... A Laguna Beach engagement session would be the first item that I blog.  Enjoy!

(Okay, I really do owe you all an explanation as to why I've been absent from my blog recently.  It's quite simple, really-  I just got married, and plus it is the height of wedding season right now.  Or has been for the past few months.  So, I am exercising my time management skills and opting to get work done and pay attention to my new wife, instead of "wasting time" blogging.  But seeing as I've had two weekends in a row without new weddings to shoot, I'm getting pretty caught up on all my work!  Phew!)

Where was I?  Oh, engagement photos...

(Good example of one thing I talked about at last week's PHOTOG SHOOTOUT:
RIM LIGHT, not generic "back light" is what to look for.  If there were open sky
behind my subjects it still would have been "back light", but it would not have
made the RIM LIGHT *pop* the way it does...  Oh, and keep sun off their faces!)

(I love, love, LOVE shooting at sunset, but I hardly ever actually point my camera AT the sun...)

All images were processed in Bridge CS3 and touched up in Photoshop CS3.  ...Just out of curiosity, how many of my blog readers already know about the WORKFLOWSHOP?  Details coming soon...  Anybody who takes "way too many photos" and never knows what to do with them, pay attention!

=Matt=

Joy is allergic to cats.  But Joy and her family, especially her mother, adore anything small and furry.  (As my previous blog post should have made clear...)

So anyways, long story short, as soon as Joy moved out into our apartment, Joy's mother went and got a kitten.  It is incredibly cute!

I know it is one of the seven deadly sins that a photographer can commit, but I can't resist posting some cute, shallow-DOF-y shots of "Lilly"...  So, bear with me people!

BTW, these images were taken with a D300 and an 85mm f/1.4, wide open, with basically no post-processing applied save maybe a touch of "blacks" in Bridge.

=Matt=

(Just a few weeks old in these photos.  Very curious...)

(...And VERY prone to narcolepsy!!!)

(Now, kitty is a few months old, and is allowed outside a little.)

Today my cat Mordecai, who I've had almost my entire life, passed away.  I will miss him dearly.  He was about 95 or 100 in cat years, and he lived all nine of his lives to the absolute fullest.  He was the lion king of our backyard jungle.

Sleep well,
=Matt=

Nikon D70  -  Nikon 80-400 VR  -  360mm  -  1/80 sec.  -  f/5.6  -  ISO 500
(Image taken in October 2004)

Here are a bunch of recent photos taken during some April / May wedding day preparations...  Enjoy!

(Oh and I changed the colors on my blog.  Too drastic?  I'm trying to match my blog with my website / galleries...)

Take care,
=Matt=

(Nikon D300, Sigma 50-150 2.8, ambient light.  The rim light is from a window.)
I *almost* rejected this shot, but then I noticed there was still detail in her face...

(One mirror is always fun, but TWO!  Oh, boy, now *this* is wonnnnderful!)

(I love this shot!  Never really got a shot like this before.  Bride's on her cell phone, too.  )

(I always love the father of the bride.  ...Not saying I don't love the mother!  I just love the moments between daddy & daughter...  )

(F/1.4 bouquet shot...)

(Have I mentioned lately how much I love f/1.4?)

(Using two different doorways for some trippy focus!)

(Father of the bride, gotta snap a picture!)

(Ready!  Everyone is always so beautiful + cute on a wedding day...  I know it sounds cheesy for a guy to say, but I'm being sincere...)

In a few hours I'll be shooting a wedding here in Virginia.  (If anybody would like to help me pray for no rain, I'd be much obliged and so would the B&G!!!)

Yesterday I was in town for a bit of get-to-know-each-other-time, and it was awesome.  I have to say, Grace and David have beautiful taste in wedding rings!  Don't believe me?  Luckily, when I travel I bring *TWO* camera bags and thus can afford to pack my awesome Sigma 150mm macro lens...

The engagement ring is an heirloom.  Truly gorgeous, eh?  I'm a total sucker for minute details, I guess...

These shots were made using my gorillapod, attached to the lens' tripod shoe.  Nice and stable!  I had to use a timer and mirror-shutter delay to get perfect sharpness, since I was shooting 100% ambient light.  I just love the transition from cool, (5000K) window light and warm (3000K) indoor light, and I always take advantage of it wherever I can find it!  If you pick the right WB, (4000K-ish?) ...it gives you this golden light effect that I just love!

Alright take care all!  I'm going to put the "I'm working, DND" card on my hotel room door, ...and then take a nap!  (Hey, gotta be fresh and energized for the wedding!)
=Matt=

Wow, I thoroughly enjoy a technical challenge.  In fact, there may be nothing more satisfying than "performing" in an absolutely abysmal condition. 

