The Beginner Photography Podcast

How Self-Education Turned an Amateur into a Pro Sports Photographer with Matt Austin

• Raymond Hatfield

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#557 Matt Austin is a dedicated sports photographer whose journey from a novice to a professional has been nothing short of inspiring. Matt’s life transformed dramatically as he went from using a basic camera to shooting high-profile sports events. Initially motivated by watching a Twitch stream of a videographer he admired, Matt took the dive into photography, capturing his local youth soccer league and rapidly advancing to sports photography on a larger scale. The episode not only highlights Matt's educational journey through podcasts and self-taught practices but also underscores the creative spark that ignited his love for sports photography. 

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. Journey into Photography - Matt shares his initial exposure to photography through Twitch streams, leading to his active interest and practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. His personal story emphasizes the importance of seeking inspiration and mentorship through unconventional channels.
  2. Learning and Growth - The episode highlights the educational resources Matt utilized, such as podcasts and photography communities, to build foundational knowledge quickly. His journey reinforces the effectiveness of structured learning combined with practical application.
  3. Creative and Professional Pursuits - Discussion on blending creativity with professional sports photography showcases Matt’s unique approach to capturing emotion in action shots. His proactive nature in seeking opportunities and partnerships underscores the value of perseverance and networking.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS

  • Imposter Syndrome: A psychological pattern where individuals doubt their accomplishments and fear being exposed as a fraud. Relevant to the episode as Matt discusses overcoming this to pursue opportunities in sports photography.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. How can exploring different forms of media or content, like Twitch or podcasts, help accelerate learning in a new field?
  2. What role does community and mentorship play in overcoming imposter syndrome, particularly in creative fields?
  3. In what ways can photography be both a creative outlet and a structured, technical discipline?

RESOURCES:
Visit Matt Austin's Website - https://www.maustinphotography.com/sports
Follow Matt Austin on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/maustinphoto/

Download your free copy of
46 Creative Photo Ideas to Get You Out of a Rut
at https://creativeimageideas.com/

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Matt Austin:

You can't get lost in the comparison battle between you and another photographer that's been doing it for years. Take your time, learn the settings, learn how to shoot and what each thing does, and then you get to the point where you found your style and you're able to settle in and say, this is what I do. Everybody's going to find their own way. Don't get lost in the, well, this person's been doing it for 15 years and his pictures are so much better than mine or her pictures are so much better than mine. And I've only been shooting for three months, six months, 12 months, doesn't matter. You're still shooting. What's yours is yours. Find your style and stick with it.

Hey, hey. Welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I am your host, Raymond Hatfield, and each week I interview one of the world's most interesting photographers to learn what it really takes to capture beautiful images so that you can start to do the same. In today's rewind episode, we are chatting with community member Matt Austin, about shooting everything to find your thing. But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by Clouds Spot. With Clouds Spot. You can impress your clients with a beautiful gallery that is easy to view, share, and download on any device. Not every client gallery system can say that. With Cloud Spot, you can control image size at a watermark, and of course, download limits as well. So grab your free forever account over@deliverphotos.com and only upgrade when you are ready. Today's guest and community member, Matt Austin, is one of those people whose journey has been so incredibly fun to watch from watching him share photos of his daughter soccer game that he took with just a point and shoot camera, to now having been a staff photographer for several professional and semi-professional sports teams. Matt not only is a talented photographer, but he's somebody who takes action on the things that he learns within the beginner photography podcast community. And it has been amazing to be a part of his journey and seeing that if you set a goal, you can make it happen too. So in today's episode with Matt, you're gonna learn how to experiment to learn. No matter what camera you have, I think you'd be surprised at how capable it is when you learn what all the buttons and dials do. You're gonna learn how to build connections and ask for help, from being a part of a simple Facebook community like the Beginner Photography podcast, to asking for more direct mentorship and how to push past the imposter syndrome to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. And as I said, Matt is in our Facebook community along with thousands of other photographers just like you, looking to grow your skills. So we would love to have you come join us by heading over to beginner photo pod.com/group and hope to see inside. With that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview.

Raymond Hatfield:

You know, Matt, over the past, like two months, your life has really taken off in terms of your photography. and I feel like just in your. Relatively short time in the group. You've been in there for almost two years now. You've gone from, shooting basically everything, anything that you could get in front of the camera to now working with like multiple sports teams, being in the arena, being, front row to all of these big events. and just being able to watch you kind of take off has been real fun lately, but I want to know, cause I don't, I don't think I remember. I don't think you told me the story. Like, what was it that got you interested in photography in the first place?

