Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Kieffer.
Hi Matthew, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hello! My name is Matthew, but most people call me Teo. I am a part-time photographer, a father, and I also work as a senior technician in a specialty pharmacy. I was born in Dallas and have lived here my entire life. I have been doing photography for about 6-7 years. I used to spend hours skimming through (and sometimes reading) National Geographic magazines that my father had. I originally started taking photos of animals, trees & landscapes. A bit after I started my journey in portrait photography and I took a few classes at Richland College. Some of the assignments had us take self-portraits & portraits of other people as well. Once I started taking pictures of people, I started to really enjoying the creativity that you could put into a simple portrait. Since then, I haven’t been able to put the camera down. Right now due to COVID, I have limited the amount of work I do. But, I am still taking on four to six shoots a month, for right now.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There have definitely been challenges. A lot of people do not understand light, or “lighting”, so you will have clients that want to shoot in the middle of day, which is fine if you have your own studio, but if you are like me, who shoots primarily with natural light, then the time of day you shoot is critical. As far as obstacles go, my kids come before anything, so I try to schedule my time frame around them. Once I became a father, everything changed. So, I shoot less to spend more time with them since I am usually at work.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in portraits mainly. I don’t mind doing other types, like products & such. But, I usually like taking photos of people, or couples. Anything that allows me to be as creative as I can. I’m most known for my portraits. My style is usually colorful, with high contrast & natural light. I do occasionally use flashes as well, depending on the mood of the shoot.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
One thing that a lot of people do not know about me, is that I used to own over 30 reptiles.
When I was around 6/7 years of age, I would spend hours every day reading about reptiles, & exotic animals.
I suppose that started the spark of my reptile keeping. I have owned cobras, anacondas, rattlesnakes, pythons, boas, rat snakes, king snakes, tree vipers, turtles, & monitors. For those that aren’t familiar with monitors, they are large lizards that are in the same family as Komodo dragons. I had two monitors, an Asian Water Monitor, & a Nile Monitor.
I’ve also owned a screech owl that had a broken wing. Which I later gave to a bird sanctuary.
I ended up selling all of my reptiles after I had my first child, it seemed the prudent thing to do. I hope to someday introduce reptiles to my children when they are older, so that they can carry on the reptile legacy!
Pricing:
- Standard sessions range from $150-250
- Small weddings $800-1200
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://lostgoldx.wixsite.com/mysite
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/tonesforbreakfasst
