Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Tarver.
Hi Matt, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been interested in photography, but I didn’t actually start until the summer of 2020. The pandemic allowed me to have much more time on my hands. So I decided to take a course, and bought a camera. I started to practice shooting as often as possible. I shot several things around the house, and eventually started shooting a few of my friends. I grew to start shooting models, and soon enough I was able to start working with real paying clients. Now I’m happy to say that I’ll be shooting my first wedding in the very near future! My goal is to be shooting weddings and portraits on a consistent basis, and help businesses get quality content for their social media images. I’m very blessed to be where I am today, but I have much more work to do in order to fulfill my aspirations of becoming a true professional photographer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the biggest obstacles I’ve had as a photographer was trying to build a portfolio when I first started out. I had just completed a photography course and had this beginner’s camera and was just ready to shoot. All I needed was somebody to take a chance. With photography, the only way to get good, is to put the work in. You have to have the good and bad shoots in order to learn and grow. So when I first started, since I had no portfolio, it was extremely hard to book practice shoots. People would see my emails and direct messages and not respond. Fortunately though, a few people were willing to take the time out of their day and allow me to photograph them. I am so grateful for that because it was the foundation to where I am today. Now I have multiple shoots a week, and it really allows me to accelerate my growth in this business.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in portraits. I’m mainly known for my street/urban style of portrait photography. I love to shoot on location in the city. It allows for more creativity in my opinion vs. the studio. One minute you can be shooting with a background of the city scape and the next, you can be in the train station catching the motion blur of the train cars behind your subject. My goal for every shoot is to use the location to its fullest potential. That way, when the client goes to review the edited images, they get a variety of scenes and emotion in that package vs. just using two angles for the shoot. It allows the images to be more captivating, and I feel that’s what sets me apart from other photographers.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Cell phone cameras have become exponentially better over these past several years. There are some photographers/videographers who only use cell phones today. In the future though, I could definitely see it being a more common thing to have professional photographers and videographers only use their cell phone for their work. I’m sure the results will be a lot more comparable then to a real professional camera.
Contact Info:
- Email: shotbybarty@gmail.com
- Website: shotbybarty.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/shotbybarty
- Facebook: facebook.com/shotbybarty
