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Matthew Mitchell
@withmatt
Photographer based in South Africa
At a very young age, I got involved in live music events with visual effects. At around 10/11 I was already experimenting with lighting design and control – and it naturally progressed from there into video, and then further into running full live music events myself.
For me, as I think for a lot of people – music means a whole lot. Much more than just surface level enjoyment. Music has an unmatched effect on people, allowing them to take themselves to new places mentally and emotionally. Music helps us deal with issues in our lives and it often inspires us to keep going even on our darkest days. For me music is an extremely personal thing. It’s something that helps me through life, gives me enjoyment, and sharing it with friends creates really memorable experiences. This is why when I share an Instagram story of a trip for example, I always include the music that me and the people I’m with are listening to, as a single song can bring back so many of those great memories.
"Photography and music have one very important trait in common, and that is that one's personal memories can be stored in either a song or a photo."
When I look at a song/photo that I have strong memories attached to, the same thoughts arrive, literally putting me back into the same place as I was when I took the photo, or shared the song. Music and photography both also allow me to put myself in a different place mentally. Photography can open up my desire for exploration while a song can change my mood, transporting me to a different state of mind.
"Just like with music, sharing photos is my way of sharing an experience with the world."
I really love landscape photography as it evokes a sense of wanderlust and adventure within people that are properly looking at the photo. Also, the feeling of really working hard for a shot, like going on a long hike or exploring a place you wouldn’t have necessarily wanted to explore before is extremely rewarding, especially when the shot comes out better than I had ever imagined. I feel that in a very small way, I can inspire people to want to get out and explore the world more with photography. One of the most impactful moments for myself was in the Maluti mountain range in Lesotho, South Africa with two of my very close friends, exploring together for the first time. The memories we made on that trip is something that I’ll bring with me throughout my life. This trip was the first time I really started exploring, and it opened up a new part of me that I never knew existed.
"All of a sudden I had an urge to explore more, and capture the moments and scenes that I was experiencing - which is really the beginnings of why I chose to really go into photography."
"Meanwhile I have been able to explore myself quite a bit, and I can say that South Africa is an extremely beautiful country with a lot to offer for photographers."
It’s a country with really beautiful mountainous vistas as well as dense bush teaming with wildlife. I feel extremely privileged to be able to go right “onto my doorstep” and be able to take images of stunning wildlife, or just drive out a few hours for a beautiful hike in the Drakensberg with some really insane landscapes. So much of what we have here can’t be seen anywhere else in the world, and that makes shooting and sharing it even more exhilarating and rewarding.
"For me, nothing beats the beauty of the Cape."
Cape Town, Knysna and it’s surroundings are jaw-dropping in beauty. Cape Town also has an incredible vibe to it, especially in summer. It’s one of the places I enjoy most with friends. The Drakensberg mountain range is also extremely beautiful, and offers so much for adventurers who want to hike out to a great photo spot. And as there isn’t really any light pollution it’s also a really good location for Astrophotography.
Finally, we have Mpumalanga, and more specifically Sabie, which have been on my bucket list for ages. I was lucky enough to drive out there this August. As soon as I arrived it immediately made it to the list of the most beautiful spots in the country as it’s waterfalls and forests are unbelievably beautiful. One of my favorite photos at the moment is of Lone Creek falls in Sabie. This is a shot that I wanted for ages but never really got around to getting it – so finally standing in front of this insanely powerful waterfall with my camera was a dream coming true.
"At the same time, my long exposure of Cape Town City is also one of my favorites, not because of the image itself - but because of the memories and experiences with friends attached to it."
Those memories will forever be ingrained in that photo for me. My goal with photography is not to only create ever-lasting memories for myself, but also to create a large portfolio that I am extremely proud of. While this has already begun, I’d like to add experiences from outside South Africa to it. The process of editing the images I capture on my trips is also a time where I get to relax, listen to some music, make a coffee and really hone in on my style of photography that I’m still in the process of forming.
In that sense, South Africa has affected my editing as it’s generally a very bright and sunny place – at least central South Africa in winter which is where I live – so getting moody and overcast shots it’s really difficult out of camera. That’s why I’ve learnt to work around this by developing a process that gets me the result I want every time.
One way to start doing this is working with two primary and complementary colours in the image. This is something that I learnt while working in lighting design. Having more than two primary colours in an image can often get quite distracting, so I try to desaturate any colours that aren’t needed with the radial gradient tool.
"Once the colours are established in the shot - I start stylizing them."
Generally I will make bright greens a darker shade, and decrease the luminosity to get a really moody feeling. Then just work on matching any other colours in the shot to the most prominent one. For example, a more aqua colored blue will work better with a darker green.
One trick of mine that I’ve been using is to add a large radial gradient over the main focal point of the image, invert it so it becomes somewhat of a vignette shape, and then decrease the clarity by about -10. This will help create a dreamy feeling in the image – although it can be overdone, so use it carefully!
I really like to punch out the sky in a lot of my landscapes when it is too distracting. While this doesn’t work for every image – don’t be afraid of overexposing the sky! I generally use a linear gradient to cover the sky, desaturate the blues and then increase the exposure of it. Adding a touch of haze through the dehaze slider is a good way of getting an overcast look on a sunny day.
Finally, stylizing my shot by increasing the black point on the tone curve is a nice way to get a slightly faded look. I make an S-curve on the tone curve, and increase the blacks while lowering the white point. This is really a great way to balance the shots dynamic range – and it looks great on social media! Nevertheless, I have an idea and objective for each unique photo.
My aim with Scuf Records has always first and foremost been to share undiscovered music with the world by making new connections with artists that I really enjoy – and then sharing their music in the best way possible. The current focus with Scuf Records has been to promote music of South African artists to be part of a more global scene, where their music is heard internationally – but as part of doing this, Scuf Records has grown tremendously and we now have some really exciting music coming up with a lot of international artists.
"It is gratifying to enable and encourage others to produce music, to do what makes them feel so good as a result of personal expression."
And also, to help them bring their music to people worldwide who can then enjoy the indescribable benefits from simply listening to music. For me personally, photography and music act as an escape. Music does so at any given moment – it’s a time that I take for myself during the day to genuinely relax just to listen to music. Photography acts also as an escape for me but in a much more profound way – almost forcing me to travel and venture out to the places I want to shoot most. By doing this, the places that I discover are always what I need. They are always an escape from the chaos of city life, which I feel is so important to my mental and physical health.
"Immersing yourself into something that you love doing is more important for your overall health than many may recognize at first, and I encourage everyone to make time for it!"
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