Matty Blog

31 Dec

Posted at 13:31h in Events, Shoots
matty_12.9.10 120v2 A wedding, in December, in Maui. This gig was more than I could have asked for, timing, location, everything... It was a location and setup that was too good to be true. Stop for a second and imagine a tropical location, a place that is literally perfect for your dream wedding, now paint the picture. I'd bet the farm the picture in your head doesn't have anything on this place. In many ways it felt like a dream just standing there, able to be a part of the whole thing. It's a beach house, tucked right on the beach, and all you hear are the waves as they crash over the black rock formations and sand.

19 Dec

Posted at 14:38h in Events
matty_12.5.10 064 I covered a fundraising fashion show for Swish, a salon in downtown Tacoma. It was short and sweet, but a lot of cool hair and makeup concepts, the people at Swish definitely are on their game. It was my first visit there, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. It's a cool place, has a nice, fresh vibe as you enter. Lots of fun colors and things spread around the space, a location that I'd actually like to shoot in. I spent a couple minutes taking shots of the staff getting the girls ready. I've started taking a new approach with covering events... As much as I like to not use any lighting for events, as I feel that it's much more of a documentary approach to the photography rather than a staged shoot, but a lot of the times the lighting is just bad. Let me take that back... not bad, but terrible. Lighting is either so dim that I have to make adjustments to the camera to counter, and I get grainy images, or the lighting is really harsh, forming terrible shadows on the subjects. This location was half and half, the salon area had decent lighting, but the runway location what about the worse I'd ever seen. Hence the first time I started working with an assistant roaming alongside me with a light. More specifically, a hot shoe flash unit stuffed into a 2' x 2' softbox. Lots of people and busyness, so no light stands here. We were moving too quickly, so Alice, my assistant, hand-held the lighting rig. This gave me incredible flexibility and speed to execute quick, off-the-hip shots that turned out pretty good. Shots that look nice and crisp, and allowing a bit of lighting control over my rather out-of-control environment. If you are interested in this highly mobile lighting stuff, I have a post coming very soon that goes into great detail on this topic (also happens to be the same setup I used for the shoots on the Maui trip). Now back to the event...

28 Nov

Posted at 17:06h in Events
matty_10.30.10 007 It's when these annual events come back around each year that really freaks me out. I get the call to come photograph again and it blows me away it's already been a year since the last time I covered the event. I'm also grateful that a large bonus of my job is that I'm literally taking tens of thousands of photos each year, so I have something to show for the fast-passing sands of time. Anywho... another Tacoma Community House fundraiser has come and gone. They took it up a notch this year, making it a masquerade event, and fire and acrobatic performers were there to add a little spice.

24 Oct

Posted at 18:46h in Events
matty_10.16.10 249 I was in attendance for the Emergency Food Network's 'Amazing Abundance Auction' the other weekend, and for a couple reasons. Most importantly, I was there to capture the event. Secondly, I was there to enjoy the product which accounted for about an entire week of my evenings. That was the video I captured/edited for EFN for displaying at this event and future presentations. You can view that video by clicking here. I'd estimate about 500-600 guests in total for the event. Over the last year, I've pretty much established myself as EFN's photographer, which I've greatly enjoyed. This last larger project, which tasked me to visit all of the locations and aspects of EFN operations, I captured photo and video. A very humbling experience. At one point, I was capturing material at a hot meal site where those less fortunate came for a lunch. A middle-aged couple stopped and asked for a photo of the two of them. As I raised a $6,000 dollar camera setup to take their photo, it really hit me how lucky I was, and I almost felt embarrassed in a way. Here they were just trying to get a meal, and I had thousands of dollars of equipment hanging off my shoulders. I turned, took their photo, and they just went on about there business, didn't ask how to get the photo, they just wanted to be documented as part of the experience. This photo has touched me most through the project, I feel it's the best out of the months of photos and video that I captured. It's the pic below here.

18 Oct

Posted at 11:07h in Gear, Just for Fun, Tips & Techniques, Video
6-canonMerlin Been integrating more video work in with my clients. I'm experiencing that once business clients know that I can shoot/cut video along side the photos, they ask for it. And why not? At a flip of a switch, I can go from photos to video, both top quality products out of the same device, pretty neat. I say that loosely, although you can make the transition to capturing photos or video with a flip of a switch, there is a bit more to it than that. Obviously photos and video capturing have a lot in common, but as much as they have in common they also have just as much that separates the two arts. First, you have a completely different selection process for what to capture in each medium. Some things are best captured with photos, some with video. Understanding and getting a feel for working to each medium's strengths will greatly improve efficiency and the overall product given to the client. With photos, you have the luxury and power of flash/strobes to blast light, greater controlling your environment. With video, you are stuck with continuous light, which also has it's strengths as well.

15 Oct

Posted at 22:34h in Video

Months ago, the Emergency Food Network, a non-profit food organization in Tacoma, tasked me with an on-going photography project. The project ultimately grew into something larger, incorporating video as well. Working with EFN, I visited their location, harvest fields, and surrounding food banks, capturing all...