Which is why I thoroughly enjoy shooting children's theater, and refuse to give it up as a "side job" as my career grows, changes shape, etc.  All the greatest experts at being successful and making lots of money will tell you to to specialize in one thing only, and that being a "jack of all trades" will cap your potential success.  But I also say that you gotta have FUN every now and then, even at work.  Make time for the things you simply *WANT* to do.  Also, you gotta keep yourself challenged, you gotta keep your skills sharp.

That's what children's theater is for me.  I can challenge myself, while also shooting something I really love.  A few times a year, I step into a pitch black theater, take off all the straps from my cameras, and set them to some of the craziest and dangerous settings / modes thinkable.  It keeps me on my feet! It makes wedding photography seem like a walk in the park, from a technical standpoint.  And most importantly, it keeps my ego in check, every time I drop the ball.  And trust me, I drop the ball a lot.  I have yet to come away from an event NOT thinking "I can totally do better next time!"  (Wait is that a double negative?  No I think it's okay.  Ehh you get the point.  There's always room for improvement.)

Alright I'm going to go to bed early now, it's only 3 AM!  Normally I can't blog any of my children's theater work, for the privacy of the cast and a courtesy to parents, not to mention copyright laws.  But this shot will be a full-page spread in a local performing arts magazine, so I begged and was given permission to share.  Enjoy a frame from South Bay Conservatory's production of "The Mikado"!!!

Take care,
=Matt=

Nikon D300  -  Sigma 50-150  -  50mm  -  f/2.8  -  1/350 sec.  -  ISO 640
Aperture priority, -2/3 comp, spot metering, auto-ISO, WB 3000K, JPG.
(Straight out of the camera, with a touch of black-point compensation.)

I'm so sorry for not blogging in so many days!  I've been just a LITTLE busy.  In fact I logged over 40 hours of SOLID SHOOTING last week.  I mean, camera-in-hand, clicking the shutter, for 40 hours.  Shot approximately 7,700 images, and I'm a conservative shooter!  And of course everybody knows how many hours of back-end work goes into each hour of photography.

So anyways, I'm getting through it.  Shot with some really exciting people, light, and locations...  I'll blog again, when I can, but don't wait on the edge of your seat!  Got weddings every single weekend here for a while so I'm not going to be online much at all till, um, ...October?

Take care!
=Matt=

Nikon D300  -  Nikon 17-55  -  17mm  -  f/2.8  -  1/500 sec.  -  ISO 200
Manual exposure, (under-exposed a bit) manual Kelvin WB, 5600K, RAW.
Wireless SB800 @ right commanded (M, 1/1) via pop-up, with Lightsphere.
Anything else?  Oh, I burned and dodged a lot.  To place emphasis on subjects.

There really is nothing quite like a wedding day.  I miss MY wedding day!  (And I can't WAIT to see the rest of my wedding photos!)

Here are two photos from this weekend that represent two things to me-  The entire essence / heart of a wedding day, and the core of my photographic style as a wedding photographer...

After shooting more than a dozen photo shoots in the past few months, I almost acquired a taste for shooting with models etc.  It's easier to execute the image concepts you have in your head, for sure.  But this weekend, I reaffirmed what I feel is the truest photographic enjoyment.  What, by FAR, gives me the greatest sense of reward-  the candid, un-posed, DECISIVE MOMENT.

I'm HARDLY a Henri, and these images sure aren't perfect, but I'm just 1000x more happy to have captured them than any other posed, well-lit portrait I've ever made...

(Congratulations, Tracy & Dan!  You were both so beautiful, and your wedding was fantastic!)

=Matt=

Nikon D300  -  Nikon 85mm f/1.4  -  1/125 sec  -  f/1.4  -  ISO 3200
My in-camera custom B&W preset that I like to call "Kodak T-Max"
Push-processed (+exposure) in Bridge CS3, grain added in PS CS3.

My web "front" is ever-changing.  Somewhere out there, the ultimate integration of website / galleries / blog awaits.  But I think it permanently eludes us all, because there is always something to change.  Styles change, preferences change, interests change, ...change is GOOD!

I don't know if people have noticed minute, subtle changes on my blog over the past few months but I've been tinkering around here and there.  And here and there around my website, too...

www.matthewsaville.com

One thing that *I* wasn't responsible for, that you Xanga users may also have noticed lately, is the reversal of xanga and matthewsaville in my blog's URL.  You can still get to my blog by going to xanga.com/matthewsaville, but now matthewsaville.xanga.com also works.  Nifty!

Anyways.  Comments on the look and organization (or lack therof) are always welcome!  Here are a few shots from a couple photo shoots the other day...

Jenn (from South Coast Winery in Temecula) ...holding my TLR
Nikon D300, Nikon 17-55 2.8, hand-held, "The Echo" RAW Bridge preset.

(Karen, at Mia Reed's photo shoot in Long Beach with Angie Itomura's students?)
Nikon D300, Nikon 85mm f/1.4, hand-held, wide-open, RAW.