Matthew Hooks Photography

Playing chicken

2008-11-23T19:14:00.006-06:00

Pretty sure words aren't necessary.

Not that I update all that frequently but this blog is officially on a holiday hiatus. :)

Finally, a willing subject

2008-11-21T00:23:00.000-06:00

With boxes of childhood toys consuming the majority of my closet, I've decided that my belongings need to be paired down a smidge. As if I didn't know I had a lot of stuff, it became abundantly clear when moving out of a third floor apartment with no elevator and a small window of time to get everything moved out of one apartment and into another. Of course, I have a lot of cool stuff and I can't just kick it to the curb...I have to photograph the best stuff first. "Take a picture, it lasts longer".

Nothing but the best for Garfield. I broke out the ol' homemade light box and ghetto rigged some lighting which included some bare bulbs on awkwardly propped lamps. The light is pretty crummy overall but at least it's somewhat diffused. I would use tracing paper instead of vellum on the box next time though.

Proposition 8 rally at Austin City Hall

2008-11-16T11:57:00.005-06:00

"Now that I can't get married, are you better off?"

Went and supported friends and family against California's Proposition 8.

From Wikipedia:

Proposition 8 was a California State ballot proposition that amended the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. It overrode a recent California Supreme Court decision that had recognized same-sex marriage in California as a fundamental right.

"I'm not queer but I am here! no hate"

"I am not a second class citizen"

An estimated 3,000 people were in attendance (though I doubt there were quite that many there) with a great deal of additional support from passing cars. The lack of media coverage was surprising to me. I believe News 8 was the only TV station covering the rally.

Out with the new in with the old

2008-11-12T23:02:00.002-06:00

The ol' camera hasn't been getting much action lately. I definitely haven't been giving it as much attention as I used to and not nearly as much as I would like. So what's the reason for the neglect? It's not just for lack of time. I can make time. I suppose it's a lack of motivation caused by not doing anything particularly photo worthy lately. Na, that can't be it. Recent food outings like a couple of trips to El Regio Pollo would have actually made some cool photos. The little take-out stand attached to a gas station is smoking. Literally. They grill up a mighty fine chicken amidst the smoke. And the artery clogging brunch at the Original Pancake House should have been documented - it's not often that a single 'apple pancake' can cause itis. The look on the face of the unsuspecting diner alone would have been worth lugging the camera along for. Hmm..I think I just identified the reason that dust has found it's way onto my camera bag. It's just too big (TWSS) to take everywhere. Who wants to go photo-ing?

Anyhow, on to some old photos from two or three months ago taken while hanging with the Sonya...starting with a growing part of Austin East of I35 on I think 9th street.

Air Damani

2008-11-08T14:10:00.003-06:00

It's pretty neat what you can do perched on a high rock with a lot of backlighting and some willing subjects. Interestingly enough, we had some pretty good timing and didn't rely on burst shooting at all for these. 1,2,3, JUMP!

Hike up Enchanted Rock!

2008-11-05T09:52:00.001-06:00

More photos from Enchanted Rock in Fredricksburg, Texas.

Cartwheeling down Enchanted Rock

2008-10-30T21:46:00.000-05:00

Man, Enchanted Rock is pretty dang cool. The giant pink granite rock is just a bit past all of the 'little town' shopping in Fredricksburg and the day mis amigos y mi made the trip couldn't have been a better day weather wise to make the hike up the 425 feet of elevation gain. Lots and lots of pictures were taken including a bunch of experimentation with silhouette shots.

Yikes, merging seven photos into one wasn't easy, certainly wasn't seamless, and probably wasn't necessary. Despite a funky sky with strange bright spots and splotchy sky, I kind of like how it turned out. And to mask the one foot and two hands that I accidentally smudged out or overlooked and erased because they blended into the dark bottom - I cranked up the contrast just a notch and made it more silhouette-y.

The originals:

Graffiti Art around Austin

2008-10-27T11:53:00.001-05:00

I keep seeing these lil guys around Austin but have no ideas what the story is on them. I've seen them a few times on the side of a building or on a small wall next to a couple of steps. And now a little red sticker version stuck to a wall at Wahoo's Fish Tacos.

Fountain at Butler Park

2008-10-23T09:29:00.002-05:00

Photos by Simi

If you haven't been or if you've only been during the day, you should check out the Butler Park fountain at night to catch the light and water show - it's not quite the Bellagio but it's purdy dang neat for lil ol' Austin. Butler is the little park with the cool view on the hill across from Auditorium Shore and next to the Palmer Events Center.

