The Beginner Photography Podcast

Lighting Celebrity Portraits with Matthew Jordan Smith

• Raymond Hatfield

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#531 In this episode of the podcast, I chat with Matthew Jordan Smith, a renowned celebrity fashion and beauty photographer. Matthew shares his inspiring journey, from his initial spark of passion ignited by his father, to working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. He emphasizes the importance of persistence, preparation, and developing a unique vision.

THE BIG IDEAS

  • Persist Through Challenges: Learning photography is a marathon, not a sprint. Continuous practice and perseverance lead to progress and success.
  • Prepare Meticulously: Visualization and preparation are key. Develop storyboards or vision boards to communicate your ideas clearly to clients and team members.
  • Embrace Your Unique Vision: Identify what you love in life and let that passion drive your creativity. Your unique perspective is what sets you apart.
  • Value Continuous Learning: Never stop learning, whether it's about lighting techniques or new trends. Knowledge and skill refinement keep your work relevant and captivating.

PHOTOGRAPHY ACTION PLAN

  1. Visual Storyboarding: Create a vision board using images from magazines, Pinterest, or your previous work that reflects the mood and style you want to achieve. Share your storyboard with peers or mentors to get feedback before your actual shoot.
  2. Lighting Practice: Use a simple lamp to practice different lighting techniques, experimenting with angles and light intensity. Capture the same subject under various lighting conditions to understand how light direction and quality impact your photos.
  3. Portfolio Development: Curate a collection of your best work in a digital portfolio, focusing on a consistent theme or style. Update your portfolio regularly, replacing outdated images with your latest and best work.
  4. Networking and Learning: Join photography forums, social media groups, or local clubs to connect with other photographers and exchange feedback. Attend photography workshops or webinars to continuously improve your skills and stay updated on industry trends.
  5. Client Communication: Draft a clear project brief outlining your vision, the shoot's purpose, and key details to share with your client. Follow up with clients post-shoot to get feedback and ensure their expectations were met, reinforcing professional relationships.

RESOURCES:
Visit Matthew Jordan Smith's Website - https://www.matthewjordansmith.com/
Follow Matthew Jordan Smith on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/matthewjordansmith/

Connect with the Beginner Photography Podcast!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Learning how to light is exactly what gave me a career. The reason why that first editor loved my work and gave me a job right away was because of my lighting skill. And a lot of my jobs happen that way. And people even still today say like, Oh, I love your light. I had to learn how to light. And then everything started happening. I never would have worked with celebrities or done high end clients unless I learned how to use light, because that's what pulled people in to my work.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield. And each week, I interview one of the world's most interesting photographers to learn what it really takes to capture beautiful images so that you can start to do the same. In today's Rewind episode, I'm chatting with longtime celebrity portrait photographer Matthew Jordan Smith about how to be prepared for the big moment. But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by CloudSpot. You know that. With CloudSpot, you can impress your clients with a beautiful gallery that is easy to view, share, and download on any device. With CloudSpot, you can control image size, add a watermark, and set download limits as well. So grab your free forever account over at deliverphotos. com and only upgrade when you are ready. Now, today's guest, Matthew Jordan Smith is a celebrity fashion and beauty photographer who has more than 30 years of experience behind the camera. He's photographed everyone from Halle Berry, Mandy Moore, Tyra Banks, Samuel L. Jackson, Oprah, and my personal favorite, Jeff Goldblum. So it goes without saying that he's a master at his craft, specifically light. It's great. But when you look at his humble beginnings, I mean, he started out just developing film in a bathroom. So he's come a long way. And in today's episode, Matthew is going to share how to embrace your unique vision behind the camera, the importance of learning and mastering lighting techniques to give your images a polished and unique look, and how to visualize your shoots so that you can show up with a plan. With that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Matthew Jordan Smith Today, I am so incredibly lucky and thankful to be talking to Matthew Jordan Smith. Matthew, so much for coming on the podcast.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Thank you. Thank you. It's good being here. Thank you for having me.

