Start of a New Week

I'm headed to Joshua Tree to recharge my creative batteries and start the week off right.

I have a shoot coming up on Friday and will spend the entire week preparing for it. First thing Monday I will have to call model agencies to start the casting process to find male and female models who can deliver the feeling and energy I'm looking for. This shoot is all about fashion. To follow this shoot as it happens and more join me on twitter at: www. twitter.com/Matthew_JordanS

Here are a few images of my crew hard at work from the last job in NYC. Notice how my assistants are paying attention to the details vs looking at the models while I shoot. It's very important to have a great team of people around who are not caught up in watching the shoot, but instead are focused on the job at hand.

Okay, I'm off to Joshua Tree to shoot video and stills.

Always Dream Big,
Matthew Jordan Smith

Silver Beauty Dish

Here are a few samples of my tests with the beauty dish.

One light can do wonders if you know how to use it correctly. For one on one instruction meet me in Kyoto, Japan this March.

Until then, here is a little insight into some of the tests we do with lighting. For this test we used a silver beauty dish. To see images from the white beauty dish refer to yesterday's post.

1) Beauty dish
2) Beauty dish with a grid
3) Beauty dish with a 1/3 stop white sock. (The sock is a white diffuser that fits over the front of the beauty dish)
4) Beauty dish with full sock
5) Beauty dish with grid and 1/3 sock
6) Beauty dish with gird and full sock


If you want to stand out as a photographer this is part of what you must do. To learn more on the simple things I do to stand out as a photographer come to Kyoto, Japan this March 29-April 2nd.

Kyoto Photo Seminar: http://scottrobertgallery.com/japan2010.html


Always Dream Big
Matthew Jordan Smith

Become a Better Photographer this March

This March you can be better photographer. March 29-April 2 in Kyoto, Japan come and experience the beauty of Japan while learning to excel as a photographer. Here is a glimpse into the first few days of this amazing experience. Remember there are only three ways in life to learn: The books you read, the people you meet and the places you go.

Day 1: Meet and greet dinner

Day 2: Two part lecture series from Matthew Jordan Smith and Scott Robert Lim - learn the secret to "One Light Studio Portraits" and receive hands on practice with individual instruction.

Day 3: Secrets to Commercial Photography and Speedlight Flash Photography: Using small strobes on location

Literary Agent for Project

Dreams do come true! At the beginning of the year I shared my goal of sending my proposal out by the 25th of this month. I've worked for four years on this project and for the most part I've kept it secret sharing only a select few images on my website in the personal section. To date I've photographed over 150 people for this project and it's the most fun I've had with a camera in my hand.

I tried very hard to hit the deadline I'd given myself to send my proposal out and after endless nights tweaking my proposal I thought it was better to send it out right than to just send it out. Yesterday, January 27th 2010 I went to fedex and shipped my proposal out to New York to a power house literary agent who specializes in photo art books. Today she received it and responded with following, "What a wonderful submission! The photographic work is magic, Matthew – you are a real artiste!!! I absolutely love your work....well done you have captured movement, color and form perfectly – your photos dance across the page"

I am elated! Now the process of shopping for the perfect publisher can begin!

My proposal contained the following:

page 1: mock cover
page 2: my contact information
page 3: T.O.C. (table of contents)
page 4: Introduction to my project
page 5: Overview- describing what my project is and how I see it in tangible form
page 6: Markets for my book: Who is it geared to, who will buy the book
page 7: Promotional plan- my plans to help promote and sell my book
page 8: About the Author- information about me
Sample Chapter: This is the most important part- showing what the book will look like.

I am most proud of this project for a couple of reasons. First I feel it is "pure" photography at its core because the entire project is shot with film and the images are without the use of any type of photoshop manipulation. The images are without the confines that have locked photographs in formats since the beginning of photography. To see exactly what I mean you'll have to wait for the book to come out. Until then here is a small taste of my project.

To keep up with every step of my shoots and the book project following me on twitter at: http://twitter.com/Matthew_JordanS


Always Dream Big,
Matthew Jordan Smith

Tribute to Roxanne Floyd

I learned today that an good friend and makeup artist passed away. Over the years I have done many assignments with the very talented Roxanne Floyd. From my early work to the present we have created beautiful timeless images together and I will miss her smile and talent on set. Roxanne was the first makeup artist to bring binoculars on set to look at her makeup closely while we shot. I fondly remember working with Queen Latifah last year and to seeing her with those trusty binoculars. LOL!

