Updated Slideshow

Hi everyone,

As some of you know I got to return to Quest Field on Sunday to shoot the Rams game in addition to the Raiders game. It was cold, wet and rainy and one of the best times I've ever had! For those of you that missed the game, you missed a doozy! A last second field goal (again :) by one of the premier kickers in the league Josh Brown gave the Hawks the win and allowed them to remain in first place while Hasselbeck and Alexander have been recovering from their injuries (My apologies to the Beckham's and Martino's:).

Anyway, instead of creating a second slideshow of just the Rams game, I created a one song slideshow (only 4 minutes so you don't get bored:) using photo's from both games. Those of you that already watched the Raider's slide show will have to endure viewing some of the same photo's for the first half, then the slideshow ends with some pics from the Rams game.

As always, please let me know what you think. Your feedback always is great to read!

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/hawks.htm

I told Grant Wistrom about the slideshow and you can see from his reaction in the photo above what he thought of it :)

Mat

How bout them Hawks!

Here is a photo taken seconds after Jeremy Stevens touchdown this afternoon. I think the flex was his way of affirming his masculinity is still intact after the "shot heard around the world" last Monday.

I will be posting a slideshow from the Seahawks/Rams game asap. Stay tuned..

Tomorrow (well, technically today) I am photographing a great charity function through our church called Queen for a Day. 150 women housed in battered women's shelters in the Puget Sound will be bussed up and pampered head to toe. Massages, Hair styles, makeup, pedicures, manicures and more. I'm really looking forward to it and will let you know how it goes.

Take care,

Mat

Slideshow

Hi Everyone,

I made a 5 minute slideshow featuring some of my favorite pics from Monday night...check it out!

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/seahawks.htm

Oh No! Another Raider Fan!

In response to a comment from my Uncle Mark to my previous post I thought I had better issue a warning....Turn Alex away from the Raider Nation! The Seahawks are a winning team and you don't want Alex to end up looking like this guy do you (click the pic to see a larger version)?!? With Mike and Ryan it's too late, they are already brainwashed. But Alex is still young...Is he too old to ground from watching Raider games now? :)

By the way, a slideshow is coming soon! Stay tuned....

Monday Night Football Part Deux

The word of the night...Surreal

What can I say except it was an incredible experience! Truly an amazing event to be a part of. I was literally feet from the action and was so amazed by the intensity of the entire event. We were on the Raider's sideline moving up and down with the action usually about 10 yards up facing the Seahawks both on offense and defense. Then in the endzone when touchdowns were imminent. I was literally 5 feet away from Deion Branch when he scored his touchdown. The photo of him was taken seconds after his touchdown. The lens I was using was a long lens not designed to be used for when the subject is so close so that is why it is the way it is. A couple of other shots posted, Coach Holmgren right after the win. Marcus Trufant enjoying the Seattle Sunshine. One of my favorite players Grant Wistrom making one of three sacks on the clearly outmatched Raider's QB and for two of my Brother's in Law (Mike and Ryan) that for whatever reason are part of the pitiful Raider Nation I have posted a pic of the angry, mean and....FAT..Warren Sapp and the overrated, angry egomaniac that ran over a cop and should be in prison Randy Moss just after he missed a pass he should have caught. That was another moment that took place just a few feet from me. I haven't had a chance to see all the pics yet, I have to get to bed while they are uploading as my work week is starting over in a few short hours so good night for now.

All in all, I feel pretty good about the photo's I got considering it was my first attempt. I am so grateful to my friend Maurice for bringing me along. It truly was an incredible, indescribable opportunity. Please let me know what you think of the pics, I'll be sure to post more when I can.

Take care,

Mat

Monday Night Football!!!

Woohoo! It's time for Monday Night Football! I'm getting ready to drive downtown. Some people have asked me to let them know what number I will be wearing on the sidelines tonight. I won't know until I am down there and I don't know what kind of time I'm going to have to be calling people so my wife will post a comment to this thread with my number in case you are watching the game and want to look out for me. I am so excited about tonight I can't even tell you! Friday night, one of the players was in the restaurant and he and I got to talking for a while about the game, their practices and whatnot. I told him what I was doing and he told me to make sure to find him on the sidelines and say hi. I don't know if I will or not as I'm sure he'll be busy, but heck it was pretty cool getting to BS with a Seahawk anyway. He is a heck of a nice guy too. Well, think good thoughts for me, I'll be sure to post some pics asap!

Go Seahawks (Sorry Mike, Sorry Ryan :)...both are huge Raiders fans, but they are going down!)