Raymond Hatfield:

Of course. Of course. before we get into what it's like working with celebrities and high profile clientele, can you tell me a little bit about how you got your start in photography?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

for me, it was, the influence of my father, my dad gave me a camera when I was young and, not only did he give me a camera, he, turned, uh, bathroom or the second bathroom into like a makeshift darkroom and taught me how to process pictures. So my, my very first pictures I ever shot, I got to process. And I think, that process of going through and taking the picture. Not seeing on the back of the camera, but no, having no idea what was there and then processing that, that film and seeing it come to life that got me hooked still has me hooked.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. I can imagine. turning a bathroom into a dark room. I'm sure that, it had to have been a pivotal moment, especially from the beginning to see, like I know that when I first started photography, I would just go out there. Take photos and then we'd go to Costco, get them developed and then come back and I'd see him and that alone was pretty incredible. But to be able to create is exciting. There is something different. So, you talked obviously about shooting film there. How long have you been shooting and, how is your career kind of progressed from there?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Well, it is, I've been shooting professionally 31 years this year. Sounds weird to say that. Right?

Raymond Hatfield:

It's, you know what's, you know what's crazy is that tomorrow is my 30th birthday.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Oh, that's crazy. Yeah. Tomorrow's my 30th

Raymond Hatfield:

birthday. That is funny.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Happy birthday. Oh, thank you so, so much. Birthday 31 years. That's, uh, this April actually be 31 years professionally. and I absolutely love it. It's been very good to me.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's great. That's great. When you decided that you finally wanted to start to pursue photography professionally, can you tell me how you got your first paying client?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Well, with me, it was definitely a it wasn't sprint. It was a Definitely a marathon. went to art school in Atlanta. and one day a professor in art school said, Oh, the best photographers in the world are in Europe or New York city. And if you're serious, you should go to one of those places. And that day in class, I decided to go to New York city. I'm born in New York. but. We had, I moved when I was seven years old to the South. And then I went back to New York, at the age of 22 and, started my, photo career. answering that question about my, my first hanging gig, which is always kind of weird because My very first, if I go back to first paying gig

Raymond Hatfield:

was,

Matthew Jordan Smith:

uh, was a job that the photographer I was working for as an assistant had referred me for, and which I hardly ever tell this story. It was my first job was shooting an annual report for a hospital and it happened to be the hospital that I was born in, Brooklyn Hospital, which is kind of crazy how all that happened, but he was a client of his and he referred me to the job and I got the job to shoot it. That's my very first time being paid. As a photographer. Well, actually, first real job. My first check that I ever received in photography happened when I was still a student in art school. and that check came from Sports Illustrated.

Raymond Hatfield:

Whoa, your first, your first photography check. My

Matthew Jordan Smith:

first, my first photography check ever. And then my first check ever was s I check for 25. I put up a picture up. I'd shot a, a local, marathon and I shot the winner and they ran the picture.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, how cool. How cool. That's

Matthew Jordan Smith:

my, my first check ever was from S I sports illustrated for 25 way back, way back when. That's my first paying geek. I guess you could say. but then going, going into like a real job where I was starting to leave my shop. from being a photo assistant and get my first client that was, for a magazine that was really started my career that, that was the first. real gig that turned into continuous work.

Raymond Hatfield:

And that was working with, a magazine. So, and that was, that wasn't through, the photographer who you were working under, was it?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

No, that was not. That was not. I had, at that point I'd been assisting probably like three years and I was making that transition from being a photo assistant to being a photographer. And I was doing a lot of testing. I was testing models all the time. I'd work all day long as an assistant. Then In the evenings, I'd shoot in the studio with the models I met around New York City, and I'd get the hair and makeup I'd met on shoots together, and we'd just test. Testing's the process of when a photographer gets together with a team, hair, makeup, stylist, and you all, you know, work for free and collaborate on making some images. And I was doing that all the time. And there was this one makeup artist, his name was Pascal, and Pascal told a client about my work. And that client called me in. Now, when the client called me, I felt I was not ready. I was testing all the time, but I didn't think my, my portfolio was ready of images, but people were starting to talk about my work, the models were talking about me, uh, the hair maker were talking about me, but in my mind, I felt I wasn't ready yet. So Pascal gave my information to this editor who called me and called me in for a meeting. So I was actually kind of upset with Pascal for even referring me to this client because I'm like, I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready yet. I went to the meeting and this editor looked at my portfolio and he just goes through really fast, closes the book halfway through it. And in my mind, I'm like, Oh, I know I'm not ready yet. And then he says, Are you free next week?

