matt's photos
This was three weeks ago now, which might make you think I’m slipping on my promise to get things out in a timely manner, but believe me when I tell you the last three weeks have been absolutely stuffed with things I needed to do, so editing took a bit of a backseat while being in the moment and pushing the buttons took precedent. Like, for example, my Photography Show , first I’ve done in a…
from the set of the future hit short film. turns out with modern cameras, equiped with digital shutters, you don’t need a blimp to work silently. Although, when the scene is funny, you do have to try not to laugh. That does show up on the sound recording. Just for example I took far too many pictures so of course this is a loose edit. It was a super fun day, shooting in three locations. I took…
I live half an hour from the world’s most beautiful taco bell, in Pacifica, and until last week, I’d never been. So we hopped in the car last friday after work, as I’ve been doing, and went down there to see what the fuss was about. there’s something poetical about going to beautiful places and shooting them in crap light. This beach specifically is quite breathtaking on a good day; the surf and…
sometimes I just have a few photos to share the texture of the concrete made me stop as I was unlocking my bike and get my camera back out to get this picture. Really nice. Then I got home and the moon was doing a thing. Earthshine visible on the dark side. Several UFOs not visible to the naked eye showed up in the shot, too (lens flares).
These are actually from last Friday, didn’t feel a ton of urgency. Also, just a crazy week. I found out Monday my foot isn’t healing (3rd metatarsal fracture on my rt foot), so I have to spend another period in a postop shoe or boot. They’re going to maybe send me a bone growth stimulator, a real medical device that exists, sometimes the future is actually awesome. Method of action is ultrasonic…
New hotness came in the mail today, well new to me at least, and so the first thing I did was take a mirror selfie with it. The second thing I did was make a strap for it out of parts, and the third thing I did was take it for a little walk, get some real images, see what it’s actually capable of. So here we are. It’s a Leica M11 Monocrhome, a digital rangefinder that doesn’t record color…
These are the film photos from the same 36 hours the of the last post. Generally I don’t take my digital camera down to the dock, since electronics and water don’t play nice. This year I took the Texas Leica, which isn’t waterproof, but the big negatives are so nice to work with. I don’t think I can shoot 35mm any more? These were super hard to edit, though. There were some technical difficulties;…
Long ago, on an island not too far away… This was last year, when I was kind of in the thick of it. I had just gotten my dialysis port in, but hadn’t yet run with it. Basically you have to heal for some weeks before you can begin treatment with peritoneal dialysis, so I had a tube coming out of my gut that made me very prone to infection. Usually when I go to driftwood I go for the whole time, and…
In keeping with my new practice of getting the pictures out as quickly as I can, news is new, as they say, this was last weekend. Drop party is a celebration of music and art; it’s been hosted at a bunch of different spots over the years, but we keep coming back to the same central themes. Usually one or more DJs, always at least DJ OTHA, and at least one community painting; this year they had…
Hot off the SD card, here are some photos from last night. Drink and draw, which I think I’ve mentioned here before, decided instead of the usual meetup at Lovely’s , we’d make our own smashburgers and watch a movie, specifically the anime Redline. Akhil was saying before the we watched it that the movie was called ‘Speed Racer on crack’ when it came out. I’d never seen it, but that’s not…
This was Helen’s birthday picnic, out at lake Temescal. We burned meat on the grills, Russ made a cake with a whole bag of oreos crumpled on top, Helen’s sister DJed, everyone dressed up as bugs. I was a shutterbug, which I don’t think anyone got? But I may have forgotten to make my dad-joke costume known.
These photos have been a long time coming, at least partially because I’ve been having a really hard time letting go of them. I wanted badly for them to be something else, but eventually I have to realize that they’re not, and that’s OK, and move on. I can make excuses, like the light was difficult, and I was using a camera that, it turns out, was eating about 10% of the files it was supposed to…
I know I said I was declaring bankruptcy on all my 2024 photos, but I saw this little photoset and it jived with something I was thinking the other day, namely, why don’t I do black and white any more? It used to be a big part of my practice, but then someone told me digital black and white wasn’t real, and I kind of was buying everything they told me wholesale (a lot of it was very good and…
New year, same me. On of my resolutions or intentions this year is to get off my ass and do more photography. As if last year’s fallow periods were my fault. Doesn’t matter, I still feel better when I’m making pictures. And part of that is getting rid of the backlog. So I’ve declared bankruptcy for anything that happened before new years day 2025 and moved on to things that happened last year.…
Doing the end of the year catch up again, only this time I’m catching up for two years. This was October 2024, so I didn’t really manage to get caught up last year… at least this is still a going concern. These are from my friend Casey’s birthday celebration in 2024; I missed her party this year due to having two broken arms at the wrong time (there is no right time). Casey is an amazing human,…
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. This is just a ‘proof of life’ post, if a bunch of photos from January 2024 can be called that. I have to go to bed, but there’s been a reason for the longer-than-usual hiatus, and we’re not out of the woods yet. I’ll try to write more later.
