Too long, sorry!

So I apologize for not keeping up on here, there has been some major changes in the past few weeks and alot of exciting things have been happening. I am now working with my longtime friend Kyle Shultz under his name Shultz Photography. So far I shot my 2nd wedding two weekends ago and have helped shoot an additional 3 weddings over the past two weekends and have been working closely with Shultz Photography on some things. I am now also offering wedding videography which I am very excited about, I have my first wedding video in a week which will be great. I have been so busy with everything but I will be getting alot of the wedding photos I have taken up on the website in the next week or so and will be reformatting the site under Shultz Photography (pics by Matt DeBackere) so keep checking in, thanks!

BRIGHT FIRE

As I was leaving a house where I was working at today, I immediately noticed the sky when I started driving home. It was a bright yellow and orange mingled with the moody blues of the storms we had today. It was one of the most beautiful skies I had ever seen, and I don't mean in Springfield, I mean ever in the whole country. I was kicking myself that I didnt have my camera and knew I didnt have time to go get it and drive to get a good shot, so I just had to try and absorb it with my eyes. I thought if I could take a picture of it I would call it bright fire, thats just what it made me think of. As I sat at a stoplight staring at the scene, I wondered if it was having the same effect on others as it was having on me. So I frantically looked around at other drivers to see who was looking towards the sky, to my shock out of about 20 people I could not find a single one! Everyone was either talking, looking at something, or concentrating on getting to the next place. I thought, Am I the only one enjoying God's beauty? Maybe it was meant just for me since no one else seemed to appreciate the art layed before them. I guess thats one of my new goals in my career path, to say to people STOP! This is worth your time!

Stuff

So I finally got my online gallery online. Now Im able to post all the proofs from a shoot online for family and friends to place and pay for orders directly online. I will still go to the clients house after the shoot to view the proofs and place the order with them. But if they want the option of posting the proofs online for other family and friends I can do that.

Below are some shots I took a few nights ago, enjoy.

Beautiful Day in the Park!

So I went out with my friends and their kids on wednesday and got some great pictures in the park. We had a blast walking around with the kids and they especially loved it. I was very pleased with the way they turned out, the sun was a bit bright and harsh but luckily I was able to fix some of that in finishing. I also went out to the lake and tracked down some deer which I got some outstanding pics of! They let me walk around them for about an hour and even get within about 15 ft a few times! Not sure why they let me so close, Ive never gotten that close before, but my camera was thankful they let me! Also got some beautiful photos of the sunset and the powerplant, a few are below check out the rest on the website.

Grace

Sorry its been too long since my last post. Been busy moving everything back to Springfield so Im finally settled in back home, now I should have a whole month or so before I have to move everything again . . . oh well. So now that the weather is better Ill be heading out to start taking some pictures. Only a few more weeks til the wedding I have to shoot, should be fun! I pretty much have all the equipment I need right now, I have a laptop on the way for taking to the clients house after the shoot and ordered a nice tripod, light stand, and lens polarizer as my last purchases for now. I also got 4- 4gb Extremem IV cards now so that will let me shoot 1000 pics in RAW at the wedding so I should be set.
On a side note I came across a great musician, Jeff Buckley. Tragjcally he died in 1997 at age 30. He was swimming in a river one evening and drowned. His music is compelling to the soul. His voice carries you and I think we've lost what couldve been a famous musician. Recently his album Grace from 1994 has made a comeback, partly due to American Idol, but Im glad I came across his music. It's truly one of a kind. Ill be posting some of his music on my website so have a listen.

Yay for sun

I'm so glad its finally warming up, I went out today again for some pictures and got some nice ones, I added them to the website under the gallery MISC, which replaced the lame pets gallery, sorry it was filler. Anways as I was heading back home I saw a few things I stopped for, onc which was an antique car. Turns out the best pics of the day were the few things I stopped for that I wasn't intentionally looking for, just goes to show ya.

