mattwilliams

Portrait and documentary photographer

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

One from the archives.

Logan Mader. Shot on a Nikon F90x using Kodak 400 ASA Slide film pushed one stop.

Those were the days ;-)

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

The Willows

Ah this is too good! Shot on film, printed in the darkroom, scanned and adjusted in Lightroom. 

Its becoming difficult not to see the benefits of digital post-production which is something I never thought I'd say.

Shot on a Widelux, printed on a DeVere, post-production in Lightroom.

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Dumb Photos for Dumb People

Suppose you’re the director of photography (DoP) at a big magazine or newspaper and suppose your budget has been slashed…

The smart people who had a passion and proven track record of capturing our world in amazing pictures walked away too... It doesn’t take much to see the game is rigged and the editorial world is bleak.

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Good Manners

I shoot A LOT of Roller Derby, in fact more derby than gig photography at the moment. Its a cracking sport with some wonderful characters putting in loads of effort to create action packed images. 

I don't make money from this, I gave up trying to make a living as a photographer years ago, got myself a day job and have been happier wielding a camera ever since.

My manifesto is that anyone can use my images for the promotion of the sport, the team and of the people involved. However I'm still surprised when people show such good manners as not only to credit me when they repost/edit my photographs but who reach out and ask permission first. 

If only the same respect was shown by the magazines/record labels/PRs who believe that confrontational arguments rather than permission is the correct approach.

A special mention goes out to Hampshire Harlots and Surrey Rollergirls for their performance and good manners last weekend. Look forward to shooting you again ladies :-)

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Toilet Circuit

Shot Snot at Audio in Brighton last night. A great venue, small, hot and rammed with die-hard fans. The lighting was challenging but my love affair with digital continues. The 6D coped brilliantly with low light, shooting at 12500 ASA on 20mm and 40mm fixed lenses. Lightroom editing and manipulation has resulted in some beautiful images.

The show was incredible, the band having the best time playing to a dedicated audience, stoked to finally be making it to UK shores after an 18 year hiatus.

This is one of the many things i love about Mrs Williams, she's always introducing me to great bands and facilitating fun times.

[photographsonthebrain]

“We are nonchalantly throwing all of our data into what could become an information black hole without realising it. We digitise things because we think we will preserve them, but what we don’t understand is that unless we take other steps, those digital versions may not be any better, and may even be worse, than the artefacts that we digitised,” Cerf told the Guardian. “If there are photos you really care about, print them out.”

Google boss warns of ‘forgotten century’ with email and photos at risk | Technology | The Guardian

(via

photographsonthebrain

)

Print your photos.

(via tokyo-camera-style)

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Perpetual Digital User

I've just bought a full copy of Lightroom.

This is progress, right?

Also trying to buy a house that might allow us to move the darkroom closer.

This is also progress, right?

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Darkroom/Lightroom

After years of fellow photographer Mark Harris hassling me I've furthered my reluctant move to digital by installing a trial version of Adobe Lightroom. Its brilliant, far more intuitive and versatile than the proprietary software provided with my Canon 6D.

The one thing it does have in common with the darkroom is that you need a decent image to start with, correctly exposed and nicely composed. 

Remember people you can't polish a turd!

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Processing

You see them rolls below! Yeah I still haven't processed them. Darkroom time is imminent!

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

I haven’t published a single photo this year but I did finish shooting these rolls. I need to get in the darkroom. Stat.

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Most of the people I know should watch this because most of the people I know are creative in some way, shape or form. Photographers, artists, musicians, actors, people who do or have at some point aspired to make a living from their craft.

This trailer begins to explain the issues a number of us began to face more than 10 years ago with the explosion of internet file sharing. for me it started in 2002. Inspired by a stint carrying bags and watching Steve Gullick at work, I was on the brink of making a living from photographing bands and musicians. Then Napster took off. The effect on the music industry was evident almost overnight and the decline in record label and magazine budgets was felt throughout the industry.

Within 2 years I made the decision to find myself a day job, returning to the IT industry which has served me well to this day. In the last 10 years I've settled into a career which has afforded me the luxury of being able to explore and develop my photography. Whilst on the one hand I've now got funds for cameras, film, chemistry, memory cards and computers it has robbed me of the valuable time I desire behind the camera.

I'm not the only person in this situation. I know very few musicians who are making a living solely from being in a band, almost all of them creating music and being grateful if they break even. No one expects to pay to enjoy the arts anymore.

I like to apply a positive outlook to life, but in this case I fear that those with any real influence may be trying to shut the stable door long after the horse has bolted. The events that took hold in the early part of the 21st century didn't really affect the established, only those of us who were starting out. As budgets were cut labels stayed with what they knew were safe bets, it's only a decade on that I'm seeing the established passing comment on the events that effected some of us long ago.

[tokyo-camera-style]

[tokyo-camera-style]

Film cooler at Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku, Tokyo 2011

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Looks like the veg compartment in my ridge :-)

[whitethroat]

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Promises great things #Bluebell

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Goddamnit! I can think of three occasions in 20 years of photography where something out of my control has happened during a shoot, the effects of which being unapparent until I've got to the processing stage. Each of these events has been something to do with film.

The latest, and unquestionably the most distressing, involves moisture somehow getting in between the film and the backing paper, resulting in dots appearing all over the images. Some are worse than others but the result is that photos shot with my Hasselblad on 50 asa film that should be ultra sharp are slightly blurred and marked. 

A re-shoot is the only thing for it.

This circles back round to my recent comments on the death of film. Whilst shooting with 'proper' cameras is a beautiful and soulful experience it can come with a painful price should things go wrong. Albeit I've experienced a ridiculously low ratio of issues during the last two decades, each of these lost shoots stands firm in my memory as these moments in time can never be captured again.

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Hanging out with Pa on Mothers Day, he agreed to help me test the Pocket Wizards I recently picked up. He always comes across as a noble figure. Canon 20mm lense on 5D with a Metz 54mz4 off camera to light the subject.

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

Death of film

Years back I predicted that we would  be coating acetate with our own light sensitive emulsions. I wonder if that time in near? As I said to my good friend John Clarkson tonight digital is allowing me to fit photography into my busy life and I am grateful for that.

I've never been a Luddite and now wouldn't be the time to start.

Esben & The Witch, The Scala, London, 26 February 2013

[mattwilliamsphotographer]

I love it when the support act turn out to be a great find, both visually and musically.

After a night out at the Scala shooting Esben and the Witch I'm still fighting to apply analogue thinking to digital technology. having shot 10 times the images I would normally produce in a third of the time all I've really done is created more editing work for myself. I still worship at the alter of Cartier-Bresson, apply his concept of the decisive moment and pre-visualising the image before you hit the shutter but its easy to slip into bad habits when you aren't limited by 36 frames, with my camera now packing the equivalent of hundreds of rolls of films. I have to change for my sanity.