Hi everyone!
I’m a thinker, so I always have ideas. I also stink and lack the patience for the art of writing That’s why I’ve started or re-started countless journals and blogs in the past, failing to update it after a couple weeks.
However, in the half-year, Ive discovered a new passion of photography at the age of 19 years. Simply put it, I love the art of a still image. To capture a moment that doesn’t move and can be observed over time is a challenge that I get excited about. My mother told me that growing up, I always tried to do things and gave up quickly (e.g. my previous blogs), but she said recently, observing moments when I’m messing around with my camera, that she has barely ever seen so much patience in me before. I’ve gotten a great chance to travel (Minnesota, Vermont) and explore the outdoors during this summer, so it’s been very exciting.
Being able to take a picture is something pretty new in the history of civilization. However, now, pretty much everyone can take a picture of whatever they want with their smartphone. I decided I wanted to take it to the next level, so I hope to continue learning more about photography and improve in this form of art. I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks to my parents for support, my brother Tim (@timclau) for encouraging me to start this blog, Natalie for creating the calligraphy in my logo Jon for convincing me to learn how to use Adobe Lightroom, Ariel and Sam for giving me tips, Jasmine and Harry for letting me take pictures of them, and anyone who’s encouraged me!
I will show you a small snippet of the types of photos I’ve been learning to take. These are already posted on my instagram (follow me @mattlau95!). Feel free to e-mail me at mattlau95@gmail.com with critiques, questions, ideas, comments, etc. 🙂
Landscape Photography
One of my favorite things to do since college started is hiking. And after hiking more often, I’ve discovered a love for the beauty of nature. I think nature is the perfect representation of God’s power. Here are two examples of my landscape photography:
Waterfall of Duke Brook – Duke Farms, Hillsborough, New Jersey – 6/18/2015
This is the first photo where the result got me really excited about photography. It’s a simple waterfall, I took up to thirty shots of the same scene and blended them together to give the water a silky look. This can easily be done with a neutral density filter and a long exposure, but I didn’t have a ND filter at the time!
Sunrise Over Parley Lake – St Bonifacius, Minnesota – 7/11/2015
I’m using this as the background for my avatar at the top of the page right now! This sunrise culminated an all-nighter at the annual Internationals Bible Quizzing tournament at Crown College this year.
Macro Photography
In the same way how it’s easy to get excited about how large the universe is, it’s also easy to get excited about how detailed the smallest objects or creatures in the world can be. Not quite the same as microscopes in a science lab, but my macro photography focuses on capturing a lot of detail in an image of small things. Below is an example of a small bumblebee on a flower.
Bumblebee Nomming – Princeton Gardens – 7/23/2015
Animal and Action Photography
Animals can be tough to take pictures of because they run away from you (I guess animals hate me 😥 ). It takes very fast shutter speeds, zoom, and patience. Here’s a butterfly I shot at Princeton Gardens.
Butterfly – Princeton Gardens, NJ – 7/23/2015
Portrait Photography
This is the hardest one for me, because it takes interacting with people (introvert here). It’s also not really my thing because I don’t know much about modeling or telling people how to pose. Luckily, I have friends that are willing volunteer to help me learn and be a part of my photos!
Portrait at the Livingston Courtyard – Livingston Campus of Rutgers, Piscataway, New Jersey – 6/26/2015
Jasmine is a close friend of mine who loves fashion. Check her out on Instagram! @thetrendscender
Astrophotography
Lastly is Astrophotography, my favorite. I love stars. They’re so big, but so far away. Light and darkness motif. Enough said! 🙂
Astrophotography is definitely the hardest one to do well, because it takes lots of patience (long exposure) and it’s dependent on time, weather, moonlight, clouds, a lots of other factors. But it’s so beautiful to me.
Meteor from NJ – Colonial Park, Somerset, NJ – 8/12/15
This was taken during the peak of the Perseids Meteor sighting that is still technically going on as August comes to a close. I took a 5 second photo on non-stop (I had a loop function on my remote) until a meteor dashed right in the middle of the scene. Again, there’s a lot of patience that comes with this.
I hope if you’re still reading at this point, you somewhat enjoy my pictures. I definitely enjoy taking them. To kick off this blog, I’m going to try to do a daily post for the next five days. Keep a lookout!
Matthew Lau 