Video Marketing

From Polar Bears to Oprah from Matthew Jordan Smith on Vimeo.

The world of photography is rapidly changing and part of that change is video. I spent last night watching my video editor work with Final Cut Pro to edit my reel while teaching me at the same time. To make my video it took all day and night and we finished right before midnight.

You will see more video's on this blog in the coming months so stay tuned. Video has become a huge part of marketing in every area including photography. Having a website alone is no longer good enough as we need to show not only our work but our personality as well.

Keep working hard and dreaming big!

Crazy Week

It's only Wednesday morning but already my week has been nothing but hectic. Monday my agent called to say the client who had me on hold for Tuesday and Wednesday was releasing the time. Oddly enough this was the same client who released me two weeks ago. Moments after that my agent called back to say I may have to fly to NYC on Wednesday, (today) for a shoot on Thursday. Yesterday, that client ended up booking someone in New York. Then a client called from London asking for the 4,5, and 6th of May. I'm speaking for Sony on the 4th in New York City, so we told the client I could fly out the night of the 4th from NYC and be in London on the 5th and do the 5th,-7th. All was looking good until we received a call that they thought was in London. I don't know where they got that idea, but now London isn't happening but it's still good to be wanted. Even though all three assignments came and went in two days, at least they are calling and that's a great thing. You never win every assignment but it's a beautiful thing when the phones are ringing and they are asking about you.

My personal life was also flipped upside down. I woke up yesterday to also learn that my girlfriends grandmother was rushed to the hospital and may not make it, so we rushed to get a ticket to Japan for her and now she is on her way to Sapporo, Japan.

In the midst of all this I had another amazing meeting yesterday with Overbrook Films, Will Smith's production company. The meeting lasted four hours and I am more excited than I've ever been. Remember that dreaming big is a must! Don't put limits on what you can do. Reach for the star's and always dream big.

I will be speaking in New York at Calumet this Tuesday but they placed the ad with the wrong name, MICHAEL JORDAN. I've photographed Michael a few times and when I first met him it was through Martha Stewart who introduced us like this: Matthew Jordan meet Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan meet Matthew Jordan. I know we are both tall, dark and bald but I wish someone would make the mistake of sending one of his check to me instead of mixing our names up.



Save the date
Los Angeles, CA
June 28th and 29th

Details to come soon!

Always Dream Big

P.S. Please send your prayers out to our family.

Lawrence of Arabia

I just watched a classic old movie that I have had in my archives for a long time. I always said I would watch this film on some long flight but that never happened, usually because I am working on flights. Lawrence of Arabia is a film many people have told me about over the years and expressed how wonderful the film is, so I decided to take the time and watch this 3.5 hour film today. The cinematography by Freddie Young was incredible and the locations were equally stunning but I didn't like the film. It is listed as one of the best movies ever made but I was only blown away by the locations and cinematography. As I watched this film I tried to study what made the images so powerful, and I believe part of this was due to scale and how the cinematography choose to show it.

Very often with photography when we see an object bigger than life we want to capture the feeling and beauty of it, but without a relatable object to compare the scale is lost. Lawrence of Arabia did an amazing job of using people as a reference to show the scale and beauty of the landscape. As I work on my hobby photography, travel I will remember this lesson and use it more.

Remember to have fun and always dream big!

Working Day and Night

We all work hard and that's a good thing right? Well, not all the time and especially if you want to be creative and productive. If you want to perform at your best all the time you must take time to unplug and recharge your creative soul. Lately I've been working non-stop and feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the project and work related items I have going on. I am fortunate to have a wonderful girlfriend who witnesses my work schedule and decided it was time for me to unplug before I explode. She surprised me for my bday and took me away to a spa just to get away and not think about work. I had a hard time doing that at first but realized how bad I've become lately with thinking about nothing but work. If you love what you do it doesn't seem like work so it makes it hard to cut it off at times, but it is very important to enjoy life.

Recently I heard a great story and I'd like to share it here.

Two men are climbing a mountain. The first man has a goal of climbing to the top of the mountain as fast as possible, and he exhausts himself to do all he can to get there as fast as possible. He accomplished his goal and rejoices in reaching the top first. The second man also wants to reach the top of the mountain, but his goal is to enjoy the journey on the way to the top. Both men reach the top but only one has enjoyed the journey.

Have you ever wondered why one photographer seems to get work all the time and another photographer can't seem to get a break? Stay tuned to learn the secret of this a much, much more.

Dream big and enjoy the journey.

Iceland Volcano

In August 2008 I had the pleasure of going to Iceland and experiencing the beauty of this amazingly beautiful place. While there I took photographs from a helicopter with the doors off, but keep in mind when you take the doors off you use more fuel. One of my favorite images is from a sequence flying over a volcano, and even though it was freezing it was one of my favorite moments. As I fought feeling dizzy while trying to look through my viewfinder I couldn't help thinking how blessed I was to have this experience. I love photography!

Matthew Jordan Smith © 2008
All Rights Reserved

Birth Day

As the clock heads toward midnight I find myself doing what I love most (well almost). I am working on my personal photography projects and about to stat another year of life filled with new dreams for the future. I was born at 12:05 a.m. on April 21st in Brooklyn, New York and today I will unplug from work and just enjoy life!

Dream Big!
Matthew Jordan Smith
4/21/2010
12:05 a.m.

A Special Day

April 15th is a day that many people dread because of tax reasons, but I have a special connection to this day for other reasons. First, it's my father's birthday and he's very special to me, but it's also the day I moved back to New York when I was 22 to start my photography career as a photo assistant. I was born in Brooklyn, New York but my parents didn't like the idea of my sisters and I growing up in New York so we moved to South Carolina when I was five. I don't think I ever really connected with South Carolina and always felt I belonged in NYC. At the age of twenty-two I yearned to chase my dream and get back to New York. I felt it was the only place in the country where I could make my dream of becoming a successful photographer come to life, so off I went. For eighteen years I lived in the Big Apple and then made to move to Los Angeles, CA where I now reside. Still New York will always be home.

This morning I was interviewed for an internet TV show and spoke about my views on photography. The segment lasted about four hours and after they left I remembered the special meaning of this day and how grateful I am for the creative experience I've enjoyed for so many years of my career.

I want to end today's post with a question. When was the last time you had a truly creative experience?

Always Dream Big!

Dealing with Cancelations

Thank you Matt for your question. To answer the question "how does one deal with canceled shoots"? It is never easy dealing with long term clients and last min. cancelations. Typically, once a clients "confirms" you for the assignment they are liable for your time and you can bill them for a "kill fee". I have done this in the past but not always. Depending on the clients and the situation I will judge when to bill or not. If I get a lot of work from the client and the cancelation was not on the clients part then I will work around it. However, there are clients who don't respect your time or don't use you often and then you must take a stand by billing for the time. I have one magazine I don't give options to simply because they have a habit of canceling. Last year one magazine put me on hold four times and never called to confirm or release my time. That magazine in one I never take seriously when they call anymore for that reason, and I never do any research until they confirm. If another clients calls for time on the same day I ask my agent to take the confirmed day, simply because that client is horrible on confirming and this magazine is owned by Time Warner. The clients who respect the photographers and the process get my full respect and cooperation.

The following words hold a lot of weight:

Confirm- means you are booked for the job and can now plan to produce the assignment and shoot it.
Oh Hold - simply means you are being held and considered for the assignment. Some clients will put several photographers on hold and confirm the one they want at the last moment.

My agent was very smart on this assignment. They waiting until the last moment to confirm everyone else involved with the shoot. Instead they placed everyone "on hold" and thank goodness, because even though I was confirmed by the client we didn't want to confirm everyone else until the last moment because of the nature of whom we were shooting. I put in a lot of hours working on the shoot, but the research aspect of the work is something I will have to use when the assignment comes up again. Be smart!

Always dream big!

:-(

You can't win them all but you can sure try. I was looking forward to today's shoot but at the last moment yesterday, (Friday) the subject's canceled on the magazine. After all the long hours pulling things together and hiring hair, makeup, groomers, barber, manicurist, studio, grip, assistants, etc. the plug was pulled. Thank goodness it was right before my clients boarded their plane to fly from the east coast to the west.

I was down for a moment, but I am blessed to make a living doing what I love and even though this would have been a stellar photo session I know that things do happen for a reason and it wasn't meant to happen at this time. Road blocks are sometimes on the road to success, but this is also part of the journey and now I have one more exciting story to tell on my next speaking engagement. :-)

I will still not say who the subjects were in the event the job comes back on the table. These things happen all the time and I'm sure it's not the last.

Always dream big!

Biggest Shoot of the Year

After all day meetings and spending most of my day looking at stages at Rental studios I am elated to have my first real big job of the year. Saturday is the day and tonight and tomorrow we are deep in production. I won't be able to speak more about the job until it's out for the world to see but I'll share it at that time. This is one of those jobs I've waited years for and one that I will remember forever.

Now time to work on putting the music list together and speaking with my crew and agent to work on pre-production.

Dream big! Dreams do come true!

Success Tips

Success is never an accident. It takes planning, making adjustments and execution. Even though you have a plan things will never go as you thought, but that is the beauty of it all. You roll with the punches.