Lions and tigers and bear.....at the Austin Zoo

2008-10-17T23:39:00.007-05:00

The Austin Zoo is an animal sanctuary located kind of in the middle of nowhere near the 'Y' in Oak Hill. There aren't a ton of animals there but there are indeed lions, tigers and one bear.

Foo Fighers: ACL Festival 2008

2008-10-12T20:08:00.001-05:00

Last of the ACL photos...

At this point I had been at the same stage, practically the same patch of grass, for about 7 hours - all so I could be front row for the Foo Fighters (not to mention the other fun bands on the same stage). Being front row all day was definitely worth it...The Foo Fighters were great and apparently this was their last big show for a while...they're talking about taking a hiatus until they're "missed". Fantastic show - and I'm not even a huge, huge fan of them.

The dudes next to me drove in from Louisiana for the last day of ACL just to catch Dave and the boys...and got the Foo Fighters setlist from the show given to them. Not bad.

Gnarls Barkley - ACL Festival 2008

2008-10-05T01:02:00.000-05:00

"Crazy" and "Gone Daddy Gone" were the only songs that I had really heard before but it was an still an entertaining show for me nonetheless. Gnarls Barkley did a pretty sweet cover of Radiohead's Reckoner as I think their last song before their set was done.

Flyleaf - ACL Festival 2008

2008-10-03T23:46:00.002-05:00

-Singer Lacey Mosley and Bassist Pat Seals of Flyleaf performing at ACL. Pat kept things exciting by bounding around the stage, leaping from a stack of speakers/amps about 7 feet high, and at one point jumping down from the stage and suddenly popping up right in front of my group. It's not exactly my kind of music but it was fun being up close for the show.

ACL Festival 2008: Iron and Wine

2008-09-28T00:15:00.003-05:00

Sadly cameras with detachable lenses are not allowed at ACL unless you have one of those handy "PHOTO" badges or are willing to try your luck at smuggling it past security. With my camera tucked away safely at home with the rare weekend off, Simi's camera got quite the bit of exercise. As the hoss/trooper that her lil G9 is, we got some fun shots, including this one at the Iron and Wine show on Saturday night. Hopefully Simi will post the photos that she took...hint hint hint, Simi! Photos from shows on Sunday to come.

Nike+ Human Race - Austin, TX

2008-09-19T14:35:00.006-05:00

We left Batfest for a bit before Ludo went on and tried to find an open restaurant. No luck, however, we found ourselves standing outside of the Children's Museum when the first group of runners were making their way along the home stretch of the 10k. And then while sucking down a Java Chai Shake from Austin Java, we look up and see Lance Armstrong run by followed a couple of minutes later by Matthew McConaughey. Of course I was too busy with the shake to have my camera out when they ran by but I did pull it out and snap these up a little later. The sea of red t-shirts was pretty impressive and seemingly unending. And watching all of these runner go by has me wanting to run a 10k at some point...starting with a 5k. The Race for the Cure in November.

Batfest 2008: Tim Ferrell of Ludo

2008-09-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

Alrighty, last of the band photos from Batfest I think. Tim Ferrell plays guitar for Ludo and coincidentally has a pretty similar photo of himself on his site. Again, a bit grainy due to low light and high ISO so I think it looks better in black and white...sort of a neat feel to it. It's at least pretty different from stuff I've taken before as I never take B&W's and rarely remove the color.

Batfest 2008: Andrew Volpe of Ludo

2008-09-12T00:30:00.000-05:00

Ludo has a single out right now that is being played pretty much all over the radio and drew a lot of fans to Batfest...especially young, somewhat goth girls. Nope, not my type, thanks though. Anyhow, this guy, the lead singer, was quite animated on stage - frequently hopping, thrusting, growling, you name it.

Austin was definitely keeping it weird on this day :)

Batfest 2008: Brian Batch of Alpha Rev

2008-09-11T00:18:00.002-05:00

I finally got around to uploading photos from August 31st, the second day of Batfest 2008. It was fun getting to move around the crowds (especially early on when they were more dispersed) for different shots and angles but I feel like I kind of blew an opportunity to get some really cool band photos. Patience (and luck, anticipation...) is definitely important when the subjects are going through all sorts of facial expressions and fast movements and I struggled with all of that in the 99 or so degree heat. I didn't get anything too amazing but this is probably one of about three band photos from the day that I'll eventually post. This one is of Brian Batch, the violinist for Austin's Alpha Rev. It was already a bit grainy because of heavy backlighting so I black and whited and cranked the contrast just a bit. If I had better editing software on the new 'puter I would take out the stage-wall-sort-of-thing from the upper right to simplify a bit further. Pretty cool band, btw. And this Brian dude, according to his page, is super young and has already been playing violin for 13 years and makes his own music - pretty awesome.