R.I.P Roxanne! I will miss you my friend.

The Joy of Beauty

One of my favorite lights is the beauty dish but there are multiple way to use it. Very often I will test my lights and even after 22 years of working in the fashion and entertainment industry I still discover new ways to work with it.

Here are a few samples of my tests with the beauty dish.

For this test we used a white beauty dish and a silver beauty dish. This blog only contains the white beauty dish. I will post the silver tomorrow. Each dish was shot with in the following manner.

1) Beauty dish
2) Beauty dish with a grid
3) Beauty dish with a 1/3 stop white sock. (The sock is a white diffuser that fits over the front of the beauty dish)
4) Beauty dish with full sock
5) Beauty dish with grid and 1/3 sock
6) Beauty dish with gird and full sock


If you want to stand out as a photographer this is part of what you must do. To learn more on the simple things I do to stand out as a photographer come to Kyoto, Japan this March 29-April 2nd.

Kyoto Photo Seminar: http://scottrobertgallery.com/japan2010.html


Always Dream Big
Matthew Jordan Smith

New York, New York!

I was born in Brooklyn, New York, so the lyrics of these two songs really hit home, Empire State of Mind by Jay Z, and Empire State of Mind Part II by Alicia Keys.

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, There's nothing you can’t do. Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams i'm gonna make it by any means, Baby, I'm from New York. These streets will make you feel brand new, The lights will inspire you, Lets here it for New York, New York!

While making my music list I added Jay Z's song to the list of music that include Lady Gaga's "Paaparazzi", "One Day" by Matisyahu, and "Forever" by Chris Brown among many others. Everyone in the studio was moved by the music and after the last day of shooting my digital tech sent me other song's to add to the list and thanked me for turning him on to some new songs.

The right music on a shoot can make a huge difference as you shoot so take the time to put music together that make you feel good. You'll be surprised how everyone else in the room will feel and when they hear these songs after leaving your studio or photo session they will always think of you.

This week in New York was great in so many ways. I went to a Knicks basketball game, (and they won) and sat court side with one of my best friends, Leon. I hung out with my good friend, Gerard and his son, and my Godson, Jayson. I had dinner with my wonderful Sony client and shot a good friend on my off day. One of my highlights was a firstl meeting with my new literary agent for my new book project on MLK day. I will spend this weekend back in Los Angeles perfecting my proposal to send out by Monday to New York on my deadline of January 25th.

Our dreams don't always work out when we want them to but I believe they work out when they are supposed to. In 2009 I worked on a project I called "The Secret Project" and I couldn't find a publisher for the project. One agent told me if I'd brought the project to her two years earlier she'd have a deal in five days for me, but because of the economy she wasn't sure she could sell it. It never sold but I still have all the work and after mentioning it to my new book agent we will try and revive it and make changes. In the mean time we will sell my other project and I'll keep you all informed as the project takes off.

Always Dream Big,
Matthew Jordan Smith

Flying Home

After a week of shooting for several clients in New York I am finally flying home to Los Angeles. My shoot with Vanessa Williams was great and my two day shoot for Brides Magazine was as well. I was up one night until 2:00 a.m updating my music list to keep all the models in a good mood along with the crew. It paid off right away as my hair stylist noticed right away and commented on how great it was to work on a shoot with great music. The models agreed along with my assistants so it was worth all the work that went into putting the list together with new music.

I am on hold for another magazine in Los Angeles to shoot tomorrow, but at this moment they still have not confirmed or released me. In the magazine world this is common but I've always hated this as it is hard to produce a shoot that may or may not happen. On top of that my client won't tell me who the celebrity is until they confirm the shoot. All of this makes it very difficult to prepare for a shoot, but this is part of the ups and downs of the business. I have two other shoots in L.A. that I will do to help promote myself. One is shooting the daughter of Andy Garcia, who wanted to shoot on Friday. Since my other client has that day on hold I can't give that time to another client. I am lucky that I can shoot on Tuesday with my other client so we are preparing by doing research and prep work now. On Monday I will shoot Michael Beckwith from "The Secret". It's great to have a busy January and having the problem of juggling shoots. It been a while since I've had this problem so I welcome this problem with a smile.