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, wow.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

And that's my first job. Yeah, it was crazy. And it was a big job. It was like a, an eight page editorial and, uh, it was shooting women and they were all, female executives. That's my very first job, for magazine. And that led to that same magazine hiring me over and over and over again. And, um, that's how it started.

Raymond Hatfield:

So did you, uh, buy Pascal a drink after that? I

Matthew Jordan Smith:

don't remember at all. I can see his face clearly now, but, we lost contact over the years. He was, I think he went back to Paris or not, but, he's responsible for like me getting that first job for sure. And, uh, that's

Raymond Hatfield:

incredible. Not sure if I

Matthew Jordan Smith:

actually even thanked him or not, but, uh, Pascal, if you're out there and, uh, thank you, man.

Raymond Hatfield:

You know, what's great about that is that, Talking about feeling like you weren't ready. Right. that's a common theme of,

Matthew Jordan Smith:

it's very, very common with all artists.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Period.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

I think that's what they

Raymond Hatfield:

call the imposter syndrome, right? Yes,

Matthew Jordan Smith:

absolutely. That's it. Even though

Raymond Hatfield:

so many people are telling you like, no, your work is great. You should definitely pursue this and go forward. I was listening to an episode of radio lab. I believe it was, it was talking all specifically about imposter syndrome. And it was saying that there's two types of people. There's people who never feel like they're good enough and people who feel like, They're always more than good enough. And the people who feel like they're never good enough are always more driven and motivated because they're working to get good enough to get to that position to, uh, leverage themself. And that, that really resonated with me that, that you told that story. That's great. so obviously, like you said, your first, assignment, I guess, was working with, female executives. and it wasn't. working with Samuel L. Jackson or Oprah, even though she's quite an executive. So how did you start shooting predominant figures and celebrities?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Well, that, that was also an evolution as well. I did my I just want at first, just to shoot fashion and beauty. That was my idea at first going into, the commercial field to shoot fashion and beauty. So I was first started getting jobs, even though that first job was shooting executives, it was not fashion and beauty at all, but it did lead to me doing more fashion stories and beauty stories for that magazine. It was essence magazine and the editor of that magazine at the time, or the, crib director definitely gave me a lot of work and then. Um, day I was shooting tons of beauty for the magazine and then one day, the same editor calls me and says, we have a situation where a photographer canceled on us. he turned us down from doing a, it's a cover shoot as a big cover shoot. At that point, I've been shooting covers for the magazine, but this is back in the day when all the covers were models. They weren't celebrities back then. It was just starting to change. And he says, we have a celebrity. We want to shoot for the cover. And you shoot women better than anybody. We'd love for you to photograph the celebrity the same way you shoot the models. Wow. Okay. Sure. I think you do it. You know, I'm totally nervous. This editor had faith in me that I was up to the job. And that first client was Halle Berry.

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow. Your first. Wow. Yeah.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

My first, my first celebrity was Halle Berry. In my mind, I can still see her walking in the studio. I can still see what she had on, you know, the whole nine. It was a great day. she was my very first celebrity.

Raymond Hatfield:

I bet. Wow. how great of a story is that? I was expecting you to be like, Oh, well, I photographed, uh, maybe like it was a connection thing. I photographed like a cousin. And then suddenly it got into that, but, uh,

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Not at all. There were no connections. Well, actually, if I think about personalities, I did photograph Anita Hill At the beginning of that Clarence Thomas confirmation here, he probably remembers that, you know, probably way back in the day, but, I photographed Anita Hale, so it's my first personality I photographed, but in terms of a first celebrity, it's Halle Berry.

