» 2009 & Past Events

Wedding: Dim Horizon Studios Big Day

Nicole — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:00:33 +0000

It would be best to being by saying that my wife never dreamed that she would end up marrying a photographer. It’s not that Nicole has anything against photographers, it’s more that she’s spent most of her life doing her best to avoid cameras in general. So, of course, she had to go and marry one just to prove that it can be done.

Like most brides, she really wanted her 15 minutes in the spot light with a gorgeous dress while surrounded by our friends and family. The big thing was that we were both quite budget conscious and didn’t want the horrendous price tag typically associated with weddings. (That and she knew, given the chance, I’d be halting the ceremony every so often to capture my special day with my soon to be wife.)

After a great deal of discussion, we both decided the easiest solution for us was a destination wedding where everything would be taken care of; including a photographer. For me, that was a hard concession to make but I knew my lovely wife Nicole was right when she said the day was about us and I simply couldn’t be in two places at once regardless of my desire to do so.

In the end, we decided on a Las Vegas Wedding. We even watched the “Hangover” to be certain we knew how to NOT do the whole affair.

While it was true, not everyone could join us on our joyous day, we still were surrounded by many of our closest friends and family. After the ceremony, Nicole was kind enough to entertain me by running around the Las Vegas strip to allow me to get some amazing shots of my beautiful wife. Las Vegas Weddings may not be for everyone; but we were both quite happy to take advantage of the opportunity for our day.

And, of course, Nicole managed to get her 15 minutes in the spot light. I will say though, she’ll always remain in the spot light in my heart.

Here are a few of shots taken by Dim Horizon Studio

To book a Wedding Package, check availability, or if you simply have questions please contact Dim Horizon Studio at or Contact Us Directly

Abandoned Prison: The Fire

Matt — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:00:57 +0000

I have to say, 2009 was really not the best of years for abandoned homes/locations in Georgia. As you may have noticed, I wrote about two particular locations recently (and linked below if you missed them) I’ve used previously that were lost to new development or general land upkeep.

Much to my own dismay, one of the more popular abandoned locations in Atlanta wasn’t able to avoid this unlucky curse either. The Abandoned Prison I wrote about before was set ablaze by someone thinking it might be funny to leave their mark on the city in a violent and destructive way.

You can catch the article still on AJC.com (Atlanta Journal & Constitution).

I quickly made it down to the location the weekend after learning of the fire to see what was left. Thankfully, it looks as though only the entire second floor of the place was destroyed leaving a share of the unique gem still untouched by flames.

Abandoned Prison: Part II

Matt — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:00:13 +0000

As you might have noticed from some of the other galleries I’ve posted Decorative Gallery and other posts Abandoned Prison: Part I that I’m really fond of abandoned places.

After learning about the abandoned prison in Atlanta, I couldn’t help but imagine what it’d be like to do portfolio building events there as well. I’ve always loved those captivating shots done by many other photographers with models in outlandish locations. This contrast between environment and model in my mind produces a surreal beauty that is otherwise extremely difficult to capture otherwise.

Needless to say, with that goal in mind, with a few other talented photographers we combined our efforts to hold a little event at the prison. We were lucky to be able to grab both Jessica & Meredith to shoot with us that day.

As always when I host these sorts of events, I shot quite a bit of the location while others were working with the models.

Jessica was in rare form during the entire event. As with my previous shoot with her she did a fantastic job in dealing with such a difficult environment while maintain the highest level of professional mannerisms.

Meredith brought all her talent to bare as well as a fantastic assortment of wardrobe options with her. I have to say, my favorite piece that she brought with her was a purple straight-jacket that seemed oddly appropriate for the shoot. The black and white image below actually also won an award on DeviantArt and was featured on Death-Chicks for a few months.

Anime Weekend Atlanta 15

Matt — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:00:45 +0000

If you’re not familiar with AWA (Anime Weekend Atlanta), it’s a Japanese animation (or Anime) and comics convention held in Atlanta each year shortly after Dragon*Con. It’s quite an exciting convention filled with interesting and unique costumes (or as they might call it cosplays).

I’ve been going for quite a few years now typically just to see whats popular as well as to check out all these fantastic costumes. You can see some of my past coverage at the following links:

This year was a fairly quiet year for me as far as AWA is concerned. I was so dead tired from Dragon*Con that I barely got to do anything or really enjoy all the activities available. However, I did get to attend a few things, namely the fashion show indicated below as well as meet up with a few of my local repeat clients.

Here are a few examples of the shots I took during the Lolita Fashion Show

I was fairly lucky to also run into the Outland Armour crew at AWA. There was a steampunk ball late on evening to which they were the guests of honor. I was able to grab a few shots before they went into the event.

Near the end of the convention, a couple of old friends asked if I would shoot their group as well. I’m always happy to help a friend out when I have the spare time. Here are the shots below for you to check out!

Dragon*Con 2009: Part II

Matt — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:00:17 +0000

As with 2008, Big City Burlesque preformed at Dragon*Con 2009. I was quite lucky this year to get special seating due to all the time I’ve donated to them over the course of the past year. The show itself was spectacular as always.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not that familiar with the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman but when one of my models approached me to shoot their group while at Dragon*Con, I was happy to help.

Here’s some examples of our short little session one afternoon!

I had the pleasure of also scheduling time with Outland Armour late one evening at Dragon*Con. It’s quite the rarity to get this many of the crew together but we ended up taking a stroll and utilizing some of the nearby buildings to do a shoot. I’ve got to say, they always blow me away with their costumes and overall design.

Be sure to check out my The Steampunk & Neo-Victorian Collaborative for more shots of this fantastic organization.

As I mentioned in the other post, I really attempted to book and maximize my time at Dragon*Con in 2009. With that, I was contacted by Three Muse Clothing to see if we couldn’t organize some time to shoot some of her new designs to be used in various advertisements. I, of course, jumped at the opportunity and was able to get some fantastic shots in the process. Check them out below as well as the link to the published material!

Be sure to check out my published materials for the shot that was utilized as an advertisement.

Dragon*Con 2009: Part I

Matt — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:00:18 +0000

Let me begin by saying, Dragon*Con 2009 was one of the most active, hectic and generally stir crazy conventions I’ve ever had the dismay of participating in. As if the stress of running a booth wasn’t enough, I also had the pleasure of scheduling a wedding (away from Dragon*Con), 2 events (at Dragon*Con) and 5 specific client shoots during the course of this holiday weekend / special event.

I know… I’m crazy… but there really never is any rest for those with passion and drive.

I had initially planned on having all my antics at Dragon*Con in a single article and thought better of it as I started to write this. So, with that said, the second article is available and you can access it here.

The first big event for Dragon*Con 2009 was my new booth in collaboration with Steam Powered Pinky. I have to say, it was a fantastic design dreamed up by the both of us that ultimately lead to a tremendous increase in sales when compared to Dragon*Con 2008.

As with every big convention I attend, I always try to maximize my time by network and working with people I typically wouldn’t have access to. Meredith ended up being a lovely example of that. We found each other through Model Mayhem and the rest is really history.

Adding to the stress of the convention, I also had an old friend from my time at Kennesaw State University request for me to shoot her small wedding ceremony that weekend. It was really an intimate and lovely affair to behold. If you’re curious over my wedding package offerings be sure to check out my service page linked below!

Wedding Packages by Dim Horizon Studios

I also had the pleasure of working with one of Atlanta’s dynamic twin duo on their

Be sure to check out my Dragon*Con 2008 Coverage!

Extraordinary Places Lost: Part II

Matt — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:00:19 +0000

You might have noticed that the last couple of posts all had a similar location. I thought it would be important to continue on my trend of illustrating the pictures I’ve done in a location followed sadly by the loss of said location to show that so many of these abandonments blossom only to be demolished.

Speaking to the Kennesaw Abandonment and the location I spoke of previously as the Kennesaw Mountain Abandonment, this home really was relatively new to the abandonment scene. While, I can’t say for certain and I’m only using my skills of observation to determine it, this house couldn’t have been more then 3 to 6 years old. Scrappers obviously had their way with the home (most of the fixtures, pipes, & wire was ripped out of the house) but the overall structure was something you might have seen in any new development in Kennesaw.

It looked as though it would have been a lovely home if it hadn’t been for a truly horrible location. The driveway wasn’t really finished nor did it look as though it was ever finished and across the street was a power station. So… if you don’t mind glowing in the dark and having to have a 4 wheel drive to park at your house, it was definitely a home for you.

With all those things aside though, here’s a gallery of the images I was able to create in this amazing location.

And if you’d like to take a deeper dive into the articles associated with the pictures above.

I’d like to conclude this article with more shots of this lovely house that is no more. I always feel a little regret when dealing with places like this. I always hate to see them go, but it does make me work harder to take advantage of places that aren’t lost to the world.

As with all images on my site, should you have any questions, comments or would like a print of any image displayed please feel free to Contact Me directly.

Bioshock with Volpin Props

Matt — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:15:59 +0000

Where do you even begin with this sort of shoot?

Let me begin by saying an avid fan of Bioshock. (Although, I will say, I’m also quite fond of its spiritual parent System Shock 2.)

This whole affair began during Dragon*Con 2009, I had the pleasure of accidentally running into Harrison in his mighty suit during one of my many shoots. I quickly grabbed a shot but I was left speechless by the amazing attention to detail on his costume.

It was sadly a somewhat problematic affair at the time since I was with a client and wasn’t able to pull his guide aside. I thought I had basically lost the chance to interface with whoever had made the amazing costume and see if they might be interested in one of my creative shoots. It wasn’t until a week after the convention, one late evening, and a friend of mine forwarded me a link to Harrison’s build documentation/blog.

Excited and with that information in hand, I sent a message through the blog in hopes that I might be able to track down this creative powerhouse. It was shortly after that, he responded to my initial inquiry and the rest as they say is history.

From the photography perspective, the entire affair was quite a challenge. While I specialize in shooting with natural light in rather obnoxious environments, the Aquarium presented a whole new set of problems I hadn’t had the pleasure of coping with. From the lack of truly strong light source to the cold color temperature of the environment, I had to compensate with my knowledge while also using a very limited set of tools. We only had a short time and I didn’t want to be bogged down by lighting equipment or multiple cameras.

Ultimately, I did the entire shoot with my 24-105mm F4 IS lens and also utilized a small set of pocket strobes (The ones I used are similar to this and battery operated, I’d highly recommend picking up a couple if you’d like to experiment with long exposures) for fill on my long exposures. During my post processing, I utilized a combination of Lightroom and CS2. I also took the liberty of combining a few exposures into single shots to achieve the HDR look you might notice in a few shots.

If you haven’t had a chance, you should review Harrisons build documentation on the suit as well as his review of the shoot itself. (Both of those links you will find below)

We’ve also decided to offer a number of wallpapers from our shoot. You may access all the various images and sizes below.

Lastly, if you are interested in purchasing prints from this shoot. You may do so through my Fine Art Print Gallery.

Available Bioshock Prints

If you’d also like to keep track of what Dim Horizon Studio has in store in the future, be sure to check us out at Facebook and/or Twitter

Terrible Tragedy – Brittany Weiss

Matt — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:13:44 +0000

I really had hoped that this day would never come to pass. One of the lovely people I’ve had the chance to work with has passed on. Brittany Weiss, whom I had the honor of working with back in March was struck and killed by a drunk driver on Christmas Night in Cherokee Country, GA. Thankfully, her passenger, Kassandra Carman was only injured in the accident though still remains in ICU. I really don’t know what to say with all this, it strikes very close to home given my own experiences with these sorts of tragedies. I almost lost my girlfriend to a drunk driver and this whole affair brings that entire situation to light. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the friends and family of Brittany. She was an amazing lady and the world simply won’t be the same without her.

Urban Mainstream Cover

Matt — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 21:44:02 +0000

I was lucky to be contacted by Urban Mainstream late in November of 2008 to participate in a special event at Lamborghini of Atlanta. It was quite an experience and the models from Allure Model Management were top notch. Below is a link to the site if you’d care to see the cover and below you will also find a link to a gallery of shots taken during the event.