Mat

Monday Night Football!!!

Woohoo! It's time for Monday Night Football! I'm getting ready to drive downtown. Some people have asked me to let them know what number I will be wearing on the sidelines tonight. I won't know until I am down there and I don't know what kind of time I'm going to have to be calling people so my wife will post a comment to this thread with my number in case you are watching the game and want to look out for me. I am so excited about tonight I can't even tell you! Friday night, one of the players was in the restaurant and he and I got to talking for a while about the game, their practices and whatnot. I told him what I was doing and he told me to make sure to find him on the sidelines and say hi. I don't know if I will or not as I'm sure he'll be busy, but heck it was pretty cool getting to BS with a Seahawk anyway. He is a heck of a nice guy too. Well, think good thoughts for me, I'll be sure to post some pics asap!

Go Seahawks (Sorry Mike, Sorry Ryan :)...both are huge Raiders fans, but they are going down!)

Mat

Happy Halloween!

Howdy Y'all!

It's been a spooky day here in the Puget Sound! We hit the Alderwood Mall to do some serious Trick or Treating where my Whoopie Cushion Costume was considered cute by the girls in Victoria's Secret until I pulled out the big guns...my Fart Machine! Woohoo, everybody loves a Fart Machine! Well, everybody but my wife who was forced to endure it for about 6 hours tonight :)

After the Mall we headed out to Cory and Leslies house for some Pizza, Sugar and Good Times. Trick or Treating is enhanced by sub freezing temperatures. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. It's amazing to watch Savannah trick or treat. She was literally running from house to house. She was having a great time and raked in a serious hall of candy. Sophie had a good time too, but it's a lot easier for her being hauled around by her Mom Dorothy.

Compromise

The way I see it, Marriage is about compromise. Give and Take. If you don't give, you shouldn't take. Now, in my marriage as some of you know, if I don't give I don't have the option to take so I'm going to compromise publicly. Tonight I was feeling a bit...hmm, well for lack of a better term...random. I was looking through photo's I haven't finished and there is a folder with about a trillion pics from my birthday on June 12 (mark it in your calendar if it isn't there already, I like vintage PEZ and Canon L lenses). One of the pics from that day I did finish for whatever reason was a photo of a boot. Yep, a boot. Not my boot. Not Lea's boot, nor either of the girls. Just a boot on a wall. Why it was on a wall I don't know, but it was a boot. I took a picture of it, I processed it before a million others but I couldn't tell you why. Nor could I tell you why I felt compelled to post the picture of the boot on the blog tonight when I should be in bed getting rested so I can give a big meeting early in the morning for all of my eager staff members (there was a sarcastic tone there in case you didn't pick it up.) Anyway, I told my beautiful wife whom I love and adore with all of my heart that before I went up to bed I was going to post the pic of the boot on my blog. She in her feminine tone of disapproval asked "aren't you going to post a pic from the pumpkin patch?" Me in my infinite wisdom didn't pic up on the fact that this was not merely a comment or suggestion but rather a serious comment that should have been perceived as a deadly threat should it go unheeded. Needless to say I am posting a photograph of my beautiful family (and me) on my blog for you all to see. This was taken last Sunday at "The Farm" where we joined our friends the Parris family to get Pumpkins, go in mazes and all that fun stuff. My friend Cory who happens to be one of the top wedding photographers in the Seattle area (http://www.coryparris.com) was kind enough to take the photo for me.

Oh yeah...I'm still posting the pic of the boot :)

Big News

Two big news items to report actually...

#1...The photo's from the Greenhorn Ranch Wedding are done and available for everyone to view! Click this link to see them (if the link doesn't work, go to KKstudioconnect.com and enter username Jeff and Jayme). http://kkstudioconnect.com/apps/customer/index.php?clientID=4656&albumID=5525

Thanks to everyone for your kind words and your patience while waiting for these to upload.

#2 Big News...I'm going to be on the sidelines at Qwest Field for Monday Night footbal November 6 photographing the Seahawks/Raiders game! I can't even describe how excited I am about it! I'll be one of those guys with the green jersey and my own number and everything! I'll probably text my wife from the stadium with my number and she'll post it here on the blog. That way if you're watching the game you can watch for me in the endzone when the Seahawks are scoring their inevitably large # of touchdowns. Even if Matt Hasselbeck is out for 4 weeks with an injured knee it is going to be an incredible experience! Talk about a bummer with Hasselbecks knee though. Shawn Alexander should be back in it by then, but it will be nice when all of the superstars are healthy again.

A couple more

Well Crap, the Blogger doesn't seem to be in the mood to let me upload pics right now. I'll try again a little later.

Check out these horses and you will be able to see that love was clearly in the air at the Ranch. Speaking of the Ranch, check out their web page here http://www.greenhornranch.com/. Not a bad shot on their front page eh?

I've found a couple other of my photo's on web sites recently...go to http://www.zoo.org and click on the carousel tab to see a picture of my youngest daughter having fun on the new carousel at the zoo. If you feel like digging further on that site, go to the Animal Facts page, click on Gorilla's and check the links on the facts about Woodland Park Zoo's Gorilla's group one and group two. Most of those shots are on display at the Zoo now too and I found out last week that one of my other Gorilla photo's is going to be on the cover of the Zoo Magazine next month! I'm very excited about it!

By the way, I love reading your comments and again, I really appreciate your comments. I've been getting a few emails from people that were wanting to post comments but couldn't do so without signing up for Blogspot. I've changed it around so you can post without being a member (choose anonymous). Just be sure to sign your name.

Take care,

Mat

Geoff

Here is a pic of the Father of the Bride. The pond at Greenhorn Ranch was filled with Trout and Geoff was quite the Fly Fisherman.

A couple more

Hey everyone, thank you very much for the kind words! I thought I would post a couple pics from the night before the wedding before I call it a night.

The guys at the bar are Ralph, Ellie and Bill. Ralph is in the middle, he owns the Ranch along with his great wife Trish. Ellie is the furthest from the shot, he's a retired rodeo guy whose son is the Marlboro Man and Bill is one heck of a great guy with an awesome sense of humor who was nice enough to let me sleep in his deluxe Winnebago the whole week.

The Frog Racing was too much fun. I don't even know how much money was raised all said and done, but I know the first Frog shattered the previous Ranch record by nearly 400%! I'm sure I'll be posting a couple more photo's from the Frog race because it was just too dang funny.

The Bride and Groom

I just learned that Jeff and Jayme (The Bride and Groom) are back from their honeymoon so I thought I would post a couple of photo's of them during the sunset on their Wedding Day.

The horses above were released just after the Bride and Groom said their vows. If you've never had an opportunity to witness a hundred horses running full speed up a mountain I highly recommend you do it. The sound is thunderous, the ground shakes and I get goosebumps just thinking about it. Really an incredible experience.

An incredible Wedding

Hi everyone,

It has been too long since my last posting I know...truth is, I've been incredibly busy, but in a good way. Last week I flew down to a Guest Ranch near a small town called Quincy in California where I spent four days documenting an incredible wedding event that included horse rides, frog races, fly fishing, camp fires and more. The Bride and Groom were incredibly great as were their families and friends. As I am typing this, I am waiting for Photoshop to catch it's breath as I've been spending virtually all of my free time working on the nearly 6,000 images I shot over the course of a few days! My shutter finger is still sore :) I haven't even gotten to the wedding day yet in my editing but thought I might post a couple of pics from the day for y'all to check out.

Be sure to let me know what you think.

Mat

Wine, Goatees, Horses and More

Howdy Ya'all!

Been a while since my last post. I shot a wedding last Sunday and have been spending every spare moment on editing those photo's.

Finally finished at about 1:30 this morning and now I'm flying out to Reno to spend 5 days shooting a big wedding at a Dude Ranch near Lake Tahoe. I've been very excited about this wedding and as far as I know it is my last for 2006.

Last week we had our General Manager's Meeting at Maryhill Winery (www.maryhillwinery.com). I had talked the owner and Vice President of the company into holding the meeting there so I was a bit nervous about it as I didn't know what the meeting facility would look like and how it would go. In a nutshell, if it wasn't good, I was in deep doo doo. My concerns were completely unfounded however as we were put into the beautiful residence of the owners Craig and Vicki. We had our best meeting ever and Vicki herself kept our coffee pots full. After the meeting she gave us a private tour of the winery and opened the wine bar to us. That is pretty dang generous too considering what a bunch of lushes Restaurant Managers can be :) They have around 24 different wines and I kid you not, there isn't a stinker in the bunch! They are all so good. If you are at the store and see a Maryhill Wine, buy it! You won't regret it. After the wine tasting, Vicki invited us all back to the residence for an incredible meal. Steve Turner the manager in Eugene and one of only 2 managers with the company longer than me just celebrated his 25 year anniversary with the company! As a gift they gave him a nice plaque and a full month off from work with pay! He was floored. The expression on his face was pretty funny as he didn't know what to think. As for the other great stuff at the meeting, after years and years of pushing the owner to allow goatees, he finally gave in and is allowing them! Just in time too as the hair on my head is about gone. I'd better get some on my face to make up for it. Also, our schedules at work loosened up a bit so I will be able to spend a lot more time at home with Lea and the Girls. All around good news for sure.

Well, I'm off to the dude ranch and will be sure to post some pics when I get back.

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

A new chapter in life

It's official...Savannah is in Kindergarten! She started yesterday and is having a great time with it. Her teacher Mr. Stevenson seems like a very nice man and according to Savannah is neat because he helped her tie her shoes today. Savannah was very excited to finally get to use her new Hello Kitty Backpack. Sophie was sad to see her go. Lea and I were feeling a bit choked up as well, but Savannah barely even looked back. The gate was open, she went in and within about 30 or 40 seconds she had already made a couple of new friends. Can you imagine being able to do that as an adult. "Hi, can we be friends?" "Sure" Then you're friends. Pretty cool. I'll try to keep you updated on any of her accomplishments in the days and weeks to come.

Weddings

Well, two weddings last weekend, both went really well. Friday was with Cory Parris who took the photo posted here of my ugly mug(http://www.coryparris.com) and Saturday was at the Willow's Hotel and Lodge in Seattle. I'll be sure to post pics when I'm finished. The photo's of the RocknRoller are done, you can see the final slideshow here... http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/rock.htm

Until next time...

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

Links to the pics

Well, read the post below then come back to this one to view the photo's. Usually Blogspot fixes their issues pretty quickly and the problems are short lived. This time however I haven't been able to upload photo's for a couple of weeks. Sorry bout' that.

Bummer Eh (That's Canadian for "That Sucks")

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/bsw.jpg

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/high.jpg

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/bald.jpg

Abundant Adventures in Canada!

I have a million stories to tell (well, at least 8 or 9 anyway) but I'm pooped. We just got back from a great trip to Whistler, BC. If you have never been....go! The entire town is full of charm. Everything is clean, the people are nice, the food is good, the Hotel's are beautiful. Tons to do and see! In a nutshell, Lea forced me on a bike ride that I couldn't tell you how far was because everything is in Kilometers out there. I can tell you this, we saw 3 lakes on this bikeride, the air was thin we were up so high and 2 days later I still can't sit down without making a conscious decision as to which cheek to lean to (think about it, it'll come to you). Anyway, I think it was around 1,000 Kilometers. Probably like 500 or 600 miles. It was far!

Then we went up a mountain where the sign was posted in Kilometers and Feet because us Americans couldn't believe how high up we were...6,000 feet! This was the day after our 800 mile bike ride! While you might think being up over 6,000 feet was adventure enough, we saw two bears! I've posted a photo of the first one we saw. He was close enough to snap this photo which should answer the question for those of you not certain..Yes, Bears shit in the woods. The other picture is of our family at a famous statue/landmark that is on all the Whistler Brochures so we know we were cool to be there. Let me just stress again, look at the picture..we were wayyy up there. OK, I'll confess...we didn't hike it. We took a Gondola up. It was a cool ride too. Whistler is famous for being an incredible ski town though many people visit in the summer. The ski lifts are in action for all the intense, extreme bikers that fly down the mountain. They sell the hemmoroid (sp) cream by the gallon there let me tell ya (I know because I bought 2 gallons).

Oh yeah, my wife snapped the photo of me upside down to show off just how much hair I have lost. Yep, it's pretty much gone. I was on a Bungee jump doing one of my many flips in the photo. I won't tell if the flips were on purpose or not. I'll post more pics later with more details on the Bungee jumping. For now, I'm hitting the sack. I'm photographing a Wedding with Cory Parris tomorrow then Sara and Jesse's (engagement pics below) wedding is on Saturday. No rest for the weary.

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

RocknRoll

Well, the last few attempts I've made Blogspot hasn't been uploading my photo's for whatever reason. You can view some of the photo's from today's photo shoot down at the beautiful Gasworks Park. Aaron is the significant other to one of the managers at the Fish House. He is a talented musician that is going to start producing some solo tunes pretty soon. He asked me to get some promotional shots for him to give to the clubs with his CD. A few of the photo's are here.... http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/gasworks
There are lot's more to do but that will have to wait until we get back from Whistler BC where we are heading tomorrow morning. Should be fun eh?