Matt Austin:

So there was for years. I have, you know, obviously grown up. I grew up in Auburn fan. there's my little flag. There is the flag. Um, yeah, for those of you on the podcast, that are listening and not watching on YouTube, it's orange and blue, as it should be. and one of their video guys was he did all the basketball stuff for a while and the basketball, I guess the quality of the content was just, I mean, through the roof, it was always fantastic. There was never a bad video that came out. And there's still isn't, but he started doing a twitch stream, and it, it basically just went through his editing process and how he would go through and how he choose clips and how he shot certain clips. And I was like, man, you know, makes me want to get out and shoot, I think I had like a cool pics camera or something like that, like a little point and shoot. And I was like, This is awesome. I'm going to get out and start shooting soccer this season. This was going into COVID. I mean, literally right before everything shut down. and so we had a couple of weekends where our youth teams were playing and, I decided that I'd take my camera with me. So I, spent a couple of weekends doing that. And it was literally just. Go out, turn the camera on, hit the button, make sure you're focused on whatever, and didn't really know what I was doing. and then COVID happened and the band that I was playing in had to stop playing and everything else. And I was like, man, I gotta, find something to do. I've got to have something to do. So I was like, all right, we got this stimulus check coming. Yeah, I'm going to take it and I'm going to buy a camera. So I bought a Canon T6 and that fall. And I ended up actually turning that into, I'm going to start taking pictures of the soccer league. And, you know, I want to turn around and boost our Facebook and start us an Instagram and do all this other stuff. And all of a sudden it just took off from there. And I was doing the team photos and I was doing the high volume stuff for them and, upgraded again this past spring. And ever since then, Goes back to all of the connections that I had at Auburn University with the photographers and the videographers and literally to this day can pull up Instagram and say, Hey, I've got a question, how would you frame this or how would you go about lighting this and they will literally, I mean within 30 minutes I have a response from one of them saying, I would do it like this. and ever since then, it's just. Things have clicked, and I've, you know, no pun intended on that, but things have clicked, and I've understood, I've started to, you know, you're able to visualize shots right before it happens, and, but it all goes back to sitting at home one night and scrolling through Twitter, and Jeff Honnell's going live on Twitch, and I'm, awesome, cool, let's go watch it and just see what it's about, and, he's recently moved on to the Texas Longhorns, and Carter Gustin's moved on to the Clemson Tigers, and Shanna Lockwood, who is the photographer, has moved on to the Atlanta Falcons, and. here we are. So

Raymond Hatfield:

there's kind of a void there that needs to be filled is what it sounds like.

Matt Austin:

Well, I've already, I've already gotten the other photographers now that have taken over at Auburn and they're, you know, we're all mutual follows now on Instagram too. So

Raymond Hatfield:

that's awesome. It seems like a relatively short, timeline into photography. When you watch that Twitch, was photography any part of your life before that time? Or did you see this and you're just like, Hmm, maybe I'll give this a shot.

Matt Austin:

it was one of those, you know, it seems like it would be fun to do. I was taking pictures with my phone and, I'd go out with my daughter and we'd go to the playground and I would, use Filmic Pro on my phone and, ended up actually switching my phone over to pro mode at one point on the camera and was messing with different things. So like I've always. I've been a phonetographer for a long time. Uh, for a while I would hashtag things photographer FAUX. Um, and, you know, I mean, it's just as a joke at that point. But, looking back now in the last year, how much I've learned and how much I've actually been able to take over and, do these things. Actually having a camera has been very helpful.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. I kind of want to know like what that process was like as far as, so obviously you bought the camera because you were interested in the photography, but how quickly did that turn into, Trying to learn as much as you could because, I know some people just buy the camera thinking that the camera is going to be the answer, and then they quickly find out, Oh, wait, it's not. There's more things that either I have to learn or buy. But it seems like with you, you caught on relatively quickly to that. so I guess I'm trying to figure out like, where were you learning photography there in the beginning enough to just get you kind of to like this baseline? Does that question make sense?

Matt Austin:

Yeah, it does. and honestly, like The day I ordered my camera, the day before I had ordered my camera. So like I found this deal on eBay. It was like 330. I asked my wife how much I could spend. And she was like, well, you got to spend like 300, 350. I was like, all right, cool. So I, you know, went to searching and found this and it was the one with like all of the purple filters and all the stuff that like, you're never going to use really. I think it had like a 32 gigabyte SD card that came with it. but it was one of those things like. You know, I got the one with, it's got two, two lens that had the kit lens, had 75 to 300. and you know, the day I ordered it or the day I decided I was going to order it, I was like, all right, cool. Let me get on my podcasts and find, photography. And I think this podcast was the first one that showed up that I actually like listened to and I scrolled all the way back to episode one.

Raymond Hatfield:

Jeez. And I was like,

Matt Austin:

all right it was you and Callum and it was like, I'm All right. They're introducing themselves and kind of giving their background, I appreciate it. Cool. Next one. And that's not a knock on you guys. I promise. But like the

Raymond Hatfield:

first episodes were pretty rough. I get it. I get it.

Matt Austin:

