Michael Jackson_King of Pop

Rest in Peace Michael!

Thank you for helping us all dream big!

Always Dream Big,

Matthew Jordan Smith

Michael Jackson_Walk of Fame

I got up early to document people's response in Hollywood to Michael Jackson's death by going to the Hollywood walk of fame. As expected it was crowded with news crews, tourist and those you loved his music. It was interesting to see people's reaction all around me as I took photo's of the moment. I only stayed a short while but as I walked away I passed Farrah Fawcett's star and was shocked to see no one there. Farrah's star is two blocks away but on the same side as Michael so photographed her star also. I remember her amazing poster as a kid and even though I didn't have one, I wished I did. As I photographed her star a photographer parked right beside me. He rushed out of his car and ran past me toward Michael's star totally ignoring Farrah's but sometimes the story is in the things other over look. Moments later a couple walked past with flowers also going toward Michael's star. I stopped them and asked if I could photograph them and the image is now posted here.

As you go about your day shooting don't forget to photograph the things others take for granted.

Tonight is Aretha Franklin's concert and I'm looking forward to enjoying her music. I'm sure she will have a tribute to the King of Pop.

Always Dream Big!

Michael Jackson_King of Pop

Today was supposed to be a day dedicated to printing a new portfolio, and preparing to photograph Aretha Franklin tomorrow in Los Angeles. After speaking with Ms. Franklin by phone about the plans for tomorrow I decided to turn on the TV, something I never do during working hours, and I was shocked at what I saw. Michael Jackson was in a coma and I stood there in shock with prints in my hand. Moments later the CNN reporter broke in to say Michael Jackson was dead. The biggest entertainer in my lifetime is dead at 50 from a sudden heart attack.

I'm trying to work and finish printing my new portfolio but all I can think about is how Michael Jackson's music has influenced my life. I remember being in art school and going to photograph models for a hair salon. It was the night before the Thriller album (not CD) was released and they played the entire album on the radio for the first time. As I shot we all listened to the album for the first time and I never felt so amazing while shooting. It was a magical night and I purchased the album the next day. Today, his music is always in my shoot mix of music while working and it always will be.

As I travel back and forth from L.A. to New York each month I am always amazed when I take the subways and see generation after generation dancing to Michael Jackson's music. I remember the 80's and everyone dancing to his music but to see it now in 2009 by kids who didn't really grow up with his music is evidence to his powerful musical influence. Very often when I play an old Michael Jackson song on a shoot everyone in the room responds in a positive manner. Music will always be a key factor in my photography and Michael's music will be part of that.

The person really responsible for discovering Michael Jackson is Suzanne de Passe. I photographed and interviewed her for my first book, Sepia Dreams and I remember going to her home and seeing photo's of Michael and Diana Ross. Michael's life was filled with highs and lows, and I'm sure over the next few months we will hear about both the negative and positive parts of his life, but I hope he can now rest in peace.

Promotion and Marketing

Today is all about marketing and promoting my new photography work. The past month was spent shooting and editing new work for my portfolio. The new images were not shot thinking about what clients may want to see, but what I love to do. I believe when you photograph things you love to shoot you will get more work than trying to think about what your clients want to see. It is now time to promote my new "love work", and to do so I am using Adbase, www.Adbase.com. The wonderful thing about Adbase is that you can target your audience almost in anyway you can think about. By company, by client, by state, region, etc. I want to make sure my promotion gets in the right hands or in this case in front of the right eyes. A lot of today's marketing happens on line, but I think you must also have something tangible to put in your clients hands. Today is dedicated to using the web and I will send out an email promotion to advertising companies and magazines that deal with fashion and beauty. I will send out a second promotion targeting clients who use portraiture outside of the fashion world.

Timing is important when it comes to sending out your promotions. My website was updated late last week with my new work, but I never want to send out promotions at the end of the week. In New York City some people start the weekends on Friday so I never want to send my promotions out on Thursday or Friday.

