Matt D.'s Blog

An Editorial I shot for Portland Monthly Magazine

2012-01-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share some recent photos I took for Portland Monthly magazine. I've shot quite a bit of the sport over the years. I decided to take a break from it since I only use film and the price of that plus processing and scanning has gone crazy. Anyway, I got a call a couple months back to do this editorial which definitely got me excited. Some of these photos were in the editorial, some were not, some are in the editorial that are not here. All are shot on my 501cm (film). Ramble, ramble... Take a look.

NEW WORK

2011-12-14T18:04:00.000-08:00

I have been itching to shoot some new stuff while fighting the lack of motivation due to the Portland winter. It can be hard in this town to find projects to shoot when it's cold, dreary, and the light is completely flat. I decided to embrace it and came up with this the idea to shoot winter apparel. Here's some stuff I came up with. Click an image to see a slide show.
You can see more at: www.mattdpictures.com

Ping Pong, it's the new NBA

2011-08-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

I recently put this ping pong shoot together, it was a blast and I got some great portfolio work from it.

A lot of photographers have a tendency to photograph the same sports, especially in Portland. I can't say that I blame the photographers here for shooting running and basketball, I mean look at our influences. On one side of town we have Nike headquarters and the other side of town is Adidas America headquarters. I try and differentiate myself by photographing something that you don't see in American ads very often. Also, most of the apparel used was Li-Ning. Li-Ning is a huge sporting brand that comes from China and is geared toward ping pong, badminton, running, and basketball. They have something like 7,000 locations in China and one location in the US... Portland.

The mission was to make ping pong look really hard core, you know, like the NBA. Thank you everyone who was involved in this. Please feel free to leave some feedback. Oh and if you click on the photos they get bigger and way cooler to look at.

Westside Neighborhood Guide

2010-12-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back Justin "Scrappers" Morrison from The Mercury asked me to shoot the Westside Guide, which is an insert in the weekly paper that features cool stuff to do on the west side of Portland. I was pretty excited since Scrappers is super cool and shooting for the Mercury typically means its gonna be a fun project. If you have ever read it, you know that it has a quirky hipster vibe to it. The model/tour guide in these photos is Alberta Poon who was super funny and fun to work with. All three of us set out for the west side of Portland as I chauffeured Alberta and Justin in the back of my uber cool Chrysler minivan. We basically parked and walked to different iconic parts of Portland while I documented Alberta standing in front of this cities obscure crappy art and mysterious objects. The theme was WTF is this? Anyway, take a look at some pics from the shoot. Oh, and look closely at the very important businessman in the background making two very important phone calls simultaneously on his cell and banana phones. And, thank you Mr. Hummer - bluetooth earpiece guy that let us use your SUV to create magic without touching the paint.

Venice Boardwalk

2010-11-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

About four months back I spent two weeks in So Cal visiting family. I had heard that there was a new skate park in Venice from a good friend of mine that lives there. Anyway, I had been wanting to take my nephews Daniel and Brandon to the skate park, not only to skate but also to snap some pics.

I had been to Venice before, but I had never really hung out on the boardwalk, I didn't realize how busy it actually was until we got there. There was no way we were gonna be able to get any runs in at the park, way too busy. We still had a fun experience though, there are a lot of interesting people out there to take pictures of. I found myself taking more pics of the roller skaters that were jammin' out on the flat concrete next to the skate park. These guys loved having their pictures taken. Plus I notice that people take me a little more seriously when I show up with my Hasselblad, they want to be in front of that camera. I had a couple of skaters approach me as we were on our way out and ask me about it.

Also, I am trying out a new layout for posting pictures on this blog. Typically I place one main photo on my post and link it to a flash photo gallery. This time around I decided to put all pics directly on the post. If you have a minute to compare this layout with previous posts, let me know your thoughts in the comment box below.

God speed...

Gay Pride 2010

2010-11-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Portland had its annual Gay Pride festival back in the spring (I know I should have had this up months ago) so I figured I would take some portraits.

My main objective was to take some images of really interesting looking drag queens. I didn't see quite as many of the "eccentric" dressed queens as I would have liked, but I did find these ones. Everyone was really cool about letting me take their photos. It was pretty fun and I got some great shots. Take a look...

Click image for slide show.

SUCCESSFUL ANIMALS

2009-12-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

So I am just mentioning this because I am really excited. My art show at Rontoms located in Portland, Oregon has been somewhat successful so far. The show has only been up for a few weeks and I have already sold three prints and seven framed photos. Before the success of the show I was a little worried that I was the only weirdo that understands my vision.

Not sure if this is coincidence but both buyers are from the bay area. I am strongly considering making San Francisco the next stop for my next showing. Anyone know somebody, that knows somebody, that has a friend who met a guy who has a gallery or a nice place to hang some photos of people in animal costumes?

BROKEN RECORD

2009-12-01T14:13:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, I don't mean to sound like a broken record but I have more photos to post of Cyclocross. I believe this to be my favorite set so far. At some point I will get around to adding Cyclocross to my portfolio website. If anyone viewing this has a few extra minutes please give me some feedback on the images. I sometimes need an outside view on my photography to help narrow things down. Try to pick about 10 images that you think that I should include and list them in the comment section below. Don't forget to look at previous Cyclocross posts I have put up on here. I know it's asking a lot...

Cyclocross PIR Portland

2009-11-20T19:26:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share some more Cyclocross photos, these are from the event out at PIR. I don't really have much to say except that I have met a lot of cool people at these events, and that I love shooting them. This is like one of the only activities to shoot in Oregon during the winter.

Click photo for slide show.

THAILAND SLIDE SHOW FINALLY UP

2009-11-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

I took a five week trip to Thailand a couple years back and I'm just now getting this slide show up somewhere that people can view it. I originally did a presentation slide show a few months after I came back from the trip which had a really great turn out.