The Train Yard

So I decided to go out and take some pictures today. I fount this active train yard right next to an old factory and go some great shots. Of couse I only spent about 90 min photographing and the rest of the evening working on the photos, at some point I will have to figure out how to simplify things more. All the computer work takes too long, but I'm still learning. Ordered some more memory cards today along with a few other things. The supplies never stop, good thing for credit cards! Anyways Ive put a few shots from today below and there are more posted on my website. http://www.mattdebackere.com/ Also Im setting up a new myspace account under the name Matt DeBackere Photography so you can find me on there also. www.myspace.com/mattdebackerephotography I just set it up today so it'll be a week or so before its more finished, enjoy your weekend!

FREE!

Well I am now officially self employed, no longer working at my previous job which feels great. This will give me much more time to concentrate on the business and taking photos. I think I'm going to get another lens, a 50mm f/1.8 for shooting my next wedding since I cant use flash during the ceremony. Appartently is a really popular lens to use at weddings in low light situations. There are still a few other odds and ends to get, I feel like I'll be buying equipment forever! (or always upgrading once I can afford it) I will be back in Springfield very shortly and hopefully things will start picking up for me, at least I have a good amount of painting/construction sidework while Im getting things going. Gotta pay the bills!

Spring Vegas

Just got back from a few days in Spring Vegas, apparently that another name besides Springpatch, or for you lay folk: Springfield. Got quite a bit done at the house so hopefully that will get sold soon. Most importantly had a good meeting with a local photographer about some business possibilities once I get back to Springfield in a few weeks. Sorry no photos on here lately but my website is up and running now, though it needs a lot more work. Please stop by and have a look though, ill be updating it often. www.mattdebackere.com

So much

So I joined this site called www.NoBsPhotosuccess.com so far it has been a wealth of information and am learning alot and getting alot of feedback on questions which is great. If you are a hobbyist of even pro Photographer I def. recommend it. On a second note I've decided to become a professional facebook photographer, this guy totally inspired me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK0r5LCs3DY&feature=related

Can you say RECALL!

So, I had a letter from Nissan saying there was a recall on my car for some computer chip needign to be fixed so the engine doesn't stop while your driving, nice uh? So I took it in and then found out there is actually 3 recalls on my car! Mostly minor stuff though, and I havent had any problems but just to be on the safe side ... So luckily they had a shuttle service to take me back home, of course half way to my house I realized I left my key on the ring at Nissan so we had to turn back, thankfully the driver was real cool about it. So as we were driving back I saw some geese on the pond in my subdivision, so I decided to go grab my camera. Of course 10 min. later they are gone! except for a few ducks that flew off as I approached. Anywho after a few minutes my hands were numb so I high tailed it back home. Then just worked on my website and photoshop the rest of the day, not too shabby.

Coming Soon

So I finally purchased my website and am now in the process of setting up the site to what I want, very exciting! Oh and thank you Shannon for your input and reminding me to keep posting, and thanks for reading this :) I had an interesting discussion with a fellow photographer the other day about possiblities of working together, so that's exciting. It's just something we will both have to pray and seek discernment about because this stuff is still all so new to me.

I just got my camera flash too, got a great deal, now I just need batteries so I can go out and practice! Hopefully I can shoot something tomorrow, that is if I don't freeze outside!

Back from Spring town

Well, I just got back today from a few fun filled days in Springfield, after getting rained out for sledding, driving through slush and fog, and jumpstarting my van, oh and shoveling the driveway, I was ready to get back to Champaign. I did get to test out the new camera though. Thanks to Jess and Mia for the baby modeling shoot, the pics came out great, can't wait to use some for my upcoming website, until later . . .

Sweet Software Sensations

Okay so I got my Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium package today which was very exciting, for those of you who know what I'm talking about, and I got an amazing deal on it since I was a student. Anyways now Ill have countless hours to play with all the programs and become more advanced with photoshop. I should probably get a more comfortable chair since I'll be at my computer for hours on end when Im not shooting. Below is a panoramic image I made in photoshop of when I was hiking at Sandstone Peak in the Santa Monica Mountain Range in 2006, enjoy!

Ok here we go!

Hello to everyone who is reading this, thanks for stopping by. This is my first official blog for Matt DeBackere Photography. Right now I'm still doing alot to try and get things started with my company, still have to figure out the whole website thing, but for the moment this blog will be a nice supplement to the future website. I'll make sure to keep things updated on here once my business starts to take off, hopefully it won't be long, I can't wait!
~Matt DeBackere