Seattle Photography by Matt McDonald
Jul 30
by matthew in Action, Video 0 comments

Skate, Skim and Fun: Summer in West Seattle

West Seattle is full of activities and Alki Beach is the source for all things fun in the area. Thanks to the 2.5 mile board walk that runs from Alki Point to the Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay accompanied by spectacular views it is a local favorite. Picture perfect summer days bring people out and make parking hard to find. You can walk, bike, rollerblade, play volleyball, search the beach for treasures, sunbathe, search for Pokemon or if you are like me skateboard and skimboard. Recently, I ventured out to West Seattle with DB Longboards team rider Spencer Smith to bring an idea we had to life. We wanted to feature downhill longboarding, cruising and skimboarding in one video. So, we started off with Spencer bombing a hill, then switched to a cruiser to head to the beach and finally ended near Anchor Point for a skimboard session on a custom DB Skimboard. This edit was a lot of fun to storyboard and shoot. You can checkout the final product below. A lot of credit has to go to Spencer for this video since he is one of the best downhill longboarders in the world, has great style while cruising […]
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Jul 16
by matthew in Animals 0 comments tags: best friend, charlie, puppy

My best friend Charlie

Over three years ago I stumbled across a dog labeled as a corgi/lab mix named Charlie on Petfinder.com. I contacted the adoption service and scheduled a time to meet the dog. When I arrived to meet the dog at the adoption agency Charlie ran over to me and jumped up on my leg. We have been best friends ever since. One of the best parts of having a dog is always having someone to explore with and go on adventures. Charlie loves the beach, going on runs and cruising on a skateboard with me. Here are some recent photos I captured with Charlie.   Skimboarding Charlie and I skimboarding at Richmond Beach outside of Seattle. This photo was a fun one to capture and I used a remote trigger to capture the photo of Charlie and myself. This photo is still the most popular photo ever posted on the DB Skimboards Instagram account. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Charlie. Once again proving people love dogs!   Watching the sunrise My girlfriend Alyne and dog Charlie taking in a San Juan Island sunrise. Whenever I travel this photo is always the background on my […]
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Jul 01
by matthew in Action, News, Video 0 comments

Summer Skimboard Media for DB Skimboards

During summer 2015 I set out on a mission to spread the stoke of flatland skimboarding for DB Skimboards a company based in Tacoma, Washington. My main goal was to create engaging content to delight current customers and help introduce new outdoor enthusiasts to the sport of flatland skimboarding. I am excited to say that not only has traffic been up at DBskimboards.com, so has sales at the local company. My first approach to expanding the reach of the business is creating a series of road trip videos. I traveled with a crew of skimboarders for two weeks through Washington, Utah and California. It was great to get out on the open road and see parts of the country I have not seen before. It was also great to indulge in some In-N-Out Burger along the way. I have to say it was exhausting, but it generated quite a bit of interest. You can watch the three Travels and Wanderings videos I created below. Some of the highlights were skimboarders launching themselves off of a 10 foot waterfall in Utah, skimboarding by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the quarter pipe in Washington at Chambers Creek. Travels and […]
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Jun 15
by matthew in Action, Video 0 comments tags: longboarding, seattle, skateboarding

Spring Skateboard Media

Spring has been very busy trying to create media and marketing campaigns for new products for DB Longboards and Cloud Ride Wheels. Here’s three of my favorite recent skate videos I have created over the past couple months. CoreFlex Compound Spring Maryhill Freeride Cloud Ride Wheels Slusheez In between all of this media production and long work days I have actually been skateboarding more, which has been a huge stress reliever although it does take a toll on my body at 34-years old. Capturing marketing media has been a huge shift from being a photojournalist and web developer, but I am really enjoying it. I have learned so much about how to create more engaging and useful media and how to properly track, analyze and and repurpose it. I am excited for what opportunities might be next!
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May 30
by matthew in Action, Animals, Landscapes, News, Seattle 0 comments tags: long exposure, seattle, skateboarding, space needle

Seattle Photography: Space Needles, snails and skateboarding

I spent a lot of time during the month of May shooting skateboarding and a wedding and I didn’t have that much time to explore Seattle and capture city and landscape photos, which I love doing. I did manage to get out a few days and here’s a few of my favorite photos from the month of May. An evening at Gas Works Park I drove around Fremont looking for some new photos of the Aurora Bridge and didn’t see anything I liked due to the construction on the bridge. With light disappearing for the day I decided to dash over to Gas Works Park and managed to get two kinda cool photos of a sail boat and the city. What made one of the photos unique was the sun reflecting off of the buildings in downtown hitting the sail of the boat and creating a shadow of the sail. The Space Needle The Space Needle is always around me and I can’t resit capturing photos of it. If there are shoes hanging in front of it, a plane flying by it, a flag on it or just a beautiful sunset more often than not I am going to capture […]
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May 29
by matthew in News, Portraits 0 comments