24 Sep

Posted at 11:46h in Behind the Scenes, Video

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Thought I'd throw a little behind the scenes video together for you guys. This kinda shows what all goes on in a "Matty Photography" shoot. Good friend and video director, Andy Lahmann, will often come to assist on my Bellingham shoots. I'll toss him my Canon 7D and ask him to shoot some BTS pics and video. He always captures some good stuff. We had a lot of laughs, got some great shots, and ended with a happy client. Booyah.

08 Sep

Posted at 13:44h in Events

matty_8.22.10_ 050

CLICK FOR CAMP PHOENIX GALLERY

Camp Phoenix is a summer getaway event for burned children. They come from all over the nation, a few outside the nation, to enjoy a week with fellow burn victims. It's a place where they don't have to feel alone, singled-out, and can embrace in the similarities they have with other children who have gone through the same experience of being burned. They can enjoy the week full of activities and not feel the stresses of normal everyday life where they no doubt have to deal with the difficulty of living in such a superficial society. The camp is put on by the Burned Children Recovery Foundation every summer, led by founder and president Michael Mathis. Mike is also a burn victim, who's efforts have generated the awareness that have made Camp Phoenix and the BCRF possible. The BCRF had some major good news this summer with some awesome contributions donated via the surrounding community. One such donation came in the form of a $130,000 check, thanks to Ryan Stiles and his hard-working crew. If you sift back a few posts, you'll see one on the Ryan Stiles Celebrity Golf Classic. All proceeds from the golfing event, as well as a full weekend of fund-raising events, were donated to the BCRF. I was more than happy to donate a few hours to capture both the fund-raising weekend, as well as this opening day of camp to pay thanks to all of the community who put their time, money, and effort into the BCRF.

22 Jul

Posted at 15:29h in Events, Shoots
matty_7.18.10_ 704 Last weekend was the first annual Ryan Stiles Golf Classic event, held up in the always pleasent Bellingham, WA. It was a fundrasing effort with all proceeds going towards the Burned Children Recovery Foundation. The weekend was kicked-off Friday evening with a soldout comedy show with Ryan and the rest of the 'Whose Line' cast. Saturday evening hosted the Celebrity Gala & Auction where many cool, unique items were bid on, and many celebrities came to support. Sunday was 18 holes of celebriting golfing. In all, it was a very successful effort, generating more than $100,000 for the foundation in three days. Kent Loomer, fellow funny man and the event director, asked me to cover Saturday and Sunday's events. A lot of coverage here too, folks, about 16 hours worth within a day and a half. I do all of the photography for Ryan's comedy club up in Bellingham, and was more than happy to donate some time to document such a great cause.

05 Jun

Posted at 21:49h in Events
matty_4.18.10_ 124 - Version 2 Second and last full day of the Bellingham Film Festival. Two more workshops, more film showings, an awards ceremony, and of course, the party. The boys had there fun yesterday, today was the girls' turn to do some workshops. You might recognize the moderators for these workshops. Improv comedians DK and Morgan, provided some well-timed laughs during the sessions and kept the mood light. The days' guest speakers, Lisa Beach and Sara White, provided some much desired information for the audience, and of course, answered a ton of questions. Same drill as the day before, spent some time with each guest on the white seamless, as well as a few shots with their moderators. DK and Morgan always make my job easy, hell, even I'm laughing and smiling while behind the camera. In the words of Morgan as he was getting makeup applied for the shoot, "I don't know what this stuff is but it tastes delicious."

28 May

Posted at 14:43h in Events
matty_4.17.10_ 186 The great people who put on the Bellingham Film Festival asked me to be the exclusive photographer for this year's event. A huge thanks to Wilson Large, the main man behind the whole event, and the guy ensured I had everything I needed to capture the event. On top of this being a weekend for local film talent to show their stuff, there were four workshops held for the public to come listen in on. Four very well established individuals in the film industry were awesome enough to make the trek up to Bellingham from the film country and talk to the audience about what they do, how they made it, etc. Each evening was capped with a party. Funny thing about parties and being the photographer... the event host is always there to make sure you get a drink in your hand. Luckily these were some very laid back after parties, so who cares if my framing is a little crooked, right?... ;) We held the workshops at the soon-to-be new Pickford Dream Space. It'll be THEE place to come watch movies in Bellingham when it's done. Right now it is under construction, which has a really cool look and very fitting place to hold this event. Lots of open space, which was perfect for my white seamless setup. Our four guest speakers: Brian Sipe - Makeup FX artist, Michael Blundell - Cinematographer, Lisa Beach - Casting director, and Sara White - Executive producer, all donated a few minutes before their workshop to do a quick photo shoot for some PR shots on the white seamless. Andrew Lahmann, of P-51 Pictures, was another great help at the festival, ensuring I had everything I needed to get the right shots, and who was also responsible for recruiting the excellent guests for the festival. We setup a little studio in the middle of the floor space, even built some gobos out of some plywood we found laying around. It was a great little impromptu set! The awesome people at Sonya's Quality Furniture let us borrow a cool chair for use as a prop, worked out perfectly. I used to live in Bellingham for a number of years and loved it, I miss that place a lot. As a whole, the people are so nice, very pro small business, and there is an amazing amount of people willing to lend a hand to help out.