it was when you started getting into the, the exposure triangle. And, uh, one of the things was like, well, you know, for the first month or two, I shot an aperture priority and this is what I set and this is how I, you know, so I did that. And then I started looking at the settings that would come from that. I'd look at what the shutter speed would be set at and the ISO and all that. And, you know, one day I was like, all right, I think I have enough of an understanding of it. Let's give it a shot. and I had my camera for about three or four weeks at that point. And, I had a lot of really bad, like underexposed, a lot of overexposed blown out skies and, shadows that you had to bring way up and all that kind of stuff. And then, all of a sudden it just kind of clicked and it was like, holy crap, I understand it now. it's like math or science or chemistry or, you know, any of that kind of stuff where it just like, none of it makes sense. Then all of a sudden things just, Oh, I got it. I understand it. I know what he's saying. And then, I finally reached a point where, I upgraded because that T6 wasn't going to give me what I needed in a low light environment. Like I would go out and shoot at night at the soccer fields under the lights, and try to take pictures of a practice. And I only had one lens that I could do it with. And it was the nifty 50, you know, and even at 2. 8, I was having to drop my shutter speed down to like 1 50th of a second because anything over 2000 I. S. O. Was just As noisy as could be. Looked like a TV from the 90s whenever you hit a channel that you didn't have. It was just static, basically. Um, so, I had some money come in and I was like, Alright, called my wife, I was like, I'm going to shoot, you know, we're shooting this wedding up in Michigan. I think that was this past June, it was, you know, in like March or April, and I was like, I'm gonna go buy, I've been looking at a 6D because it has the articulating screen. And simply because of that. Otherwise I would have gone with 5D, but it didn't have a mark, you know, the articulating screen. And I was wanting to do some video stuff with it and all that. I actually ended up, I called the local camera shop and I was like, Hey, do you have a 6D Mark 2? And he was like, no, we don't. And I left work. I was like, screw it. I'm going to ride in. And if they have it, they have it. And if they don't, then I've spent 15 minutes driving over here and you know, a little bit out of the way. And I walked in and he was like, Yeah, we got one. Who told you we didn't? And I was like, I don't remember. so he pulled one out of the drawer and I was like, do you guys have a battery grip? He was like, yeah, we have some in the box. He was like, I think I actually have one that's open. If you want it and it'll be about half the price of a new one. And I was like, perfect. Let's do that. and he ended up giving me a really good deal on it. Cause he'd known he, like, I had been in there for three or four months. like it was in the case and it was just like, Like, you know, like the angelic, the angelic light shines down on it. And you hear the, like the halo music and all that. and so, he had known I'd been in there looking at it, looking for one and waiting on it, waiting on it, waiting on it, waiting on it. I only got the money to get it. And, he was like, I'll do it for a grand. And I was like, bet, say less, you know, and then at that point, at that point I've got Let's see my 75 to 300 and then my nifty 50. And that was it. So we go for this wedding and had to rent, I rented a 24 to 70 and a 70 to 200. And at that point, I went and shot a three v three tournament Father's Day weekend of this year. And at that point, it was like, all right, have to figure out how I'm going to get these lenses. Now, these are the lenses that I need, not want. I need them at this point because it was really a want more than a need. But, if I get these, then I can really boost what I'm going to do. I can really, I can control my, exposure from 70 millimeters to 200 millimeters, because the 75 to 300 is a variable aperture is four to 5. 6 or four to six or something. I don't remember exactly what it is, but like, I'd have to set my ISO to auto. And then I'd get some pictures that were purple, white balance would be,

Raymond Hatfield:

they were so grainy.

Matt Austin:

Yeah. and so I got this and I mean, it just all of a sudden clicked even more. And I was like, all right, cool. awesome. Even better. and ever since then, like, I haven't really, I have not shot, like I have seniors and families and, lifestyle and weddings and all that on my website because I, I will still offer them, I'll still do them, but like the passion is I want to be behind the glass at a hockey rink. I want to be, you know, on the sidelines of a soccer game or a football game and take pictures of the action, because there's always something going on and you don't have to fake a moment, you know what I mean? There's no, there's no posing involved. And that's, one of my weakest points with all of the other kinds of all the other stuff.

Raymond Hatfield:

yeah, with sports, it seems like, you're going to get that emotion no matter what, like people are playing to win. And when there is that, Desire, I guess people are just going to naturally react. And those are the photos that you're going to get. And those are going to be awesome photos. so you shot a wedding, you got into photography for your own soccer league and the youth soccer league. I remember when I came down to Atlanta and we were talking, you had mentioned, doing, not team photos, but you did something with like some interesting lights and whatnot as well. So tell me about that and where that came from.

Matt Austin:

