Yeah, I'm skipping around. But this is the latest one and I felt I should post it closer to when I took it...
I was out photographing at the airport when I noticed this scene behind me. Orange glow from the sodium vapor lights over at the navy base, plus a blurry boat and smooth water from the long shutter speed made for a pretty surreal image.
I also grabbed the basic skyline reflecting in water photo, but I felt that this one was the strongest from the night.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Night Shots 2: La Jolla
When I go shooting at night, I typically do it with a friend of mine. I picked the first location. He picked the second.
This photo was taken in La Jolla, CA at a place called Windansea (spelling?). This time, the various light sources made for some really nice colors.
The green from the florescent, orange from sodium vapor street lights, and the whiter from the sky. Shutter speed was pretty slow, thus the blurred water and clouds. The full moon made for some pretty nice lighting
This photo was taken in La Jolla, CA at a place called Windansea (spelling?). This time, the various light sources made for some really nice colors.
The green from the florescent, orange from sodium vapor street lights, and the whiter from the sky. Shutter speed was pretty slow, thus the blurred water and clouds. The full moon made for some pretty nice lighting
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Night Shots 1: Dog Beach Bridge
The first photo of my latest obsession, night photography. The world changes at night. Scenes that would normally be perfectly normal and unremarkable in the day become emotional and fascinating at night.
The first photo of the project was the Dog Beach Bridge in Del Mar, CA.
My tripod was set up on the sand under the bridge, at some points almost in the water. The light you see in the center is from passing cars.
The first photo of the project was the Dog Beach Bridge in Del Mar, CA.
My tripod was set up on the sand under the bridge, at some points almost in the water. The light you see in the center is from passing cars.
The Thrills of Photographing in National Parks
So yeah, national parks are some of the most beautiful places in this country, with some of the best landscapes to photograph.
The problem with them is that because they are some of the most beautiful places in the country, they are filled with tourists admiring the views. These tourists often come with small children. Nothing disturbs the peace of the early morning landscapes like screaming little kids.
This morning I was out photographing at around 6:30 AM in Grand Teton National Park. I was out by Jenny Lake and it was dead silent. I spy a river otter, just hanging out. I go to change my lens to my telephoto and this family comes along.
"Shhhhh (kids name), you don't want to scare the animals" - the mom whispered
"ammmnimals!" - the kid whispered back, "amnimals"
At this point I'm done focusing and about to press the shutter button.
The kid spots the river otter, and screams "DADDY LOOK A RAT!"
River otter is gone, I ended up taking 10 pictures of the sky...
The Joys of the Manual Camera
When my family traveled to the south of France this spring break, I decided that I would leave my digital camera behind. Instead I would take my Nikon FE2, a bunch of TRI-X, and my 24mm and 55mm lenses. As an added bonus this kit was something like 20 pounds lighter....
When I dropped my film off at the lab, I was expected to get crap when I picked them up. I was pleasantly surprised.
The tones in these black and white photos were unlike anything I could ever dream of doing with my digital camera without spending hours in photoshop. While they were black and white, they had this great tone to them. Subtle, but enough to be noticed. The detail in these prints simply astounded me, particularly in the shadows and highlights.
Check out this shot, and others on my flickr.
When I dropped my film off at the lab, I was expected to get crap when I picked them up. I was pleasantly surprised.
The tones in these black and white photos were unlike anything I could ever dream of doing with my digital camera without spending hours in photoshop. While they were black and white, they had this great tone to them. Subtle, but enough to be noticed. The detail in these prints simply astounded me, particularly in the shadows and highlights.
Check out this shot, and others on my flickr.
Track
The 2007-2007 school year was the year I discovered the wonders of shooting track. As photo editor of the yearbook, it was my responsibility to cover every school sport, and that included the ones I though were dull...
Track surprised me. I expected endless hours of photographing people running in circles. I was wrong. There is so much to shoot at a track meet, with tons of events occurring at the same time.
Out of all of the events, it was high jump, hurdles, and the relay that I enjoyed the most. They presented me with lots of different shots, and really catered to the wide angle lens.
