Matt Steinhoff Archives

December 25, 2011December 26, 2011

Florida Steinhoff Christmas

It was good to be back in Florida in time to celebrate Christmas with my Florida family. We’re not big on ceremony.

Some of us gathered at Son Matt’s Christmas Eve for takeout Chinese Food, which is becoming a tradition.

Strict cooking instructions

Christmas dinner was equally unstructured. Everybody brought a different dish to share so that no one person got stuck slaving away in the kitchen. Even I got drafted. Wife Lila left me strict instructions: “I may not be back from church by 11 o’clock, so take the ham out of the oven at 11 sharp.” When the alarm went off, I went racing into the kitchen. Even with potholders, that sucker was HOT! I managed to extract it from the oven with minimal damage to ham and me. I don’t think anyone noticed where it bounced off the floor. It’s a good thing the cats don’t shed much; there was minimal cat hair to pick off.

The photo includes Matt and Sarah (standing), Mary Jo and Devon (Sarah’s parents), Carly, Graham and Adam, and Lila. Malcolm’s on the left making it plain that he wants dinner over with so he can go back to his loot. You can click on any photo to make it larger.

“You have to be eight to work on this”

Grandson Malcolm wasn’t hearing it when I looked at the cover of the Soda Can Robug and said, “We can’t work on this. It says it’s suitable for ages 8 and older. You’re just seven.”

“GRANDAD,” he said in an exasperated tone, “I’ve put together stuff that’s for ages 14 and up. My parents don’t care.”

I hope she likes my Nikon D40

Son Adam bid on a Nikon D3100 on eBay last week. I’m trying to convince them that they should take my Nikon D40 and let me pay the difference to take it off their hands. I’m happy with the D40 (I’ve taken about 30,000 pictures with it since 2008), but it would be nice to upgrade. Carly’s shooting 10-month-old Grandson Graham with the D40 to see how she likes it.

Lego Assembly technician for hire

I knew better than to point out to Malcolm that this box says 8+. He’s always had a great eye for detail. When he wasn’t much more than a year old, we gave him a bunch of paper cups to play with on the floor. When we looked over, he had carefully arranged them by size and was putting the smaller ones into the bigger ones. He made the transition from Thomas the Train and track layouts to Legos and major construction projects this year.

When one of Sarah’s friends posted on Facebook, “Does anyone else feel like they work on a Lego assembly line?” Sarah offered, “Malcolm says he charges $1 an hour to assemble Legos, unless it’s something cool. Then he does it for free.”

My old Cub Scout neckerchief

Mother sent Malcolm a special gift. He’s modeling a Cub Scout neckerchief and slide that Brothers Mark and David and I wore when we were Cub Scouts with Pack 8, shortly after the earth’s crust cooled. She asked him to “take care of it and pass it down to Graham” when he’s done with it.

Credit where credit’s due

I took the group shot at the top of the page, but Wife Lila took all the rest of the photos with her trusty iPhone.

October 7, 2011

Peeling Paint Photos

When Son Matt found the photo of Paul Lueders that ran earlier, he also stumbled across some of his frames of a subject I’ve been looking for. I’m going to see if anyone can remember where this mural existed. (Don’t cheat and look at the filenames.) You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Horse-drawn fire engine?

It’s hard to tell with a lot of the pieces gone, but it looks like it might be a horse-drawn fire engine. The Dalmatian and the guy in a uniform (in the closeup at the top) send me in that direction.

I’m still looking for my film from this shoot. It’s gonna be in the bottom of the last box I pull out.

Other Cape murals

City Hall / Lorimier School

Dr. Herbert’s office (clown mural not shown, but talked about)

Lutheran Church mural on building that may be torn down to make parking lot.

Sharon Sanders Blog

I frequently send you over to look at Missourian photographer Fred Lynch’s blog, f/8 and Be There. Well, another Missourian writer has launched a blog: Sharon Sanders, the paper’s librarian. She just published a touching tribute to her father, who died at age 94. If you like my stuff, I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading her column. Rumor has it that it’s going to run on Thursdays. Leave her some comments so she feels appreciated. It’s lonely when you’re first starting out and you don’t get feedback.

I had lunch with a young staffer last time I was in Cape. My advice to her was, “get to know your librarian. She can make you look a lot smarter than you are, help you flesh out stories or even give you enough info to write one without heavy lifting on your part.” I never met a newspaper librarian who didn’t love to go digging in what we used to call “The Morgue” for you. I envy Fred for being able to turn to Sharon for help researching his photos.

October 3, 2011June 15, 2013

Paul Lueders

After I ran the piece on Lueders Studio the other day, Son Matt sent me a message that he was pretty sure he could put his hands on a photo that he had taken of Paul Lueders after he had taken Matt’s photo (below). Indeed, he did. After the formal portraits were taken, Mr. Lueders gave us a tour of the studio and sat around talking shop with us for about an hour.

This portrait of a Master Photographer, taken by Matt when he was about 15, does a great job of capturing the informal, laid-back style of one of the best photographers I’ve ever known. He’s relaxed, surrounded by his work, and his hands are a blur as he gestures to make a point.

Photographer Matt

Matt and his brother, Adam, are decent shooters. Both won national awards in Boy Scout photo contests and local competition. Fortunately, their geek genes were stronger than their photography genes and they decided to pursue photography as a hobby, not a profession.

September 26, 2011September 27, 2011

Where Did 36 Years Go?

September 27, 1975, I pulled out my company two-way radio and announced the arrival of Matthew Louis Steinhoff. The next stop was to apply a bumper sticker I had custom made.

Newspaper announcement

In keeping with the newspaper theme, a couple of the gals in the Art Department put together this front page mockup. (Don’t try to read the stories. They pulled random real copy out of the paper to fill the space.)

Time flies when you’re having family

The photo gallery will show how quickly time passes. We survived swim meets (he was Rookie of the Year when he was five); photo contests, Scouts, high school and his move to Orlando to work for The Orlando Sentinel (and his move back to Palm Beach Gardens). Along the way, he met and married Sarah, one of the two best daughter-in-laws any parents could hope for. (Son Adam snagged Carly, the other keeper).

Matt and Sarah have their own Tiger Scout now, seven-year-old Malcolm, and Adam and Carly have started their family with Graham, who was born in February.

How do you pick through 36 years of photos?

Wife Lila looked at my photo picks and kept saying, “You missed that one. You have one with your Dad, but not your Mother. You left out …. How about….?”

My only answer was, “This ain’t his last birthday.” Scores of photos come to mind, but I went with some new ones I discovered this week going through old slide trays. Mixed in are some oldies that are favorites (or, to be honest, were easy for me to find.)

Wish Matt a Happy Birthday

Here’s a quick overview of Matthew Louis Steinhoff. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery. Don’t worry. We’ll add to the collection next BDay. I’ll be sure to have one of Mother in that batch.