Cute Little Kitty

Born December 12, 2006 this cute little Tiger Cub is getting ready to be on display at the Woodland Park Zoo. Early this morning I was allowed in for a sneak peak at her. She doesn't have a name yet, but the adult Tiger is her Dad Rakata.

New Toys!

Oh Man am I excited! After saving for a couple of months worth of stock photography sales I am finally buying a lens I have been after for a very long time. The Canon 70-200 2.8 IS. It is a sweet lens that most who own it claim is their favorite. I should have that by the end of next week. On top of that, Canon has announced the release of their new camera the 1D Mark III. 10 Frames per second, ISO 6400, dual sensors, a 3 inch screen, the list of bells and whistles goes on and on. It isn't cheap though so I still have a little bit of work to do with Lea, but I think she has seen in my eyes that this isn't a Vintage PEZ dispenser that I feel I can't live without...though it has been a while since I've bought vintage PEZ. This is a seriously nice camera and it will be available in the Spring...I cannot wait! Please send donations via Paypal to Pezheadmat@comcast.net . Just kidding about the donations....sort of ;)

See you in the funny pages!

Mat

Photographer's Challenge

Hi Everyone,

This past Sunday afternoon I hosted a competition with 20 photographers from around the Pacific Northwest. We met at the Pike Place Market and for 90 minutes walked around the city shooting what we saw. We were limited to using just one camera with a 50mm fixed lens. I am blown away by the impressive variety and quality of the photo's submitted. Check them out on my web page by clicking on the Client Proofing Gallery and entering the password: DWF

www.mathaywardphoto.com

Leave a comment with which image was your favorite would ya? The image number isn't necessarily the large number under the photo. It is the number on the bottom left corner of the photo. I'm still waiting for some photographers to submit their pics so I may be adding more.

Have a great day!

Mat

The faces of Sophie

Boy do we have our hands full...in a good way of course :) Sophie has a lot of energy and has quite the personality as captured in these photographs taken about 3 seconds apart.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love was in the air at the Zoo this week in honor of the holiday. I thought I would post a few pics for grins.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

The Lake House

Our family has had a house on Pattison Lake near Olympia, WA for around 60 years or so. My Dad has been living there for a while now and on more than one occasion he has tried to talk me into letting him sell it. I refuse to let him off the hook as a house like that you simply cannot replace no matter what the price. It's the history that has the true value in my opinion. Beyond that, the fishing is great there!

The truth of the matter is that the house has been poorly taken care of for quite a while and has been in desperate need of a remodel. Every time I visit I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work that needs to be done. I'm so proud to announce that my Dad has taken the initiative to hire a contractor to get everything done once and for all. The plans sound great and I am very excited to see the end result and more importantly I am excited for my Dad to have a home with modern ammenities in it so he will be happy there.

In addition to the work in the house, my brother who has aspirations to start a landscaping business has been working hard on the 3/4 acres of land including building my Dad a putting green to help satiate his addiction to Golf. If anyone is thinking of building a putting green at your house, let me know and I'll send my brother over.

Anyway, I've attached a few pics of the work in progress. I'll be sure to post the end result as well.

Dad's 60th Birthday is coming up May 23. Maybe we'll have to throw him a party at his own house. Think I should ask him first?

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

A Message from Tootsie DippinHoney

My Uncle Farcus DippinDunkin sent this along to break up the routine of my day. Everyone can use a little humor in their lives every now and then. Give this a try and see if if puts a smile on your face. Be sure to post your name in the comments category so we can all laugh at you...err, I mean laugh with you :)




Here is your dose of humor...

A. Follow the instructions to find your new name.





The following is excerpted from a children's book, Captain Underpants
And the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants, by Dave
Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names...

