Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm back from my Polar Bear excursion just in time to celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday. I'd like to thank everyone who reads this blog and I wish you all a wonderful time with family and friends as we officially start the holiday season.

Here is a small teaser of images from Cape Churchill. I will blog about this amazing trip and include the gear I took and also the gear I didn't (but wished I had) this coming Monday. Until then have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Keep Dreaming Big,

Matthew Jordan Smith

White on White

A week from tomorrow I will leave for Alaska. I am headed to Churchill to photograph Polar Bears. Now why is the world would a beauty/celebrity photographer go off to photograph Polar bears? Stay tuned!

Always Dream Big!

Matthew Jordan Smith

Lessons in Lighting

I often speak about using one light to make photographs because I believe it teaches us how to see and we learn how to master one light before moving on to more. Many of my images have been made with one light source but there are times when more are necessary .

One of my client's is Brides Magazine, and I enjoy working for this client quite a bit. On this last assignment we were shooting a hair story and I needed additional lights to express my vision clearly. I had to shoot medium format for the assignment so I used the H2 camera with a P30 plus back, but I also had my Sony A900 on set as a backup. The lighting was all Profoto strobes with a 220 Para umbrella on the main lighting source. I had two lights behind the models with black floppies to block my lens from getting any spill from behind the models, and two lights on stand by with grids in case I needed them for directional light on the hair. The story called for using models with light, medium and dark hair so I had to adjust the light for each hair type to emphasis each beauty type. The result was a beautiful story that has led to other assignments and hopefully will lead to many more.

Don't be afraid to experiment before your jobs to learn more lighting tricks and then have fun when you get the assignment. Since this assignment was for Brides magazine we had to use a fake wedding ring, so the images here show us being silly on set and enjoying the day's work.

Always Dream Big