Matt Nicolosi Photographic Art

Rain!

WHO: Me | WHAT: Random | WHEN: September 1, 2010 | WHERE: In the bushes

Finally, some agua from above. The monthly water bill has been begging for a reprieve, and if we don't get a little more rain, I may sneak over to the neighbor's house in teh wee hours of the morning and hook our soaker houses and sprinklers up their outdoor water spickets.

Down Time

WHO: Me | WHAT: Personal, Random | WHEN: August 30, 2010 | WHERE: On R&R

I took a picture of some grass in the front yard tonight because, well, looking at this blog for the last couple weeks has been a lot like watching grass grow. Not a lot happening. Each year summer is one of my down times where I don't schedule photography sessions because, let's face it... 103 degrees and smiley, happy clients just don't go together. Or maybe it's that 103 degrees and me don't go together. Either way, I've been enjoying my R&R in the AC... maybe a little too much.

As much as I love being connected with technology - so much so that I'm contemplating whether I have an addiction - the last few weeks have been a little less stressful and I've actually felt refreshed and enjoying the actual face to face time with Kylie and friends. Imagine... spending time with real people. Crazy, I know. And for a few days, I've been reminded what life was like before photography and before I was brain washed into believing that I had to be blogging, facebooking, flickr'ing, RSS'ing, photography foruming, tweeting, or just plain internet'ing every 5 minutes or I'd be missing out on something. And on more than one occasion, I've been tempted to go back to that life. But alas, the fstops have been calling my name, and I'm excited about the upcoming busy fall client season. I've made a few behind-the-scenes changes, though, that will hopefully help me take on more clients but get more of my life back in the normally-crazy next few months leading up to the holidays.

I've got a couple sessions to post after clients come in to view the images first, so in the mean time here's a bit of randomeness from the last couple weeks.

On the automotive front, we finally decided it was time to trade in Sophie, Kylie's 1998 Saturn SC1, for a new set of wheels. Searching for a replacement ride was a bit of an 'adventure' with Kylie and I. She's more into the practical side of cars and as long as it gets her from point A to point B and gets reasonable gas mileage, she's good. Me? If I'm going to be going from point A to point B a lot, I want to enjoy the ride. And while reliability and practicality are also on my list, they're a little further down below the really important things... you know, like the sound of the doors closing, the feel of the turn signal knob, the sound of the horn, the look of the dashboard, etc. And for the love of Pete, the car has to have an arm rest in-between the driver and front passenger seats. Sophie didn't have this, and I can't even count how many times Kylie just rolled her eyes at me every time I completely dramatized the re-enactment of me demonstrating to her how I nearly fell into the passenger seat every time I drove her car because couldn't put my right elbow on an arm rest.

But while I admit I appreciate good design and am willing to pay a little more for it, I'm not willing to go into debt for it. So, we bought another '07 car, this time an Infiniti G35... and I'm loving it. After a LOT of looking around and doing some homework, we traded this...

for this...

Mayb the most amazing part about the whole process is that after we finally bought the G35 on Thursday, I listed Sophie for sale on Craig's List around 11:30am Saturday, and by 3:30pm that same day we had sold the car and had cash in hand. That still blows my mind. 4 hours! Thank you Craig, whoever and wherever you are.

And on other random fronts, I went to the dentist last December and had some medical Flexible Spending Account money l had to use before the end of the year or I lost it. So, I went to my dentist and told her I needed a bite guard because I was concerned about grinding my teeth. Long story short, I called and went in on December 30th and told her I was in a rush to get this before the end of the year, so I paid for it that day but didn't bother going in to pick it up until April of this year. And after using it for about a whole 5 days, Mia got ahold of it and decided to us it as a $400 chew toy. End of bite guard. It wasn't a total loss, though... I still have my wicked cool molds that I can put out as decorations to greet guests with a smile. Although... it looks a little disturbing and kinda like I have 3 week old Fruity Pebble bits stuck in my gums. Zoinks. Oh well, cheeeeeeeeeese!

Baby Emily [sneak peek]

WHO: Emily | WHAT: Babies | WHEN: August 20, 2010 | WHERE: Murphy, TX

Emily had a rough start in her first few weeks, but she's doing much better now and we were finally able to schedule a session to capture a few sweet images. Such a precious little girl! More to come of this sweetie.

Things I Think Rock ~ Buckeyes, Smoothies & Tervis Tumblers

WHO: Me & The Goods | WHAT: Things That Rock | WHEN: August 8, 2010 | WHERE: Dining Room Table

With the new site being launched, I've got a little more free time on my hands now, so I thought I'd start a little segment called "Things I Think Rock". These posts will be related to photography things (artists I enjoy, equipment/gadgets I dig, killer services/solutions, etc.) and non-photography things that I think, well, rock.

Really I was just hanging out in the kitchen yesterday makin' myself a smoothie when the perfect trifecta serendipitously melded into a single, glorious object of awesomenicity right in front of my eyes... that's when I knew there was no better time to start this new segment. I mean, c'mon, a 3-for-1 in the first episode? Seriously? It was meant to be.

And so, in this inaugural Things I Think Rock post, I give you Ohio State, smoothies, and Tervis Tumblers. It's a lot to take in, I know. Take a second to wrap your head around those 3 crazy three things. There you go. Are we ready to move on with the rest of this post now? Good.

The first thing on my list today is Ohio State. I won't take much time to cover this because anyone that's been following the blog for very long knows I think Ohio State is the 9th Wonder of the World. There's a lot of worthy competitors battling it out for the 8th spot, so I skipped that one altogether and went for the 9th. Genius, I know... arguably only an OSU alumni would've thought of such a strategy.

Having graduated from Ohio State, some may call me biased. To those people I say get your own Things You Think Rock segment. A Buckeye I will be until my time is up on this earth... no matter how many times we go to the college football national championship game only to get pummeled by [insert any SEC team here]. Some say that's embarassing. I say I'd rather they keep making it to the championship and losing then never making it there at all. Just ask the 1990's Buffalo Bills. Who's with me?

In all seriousness (if I can muster any), being a member of the Buckeye family is a pretty cool gig. It's amazing that I can be literally anywhere in the world (it's happened in China and Europe) and when I say "O-H!" to another stranger wearing Buckeye paraphernalia, if they're true Buckeye alumni or fans, I get an "I-O!" shout out in return. Guess I'm glad I didn't go to Mississippi State or some other univerity with a long name I can only sometimes spell. Can you imagine? "M-I-S-S-I!"... "S-S-I-P-P-I!" Ridiculous.

Next up is the smoothie. There's not a lot of things I'm good at making in the kitchen, but I make a pretty mean smoothie if I do say so myself. And there's nothing better than a sweet, fruity, mostly-good-for-you, semi-frozen smoothie treat on a hot summer day... unless I'm near that snow cone place down the street; that's pretty good, too. I digress, though. What's my recipe, you ask? Here's my favorite concoction:

1 handful frozen strawberries
1 handful frozen raspberry/blackberry/blueberry mixture
1 6oz container of raspberry pomegranate yogurt
1 half of a banana
1 cup (maybe a little more) apple juice.

Pay attention, here's the tricky part. Slap it all together in the blender, crank it on high, and in about 2 minutes you'll have heaven in a cup. You can thank me later.

And finally, the 3rd spot in this segment of Things I Think Rock is occupied by the Tervis Tumbler. The next time someone asks me that pie in the sky question about "If you could have dinner with any one person in the world, dead or alive, who would you choose?", I'm not wasting my answer on the usual supspects like Abe Lincoln, Elvis Presley, Michael Jordan or Fabio. I'm pushing the boundaries and choosing 2 people - Frank Cotter and G Howlett Davis, the 2 guys who invented these molded plastic miracles that keep your cold drinks colder (and no glass sweating!) and your hot drinks hotter. BTW, if you're wondering how they came up with the name "Tervis Tumbler", they combined the last 3 letters of their last names. Now go on out and claim a Trivial Pursuit pie wedge with your new piece of knowledge. Again, you can thank me later.

Kylie and i have recently started running out of room in the cupboard that holds the glasses in the kitchen as we've recently been building quite the collection of "M", "K", Colts and Buckeyes tumblers. If you ever stop by the house, especially if you're bearing gifts, we'll treat you to the Tervis experience.

The New Site is Live!

WHAT: News | WHEN: August 7, 2010

I first contacted Brock and Dave at Infinet Design over a year ago about wanting to combine my blog and my outdated website into a single site to make it easier for people to find everything they needed in one place. And to be honest, I wanted to simplify my own life by having only one sight to maintain because, let's face it, my previous site was basically orphaned for the better part of 18 months.

Fast forward a little over a year, and after all the planning, designing, redesigning (due to me changing my mind), testing and tweaking, this new site has finally been breathed to life just in time for the upcoming fall photography season. It's really gratifying when you see something you've spent so much time on finally take flight, and it's even more gratifying that I don't have to worry about getting this done anymore... or at least for another two years or so.

Many, many thanks go out to Brock and Dave for all their assistance. They took my ideas and made them magically appear on the web in spite of my constant iteration cycles and seemingly endless modifications. They are truly consumate professionals and the epitomy of customer service. They always come in ahead of due dates, and there's never been a case for me where I haven't had my questions answered the same day (or early the next day if I emailed them late at night). As busy as they are, I felt like their only customer, and I couldn't ask for more. Thanks again, gents!

So, take a look around and check out the new digs. The updated branding is more in line with the type of feel I hope reflects the work I create. There's a couple new fun bells and whistles including the image voting which feeds into a "Viewer Favorites" gallery and a dedicated "For Photographers" section I'll add more resources, tips, tutorials, and other photographer goodness to over time. And if you're a future or past client, check out the "Details" section to find answers to questions you may have or to get a better picture (pun only sort of intended) of what you can expect from a custom photography experience with me. As I continue to add information to this section, over time it will become you're one stop shop for almost anything you would want or need to know.

Welcome to the new site. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you visit often for the latest in what's new!

BTW, I know every post is better with a photo, but an image of the new site seemed, well, redundant, since you're already here.