My email promotion is set up with Adbase by making a custom list of my target audience. Once I have my list I can decide who gets my email promotion or send it to my entire list. I make every part of my email a live link so my potential clients can click any part of my promo and be directed to my site. In all my promotions I have my link to directly to a page on my website instead of just going to the beginning because time is money and the less time it take for clients to view your work the better. Also, it is a good idea to take any music off your websites as this can annoy clients who may be on the phone or involved with other things while looking at your work.

Check out Adbase if you have not done so already, and good luck in making your dreams a reality. My promotional link for the first part of my promo is: http://mjs-exp.com/romancingthestone.php

Always Dream Big,

Matthew Jordan Smith

TRUTH

I believe the only way to become better, regardless of the discipline, is to look at your weaknesses and work to improve them while at the same time developing your strengths. I was born in New York, and I started in photography in New York where few people sugar coat the truth. When I was a young photo assistant I asked for opinions of my work and my friends and colleges let me know their views and they were not always nice about it, however it is how I grew as a photographer. If all around you are only telling you that your work is the best thing since sliced bread they are setting you up for failure, in my opinion. I believe, (emphasis on I) that you will learn much more from the hard truth than from someone just trying to say your feelings. I was once told by a famous creative director that I'd never work in the U.S. and that I should move to Europe and make a name and then come back. Those comments gave me the fuel to work harder and are deeply responsible for success (or assumed success) today.

In hard times we all have to dig deep to improve ourselves and discover what really drives us to create images that speak to ourselves as well as to other. The process of creating in an evolution and in my personal evolution as a creator I have created ugly images at times and beautiful images at times, but I'm never perfect and that is the beauty of it all.

I once interviewed a famous dancer who express his frustration with creating a dance piece that was killed by the press saying, "I felt like I wanted to pick up my marbles off the ground and run away", however the bad press pushed him to work harder than if he'd received rave reviews all the time. As an artist we can't expect everyone to see our vision but those that do will hire us over and over again, and when we look back over our career's hopefully we will have captured the essence of our life through the unique beauty of our lens.

Always Dream Big

Matthew Jordan Smith

Next post: Adbase Promotion week!

Weird Coincidence

After spending all day editing on the computer I am exhausted but here I am back again sitting in front of the screen.

I stopped working for the day and wanted to just unwind so I pulled out a favorite film to watch for the hundredth time, Dreams by Akira Kurosawa.  I am studying Japanese so it helps to hear the language while watching a movie, but tonight after watching the first story, which is my favorite, I decided to watch something I've never seen.  

I purchased a movie a few months back but have yet to watch it, and tonight I picked it up and decided to view it.  As the movie started they mentioned and show a date.  The date is June 18, 1972.  When I saw and heard the date I looked at my watch to make sure I wasn't imagining what I heard but it was correct.  Today's date, June 18,  thirty seven years ago.   I watched more and realized the movie is about the 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon.  The movie is Frost Nixon.  Now that I have this off my chest I can go back and finish watching the movie.  Maybe it's me but it just seems to weird not to write about.

Stay visually stimulated and always dream big!

Madame Butterfly

This week has been filled with creative photography, great models and an amazing team of hair and makeup. If you saw the blog from earlier in the week you had a chance to see an attempt to post images as I shot my butterfly beauty story. The idea was cool, but in reality it was just too ambitions to post images while shooting and keep my full attention on being creative and involved with my crew.

Madame Butterfly is the name I've given my current beauty story, and it is my hope that editors around the globe love it as much as I do. It was great to have fun expressing myself visually and see my team inspired by my crazy butterfly idea. My makeup and hair crew were very excited about this shoot and they really gave their all in making this story come to fruition.

I shot my story two different ways. One was with one of my typical lighting situations of using one main strobe source as the main light. The other was to use the strobe source as an ambient light source instead of just as a strobe. The strobe images were shot at F16 @ 125 and the ambient images were shot at F 1.4 @ 125. I was nervous to shoot the entire story this way, so I shot it both with strobe and with ambient. The images shot with the ambient light are just stunning! I used the Sony A900 and a Carl Zeiss 85mm lens wide open at 1.4. The images are so romantic in the Madame Butterfly fashion, thus the name.

The images here are not finals but once I find a home for this story, hopefully in a European publication, I will share the images and magazine here.

Always Dream Big!

Matthew Jordan Smith