I have new interns who start tomorrow and will be thrown into the fire right away. The first assignment was for both of them to research my subject for Tuesday and one of my interns did a great job by getting research for me to read on this flight. Next will be to do research on Monday's client so we are prepared in every way mentally for the photo session. I am also looking forward to showing my new interns lighting secrets and working on new lighting techniques with them. While in New York one of my photo assistants gave me an idea for lighting so I am eager to run tests on this new form of lighting.

For my Brides Magazine shoot I had my assistants shoot a lot of behind the scenes images. I also had them do a lighting test to share here and once I land I will upload that lighting test for all to see.

Have a great 2010 and remember to shoot images for yourself that you love!

Dream Big,
Matthew Jordan Smith

Cover shoot

I have a client who has referred me over and over for assignment and this past weekend she referred me once again for a magazine cover shoot. My good friend and long time client is Vanessa Williams and this past Saturday I was hired to photograph Vanessa at her house in upstate New York.

It's always fun to work with Vanessa but it's been two years this month since we worked together so it was a bit of a reunion. I photographed her in her home the last time we worked together and I didn't want to photograph her in the same way or at the same locations, so I decided to light everything differently and approach the shoot in a different way. The last time we worked together it was an overcast day, but this time the sun filled the house and I wanted to show the sunlight. I used white umbrella's on some images and the Octabank on others, but on all the images I allowed the sunlight to be a part of the shots. I only had to do two shots for my client but I wanted to give them as many different options as possible so we ended up shooting five different situations and all of them were fantastic. We had fun the entire day and made incredible images. I will share the cover and images once the publication is out this summer!

Dream Big,
Matthew Jordan Smith

Dream Big

Very often we have dreams and high hopes for our future, but we talk ourselves out of them before we even try. The universe only asks us to dream big and not to worry about the "how" part. I set a goal of getting my proposal out by the 25th of this month. To do this I had to find a literary agent who could shop my project and this is not an easy goal. If you dream big and put it out there and act on your goals the universe will give you everything you want and more.

A week ago a friend called from Texas out of the blue to thank me for giving her advise a year ago. She also told me she had a book coming out and I told her I was going to start shopping my book and looking for an agent. She told me I had to call her agent right away, but instead she sent an email to her agent introducing us and things started happening from that point. The agent in in New York and I am working at this moment in New York on two assignments.

I am elated to say I had my first meeting with this agent this morning and I now have a new literary agent that will shop my book projects. My two hour meeting this morning was a gift from God in every way and I can only say "Dream Big" and don't worry about how you will make your dreams come true, just do your part and the universe will help you bring your dreams to life.

I will share more as this develops!

Always Dream Big!
Matthew Jordan Smith

Seeking Interns in Los Angeles!

We are currently seeking photography interns in Los Angeles. Please send all requests to Mjs@MatthewJordanSmith.com

Dream Big!

First Photos of 2010

It was great to do my first assignment decade in New York City. Even Los Angeles is now my base, New York will always be home.

My first assignment of the decade wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. I can plan all I want but life always throws a surprise to keep you on your toes, and looking back it makes you a better photographer when you have to overcome adversity.

My first subject of the decade arrived late to my session. It was a beautiful day and we were in an amazing daylight studio filled with light. My subject had a packed day and my photo shoot was in the middle of her day, so she came to my studio a bit stressed. When she arrived I had flowers waiting for her and her favorite music playing throughout the studio. I had to have her out by 4:30 p.m., to make a taping for a late night show so I was prepared to shoot on two different sets. One a daylight set and the other a styled set with great props. I noticed something was wrong when my editors were all gathered in a huddle talking so I went to see what was going on. It turned out my subject was a bit overwhelmed with the new fame and pressure of stardom. When she finally came out my beautiful sunlight was gone and I had to change to using strobes on both sets, but the biggest problem was time. She agreeed to give me 30 min longer since she came out at the time she was scheduled to leave. I got three different looks before she had to run out to make her taping and I felt awful as the shoot ended. I havent felt this way during a shoot in years. My editors and I looked through the images on the computer and then I noticed that I actaully got a few great images but I will remember this session as a hard one.

