Purchase a Matty Photography gift card for a friend or family member and give the gift that not only lasts a lifetime, but generations. Gift cards can be bought in any dollar amount, and then applied to your special person's photo shoot. They are the perfect...
Remember the days when you saw a really awesome photograph that was visually engaging say... 10 years ago? The comment that inevitably seeped from your mouth was something along the lines of "this is so good, it looks fake," yet full well knowing it was most likely the real deal, cause at that point in time digital photography and photoshop artists were just really starting to go mainstream and it was uncommon for a photograph to undergo complete and utter manipulation by the knife of a photochopper. Today it's the exact opposite, if the photo looks awesome it's gotta be fake. Something has been tweaked, thinned, trimmed, cut and pasted, filtered, and/or drawn. Which brings me into the meat of the discussion...
What has photography become? How unrealistic have we become, how have our expectations lost every little scrap of perspective on the real world? As I browse thousands of model and photographer portfolios I'm overwhelmed by the amount of doctored photographs, neither providing true representation of themselves or work. A model with so much post work done to her she looks like a barbie doll (no exaggeration), and photographers claiming work as "photography" after a picture has spent a good few hours getting "tweaked" in photochop (yes, chop). Hell, the only ones being honest are the photochoppers showing their work, cause that is their true work.
I'm happy to announce that the Matty Photography website and all other internet services are powered 100% by wind energy. The page you are reading right now is being powered by good ol' mother nature, just a blowin' away. And to think, of all those...
Meet Spencer, a senior in high school this year. He'd been on the books for about a month and our date was all set for the first weekend in September for an outdoor shoot (the type you can typically plan far in advance for in the summer). The day before an outdoor shoot I'll use good ol' weather.com for hourly reports for the coming 24 hours, the thing is pretty darn accurate. It wasn't looking good, the chances of rain happened to peak the same hour we scheduled to shoot, awesome... A backup location was selected and we would reroute to it last minute if needed, and boy did we. Though we are not officially in the Fall season yet it certainly felt that way. Rain coming down in sheets, hardest I'd seen since the Spring. Wind blowing in gusts, so even if we got lucky and had a dry window, a good puff from the Gods would use my softboxes like sails and toss my lights to the ground, most likely shattering the bulbs. While shooting in an old garage the wind still found one of my lights and tried it's darndest to trash it before I could get a sandbag on the base, but Spencer was heads-up enough to catch the thing to lessen the blow on the way to the ground (thanks, bud ;)).
Summer is coming to an end, days are getting shorter, and I have still only gotten out to ride my motorcycle a handful of times during our 4 good months of riding weather here in Washington. While looking at this set of photos it occurred to me, I think I've photographed my bike more times this year than I have ridden it. But at the same time, I like looking at the machine almost as much as I like riding it, it's a piece of art all by itself.
I wanted to shoot something extremely simple yet visually engaging, and this shoot provided just that. I've recently been playing with a lot of color gels, creating vivid backgrounds on the seamless. I posed the bike in front of the seamless, threw a single strobe behind the bike with a color gel, and popped the picture. I wanted a nice gradient light falloff, which the single light did perfectly, while also keeping to our "simple" theme for the shoot. Lisa stood in as my shadow rider (I wouldn't recommend following her riding technique out on the streets ;) ).
So I ponied up some dough and bought the AlienBee RingFlash system a couple weeks ago. Just got out in the studio to finally play around with if for the first time. Lisa, the brave soul for most of my lighting testing, stepped in to let me blind her at point-blank range for an hour or so. I will feel fully responsible if this poor girl looses her sight by the ripe old age of 30, cause at the current rate, it's totally a possibility.
Attention all you B-hamers, I'll be up and shooting the weekend of September 26th and 27th. Some stuff is already in the works, so contact me to check for availability. The first week into the Fall season, would be a great time for senior pictures,...
There is something about the leisurely walk-around shoot that usually makes me feel like one of those dorks in the tourist herd. You know... THAT guy, who drops a grand on an entry level DSLR (only to use it in full automatic mode) to compliment his pleated shorts, nurse-white sneakers, knee-high socks, completing the ensemble with the all-important fanny pack. Wandering without a mission, just taking pictures of anything that catches my fancy, I could see how I could appear like a lost soul, taking pictures of walls, flowers, and architecture from awkward angles like I have an equilibrium problem. Well, minus the heinous outfit and plus a decent amount of camera knowledge, that's what I looked like last Sunday afternoon. On second thought, a hefty fanny pack that could lug a 3lb lens around without too much of a fuss wouldn't be a bad idea for a quick lens change... or maybe I could market something like that and put my stamp on it. The "matty fanny" does have a good ring, right? Anywho, I really don't mind blending in with the other joe's with DSLRs in-hand, it's a nice change of pace from my normal shoots with all the lights and equipment (and sometimes a half-clothed model) that tend to gather onlookers.
