Thoughts on migrating from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 6.

I've been using Squarespace 5 for many years now, both for my own content, as well as having built many sites for clients who wanted to use SS5.   My own site was a portfolio site, where I got to really express my web design aesthetic (featured as an example site on Squarespace for many years), but I'd also built many straight forward websites for small to medium sized companies on SS5.  While not a CSS Jedi, I could definitely make SS5 do what I wanted it do, well beyond the standard templates and styling controls.

Do I still recommend Squarespace?

Yes. Sort of... kinda.  However, I am no longer a Squarespace evangelist.   I used to be all, "WHY ARE YOU NOT ON SQUARESPACE? YOU SHOULD TOTALLY BE ON SQUARESPACE! I'M ON SQUARESPACE! I LOVE IT YOU SHOULD TO YADA YADA YADA..."  

Things I love:  The new templates are amazing.  The index page is super slick -- I LOVE THAT. Some of the new behaviors and general organizing tools for dynamic web content border on genius.   Handling of photos and video seems greatly improved.   E-commerce is a massive addition I've been wanting for years! The iPad portfolio app is pretty brilliant.  And the UI and overall design for this platform still blows my mind -- best I've seen.

So why have I cooled on Squarespace?  It's not any one thing, but in aggregate, I'm left feeling frustrated because I can no longer make Squarespace do what I want it to do, in a predictable fashion.  Yes, sometimes a little common sense CSS will do the trick.  Other times, it's a glaring, maddening, "how the hell did this pass QA?" feature hole in an unfinished product.  Other times it's just an obvious bug that needs fixing.  It's the unpredictability that really bothers me.  

I usually end getting it to do 70% of what I want it to do, then log a ticket and wait for an update.  Test the update, and hope things work out.   If it doesn't work out, then I have to rethink my design, or figure out some other work around.  If I can't find a work around, I log a feature request, light a candle and begin vigil to see if it makes a future release. 

I'm still here.  I haven't left.   I thing we can work things out.  I think SS6 will recover, and mature into the partner I used to worship.  We'll see.

Three days on the road with The Coathangers.

My love affair with The Coathangers started on April 27, 2007.  I stumbled across them doing at show (or at least singing back up at a show) with Thee Crucials at The Earl in Atlanta.  Fiesty, cute, punk-poppy... there was no way not to like them! I shot them a number of times, including a spread for an Alternative Apparel catalog.  We developed a mutual artistic respect, and in 2008, we worked together in creating my first music video for their track "Tanya Harding".  Since then, we'd run into each other occasionally, but haven't done anything since.

A little less than a year ago, I got to reunite with them when they played a show out here in L.A.  We got to talking after the show and we decided that we needed to find a way to shoot another music video together.  We vowed we'd do something next time they came out, preferably in the desert. Granted, this conversation took place at 2AM, over drinks, in a back-alley L.A. bar... so whether or not this would actually happen was definitely anyone's guess.

A few months back, we revisited out hope to make another video together via email, and settled on a three day window in March of this year, where I'd fly to Tucson to meet them on tour, then shoot a video for them as we toured from Tucson, across the desert to San Diego, then up to L.A.   

Well, I left for Tucson this past wednesday and when we finally met up at Hotel Congress, I think we were all surprised we actually managed to meet up and start shooting a video!  After three days on the road, three shows, and the shooting of footage for our next video collaboration together, I'm as big a fan as ever, and better friends than ever.  

I had a fantastic time (thanks so much ladies!!), I'm excited to begin the video edit, and I managed to create some very cool photos with them while on the road.  Enjoy!!

(Click on either image below to see the galleries after the jump...)

Circus Couture. A photo collection by Matt Odom

"CIRCUS COUTURE" was a collaboration hatched with Shellena Gonzalez and Janet Freund in the winter of last year.  An "art for the sake of art" project, where we would all be able to flex our collective creative muscles. This project was entirely self-produced, and everyone contributed their skills, art, equipment, supplies, wardrobe, and time to make this project happen. 

I couldn't be more proud of the results!

Click on the photo below to see all the gallery of all the final images in this collection.

"Weatherman" by Dead Sara released by Matt Odom Creative!

After seeing Dead Sara perform at "Sunset Sessions Rock! 2011", I knew I wanted to shoot a video for them.  I went and chatted them up on Sunset Avenue, outside the Viper Room after the show, and after a few meetings, they agreed to work with me.  

