Your Most Recent Work is Always Your Best Work

At least, if you're still steadily climbing the learning curve, it is.

Been out and about shooting the past few days, and I figured I should share my new work with the Blogosphere. Included here are two trips down Bardstown Road, and a journey through Cave Hill Cemetery, both here in Louisville. So, without further ado, some photographs!

To start, Cave Hill Cemetery;

"Untitled" Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY. November, 2010.

I have this bad habit...

...of not posting for a couple weeks, and then posting two or three of these things in one day. For the sake of consistency, here's another post for your reading enjoyment.

So, Hallowe'en has come and gone. But wait, no obligatory photos of the children in their All Hallow's Eve regalia? None of the quintessential images of their joy-filled faces out trick-or-treating? Hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but no. Not a one. I felt like being involved this year, and that can be kinda tough when you've got a lens stuck in front of your face (not impossible, of course, just more difficult). Plus, remembering lessons learned from last year, I knew the candy haul was gonna be hefty, and decided I needed both hands free to carry various forms of sugar (as I shoot with a handstrap, which effectively removes one of my hands from the 'useful' category).

But, one thing I did take photos of was my costume. Gypsy and I had a brainstorming session to try to determine what I was gonna wear. We were looking through some of my older crocheted projects, hats mostly, while I was wearing the t-shirt she got me for Christmas (it has a little mushroom guy on it, and it says "I'm a fun guy!"), and we figured I should make a hat that makes me look like a mushroom. I hemmed and hawed at the idea a bit (it'd be quite an undertaking to make something so large), and finally conceded that it'd be a great costume.

Portraiture, attempt No. 1

We had a couple of days off this week, and not a whole lot to do. So, seeing as I just started my little business over at Thumbtack.com, Gypsy and I thought we'd go out and do a little impromptu portrait work. We started up at this place I like to call The Grotto on Eastern Parkway, then headed up to the Falls of the Ohio (it's actual name), where we shot for a bit on the exposed fossil beds. I'm keeping the text to a minimum for this post, so here, enjoy some photos!

Just Some Stuff

Just above this one is a post about my first excursion into the world of portrait photography. While Gypsy and I were out shooting, I of course couldn't resist taking photos of the other interesting things we came across. Again, as in the one above, I'll keep the text short. Enjoy!

"Mirror, Mirror." The Grotto on Eastern Parkway. Louisville, KY. October, 2010.

A Little Street

Just a few images I thought I'd share with my limited readership.

"Smoker" Downtown Louisville. October, 2010.

Oot and aboot

"Shorty'z Smokes" Downtown Louisville. October, 2010.

(That title's not nationalist against Canadians, I promise. I just like how it sounds in my head.)

Woke up this morning, and after the kids got on the bus, bound for another day of 'learning,' I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do for the day. I have a bunch of photos I need to work on from the wedding Gypsy and I went to shoot a couple weeks ago (what I'm doing while I have down time, as we're not getting paid for it...), but it wasn't something I was particularly looking forward to.

Then, outta the blue, my brother calls. I knew he was supposed to start his jury duty today, so I was a little surprised to hear from him, though I figured it meant he'd gotten out of it. He had, and was downtown and not wanting to go all the way home just yet, so he wanted to see what I was up to. I, of course, was more than happy to go out and shoot.

Thumbtack.com

So, I was contacted by this web service called Thumbtack. It's a place for people to go and post their businesses. I was contacted by Heather Madison, the Community Manager, and she invited me to set up a page, and advertise my 'business.'

Now, as you all know, I'm not a professional photog. I consider myself to be leaps and bounds better than I was a couple years ago. I've developed my 'style' quite a bit, and I think my photographic eye has gotten more refined (I hope everyone agrees; if not, please lemme know why...), but I in no way consider myself to be pro. But, I thought, 'What the hey? Might as well check it out.' So, I googled the company, as well as Heather, to see if they were legit, as I've been burned before, posting on craigslist and whatnot. Turns out, though they're still fairly small, they have some big names behind them as investors. So, seeming legit, I signed up (yay! it's free).

So, come check out my site on www.thumbtack.com. If you're from Louisville, or the greater Kentuckiana area, hit me up for some work, if it sounds like I'd fit your bill.

Harvest Homecoming

So, in at a record-setting breakneck pace, I'm back for my second post of the day (I promise this won't happen often; I'm faaaar too lazy for all that noise). I'll keep it fairly short, though, I promise. A couple weeks ago, Gypsy and I went to this festival called the Harvest Homecoming. It's one of those 'booths along the road' type deals, and it's a pretty big deal up there in Indiana, with hundreds of thousands (according to the website, anyway) showing up over the couple of weekends it goes on. 

And now, without further ado, here are some photos:

"Player" New Albany, IN. October, 2010.

