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Wandering With Some Old Friends – Street Photography

While sorting through my image collection, I came across some more old film scans I hadn’t previously published.

I love this view…

This is a fun set of images from a little adventure that Kayla and I decided to embark upon because we had nothing else to do.

What are you looking at?

“Life is either a great adventure or nothing.”
-Helen Keller

Thanksgiving 2011, we are orphans in Los Angeles. Family is 2,000 miles away on this day meant to be spent with them. As an alternative to feeling bad for ourselves, we decide to treat ourselves to some fun activities.

We begin the day by heading to Hermosa Beach to visit one of our favorite places to get breakfast and watch football. Sharkeez… Some delicious food, football indulgence, and too many mimosas (for me, not Kayla) later, we decide its time to move on.

Somehow we decide to wander around downtown LA because we know it will be a ghost town on a Thanksgiving holiday. Rather than take the freeway there, we decide to drive along Crenshaw as an alternate route. After the drive up, we walk around downtown admiring some of the architecture and parks.

The architecture images from that day will be posted soon on my other blog: Matthew Anderson Photography.

On our way out of the city, we analyze a few options for places to get a nice turkey dinner, but ended up deciding to forgo tradition and head home and eat PIZZA instead! Some might call this sad, we call this awesome.

While not a typical Thanksgiving day, I think we managed to make a fun little adventure out of it. Perhaps we’ll start our own tradition!

I love street photography, and could spend hours on end looking at the work of the Masters. It’s something I need to work on and do more of. Do you have a favorite image from this set?

The adventure starts withs some breakfast and mimosas…

We encounter these two becoming fast friends…

“Hi buddy!”

Tired of the attention…

It’s time to rest…

Happy adventurers… Let’s go explore!

POW!

Layers in this image…

Layers in this one too…

This was a funny little scene.

Another funny scene.

blur…

blur…

blur…

Interesting building…

Going up…

POW!

Don’t…

HUH?!

Grimace…

oops…

Going down…

Reservoir Canyon Hike – San Luis Obispo

San Luis Obispo is a beautiful town surrounded by beautiful terrain. Hiking trails are everywhere, and people love to use them. One wet morning in January, Kayla and I tried out a new trail we hadn’t previously hiked. I’d read about Reservoir Canyon being beautiful, and someone also mentioned a waterfall…

Waterfall you say? Sign us up!

If you look close you can see the beginning of a long man-made tunnel that comes out in the waterfall! We were lacking in spelunking equipment, so we opted to stay out of the tunnel for now.

The days preceding this hike adventure were rain-soaked and gloomy. This made us excited to get outside. This also made the trails muddy. Like suck-your-shoe-off-your-feet muddy. Not being the types to be turned around by a little mud (good thing we didn’t encounter the spiders mentioned here), we trudged on through and up.

Apparently this is a good place to hunt for Chanterelle mushrooms… Whether the mushrooms in this photo are delicious or deadly, I do not know. I didn’t eat them. Maybe you should come try some?

Alright, this place is starting to seem a little strange. Mud everywhere, waterfalls concealing tunnels, big ‘ole mushrooms, and big ‘ole… Leaves?

Um, that’s a big friggin leaf. If comparing it to Kayla’s head isn’t enough perspective, perhaps this next image will also help…

We’re never going to get anywhere if we just sit here and stare at the leaves! Time to press on and get going with this hike…

Look at that beautiful wooded area! What a majestic feeling place. As we kept going up, the larger trees started to thin out and make way for some beautiful views of the surrounding hills. Another pleasant surprise was a little hangout area complete with a swing in a clearing! We stopped for some swinging, investigating of tee-pees, and other miscellaneous mischief.

And then the hike got hard! We couldn’t decide if it was because of the length, elevation gain, or the mud grabbing our feet, but Kayla and I got wiped out before getting to the top. That’s not typical behavior for us, so it was a little disappointing to leave without being conquerers. Perhaps we will have to attempt this one again soon, even though there are too many other places we’ve never been.

If you enjoy being in nature and getting some exercise, this is a hike you need to check out. Its an extremely unique place with plenty of opportunities to do what we all need more of… PLAY!

Where is your favorite place to explore and play? Feel free to leave a comment!

Inquiries for print purchases should be addressed to: matt@matthewandersonphotography.com

Film Scraps: A Hodge Podge of Images from Multiple Film Rolls

I love to shoot film because of its beautiful and unique characteristics. The images I capture on film often stand apart from their digital counterparts pretty significantly. It slows me down, changes my process, intensifies the experience.

All these things are wonderful, and they are major reasons I keep shooting film.

My reverence for the medium isn’t always beneficial, however, as I often use it so sparingly that I leave half-shot rolls in cameras for long periods of time (I have at least one in a camera now). I forget what’s on the beginning of the roll, and only process them when they’re complete. It makes for a grab-bag surprise when the rolls are finally finished.

Below are some candid shots, portraits, landscapes, street shots, and good times… I hope you like looking through them…

Movnat in Santa Barbara – Fitness that Adapts to the Environment

I would follow Kellen Milad into a flaming building if he said it was good for me.

The man knows what’s what in the world of self-improvement. His journey has been something fascinating to witness, and it only has great things in store for the future.

Knowing his passion for wellness, Kellen was naturally my first stop when I finally made the decision to get my life on track in the realm of fitness, nutrition, and well-being.

In April of 2011, feeling sluggish and in a rut, I made a commitment to myself that I would be in the best shape of my life by the time I turned 30. That gave me 16 months to get my act together and reverse 11 years of self neglect and abuse.

Luckily, I had a master of fitness and the human mind on my side.

Kellen helped align me with ways to eat and be active that worked for me, and that I’d continue to do. What a novel idea! Eat and exercise in a way you enjoy… and you’ll keep doing it! Well before my 30th birthday, I shed about 40 pounds and felt amazing.

The most important lesson for me has been that nutrition and exercise should be an integral part of my life, not just something I do for an hour every day. It’s not always easy, especially when the weather starts to turn and the days get shorter, but I hope it’s something I’ll continue to work on for the rest of my life. Before and near-current photos are in the gallery below.

The latest introduction in this journey has been the concepts of Movnat, an interesting fitness practice that encourages people to move naturally and efficiently in their own environment (http://movnat.com). Witnessing Kellen’s teaching prowess during this two-day seminar was awesome. I took away tons of information and skills to practice, I met lots of great people interested in improving their lives, and I was sore for about three days.

If you’re interested in getting in touch with Kellen, you can email him at: kellen@movnat.com

I highly recommend reaching out to him if you’re looking to make serious improvements in the quality of your life. Tell him I sent you.

See images from both days in the gallery below…

Higher quality versions of the images can be seen in the flash gallery located here: http://www.matthewandersonphotography.com/movnat_09_12/

Gorge Trip 2012 – Mini College Buddy Reunion

My friends I made in college will be friends for life.

Even though most of us don’t live near each other anymore, nothing can keep brothers apart.

While we don’t necessarily need any outside influence, nothing can bring us together quite like Dave Matthews Band. Varying levels of appreciation for this band don’t matter, we are all fans of what happens on a DMB weekend. Labor Day 2012, four friends converged on central Washington state to debauch and sing. It was a celebration of life and happiness. Conversation topics have changed quite a bit in the last 10 years, but the quality is just the same.

To the buddies who couldn’t make the trip, your presence was missed and we drank your share…

The gallery below is huge, but it’s filled with fun images of awesome people, so it is what it is…

You can also view the finished images in a larger format in the flash gallery linked below:

http://matthewandersonphotography.com/gorge_2012/

SLO Farmers Market 8/23/12 – Street Photography

San Luis Obispo… Wow…

Since we moved here, I’ve been waiting for the massive, dirty, dark secret of this place to come out. There has to be a reason that a section of the California coast isn’t hyper-congested and intensely commercialized…

Is there a vampire or zombie problem I haven’t encountered yet? Will the winds shift and blow wastewater treatment plant air past my nose for half the year? Is there a mime school somewhere nearby that I haven’t heard of?

So far, nada.

I’ve surmised that right about the time when quality of life becomes someone’s primary concern, happiness gravity seems to pull them this way.

One of the primary indicators that this place is focused on awesomeness has to be their weekly celebrations of quality and deliciousness. That’s right, what most American towns reserve for an annual celebration, SLO does weekly. They call it a “farmer’s market”, but that’s just a thinly veiled misnomer for a party. Food, music, people, sun and stars… this is a great way to spend your Thursday evening… EVERY Thursday evening… See what I saw this week below…

If you want to come visit us in our new home, might I suggest coming on a Thursday?

Un-Dirty Thirty? – Birthday Camping

Comfortable with current life transitions and all the wonderful things that come with them, I had no fear of hitting the landmark age of 30 as I originally anticipated. In line with the transitions, a celebration of my 30th revolution around the earth had to be low-key and modest. Some good pals, some out-of-doors, sunshine, fire, stars, tequila, wine, and scrabble Cheeze-Its all came together to spell a beautiful weekend near Lopez Lake.

We smiled… proof below:

Thanks to Kayla, David, Kiki and Roland for such a great weekend! You guys are the best!

Leave a comment if you have a favorite image or something!

MAP – Blog Launch…

I’ve launched and published a blog to match my new website and to post my professional work… Please take a look here…

 

http://blog.matthewandersonphotography.com

Mc40 Visits SLO

David McFadyen made a trip up to our new home to visit his old home. He graciously showed me around to some of his favorite spots in the area, and you can see the photographic results below. Locations featured are: Bishop’s Peak, Railroad Trestle (specific name is lost on me), and Pirate’s Cove…

Lots more exploring to be done in this wonderful place!

Thanks for coming David!