📷 Shoot With Intention: Live Music Photography

I get asked daily why I spend so much time on live music as my signature focus. It's genuinely the documentary experience of it that fuels my soul.

Photographing live music for me is not about the ultimate music experience or the all-access. It's not for the claim to fame or a mention on a post. It's not for the rush of being on stage under the lights. It's FOR the energy of connection that fills the air—capturing the moment and bottling up the lyrics with the click of a shutter.

Call me crazy but I believe that for 90 minutes at a time, we can experience world peace if we allow ourselves to be present enough.

When I get stage side, I let go. I connect with the artist and feel the lyrics. I connect with the crowd and capture from their point of view. I aim to focus on capturing that moment's experience so that those who view my photos feel like they are there.

Shoot with intention. Find your connection. My connection is the power of love and its expression of it.

"So we can love deeper

Fly higher

See Clearer

Burn Brighter

Feel more than we ever did before"

📷 In A Moments Shutter: Sunset Engagement Shoot

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📷 In A Moments Shutter.

Being a natural light photographer is always a gamble, but if you are prepared, trust in the moment, then capture it. All that matters is what's happening in your frame as YOU stop time.

1. Connect

2. Trust

3. Feel it

Yep, it's that easy. It's 99% mental.

CONNECT: These two songbirds radiated with gentle trust without question. We didn't plan on getting a sunset session, but the moment fell into place as we neared the final outfit. We weren't trying to capture the best outfits or perfect angles to flatter their physique. This shoot was to reflect their future.

TRUST: I firmly believe that when the energy on location is this good, mother nature will give us her BEST. Also, I vividly remember a humbling note to this shoot. My battery was dying during this frame. I really and truly had to trust my intention on this last round. As I got this shot, that fun little blinking red icon started firing fast, reminding me to order more backup batteries. ( ...years later, I am over-prepared)

FEEL IT: Shoot low and slow to preserve the natural coloration of the sunset. In post I subtly enhanced the shadow lines you see of the hill country horizon line; I matched the tint of the darkest shade in the sky. Then I added some mid-tone violet hues while darkening the shadows to bring Kayla's dress out to represent the peaceful serenity at that moment. Bringing down the highlights released this striking orange glow around their bodies to let their souls shine.

💕 Kevin + Kaylas' Engagement Session

Shuttering To The Speed Of Sound: Aviation Photography

Shuttering To The Speed Of Sound… an old memory creates room for a new visionary.

Some of my earliest memories are from the window seat of a Continental Airlines MD 80. While my father would be flying the plane or my mother serving the cabin. I would sit with my yellow compact disc player in my lap, a carry-on under the seat in front of me filled with colored pencils and notebooks to doodle with when I wasn’t chit-chatting with the strangers in my row. Like most kids at a young age, I was filled with curiosity. I would have no problem asking about a lady’s bracelet, ring, or scarf and the significance behind it. Or about the book that a gentleman was reading and what the story was about. Then once the conversation had ended (usually not for long), I would put my headphones back over my short blonde wavy hair and listen to ‘Jukebox Hero’ or any other Foreigner song on repeat staring back out the window and then down to my tray, table drawing pictures of the stories I had just heard. Sometimes just coloring to the rhythm of the song with the colors I felt matched the mood. 

When I would get bored with that, it was time to look at the “Hemisphere Magazine” and play a guessing game with my new friend in my row. I practically had the magazine memorized page per page, and the content themed on it. "On page 19, a man and woman walk on the Bahamas beach. It is sunset, and waves are crashing along the shoreline. The lady is wearing a white bathing suit, and the man is carrying her shoes, wearing a blue shirt and white shorts. They look like really nice people.” I would say as the person starts flipping through the pages. The person would turn to the page, then look at me wide-eyed, “How did you know that?!” That practice developed a solid photographic memory that has evolved my career to be full of vivid detail and conversation with a glance. 

Twenty years later and ten years of practicing professional photography focusing on live music, advertising, and editorial. I decided to challenge myself and take flight into the Aviation Photography world. (some pun intended)

I have a newfound eagerness to capture the jet engine's roar as it comes in for approach, then the subtle bounce, skid, and smooth brakes squeal, causing friction and the flaps halting to the final stop. The sight of a plane on a runway excites me the most during a turning sky. As the light bends around the curvature of the aircraft, shadow lines slowly dance on the fuselage. Reflecting the natural colors of reality and the imagination of what I see in the wind at that time. Sometimes beautifully vibrant, or occasionally neutral - full of contrast.  

How My Photography Career Started

How I got started with photography by complete accident.

In high school, I got offered a graphic designer job focusing on advertisements for my hometown. (How I got that job will be a story for a different day) As I grew more advanced in my role as a designer, I would get discouraged when my clients would bring me low-resolution and boring images. So, I went and bought myself a camera and started going out to take the images I wanted for that ad to make it tie into the vision I had in mind with the design and proper messaging.

My clients at the time were so wowed over and over again by the proper difference imagery would make to their campaigns they started offering to pay me for that in addition to my designs. And so, my journey as a photographer began.

By nature, I was shy. It was easy for me to go and do landscape photography or real estate because I didn’t have to talk to anyone. Plus, being so new to the overwhelming technology, I was learning with every shoot I did. As I grew more comfortable, I got used to saying yes to the things I had to talk myself into out of sheer fear of failure mentally… I grew to love the challenge of creating the emotion I was feeling. I thrive on fear at the moment. As a former performer, the best I could portray my mental state walking into every shoot was “fake til you make it; this is just stage fright.”

Eventually, I overcame the technicalities of photography and developed strategies to help connect myself to the subject. That practice evolved into a name stake that carried me over a decade…. to where my business was known as “Matchless Exposure.”

The business name fit my clientele then, filled with motorcycles, music amps, timely and timeless advertisements, weddings, etc. My young and enthusiastic mind could only reason that the word “Matchless” reflected on my favorite motorcycle, a guitar amplifier while having a pyro-loving habit of striking a match and staring at the flame when I felt creatively stomped.

Then came the addition of Photography vs. Exposure. At the time, I was shooting all-natural light and loved the challenge of shooting nearly impossible low-light settings filled with action and correctly exposing the images in the pose. So I decided to let my recognizable style portray my name stake.

Of course, after so much time and feedback in my career, standard notes playing on the words came along, and I just felt so destined to be identified as “ Matchless Exposure,” Exposing life’s unmatchable moments. Cute, eh?

Well, after so much time under that labeled name. And humbly experiencing career highlights, including multiple Rolling Stone Country Magazine image publishings, published once in Billboard, twice by Paste, and once by People Babies. Executing creative direction, photography, and graphic design have been featured in the album packaging for Grammy-nominated bands. Realizing my creative services had successfully branded businesses to grow to corporate levels excessing up to 20% increase in audience attraction in 6 months. Resulting in up to an 11 % increase in revenue within a 10 - month tenure facilitated by influential marketing utilizing in-house sales data, relatable graphics, and demographically specific advertisements.

It’s time to settle back down to what I fell in love with. While the journey of exploring the other skillsets I had to offer coupled with my photography was exhilarating - It’s time to let that chapter offer as a guide to others aspiring to see where their creativity can better enhance the moment, to reflect on feeling the same emotion you had at that moment.