked me if I’d take some photos for his movie poster design, I was happy to answer the call.
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Apr
23
This has been a photo concept that has been floating around in my head for over six months. Seeing it finally come to life was a lot of fun. Whatcom Sound, a DJ services business, is one of my commercial clients in the Bellingham area. They are armed to the teeth with an army of sound equipment. A while back, while visiting Paxton, the owner, I took notice of all of the speakers lining the main office walls. At that moment, the lightbulb popped on, an idea already brewing in my noggin’. The shear number and size of speakers lead to Guitar Hero-like visions in my head, a rocker performing windmill strums along their electric guitar, surrounded by an wall of speakers, colored backlighting striking the scene, and a splash of fog to give just the right recipe for our drama/color smoothie. I got home and drew out the concept, and to my delight, the photograph that followed that drawing months after was identical (I can draw one mean stick figure holding a guitar, I’ll tell you that much). Aside from the crudeness of my quick doodle, making it’s way to paper simply to prevent forgetting the idea all together, it ended up being exactly what I sought when it came to attempting to bring it to life with a camera months later. Really fun when that happens.
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Apr
20
There is on-location work and then there is on-location work. The bigger the challenge the more I love it, whether that is challenges with the composition, lighting, or time allotted for the shoot. Walking into a never-before-seen situation on top of a very limited time window, all while conducting the shoot in front of a crowd is… fun! This was the situation last week for a packed MMA event in Tacoma.
Smokin’ Hot Espresso, one of my regular business clients, were one of the sponsors, and some of the baristas were the ring girls. I’ll usually attend their events to document the occasion, however, this time I wanted to do something a little more fun. There is an octagon in the middle of this place, and how often to do you get the chance to hold your own personal photo shoot in one of them? This was my thinking anyway, so I had the girls show up an hour early to do a quick shoot.
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Apr
12
I had the pleasure of working with Sam, a Smokin Hot Espresso barista, completing a photo shoot for her punch card design. Up until just recently, I’ve had the opportunity of meeting most of the baristas prior to doing a shoot with them, but the business had just brought a few girls on and I hadn’t covered any events for the business where I had the opportunity to meet the new girls prior to my first shoot with them. Hence this occasion for Sam, her arrival to my studio being our first formal introduction, so you never know how it’s going to go. I like to always meet the girls ahead of time so that they get to know me, to see that I’m down-to-earth, I like to joke around, and I’m not a “creepy guy with a camera” (the photo industry has become so littered with guys who buy cameras just to have an excuse to photograph women in skimpy clothing, that they have an abbreviation for them, CGWC – creepy guy with camera. They are easy to pick out cause their photos are crap, go figure). I am a photo professional, unlike a lot of those jokers out there, and the girls see that upon our first conversation, and it puts them at ease. Most of the girls have never done any professional shoots before, so it can compound the photo anxiety, meeting a person for the first time, while also having to be photographed in… revealing apparel.
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