24 Mar

Posted at 18:39h in Events
matty_3.16.10_ 036 It was a busy last week for events. Shot everything from a floral presentation for Thomasi here in Tacoma to a memorial reception up in Bellingham. Looking at my portfolio, you wouldn't think I worked many events or even at all. It is a whole different animal, event photography. I'm always looking at the world not just as a giant set of photo opportunities, but being a huge flash lighting guy, I'm always thinking of ways to put some extra spice and flavor into a photo by using creative lighting. In a sense, taking photography to the next level and creating my own environment with my light, the way I like it, regardless of the existing lighting environment. That is not how the event photography world works. And no... throwing a hot shoe flash onto my camera and blasting people is NOT proper event photography, I will argue that until the day I die. On-camera flash completely flattens an image, takes away the ambiance of the event and how people experienced it. Event photography is all about adapting to the environment, working with the existing lighting no matter how bad it may be. Yes, there will be times when an on-camera flash will be needed, but geez... it's that last ditch effort when your environment is giving you next to nothing to work in. I see it too often, the "pro" working an event and blasting people with a flash when it is completely unnecessary. Doesn't take but an amateur to know how those photos are going to turn out. I shake my head, resist the itch to ask them a completely rhetorical question, and keep walking.

28 Jan

Posted at 23:30h in Behind the Scenes, Just for Fun, Tips & Techniques, Video
handwashingHANDS It's so important going into a project to bring some sort of a vision along for the ride. You just don't show up to a location for a gig, drop your gear bags, look around with your hands on your hips, deeply inhale, and then with a sigh-like exhale go "ok, so how we gonna get this baby done?" Don't get me wrong, in some cases that is literally the situation you are thrown in, but in all instances when you are lucky enough to get that planning/conceptualization time... USE IT! That's why I thought I'd write up a little post about "the vision" that goes into projects, where the concepts start, how I work on key visuals, etc. The following are some sketches from the concept phase that we drew up prior to the shoot day side by side with shots from the video we just finished last week. Yes, you will always get something a little off from your sketches, whether that be restrictions of your location, time, access, etc., but some of the sketches below show how the main idea is retained from the concept and carried through to the final product. This first guy is a perfect example of that. We originally had a cat sitting on the bed to give it a more "homey" feel. But... you can always count on the most predictable animal to act like a D-bag when you really need them to pull through for ya. Our ridiculously lazy cat model, who on any other day wouldn't move if you stepped on him, decided to emulate a curious cat on a crack high, not sitting for more than half a second. Oh well. For the rest of it, it worked out pretty much to plan.

24 Jan

Posted at 20:16h in Video
IMG_9222 The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), yes, it's a mouthful... put on a video contest focusing on hand hygiene. They teamed up with 3M and created three video categories broken down by specific content matter and time, all dealing with different manners of hand cleaning. Voting starts Jan 25th, and the three finalist will be posted on AORN's site for deciding the winner. The winner takes home $5000 for their hospital's education department. I'm obviously pulling for Tacoma General. Here is the video we put together for the 1-minute, hand washing category. There were specific information and visuals that needed to be integrated in the video, but for that most part, we had a lot of flexibility, and we really differentiated ourselves from the pack by telling a story with video instead of adding another tally to the countless instructional videos out there. Let us know what you think! Public voting will decide the winner out of the 3 finalists next week. I'll post again with a link to the contest voting so that you all can vote once it's available.

05 Nov

Posted at 14:25h in Events
IMG_6982 Got an email from Helen McGovern, executive director of the EFN, checking my availability for their "Abundance" fundraiser. She had attended the Tacoma Community House fundraising event I worked a few weeks back, also saw the pictures I captured there, and asked if I could do the same for her organization. But of course! ;) That was a busy Saturday. I was (and still am) in the middle of shooting the Smokin' Hot Espresso calendar. That day I had two months scheduled to shoot, and I threw this event right on top of that. Piece of cake, right? Maybe if I wasn't still in the middle of a horse pasture wrapping my last calendar shoot for the day, an hour out of town, and needing to be present and clicking at the fundraiser 30 minutes from then! Let's just say I had a "vision problem" and I couldn't quite accurately make out the speed limit signs on the way back into town. Made the event just as things started to ramp up. phew!

08 Oct

Posted at 00:07h in Events
IMG_5612 "Antique Quest & Wine Fest" was the event put on by the Tacoma Community House last Saturday at the Museum of Glass. Hana, a great gal who works for the organization, asked if I would come capture the event. Free booze and really old stuff?! Count me in!

04 Aug

Posted at 13:35h in Events, Shoots, Video

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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.

13 Jul

Posted at 12:15h in Events, Shoots
IMG_0410 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.