Matty Blog
08 Jun Tiare At NAAM
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.
15 May Fashion Night Out Tacoma – London Couture
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.
03 May BTS Video – Rocker Shoot
Video cameras are rolling at almost every shoot now. If I see a free hand while we are on set working, I toss that hand a camera. I can never really have enough BTS material. The only downside is the more BTS I have the more time I gotta spend sifting through all of it, compounded with all the time I invested into the actual photographic process and the photos for the client. Love all the material, hate the fact that I can't clone myself at put him strictly on BTS shooting and editing, that would be amazing. So, unfortunately a lot of the BTS material never sees the light of day, which gets tossed into the Matty archives. Every few months I'll go the extra mile and compile a video from a favorite shoot and toss it on the site. Well, today is one of those days. I stayed up late last night cutting together this short, two-minute video. I was lucky enough to have fellow creatives Andy and Jolaina at the recent commercial shoot I did with one of my regular clients, Whatcom Sound. The pair, both armed with cameras, got some fun footage that I couldn't toss into the archives without getting a little attention first. This video will give you a good idea of everything we had going on. A lot of the set and lighting was up and ready to go before the cameras were out to capture anything, but you still get to see the bulk of activities during the shoot.
02 May Another Workshop Come and Gone
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.
17 Apr Wedding Shot In Maui Aired On Travel Channel
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!
10 Apr Dust Spots – How Do I Clean The Sensor?
It's a problem we all eventually have no matter how careful you try and be with your equipment. I'm talking about those annoying dust spots that show up in your DSLR photos. They can be a slight issue or a real problem depending on how bad the situation is. I've seen some very very terribly dirty sensors, like a shovel of dirt was tossed into camera. It's really amazing at how poor some people are in their efforts in camera care and/or cleaning. A little effort goes a long way, and I'll be showing you in the video below. The process of committing to physically touching your sensor to clean it is not a task that should be taken lightly, as you can really damage the sensor, but if you execute with care and use the right tools, it will turn out just fine. We'll be covering how dust gets there, how to look for it, and how to clean it. This is the first of what I hope to be many little video tips I put together. It's nothing fancy, and I really tried to keep it simple. There are too many people trying to sound smart and/or experience when giving advice, using terms or situations that go right over newer photographer's heads. The whole point of this video is education, so I try to make it as easy to follow as possible, and speak English in relative terms. When I think I cover material that is not exactly general knowledge, I step you through it or give you some kind of visual. I was also extremely surprised to see how much misinformation there is floating around out there, especially from folks trying to tell you how to do it, and doing it wrong. Rest assured, the methods I discuss in this video are repeated with other legit professionals that actually know what they are doing.
24 Feb Space Trek – Video Awesomeness
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 Teen Dance = Funny Photo Booth
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 Live At The Upfront
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!
04 Feb BTS: Maui Wedding Video
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.
21 Jan 50 Is The New 30
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.
09 Jan Maui Destination Wedding – Trash the Dress (pt9)
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 Maui Destination Wedding – Bride & Bouquet (pt8)
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 Maui Destination Wedding – Reception (pt7)
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 Maui Destination Wedding – Formal Portraits (pt6)
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!
08 Jan Maui Destination Wedding – The Ceremony (pt5)
Rain, the only hiccup in an otherwise perfect wedding, slowed to a sprinkle around 5pm. Originally set to kickoff at 4, the ceremony was pushed about an hour. The officiate began the ceremony with a couple blows of a conch shell. A great touch, but I couldn't help but giggle a little bit. All I could think about was that ridiculous Spongebob character, Mermaidman. He blew a conch and yelled, "sea creatures, assemble!" Anywho... with the sound of the conch, and Daymeon waiting for his bride in the alter, Leeann started to make her way down the path.
04 Jan Maui Destination Wedding – All Dressed Up (pt4)
Spent a couple shutter clicks with both bride and groom in the dressing rooms. The beach house on the property was icing on the cake to an already great location. The bride prepared herself in a room that had this awesome bed, had all kinds of drapery and style to it. Naturally, that's where I placed here for a few shots. Of course... once you are all done up in a dress like this, flopping down onto a bed is messy, so the girls helped her out, got a great pic of that.
03 Jan Maui Destination Wedding – The Setup! (pt3)
Upon arriving to the wedding location, it was like something out of a movie. You know... those weddings that make you go "pfff, that doesn't happen in real life." There are literally 40-50 people working on setting up the wedding location. A dozen large work vans parked in the driveway of the property, you don't even consider they are all for this one event. As I opened the gate to the property, I quickly realized that, yes, all these vehicles, people, and resources are all here JUST for this. Running around like worker bees, you could literally watch it all assemble in front of your eyes. All dressed in color coordinated shirts, as to differentiate the various job duties. A half dozen people assigned to just arranging the floral designs, a team of cooks, a team for setting up furniture, etc. All this for a wedding with 24 attendees. Of course, having CNN around pays off, and the coordination company pulls some strings, and upgrades every feature of the wedding. Let me just say, this was a difficult job. No, not as in, shooting the wedding "job." The job after it is all said and done, the job of selecting the "picks" of the bunch to give the newlywed couple. It was literally the coolest place and wedding arrangement I'd ever seen. Naturally this led to WAY more pictures than I would have liked to filter through. Of course, all of the photos turned out pretty darn good, I mean... look at this place! Hence my breaking the wedding into a series of posts. Even now that I've gone through and made the selects and shipped the photos off to the couple, it's hard for me to try and write one or even two posts on this experience. Too many good things in this bunch. Hey, it's a photo blog, get ready for some pics!
01 Jan Maui Destination Wedding – Gettin’ Pretty (pt2)
The first stop of the day, Leeann's condo, to capture the bride and bridesmaid getting all snazzied-up. A girl has to look good on her wedding day, right? It was the first set of shutter clicks of the day, just a few of the thousands to be taken before I called it a day. Like I said in the last post, with CNN there to video the wedding, the wedding coordination company was pulling out all the stops, everything that Leeann and Daymeon (bride and groom) had arranged for the wedding months ago all got multiplied by the coordination company so they looked perfect for CNN (they did a pretty darn good job too, they got this event about as close to perfect as possible). That meant, among a slew of other free upgrades for the couple, Leeann had a duo of hair/makeup artists following her around all day. Not a bad perk, eh?