Raymond Hatfield:

Man, such a great story. you know, I'm thinking about putting myself. In your shoes in that moment and trying to think about it today. So if I've got a call from like Halle Berry or like the rock today, letting me know that, they wanted me to photograph them, I think after I was done, just like screeching with excitement and been screeching with nervousness. Um, I would try to figure out where to go. So how do you even, prepare for a big shoot like that?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Well, I think the more you prepare your mind into the process of going through the steps, you visualize the entire day how you want to be. of course, as photographers, we're being all technical. Think about how we want to shoot, which lens, which light, how you make the images, the story. And I think as you go through that process, the nerves go away because you're, going through the process of just preparing for it. And the more you repair, the better you will do. You go through scenarios, you go through and you make a script of the day you go through and make visuals to show your ideas and make sure that they can, they hear your idea, they can see your idea. And it makes for a collaboration. And I mean, the first, like, you know, It's like being in sports, before game, you're nervous before a game, but then as you start the game that goes away and you're just in the throes of it all.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Same thing in photography. Once it gets going, you're in the throes of it all. And then like anything else, you get used to it. And that's great. And I love it today. You know, you think if you break it down, you know, all these celebrities, they just like you and I, everybody, like anybody else, they put their pants on the same way. And, uh, uh,

Raymond Hatfield:

Well, there, there's a slight difference and not more expensive pants. Yes. Yeah. More expensive pants, of course. but there's a difference more so when it comes less about photography and more so when it comes to that, their time is typically more important than, say a family that I'm shooting. Right. So, obviously with that sort of clientele, time is literally money. like the expression goes and a reshoot isn't, Always an option. a

Matthew Jordan Smith:

reshoot is never an option, no matter who it is.

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow. That's a really good, uh, I'm going to remember that for sure. I've had some mistakes in my past and I've had to do reshoots. And even though I get what you're saying, the reshoot can physically happen, but it's never a good experience for the client, you never want to do that.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Yeah, you'll lose clients that way for sure. Yeah. There's, and they'll never forget it.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right. I never forget it. And like, I feel terrible and I'm the, Obviously the one making the mistake. So you talked a little bit about visualization beforehand. So, before you show up, do you have an idea of the exact photos that you want to get? Are there only one or two? kind of walk me through that. How does that work?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Oh, no, I'm definitely a big visualizer on everything. If I can even make a storyboard before the shoot, because, as photographers, we have our vision. and if you don't, you definitely need to have a vision for a photo shoot. You just can't say, okay, I'm going to shoot, You've got to have a vision for a model. I'm going to shoot whomever and come up for your camera and just like, you know, wing it. It doesn't work that way. You've got to have a vision for what you want to accomplish. and then in your mind, even before you pick your camera, you start going through the paces of what you want to do, how you want to light it. how you want to explain your vision to the person you're photographing. you can tell them one thing, but they could see something totally different in their mind.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

So. I like telling somebody what I want to do. And sometimes I do that way before the shoot actually happens. So we collaborate before the photo shoot. I'm doing that now for celebrity. We've been talking for like two months, preparing for this shoot. That's coming up and going through ideas. And I have all these ideas in my head on how I want to shoot it. And I'm telling her my ideas, but also because she's hearing it. I'm also making visuals. So when I get to the shoot, I can show her a visual of what I want. And then also I have the visuals for my team as well. Cause it's like, there's a hair person. There's a makeup person. there's a client there. there's, an array of different people. So as photographer, you're the director and you've got to direct people into your vision and you can tell them one thing, but they can see something totally different in their mind's eye. So to have a visual is very important. So I always have visuals and I love that. And today it's easier than ever before to have visuals. I can't draw to save my life, but that's

Raymond Hatfield:

why we got into photography. Right,

Matthew Jordan Smith:

exactly, exactly. But you get some visuals. Maybe you use a, you even use a, like Pinterest and get a storyboard together and share those ideas before job to show, the idea of what you want to get, or a theme. I want the feeling that you want to get. Sometimes the idea isn't so much a picture. It's a feeling. I want this feeling of the, of this wind blowing in the hair. And I want this feeling of the makeup looking this way. And all those visuals help you bring your story together. And it helps you create your story as well.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, I

Matthew Jordan Smith:

say story, but I mean with your picture, your picture and. The accumulation of all the pictures together make a great story.