Later that evening I looked through one of the fashion bible's and noticed a spread with my subject but even though I had a hard shoot I like my images better.

The lesson from this shoot is to plan for success and be flexible to change your plans. Always have a backup plan in the event your plans don't work out as planned. You will win more often than not, but you can't win all the time. Always dream big no matter what.

Happy New Year!

Research and Meeting

What will be your first photographs of the new decade? My first assignment is in New York so I will fly out early tomorrow morning for the 5 1/2 hour flight. My first images of the decade will be for a magazine cover and I'm excited about photographing the subject. This morning is spent doing research on my subject so I am informed with as much information as possible before the shoot. After printing my research material I will work on updating my music list to have the perfect music to play and get my subject in the mood to get great images. Hopefully I will learn something interesting during my research to connect me with my subject. For a cover shoot the most important part is connecting with my subject to bring out something special and different from what other have seen and I'm looking forward to doing just that.

As I fly from L.A. to N.Y.C. tomorrow morning I will have plenty of time to work on my proposal for my personal project. My deadline is the 25th of this month so the time flying will be great to work without any interruptions. I will fly out on the 5th, shoot on the 6th and then head to a meeting on the 7th before running to the plane to fly out the evening of the 7th back to L.A., but I love it when it's busy.

Dream big and plan for your success.

Personal Marketing and Promotion

Very often we think about marketing and promoting our business, but the same attention is required for our personal projects. I am still working on my yearly marketing and promotional calendar and it has many elements for my business, but I am also including my personal projects in my yearly plan as well. This January I am going to sell my personal project to a publisher. The last four years I've been working on a project I have called "The Movement Project". This project is the most fun I've ever had with a camera in my hands and embodies not only the joy of pure photography but also the art of movement. I have posted several images from my project on my website a while ago, but only a few. I now have over 150 people photographed for the project which is far more than I need for publication but I just couldn't stop shooting. The truth is I never will stop and it keeps evolving as I do the project. This project is in many ways "old fashion" because it is only shot with film and there is NO photoshop used to make the images and enhance or manipulate them.

My goal for The Movement Project is to first create a book and then an exhibit. I am blessed to have a very good friend who is an highly respected artist and very good at promoting his work. Our 44th President has his art and one of Chaz's pieces hangs in President Obama's office. Many celebrities and collectors also collect his work and sing his praises. My friends name is Chaz Guest and on January 14th he will have an exhibit of his latest paintings in a project called "Hybrid". Chaz is one of the few people who I've shown my project to and he has asked me to introduce my project during his opening. I will show two pieces from the Movement Project for the first time in public. While the internet is an amazing tool for our work, it is not right for everything. The Movement Project is not a project that the viewer will understand on-line because of the confides of the viewer monitor. Scale is very important for my project so each images is very large. I am introducing the smaller version of the Movement Project on the 14th, with prints that are 44x70 and printed on canvas.

One of my goals for January is to sell my project to a publisher by the end of January, so I will invite a few publishers to the exhibit and then approach them a few weeks later with my project. On January 25th I will send my proposals out to publisher to shop my project, but none of this can come to life until I first write it down. I have three shoots this month all in New York City, but I will work on my project to hit my deadline of the 25th in my free time.

Dream Big!

Matthew Jordan Smith

Start of a New Decade

Today is not only the first day of the year but the first day of a new decade. One that will be filled with great accomplishments for all who not only dream big, but you plan for success and work your plan. I wish you all the best life has to offer in every aspect of your lives.

My first day of the decade was spent going to a dinner at the house of a good friend. She is one of the on air personalities for Access Hollywood and is in my first book, Sepia Dreams. It was great for my girlfriend and I to spend the day together in this way and to also introduce my girlfriends son to this world of entertainment. I want to expose him to all I can because I want him to grow up dreaming big and believing he can do anything. After the early dinner we left and rushed home to prepare for our own dinner. We were having a couple over for a Japanese New Year celebration and talked about our dreams for the start of the new decade. It was a very good way to start the year and usher in new energy for this new decade. Great things are in store for us all if we only dream big and keep our dreams forever in front of us.

Welcome to the start of a new era!

Dream Big!

Matthew Jordan Smith

1/1/2010