These shots were both taken with my 17-55mm f/2.8G DX on my D2H
Track surprised me. I expected endless hours of photographing people running in circles. I was wrong. There is so much to shoot at a track meet, with tons of events occurring at the same time.
Out of all of the events, it was high jump, hurdles, and the relay that I enjoyed the most. They presented me with lots of different shots, and really catered to the wide angle lens.
These shots were both taken with my 17-55mm f/2.8G DX on my D2H
Lacrosse Huddle
The lacrosse huddle shot is probably one of my favorite sports photographs that I've ever taken.
I took this in my sophomore year, less than a year after taking up photography. It was the first lacrosse game I had ever photographed, and also the first game on our home fields. I was still shooting with the D50 at the time.
At the time I wasn't one for "emotion shots," preferring to stick to shooting the basic action shots. But I had heard that the coach for our lacrosse team was particularly intense, so I decided to try something. Besides, this was a historic game, I should have a memorable shot.
I removed my craptastic 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6G AF lens from my D50 and mounted the basic 18-55mm kit lens. Hopping into aperture priority as I always shot.
I tried squeezing in through the sides, but I'm a fairly short person and these guys were quite big, particularly with all their gear on. There was no way that I was going to get a shot from the side. So I jumped.
I jumped, pointed my camera down, and prayed. Because it was a D50, it would only be able to fire off one shot. I had to get the timing right. There was only one chance to grab this, the huddle was breaking as the game got ready to start.
I didn't get to see my results until 10 minutes later, at the first timeout. I was too busy grabbing the action. But while shamelessly chimping on the sidelines, I was quite pleased with the results.
This photo won 5th place for newspaper sports photography at the Fall 2006 JEA/NSPA Highschool Journalism convention in Nashville, TN. It ran full page in the next year's yearbook, half page in our first news magazine, and has generated over $50 in print sales. Not bad for a first year....
Click the photo to see it big.
I took this in my sophomore year, less than a year after taking up photography. It was the first lacrosse game I had ever photographed, and also the first game on our home fields. I was still shooting with the D50 at the time.
At the time I wasn't one for "emotion shots," preferring to stick to shooting the basic action shots. But I had heard that the coach for our lacrosse team was particularly intense, so I decided to try something. Besides, this was a historic game, I should have a memorable shot.
I removed my craptastic 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6G AF lens from my D50 and mounted the basic 18-55mm kit lens. Hopping into aperture priority as I always shot.
I tried squeezing in through the sides, but I'm a fairly short person and these guys were quite big, particularly with all their gear on. There was no way that I was going to get a shot from the side. So I jumped.
I jumped, pointed my camera down, and prayed. Because it was a D50, it would only be able to fire off one shot. I had to get the timing right. There was only one chance to grab this, the huddle was breaking as the game got ready to start.
I didn't get to see my results until 10 minutes later, at the first timeout. I was too busy grabbing the action. But while shamelessly chimping on the sidelines, I was quite pleased with the results.
This photo won 5th place for newspaper sports photography at the Fall 2006 JEA/NSPA Highschool Journalism convention in Nashville, TN. It ran full page in the next year's yearbook, half page in our first news magazine, and has generated over $50 in print sales. Not bad for a first year....
Click the photo to see it big.
Monday, June 23, 2008
A Little About Me
Who am I?
I'm Matt, and I'm a photographer. I am also a student. I will be attending Washington University in Saint Louis
this fall for my freshman year. Currently I plan to major in mechanical engineering, but that may change.
I took up photography in my sophomore year, starting out photographing my high school's girls volleyball team.
That soon spread to every sport in the school, along with freelancing for the yearbook. At the end of that year, I got my
first camera, a Nikon D50. Now, three years later, that camera is long gone, replaced by a Nikon D2h.
After serving as the founding photo editor for my high school's new magazine in my junior year, I joined the yearbook
staff as photo editor senior year.
I have a particular fondness for night photography, and of course sports photography.
Here goes...
So I decided to make a blog...not that many people will read it, if any.
The goal is to add a little background to my photographs. What went into them, and a little about my experiences...We'll see how far this goes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)