Raymond Hatfield:

Of course. It's always about

Matthew Jordan Smith:

a story.

Raymond Hatfield:

It's always about a story. I love that. That's another great quote. You're just pumping them out today. This is awesome. Um, so when it comes to visualization, it sounds like it takes quite a bit of work before you ever get somebody in front of the camera. can you kind of walk me through how the process works, and about how long it takes or now that I think about it, what is something that beginners can do to start, building, vision boards, for themselves?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

A great question. it's funny. The time part for me, I never think about because I mean, I love photography. it never seems like work, you know, 31 years. It doesn't seem like work to me. The process of going through and getting your vision. It's really just that it really needs to be your vision, not somebody else's. So what that means is you've got really get in touch with the things that you really enjoy in life, whatever it is, forget about just photography. First, think about the things that you really enjoy and then create your pictures around those things so that your pictures. I mean, think about it today. There, there are a billion people today taking pictures. What makes one person make, you know,$30,000 for a shoot. And the other person's making like, 100 for a shoot. What's the difference? They're both, people who are taking pictures, photographers, but one has a unique vision. And one doesn't. The person who has unique vision, that's who people want to hire. It's always worked that way. It always will. It doesn't matter how cameras change. And I always hear people talk about, you know, I want the best gear for sure. I'm a Nikon person and I definitely want the best gear, the best lenses, all that. But it doesn't matter how cameras change, how gear changes. It's the photographer and that person's vision, he or she, the way they see the world. Through a camera that makes it special. It will always be that way.

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow, that was those inspirations. I kind of I kind of got lost there for a moment. I was just listening to you like, yeah, this is great. I forgot that we were right here in person talking to each other. so How did you cultivate your style and how can somebody else cultivate their style?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Great question. I was, I think Austin, the very beginning, I was, I was trying so hard to find my style because I'd, I'd heard about that from other people. Oh, you gotta find your style. You gotta find your style. And you probably hear that a lot today.

Raymond Hatfield:

Um,

Matthew Jordan Smith:

if you're new, anybody hears that, Oh, you gotta find your style. And you're, you're searching for it and searching for it. And sometimes it's right there in front of you. And everybody else can see it, but you, that was my situation. I was shooting, testing all the time and I could not see it, but everybody around me is like, Oh, wow, that looks like your picture. I'm like, what does my picture look like? You know, you're so close to it. You can't see it, but everybody around you can. That's why, again, it's so important for you to really identify, even before you pick up your camera, it's good for you to identify what you really love. In life, that means you got to get out and have a life. Also, you can't just be stuck behind your computer. You got to get out and enjoy life. Find out what you love. Find out what you don't like. And then shoot the things that make you feel good or make you feel important. Sometimes, uh, it's not about things that you love. It could be things that you care about. I mean, there's so much going on. I live in Japan right now. but I'm still keenly aware of what's happening around the world. What's happening back home in America. And people feel a lot of different ways about this stuff. If you are a photographer, you've got a voice, show the world how you feel. What am I? Favorite photographers. does that every single month he takes the pages of one of the top fashion magazines in the world and turns it into his, his own personal, uh, diary of how he feels about everything that's happening in current events. And I absolutely love it.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, wow. That sounds really, uh, really unique for sure. So what it sounds like is that You have to have some sort of, level of self awareness. And then on top of that, lots of practice, you talked about always being in the studio, testing, working with models, working with lighting. That's always something that I get from beginners. So definitely it's style and. How to light. Those are the two things that I hear most from beginners. So I think that you just talked about finding your style enough, right? there's no right answer. It really depends on who you are as a person trying to find that. Very true. So now let's talk a little bit about lighting. You are an educator, like I mentioned at the beginning, and you have an amazing course. On CreativeLive, all about lighting and how to discover your lighting styles and using different lighting styles. Um, so when it comes to beginners, they're usually very scared of lighting. And I want to know why you think that is and what's something that a beginner can do to get started lighting. It

Matthew Jordan Smith:

is intimidating at first. It was for me. It was so intimidating for me at first. I almost gave up on using lights.