Becky and Ton’y Wedding at Leifer Manor in Marysville

I had the pleasure of capturing Becky and Tony Spencer’s wedding at Leifer Manor in Marysville, Washington a week ago. It was a beautiful ceremony and setting for a wedding and luckily the rain stayed away for the wedding day. Here are some of my favorite photos from the big day. You can checkout more of my wedding photos by clicking here. I do shoot two weddings a year and am booked for 2016, but if you would like to me to shoot your wedding in 2017 I still have one spot open and feel free to contact me at matt@equalmotion.com. If you are looking for portraits or a wedding photographer feel free to contact me at matt@equalmotion.com If you are looking to purchase prints of my photos, cell phone cases, t-shirts, bags and even shower curtains on my FineArtAmerica account here: Fine Art America Prints Follow along on: Instagram Twitter Facebook Tumblr
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Apr 25
by matthew in Action 0 comments

2016 Maryhill Ratz Freeride Photos

I spent last weekend out at the Maryhill Ratz Spring Freeride near Goldendale, Washington thanks to DB Longboads. To say the very least it was a damn good time. I captured over 200 GBs of video, but also managed to capture some photos throughout the course of the weekend. These were my favorite photos I have gone through thus far. Feel free to repost the photos just make sure to give photo credit! My Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are all @equalmotion, so a simple (Photo by @equalmotion) is all I ask. If you do not see a photo of you I can always try and track one down and feel free to email me at matt@equalmotion.com. Also, if you are looking for a photo without a watermark or commercial use feel free to email me. Last, but not least, thanks to DB Longboards for sending me to the contest! My Maryhill Spring Freeride Edit for DB Longboards featuring DB team riders Devon Dotson, Spencer Smith and Jonny Yardwaste:
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Apr 19
by matthew in Action, Video 0 comments

Cloud Ride Wheels Slusheez Video

I have been filming with Cloud Ride Wheels team rider Devon Dotson quite a bit the last month and we finally got to release our first edit featuring the Cloud Ride Slusheez. Checkout the edit below and be on the lookout for the next edit. WATCH THE VIDEO: More information: Cloud Ride Wheels team rider Devon Dotson put the new Slusheez to work! The Slusheez are a skateboard wheel that every longboarder needs to try and own! These new 62mm / 78 skateboard wheels are a thaney and slidey freeride wheel perfect banging out those long stand-ups you’ve been longing for. We rounded the lips and stoneground these puppies to make the first few slides even sweeter. Using our magical “Slush” thane we melted the ice to give you a wheel that slides effortlessly but also knows when to dump some thane. [LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SLUSHEEZ] Follow Footage by Jackson Wells and Max Hughes Music by Tribe Called Quest
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Apr 10
by matthew in Animals, Seattle 0 comments

Bald Eagles on Alki Beach in West Seattle

Yesterday I made the trip out to West Seattle to skimboard with some of the guys at DB Skimboards and capture some photos. Part way through the skimboard session I saw two eagles snacking on something along the tide line. I snagged my 70-200mm lens and and waited for something to happen. Kayakers would stop by and take photos of the pair of eagles. One of the Eagles flew away, so I went back up to the boardwalk and walked around to the other side of the eagle in an attempt to get the Space Needle in frame also. I waited in the sand focused on the eagle for about 25 minutes until it finally took off. The wait was worth it and you can see a couple of my favorite photos below. Thanks to King 5 News for featuring my photos also in a gallery HERE Kiro 7 News (I used to be an intern there) for doing a gallery also HERE and LiveWashington on Instagram. This is a great example of being in the right place at the right time and I love bald eagles, the Space Needle and ferries, so I am really happy I had the […]
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Mar 27
by matthew in Action 0 comments

Northwest Trail Series Bridgepins Race

Another Duck Pucks NW Trail series is in the books. People traveled as far from Pennsylvania for this most excellent event (it’s true kinda). Longboards were ridden, I believe people ate cheeseburgers after and only roughly 10 bicyclist were angered by having to share the trail with skateboarders. People are more than welcome to repost these photos, but please give photo credit to @equalmotion (on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc) if you repost the photo. Here’s the top 5 riders: 1. Rain Daley 2. Devon Dotson 3. Adam Little 4. Ryan Villa Thanks to Bradley Cameron for organizing this one again. If you don’t know much about longboarding, but want to learn more about it and live in the Seattle area make sure to stop by Motion Boardshop. The friendly and knowledgeable staff will take care of you for sure. I ran out of time editing photos, so if you were racing and didn’t see one of you I can try and track one down just shoot me an email at matt@equalmotion.com If you are looking for more of my skate photos make sure to checkout DB Longboards, Cloud Ride Wheels and Atlas Trucks websites.
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