so that whole thing, the board, the soccer board is me and my wife and some really good friends of mine that have actually become closer friends through all of this. And, you know, it's one of those things we were like, all right, we're going to start doing that. we're going to bring this travel team back. we're going to do it. You know, COVID hit, we went from like 350 plus kids to 93 kids. we thought we had lost a lot. and then all of a sudden, spring rolled around. We had 250 kids and then fall rolled around this past season. We had 325 kids and it's just absolutely grown. But we decided, all right, we're gonna start looking at bringing back. We call it select. That's UFC blazers. We're gonna bring this back. We're going to rebrand it. We're going to give the, parents and the kids and all this, the opportunity to vote on what they want the name to be. And, you know, we ran a poll and ran a form where we took submissions and all this and actually designed the logo and all that. got on and found a uniform supplier and ordered these jerseys and, you know, we have sponsors now. And so like, now we look like a actual club, a professional club. And, even our recreation players have sponsors on the sleeves and all that. So I was like, all right, we have to showcase this. So let's do that. If we're going to do a uniform reveal, let's do a uniform reveal. And we're just going to go all out on it. so we actually ended up getting a church sanctuary. we left all of the light, we turned all the lights off, just enough that you could see coming up to where it was. And I had a, I had a key light, and then I had, you know, for playing in the band to have all these RGB lights. so I was able to actually tune them to the colors of the jersey. and then I used a flash trigger and all this stuff and you know, just played around with it until it finally felt like, all right, this is right. All right, this is exactly what we need. and just these harebrained schemes that we come up with and these crazy things that we decide to do, somehow we made it work. And ever since then, it's just like, we were told by one of the state representatives, like, We've never had a youth club do these. These look awesome. And I was like, thanks. This was a, took about a week to plan and 45 minutes to set up and figure out before we actually got the first shot. But, you know, that's the one thing that I will say is like any of these ideas that I have or anything that I would use, working for a professional sports team, doing something like that, or a college team or whatever, doing something like that is like, I have the ability now to practice with these kids. And the parents are like, yeah, man, we're all in on it. Let's do it. And then they share the pictures and then their friends share the pictures and then it gets, you know, I shared it on Twitter and tag. can I think of his name? He it's this account, you knew, watch that I follow and they retweet a bunch of stuff. And like, there was one Max Scherzer was wearing like a match. He was wearing the away match Jersey and the, home cap or something like that in the edit. And like, Uni watch retweeted it. And they were like, man, what a mistake for the editors and like all the like, but I shared it with them. And then now it's been seen by, you know, 2000 people that are nowhere near us. And, you know, it's just, it's these crazy things that we decided to do. And then all of a sudden they just take off and, you know, I'm fortunate to be able to practice and that's when I get my practice in that's all right. I'm going to try a different lighting for this. This is fully experimental and it, Somehow we make it work, you know, like I said, play around with it enough and play with the settings. All right. I know whenever I'm walking into this environment, this is what I'm shooting at.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right. Right. what was it about that reveal though, because I remember when I was talking to you, like, And just seeing you right now, like the joy in your face when you're thinking about these photos, it was like, this was so much fun. And I think at the time you said that you were still using the T6 and it was still like with like the nifty 50 or something like it wasn't even with the gear that you had today. But what was it about that experience or that shoot that solidified within you that this is really what I want to do.

Matt Austin:

It was the artistic side of it. I believe, knowing that what I'm working towards is. you know, eventual goal is to have a career as a sports photographer. and knowing that taking a job, if I'm with a team, if I'm with, knock on wood, eventually want to be with Auburn University or, you know, Atlanta or somewhere like that. So I don't have to move too far, but, if at all, but these are going to be the things that are going to be the big drivers. These are the big, you know, hey, we're rolling out new uniforms this week. we need to get pictures of it. We need to go do it, you know, go shoot a quick video of it. and 90 percent of the people on that Twitch stream, that's what they did. That was, you know, Clay, it was Clemson's videographer. It was Texas videographer. It was Oregon's videographer. It was, you know, all these colleges and 90 percent of what they're doing is uniform reveals. so it's one of those things I knew that I had to have in my back pocket if I wanted to actually do this and actually make it. Something, but the artistic side of it and the creative side of it and getting to have fun and like, I mean, that's really what it is, man. That whole thing was just fun to do. It was an experience. It was kind of a headache, but at the end of the day, when I saw the, final product, I was like, yes, yes, yes, this is it. and you know, all of that was shot. It was shot on my 60 with the nifty 50. I didn't have a 24 to 70 or 70 to 200 at that point. I had a 50 millimeter 1. 8 lens because that was the best lens that I had at that time.

Raymond Hatfield:

So after you do that, and then we have a conversation, you're like, you're right. Sports photography is definitely the thing that I want to pursue. That's it's like I came home from Atlanta and then immediately, like, that's exactly what happened. Started getting messages like, Hey, I started putting in, my resume for this place or this school, or, this club. Like, where does this come from? After talking to a lot of other photographers in the group, there's this overwhelming feeling of imposter syndrome, people who are like, I've only been shooting for three years, you know, am I ready to take on a wedding? And here you are, you're like, I'm going for it. I'm going for it. Whatever it is, if I want it, I'm going for it. Where does that come from?

Matt Austin:

I mean, let's not get twisted here. I've only been shooting for two years, like not even two years. I still have, you know, imposter syndrome is not something that just goes away. But, um, you still

Raymond Hatfield:

applied and then you got it.

Matt Austin:

Right. Well, I mean, it's like, it's one of those things. I don't even remember applying for applying for half of the stuff that I've gotten. One of them I know, like the Columbus Rapids, I know I got that job because I was in the owner's pocket the day the team was announced. plus we have a club partnership with them. So like our youth program and their, their program, like where we work together on things. So like, I already had that little in there, so I took advantage of that. It was, you know, how already I was already in the pockets of the owners at that point. But the hockey thing they had announced, it's the same ownership group that had announced the baseball team last year, and I was actually last October, the VP of communications. Who's the one that I worked directly under for the hockey team. Is the VP of communications for the baseball team as well. And so I was looking back and joking with him the other day. I was like, Hey man, you know, I sent you an email last October and he was like, no, I was like, yeah, man, I tried to get on with the baseball team as a photographer and he was like, Yeah, man, that was October. I was in hockey mode. I wasn't really in baseball mode at that point. I was like, that's fair. That's completely fair. Um, but I mean, it's one of those. think I decided that like you cast a large enough net and you just throw it out there. Eventually, you're going to pull a fish in. And I have been lucky in the last two months and have pulled in a whole bunch of fish that I didn't know were out there. That I did not think was going to happen. And all of a sudden it's happened.

