Matthew B. Harrison is a 34-year-old intellectual property attorney that also works for two media trade magazines. His primary legal focus is copyright and trademark protection for visual and audio based artists.
Harrison enjoys photography and music – specifically film and vinyl; hence the name of his website; filmandvinyl.com.
Despite having been paid for my photography, and having a masters degree in fine art photography, Harrison does and will always consider himself an amateur. “It’s a state of mind… always learning… with realistic expectations,” says Harrison. He continues, “I share my work and my thoughts because I want to educate and inspire others. Take my ideas and run with them – just let me know what you do. I am always looking to add to my network of photographer/artists.”
My primary cameras are:
Dorothy: An Aero Liberator created by John Minnicks. It’s an almost full frame 4×5 SLR that uses an Aero Ektar lens that is calibrated for infinity. It’s the ultimate portrait camera.
Leica M240: This camera is my favorite leica in my collection. I think it’s perfect. A lot of people think the CMOS is somehow not as good – and the digital view finder / video is not the quality that Leica should be producing. The camera is as near perfection as digital will allow an analog shooter to be. Paired with a .95 Noctilux, and it too is an ultimate portrait camera.
Canon 1VHS: This is the flagship of the Canon film line. I purchased it used for half the price of last years digital rebel. To me that was shocking… but my wallet thanked me. I use this camera with a variety of manual focus lenses including the Petzval from Lomography, some modified Leica R mount and Zeiss, and one of my favorites – the Canon 50mm 1.0L.
I am also breaking in a black (re)paint Leica M3 with 50mm Leica Summicron lens. I had a chrome M3 that got busted (i.e. I burned a hole in the shutter) while in Slovakia. So I have two film bodies as I opted to keep both and just share lenses. It worked well on my trip to Bermuda – when the black m3 had high iso film (for evenings) and the chrome had low iso film (iso .6-25 – for days).
I develop most of my own film. Most of what I shoot is black and white – but I have shot and developed my own c41. I hope to expand to e-6 and to larger sizes – such as 11×14 by the end of 2016.
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As a general rule, if a location is open to the public, such as a mall, park, office building lobby, store, etc, you will not need express permission to enter the premises and shoot – as it is assumed that entry is permissible. However, if you are shooting somewhere and the property owner asks you to leave, you must do so or you could face potential criminal or civil liability for your trespass.