Interview with:Matthew McKee Photography [mckeephoto]
PHOTOGRAPHY
 | Do you have an online gallery where one can view your photos? |
| For how long have you done photography? How did you begin? I was handed an old Polaroid Zip camera when I was back in grade school. I promptly pulled out a 3' toy dinosaur and a bunch of army men and set up a giant action/disaster shoot.
Ever since, I have been figuring out how to tell stories with my cameras.
I still have one of those photos around somewhere. |
| What has been your education as a photographer? Ah, the education question. It actually took me about 10 years to get my formal degree in photography. I started out as a fine art major. Lost interest in that when they wouldn't let me take more photography courses.
Eventually, I found myself working with a bunch of cool commercial shooters in the Albany, NY area while taking a variety of courses around the area.
After getting a degree in the Hospitality field and working in both worlds for a while, I decided to go back to what I loved and got my degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
I still take seminars and workshops from time to time. They are a lot of fun and can help to get some new concepts down. |
| Please list any exhibitions in which you have participated. Lots! I try to get involved with one or two local shows every year. Nothing in major spaces but coffee shops and cafes are a lot of fun to show at. I am also the co-president of the Jamaica Plain Open Studios (http://www.jpopenstudios.com).
This annual event takes place one weekend every September in Jamaica Plain, a suburb of Boston. It helps 200 plus painters, photographers, fabric arts people and other artists, open their studios to the public and cultivate an audience for their work. |
| Please list any awards for your work. Hmmm... I tend not to keep track! Awards are nice and all but a lot of work finding and getting work ready.
I know that, in the last year, I received an award from Create Magazine and was displayed in Layers Magazine, Adobe's project, for an image I did for a theater poster.
I suppose you have to enter to win, but I am usually having too much fun doing client work to want to take the time! Lol! |
| What is your favourite type of photography? Oh, how I hate that question!
Do you go to only one restaurant and order the same thing every time?
I like to create images that tell a story. Illustrations rather than documentations.
If I am asked to create a portrait of a CEO, I try to collaborate to create a portrait that is going to say what the marketing team wants to say about that person.
The same holds true for widgets and table top work. What does this product do? What is its unique selling point? How can we illustrate that?
And, ultimately, that is what they tell me that they hire me for. |
| What do you try to express through your photography? Hmm... Depends on what the subject is, of course. I always think about who the audience is for the photograph I am creating. |
| How do you choose your subjects? Lol! They often choose me! |
| What type of preparation do you do before undertaking the photo session? Ah, now this is an important question. Pre-planning prevents poor pictures!
What is our subject? Who is our audience? And, what do we want them to feel when they see this image?
Now, begin the preproduction. |
| Do you normally photograph with a purpose already in mind, or do you let yourself go with the flow? Shooting commercially, you have to have a goal and get the client what they are asking for. Get that key shot in and then you can improvise from there. If you don't get the shot they expect/are waiting for/that they hired you for, it doesn't matter how cool the improvised shot is, you are sunk! |
| Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sigma, Olympus, Sony, Pentax...which do you place your bets on and why? Place your bets... Hmm... I have been a Nikon user for a long time. Back in the film days, I also used a couple of Hasselblads regularly.
But, these are all just tools. The most important thing for any artist to do is learn your tools. If you have a $400 point and shoot, but you know it so well that you can produce consistently great shots, then it work for what you are doing. If you have a $8500 camera but never take it off auto, then I think you have probably wasted your cash.
Do you need an $8500 camera? Do you need $10,000 worth of lights? Maybe! The question is, what do you need to make your photographs?
I know of an excellent photographer who goes out with a $25 plastic Holga and a shop light. The images are beautiful! I also know a few photographers with trucks full of gear. Their images are no more, and certainly no less, beautiful. |
| Describe your current equipment: cameras, lenses, computers, accessories... Nikon D700, D2x, D200
Nikon 80-200, Sigma 14-35, Sigma 35-70
Sunstar Strobo packs and heads
Lowel Omnis
Various and sundry hot lights, shop lights, and other tweakers.
Powerbook G4
g5
24" apple cinema display
Drobo drives
LaCie rugged portable drives
Wow, I have a lot more stuff than I though! |
| What software and plug-ins do you use to retouch and manage your photos? Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw and Iview Media Pro. I tend not to use plugins much. Not because they are not useful but because I generally don't use them enough to make them a tool rather than a crutch. Presets are often deadly because everyone else uses them and there goes your unique image -- right out the window! |
| What measures do you take to protect your work against Internet piracy? Metadata mostly. After that, a lawyer. |
| Are you a good salesperson of your work? In what should you improve? Interesting question. Ultimately, if you are shooting and hoping someone will pay you for your work, you have to learn to do sales. I don't mean that you need to become the stereotypical used car salesman, but you need to figure out how to ask questions to find out what kind of problem the client is asking you to solve. And to learn avoid problem areas. |
| What is your team of habitual collaborators like? Team work is the key to good production work! The team of freelancers that I rely on are all great people first. The fact that they are amazingly talented is a huge bonus. |
| What have you learned about the art of framing and composition? Composition is one of the key components of any image. Of course, in the commercial world, we don't always get to control that! If the client's needs shift and it gets used as a spread instead of a cover, I need to cover it.
This takes us back to both the sales part and the client communications/preproduction part. Finding out how the image is going to be used is a key element in figuring out how it needs to be composed.
Once that is answered, I can compose an image that should drive the viewer's eyes through the image to what the client wants them to see. |
| How does one develop the instinct of knowing when to press the shutter release button? To develop an instinct for knowing when to press the shutter you have to start by really learning to see. Sounds like a copout answer but: think about it.
We have been taught to look at things- to glance at them and our brain fills in the rest. It is how the human mind works to cut down on the visual over flow of information coming in when our eyes are open.
To look beyond that glance, to look for the key things that will tell your story means you need to think about those key things first and then watch for them.
Press the shutter lots of times, while thinking. And, then, look at what you captured. Where did those key things show up in your frame? What else happened?
Do this a lot of times: think, anticipate, shoot, review. Do it enough times and you get your "instinct". |
| When should one use film, and when should one use digital? When it is important to your process and workflow. I use an all digital workflow because of the needs of my clients. And, because of my lifestyle.
I used to love playing in the darkroom for hours. I would come out smelling of fixer and stop bath but satisfied. Now, I would rather spend hours playing with my family and not smelling like a chemical factory. |
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[mckeephoto]
Matthew McKee Photography
Boston, MA
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