Blog - Page 6 of 35 - Equal Motion

Dec 09

by matthew in Landscapes, News, Seattle 0 comments

Sun and Snow in Seattle

It has not snowed before Christmas in Seattle for at least a few years. That changed this week. It clear and cold for a few days and you could see the snow in the mountains piling up. And then it finally snowed. Twice actually. Once where it stuck around for about 2 hours and then disappeared. Then it snowed again where it stuck around over night and then started to rain in the morning. Kids ride bikes in the snow, built snowmen in the park, and naturally there were several car accidents on the hills of Capitol Hill. Luckily, it started to melt before the Friday morning commute.

Dec 08

by matthew in Landscapes, News, Seattle, Video 0 comments

The Seattle Skyline in the Fog

The Seattle skyline covered in a low-lying fog is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The Space Needle and buildings poking out of the clouds always makes for a good photo. With that being said I managed to capture the fog flying back from Texas. I was on an Alaskan Airlines flight, in coach, capturing photos through double airplane windows. I didn’t think that I would get a better photo than the one of Mount Rainier above, but I was wrong. When we started to get over Seattle I saw fog in the distance. When we started our descent I took as many photos as I could because shooting through the double-glass airplane windows is not the best. It could have been better, but I like how a few of them turned out. A few weeks later the fog returned. I woke early to take the dog out right after sunrise and saw fog wrapped around the Space Needle. I ran back to my apartment and to my photo spot on Capitol Hill to capture a few more photos. It was so good I decided to leave my camera running for a time-lapse. I ended up editing […]

Oct 27

by matthew in Action, Magazine Clips 0 comments

Seattle skate and Giants Head Photos in Concrete Wave Magazine

When I got back from Greece this week I had a new issue of Concrete Wave in my mailbox. I opened up the new skateboard magazine and saw one of my photos from Giants Head on the table of contents page. For the first time ever in a magazine, there was also a photo of myself skateboarding. This photo ran in the “Tourist Trapped” section and editor Michael Brooke contacted me to see if I had any photos of skateboarding around landmarks in Seattle. I just so happened to have this photo of me doing a boneless at the Seattle Center captured by Seattle photographer Blake Gillies. , I never thought I would get a photo of me skateboarding in a magazine. As a kid I had pages of skate and surf magazine all over my wall growing up, and I never thought I would be one of those people later on in life. Overall it was a pretty cool experience to say the very least.

Oct 04

by matthew in Landscapes, News 0 comments

Sleeklens Landscape Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets Review

I was recently approached by Sleeklens to try out their Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets to give an honest review. I don’t use actions and presets very often since I tend to do my own editing, but I have used Mastin Labs presets and Greater Than Gatsby actions in the past for wedding and portraits to achieve a certain look clients were asking for. Sleeklens seemed to offer actions that I would use on a regular basis with my landscape, cityscape and time-lapse videos. This is the first time I have ever tried any Photoshop actions for landscape photography though, so I was excited to test out what Sleeklens offers. The Install was a cake walk and so was the basic run through of the possibilites that were outlined in the video (how to install and how to use). My first image I decided to edit was a photo from Kerry Park in Seattle, Washington featuring the Space Needle. I decided to tryout the Sleeklens Landscape Adventure Actions first using Photoshop CC. Original Sleeklens Edit The actions I used helped with the exposure and contrast of the image and it was an improvement over the original and had nearly the […]

Sep 29

by matthew in Seattle 0 comments

Seattle Nights Time-lapse Video

I always wanted to wander Seattle at night capturing time-lapse videos of certain buildings and streets. Well, I finally took the time to do that and captured a few night scenes and I plan on working on more as I get time. For this time-lapse I captured photos of Kerry Park, Pike Place Market, the Great Wheel on the waterfront, the Seattle Central Museum and numerous spots around Seattle that had some decent movement. If you are looking for time-lapses to use in your project feel free to contact me at! Prints are available along with commercial licensing for all of my photos. You can purchase prints of my photos, cell phone cases, t-shirts, bags and even shower curtains on my Pixels.com account here: http://pixels.com/profiles/matt-mcdonald.html Also, make sure to follow along on: Instagram Twitter Facebook Tumblr