Raymond Hatfield:

You

Matthew Jordan Smith:

know, I went to art school in, as being a student in photography back then, I was learning what everybody else was learning, you know, how to use a soft box, how to use an umbrella. And I wasn't happy with what I was seeing. Cause it looked like everybody else's portraits to me. but then I got to New York city. And I started working as a photo assistant to like major fashion photographers and commercial photographers. And it was a totally different world. And the things that I was so intimidated about before I was now learning how to use. So if you're brand new into photography, brand new into lighting, I know it feels scary because if you work with natural light, you take a picture. You see it and it looks exactly the way you see it in reality or close to it. And then you try to use a artificial light, a strobe light, or another type of artificial light, and it looks very different. And that's because you have to learn how to see the way your camera sees. It's very different. You know, our eyes are amazing. We can, we can see in the shadows and the highlights and we can see both of them together, but your camera can't see that that way yet. That might change one day, who knows, but right now it can't. so you got to train your eye to see the same way the camera sees and that takes practice. And whenever I'm talking about light to people and learning how to see light, I tell them first to study the sun, become aware of light because that's very hard for you at first. we see light every day, of course. To really see it, you've got to study light. That means, you know, you're, you're aware of when you're, in a backlight situation or your front light or the light's not attractive, or if it's really attractive, what makes it look that way? Be aware of sunlight and how it changes throughout the day. We're here now, you know, in winter, so the sun's not up that high and it looks a certain way. In the summer, it looks very different. That may sound weird until you become aware of light. So just start looking at the sun and looking at your friends or walking down the street every day, being aware of light every day, study movies, go to museums. I mean, cause I do this all the time. I'm always in a movie and, My wife is always like mad because I'm always talking about, Oh, the light in this scene, the light in that scene. And because that's, I mean, it's everything like learning how to light is exactly what gave me a career. The reason why that first editor, loved my work and gave me a job right away was because of my lighting skill. And a lot of my jobs happen that way. And people even still today say like, Oh, I love your light. I love your light. I had to learn how to light. And then everything started happening. I never would have worked with celebrities or done high end clients unless I learned how to use light, because that's what pulled people in to my work.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes. Wow. So, obviously practice is a big part of that. We got to practice. But, is there one thing, obviously you work with beginners when it comes to lighting, where should they get started? I want to say once they, have learned how to see the light, like the sun, but that's very hard. That's obviously, it's much harder than people think. The way it sounds, it sounds very easy. Yeah, I see the sun, I can see the light, that makes sense. It's much harder than that. But, let's say that they are excited to get started. A flash and a trigger. what's one piece of info that you can give that will really maybe set their photo, start to set their photos apart from everybody else's

Matthew Jordan Smith:

great question of learn to use, say, if you get a, manual flash to put on your camera, a speed light. Learn to use it on manual, learn to use it on manual, learn to use your camera on manual where the camera is not doing anything for you, where the strobes are doing anything for you. I know that sounds hard and maybe it is a little bit, but that's how you learn. also I think that. One thing that intimidates people about, you know, using strobes is they see all these numbers and dials and like figuring out Well, what does this mean? What does that mean equation? You know, what's what's three point two? What's one one two fifth of a second mean? What are these things and it feels like it's you know impossible to learn But it's not, it's actually very, very simple when you break it down to like the, the most common basic, parts of, of lighting and learning how to see light, it's actually very, very simple. We make it complicated, but it's not learn how to even like, say, if you don't have a light at all right now, you can go and use, take a picture with a simple life that you have at home. Just