I took these… almost two years ago now? They were supposed to be for a photo project, https://www.1in6by2030.com/ , but I didn’t really have enough to submit for the prompt, which was something about retiring versus continuing to work. It was winter, in Santa Fe, and mostly I worked my normal job while house sitting for my friend Ben (sorry about your pepper plant, man). But the pictures aren’t…
I’m gonna be honest, I thought I worked these up and posted them months ago. I definitely looked at them, but that whole edit somehow didn’t make it to lightroom. Anyway. Working at warp speed to get ready for Yerevan in 12 days. The reason I went back and found these in the first place is I’m trying to put together a little book of my Driftwood work from the last year. I’d really like to have…
These have been awaiting final edits and posting for (counts)… 16 months, more or less. Taken two calendar years ago, when we went to visit Sophie’s family in Santa Fe. Good trip. I remember running around the neighborhood to get the photos of the mountains at sunset two days in a row. I’m working on getting prepared for the trip to Armenia. Made a gear list that I’ll probably cut down (one…
This was January 2024. I went to the top of the backlog, the oldest pictures, got rid of a couple stragglers from 2023 (although there’s some stuff from our Christmas in Santa Fe I need to see if I ever posted and put those up if I haven’t) and anyway these were what was at the top. Met Cason, Ryan, Joseph (not pictured but I’m pretty sure he was there) and Nayara out at Pangloss in Sonoma, had…
The one annual party that celebrates the best dog. There was art, poetry, jewelery, rock bands, live coding, and one surprise serenade at the end. Good party.
This is just another quick one. The surprise was last September, so no danger in spoiling it for anyone that should know. I, on the other hand, should know better than to sit on photos for (checks notes) seven months. I do love this like genuine surprise on both of their faces… I think Kawan was surprised he actually pulled off the surprise party. Helen, the one who was surprised, is just shocked…
This is probably the last Driftwood post for a while; I’m going to miss Drop Party this year, and by the time the drift itself happens, I might be in recovery for the kidney transplant surgery. So. I don’t think I’ve got an essay in me tonight. Enjoy the pics and we’ll be back at it next week.
For those that don’t know, Driftwood is an annual gathering out in the Delta , on Bradford Island . Reachable by car ferry, there’s no running water or very much electricity; we sort of bootstrap the whole thing with stuff we bring in. A lot of people contribute various things, like hauling in porta potties, or a generator, or they help organize. I bring my cameras. The point, although we call it…
These are from a trip up to Portland January 2024; we went up to see our friends Sam and Kate. I know I said the Driftwood pics were soon, but they’re not quite ready. I need to show them to some people before I can let them out the door. Anyway, this trip. The air from the plane was, for some reason, super clear; it feels like it’s never this good. I took a bunch of photos out of the window on…
Here is one of the ways doing photography the way I do is worse than just sharing the pictures on instagram on the day: these were photos from Jeff’s birthday gathering over a year ago. Some stuff is timeless and important and some stuff is just friends gathering for nice drinks. I think they also went out to the bar after this but even at this point I wasn’t drinking, so we demured and I think I…
OK so, the setup is this: one night party, setup saturday, strike sunday morning after a few hours sleep. Completely transform an office waiting room into a lounge/dance floor/art space for the duration of the party. We brought in rugs and cushions, projectors, lights, big fabric hanging bits, art from previous iterations of the party, and a dozen or so cool people. There was also the matter of…
This was last year, the night before the Drop Party (those pics are on deck). Had one of my once-a-month cigars with friends (which I’ve since quit altogether, because of the transplant requirements). Went over to some friends’ back yard, I think I’d met them once before at some other LoveLab function (the dinner? Drift? something) and it was a nice relaxing evening. Just posting these because…
these photos were taken a couple weeks ago now, at a weekly dance party that started back in 2020 called Days Like This . Friday night, 5-9:30, just impeccable vibes. really great fun. The first couple were from before, we went to Coach and had sushi before dancing. despite the fact that the break dancing is the majority of the pictures here, it only really lasted a couple songs. We got to the…
There was an event I wanted to go to on a Saturday down in Little Armenia, we didn’t have anything else going, so I booked a hotel near the thing and we drove down saturday, went to the event, and came back on sunday. What was the event? Who knows, I didn’t take any pictures there (it was a Q&A for this project by Anush Babajanyan ). Anyway, the clouds both ways were spectacular. The second day…
These are actually from the night before the previous post. I’m trying to get ahead of the trend and give up entirely on linearity. I had looked at flights and arriving one day earlier plus a hotel was quite a bit cheaper, so I went for it. I feel like at the time I might’ve also been scheduling with the possibility that Sophie would come along. I don’t remember, it was last year and a while ago.…
Finally getting to these (checks notes) about six months after I meant to. This was a killer party, lots of good food and music. I kind of wasn’t on my game that night? I’d gotten a bad haircut and had a weird day wandering around Minneapolis. It didn’t matter that much, there was also a real wedding photographer there, so I was able to mostly relax and enjoy. I think this was the trip I really…
a thing that happens when you carry your camera everywhere: sometimes the clouds are really cool and your trip to pick up a rug for the living room becomes a little photo essay.
