An Update...

Since my last post in May a lot has changed in my career. June 3rd marked my last day as photo editor at the newspaper I am still doing TV work for them. This was definitely not an easy decision to make really probably one the hardest I have yet had to make. I left the paper to start my college journey a decision I probably would have kept pushing off if it was not for the amazing offer I received from the athletic department. Through a scholarship they gave me the chance to work with their sports teams and classes to create multi-media content. This fall flew by while covering the football team every week including a playoff journey to the cold Northern town of Duluth Minnesota.

A view from our hotel of Downtown Duluth Minnesota.

Every week with the team I create a hype video that the players watch during pre-game in the locker room consisting of highlights and motivations pieces and also create a game highlight video to be uploaded the schools website. This is an example of a highlight piece I created with the help of the coaches to show case the team.

With football season for us ending last week I am now switching gears into basketball production with athletics. This first semester has been super busy but has been a blast.

Exposing the Film

Starting my career in still photography just 4 years ago there is one thing that many photographers cannot believe that I have never done, well at least until now. In the last several weeks I have started shooting medium format 120 film in my Mamiya RB67 camera. I admit I have always thought these photographers that were amazed at the fact that I have never shot film were full of it. I mean what could be so great about it anyway? Well after shooting my first roll I can tell you I am hooked. Each roll in the Mamiya has room for 10 exposures before changing it out which is a huge change from my 32 gig memory cards in my digital cameras. For my first roll of film I used color in the camera sending it off to a photo lab in southern Kansas. It took me nearly five days to complete my 10 exposures on this roll before I carefully sealed the film up and took it to the post office and sent it off for processing. The next week and a half was brutal waiting to see what my shots looked like. So many thoughts running through your head while waiting to see the final product, like did I meter that shot correctly? I was checking my P.O Box nearly daily to see if the package arrived and finally nine days after it was sent it arrived in my possession. Literally ripping the package open in the post office to check out all 10 of my 4x5 prints attached with the negatives. I was mind blown when I saw the quality of the colors and images this camera and roll of film produced. There was one problem I discovered, I have a light leak in the film area allowing the film to become exposed to natural light causing a blue strip across the images. I since have ordered a new film back for the camera to (hopefully) fix that problem. 

Below are the 10 exposures from my first roll of film.

This was the first exposure on the new camera and
 probably the most complicated photo incorporating
three strobe units and wireless triggers.

The second exposure of Bird bridge South of Emporia.

The third exposure was just a standard portrait of
Madeline in a wheat field on a sunny evening.

The fourth exposure was off te the Hwy. 99 bridge
South of town looking at the Rainbow bridge
over the  Cottonwood River,

Fifth was the boat house at Peter Pan Park.

The sixth exposure was probably my favorite of them
 all looking across Wooster Lake on the campus
 of Emporia State University.

Seventh a train sitting in the Emporia yard.
Trying to expose to the sunset and ended up
exposing to the shadows.

Eighth is a one second exposure of downtown
 at night.

Ninth an old airplane right during the noon hour with a
directly overhead sun.

The final exposure was of a crop dusterSouth of Emporia.

This is just the beginning of a new side of photography for me. My next goal is to develop black and white at home...
-Matt

Relaxing Portraits in the Flint Hills

As a news photographer in the midst of the winter sports season there is not always a lot of free time to shoot the "fun" photos. Well this past weekend I made sure and found time to go out into the Flint Hills with my awesome fiancé to shoot a couple of portraits with her.

While out shooting she also learned how a light meter in a 35mm film camera works. Going out on shoots like these for me is always an easy way to relax from the constant grind without getting to far away from the possibility of a breaking story.

Cleaning the Lens

Matthew Fowler - At one of the numerous sports I have photographed, Nascar at Kansas Speedway in October of 2012.

It has been quite a while since I have posted here I know, but it has been a super fast and awesome time. With that said my goal is going to be to post on here at least once a week. The content will range from breaking news, sports and portraits along with some video and broadcasting work. Over the past year and a half so many wonderful things have happened to me and my photography. In July of 2012  I became the Photo Editor at The Emporia Gazette just several months after documenting the devastating Reading Kansas tornado. In February of 2012 the biggest story of my career thus far was the Harveyville Kansas tornado. Growing up in Emporia Kansas all my life right in tornado alley I had never once seen a tornado until I became a journalist. After witnessing their destruction  I am okay with that. The Harveyville tornado was very strange happening this early in the year when most severe storms happen in the spring in Kansas. Harveyville is about 35 miles from my home about directly North so when I heard the scanner go off that night looking for first responders I jumped in my car with just my camera bag. After waiting quite a while at the check point just on the out skirts of town they finally took the media inside town. This is about the only good photograph I got that night but it was the only one I needed that night to tell the story of what happened.

Matthew Fowler - Harveyville hours after the tornado ripped through town.

This photo the next day ran on the front page of many large newspapers across the country including the front page of the Washington Post.

Stay Tuned to the blog for more of my work.
-Matt