Can't Get Me!, by Sam Matamua.

This is my mom's cat. She actually has six cats, but this little guy here was her first, before she turned into the neighborhood cat lady. And so here I am trying to take her picture out in the yard one day as she instinctively runs for cover. She only trusts my mom.

Prints available in my ETSY store.

I Hate Repulicans!, by Sam Matamua.

This mad cat just found out its owner is a republican!

Prints available in my ETSY store.

Koi Fish in Pond, by Sam Matamua.

Colorful and reflective photo of a Koi fish swimming in a pond.

Prints available in my ETSY store.

The Deep, by Sam Matamua.

At the bottom of the sea, the top of the food chain is getting hungry.

The eye monster was made by altering a picture of my mom's flower garden.

The Many Worries of a Kitten, by Sam Matamua.

Portrait of a worried kitty kat.

Prints available in my ETSY store.

Its Curtains for this Cat, by Sam Matamua.

This indoor cat hears the call of the wild.

Puzzled Baby, by Sam Matamua.

This baby looks puzzled. This is a weird one. I don't understand it myself, and I'm the guy who made it. Here you have a portrait of a baby that looks like a picture of a puzzle with missing pieces. Why, I don't know. It just is I suppose

Prints available in my ETSY store.

Rain Dance, by Sam Matamua.

Portrait of Rain splashing on my window. The way the blurry background lights are dispersed in this photo really makes this image work for me. All the light and dark elements in this picture, as well as blurry and in-focus areas, seem perfectly balanced to my eye.

Weird Scenes from the Garden, by Sam Matamua.

Well its weird, CHECK. And its from the Garden, CHECK. I made this a long time ago and don't now remember what was going through my head at the time. It appears to be a big bowl of red leaf soup! mmmmm good.

Prints available in my ETSY store.

Rain Drops in Dark Places, by Sam Matamua.

A drop of rain falls in a dark pond creating endless ripples. Red flowers and green plants, as well as part of the sky, are reflected in the water.

Prints available in my ETSY store.

Old Shade Tree, by Sam Matamua.

Just an old Shade Tree.

Atomic Sunset, by Sam Matamua.

A really really REALLY hot day in the jungle. Or WWIII just started.

Prints available in my ETSY store.

American Sunset, by Sam Matamua.

M1 Tanks roll across the desert. Smoke and dust swirl in the afternoon sun.

These are toy tanks and that's me making a cameo in my own artwork there in the second tank (the one that's further away). The other guy in the first tank is just a plastic figure that came with the tank. But he's cool.

Operation Urgent Light, by Sam Matamua.

Apache Helicopters go on a night mission. Seen here through night vision goggles.

These are toy helicopters which I tried to make look real, but this is probably not fooling anyone, certainly not any military folk. The name 'Operation Urgent Light' came from a website that generated fake military-mission names. I forgot the website else I'd plug it here.

Day at the Beach, by Sam Matamua.

Just another day at the beach.

Prints not for sale at the moment.

Rhinos Under a Blood Red Sky, by Sam Matamua.

The last of the White Rhinos stand guard.

Atomic Baby, by Sam Matamua.

This scene is supposed to take place in the post apocalyptic future where radiation has mutated everything and fires rage across the land. And so from out of the wasteland comes this strange little baby walking out to greet the brand new radioactive day. The poor kid has tentacles for arms.

San Diego: Nightside, by Sam Matamua.

Another night time view of the San Diego Skyline. I like how the water looks very black in this one. I have other similar views of San Diego from this same spot, check my shop if you want to see more.

Prints available in my ETSY store.

San Diego: Docked at Dreamland, by Sam Matamua.

A nighttime view of the San Diego Skyline, with a dreamy reddish hue. Look through my gallery and you'll see I've been to this same spot many times over the years. But each time I manage to get something different.

Asleep in the Park, by Sam Matamua.

This is a panoramic view of the San Diego skyline, complete with a silvery moon in the background. This is actually a very wide shot made up of about 6 or 7 separate shots all stitched together in Photoshop. This is the view from atop the hill at Embarcadero Park North.

I'm not sure how I arrived at the title, Asleep in the Park. I think I was trying to suggest what is for me at least, the somewhat dreamy aspect/nature of the image. Maybe its the moon. Or maybe its because people do really sleep out there. Its a little startling in fact to be creeping around in the dark with a camera and tripod and come upon some motionless bodies laying in the middle of a grassy field. Um, I mean I think they were sleeping.

Arguments in the Garden, by Sam Matamua.

...when I thought I lost her.

Twilight in the Park, by Sam Matamua.

This will look like just a generic treeline to most, however San Diegans may recognize this as the view from Embarcadero Park North. This is about 20 separate pictures stitched together in Photoshop.

Freedom Ridge, by Sam Matamua.