Raymond Hatfield:

I mean, are you thinking to yourself, like, not to downplay your skills, not to do any of that, but like, is there this feeling of like, What am I doing? if I show up, am I going to get fired? Like, what if I go to the wrong place? I guess I'm just trying to get in your head because I just know that so few people would be willing to take that risk. And obviously for you, it paid off. And I want to know, like, what is the thing that allows you to do that? Because I think. If more people were like you, then they would be able to get to do the things they want to do. So, do you have advice for people who are thinking about doing something?

Matt Austin:

I mean, my advice would just be Do it, just do it. I don't know if you remember a few years ago that I say, and I say a few years ago, this is like a decade ago, the Shia LaBeouf.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh yeah. The green screen.

Matt Austin:

Uh, and like, just do it. so what the worse they're going to say is no, like my mentality for the last few months has been like, I sent you all this stuff, like I've applied for rugby, Atlanta, I've applied for Atlanta Falcons, I've applied for, the best baseball team name of all time. The rocket city trash pandas from Huntsville, um, have applied the Savannah

Raymond Hatfield:

pandas or the Savannah banana bananas.

Matt Austin:

They're actually coming to Columbus here in a few weeks. And I'm a mutual follow with their team photographer.

Raymond Hatfield:

Sweet.

Matt Austin:

Um, but like, you know, it's one of those, just do it. And the worst they're going to say, you know, the worst anybody's going to say is, well, no, it's not a good fit right now, but guess what? You're no worse off right now. After they say no, your feelings are going to be hurt. But for every no, eventually somebody's going to say, yeah, come on, let's do this. But when they say no, you just have to know that, you know, like with me, I'm, I still have a full time job. I'm 55 hours a week in the office that I'm working in right now. And, I'm no worse off if somebody says no. Somebody says no, okay, well, I guess I'll still get up and come to work on Monday, you know, like you just have to have that mentality of people are going to say no, just have to know that you're no worse off than you were 15 seconds before they said no. Still in the exact same spot.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. First of all, I love that. I think a lot of people are going to. Love that. I love that. I want to know now when it comes to the whole sports photography side of things like now you got the job right now when it comes to the sports photography side of things, like what changes for you because you went from and I'm just guessing here snapshots of kids playing soccer at the youth league and now that it's more of a professional or it's people who are taking. These sports more seriously. What is your goal for these photos? Like, what are you trying to capture? Are you trying to tell a story? Is it the emotion? What is it that you're going after?

Matt Austin:

it's a combination of all of it. I've had conversations actually two weeks ago, had a phone call. With a guy that shoots for sports illustrated, Eric rank, send him a message, didn't expect anything to come from it. Hey, I'm, I'm working on my sports portfolio. Here's the website link to it and send it to them. And I was like, just let me know what you think. He'd sent me his phone number and he was like, Hey man, I've actually got a few minutes if you want to give me a call, all right, cool. You don't have to do this, but awesome. so I called him and I mean, he absolutely. Ripped it to shreds and not, he was like, exposures are spot on. Edits look good. You're not capturing what you need to capture. You want more faces. You want more emotion. You want more, just raw, in the moment stuff. Okay. So the next, you know, I was going in to a hockey game and shooting 2000 pictures. Literally, I think you use the term spray and pray. that's what I was doing. Anytime I would shoot soccer, anytime I would shoot hockey was spray and pray. and then I had that phone call with him and I went into the next weekend. the first night that I shot hockey for them, I shot 1800 pictures. After the phone call with Eric Rank, the next night I had another night to go shoot and I left that night. I had 750 pictures.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Matt Austin:

Because I was going to be, I went in, I'm going to be more selective. and this was literally like before even going through and culling the, the ones that are out of focus or the ones that, you know, I missed the moment and was late on or anything like that. Like I went in, all right, I'm shooting, I'm aiming for more faces. 100%. This is what I'm going for. and you know, ever since then, like I've even recently now that, you know, the three v three tournament that we went to this last weekend at 1600 plus photos to go through, but I had shot for six teams from our club and six other teams that were playing other games. So I knew going in, I'm going to have a lot of pictures because I've got 12 teams. I'm shooting 12 teams of six. I've got 72 kids. that whose parents are going to want pictures of their kids battling on the field, they're going to want their faces. and, the approach has to change. Yeah. Um, but it's, definitely more along the lines of, give me the emotion of the celebration, After a goal is scored, give me the emotion of, thinking you've won a game and then turn around and find out you've lost and I've. In the last two weeks, I've had those.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, when it comes to getting more emotion, like, you kind of need to be in the right spot, because when it comes to sports, people are turning all around, you don't know, except for I guess baseball, but like, people in different positions, you don't know where they're going to be on the ice or on the field, what direction they're going to be pointed, how do you ensure that you are in the right spot? Is that still something that you have to work on? Learn and practice with