 Just a dude, playin' his guitar for the masses.

Some of What I've Been Up to

"YEEEAAAAAAHHH!!!" Louisville, KY. October, 2010.

It's been a while since I've posted here. It seems to be how things go for me, with very few exceptions; I find something new and interesting, and I get all excited about it. I stick with it for a while, in this case posting regularly with exciting, new content. Then, invariably, it dies down. Now, mind you, I haven't had nearly the amount of time, nor (to be 100% truthful here) nearly the amount of drive, to get out and shoot, and hence, have had nothing new to post here.

A Morning Walking

I needed, desperately, to get out of the house today, if only for a bit. Dishes need doing, living room needs picking up. Fine. But y'all can wait a bit, I got something to do first. So, I headed off to Sunergos to get some coffee (it's cheap, and good; a winning combo as I'm usually broke).

"Blue" Louisville, KY. October, 2010.

I found this Flickr user's photostream the other day, and I was very impressed. This guy's composition is phenomenal. He really kind of opened my eyes to some new ways of seeing things around me, and this is my first attempt at a 'minimalist' composition. I love it, and I hope you're impressed, too. (There are a couple more later on down the way.)

Long Time

"Noisemakers!" Bernheim Forest, KY. September, 2010.

It's been a while since I posted. I'm sure I'm not enlightening any of my (very) few followers on this note; luckily, that's not why I'm writing this.

I haven't posted anything new in a while mainly because, well, I haven't been able to do anything in a while. I haven't really gotten to go shoot, with the exception of my niece's second birthday yesterday (where "Noisemakers!" came from). I haven't been able to do this, as I seem to have come down with my yearly Get Sick Time. I hate this crap. Hacking and coughing, aching all over. I feel like a g-damn Tie-len-awl commercial.

So, anyway, that's why I haven't posted anything new. I look forward to feeling better, and to having something new worthy of posting here.

Oh, and BTW, I started up my Twitter thing again. I'm not real sure how often/long I'm going to keep it up, as I kind of have this major thing against people being allowed to be so self-centered, but feel free to write me/follow me here.

Shooting With My Brother

"NEPO" Shelbyville, KY. September, 2010.

So, today my brother Jack and I went out to Shelbyville, and then downtown Louisville, to shoot. Just a couple kids, out walking around, seeing what we see. I didn't shoot much, as there wasn't much that caught my eye. Not a whole lot of people out today, odd being a warm Saturday afternoon and all.

We started out driving out to Shelbyville, a small little town about twenty minutes out of Louisville. It reminds me so much of the towns and villages up in the lower foothills of central California, it was almost uncanny. Like I'd been there many times throughout my life, even though I'd never set foot there before today. The only real difference I could find were the plethora of those 'Historical Landmark' signs. Everywhere, man. Friggin' everywhere.

A Day On Bardstown

"Vacuums Open" Louisville, KY. September, 2010.

I decided, after reading a number of very inspiring articles on Eric Kim's blog, that it was time to get out and go do some shooting. I've been in a bit of funk as of late, things at home piling up, photography hitting a period of severe stagnation, and I needed to do something to pull myself out of it. So, I grabbed my camera, some trail mix, my water bottle, and hit the pavement. I prefer to walk where I go (which, granted, is a bit limiting, as even with the small amount I was carrying, 10 miles gets to be a bit much, especially when you have the return journey to think of), as it affords me many more opportunities to see what would otherwise be nothing but another unnoticed blur out the car window.

First Forays

"Untitled" Mission Beach, CA, ca. 1998
-Ernest J. Zarate

Photography has been a part of me, in varying degrees, for most of my life. As far back as I can remember, my dad has shot, and passionately. I've owned a couple older Nikon F-series 35mm SLRs (which ones, exactly, I couldn't tell you even with a gun to my head), but I was never all that serious about it. A few years ago, I purchased a D80, which lead to the current D700, and a number of lenses, and have really given myself over to the art.

New Face for An Old Blog

I started this blog a long time ago, and never really had anything to do with it. I originally founded it as a place for me to write about the situations in life which peeved, irritated, or even enraged me. Since then, I've come to realize that, indeed, life is too short to spend it angry at the things which we cannot change. So, in light of the last few years' worth of revelations, I've decided a coincident revamp is in order.

Welcome to this new, improved blog of mine. Hopefully (as I now actually have something I think is actually worth posting; namely, my photos) I will be able keep this up for a while, and maybe bring some good about with it.

So, look forward to postings, less about my day-to-day life (at least, in words), and more about the things which I have found in my wanderings, and my Stumblings, which I feel are important to the world. Lots of photos, though, I promise. (I've a few years' worth of backlog to get up here, but I'll keep that brief.)

I look forward to seeing all of you throughout this new leg of my journey.

Matt.