In my mind, the story here is that these three horses have escaped from the ranch and have had a wild night of fun and adventure, but now they have reached the end of the road. They can't go forward and they most certainly can't go back. So although their standing atop Freedom Ridge, they've reached a dead end.

The Last Stand, by Sam Matamua.

I've come to accept this as an elephant and sunset picture. And so should you. However, you may be interested to know that in my mind when I was working on this, that big thing in the background that looks like the sun, was not the sun. I thought it was a spaceship that was going around the earth sucking up all the earth's animals like a big yellow vacuum cleaner.

In the end though, despite my intentions, it just ended up looking like a nice sunset picture. And so be it. But now you understand why I called it 'The Last Stand', because the elephants were about to be sucked up by the aliens.

Flower Power, by Sam Matamua.

I made this image by placing a 500 watt spot light in the middle of my mom's flower garden at night. I took a bunch of pictures and played around with them in Photoshop. I was just experimenting, but that's how I ended up with this interesting picture. It appears these flowers can make their own sun light.

Island God, by Sam Matamua.

This stone statue has been in my family forever. Its about one foot tall and even now sits on my mom's coffee table. I had the funny idea of making it into a giant stone statue on some island in the pacific ocean.

My mom was many years younger when she found this stone head sitting in the trash outside a sculpting class. She always said it reminded her of George Bernard Shaw. And so she took it home. Its older than I am.

San Diego: Darkside, by Sam Matamua.

This shot was taken on New Years Eve of 2004. No, this is not a New Years Eve celebration-type picture. Rather, what I tried to do here is to make a very interesting and dark portrait of San Diego. That's kinda my thing. I like dark portraits of the city of San Diego. But...

Warning, there be spoilers ahead! I mention the fact of this being shot on New Years so I can point out that what you're really looking at here is the smoke of the fireworks hovering over the city. The fireworks show had just ended moments before I took this shot. Ahhh, now you see how I did it!

Dark Side of San Diego, by Sam Matamua.

City skylines look best at night and San Diego's is no exception. This shot was taken from Harbor Blvd downtown in what has become my favorite location to shoot the skyline. I've been to this spot many times over the years but only have a few good pictures to show for it.

Broken World, by Sam Matamua.

I was inspired to make this rather desolate scene upon visiting the Salton Sea (the largest lake here in California) for the first time. I'm refering specifically to a little town along its shore known as Bombay Beach, in which half of the town appears to be either buried in mud or completely immersed in water. You can see part of the town in the lower half of this picture.

The rest of the image however, is my own creation. The story here is that this is supposed to be the last man on earth and he's setting sail in his row boat, leaving a broken world behind.

Sunset Cliffs, by Sam Matamua.

This is the view from Sunset Cliffs Park here in San Diego, one of the best places to catch the afternoon sun in California. This is my artistic interpretation of course, it doesn't really look this good :-)

Forbidden, by Sam Matamua.

Here's a very strange and creepy looking scene, with a scary moon and dark foreboding trees. You'd never guess it, but when I made this I was actually trying to create a bright and sunny 'beach' scene, with plam trees and blue skies. But after awhile trying to set up my scene, things just kept getting darker and darker. Before I knew it I was looking at a full moon and blood red skies. Good thing too, this has actually become one of my favorites.

Free Spirit, by Sam Matamua.

A California Seagull, captured here forever in mid flight, heads to destination unknown. Not that you can tell from the photo, but this is from La Jolla Beach here in San Diego. The bird is flying away from the camera.

A tribute to my uncle Teal.

Papagos Islands, by Sam Matamua.

Some people have commented that these birds look like eagles. Sorry to disappoint you eagle lovers everywhere, but these are seagulls! Living here in San Diego I have access to thousands of them. I went down to the beach one day, set my camera up on a tripod and started throwing crackers in the air. Within moments I was surrounded by a flock of seagulls. Then I just started taking pictures. I suppose that's cheating a bit, but that's how I made these seagulls.

Sails After Midnight, by Sam Matamua.

This was taken from Tidelands Park in Coronado, near the base of the bridge. It doesn't look like I'm anywhere near the base of the bridge in this photo but the bridge curves around and lands just a couple hundred feet away from where I was standing. I've been to this spot many times after taking this shot and still consider this to be my best photo of the bridge.

The Last Forest, by Sam Matamua.

This shot was taken from somewhere along Sunrise Highway, here in California. Sunrise Hwy is about an hour or so east of San Diego and runs through the Cleavland National Forest. As the name suggest, this is a killer area to take pictures of the sunrise ...although, in this particular shot what your looking at is the moon. This was after the big firestorm of 2003 devastated much of the area. I always imagine it is very quiet in the Last Forest

The Last Sunset, by Sam Matamua.

Well lets hope not.