Matt Austin:

it is, I've been fortunate with hockey the last couple of games that, player scored a goal and they have literally turned directly to where I am. Uh, and I don't think like, I know it's because they haven't seen me and I approach them after the game, I'm like, Dude, I'm so glad you turned the way you did for your celebration because I would not have gotten it otherwise. And actually one of them just said his profile picture to the celebration I got from him last Wednesday night. Um, he had just scored. It was, four to nothing game and he put one in and he turned around, literally I'm in the corner in the cleanest piece of glass, like even with the goal line and he, turns around and just. Pumps his fist and all that. And I was like, right on it. I walked up to him after the game. It's like, I know we lost, I know it sucks, but check out this picture I got of you. And within like three days, he had already changed his profile picture.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's too funny. So I guess that comes to my next question, which is all about, getting photos to people, because that's obviously an important part of this. How does this work in terms of. Sports for you. So you're, taking the photos, and then they're your photos. And then you edit them, and then you post them on your online gallery. And then you send people a link, and then they can buy them from you. Or is this through the team? How does that work?

Matt Austin:

They buy them through me. Obviously, you know, the team and the ownership and all that. so the way the internship works specifically with, with, I can use both Columbus teams because it works the same way. anytime there's post or anything that needs to go out, they get whatever picture they need. we recently had two birthdays on the hockey team on the same day. And, the VP of communication text me. He was like, Hey, do you have a picture of this player and this player? And I was like, Yeah, actually I do. And I sent him to him and he was like, All right, cool. And then, you know, happy birthday to, these two players. And it's the pictures that I took of them. but as far as the players go, like, and I don't even do it like super expensive, I do it like a dollar a pop for a digital download and they just eat them up and they'll go in and, four or five times going in and spending 10, like that's 50 right there that I didn't have yesterday, you know, and, so right now that's, that's how I make the money is like They buy the pictures directly through me. But the team has access, the office has access to post whatever images they need.

Raymond Hatfield:

and that's the same with, are you still working with, your youth league as well, as far as like for parents and stuff?

Matt Austin:

Yes. I'm actually the president of the youth league. so that's how I was able to pull those strings, but it was one of those things we post them. we actually, actually do 75 percent of the profit back to the league. And, I use pixie set, you know, there's really not a wrong way to go through. I know you use cloud spot, don't you? and you know, I mean, all these different platforms now is basically drop ship. so we send them the link and say, look, order them. They deliver straight to your house. We cut out the middleman completely. We don't get a box of pictures and have to say, all right, hey, pictures are at the fields. Come pick them up. You don't even have to leave your house. You place your order there at your front door. and the parents have loved that because that's one less thing that they have to even think about. And, there's issues just like there is with every, everything, you know, Hey, we never got our pictures. our package was never delivered X, Y, Z. And I call them up or I send them an email. Hey, here's the order number. Here's the address. It was supposed to go to, this is what they put in. I checked the tracking number and it's in Kansas city, Missouri somewhere, and it should be in Phoenix city. Alabama and, and they're real quick. They send, you know, send it right back to the lab within three hours. I've got a, order is processing already. but yeah, everything, goes through there. Everything goes through my online galleries. and I mean, literally everything. The only thing that won't is the pictures I took this weekend because the main photographer does a Google Drive and so I've got to go in and upload everything to a Google Drive.

Raymond Hatfield:

yeah. Cause now you're also working. for other photographers who are just too bucked because now you're, you've become the hit guy for sports photography

Matt Austin:

there.

Raymond Hatfield:

So this is just,

Matt Austin:

can't say that Raymond.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay. That was a,

Matt Austin:

that was a one off weekend. We were going to be there anyway. And I was just like, Hey, you know, worst case he says no, but I'm still down there anyway, he was like, my daughter usually shoots with me and she's not able to make the trip. And he came down from Nashville. Oh geez. And so I was like, you know, if you have too much, just let me know. I'll shoot whatever you can't make. You can. He's like, yeah, bet I got you. And he sent me a list. He sent me the schedule. we had two games at 10 30, and then I had a game that is shoot at 1130, 12, 1231 and two o'clock or one 30 and two o'clock. I had one to one 30 off.

Raymond Hatfield:

So you could go get yourself some of those, uh, microwave nachos all the time. Those, uh,

Matt Austin:

I got, they had man, the concessions were so good there. I had chicken.

Raymond Hatfield:

No, from a concession stand, you don't say.

Matt Austin:

Yeah, man.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's too funny. Our

Matt Austin:

concession, our concessions at our, at our soccer league is like nachos. We get Chick fil a biscuits, uh, and we have hot dogs and sausage dogs and that's it. Sausage dogs. we did walking tacos at one point and it's Doritos with all the taco stuff in it. Yeah. Those, parents love those. Y'all gonna have walk tacos today? Yeah, we gotta wait on this to warm up, but yeah, we'll have nine o'clock in the morning, parents are walking up, ordering walking tacos. But yeah, the concession stand there in Palm Beach Gardens was just fantastic.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay. Well, if I ever make it down there, I'm going to have to check out the chicken tenders and fries since you have such a glowing review, this sounds great. I'm always interested when it comes to like the photography side of things. I feel like there's, The two extremes of photography is that there's a very utilitarian side, and then there's a very creative side, right? And we kind of have to find where we are in that map right there. where do you think you lie? Would you say that you're closer to the utilitarian side or closer to the creative side?