Raymond Hatfield:

like a lamp or something, just a lamp.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Start with a lamp. You can take a picture with a lamp. So experimenting with that and see what that does. Use it in different ways. Take the, the lab off, take it light down, play around with the lab. As many ways as you can find 10 different ways. You can take a picture with that lamp and make the light look different. It gets you in the ballpark into looking at light, into seeing light and discovering all the different things you can do.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, You're a very compelling teacher. I have to say that you're very I just love

Matthew Jordan Smith:

photography. I could talk about this all day long. And that's it. I've been very

Raymond Hatfield:

blessed. can hear it in your voice. How excited that you get. And, It's very fun to talk to you. And I'm very, very grateful that we've had this time together, but I really want to be mindful of your time. I know that you're very busy. can you let the listeners know where they can find out more about you and, follow you online?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Oh, yeah, well definitely on on instagram for sure i'm at matthew jordan smith. That's matthew with two t's not michael matthew with two t's Matthew jordan smith on instagram. Also my website is matthewjordansmith. com all over online for sure. So, uh, find me there. I'm always giving uh, webinars constantly as a matter of fact, So yeah, yeah, I'm everywhere.

Raymond Hatfield:

When I first emailed you, I emailed you because of your podcast. I listened to it and it was, this is a wonderful bit of information. And you mentioned that you were bringing it back. is that still the plan?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

It is actually, it started back, the beginning of the year. So, um, so it comes out every Wednesday on, it's Master Your Lens podcast comes out every Wednesday and, the goal is to have it out every week of this year. I started, I was off like a year. I did a lot of traveling last year and didn't, and, uh, that the podcast go for, for a year. I also moved from the States to Japan. So in that process, so there's a lot going on in that year. So this is a reason. Yeah. Yeah. I've been here a year.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh my goodness. Oh, I have

Matthew Jordan Smith:

been in Japan for a year.

Raymond Hatfield:

you still pursuing like, photographic adventures there in Japan?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Absolutely. Not just in Japan, but in Asia period. I've got a pretty strong, uh, a client base in the States and I fly back to the States like once a month to shoot. Um, I'm came, has came back to like two weeks ago and I'm going back in two weeks again for another assignment.

Raymond Hatfield:

now this is kind of a personal question. This probably might not even be in the podcast, but so are you like essentially starting over there in Japan and now you're, uh, are you building up that client base? are you just known over there now?

Matthew Jordan Smith:

I am absolutely starting all over again, which is scary, right? To start your career all over again in some ways, of course, I have advantages because of, you know, of the clients that I shoot and that opens doors, anywhere in the world. I've always loved a challenge. I've always wanted to live in Japan. I mean, I came to Japan for the first time to visit in 1999. Crazy, right? And I fell in love with Japan and all I said, Oh yeah, I want to live there one day. And then it hit me. What being one day today's life is short. Go where you want to go and make it happen. And that's what happens. It's so weird, you know, because I moved here and nothing changed. I worked just as much as I did back in the States. in some ways I work more clients want you more when you're not available sometimes, because, you know, it's this cachet of you being, oh, you know. In Asia and I fly back to shoot for them. So they feel even more special. So it's been an advantage actually.

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow. I'm definitely going to leave that in the podcast. Now that is, that's a great little piece of life information for sure. Oh, well, Matthew, I, I, I really appreciate it. I've held you for way too long. really appreciate you coming on and sharing everything that you did. Thank you. And, I really look forward to keeping up with you in the future and seeing your new endeavors in Japan. So again, thank you so much for coming on.

Matthew Jordan Smith:

Thank you. Thank you, man. Pleasure,

Raymond Hatfield:

Come join more than 6, 000 fellow listeners of the podcast over in the free and amazing beginner photography podcast community to learn and grow your skills. So head over to beginnerphotopod. com forward slash group now. And thanks again for tuning into today's episode. Until next week, remember that the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon.