we go LIVE in 6 hours!

That's right, the new website and all its content is uploaded and ready to go, it will launch today 12:00pm AEST.

It's been a crazy week, trying to get my head right after losing my saxophone to some junkie dude who is probably trying to hock it as we speak, but life goes on - they can take away my sax but they can't take away my ability to play it.

Well see you on the new blog in a couple of hours! Thanks blogspot for getting me started :)

Ciao!

New Website coming soon!

Hello everyone!

just letting you know that this blog will soon become redundant as I have designed a new website which will contain a blog there, really exciting stuff for me!

I've now decided to split my website in 2 for photography content and music content, which is really exciting, it'll take me a couple of weeks (hopefully 1) to get my act together and publish enough material for both sites!

The layout looks really great and I can't wait for you to see all of my latest work, as I hadn't updated that site for at least 18 months, happy days. I will say however the potography site will contain pictures of many musicians and DJ's who work within the Sydney scene - I've been so privileged to have photographed them - they are all amazing at what they do.

See you on the flip side!

p.s. for all you stickybeaks you can have a look at my new logo on the holding page at www.markmatthews.com.au

The Lansdowne Jam

Every Monday night in Sydney a bunch of my friends head out to the Lansdowne Hotel to hang out, drink, and play together - I guess it's like our industry night - time where we can catch up on who's doing what. Daniel Goodacre aka "Danny G Felix" runs the night, accompanied by some very heavy muso's, playing a variety of soul, funk, hip hop, bit of jazz, reggae. Primarily though what I love about it is that music is music, and many of the musicians who come have very different muscial backgrounds, but all come together to listen and play. If you're a muso (or even not!) and not doing anything on a Monday night this IS the place to be!

Luckily enough for me the Lansdowne called me up to take some snaps of the band to help them promote Monday Jams - here are a few of them from last night.

The Lansdowne

Botanical Statments website launch

A couple months ago I did a shoot for Tracy Hughes and her company "Botanical Statements". I was fortunate enough to shoot her product, it was a great learning experience for me.

Today she launches her website, take a look, I'm sure you will be impressed with her creations as much as I was, check them out here:

www.botanicalstatements.com.au

Like them here on Facebook

Dave Jackson photoshoot

The other day a good mate of mine Dave Jackson calls me up looking for some new promo photos for himself and his band, I was more than happy to help out a mate and spent a couple hours taking some new images for his profile. Dave was looking for a tunnel to shoot in and I suggested we go to this cool little tunnel tucked away in Glebe, and it turns out it was exactly what both of us were looking for.

Dave is an incredible saxophonist and can be found deep seeded in the Sydney Jazz scene, in 2009 he was one of the finalists at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival National Jazz Awards, you can find out more about Dave at his website: www.davejacksonmuic.com

Dave gave me permission to put up some of my work for my blog and I'm very happy to share these with you - most of these shots were achieved with one flash and a little bit of colour manipulation in Lightroom, to give it a darker, edgy kind of look…

Dasein: The Art of Being - Chase Jarvis

Please take 7 1/2 minutes out of your day and do yourself a favour. Watch. This. Video.

I know I go on and on about Chase Jarvis, but he really is a visionary for the modern artist. So many of my thoughts on photography align with his concepts and philosophy - if you are someone who is an artist whether it is music, photography, art, dance - it all makes sense when you realise that creativity is the key to our lives.

MM

Magic Hour

Every day there is somewhere in the world where without fail there is a phenomenon photographers like to call "magic hour" or "golden hour" (I like to use the term magic hour because golden hour just sounds too much like golden shower...) This is basically where the sun gets ready to set and the afternoon light gives off a golden hue, which also happens in the morning at sunrise - it's a great time for photos but can be as cheesy as sepia if it isn't done well. 

This continues on my unashamed obsession with light - I love it!

Good spots in Sydney for magic hour:

- Spit Bridge, Mosman - yeah just ridiculously good. 

- Parramatta Road, Camperdown-you can position the sun in a way where all the traffic goes into silhouette - try a fast shutter for this one.


- Kent St side of the city - really interesting shadows cast on buildings


- The old bridge at Northbridge - I don't know how good that is yet, dying to do a fashion 
shoot there though!


- The airport?? I haven't tried yet but I reckon you'd get something cool there... 

Try mixing some flashes in for interesting results! 

Hunter Valley sunset