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!

Busy Busy Busy

I have been super busy since my last blog update. I photographed Andrew and Nicole's wedding at the Subud House in Seattle which was a lot of fun. Last week I flew to Reno to get walloped by a 14 year old at Ping Pong. The next day we drove to California near Lake Tahoe to check out the site of a wedding I am photographing late September. What an event that is going to be! It's at a genuine dude ranch. One of the old time Wranglers can be seen in the photo here. I'll try to update this blog more frequently from here on out.

Happy Birthday to me

Howdy y'all. Just wanted to post a pic from our drive up SR20 in the North Cascades on my birthday monday. The drive is filled with breathtaking views of waterfalls and teal-green lakes filled from glaciers on beautiful mountains. I was truly awe-struck by the amazing sights. Until Savannah bit it on the steel bridge anyway....but that's another story. I'll post more pics later on.

Mat

Sun Bears and Toothaches

Well, it's pretty late/early tonight. I've been sampling some Sauvignon Blanc for our new wine list at McGrath's. It's never really been my favorite varietal, but it is extremely popular to drink with fish so the decision is an important one. In case you are interested, New Zealand is the hottest spot on Planet Earth to produce Sauvignon Blanc right now so our newest addition will definitely be a New Zealand Sauv Blanc. Probably Brancott.

I'm getting ready to hit the sack. When I wake up it is off to Downtown Seattle to get my friggin Wisdom Tooth pulled. All of a sudden this week it has torn through my cheek and is killing me! At times, the pain has been more than I can stand so as long as it isn't impacted, it's getting yanked in the morning. I had one pulled about ten years ago, with this one going that leaves two more to torture me at will. I hate going to the dentist, but I hate the agony of a toothache even more.

The Zoo emailed me earlier this week with a challenge to get the best photo of a Malayan Sun Bear possible for the cover of the Zoo Member magazine next month. I went for a few hours on Thursday and they never appeared. Today I was there over an hour before I caught a glimpse of one as they like to hide out more than they like to show themselves. Finally however two came out and I was able to snap a few shots off. I hope they are good enough to make the cover as I would be pretty excited about it. I attached a few of my favorites for you to judge. Let me know what you think, no one comments on the blogs anymore it seems like.

Wish me luck at the torture clinic (Dentist)!

Mat

Grizzly

Date Night

For the first time since September, Lea and I had a date! For her birthday I had bought us tickets to Teatro Zinzanni. I had heard good things about it, but nothing I had heard prepared me for the incredible show, dinner and all around great time we had! If you live in the Seattle area and haven't gone to this show...Buy your tickets right now! It is worth every penny and more! We had the best seats in the house. Right on the floor directly next to the stage, so all of the actors spent a lot of time with us. At one point, one of the actors pulled me onto the floor to attempt to throw a hat on my head. To my embarrassment, I had missed. So on his next attempt, instead of throwing the hat someone snuck up behind me and slammed one on my head. One of the main stars of the show kept hitting on Lea. At one point rubbing some vibrating device on her back, softly caressing her arms and kissing her hands (which caused his mouth to glow brightly). He is the guy that is on the giant mural Lea is standing in front of. The bald man in the photo with Lea was another of the main stars. Check out http://dreams.zinzanni.org/ to read about who he is. 4 Presidents chose him as their favorite comedian as did the Queen of England, Johnny Carson, Dave Letterman, Jay Leno and Lea and I. He was so freaking funny I could hardly contain myself. Anyway, it's late and I am exhausted so I'll wrap this up. If you get a chance to see the show...Do it!

War of the brothers

You know I got the better of this one :)

The winery