Matt Austin:

The answer to that question really depends on what it is. Are you shooting? So when I'm shooting, you know, a hockey game, Or, youth soccer or anything had to be very utilitarian, have to walk in, know what the settings are, know what my pictures are going to look like, and know I'm coming out, what the edit is going to look like. when it comes to creative things like the, kit reveal that we did for the kids, like be as creative as I want it to be. Like that's a blank slate. I can do whatever I want to do and light it however I need to light it and everything else. And, you know, so it really, the utilitarian versus creative, Depends on where you are and what you're shooting. You know, are you shooting action? you gotta freeze the action. and you can get different things, but you know, like Friday when we were down there, like I shot a truck that was just driving down the street just for the fun of it and lowered my shutter speed to like one 40th of a second, panned along with it and got the motion blur. I'm never going to use that. That was just to try it out and see what it looked like. but 90 percent of the time it's, utilitarian because it's, you know, trying to nail exactly what that exposure should be and exactly how it should look.

Raymond Hatfield:

From when you started, shooting, you know, with the T6, you first got that thing to like where you are today, what do you think has changed most in your photography?

Matt Austin:

It's been the understanding of, of how things work and, I mean, again, I go back to the science of what photography is and the, I guess, math behind it technically is, figuring out what, what everything is and how all of that works together, how your ISO impacts what your shutter speed should be. Or how your aperture determines. And like, I was explaining that to somebody, had brought his camera down there this weekend to one of our parents. And he was like, man, I've got all this stuff and I have no clue how any of it works. And I was able to actually show him right there on the street because I hadn't, I had my camera with me and I told his wife to go stand about five feet away and I said, all right, I'm going to do this at 2. 8 and I'm going to take a picture of her and then I'm going to go and I'm going to, or I'm going to close it all the way down to 22. And you're going to see. that depth of field change. And that was the one thing that he was having trouble understanding was how the aperture changed things. So I was like, just, I'm going to show you these two pictures and you're going to see the difference. And he looked at it and he was like, yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. but I mean, it's constantly walking around with a camera in my hands for six months. My wife got tired of it. My daughter got tired of it. I always have my camera with me everywhere we went. Well,

Raymond Hatfield:

you make these pretty nifty hand straps, so it's very easy and convenient to carry a camera around. I understand that. Yeah.

Matt Austin:

Right. And I still use them. It's the only thing I use.

Raymond Hatfield:

Me too. I always, uh, I still always keep this thing. and this isn't a plug or anything. It should be a plug. I take that back. This is a plug. These are the best camera straps I've ever had, that you make. think about it oftentimes because when it comes to, camera straps, I feel like so many times there's like, they try to pack in like 15 different use cases, right? Like you can use it as a sling, you could do it as this, you could do all these different things. And I think to myself, I don't want any of that, I'm okay with having multiple straps, but I want them to do one thing really well. And that's what yours does. And of course, it comes in Dodger blue. And it's easy on easy off with these Pika design anchors right there. So shout out to you and it also comes

Matt Austin:

in army green and neon green and, and pink and black. Oh

Raymond Hatfield:

my God. Do you make these things while you're at work?

Matt Austin:

Teal and red. Yeah, I did. I make all of it. I did all of this stuff is all at work stuff. Again, here 11 hours a day. I have time to kill 90 percent of the time. So we get an order. This is what I make.

Raymond Hatfield:

I got one last question for you here, Matt. I know that now we've, gone far over our time here. I want to know more about, like why, and I asked this to everybody, which is really like, there's so many groups online, as you said, you have found, you know, uh, photography community on Twitter, you have found a photography community on, Twitch, on Instagram. What was it about the Facebook group That you found and that you enjoyed and you just kind of really dove in head first.

Matt Austin:

the Facebook community is, is one of those things that in the first couple of weeks, had posted some stuff and I was real unsure about it, you know, I mean, it's your first time, you know, it's my first time with an actual like DSLR camera, other than like. I've had point and shoots for my whole life. Anytime I bought a camera, it's been a point and shoot because I haven't had a need for a DSLR. and even in March of last year, didn't have a need for a DSLR. I was taking decent photos on my phone, but wanted to do different things. So, you know, I went that route. and now, I started posting pictures in it and like, just to shout out the, few that really, helped was, you know, Jim giving feedback and, Kim Irish and Magnum

Raymond Hatfield:

Mangum,

Matt Austin:

but all of those, the people like that, that chime in and like, check this out, look at this specific resource, check this video out or whatever. And even Jim, like me and Jim are texting each other all the time now, like, Hey, check out this shot that I got. he sent me a picture from his, his Madison photo wall. and he was like, dude, Madison this morning was awesome. He sent me, it was a picture of the Capitol building and at the rotunda. And I was like, yeah, dude, that thing is incredible. and you know, so even now, like me and Jim are still bouncing ideas off of each other, like, Hey, check out this shot that I got this weekend. I sent him, I sent him one of the pictures that I got this weekend. He was like, yeah, dude, that's awesome. and so, you know, it's such a supportive community, but such a, I'm not going to use the word critical, but such a community that is willing to say, Hey, maybe don't try this, but try this instead. it's a very constructive criticism if there ever is any, but just the people that I've come to know and the, the friendships and stuff that I've, created or have been created through this. is something that's, very beneficial and something that's, been very helpful, in my journey as a photographer, I guess. And, I'm very glad that I've, joined this group and have been there for Shoot, almost two years now. We're three months away from two years now, Raymond. Yeah, that's crazy. And, it's one of those groups where the people are genuine, and there's not anybody there that's gonna, you know, that's there to stroke their own egos.

Raymond Hatfield:

Just me. I'm the only one. Yeah, I'm the only one allowed to do that.

Matt Austin:

If your ego is your chin.

Raymond Hatfield:

So they do. It's just so comfortable. This this beard here. it's that time of year. It just feels so good to scratch. When it comes to the group. I appreciate everything that you said there. But I want to know, for you, like, that's kind of like what the group has done for you, right? Like, being able to get that feedback, being able to build those relationships. There's always new people coming into the group. So say, Today, today happens to be a Wednesday when we're recording this, which means it is welcome Wednesday, my favorite day of the week. like what's something that you wish that if you could have one thing that every new photographer coming into the group could understand, whether it be about photography or whatever, what would that one thing be?

Matt Austin:

it's a good question, Raymond. I haven't had any issues answering any other questions until this one.

Raymond Hatfield:

I did it. I did it. I made him speechless. This is great.

Matt Austin:

You succeeded. Now it's, don't put value in comparing yourself to others. You're going to find your style. You're going to find what is suitable for you. And, you know, Raymond, what works for you may not work for me, what works for me may not work for you. And so you can't go saying, and I'm going to use Peter McKinnon again. Well, Peter shoots in this really dark and moody style, and this is what I'm going to do, and this is the way to be successful because it's not, it's not. and that's not a knock to Peter McKinnon. His work is great. Your work as a wedding photographer is great. But everybody's got different things. You know, it's what's the different strokes for different folks, or, you know, it's, you can't get lost in the comparison battle between you and another photographer that's been doing it for years, take your time, learn the settings, learn how to shoot and what each thing does, and then you get to the point where you found your style and you're able to settle in and say, this is what I do. Either you like it or you don't. And that sounds terrible, but that's, you know, everybody's going to find their own way. don't get lost in the, well, this person's been doing it for 15 years and his pictures are so much better than mine or her pictures are so much better than mine. And I've only been shooting for three months, six months, 12 months, doesn't matter. You're still shooting. What's yours is yours. Find your style and stick with it.

Raymond Hatfield:

I've been shooting for, I guess, you know, non professionally, I could say for like 20 years now, and I still struggle with that. So the fact that like, here you are, you're like, this is it, you know, and you just shared that with me. I feel like That's going to be a big sign for who you will become in the future as a photographer, because as we're always looking for growth, I think back to some of my earliest photos in their garbage. And then I think to photos that I took, even like, say, five years ago, and I thought I was like, I got this, I'm doing good. I'm, uh, five years ago, Professional photographer. I've been doing it for a number of years. I thought I'm good. I love this but now I look at those photos that I took five years ago and I think wow, those are garbage And there's always this progression, that comes so the fact that you have that insight I think so early on into your journey is really going to be incredibly beneficial to you going forward and Matt, we're at the end here. I really look forward to again, keeping up with obviously this friendship that we have, but your work as well. And one day I know that you're gonna be shooting for the Braves and, I expect some help and maybe a field pass as well to come down with you when the Braves take on the Dodgers. I'll bring you on

Matt Austin:

when the Dodgers come to town.

Raymond Hatfield:

score. I'm going to keep you to that. I'm going to hold you to that. Awesome. Matt, before I let you go, where can people keep up with you and your work aside from the group? They know that they can find you there. Where can we see more of your photos?

Matt Austin:

Instagram, at M Austin photo. Facebook is Slash M Austin photo, M Austin photography. com is where you can find a lot of my, all of my portfolio stuff. and I'm, more than welcome to go check it out and send me feedback on it at any time, because I'm still growing just like everybody else is, there's still a lot of things that I look at and think, wow, I missed that one. Wow. I really messed that one up. Wow. That edit looked really bad, but I can't go back and change it because I didn't save the raw files. There's plenty of places to find me. Instagram is where I try to stay most active recently. TikTok, Adam Austin photo, find a lot of stupid stuff on there that I do.

Today's action item being the one thing that if you implement will move the needle forward in your photography is this shoot manual mode. That's it. If you're already shooting in manual mode, great. If you're not already shooting in manual mode, take your camera out this weekend and switch that dial to M. By having full control of your ISO, your aperture and your shutter speed, you can fully realize your creative vision. You know, a silhouette is not possible in auto mode. Rich dark storm skies also not possible in auto mode. Photographing a white dress or a white car will turn out gray when shooting them in auto mode. Manual mode allows you to fully realize your creative vision and capture the images that you see in your head when you press that shutter button. Why wouldn't you want that? Now if you need help, I get it. It could be daunting at first. Maybe you don't know what settings to use and when. Then feel free to download my free guide called Picture Perfect Camera Settings, where I share my settings for 10 popular types of photography and share with you how to know what settings to adjust to get closer to your personal vision. You can download the guide today for free by hitting over to perfect camera settings.com. That's it. Perfect. Camera settings.com. And that's it for today. So until next week, remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow.