matt's pictures

eclipse 2024

I’ll try to write more about this later, but people have been asking where are my pictures from the eclipse, so here they are…

Posted on 2024-04-12T20:36:10Z GMT

So we got to Santa Fe and had lunch with the family that was gathered in town. I’ll post those photos eventually maybe, but I’m feeling these right now. After lunch, there was a storm moving in, to dump a couple inches of snow on the town (more up on the mountain). Incredible light. So I grabbed the nikon and ran down to the river.

OK, maybe I didn’t run. Walked quickly. But the clouds! Wild clouds. I really love Santa Fe, just for the light they get there. I mean, also the green chile and the people and the art and the smell of the desert, especially after the rain. Mountains, love mountains too.

The weather there though seems to come in wild rages; cold and wind and clouds bursting across the landscape. I was out for half an hour, walking along the banks of the river and up on the trail. I started and the clouds were pretty far off; by the time I was heading back, they were overhead and the first flurries were falling. It felt a bit like the late summer/early fall monsoons in that way, coming in fast.

This storm actually didn’t even stick for very long. It wasn’t cold enough I don’t think? Sure felt cold, despite my layers.

Posted on 2024-04-08T05:24:19Z GMT

cities from above

well it’s after midnight again (it’s literally always after midnight), and it’s time to blog… I started this post like a week ago, and then couldn’t decide what pictures to post. still hitting stumbling blocks I’ve set up for myself. The edits are too big, so the posts would be too big. I’m forgetting the first rule of blogging, which is always be blogging. The second rule, which I’m also breaking, is talking about not blogging (getting distracted by whys instead of doing the damn thing. well. anyway.

These are from the flight down to LA when we were going to Santa Fe over xmas break. I’m pretty sure I haven’t posted them? I did allow myself the liberty of slightly cropping these first two. I know, it’s kinda blasphemous, but when you’re in a banking aircraft shooting out of a tiny window, it’s a lot to keep track of the horizon. Pilots even have a special little gyro they watch instead of watching for the actual horizon.

Then we flew over LA, where there was much traffic and I was glad, once again, to not be in it. The next flight was over huge stretches of empty desert. The Mohave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, just the harshest, most beautiful places, but nothing to see at night. And then we were in Santa Fe to see family. More on that later.

Posted on 2024-04-07T21:40:49Z GMT

last drink n draw of 2023

these happen every week, I just happen to go to them much less often. you might think ‘matt, these are serious draw-ers to go and do this every week’ and you couldn’t be more wrong. some of them are very good at their own style and have a lot of ability, I would never describe it as a serious endeavor. more like a social hour with some strongly encouraged creativity.

Each week, there’s a sheet that goes around as people arrive, and everyone writes down at least one thing to draw; things like ‘mystery liquids’ or ‘how math makes you feel’ or ‘feelin puffy’. I personally am pretty bad at drawing, but it’s fun to try to think of something within my abilities to fulfill the prompts.

Also, and this can’t be overstated, everyone there is just really rad? like encouraging and nice and strange in the best ways. Kawan, Kevin, Akhil, Auguste, uh… everyone else who’s names I don’t know or remember because my mind is like a collander that doesn’t hold names until I’ve heard them 50 times or can look them up online…

This one was the first night I had my new-ish 105 1.4 for the Z. Technically it’s for an F mount, but with the FTZ adapter it’s great on my Z too. I think all of these were with it? Snappy focus, very shallow depth of field, but sharp as hell too. Really dig this lens. It also helps that I figured out some of the AF on the Z8; letting face detect do its thing is super helpful most of the time. It even works in manual focus if you set the camera right, who knew?

I went in to see the woman singing at one point, and the person singing was just puring their heart into it. Just really emoting to a room of like, 10 people, only half of whom were watching. I took a few photos, and showed them to Kawan; he said something along the lines of “How did you see that? I was just there standing next to you, and I didn’t see that.” I mean, part of it is the lens for sure, but part of it is choosing the right moments. And, not to toot my own horn too much, but I’ve been doing this in some capacity for more than a quarter century at this point. If I couldn’t pull a rabbit out of my hat at least some of the time, it’d be time to hang that hat up.

Speaking of rabbits out of hats… I need to go to bed. I should figure out how to do these during the day, maybe I’d find that easier? When I’m not so exhausted? Nah, I always write best when I’m fighting to stay awake. It’s like a natural deadline, just means I have to push a bit.

Posted on 2024-03-26T08:04:52Z GMT

quantity

Today’s today in tabs had as its kicker a link to a list of “things that don’t work.” I won’t link to it because it has a certain smell about it, a smell of mixing things that are obviously true with things that are just one guy’s opinion and some that are just plain wrong. I read a few of the other things on the site and there’s a nasty undercurrent to the dude’s writing. That kind of smell. Anyway.

One of the obviously true things on his list of things that don’t work was “quality over quantity” (again that smell, generalities when talking about something specific). But the specific thing is this: you don’t make good art by just making one thing, you make it by making a bunch of stuff. Austin Kleon has it as “Quantity leads to quality” (my emphasis) which is a much better way to formulate it. Anyway.

All that to say, I’m gonna try to blog more? I certainly have the pictures. While there may be some stinkers in there, the practice is good for me. I definitely feel my writing get better and words come more easily as I do it more. Daily would be great but I’m not going to make that, there’s too much going on.

These are all from a couple days last november, before thanksgiving. I don’t know why I grouped them, but there they were in my edits. Just walking around the neighborhood.

Sidenote: when I see stuff that’s obviously just someone’s opinion stated as fact, I fall back on the line from The Big Lebowski: “Yeah, well, ya know, that’s just like, uh, your opinion, man.” I didn’t really mark it until I read Jeff Bridges’ book The Dude and the Zen Master, where there’s a whole chapter with that as the title, about non-attachment. The conceit of the book is a little hokey, but there’s some good stuff in there.