Now I would like to share this with everyone who was unable to attend.

Note that the images are in order by event of my trip. Not all images are "portfolio worthy" but I needed to include the photos that tell the story of my trip.

Sit back and enjoy...

BTW, it's 20ish minutes long, and you might want to let it stream for a few minutes before you click play.

Click image for video.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!

2009-11-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

I just want to thank everyone for coming to my show last night, I had a super duper time. I saw faces that I totally didn't expect to see. You guys are all awesome!

I especially want to thank everyone who helped me with this series by wearing an animal suit, helping me build the frames, and being there on shoots with me.

I know the lighting totally sucks in Rontoms so I have created a slide show of the same images plus some extras that didn't make the final art show cut. The ones that made the cut have a white border.

If you have an extra minute and want to leave a comment or critique about the show please do so below. Your comments don't have to be about the art; you can say something about an instance that happened at the show or something funny that happened. If anyone took pictures and would like to post a link to them please do so.

Thanks again...

Click photo for slide show.

Cyclocross Hillsborito

2009-11-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I just started going to these Cyclocross events, they kick ass. These events give me an excuse to shoot film, and they are super fun and exciting to watch. These photos are from the race in Hillsboro a couple of weeks back. I shot some photos at the event today at PIR in Portland too, stay tuned for those they will be up here in about a week. Remember I shot film so I have to get that shit developed.

Of course as usual click this image for a slide show. Cheers...

ART SHOW AT RONTOMS!

2009-11-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Hey all, come join me for my Character Series art show at Rontoms. My opening is going to be on Saturday, November 14th from six to whenever. Rontoms is at 600 E Burnside
Portland. I should have a DJ there playing music plus I'll be there as well so you can't go wrong. The art should be hanging there for a month or two but it would be really cool to see you all at the opening.

Cheers...

Dudefest!

2009-10-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

So I was going through Lightroom and I stumbled upon my "Dudefest" photos. "Dudefest" was one of about four celebrations of my good friend Brian Ripka's marriage. This particular occasion was his bachelor party. I had mixed feelings about putting these images up on my blog since I am supposed to be "professional" and all. I made sure to be pretty selective with the content I would post on my blog. You gotta understand what to expect when you put twenty-something (quantity, not age) guys in a secluded house near the Oregon coast.

All we had to survive on was beer, fireworks, and a blowup doll named Lacey.

Brian is one of my best friends, I have known him for about 16 years now. I had to document this event. I even made a Blurb book out of it.

Although these photos might be somewhat revealing, I had to share, after all there are some great photos to be viewed.

By the way, click any of these images to view a slide show containing more life changing photography.

Photo Cred.

2009-10-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

So I was just on Portland Monthly's website because I figured I might check to see if the photos I just took for them made it on there. Fortunately my photos are on the site; unfortunately Andy Batt has the photo credit. :( I did send a polite email to a friend over there asking if someone could correct this issue. I am not complaining by any means, photo credit is just a big thing to an up-and-coming photographer. I really like working with Portland Monthly and look forward to doing a lot of work with them in the future. Everyone over at Saga City Media is really cool, and fun to work with.

Thomas Cobb is someone I also enjoy working with. I am getting close to working on a shoot with him for Travel Portland which is also part of Saga City Media. I'll post more about that later since I am not allowed to let cats-out-of-bags.

Please click on the image to see some photos for the Mercy Corps Northwest article in Portland Monthly.

Diamond Wheeler

2009-07-24T02:15:00.000-07:00

I recently photographed this Diamond for Willamette Week. Diamond wheeler is a 17 year old fencer at Lincoln High School located in Portland, Oregon. She recently became the 2009 Cadet World Fencing Champion in the saber division, which puts Diamond in the running to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Photo comments and critiques are welcome.

John Day River Trip

2009-07-11T02:19:00.000-07:00

3 days, 26 people, several boats, hundreds of beers, and not a single poop in the poop bucket...

So, I decided to travel light and only bring my Mamiya 7 on this trip since I didn't know how wet things were going to get. I probably could have taken a few more pictures but I was trying to vacation, not work.

Anyway, take a look at these pics they are really just for fun, so enjoy.

By the way, thank you Matt and Nikki Brush for setting this whole thing up. And thank you to everyone that went, you all made this trip a blast.

Oh, and leave comments! I am new to this blogging thing, I need feedback.

Alvord Desert (Canon 5D Mark II)

2009-06-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

While I was on the playa of the Alvord Desert this crazy storm came in just after I got my yetti shots. Instead of opening my shutter and creating the standard lightening photos I decided why not shoot video. After all my 5D mark II creates amazing video so why not use it. This video has been slowed down to 25% and made small so that it works on the web but still pretty cool to watch.

Shortly after filming this video I started to wonder why Matt and I were not getting rained on. Then sure enough Matt comes racing back to the van saying that he can hear the rain. It was the loudest I have ever hear rain, it was coming down hard! We raced to get all the crap back in the van and rush out of there. My tires were spinning on the wet playa and I thought we were going to get stuck out there for sure. Finally after racing around looking for the exit we found it. Scary...

Character Series

2009-06-26T15:21:00.001-07:00

So I recently took a trip to the Alvord Desert located in SE Oregon. I am working on a Character Series so I brought a yetti suit. My good friend Matt Brush who is also a photographer was kind enough to wear the suit on many occasions. The yetti shots you see with the baby were taken at Smith Rock, Oregon. That was my good friend Josh and his baby Torryn.

I have decided to make this Character Series into an art show, I just have to figure out where that is going to be. If anyone has some suggestions please let me know.

BTW, make sure to click on the yetti to view a slide show of some of the character images. Not all of these will be included in my art show.