Long Matt & Smith Kelly
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Place of birth | [[Matt Long: Queen Victoria Hospital in Rose Park Kelly Smith: London, Ontario in Canada]] |
| Principal occupation | Long Time Photography |
Matt Long & Kelly Smith - Long Time Photography
"We just started chatting everyday, 3 years later, we met in person"
Matthew and Kelly are a much revered couple in the local sporting community. Maybe you've seen them at most of the local footy leagues? ESPECIALLY if you're a Gawler Centrals supporter.
Matthew and Kelly first crossed paths in the heady days of Internet chat rooms (something I myself am very well versed in! Remember MSN?) Matthew was here in South Australia and Kelly was miles away in Canada.
"Nobody knew what it (Internet chatting) was, but by the time I got back from my first trip, everybody was on it!"
Matt was born at the old Queen Victoria Hospital in Rose Park, a lot of his family were born there too. He grew up in Paralowie till he was about 15 years old before moving to Ingle Farm till his mid 20's. He was schooled at Salisbury Nth Primary and Bethany Christian School before moving on to Tyndale Christian School.
"I used to come to Gawler a few times during the school holidays, as I had a multi-trip ticket and I wanted to go somewhere special.... back then it was like a trip to the country"
Kelly was born in London, Ontario in Canada and grew up in a small town called Ripley (The Hub of Huron!). She lived there for most of her life before moving on to University at Waterloo and then Ottawa (Canada's capital). Once all of her visa's etc were cleared she moved here to Australia in 2009. Both Matthew and Kelly were studying at the same time and with Kelly finishing her schooling first it made more sense for her to move here. They had been to visit each other in Canada and Australia before tying the knot in 2008 where they got married at Niagara Falls! The transition to move from Canada was fairly easy as the people are generally the same, but the weather takes some getting used to (its currently -2 degree's there as i type this).
"It kind of happened by accident...... people were asking us, "Can you take some shots of us!""
Matthew and Kelly are the owners of LongTime Photography, although im sure many of you will recognise Matt as a console operator at Coles Gawler Green Shopping Centre. Their bread and butter is local sports photography, with the occasional wedding or other occasions thrown in to the mix. Matthew started out taking photographs of his brother when he played for Salisbury North. Back then social media was in its infancy, so people and sporting clubs seeing their teams and players promoted online was exciting stuff! It all started at Kilburn and before they knew it teams and players were asking to see some shots of themselves and when Matt had a light-bulb moment of, *gee i could do this for a real gig!* Everything just fell into place. When Matt was asked to be manager of a reserves team, Kelly came to the plate and started taking some photo's too. Photography at Longtime Photography is now a completely joint role.
It led to them coming to Gawler Central Sporting Club where both Matts brother and coach of Kilburn Matty Wheelan also ended up playing/coaching at Gawler Central Football Club. It was Matty Wheelen who invited them over to Gawler to give the Tigers the same treatment he'd experienced at Kilburn. Longtime now covers match days, reserves and even grand finals. Its even lead to them taking their talents over to the SANFL Women's Football league supporting the Central District Football Club.
They are now the club photographers for the Gawler Centrals seniors side and the Central Districts womens side. A lot of the girls who play in the BLGW also make a mark over at Central Districts, so there is a real sense of familiarity.
"Nothing beats the atmosphere of country footy..."
A couple of years whilst in the middle of a game their camera decided to stop working. They were devastated. The club were also disappointed to find out they didn't have many photos for the game, and that their photographers had no camera! The club and players rallied together, passed the hat around and coughed up some money to buy Matt and Kelly and brand new Nikon D7500
"You wouldn't go out of your way to ask someone for something like that, wouldn't even consider it,. That level of generosity, its unheard of. It was really really humbling."
They're going into 2023 being the photographers for both Gawler Centrals and Central Districts (women's) which is quite a task considering they only have one camera between them! It even earned Matt the title of Gawler Centrals 2022 Club Man of the year!
"If people are enjoying our photos, it makes us want to do it even more"
First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 25 October 2023.
Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.
Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.
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