Sep 24

by matthew in News, Portraits, Seattle 0 comments

Revitlaizing Seattle with SG3 Strategies

The Seattle Waterfront is getting revitalized and SG3 Strategies has a huge role in the project. We recently worked with them to capture some unique images for their website and marketing efforts. We always love working with Seattle business owners and entrepreneurs to help to tell their story. Here’s just a few of the photos we captured for John and Scott of SG3 Strategies. ✓Captured portraits of the clients ✓Took photos of the unique imagery of Seattle for their website ✓Created images that were centered around water to be used in marketing material ✓Captured photos of the two SG3 work sites currently in process ✓Created general stock photos for web use Those are just some of the photos we captured for SG3 Strategies and we are excited to continue to document their projects and the evolution of the Seattle infrastructure.

Sep 09

by matthew in Action, Travels 0 comments

The Washington Coast: Surf trip to Neah Bay

My longtime friend Ben is moving back to the East Coast next week. I have known Ben since high school and he was also my roommate in college. Ben, and his dad Jeff, are both longtime surfers and I have been lucky to go on surf trips with both of them over the years. Yesterday Ben, Jeff and myself made the trip out to the Washington peninsula for a surf session. The surf was nothing special, but the company and time away from a computer was. Jeff is nearly 70-years old and surfs better than most people in Washington. Surfing keeps the mind and body young. He grew up in Southern California and started surfing in 1959 and has always had amazing stories to share about surf culture in California. He also was one of the first people surfing the coast in Washington state and may have discovered most of the main spots people surf today. The morning started out cold and foggy, but there were moments of sun breaks along the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Once we got to Hobuck in Neah Bay we drove back and forth watching waves and debating where we should paddle out. After […]

Sep 09

by matthew in Animals, News, Video 0 comments

Pet Halloween Costumes Video

I was recently contacted by Petco to help with their Halloween social media campaign. They wanted me to create a video about shopping for pet Halloween costumes at their stores. The kicker is I had to also be in the video and have a complimentary costume to my dog. Watch the video of Charlie being a shark and myself being a kooky bodyboarder aka shark bait. Although it was somewhat embarrassing to film myself it was a fun project and something I have not created before. In fact, I really enjoyed it and would love to make more videos like this in the future of the opportunities arise.

Aug 31

by matthew in Action, Video 0 comments

DB Longboards Mountain Run Video

For the past two years I have been working for DB Longboards and DB Skimboards. The job entailed long hours, lots of traveling, little sleep and a few injuries along the way. I got to live out some childhood dreams of working in the action sports industry and work with some amazing people along the way. It was all worth it though including when I get to release a video like this: For this video, we spent two days filming outside of Seattle. During the first day I was actually passing a kidney stone. Since the shoot was planned I decided to just deal with the pain and work on the project. The second day of filming I worked with Michael Dyrland, of DP Drones, to get the aerial footage we wanted along with some additional b-roll shots like the macro flower and sun fly by shots I captured. All in all I think this is my best work as an action sports videographer. It was a great experiment to try and make something different with a longboard video while also creating something the core longboard market would enjoy. I still plan on being involved with the action sports industry, […]

Aug 31

by matthew in Music 0 comments

Q Nightclub photos

Jason Woo contacted me about filling in for him at Q Nightclub in Seattle for a night. It has been a very, very long time since I have been in a night club or captured photos inside of one. Overall, it was fun to get out of my comfort zone again and test out some new diffusors I recently acquired. The music and vibe of Q was actually really fun and if you are trying to go our and dance the night away it is the first place you should go in Capitol Hill. Here’s a few of my photos and you can see them all on Q’s Facebook page.