So:

1. Use the third letter of your first name to
determine your New first
name:

a = snickle

b = doombah

c = goober

d = cheesey

e = crusty

f = greasy

g = dumbo

h = farcus

i = dorky

j = doofus

k = funky

l = boobie

m = sleezy

n = sloopy

o = fluffy

p = stinky

q = slimy

r = dorfus

s = snooty

t = tootsie

u = dipsy

v = sneezy

w = liver

x = skippy

y = dinky

z = zippy



2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:


a = dippin

b = feather

c = batty

d = burger

e = chicken

f = barffy

g = lizard

h = waffle

i = farkle

j = monkey

k = flippin

l = fricken

m = bubble

n = rhino

o = potty

p = hams ter

q = buckle

r = gizzard

s = lickin

t = snickle

u = chuckle

v = pickle

w = hubble

x = dingle

y = gorilla

z = girdle







3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:



a = butt

b = boob

c = face

d = nose

e = hump

f = breath

g = pants

h = shorts

i = lips

j = honker

k = head

l = tush

m = chunks

n = dunkin

o = brains

p = biscuits

q = toes

r = doodle

s = fanny

t = sniffer

u = sprinkles

v = frack

w = squirt

x = humperdinck

y = hiney

z = juice

A good day

There are a lot of things I could write about and I have some other photo's to post. Yesterday, we had some friends over for the Superbowl. It was nice to see the Colt's win and even nicer to see the Bears lose. OK, I'm a little bitter it wasn't the Seahawks representing the NFC again, I can admit my motivation to root for the Colt's. All in all it was a great time with great friends and great food. You can see some pics Cory took on his blog by visiting www.coryparris.com and clicking the blog link.

I've been working on wedding photo's for many days in a row. Today I woke up to a very foggy day. After a couple of hours it became apparent the fog wasn't going to lift. I have been meaning to drive up to Deception Bridge for quite a while now and a foggy day seemed like just the right occassion for a road trip. Lea was volunteering at Kindergarten with Savannah today so Sophie and I loaded the car with crackers, water and gas and headed North. It really is a pretty bridge. I'd like to go again and shoot it at sunrise or sunset some day. There is a little parking area just past it so we pulled over to explore. We found a hiking trail down to a small beach under the bridge. Let me say that it was an easy hike down...going back up was a different story. Carrying two cameras, 3 lenses and a wiggling two year old up hill is some serious exercise let me tell ya. Well worth it though.

Instead of driving back I decided to keep heading into Whidbey Island to take the Ferry back home. We drove past a familiar sign and had to pull in. Poppys Place is a road named after my Grandma Poppy. The house my Grandparents owned for many years is at the bottom of the hill. They have cleared out the trees so there is a beautiful view of the water. The orchard is gone now and more houses are there. It's amazing how much smaller it looks but it sure brought back a lot of great memories.

Tomorrow after work I head to Portland, OR. My good friend Chris Bothwell has generously offered to put me up in his spare room the night before my beating...er, I mean meeting for work. If anyone is looking for a house in the Portland area, my friend Chris is the best realtor in the area so be sure to look him up.

I'll post when I get back...see you in the funny pages!

Mat

Wasco Wedding

Another shot from the Wasco Wedding...

Wasco

The Wasco Wedding is almost done. Here's a random shot for fun. Yep, just one. Such a nice day today...lot's of sun. It seems as though Spring has begun.

Yep, I'm losin it :)

Better out than in!

I'm glad the bubbles were coming out of this end if you know what I mean :)

The Giggles

I had posted earlier about the Wasco's getting the giggles during their ceremony. Here is a shot :)

I thought I had bad breath

We dropped Savannah off at school this afternoon and Lea, Sophie and I hit the Zoo for an hour or so. The girls love the Hippo's so we stopped by and I got lucky with this shot.

What's Happening?

It's feast or famine on the Hayward Photo Blog. I'll go a while without any posts and then BAM! I'll do multiple blogs at once...you just never know. Be sure to scroll down to see some more photo's from Greg and Lauren's engagement session....

So what's happening? I've been calling the Zoo once a week to see if they'll let me in to take some photo's of the new Tiger Cub but alas...they are being very cautious with her to avoid too much contact with humans to reduce the risk of her losing track of her Tiger identity and associating with humans more than tigers. My friend Ryan has been the only one they've allowed in there to video and photograph her and if you check out the web page www.zoo.org you'll see he's done a great job. She is a cutie to say the least.

Last week during my regular call to bug him about her I got great news! Jeff Corwin from the Animal Planet show http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/jeffcorwin/jeffcorwin.html
is going to be giving a presentation to the children of donors to the zoo and I've been asked to photograph the event! I absolutely can't wait. It should be a lot of fun.