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

I was so close

Well, after a weekend of non-stop Photoshop and Full Tilt Poker (www.fulltiltpoker.com: Sign up for a new account and enter the bonus code PEZHEAD to receive a 100% matching signup bonus on your first deposit) My girls have returned! I was mauled by Savannah and Sophie. Lea was glad to see me too (until she realized I hadn't fed the fish or cleaned the litter box the entire time they were gone.)

I was so proud as I thought I was completely finished with my backed up photo's. As I was organizing my hard drive tonight however I realized I never even looked at the photo's from the 4th of July. So close, yet so far away as I also noticed the photo's from our trip to the North Cascades on my birthday was only partially completed. Sighhhh. There are some pics from the 4th on this post.

Sara and Jesse got to see their engagement photo's from last weekend. They couldn't decide on their favorite for their 11X14 so they narrowed it down to 2 and had me choose. I think I chose wisely for them :) I can't wait until their wedding on the 26th. They are a great couple and a lot of fun too! You can see many of their engagement shots here... http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/sjslide.htm

See ya next time!

Mat

Seattle Mariner's

Well, after the ugly performance by the Superbowl Champion Seattle Seahawks (you all know who really won that game!) last night against my friend Dave's Dallas Cowboy's I thought this would be a perfect time to post some pics from the Seattle Mariner's game my brother, his family, my family and I went to on 7/23 when they smoked the Red Sox. It was a lot of fun. You can see a slideshow of some of the photo's I took here...http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/baseball.htm.

I've been vegetating in front of the computer all night and day. I have to go to work tonight for my favorite past time...period end inventory. Beyone that however, I am not getting up from this computer until I catch up!

See y'all later!

Mat

I'm on a roll!

Can you believe it? I told you I would try to update my blog on a more regular basis. I'm going through some of the photo's from the wedding at the Willow's on Sunday. Here is a photo of one of the many cool decorations they have scattered around the property. Lea and the girls are heading down to Eugene this week so my goal is to get completely caught up on all of my photograph's by Sunday night. It's going to be difficult to work in the middle of all the wild parties I'm going to be throwing but I'll give it a go all the same.

Photorama

Hey Mat...what did you do during Summer of 06 you might ask me some day. My response will be...I took photo's and I spent a lot of time on Photoshop. It sure has been a lot of fun too!

Yesterday I spent the day shooting a wedding with my buddy Cory Parris (www.coryparris.com) at a place called The Willow's. Coincidentally I will be photographing a wedding there on August 26 for a great couple Sara and Jesse. Today Sara, Jesse and I hit Kerri Park in Seattle for an engagement session. I've only been able to go through a few of them for now as I'm a bit backed up, but there are definitely some great shots there. It's pretty tough to miss when you have such a photogenic couple to model for you. The pic on this blog is from this afternoon.

I also wrapped up all my post processing for Adrienne and Colin's incredible wedding at the Seattle Golf Club. Their photo's are at the lab and their Slideshow is on DVD.

Well, I've got to get to the Fish House bright and early tomorrow morning so I had better wrap this up.

See you in the funny pages!

Mat

Such a nice kitty

Those of you that know Jasmine will get a chuckle out of this pic. This is her way of saying "I love you." When she smacks you with her declawed paws it is a friendly gesture of high 5. Such a sweetie. She has been saying "I love you" a lot this weekend as we have an awesome house guest. Jasper the Shitzhu has been staying with us. It was pretty cute this morning I got up for work and he was snuggled up close and cozy with Savannah in her room. He definitely isn't a "morning dog" as he had no intent to get out of bed to relieve his bladder despite my urging. Pretty funny. Anyway, this pic is using some of my new editing toys...err, I mean tools. Kinda cool eh?

Holy Moly

Wow am I behind! Well, since today I heard from more than one person that I have been grossly negligent in updating my blog I have taken it to heart and updated it :) Since my last post we have taken a trip to Ocean Shores. I photographed Nicole and Andrew's wedding and last week was Adrienne and Colin's wedding. I've been taking a lot of photo's and will be heading out with my buddy Cory to another wedding this Sunday. I'd better start charging my batteries :)

So this is just a quick update. The photo's here were taken at Ocean Shores on an old washed out road on the way to see Washington State's most famous Shipwreck. For some reason I really like these photo's a lot as they make me think about the girls looking ahead to the future. Without getting all sentimental I believe that their future is bright and I hope to take them to this road for similar photo's throughout their lives.

Take care y'all...I promise I'll try to update this Blog on a more regular basis!