Well, we’re headed to Capital Hill. Not that we have a political agenda or anything, but to take some congressional portraits of California Congressman, Brian Bilbray.

We started off, by meeting up with Congressman Bilbray’s head communication’s officer, who gave us the behind the scenes tour of the Capital. The first half of our day was spent scoping the joint out, looking for promising areas to photograph the Congressman. Let me tell you, security up their, is a royal pain in the arse. We had a day filled of “you can’t stand their”, “no tripod”, “you need to move on”, “no flash allowed here”, and so on. It’s no wonder that nothing ever gets accomplished on “The Hill”, they have way to many rules to play by, not to mention, getting lost trying to get from point A to B.

Anyway, after many hours of hanging around, and our feet hurting from walking so much, we were finally able to get together with the Congressman, and take a couple of great shots of him.

Just finished up a pretty interesting black tie event shoot, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This was kid of a double header for us, as our job was to photograph the guys from OrangeLine, as they played the benefit, and then photographically document the benefit for the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Black tie events are always nice. You get all dressed up, and look your best. You walk around with your chin up, really feeling like you’re someone. Then it hits you! You realize that your working the gig. Two hours later, you’re absolutely miserable. Everyone around you is getting drunk at the open bar, while you running around with your head cut off, slow cooking in your suit, which feels like an oven at 350 degrees. But wait, it gets worse. Every time you go to take a shot (which is happening about every 30 seconds at this point), your camera strap is getting caught up in your jacket, and your tie keeps ending up in front of your front lens element.

So what do you do? You focus on those first two hours, when you really felt like you were hot stuff, wait for everyone to get drunk and really start capturing some priceless moments, and just get the job done!

Our friends from the band OrangeLine, hooked us up with a great shoot, of a benefit they were playing. It took place at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC. The gallery is truly an amazing place, with all of the old architecture and such.

This had to be, one of our most challenging shoots to date, as far as lighting was concerned. The inside of the gallery is quite large, only being lit by large pot lamps, shooting straight up the columns. Needless to say, it was pretty dark and had 50 foot ceilings, with nowhere to really bounce our flash off of. What do you do in a situation like this, you ask? Improvise! It starts with really cranking your ISO up, and opening up your aperture. We would bounce light off whatever would could find, whether it be a white concrete column, or the white shirt of some guy, that had removed his black coat and tie. Needless to say, it all worked out in the end. We were able really capture the mood and ambiance of the gallery, due to the lack of light.

What happens when two guys get together, with a combined photography experience of more than 20 years, and one of them having more than five years of graphic design experience?

You get a total package of artistic workmanship, to define “your” image!

Jeff Allen of ALLEN-ARTS and Matt Reeves of MATTHEW REEVES STUDIOS, are pleased to announce, PIXPHIX, your total imaging solution. After many months of planning and hard work, we have finally pulled together, to offer our current and future customers a complete package for all of their imaging needs. Here is just a small sample of what we are prepared to offer you.

PHOTOGRAPHY

* Wedding, Portrait, Event, Sport, Modeling, Fine Art, and just about anything else you can dream up

GRAPHIC DESIGN

* Business Cards, Logo’s, Flyer’s, Banners, and whatever else you should need to promote your business

PRINT

* Whether it’s a portrait of you or your family, business cards or banners to promote your company, posters, or fine art, we can handle of all your needs, no                  matter how big or small

We are both, very excited about this new venture. Our goal is to aggressively move forward in 2009 and the upcoming years, while supplying our clients with great ideas, and a superior product. Our sole purpose is to,

Define your Image!

Stay tuned for upcoming news and events, and brace yourself, it’s going to be one heck of a ride!

Matt & Jeff

getyourfix@pixphixpro.com