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

5 1/2 Years

I would just like to start out this post by apologizing for the delay in posting. Since my last post many things have happened, one of those being the Reading Tornado which I wanted to post more about but there simply wasn't enough time. If anyone would like to see me do a post on the Tornado just comment and tell me so.

Today's real post is about a girl...

Madeline is this girl's name we met in band during our sixth grade year. In band we are both percussionist. In seventh grade we both ended up on the same "team" of teachers and had a couple of classes together including her fathers band class. That first semester we came to become very good friends down to the point that one of her friends that year decided Madeline and I needed to date. Well so later that day I found out I had a girlfriend. Well long story short Madeline and I have been dating since and it has been a fantastic time.

Happy 5 1/2 Years Madeline.

First Try at a Star Timelapse

So earlier this week I shot a photo timelapse of the stars out from my farm.

First try at a star timelapse from Matt Fowler on Vimeo.

This is 132 photos taken over two hours.
The lighting changes due to the bad thunderstorms in Oklahoma that night and we could see there lightning flashes.


PS. Feel free to comment

Spring Break, Long Exposures and Law Enforcement

So this week about all the photos i have taken have been long exposure shots. I find them to be very artistic and something not seen very often. I uploaded my first one here earlier in the week.

On Wednesday night i got this photo at the Prairie street bridge going over I-35.
In this photo you see the north bound traffic with their head lights and the south bound red tail lights. As a side note after getting this shot i headed to the graphic arts bridge and got up on the sidewalk then had the first police officer stop turn his bright lights on and talk to me.

Then on Thursday night we had a spring lightning storm roll through our area.

On Friday night Madeline and i were in Wichita and on the way home i stopped to grab this photo of the spring burns in the Flint Hills as cars blow right by them.
While getting this photo on the turnpike i had a trooper stop pull over and turn his bright lights on and question me about what i was doing and once again had no problem and left. So a note to anyone else is be ready to talk to law enforcement if you are shooting long exposures at night.

Long Exposure

Sorry about not posting lately...

Tonight Madeline and I went out about 11pm and shot some long exposure photos. Mainly of just cars going through intersections, To me the best part of Photography is just getting out and trying new things and learning about them as you go.

Photography

As many of you know my main is shooting video as that is mainly what i talk about here. When i started my job at the newspaper a year and a half ago i was hired for online video and that's all i did for the first year until i got the chance to fill in for a photographer just for a weekend... So six months later i am shooting photos everyday and enjoy it. This week i have covered a game every night and have to cover two games tonight.

Tuesday night i got to shoot the game at Chase County so me and madeline when out to the tallgrass prairie first to shoot some sunset photos and she got one of me:

That night i mainly shot Black & White.

Now i am off to shoot a video for the newspapers website.
Feel free to comment.

Four Seasons of Spartan Basketball

Well Friday night was my last broadcast of Emporia High basketball. Over all it went great before the game our live camera switcher went a little crazy but we got everything back on track and executed two great games that night. I would just like to thank all of our viewers, fans and especially the EHS athletes that put up with our cameras being all over the place during there games.

The four seasons came to an end after that game (due to royalties in post season play) after four years i am proud to say i have learned so much and never missed a any broadcasts!!!