Have you met Steve Matten?

[David Chesterfield]

This time around we get to learn a little more about Steve Matten (@stevematten)
Tell us a little about yourself and your photography journey.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my photography story. I am a native of Southern California and live in Orange County near Disneyland. Photography is one of my longest running hobbies along with guitar and harmonica playing (the blues and worship music). Lately I have taken up restoring a couple of old motorcycles. My interests all center on Christian life and ministry, especially to youth. I am a volunteer Chaplain with the Orange County Probation Department and Orangewood Children and Family Center (emergency shelter for abused and abandoned youth). I supervise 40 volunteers and 4 staff in this ministry. I work with the kids in Orangewood at least twice a week and a group of high-risk teens in Foster Care.

My interest in photography was sparked when I was in about 14 years old when my youth pastor gave a bunch of us kids cameras and took us to the UCLA campus and set us lose to take pictures. I had an old 120 camera with a bellows, completely manual of course. He took all of our black and white film and developed it. He printed the best ones. I took a picture of a fountain on the campus and it came out perfectly (by chance). Later on when I was a sophomore in college I decided I wanted to buy a real camera (I mostly used a Polaroid for snapshots) and started reading photography magazines. I decided that the best camera I could buy and afford was a Pentax Spotmatic In 1971. With that my formal relationship with photography began.

What is the best advice you received so far regarding photography?

I suppose the best advice I have received is the most hard to follow; be yourself. Shoot what you like and trust your eyes. If there was something there that sparked your visual interest the focus on that. Also train your eyes by looking at others work, the more you feed your mind with quality images the better your eye will be. Emulate but don’t copy. Finally, know your tools.

How do you maintain inspiration?

I am constantly looking at photographic sites like 500px, EyeEm, Instagram. I don’t really go to National Geographic or other sites that make me depressed (ha, ha). I know I am not likely to go to Iceland or on a jungle safari in the near future. I try to look at images that are within my wheelhouse.

What is your favourite subject to shoot & why?

I’ve asked myself often, what is my favorite subject? What is my style? I really don’t know. I hope someday I can whittle it down and be really good at some subject or style. If I am in someplace beautiful, I do landscape. When I am around interesting people; portraits. When I see design; minimalism. I’d like to try water drops like you do. Flowers are very handy subjects and almost everywhere.

Do you have a favourite type of photography?
I suppose if I were to limit myself to one type of photography it would be my first love, B&W.

How would you describe your photographic journey to date?

I took many photography classes in college, developing film and enlarging prints. I did a self study at Cal-State L.A. on view camera techniques. I also learned a now esoteric process called Dye Transfer printing. I worked in a camera shop for many years but that was pre-digital. My daughter was in musical theater and I started shooting her productions in film, then I got a Nikon D70 and taught myself photoshop. More recently Lightroom and other mobile photographic applications.

Are you currently involved with any photography projects? If so, what?

I am just trying to expand my online photographic footprint and going through years of images to see what might be interesting to PP and publish.

If you could only use one camera/lens combination for a year, which would you choose?

I think I would go back to my Nikon F2 and shoot film only for the discipline of it. It would be hard to choose between my two favorite prime lenses; the 24mm f2.8 or the 105mm f2.5. If I had two years and unlimited resources, I’d spend one year traveling with the 24 and one year concentrating on portraits with the 105.

What is your favorite image right now?

My favorite image of all time is Ansel Adams Clearing Winter Storm Over Yosemite Valley. I have a print of it over my desk. It is breathtaking.

https://goo.gl/images/A9eNs4

Is there a photographer that inspires you?

My first and most influential photographer is Ansel Adams. I have several of his books and studied the Zone System.

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to photography?

There are three; time, money and too many choices of what to invest my efforts in.

Is there anything specific you intend to learn or improve in your photography?

I really want to improve my portrait photography and PP skills.

If people want to follow more of your work where should they go?
There are some of the same pictures on the different sites but there is a lot of variation too.

Flickr – https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevematten
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/stevematten/
500px – https://500px.com/smatten
EyeEm – https://www.eyeem.com/stevematten
VSCO – http://vsco.co/smatten
Getty Images – http://www.gettyimages.com/photos/steve-matten

Provide links to 3 or 4 of your favourite images that can be displayed with the interview




https://flic.kr/p/KBAvoR

CC: @albirder, @tersha, @kent, @simonparks, @erik-fransman, @chispook

[Tobie]

Nice & interesting story, Steve! I always envy you guys who had exposure to film processing! I believe it teaches you certain disciplines, principles and concepts which get engraved in your memory banks forever, to your advantage!

Nice to have another guitar & harmonica player around! I play bass & harmonica – also gospel – and have a set of 23 harmonicas. My last 2 custom tunings were tuned & brought to South Africa by Lee Oskar himself during one of his tours down here! For free! 🙂

Nice shots above, specially the last one! Is it a composite or a single (vertical) wide angle?

[stevematten]

You are way more dedicated to harps than I am Tobie! I do have a autographed Lee Oscar. I got it when I attended a blues harmonica workshop here in California.

The last picture was actually taken with a Galaxy S3 even though I had my Nikon D70 with me. Lucky shot! It is a single image of Multnoma Falls near Portland OR, USA.

[Tobie]

Nice shot for an S3, well done!

Don’t want to stay off-topic here but I’ve taken this of ‘The Man!’ when he performed here (got a few nice ones before they kicked me out as I was not supposed to photograph without a media permit – in the mean time the whole audience were recording & taking snapshots with their cell phones and tablets – crazy world, hey?)! 🙂

[stevematten]

Thanks for the introduction David.

[chris pook]

Really good to hear more about you – I admire your landscapes!

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

Good stuff, Steve.

[Mistyisle]

It seems we share this, Steve
“I suppose if I were to limit myself to one type of
photography it would be my first love, B&W.”

I really like that last image of yours, the waterfall.

[Erik Fransman]

Steve, Thank you for your story.
Isn’t that frustrating to shoot shots like the Multnoma Falls with a phone and they come out so well.
I also often shoot first quickly with the phone (S7) and then with my Fujifilm camera. Usually it takes a lot of time and effort in PP to come even close to the result my phone does for me automatically. Luckily, the resolution is way better on my real camera.
Looking forward to more of your shots.
Be well!

[Tersha]

Good to learn something about you Steve, love your Multnoma falls shot!

[Rob Eyers]

Good to have you here Steve. Thanks for sharing.

[Frogdaily]

Nice to learn a bit about you @stevematten I too am a Christian, God bless you and your ministry in Orange County.

[ElinL]

Fine introduction Steve – good to hear more about you.

[Robert Apple]

Good to hear more about you Steve.

[Author]

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