Author: Matt

04 Mar

Posted at 19:25h in Just for Fun
matty_3.4.11_ 021 Ok, so have to share a funny story with you guys. Took some pics, as you know, pics are always a good idea with any fish story, right (ok, that was cheesy). I recently purchased a new betta fish, Ruby. Ruby is well... mostly red, and full of spunk. For those who don't know, betta fish are quite smart, have amazingly varying characteristics from fish to fish, and can actually be trained to do tricks. People have trained them to jump out of the water or swim through a hoop for food (seriously, who are you people? Go do...things... just do something, you are making your fish swim through a hoop for it's food). From what I hear, most fish are mostly active at night and sleep during the day. The opposite is true for bettas, they tend to mirror humans when it comes to sleep schedules. So, I've had Ruby for 3-4 days now and I've been watchin' him, seeing how he's adapting, and he keeps me company as I work on my laptop at the desk here.

27 Feb

Posted at 16:27h in Shoots
IMG_2561 About a month ago, Lindsey was my first barista to photograph in the new Tacoma studio for Smokin' Hot Espresso. Working as the company's staff photographer, I am making sure we get a couple shoots in a month, including additional shoots which we call "punch card shoots." Smokin' Hot Espresso gives regular customers punch cards, which after purchasing 10 drinks, they get one for free. Each girl who works for the business gets their own personalized punch card with their photo on it to hand out to customers. So as new employees come onboard, they get to come down to my studio for a photo shoot so that we have photographic content for their card as well as any additional marketing material we may put together down the road. We've been doing the personalized punch cards ever since I started doing all of the photography for them about a year and a half ago.

24 Feb

Posted at 14:02h in Video
spaceTrekHeader Rewind to just this last weekend. Up in my Bellingham studio editing photos, a song on my iTunes played through my speakers that immediately forced me into a collage of mental imagery (it was a piece of music from the newish Star Trek movie). More specifically, a short video montage cut in a music video style and length, utilizing the Upfront Theatre main stage players as our Star Trek characters. Before the two and a half minute song finished, I was already picking up my phone to call Stephen Edwards, one of the main stage comedians. It took even less time for Stephen to jump on-board with the idea as I excitedly explained my vision over the phone. One lunch meeting later, the gears were greased with enough key shot concepts to go ahead with casting the project and scheduling a shoot date.

24 Feb

Posted at 13:52h in Events
matty_2.19.11_ 052 Last Saturday evening, I photographed a teen dance at the Whatcom Community College. It was quite the scene, I'd guess about 500ish teens shakin' their stuff. I also setup a photo booth for the kids to come over and get a fun photo. The photos were shot up on a GIANT screen via a live feed from my laptop to the projector, so everyone in the dance room would see them. As soon a I took the picture, it was projected on the screen and I sent the photo directly the the subject's email, allowing them to view their photo almost instantly on their phones. It was a pretty cool setup. Here's a couple pics showing the scene.

19 Feb

Posted at 15:41h in Events, Shoots
matty_2.17.11_ 102 Thursday night at the Upfront Theatre was the place to be. In front of a sold out crowd, the main stage players put on one of the best shows I've ever seen. It was a non-stop string of laughter that made an hour of entertainment seem like only 10 minutes. Ryan Stiles was there, performing with the last group of the 8pm show. For those of you that do not know, Ryan owns the Upfront. He started it up a few years back, and he's been regularly performing with the rest of the main stage players on Thursday nights if he is in town. I have a scheduled shoot with the theatre on Sunday, but I came to the performance to get some live shots, and I'm SO glad that I did. I stayed and captured both the 8 and 10pm shows, both providing plenty of laughs. The first show, an ensemble of the whole gang split into three groups. The second show, presented by The Project, a format hosted by Morgan Grobe and Stephen Edwards, "General Tso's Comedy Show." I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking, and stay tuned for more photos from B-ham!

18 Feb

Posted at 17:01h in Just for Fun
matty_2.17.11_ 471 I attended the Thursday night showings at the Upfront Theatre yesterday. Man, I think it could have been the best show I've personally seen performed there. I was taking pics the whole time and laughing the whole time. I had to catch myself a few times, laughing so hard when I was taking pics that it was chancing blurring the photos. Ryan Stiles was in attendance, and perform for the crowd last night with the rest of the players. Above, a little sneak peek from the late show. Morgan and his belly, a man not scared to put it out there. As you can see, even one of the guest comedians couldn't help but take it all in. Lots more to come from the number of shoots to come during the week in Bellingham. Just wanted to give you a taste. Stay tuned...

