Winter White Open House 2015 | Portsmouth Portrait Photographer

 I am opening up my home and studio on February 21st from 1-5pm for a fun afternoon of pictures. I will also be showing off some cool new products and giving away prints, portrait sessions!

Photography Sessions
I will have my studio setup, bring your whole family with their heaviest winter gear for a fun quick shoot. The cost is $20 and includes one 8x10 of your favorite image. Plus save 25% on same day print orders.

New Products
I have some really great specialty prints that I have come across and want to show them off! One of my favorites have magnetic mounting brackets making moving and updating easy.

Door Prizes
I am still finalizing the list but they include prints, a 16x24 print, mini sessions and a portrait session!

Afterwards I will upload the pictures to Facebook for you to share with your friends.

Event Details:
When: Saturday, 2/21/15
Time: 1-5pm
Location: 305 Broad St, Portsmouth, VA 23707

Please don't hesitate to call (757-971-0237) or email me with any questions.

Winter White Open House

I am opening up my home and studio on February 2nd from 1-5pm for a fun afternoon of pictures. I will also be showing off some of the products that I am now offering and giving away prints, mini sessions and even a couple full sessions!

Photography Sessions
I will have my studio setup, bring your whole family with their heaviest winter jackets for a fun quick shoot. No sitting fee and I will offer 25% prints ordered that day.

New Products
I have some really great specialty prints that I have come across and want to show them off! Some of them are aluminum prints, standouts and fotofloats.

Prizes
I am still finalizing the list but they include prints, an 11"x14" Aluminum Print, Mini Sessions and Full Sessions!

Afterwards I will upload the pictures to Facebook for you to share with your friends.

Event Details:
When: Saturday, 2/1/14
Time: 1-5pm
Location: 305 Broad St, Portsmouth, VA 23707

Please don't hesitate to call (757-971-0237) or email me with any questions.

Derek Jr, 15 months

Jen brought Derek Jr. over for a quick session in my new home studio! More to come about the studio. He did really good, we were even able to get him to sit in the bucket I bought for his newborn pictures all it took were my keys to keep him happy.

Patton Twins

Molly and Julie just came home from the hospital 8 and 4 days before their pictures were taken. They are very cute girls and are keeping their parents busy. I setup a little studio in the dining room and once the girls were ready I went to work, of course that sounds a lot easier than it really is. This was my first time working with twins and it takes patience to get the good shots, ans we weren't in a hurry. Here are some of my favorite shots from the session.







I wanted to do more pictures of the girls so I invited Robbie & Rachel to bring them over the following Sunday for more pictures in my Studio. My wife has decided to let me use the upstairs bedroom for my studio, and we hadn't even cleaned up there since we moved in. I woke up early Saturday morning excited and ready to get to work. I cleaned and setup my backdrop. Then made a little stage to get the girls up off of the ground. I took some time to dial in the lighting as well using my kickball.



Sunday they all came out and we had a really good time, no pressure, no rush, plenty of room to spread out and the results were great!











I can't wait to take more pictures of these girls as they grow up.

Thanks for looking.

Martie Maternity

My friends John and Mia are expecting their second child in a couple weeks. We started planning this shoot about 7 months ago, when she found out she was pregnant. I setup in their living room which has this nice big wall that was a perfect backdrop for our shoot.

Here is a BTS shot of the "studio" I setup in their living room.

Annabelle Lyttle

I had the opportunity to shoot this amazing model in January. She is a friend of Susan (MUA I love working with and my wife's cousin) that had just moved back from LA. It was a bitter cold day with intermittent blizzard like snow coming down. Most of the shoot was in Susan's apartment in Downtown Lancaster, PA. This was my first time working with a pro and it was absolutely incredible. I learned a lot from watching her, I feel I can give less experienced models more direction. Susan did an amazing job with the makeup.

We started with Annabelle barefaced in the clothes she arrived in and built from there.







These are from her third outfit. Susan had this old suitcase that we jsut had to have some fun with.





These shots from the graveyard were the first ones I edited. She was a trooper out there, and it shows in the images. We had a nice warm car close for when she needed to warm up.







Here are some from our last set where Susan went wild with some awesome makeup.








There are a lot more that I still have to go through so keep checking back to see what has been added or follow my page on Facebook for all of my updates.

A Special thanks to everyone who helped out.
Annabelle Lyttle - Model
Susan Bourassa - MUA
Jessica Hartman - 1st Assistant
Justin Ray 2nd Assistant

Here are some behind the scenes shots from the shoot.