In addition to that I have been planning and coordinating an event to take place in a couple of weeks. Some of the top photographers in Portland, Washington and Canada will be travelling to the Pike Place Market for some friendly competition. We will be allowed only one camera body with a 50mm fixed lens only (85mm for those with a full frame sensor in their camera). We'll have 90 minutes to wander around the area and shoot what we see. Afterwards everyone will edit their favorite 5 photos and send them to me where I will post them on my web page to be judged by members of a photography forum we belong to. Everyone will pay a small entry fee to go towards a prize. So far it appears there will be a decent sized turnout of photographers. I've had big plans for this and even gone so far as to invite famous photographers like David Beckstead and Annie Liebowitz! Sadly, David can't make it but was polite enough to thank me for the invite. I haven't heard back from Annie, but hey...you never know if you don't ask right? :) I was also feeling spunky and motivated about the whole event so I wrote to Popular Photography Magazine and told them about it. They almost immediately wrote back with a lot of enthusiasm about the idea and given the caliber of the photographers entering the competition I am more than confident that the magazine will be interested in publishing some photos from the day! I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Don't forget to check out Greg and Lauren's pics below. If you are interested in viewing a slideshow you can see it here... http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/alki.htm

Take care,

Mat

More from Greg and Lauren

Greg and Lauren were so fun and romantic I felt compelled to post some more pics from their E-Session.

Greg and Lauren

Hi everyone,

I had a great time with Greg and Lauren's engagement shoot yesterday at Alki Beach in West Seattle. They are getting married in August and after spending the morning with them yesterday I can't wait! Talk about a fun couple. They laughed, played, cuddled and smooched the whole time. Clearly a couple madly in love, I am very much looking forward to showing their love through my cameras! I'll post a few more pics as they get done.

Have a great day!

Mat

It's official

Well,

It is official! The new version of www.mathaywardphoto.com is up and running. It's the same as what I posted earlier, just using the old domain now.

Using a toy Santa brought from Christmas I can use some of my existing lenses for Macro photography (close up). Mainly I'll be using it for ring shots at wedding so I thought it would be fun to practice with our wedding rings.

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

My new Web Page

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a new web site. It will wind up at the my same old address...mathaywarphoto.com but for now you can view it here...

http://www.bludomain6.com/mathayward/

Check it out and please be sure to let me know what you think!

Mat

The Wengert's

Howdy Y'all,

Here are a few photo's of our friends boys from Portland. Clayton, the oldest of 2 boys was born one day after Savannah at the same hospital in Portland. We met his parents Bob and Olivia at our child birth class and have remained friends ever since. They have a couple of horses and some yummy cows too!

Bob has a growing coffee business selling green coffee beans and the tools to roast them. His web site is www.gotchacoffee.com

See you in the funny pages!

Mat

Merry Christmas!

We had a great morning with the girls and I wanted to post a couple of pics. I hope that Santa brought you all everything you asked for and more!

Merry Christmas!

Vince

Tricia

There is a photo of me wearing this exact same outfit when I was a baby, my brother, my sister and now all the grandkids!

Crazy Pete

Wait till I post the pics of his hair cut!

Mom

Megan and Mike

Megan turned 30 yesterday! 30!

Keri

Ella

Pete's Presents

My brother has a strange idea of what would make a good present for 2 year old and a five year old :)

Dad

Dad has been getting very modernized with his new Blue Tooth, Razor Phone and even an Ipod! Heck, I don't even have an Ipod!

Abby

Christmas

After thousands and thousands of emails from people begging me to lose the Eagle photo and make a new blog I have finally found the time. My Mom, my Dad, my Brother Pete and his family, my Sister Megan and her family drove up yesterday and enjoyed a Christmas dinner made by my beautiful wife Lea. I was working during one of the busiest weekends ever at the Fish House so unfortunately I missed dinner but I heard it was great. After I got home, all the kids were amped up big time on sugar but we made them go to bed anyway. We played spoons to determine the order in which we chose a gift and my wife dominated the game and came away with an ice cream maker brought by Megan. She also brought an original Atari game which distracted Mike, Pete and I for a while trying to re-master Pitfall.

Every year, my Mom packs gigantic stockings for each of her kids, our spouses and our kids. Talk about a ton of work! She spends all year working on these gifts and outdoes herself every year. Thanks Mom for everything!

Pete, my brother also went ahead and bought presents for all of our kids...Drumsticks. Yeah, I'm going to get him back.

Anyway, they are all on the road right now so I thought I'd post a few pics I shot today and yesterday while they were here.

Hopefully I will post before next week, but just in case I don't....Merry Christmas!