14 Feb

Posted at 16:16h in Info/News
mattyFront3 It's not really a functional postcard, just advertising material printed on postcard stock, and the standard 4x6 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... 4x6 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).

14 Feb

Posted at 11:52h in Behind the Scenes, Info/News
matty_2.12.11_ 355 Just wanted to post an update... Had my first official newborn baby shoot last Saturday. For just being a couple weeks old, Makenna was a very alert baby! I'm sure all of the flashes popping off didn't help. Up above a BTS shot, Cherial comforting her new daughter. This was not a setup at all. We were shooting and Makenna started to get a little uneasy, so mom stepped in for a couple minutes. Lights happened to be in the right spot and I took a couple shots. That baby is a limp sack of potatoes in her are, completely relaxed. I'm in the middle of going through these and wanted quickly share two that I really like. These are the shots I took on a whim as Cherail was holding Makenna between setups.

11 Feb

Posted at 17:01h in Just for Fun
matty_2.10.11_ 090 5:30pm, primetime for commuters to robotically make their way home on the major roadways. A drastic, yet true statement. We've all been there, left with no choice but to hop in with the vast stream of cars as they all try to make their way home at the worst possible traveling hour. It really sucks to be in, however, it's another kind of amazing to be at a vantage point to watch it happen. Another things happens at 5:30 this time of year, and that is the sunset. This gave me an opportunity to do some long exposures, capturing all of the craziness traversing the Narrows Bridge. At the last overpass before the bridge, I made some pictures. Got there a little early so I could get some faint mountains in the background and maybe some sunset shots. The sunsets haven't been kind to me lately, all kinda just getting mucky and losing color. Thanks PNW! Here's my basic setup, shot most of these with a 100-400mm zoom, and a couple with a wide angle.

09 Feb

Posted at 14:46h in Shoots
matty_1.30.11_ 096 Say what?! Senior pictures... this time of year? Yep. About a week ago, I captured, what I can safely say, will be my last senior picture session for the graduating class of 2011. Emily, a senior this year, works on the yearbook staff (I guess a perk is that you can submit your photo SUPER late - I tease, Emily), and with great responsibility comes... great procrastination? I don't know, and didn't care, cause all it means is that I got to have another fun senior photo shoot. We shot in and around my Tacoma studio. Speaking of perks, one of the major perks of my studio location is being a part of a large group of work spaces located inside of a large antique mall. Three floors of really cool, old "stuff." (Ok, not trying to hijack my own blog post here, but I'm in a coffee shop writing this right now and a 50 year old dude just walked in, and he is rockin' a seriously large mullet. What's the deal with that? People, come on. Joe Dirt called, he wants his mullet back, and even he said that mullets are out right now. Ok, sorry, I'll focus, back to the post). Anyways, the studio and the surrounding space is filled with all kinds of shooting possibilities, and a huge reason why I selected this as my studio location. Not to mention it is right in the middle of downtown Tacoma, so walking outside the doors puts you in some serious metro shooting locations, including a graffiti garage I frequent, all within walking distance.

04 Feb

Posted at 17:19h in Behind the Scenes, Gear, Tips & Techniques, Video
IMG_0578 Life is all about time, or rather the lack of, right? Time is always the most scarce resource, even if you have all the time in the world, others around you, or even mother nature does not. As a photographer, "good light" naturally only happens in small fragments of time, and we counter this by using off-camera light, even when we don't need to in order to get even "better" light. I think we need to put all our cancer curing resources and task them into figuring out how to extend really nice sunsets to say... twice as long (I kid.... but seriously). Here is a behind the scenes video I cut together today, it showcases a little bit of the stuff we did while we were running around the island.

02 Feb

Posted at 20:32h in Shoots
matty_1.26.11_ 067 Stephen Edwards, a regular improv comedian at the Upfront Theatre, is starting up a new show. 'The Comedy Panel' will debut at the Upfront February 10th, at 10pm, and will feature Bellingham's favorite improv comedians to entertain the crowd. Stephen approached me a couple weeks ago, let me in on his new show, and wanted me to shoot the photography for the marketing. The main idea was that the photography presented Stephen as the host and the other comedy players as... well... the players. So how do you clearly represent this and identify people in a photograph without drawing arrows with labels to different people on the poster?

