Matthew Coughlin :: Portrait Photographer

Mike the Mailman

matthewcoughlin — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:17:13 +0000

Mike is the man. Well, he is the mailman. For years now, I have seen Mike hard at work and I have always greeted him with a just a wave. Mike the mailman is hard to miss. His captivating look is unique with his hair, boots & shorts. It wasn’t until recently that I finally took the time to talk to him and ask him if I could take his portrait. Mike agreed and come to find out he is a photographer himself. He scuba dives and does under water photography. We coordinated a time and place to meet and thanks to the weather gods, we had a short window before a storm just crashed down on us. I think one of these will make my portfolio so let me know which image you prefer.

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Some of you have asked about lighting in the comments. Sorry I forgot to include earlier. I used 1 Paul Buff Einstein in a 22″ White Beauty Dish with a diffusion sock. Image 1 and 3, the light was on the left and image 2 it was on the right.
Canon 7D, Sigma 17-70mm @28mm, ƒ/8.0, 1/125s, ISO 100, Pocket Wizards.

Randy the Cowboy Construction Worker

matthewcoughlin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:16:56 +0000

Every day for the last six months, as I turn the corner from Main Street to Palafox, I have seen a young gentleman working on a construction project. You can’t miss him. He is probably the hardest working guy in the group and it is also tough to not notice his cowboy hat, boots & jeans. Well, I finally took the time to introduce myself and get to know him a little bit. I found out that Randy has recently lost a lot of weight, so much so he was wearing a size 42″ waist. He was also struggling with alcoholism and has been doing very well lately. On top of that, he is proud to boast that he has met the love of his life and he is in a very good place right now. In his spare time, Randy enjoys kicking back with his guitar and singing old country music. Randy was kind enough to pose for a couple portraits in front of my camera.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Ring of Fire Radio

matthewcoughlin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:05:51 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to photograph Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Ring of Fire Radio. My window to work in was small. I had 15 minutes to find a location, setup and take the photos. In the corner of a small black hallway, I setup a chair, one light (Paul Buff Einstein with small Octa softbox) and dialed in my camera settings. I gave word to his producer I was ready to shoot and when they arrived I was advised that this needed to be quick. I smiled and told them I’ll have them on their way in less than 2 minutes. I kept my word with time to spare. Mr. Kennedy was extremely polite and a pleasure to photograph.

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For all those who care to see behind the scenes shot, here is the lovely black hallway I found at the Wynn to use.

Family Photo Fun: Hanna Lester

matthewcoughlin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:10:33 +0000

We took a trip up to Columbus, Ga the week of Christmas to visit with some family. While I was in town, a few of younger cousins that wanted to do a photoshoot with me. We found a pretty nice little area back behind the house in the woods. It was very overcast and rained off and on that day. I brought my softbox with a 430EXII and also used some natural light. We shot for about an hour and got some pretty fun images. This set is of my cousin Hanna. Hollywood better watch out, this girl knows how to strike a pose. Oh, and this 14 year old is a pretty kick @$$ soccer player too.

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I made sure to use some of that nice diffused natural light too.

And you can’t forget the indoor rock star with sunglasses shot

Captions

matthewcoughlin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:54:21 +0000

I was contacted by Stephan Vance, guitar/keys for the band Captions, a few weeks back. They were recently interviewed by Alt Press magazine and were in need of some new shots of their band. After some phone calls and countless text messages back and forth, we worked out a date and locations. These guys were great to shoot with and brought lots of energy and laughs with them.

For you photo nerds out there, all the images were shot using a single light source. If you have followed my work then you probably already guessed it was my favorite light modifier; Large Westcott softbox with 2 Canon 430EXII flashes inside.

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Las Vegas Extravaganza

matthewcoughlin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:59:18 +0000

I was recently hired by a production company to shoot a large Las Vegas Variety Show Extravaganza. I got off of the phone today with my client and they were thrilled with the images they received from me. Along with getting paid, hearing their excitement about the photos makes for a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside. The show included an array of amazingly talented people including Recycled Percussion, Chris VanDahl as Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, the mind blowing Damian Brantley as the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, plus many more gifted artists. My client wanted candid shots of all the talent getting ready and rehearsing before the show along with the actual show itself. It was a true honor to be surrounded by such amazing people and personalities. I also had the opportunity to hang with them after the show and they were all such down to earth people. This will be an experience I will always cherish. Below are just some of my favorites from the hundreds of images I delivered to my client.

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Here is a great video clip I found of Damian doing his MJ thing on youtube…

Pumpkin Patch 2011

matthewcoughlin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:53:43 +0000

Every year my wife and I look forward to picking out our Halloween pumpkins with the kids. This year we decided to go the distance and venture out to a real pumpkin patch so the kids can see that pumpkins don’t just pop up in the front of a church, they actually grow on a farm. We headed out to Jay, FL with Jenna’s mom (Mimi as the kids call her) for an afternoon in the country. When I saw the giant sunflowers, I couldn’t resist not using my lights. Enjoy.

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The Groomsmen

matthewcoughlin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:52:08 +0000

Last weekend I had the honor to be a groomsman in a wedding for one of my best friends, Ryan Williams. As we were waiting around getting ready, Ryan thought it would be a good idea if I setup a “photobooth” to capture all the crazy personalities of his friends and family. It was a beautiful day, a gorgeous wedding and all the groomsmen had tons of laughs getting ready to support Ryan as he married the love of his life. Enjoy the silly photos and feel free to leave comments down at the bottom.

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Scooter Girl with Amber Rushing

matthewcoughlin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:21:46 +0000

A few weeks back after the photoshoot with my old friend Blake Rushing, I met his wife Amber for the first time. Amber and I have talked about doing a photoshoot for the past couple weeks now. We finally made the time and got together for a fun shoot with Amber and her kick ass scooter.

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Attorney Aaron Watson

matthewcoughlin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:01:07 +0000

When attorney Aaron Watson called to hire me for a photoshoot and design a print brochure for him I jumped right on the opportunity. Aaron is an up and coming lawyer in Pensacola handling personal injury and big pharmaceutical cases with a major national law firm. As we were shooting some portraits, Aaron stopped to take a phone call and I captured this candid image during that moment. This image turned out to be my favorite shot from our session.

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