Yesterday was a rough day as I was reeling from jet lag still. I hadn't slept since Monday night and it caught up with me and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes opened. Then I got a call to come in for a meeting, which ended up being a five hour meeting. I was having the hardest time at first but then kicked into overdrive and make it through. The meeting was with a group of gentlemen who designed the Madden 2007 and 2008 games. I was very impressed and it helped wake me up. One of the members from Will Smith's team was also in the meetings, so afterwards we spoke about working on a separate project with Will Smith's company. At the moment, they are deep into getting things ready for the launch of Karate Kid and much more. After the first meeting we went directly into another meeting with Ray Lewis, the NFL star and I discovered he loves photography and has been shooting for eight years. In the middle of all these meetings, my agent sends a text about a client wanting to shoot on Saturday for a celebrity shoot. I text her back that I am available and then the client confirms me. All together a great day, but I left the meeting totally exhausted, went home and crashed.

MJS Success tip of the day: Identify six to twelve clients you'd like to work for and target your marketing effort to those potential clients for the next year. Don't cast a wide net hoping to catch a fish or two as this approach yields very little.

Now it's time to start the day and work the plan! Part of the plan includes sending clients images from my trip to Japan, but I always want to send images that speak as a story. Here are a few of the rough drafts from Kyoto so far.

COMING SOON:
Los Angeles Workshop: Details to follow soon.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Always do what you are afraid to do."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dream big and be fearless!

Dreaming

Last night I couldn't sleep. I don't know why really except to say my mind was filled with images and dreams. I fought to sleep but gave in around 5:00 a.m. and started working on my revised book project. My goal is to spend two hours a day on my personal projects but that's not always easy, but then again it's not supposed to be.

My head is filled with images from Kyoto and even now it seems like a dream. The only proof I have that Kyoto was not just a great dream are my photographs and I am still trying to decide which day was my favorite. At first I thought it would be the day spent with my class shooting in the bamboo forest. A truly magical day, but then my last day with my girlfriend was also quite amazing, so the jury is out at the moment.

Dream big so you can remember the joy of life!

Cherry Blossoms

I recently read an article that listed the top things to see during one's life. Visiting Kyoto, Japan during cherry blossom season was one of them and now I understand why. The beauty of Kyoto during this time of year, which only lasts three weeks, is like nothing I have seen before. Washington, D.C. has cherry blossoms during the spring but it doesn't come close to the beauty of Kyoto.

When I arrived in Kyoto last week I was a bit shocked to find it cold. On our second day it snowed and everyone in the streets started taking photographs. I was concerned we wouldn't see any cherry blossoms but by the middle of the week they were out everywhere, and by the end of the week the entire city was out enjoying outdoor evening dinners under the cherry blossom trees. Kyoto is truly one of the most amazing places to visit and photograph. The joy of being a photographer is not only that you get to photograph the beauty of the world the way you see it, but you have the opportunity to share that vision with the world and inspire others through your photography.

I took two Sony A900 bodies and almost every Sony lens I own to Kyoto in my Lowepro x300 roller. With travel becoming harder this is the perfect bag for travel as it fits in the overhead without a problem. In the event you do get in trouble the camera section comes out and becomes a backpack and then you can check the outer case if you need to. It is the best camera case I have seen in my career. I also carried the Lowepro Classified 250AW on top of my roller to put my video camera, computer, and smaller items in. the classified bag has a feature I really love on the back with a pocket that fits over the handle of my roller case so it won't fall off. Two great bags that made my life so easy while traveling around in Japan.

Always dream big and share your vision with the world!

Camera info in Kyoto:

Meiwaku

As I sit in the lounge waiting to board my flight back to America I am reflecting on the past week here in Japan. One word I learned on this trip was "meiwaku". No country can be all things to everyone, but one thing that the Japanese have mastered is the art customer service. There is no tipping in Japan, but the service you receive is better than any I have experienced anywhere in the world. I asked my girlfriend where this comes from and even though meiwaku may be hard to translate the meaning refers to never inconvenience others. A lesson to learn and take back home for sure.

Always Dream Big!

Last Night in Kyoto!

It is Sunday night in Japan and I am winding down from an incredible seminar in Kyoto Japan with Scott Robert Lim. We had a great seminar with students from all over the world coming from the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Canada and the U.S. Two of our students expressed they learned more in a week with us then from a year in photography school.

Stay tuned for images from this amazing week as I will update the blog with photographs and video's when I land. One of my favorite photo shoots from the class took place at a bamboo forest. I was concerned on the morning of the bamboo shoot because the weather forecast called for rain, however it was a blessing in disguise because it made for a magical, mystical photo shoot.

The best way to enhance your life is to do one of the following:

Surround yourself with great people (the people you meet)
Travel to amazing places (the places you go)
Read great books (the books you read)

If you are serious about becoming a better photographer find a great seminar and soak in as much information as possible.


Dream Bigger!