Home cooked meals are the best

2008-09-06T01:30:00.004-05:00

I Finally made it up to the 'rents new home in Arkansas and I have to say, I haven't eaten or slept that well in a loooong time. And their house and lake are beautiful! More pics at some point.

This is my favorite and most often requested meal that my mom makes - homemade chicken nuggets (amazing!), (s)mashed potatoes and peas. I might have taken a bit more time to get an interesting shot of the table and all the fixin's but the food was waiting...what're you gonna do? Luckily there was another two or three plate-fulls of nuggets on the way.

Homemade light box

2008-09-02T16:08:00.000-05:00

A small-ish lightbox constructed using a cardboard box, tracing paper (though vellum or perhaps a thin cloth would be better - tracing paper seems to block out more light than I wanted it to), and posterboard. I plan to use it to light small objects with diffused lighting and without any horizon lines showing. Now I just need to find some better lamps/lights to use.This isn't a great example of a well-lit object but it's all I snapped before running out to dinner.

8/7/2008 Shower Study

2008-08-30T14:02:00.000-05:00

I picked up a new shower curtain at Target the other day - one with a map of the world on it. I figure it provides a nice opportunity to get a bit more worldly...or at least brush up on some geography skills while cleaning up. I hope to travel the world someday and actually see some of these places for real. If you haven't seen it before, check out the now famous Matt Harding's video of his travels around the world...awesome! My favorite YouTube video. It makes me want to get out and travel.

Creative breakthrough in dSLRs

2008-08-29T11:12:00.001-05:00

It's a bit weird to think of pulling out your DSLR to take video, but I've often wondered why a $200 point and shoot or even a cheap camera phone can take decent video but a $1,500 SLR cannot? The Nikon D90 jumps in and makes it possible and I say it's about time :)

"The D90 is the world’s first* digital SLR camera with a movie shooting function that delivers genuinely cinematic results" - Nikon PR

Video from a DSLR introduces some very cool possibilities...if you have an SLR you probably have several lenses that have their specific uses and strengths. Pop a fish eye on and you have some funky possibilities, shoot in extremely low light with a wide open prime lens.

A year or so ago when I finally decided to replace my puny point and shoot with something I considered going one of three directions: a mighty point and shoot that could be carried along virtually all the time, a DSLR, or a video camera. The point and shoot cammie idea was nixed when I decided no highly capable P&S is small enough to carry with me in addition to keys, wallet and phone. The video camera was a consideration based on the silly, fun music videos and such that I had done with either the 'rent's video camera or a camera checked out from the UT Visual Arts Library. The main minuses in going this route were the need for video editing software and a computer that could run it (not to mention a ginormous hard drive). I went the DSLR route and love my camera. I do, however, wish I had the opportunity to shoot video. Guess you can't always get what you want. The D90 is pretty close though.

7/05/2008 Night Parking Garage

2008-08-27T19:47:00.000-05:00

20 second exposure at the far end of my apartment's parking garage taken around midnight.

-I'd like to play around with long exposures more. Specifically, I want to find a place in Austin where I can get up above traffic and experiment with shooting light trails. Any suggestions?

6/16/2008 Twice Baked Potatos

2008-08-24T17:55:00.000-05:00

My first attempt at making my mom's famous twice-baked potatos. And if I do say so myself, they turned out quite tasty. Not quite as good as Mom's but good enough to hold me over until I get home cooking again. :)

-This picture was taken shortly after pulling the taters out of the oven and I was huuungry and ready to eat. That said, simply having a bit more light would have improved the photo quite a bit and now that I have an external flash, better food pictures shouldn't be too far off.

8/16/2008 Mimosas and Bellinis at Taverna

2008-08-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

Brunch at Taverna on 2nd and Lavaca, the NAT23 exhibit in the Arthouse at the Jones Center, another exhibit at Lombardi Gallery, and then Fado's. Three of the five of us dorks whipped out cameras and snapped up photos all along the way. It'll be fun to see the different takes on similar subjects. I'll put a few more photos from the day up here at some point.