Here is a selection of my work up to this point.
Lets start with couples that I have had the please of photographing. Note: This is not in chronological order.
This is Ernie and Andrea. We got together and walked around Downtown Norfolk taking pictures as we went. We had a great time and got some really good pictures, they are a great couple and it shows in the pictures.
Last fall I went out to the Oceanview beach with my Sister-in-Law and her husband. We walked around on the beach and a little in the dunes by the entrance. We had a great time cutting up and enjoying the sunset on the beach.
John and Mia are some close friends that wanted some updated family pictures. We went to Sleepy Hole park in Suffolk to get the pictures and found this one area with a short section of fence and found it to be a great place to take photo's.
My good friend and brother-in-law recently proposed to a great girl right before he left for Iraq. They went down to Kitty Hawk NC for a night together. That evening he proposed and of course she said "yes." I drove down the following morning and took their engagement pictures. We had a great time and found some cool places to take pictures.
Ok enough couples. What else have I done you may be asking yourself? Well lets move on to the cute, cuddly children and babies. Kids are a lot of fun but not always cooperative, sometimes they can be a handful but I enjoy all of it and figure it will only help me when I have kids of my own.
My first experience working with children was my co-worker at the time and his family. We went to these old set of steps in Downtown Suffolk for the shoot. Also for his daughter I brought a sucker to get her to open up and for if/when she started to get over taking pictures.
A couple months later they had her brother and his family in town and wanted more pictures with them. This time we met in Yorktown at her parents house and went to the neighborhood park. We had a good time, the three children and two infants were kind of a lot for me to handle not being accustomed so many kids, but their parents made everything go smoothly.
While my cousin was in town from Ohio, she wanted some pictures of her daughter. We didn't get the chance to take any until dusk. So we walked around and got some shots before it got to dark.
My first maternity shoot was with Sharon and Casey. I met them at their house in Suffolk with some ideas. They had some thoughts of what they had seen and we went from there. We had a blast, they are a great couple and that made the shoot even more enjoyable. One of my ideas was to have Casey make faces at her belly. One of them was him filling his cheeks with air and it is my favorite from the shoot.
Here are some of the other great shots that we got while I was there. I was just there getting some infant images and that will be my next post.
Now moving on. Here are some individual portraits and other photos that I have taken.
While on a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my friends, I tried to get portraits of everyone. Here are just some of them. While we were there we went up to the Corolla beaches where you can drive on the beach.
I love how this is a more intimate portrait of this couple. Instead of having them look at me I liked how they were interacting, sharing pictures on their camera. The blown out white background gives a serene and peaceful feeling to the image.
Jen is always up for a good time, and really enjoyed being out on the beach. The sun was extremely bright that day but I was still able to get some good shots.
While spending time at the cottage I caught my wife standing on the deck just looking out. I knew I could get a great image. I got her attention and told her not to smile to get this portrait.
My brother-in-law brought his decked out Jeep CJ7 to go through some of the mud trails there.
Derek Pushed his jeep a little to hard and we had a little problem. It was nothing he couldn't take care of. Derek has been working on cars since her was 15. The ride back to pavement was intense to say the least. The jeep would run good above about 35 mph but remember we were on the beach just trying to make it back to where a tow truck could get it. The speedometer is broken in the jeep so all I can do is estimate our speed which was probably close to 50-55 mph. That was a ride I will never forget.
I have also had the opportunity to be the official Photographer at my good friends Purple Heart ceremony. That was a great honor to be able to do this for him. He was injured in Iraq when his APC was hit by a roadside bomb. We drove up to Williamsbug, getting there at 7am. It was the first order of business at a training conference. After the ceremony he was excused and we spent time there taking more pictures and enjoying coffee.
At my last job we started a concept for a television show called the Surfing Chef. The star, Steve generally gets up early and drives from Suffolk to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront to surf. We met at 5am and headed out to the beach on a couple of occaisions to get photos and video to use for the demo video and website that was being developed at the time. Here are some of the portraits that I took on the beach.
Well that pretty much bring you up to date with my portrait photography over the last couple years. I have done quite a variety of shoots and always looking for more subjects and clients.
Please don't hesitate to give me a call if you have any questions or ideas. matt@matthartman.com