Studio (12/30/2010)

I invited some friends and family over to my in-laws garage where I setup a studio. This was to do some portraits, play with lighting, and have fun. Here are the best shots from that day.



Thanks for looking, if you would be interested in coming out the next time I do one of these fun shoots follow me on Facebook.

Studio Shoot

I am going to setup a studio to take some Fun & Crazy pictures on Dec 30 and I need Volunteers to Model & Do Hair & Makeup. I plan on getting there and setting up early to take advantage of the whole day. I am looking to do 6-7 sets. Ideally I am looking to do 3 sets that are Glam/Fashion shots, and 3 head shots. I am looking for models (male, female) for these sets, with 1-3 people per set. I am also in need of a makeup artist and hairdresser to help in those areas.

I am looking to shoot something different to build out my portfolio. Do you have any really great Halloween costumes in your closet? I am open to what you can contribute.

Here are some of my ideas:

Cupcake Cutie

- Bright Colors, Cupcakes, Fun. This could be as simple as a Pink top, white/pink apron, and the rest will be props, hair & makeup.

Pin-up

- Classic to Modern, I am looking for willing models for this

Ethnic

- Do you have any traditional outfits? Examples include: Japanese/Geisha, Indian, Native American, etc…

Alt Bridal

- Any recent Brides out there that want to see what they could have looked like if they went completely wild with their hair & makeup?

Vaudeville

- Can you spin Plates? How about breathe Fire? Want to pretend that you can? Lets see what we can come up with.

Country Western

- For this I am thinking more Old West than Toby Keith, but I am completely open to ideas.

Boudoir/ Goth / Suicide Girl

- If you are comfortable showing some skin and/or have tattoos I would love to do something sexy and fun.

Here are some samples of this type of work that I have done in the past.

I also want to do some crazy head shots that don’t require an outfit. These would be shorter and quicker sessions than the more elaborate ideas but will let more people participate and will diversify the day.

If you are interested in modeling or showing off you hair & makeup talents send me an email and lets start developing some ideas. Please also indicate your availability for Dec. 30. If you can only be there for half of the day let me know so I can plan accordingly.

This is a portfolio building opportunity, anyone who participates will get a rights released CD for prints. If you can come out & help with hair & makeup I will also provide lunch.

Derek Jr - Halloween

This is going to be Derek Jr.'s first Halloween, and Derek & Jen wanted to get some cute pictures. We setup a little studio with some great props and took pictures as long as he was cooperating, then we would break for a bit and try again. He was really good for about 15minutes at a time. Here are some of the best.

Have an idea for a photo shoot? I would love to hear it, email me or give me a call at 757.971.0237

Having Fun

I borrowed a second flash from my co worker and set up a little studio to have some fun and learn using two flashes. There were two big windows to the left of the image providing most of the fill light, I kept the second flash to the right of the image most of the time. The first flash was mounted on the camera and wasn't always on. I am looking at some options for doing more off camera flash work, including an upcoming project once the leaves start falling.

This a great learning experience, I was hoping some of my friends would stop by to model for me, but it didn't happen. If you want to know the next time I am looking to experiment & get some free shots, follow me on Twitter.




I learned a lot playing with these, it was a lot of fun and I look forward to using what I learned.

For more information, or to schedule a session send me an email of call me at 757-97-0237

Jennifer's Maternity Session

Last weekend I had a lot of fun taking maternity pics of my soon to be sister-in-law. We spent about 4 hours and seven outfits taking pics. We set up a studio in my in-laws' garage so we could control the light. I had the full team helping again (from the PA photo shoot), my wife Jessica helping out, her cousin Susan doing makeup and Susan's friend Becky helping with posing, and props, and .... the list goes on. I cannot thank them enough for all of their help.

We started off with some traditional posing and outfits. then moved on to draped fabric. Jennifer did great, once we had her posed she could hold it all day.




My Brother-in-law is in Iraq right now and we wanted to take some pictures that show their connection to the military. He has scheduled his R&R around her due date so he will be here for the birth of his son. Then he will be home for good in August.



Here are some more images from that day.





Thank you Jennifer for letting me document this special time and I know there will be plenty more sessions in in our future!

Thanks for looking, as always if you are interested in setting up a session feel free to give me a call at 757.971.0237 or email at matt@matthartman.com

More photo's from this session can bee seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_hartman/sets/72157623866859028/

MUA Susan Bourassa - starskeepmarching@hotmail.com
Becky Kreider - www.rebeccakreiderphotography.com