25 Jan

Posted at 18:01h in Shoots
matty_1.6.11_ 008 Smokin' Hot Espresso, one of my regular business clients, asked me to come up with a flyer for their upcoming charity event, 'Bikini Bowling.' As soon as they popped the question, "can you design it?" I knew exactly what I wanted to do. "Give me in the bowling alley with one of the baristas and you'll have a great flyer," was my instant response. This is a fundraising event for a fellow who is going through his third bout of cancer. It's very generous of Smokin' Hot to donate their time, creating a fun evening to raise money to help pay for all the medical expenses.

21 Jan

Posted at 19:23h in Events
matty_1.15.11_ 064 At least it seemed so at Richard's 50th birthday party. And when I say party... it really was a party. I don't think anyone would have guessed this was a birthday party if they stumbled in, it was the next level of party. The event was held at the Pacific Grill event center. I'd say that the space comfortably holds 125ish people, but Richard is a pretty popular guy. I would have pegged the attending number around 250+. That meant standing room only for a good number of people, and limited space for me to work. It was all good though, everyone had a great time, and the limited space made everything a bit more exciting. The shots below were the first two of the evening, and probably my favorite. Richard's father, who lives in another part of the country, was not supposed to be in attendance, however, he made the trip and was there to surprise his son. Here are two consecutive frames - Richard walking in like he owns the place ;), and then when his father walks around the corner. Love the second shot and how it is framed, father with arms out. It tells a great story.

12 Jan

Posted at 21:39h in Shoots
matty_1.2.11 164 Spent a couple hours working with Tomasi, owner and designer of Tiare Floral Design, as we shot a handful of awesome boutineer creations he put together. The idea of the shoot is to give future customers a little taste of what Tomasi can do for formal event floral menswear. He's looking at using these photos to assemble a photo book. About a dozen boutonnieres to shoot, mixing them with different clothing, locations, and a variety of close and wide shots for each. I've been working with Tomasi for quite some time now, but all of the shoots so far have been strictly floral designs. This was the first go-around with integrating a model in with the flowers. It's something that I've been wanting to do with Tomasi since our first meeting.

09 Jan

Posted at 15:25h in Events, Shoots
matty_12.12.10 017 Wow, ok... the last and final installment to this whole shebang, the trash the dress shoot. We met-up the day after the wedding, around sunset. Leeann and Daymeon's condo was just down the block from mine, so we just met at the beach that at across the street. Now, these might be my favorite shots from the whole week. It was my first 'trash the dress' shoot, so I was pretty excited. The scene was pretty funny. We roll up, girl in wedding dress, guy with big camera, and Alice (my assistant) walking around to a good-sized mobile softbox. Toss girl with big white dress into the surf and everyone walking the beach stops to watch. There were actually other groups down there taking pics of family and friends. Before you know it, they have turned their cameras on us, taking pics of us doing our thing. Before you knew it, a crowd had gathered, with probably 30 sets of eyes on the shoot.

09 Jan

Posted at 14:14h in Events, Shoots
matty_12.11.10 525 Getting tired of these wedding posts yet? This is the second-to-last one, so hang in there, cause this is the good stuff! Yes, by that I mean the lighting stuff. Towards the end of the wedding reception, I pulled Leeann aside to get some "fun photos." I had been eyeing the alter they got married under ever since I arrived early that day. I knew it would make a great location to work-in some light, and make some interesting compositions. Started simple, with one light, 2'x2' softbox for front light. Then added some edging details to both the bride and flowers with a bare backlight directly behind Leeann.

09 Jan

Posted at 12:34h in Events
matty_12.11.10 378 Pictured above are Leeann and her best buds. It's great when you see a group of friends stick together, even 10 years after high school. Sure, new friends will come and go along the years, but there is just something about those high school friends that makes it special. Soon after the portraits were wrapped, the sun dipped below the sea, leaving torches, chandeliers, and candles to light the reception.

08 Jan

Posted at 15:19h in Events, Shoots
matty_12.11.10 348 Ok, so getting into the stuff I LOVE to do, setting up some fun shots, and bringing in some lighting. The formal portraits. Got Leeann and Daymeon on the beach as the sun was setting. Even though we had some pretty thick cloud cover, we got some fun colors in the sky. Knocked these out in 5 minutes or less. The sun was setting and I had to get the couple back to their party!