A couple weeks ago I posted a blog about nurse camp, an event I covered at Tacoma General Hospital, along with a few pictures. As I mentioned in that post (click here to view it), I shot video as well. I mainly shot the video as a little afterthought, thinking it would be nice if the hospital staff would want some rough, stock video of the event. Well, one thing led to another and I ended up editing a video piece unexpectedly after I got the idea in my head. Working close with the nursing staff, I cut together a video in hopes that it will help promote the nurse camp and generate further interest for the hospital.
The Fairhaven Village Inn, located in Bellingham, WA, was in need of some new promotional material, and I was happy to help. Another early morning, 3:30 am I believe. I was shooting in tandem with video producers from P-51 Pictures, as they were shooting a commercial for the Inn as well. Our first scene called for an early morning breakfast look, and the only way to accomplish a real early morning sunrise look on video in the summer means a really really early morning for us!
It's been one hot friggin' week all around the Tacoma area, and it wasn't any different in Sunriver, OR, where I took a few days to relax earlier this week. How did you beat the heat? Hit the water slides, the beach, grab a slushie? I decided to explore the lava river cave just outside Bend, OR. You'd think it being a lava cave, it wouldn't be the best idea to escape the 95 degree temps, however, this mile-long cave stays a constant 42 degrees year-round. The second I hit the mouth of this baby it was already time to breakout the hooded sweatshirt.
Venturing the unknown, cold, dark cave, I wasn't about to haul thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment with me to document the trip, and that's where the good 'ol point 'n shoot came in. So, the shots aren't anything to write home about, just something fun to look at. All of these shots are longer shots and handheld, so there have a unsteady look to them, but can give a cool effect at times.
Tacoma General Hospital put on Nurse Camp last week. An event where high school students get the rare opportunity to shadow working nurses in the hospital, as well as learn much of what nurses do and are responsible for at the facility. Hundreds of students applied and only one hundred were accepted after the selection process was all done. However, before even the selected were allowed to partake, they had to fill out gobs of paperwork, attend orientations, and get their immunizations up-to-date. Having to put in all that work before even getting to experience nurse camp lets you know that these students really wanted to be there, learn, and find out if nursing was a profession they'd be interested in pursuing. The nursing crew, wanting some quality photos of the event, asked if I would be available to capture it for them. Granted I'm that last one who wants to be in a hospital and be reminded of sickness and death on a regular basis, not to mention I can't watch a needle go into my own skin without passing out, I was relieved to find out that the event would just be exercises on dummies and pig parts.The blog has been quiet for a week or so, and for good reason. I'm currently conceptualizing a large-scale photography project. It will involve the community, creating inspiring pictures, and best of all, it'll cost you, the ones getting your photo taken, absolutely nothing. More...
It's here! I can't thank my good friend, Andy Lahmann of P51 Pictures, enough for capturing the fun, energy, and time that goes into my shoots as well as he did, and cutting it together so well. I know I can't stop watching this video,...
Ventured to Bellingham last weekend, mainly to shoot Myrriah. She's working heavily on her modeling portfolio and luckily she likes my work, so over the past few months we have been working together to give her port a wide variety of styles.
Meet Nancy, an amazing artist local to Bellingham, WA. She specializes in abstract painting. Nancy needed some nice pictures of herself to use when advertising her business and for 'about me' blurbs. When I arrived at her studio, she already had an awesome background setup...
The above picture captured today of my cat, Toby, pretty much sums up my day. We all lazily relaxed and got a few yawns in. Last week when I setup the studio for the first time I stuck a little point and shoot camera with...
The studio is ready for clients! Lisa was so kind as to help me test the newly created "seamless" setup. Seamless, meaning your subject(s) are completely wrapped in a pure white environment, giving the appearance that you are floating in a white abyss - no...
Here are a few pics from a couple shoots back from a weekend in April. Images courtasy of my good friend, Andy, who is also putting together a promotional video for Matty Photography, which should be out any day, so stay tuned! Andy shadowed me and the models for the weekend and captured some great shots and video for me.
That was the case for Kacia, a senior at a local Tacoma high school. She had her prom dance the night before, and was out until 4 am, then had to wake up and be ready for our shoot downtown at 8 am! Though her gas tank was on empty, she did a great job convincing the camera otherwise. I can't promise you that I wouldn't be looking like a drunk Steve Buscemi after only 3 or so hours of sleep and got in front of a camera.