This trip was back in the early spring, I think we were hanging out and it came up that Kawan had never been? Anyway, it was as magical as it always was, plus the added benefit of good company. I don’t have an essay in me about this weekend, sorry. Enjoy the pix though.
I remember this drive across the bridge; it was cloudy in the east bay, and then after Yerba Buena island, the fog closed in around me and all I could see were the cars around me and the structure of the bridge. I thought about ‘casual domain shear’, which was an idea from the last half-good Neal Stephenson book, Anathem . Basically, if you’re sufficiently isolated from some part of physical…
Saudade means a profound longing or lonelyness, the emotion you feel for someone you love is a long ways a way, in time, space, or emotion. You say, when you’re leaving your beloved, ‘Vou ter saudade de voce’ when you’re leaving, probably not on a trip, but when you know you won’t see them again for a while. It can be sad, but it’s also an expression of love. Like I said, we were kind of staying…
These pick up right where the pictures from yesterday left off. I had just walked by the guy in the bear suit playing bass, it was our second day in town and we were just walking around the tourist area near the Ponte Louis I, the arch bridge in a couple of these pictures. Lots of locals hanging around too, although it was obviously a destination and not as much a place people live. The top of the…
Been a while since I rapped at ya… These are from last fall, because I have once again let my backlog get way ahead of me… there are so many things from this year that I haven’t posted. Porto I didn’t post yet because it’s hard to edit down to something coherent and postable, but here I am posting anyway. Probably will be 2-3 posts? I’m trying. This was kind of my half of our big trip last year;…
I had a teacher in high school who’s biggest pet peeve was the phrase ‘first annual’, because, she said, if it was the first, then there was no way for it to be annual. An annual event, in her mind, was something that happened over and over again, every year. So first annual was something of an oxymoron. That said, I’m not sure she was right. It’s not wrong to say first of an annual series, if you…
These were from some months ago, driving out through the delta and across the central valley. The Driftwood spring retreat was out in the foothills, in a spot that was pretty ideal for a dozen or so people to descend and party it up. But first we had to get there. Someone once told me the framing in the title, that California’s central valley wasn’t a collection of farms but a factory for turning…
This was a party I was something like four years late to. That is, Casey has it every year, and every year on 3/14 since the first one I was invited to, something prevented me from going. COVID lockdown was the first year (although the party happened, I had a small fever that morning from something and stayed away out of an abundance of caution), I think the next year I was somewhere for work, etc…
Shot these one day back in… December? Went up to Santa Rosa to meet Cason and Ryan for brunch at the Flamingo. I had the edit ready a couple weeks ago and then forgot about it. Been working on the San Pablo edit. I had some vague vibes-based categories and then got some help from my friend Michela to put them in order… unfortunately it kind of fell flat when I looked at it again with Sophie. I…
I’ll try to write more about this later, but people have been asking where are my pictures from the eclipse, so here they are…
So we got to Santa Fe and had lunch with the family that was gathered in town. I’ll post those photos eventually maybe, but I’m feeling these right now. After lunch, there was a storm moving in, to dump a couple inches of snow on the town (more up on the mountain). Incredible light. So I grabbed the nikon and ran down to the river. OK, maybe I didn’t run. Walked quickly. But the clouds! Wild…
well it’s after midnight again (it’s literally always after midnight), and it’s time to blog… I started this post like a week ago, and then couldn’t decide what pictures to post. still hitting stumbling blocks I’ve set up for myself. The edits are too big, so the posts would be too big. I’m forgetting the first rule of blogging, which is always be blogging. The second rule, which I’m also…
these happen every week, I just happen to go to them much less often. you might think ‘matt, these are serious draw-ers to go and do this every week’ and you couldn’t be more wrong. some of them are very good at their own style and have a lot of ability, I would never describe it as a serious endeavor. more like a social hour with some strongly encouraged creativity. Each week, there’s a sheet…
Today’s today in tabs had as its kicker a link to a list of “things that don’t work.” I won’t link to it because it has a certain smell about it, a smell of mixing things that are obviously true with things that are just one guy’s opinion and some that are just plain wrong. I read a few of the other things on the site and there’s a nasty undercurrent to the dude’s writing. That kind of smell.…
I think this was after the other christmas party? Anyway. A fun show. Helen came for a bit, I think we stayed a bit later… Kawan was doing something or out of town, I don’t remember. Anyway, this is a party that Zero Fucks have put on for a couple of years, a corporate themed rave, complete with bonuses, keynotes, suits, and HR-bots. Fun and weird and a nice substitute for actually going to an…
I had to cut about 20 images that were basically variatons on the big group picture from this edit. I know, it’s a christmas party and I’m only now, in March, getting around to publishing the photos. What can I say. I either transmit them on the spot via my phone, or I do it months and months later, after agonizing over the edit for far too long. Actually this weekend we were back at this…
So, I was getting ready to leave to go to chicago, texted Kawan to see if he was going to drink and draw, and he said, no, I’m going to miss it tonight, it’s Day of The Dead in the city. I was instantly like, I should go and photograph that, even though I hadn’t packed and leave for chicago the next day. Yeah, these photos happened before the ones it the last post. So I got to the mission about 7,…