Matt Sartain

http://www.mattsartain.com/
Matt is a digital photographer who also does a lot of photo manipulation to create surreal images. He is only 25 years old. I really like his images because he makes them look real, even when they seem impossible. For example, "The Librarian" shows a man walking around with a huge stack of books, way taller than could ever really be held up by a person; however, the way he positions them looks as if they are being balanced by this guy, and as if they could topple over at any point in time. "The Paper Airplane" reminds me of Maggie Taylor's work, but it looks real. It looks like this scene could actually be happening, and yet looking at it, I know it is many photographs stitched together. The majority of his images are backlit, which makes me wonder if he uses similar sky photos for a lot of different images. "The Balloon Ride" looks very surreal as if it should be an illustration for a movie or kid story book. A man dressed in costume with a mask on is talking to two boys who seem interested about going for a ride on the hot air balloon. I think the shadows are very well done. They are long on the ground, showing the lateness in the day, soon to be nightfall, and they are crisp, meaning it is not a cloudy night. "The Shipwreck" is kind of funny, but sad at the same time. The man looks exhausted as he paddles away from the sinking ship, but he is paddling in a little gun powder barrel that barely fits him. I like to see a successful photographer who is young and not a wedding photographer. He is using his imagination and photoshop skills to develop and piece together scenes that I've never seen before. I look forward to seeing more work by him, and trying some of his techniques on my own.

Start of Lighting Techniques and Black ad White Photography Blog

I am excited about taking these two very different courses. I haven't worked with film since freshman year here, so it's been a while, and I have never used the darkroom at Monmouth. I have a couple lenses for my film camera that I want to experiment with for some projects. For the 2 projects I can develop on my own I want to do some new techniques that have to do with time exposures. Everyday I walk past the flag pole on the great lawn and see the flag waving. I wonder if I took a time exposure at night for 10 seconds what it would look like. I think they are fun experiments that I could maybe get cool looking results with. Also night photography could look really good with grainy black and white film. I am nervous but excited about shooting film again.
For the Lighting class, I want to learn about different ways to light people for portraits. I did 1 photo shoot over the summer with 3 people, but I was just playing around and trying new things. I learned a lot from just shooting for that one session. I did some things well, and other things I should have changed. I want to learn where to position people to make them look the best and show their personality. I want to know how to go about positioning a larger group of people who want their portraits taken. Just having different heights can create an obstacle to fix. Then placing one person in front of another means you have to think about focusing differently. I want to learn about shooting food, and making it look good, and what type of lighting is best. I will probably try some products shooting. I have done 1 shoot on peanuts and wine. It would be good to try some more for my portfolio. I want to experiment with the strobes and model lights. If the room is all black, and the shutter is open, when the strobe is fired, a solid image of a figure can be made. Then, the figure can move and another strobe can be fired, making the same person appear twice in the same image. On the other hand, just using the model or hot lights, in a low lighting situation, the person can move and jump around and the camera will capture this motion that we can't even see with our naked eye.