We decided to make a straight forward "performance" video which would introduce the band to new fans who haven't seen them play live yet and would most likely want to check them out after seeing them open for Bush this fall.   If you've seen "Weatherman" live, you know that Emily and the rest of the band really tear it up.  I wanted to accent their performance with some high intensity, kinetic graphics.  Initially, we played around with the idea of dropping in the graphics in post, but opted instead to do a front projection across the band while they performed.  The results were fantastic!

If you don't know the band already, make sure to check them out at deadsara.com and purchase the new record!

"Goodnight California" video by Nate Currin just released!

This was a super fun video to put together for Nate.  We shot all over LA, as well as a live show in Athens, GA. Nate is an amazing performer, so if you have a chance to catch him live ... DO! And if you like this song, you should really purchase his album on iTunes!

Sunset Sessions 2011

Earlier this year (in February), I had the pleasure of shooting all the performers at Sunset Sessions in Carlsbad, CA. I think I shot about 30 performers over 72 hours, including K.D. Lang, Vanessa Carlton, Stevie Nicks, Daniel Lanois & Black Dub, Iron & Wine, Everest, Augustana, Sia, The Wood Brothers, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, and more...

I can't post them all, but I am going to post a few that I thought were personally impressive, both in terms of performance and resulting footage.  A BIG SHOUT OUT TO MIKE GONAZALES, who was super instrumental in shooting many of the bands with me.  I'm looking forward to working with him again on the next Sessions!

Augustana

The Wood Brothers

K.D. Lang

We're on THE NATE BERKUS SHOW!!

My wedding specific video work was featured today on The Nate Berkus show!  To see the before and after videos, and the rest of my wedding centric work, go to WWW.ROCKANDROLLHEARTS.COM!!

Wow! We're featured on Squarespace.com!

It's not everyday that we get featured by a company that we love!  We've been using squarespace.com to host this site for about two years now, and we LOVE SQUARESPACE. So it's no small compliment when I notice that we are featured as the first site on their photography examples page!  I wonder how long it will stay up!

Check out the highlight here!

PBR & The Whiskey Gentry!

Very cool!  The Whiskey Gentry video "Eula Mae" which we shot together a few months back just got posted on the PBR blog!  Check it out!

Lauren + JP - The Wedding Video

UPDATE: After Ashton Kutcher tweeted about this video as "the best wedding video ever", this video spread virally like crazy! It's been loaded on web pages over 1 million times, and played in it's entirety about 250K times! Crazy!

I'm so pleased to post my first wedding music video! Lauren and JP could not have been a better fit as far as artistic collaborators go.  Their creative sensibilities are wide ranging, and they immediately grasped the concept of what I wanted to, which was to create a music video more-so than a wedding video.  Granted, the subject matter is their wedding.  It's simply cut to one of their favorite songs ever.  (Sleepyhead by Passion Pit). 

I'd love to know what you think!

You can check more of my videos on Vimeo here.

So what about weddings?

I get this question quite often.  Personally, I think shooting weddings, engagements, or lovers in general is amazingly rewarding.  It's an opportunity to shoot an event, or couple, oozing with emotion.  As a maker of images (still or motion), why would I not relish the opportunity?  Yes, I both enjoy and shoot weddings.

Caveat, I enjoy and shoot weddings where my own artistic point of view is welcomed and given free reign.

To that end, I've launched www.rockandrollhearts.com.  This is a site that is dedicated exclusively to photography and video that is more easily grouped into the wedding/engagment/lovebirds bucket.  Check it out...

Matt Odom is now based in L.A.!

Exciting news! After 4 wonderful years working in Atlanta and honing my craft, and artistic aesthetic, I've relocated to L.A.  I'm still available for travel and work based on the East Coast (particularly Atlanta, NYC, and Miami Beach), but I'll be calling L.A home now.  

Stay tuned for more updates and news!

~ Matt

Atlanta to L.A - 2000 miles in 4 minutes.

I mounted a 7D to my dash and shot my whole trip from Atlanta to L.A.  I have to admit that I think I got better at controlling the exposure, frame rate, and general process about the second day into the four day trip.  Definitely check out the thunderstorms I drove through in New Mexico towards the end of the video.  Very cool stuff!

Atlanta to LA - Time-Lapse - July 2010 from ataricharm on Vimeo.

BACKSTAGE WITH BLAST OFF BURLESQUE

The wonderfully zany, talented gals and guys from Blast Off Burlesque invited me to hang out backstage for their recent show.  They couldn't have been more gracious and accommodating, in spite of the cramped dressing room. Check out a few of the images from my time backstage.  Some images may be considered NSFW, so click through at your own risk.

