Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Scott Matteson-Bixler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Scott, appreciate you joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
I started photography as a hobby while living in Tokyo, Japan while serving in the US Navy. I wanted to capture the moments of traveling Asia and Australia because it was my first time living outside of the US. I bought myself a Canon point and shoot digital camera from the base store and barely read the directions on how to shoot good photos. I just figured out lighting, color, framing etc. and hoped for the best. The two lessons I learned the hard way while living in Japan was: I should have taken more photos and also researched how to back up my photos on an external hard drive. I learned the second lesson after my laptop had the “blue screen of death” and I lost a majority of the photos over the last 4 years.
When I got back home to LA, I enrolled into a beginner photo class at Santa Monica College to learn how to be a better photographer. The beginner photo class finally gave me something to focus on after searching for a couple years in college. After the beginner photo class, I took a photo editing class and learned how to be a lot more organized with my art. My photography took off when I took a class on photojournalism and was on the Santa Monica College newspaper for a couple years. I got to learn about the Santa Monica College campus, communities,
My time on the Santa Monica newspaper, The Corsair, taught me how to interview important people, research facts about a potential story and how to take photos of news events without becoming part of the story. Going to protests in LA to document what was happening in the world, also taught me to keep taking photos throughout the event because it can change in an instant. I also learned how to make a quick exit if the situation (such as the 2020 BLM riots) went sideways. The police aren’t there to help you.
After the crazy protests, I was offered a story to take photos of the Santa Monica College Cheerleaders and of course I took it. This led me to get into fitness and learning how the body works. I also learned that cheerleading isn’t always what we see in movies or on TV. Cheerleading and football taught me how to shoot faster and pay more attention to the action happening around me. I made a ton of new friends and grew as a photographer because I was starting to get paid for shoots. After cheerleading I found the Original Muscle Beach through a college friend and my photography business took off into space. So, 8 years later I am still at the beach creating art with friends and occasionally being paid for photo shoots.
My photography has been influenced by friends, news events such as fires, police activities and protests (from Israel/Palestine to the BLM riots in 2020.) I also walked around Santa Monica during the Pandemic in 2020 and documented how empty the city was. It was a crazy time. Some of my greatest photos have been sheer luck or, when I was in a deep friendship with someone or, in depression. I just used the connection with a close friend to create art and come up with crazy ideas, such as shooting Christmas acrobatic photos at The Grove. It was a really fun night during the holidays with a couple of friends.
The depression would be the opposite of that and the depression was also a part of losing my brother to a motorcycle accident. I still got myself out of the house to at least hangout with friends at the beach or, just go for a walk at sunset. I mostly like to be happy/peaceful while creating art. I still have another couple years to until I have been creating digital art for 10 years and that will be a big accomplishment.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a native of LA who grew up in Playa Del Rey and every year my family would go on road trips to all of the western states, from Arizona to Salem, Oregon. We would go on hikes, cave exploring, skiing in Mammoth and to all of the State/National Parks. My parents encouraged us kids to always be outside playing and exploring before we could play on the computer. This led me to joining Boy Scouts after my two younger brothers had already been in the Scouts for a while. The joy of being outside and going on different adventures with the Scouts eventually got me to join the US Navy after Sept. 11th.
I started photography as a hobby while living in Japan because I wanted to document my adventures in the Far East and Australia. The Navy was my biggest adventure because I was on my own and was exploring foreign countries without my family. It was a bit scary to leave the US to go live in Japan without knowing any of the language or culture. Sometimes you have to get up and go take a leap into the unknown. This is what influenced me to be a photographer and got me interested in exploring/learning about the big opportunities in the world.
When I got home for the final time and into college, I took a photo class to learn how to be a better photographer and how to eventually make a business out of creating art. It was scary to meet important people and learn how to sell myself to people who needed photos for their own business. My photography mostly centered around news in Santa Monica and LA since I was on the Santa Monica College newspaper. I eventually shifted into fitness and yoga photography after being the Santa Monica College Cheerleading photographer for a couple years. Being in the fitness, yoga and acrobatics community at the beach has set me apart from a lot of photographers because I am in a niche field of photography. I also never photo shop any of my photos because I love to show people what I actually see in front of my lens.
I am most proud of not being pressured to photo shop any of my art because I am in a community of friends who push themselves to be amazing at moving their bodies to the extreme (sometimes) and having their own pride in their art. This has helped me to also practice just as hard in my own photography. This creates a fun and creative space when I do shoots with friends/clients because we can come up with ideas that may or may not work. I also love friends who want to go shoot in windy, or the rain because it’s a challenge to stay warm and helps us be even more creative.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I like the freedom that creating art has given me. I like how I can be at the beach one day and then being a wedding photographer on the weekend. If I am not taking photos of a wedding on the weekend, sometimes I will be out exploring Sedona, Arizona with my dad. Photography has given me endless opportunities to be creative and to share it on social media. I got into the social media world late because I had to take care of real life first, but it hasn’t stopped me from taking photos of yoga clothing brands and in yoga studios for friends/clients.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
When I got back home to LA after living in Japan for four years, I was helping my brother (who was working for ATAT at the time) with security at one of the stored for the launch of the very first I-Phone. It would be a few years before I got my first smart phone, which was a Google Pixel, and I didn’t even have a phone plan for it. It would be a couple more years until I had a functional smart phone and was able to make my Instagram account. When, I had my small Instagram account, I went around to all my friends in college and asked them nicely to follow me. Some did follow me, and some didn’t. It wasn’t until I started taking photos of the Santa Monica College Cheerleaders that my Instagram account started to grow. I had the whole team following me so, I could share photos with them. Around the same time, I found the acrobatics/yoga community at the beach and by asking friends nicely to follow me, my audience/client base grew even more. As my photography craft got even better, my audience grew, and I started to do photos for yoga brands and studios. My social media presence grew by word of mouth via beach friends and participating in the beach community.
Growing a social media presence helps by being honest with yourself and others. Finding out what you’re interested in and drives you to wake up in the morning also helps to grow and audience that will share your craft/art with their friends and family. I didn’t spend any money growing my audience, it is just years of hard work and not being afraid to meet new people in the world.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sbixlerphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sbixlerphotography/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-bixler-88736977/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/S_BixlerPhoto
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SBixlerPhoto?si=w0HLiep4sK_DLPzP
- Other: https://linktr.ee/sbixlerphotography