This week in Vegas

What an insane week this has been. After speaking nine times in three days during the WPPI photo convention, I had to make time to do what I love best and take pictures. I used my Nikon 810 camera with a 35mm lens to create this shot early one morning, then went back to the convention and spoke on the Nikon stage, Profoto stage and for Perfectly Clear. It was great to be around so many photographers and this week's podcast shares why it's important to attend.

Link to podcast: Click here

Oh, by the way, Sunday is the last day to get the new photography lighting course at the pre-sale price. The pre-sale ends Sunday at midnight PST.

Link to pre-orders of Photography Lighting Course CLICK HERE.

It's finally finished!

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I am so happy today! After four months of round-the-clock work filled with many 18+ hour days, we have finally completed the intensive photographic lighting course. This course is a MONSTER course and will teach you more than you could learn in four years of school majoring in photography. The goal of this digital course is simple: Teach everything I know about photographic lighting.

Now that the course is complete, we still have a  little bit of tweaking and prep work to do but the heavy lifting is done!! We hope to launch in the next seven days.

To celebrate, we are putting the course up for the pre-sale at the price $397.00, this price is $100 off the actual price of the course and will never be seen again once the course is live. This price will only be shared with my readers and podcast audience and again It will never be sold lower than the $497  again.

The lighting course is 6 modules long,  and each module has three incredible lessons. This baby is JAM-PACKED with everything you've ever wanted to know about photographic lighting, including how to work with light meters, power packs, light modifiers and much, much more. . To be the first to get your copy order today by going to the following lin: PREORDER

Presidents' Day Special Bonus_Zendaya Edition

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Wow, I can't believe it's been a year since the Future American President book was first released with a foreword by Zendaya. To celebrate, we are releasing the eBook with two amazing bonuses. The first bonus is "5 secrets for taking great pictures of children" and the 2nd bonus, and this one is REALLY special, is a complete behind-the-scenes pdf of the making of Future American President. To make it ever better, it features behind the scenes images of the shoot with Zendaya as well.

The eBook with the bonuses is only available until midnight at the introductory price of $15! After midnight the price will increase to $20, so get your copy today!

Order online at FUTURE AMERICAN PRESIDENT

Oh, and by the way, tonight during the Grammy's Cover Girl will announce their new face who is none other than our amazing ZENDAYA!

Happy Presidents' Day!

Always dream big


Who will be the future president?

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The 2016 Presidential election season has been filled with interesting twists and turns and it will be interesting to see what happens come November. Who will become our 45th President? Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sander, Ted Cruz or one of the other hopefuls? Will ex-New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg jump in the race? 

Last year on Presidents' Day we released the book, Future American President: 50 States * 100 Families * Infinite Dreams, with the goal of inspiring future generations to believe they have endless possibilities. While it's too early for any of the 100 children featured in the book to become president, it isn't too late to inspire every child. This year on Presidents' Day we are releasing the Ebook. To celebrate the release we will have a special bonus. Come join us in celebrating Presidents' Day and as always, dream big!

Valentines, Pretty in Pink and "The data sheet"

One of my assistants was over a while back and I started talking about how I miss having data sheets when he said, "what's a data sheet?"

In the days before digital, we had to record everything on a data sheet. It was a way to keep track of each roll of film and all the exposure data on that job. I love the data sheet because it's much more than just the info on the job, it's a memory of everything about the job along with original polaroids from the day. 

This is the data sheet from the photo shoot with Vanessa Wiliams that became her L'Oreal image. I know call this image, Pretty in Pink, and people ask about this image all the time and how it was made. Funny, what I remember most about this day is playing pool in the studio with Vanessa during our lunch break.

 

Oh, by the way, if you haven't heard this week's podcast of Master Your Lens, check it out! Episode 24 is very interesting. Happy Valentines weekend.

 

Always dream big!

Super Bowl & Aretha's Jeep

Did you happen to see the JEEP commercial during the Super Bowl yesterday? I was proud to have my image of  the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin selected as one of the images, but I wish they used a high res. image.

When they contacted me they mentioned they needed it right away, then seconds later said the version they had was fine, but when I saw the spot yesterday I could tell it would have been much better with the high res. file. 

 

Time to work on making the next iconic images for 2016.

Always dream big!

Thank you for letting me share!

There is nothing like being able to share the joy of photography with people who love the craft also. The other night I spoke in Los Angeles and had a wonderful turnout.  

I spoke for two hours and shared my thoughts about the creative process. During the event, I also had a mini-exhibit and showed images I've created over the years. What surprised me most is how the audience reacted to my latest work. 

Sometimes as creatives we can't see our images the way other do. We feel we may have something special at times but we could be wrong. Lord knows I've had times when I thought an image was truly amazing but then nothing comes of it. Then there have been other times when I have created an image and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

I would like to say "thank you" to the entire audience for sharing how you felt about my recent images from Japan. It was good to be able to share the process and hear the questions and statements regarding my newest work.

Thank you!



Gallery Opening & Speaking Event In Los Angeles - February 2nd

Tomorrow night from 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. I will have an opening exhibit and speaking event at the Creative Photo Academy. There will be a reception starting at 5:30 p.m. and you can even sign up to have your photos critiqued. Come on out for a fun night of photography, conversation and networking. Use the discount code and receive  $10 off! Code: ARTNIGHTMEMBER

I hope to see you soon!

 

Always dream big




Frozen fingers in Ginza

My goal was to complete three images in Japan before flying back to Los Angeles, but yesterday I did my forth. It was the most difficult shoot of all my shoots in Japan because the weather changed and it was freezing. Actually, for January, it has been warmer than usual for this time of year but my luck ran out and both my model and I had a hard time trying to shoot. Still, I think we managed to get a few good images. 

The thing I like most about shooting images that show the environment is their future value. The beautiful thing about all big cities is that they are forever evolving, so the images taken in the Ginza district of Tokyo today will look very different in five or ten years.

Always dream big,
Matthew