 

EULA MAE BY THE WHISKEY GENTRY

Eula Mae by The Whiskey Gentry from ataricharm on Vimeo.

I had fun shooting this little 'live-ish' video.  This was shot during their soundcheck and a live performance that night, so I opted for more of a documentary style aesthetic to the video.  The whole video was shot using a 7D, and the audio was captured using a Zoom Q3. 

If you haven't seen a WG shot yet, try to make it out.  It's a blast!

ATARICHARM is now MATT ODOM CREATIVE.

I've been getting this question a fair amount lately, um... why the change?  Mainly, it's just time.  The primary reasons are these:

• When I started using ATARICHARM to tag photos about five years ago or so, a large part of that was simply a way to put stuff out there that didn't have "Matt Odom" on it. The quality of the photos were still hit and miss; I had yet to establish a point of view as a photographer; and I wasn't sure I was in it for the long haul.  So you might say ATARICHARM started out as a pseudonym. 
• As my career and business continues to grow, it's increasingly obvious that name recognition (Matt Odom) is helping me open doors more quickly than my pseudonym.  As I started pursuing work more actively in LA, NYC, etc.  "Matt Odom Creative" became an easier way to begin a conversation: a) Yes, I'm Matt Odom b) Yes, I do creative photography, videography, write treatments, etc.  It get's right to the point.
• Lastly, ATARICHARM was the umbrella for all the services I offered, some of which weren't necessarily related.  In order to grow each business brand separately and under it's own steam, I've also peeled off two service offerings and will be relaunching those as their own entities in the near future (Wedding Images & Web Site Design).  I'll post more about those once they launch next month.

ATARICHARM as a brand will continue to live on as the series of images that helped me find a career.

The new interchangeable lens Sony HD camcorder has my attention...

If Canon follow suit, I know what my Christmas gadget purchase will likely be!  Since I'm giving Sony some props, I might as well give them some props for the Sony NEX-5 and NEX-3 as well.  Pretty cool looking little devices!

The Last "Keep It Classic" at 1*FIVE*0

What a great event last night!  IL and the whole 'Keep It Classic' crew really threw a singular mixer last night.  Hip Hop, Fashion, Music.. an amazing night.  I decided to mess around a new technique to shoot candids, playing with LED's, a 7D, a 5D, a 50mm and a 15mm. They turned out better than I expected.  Click on the photo below to see the rest of them.

Casting Call - Friday April 16th.

 CASTING CALL:  MATT ODOM TEST SHOOT FOR COUTURE DENIM COMPANY.

Matt Odom of Ataricharm LLC (www.ataricharm.com) is shooting some pro-bono test images for  a couture denim company based in LA.  Mr. Odom is hoping to land a seasonal campaign for this company, and is using this shoot as way to showcase his work to this apparel manufacturer.  The company has agreed to ship a number of denim samples for both men and women, to be shot by Mr. Odom.  All images that come out of this shoot will be owned by ATARICHARM LLC.

Mr. Odom is looking for models interested in participating in the test shoot. Female models should be able to fit into a 26/27 waist, men should be able to fit 32 waist.  Models will each receive an 8x10 print of their best three photos, as well as low resolution digital files of their three best photos that can be used for their online portfolios.  All models will be asked to sign a standard model release form.

Casting Call and Fitting:  Friday, April 16,  from Noon to 6PM at Studio 1*FIVE*0 at 1000 Marietta Street, Atlanta, 30318.  If you fit the denim sample and are cast, you'll know by 6PM on Friday.

Shoot: We'll be shooting on Saturday, April 17, from 2PM to 6PM. The shoot will take place at Studio 1*FIVE*0 at 1000 Marietta Street, Atlanta, 30318.

If interested in being cast, please contact Matt Odom at matt@ataricharm.com or call him at 404 281 7585. If possible, please send reference photos, comp card, head shot, etc.

Angela Blehm Photo Shoot & Interview

I recently had the great pleasure to shoot a mommy/blogger named Angela Blehm.  She wanted some new promo shots of herself, but with a decidedly quirky fashion sensibility to them.  As a first time model, she wasn't sure what to expect, but she did fantastic!  We collaborated on her styling, had Jennifer Denise give her wonderful hair and makeup, and roamed around Atlanta looking for interesting shots.

And the icing on the cake was her featuring me in a post on her blog.  You can read the article here. 

Here are some of my favorite shots from her session: