Monthly Archives: November 2008
Bamaville 2 and Michael Clinard is the Son of a Biscuit Eater
Went fishing with the old man: the resident bassmaster in the family. He took me to all his favorite hot spots, but he was the only one on the fish.
In fact, I had just cast my line into the water to turn around to Dad reeling this one in. He feigned as if he was hung up and tried to play it off as if it were a stick. Truth be told, I think that had I just gone back to my own line, he might’ve just cut the line because he just can’t not catch fish. The man is that good.
In other news, Michael Clinard is the Son of a Biscuit Eater.
Bamaville 1
I’m home for the holidays visiting the folks.
Whenever I ring from Seattle, this is approximately what I picture in my mind’s eye.
I’ll have more soon in the coming days,
Mike
2008 Emerald City Gamefest Portraits
What’s that you say? You were at the Emerald City Gamefest this weekend for tons of rad board games and RPG’s? No need to look surprised young lads, as I had the great pleasure of doing some portrait work of those in attendance.
Initially, I’d been trying to hunt down a backdrop with a fantasy element to support the theme of the event, but all I came across were unicorn fabrics and a faux-cloudy sky thing that just didn’t cut it.
That’s when I started thinking about a double seamless setup. Something fun and upbeat to reflect the sensibilities/personalities of the attendees, but with a royal/regal bent and got the gist of a pink and purple schematic. Also thought it interesting that its the color of Easter, and given the multitude of resurrections happening with each successive role of the dice, I thought the idea fitting.
“Ffej” as Cassie (telepath). 2008
Marcus aka MIB2404 of Munchkin, 2008.
Otto of Warhammer 40,000: Member of the White Scars Space Marines, 2008.
John as Cheldon de Moche (Hobbit Thief), 2008.
Mr. John Bradley, 2008.
Tim with the Amazing Eyebrows, 2008.
This here’s Laura. She kind of made it happen for me. She and Jenna do Aikido together, and after a recent get together celebrating those who moved up in kyu (pronounced ‘cue’), we started chatting about hobbies and work.
That’s when she mentioned, Quelf, a role-playing game that she was super fond of. She went on to say that there was an event where many would be playing it, along with a whole host of others. A couple days later, she put me in touch with the organizer, Mr. Ed Metheny.
He and his wife flew all the way up for the event from California as they’d recently moved down for work. That’s dedication. So thanks for making it happen Ed!
Of course I should say that Ed isn’t the kind of guy that strikes me as taking all the responsibility. He’d probably first thank all of the game-loving folks in and around Seattle who came out to participate. Following that up by thanking a small group of dedicated staff members who take time out of their busy schedules to locate venues, organize the day’s events and make sure there’s plenty of caffeinated sodas on hand to keep the gamers going.
Thanks to everyone I had the pleasure of meeting. I had a great time. Hope to see you all next year!
Coming Uppances from Clinard
What was that you say? Coming Uppances? Are those even words?
Here on the Blog of Michael Clinard they are, and its my way of saying that I’ve got some big things on the horizon. Besides heading home for the holy days, seeing the family and tackling some portrait subjects down there in the Southland, I’m doing a conceptual Paul-Prudhomme-meet-E-40-in-the-kitchen photoshoot sometime in December (shout to my boy Fridge: big ups kid). Stay tuned for that.
The shot above is one from today and of my man ‘Jackson of Olympia.’ I say it like this as I was out at the Emerald City Gamefest photographing the enthusiastic attendees. Tonight as I review the film, I’m super excited by what I’m seeing. Many thanks to all who participated. I’ll soon have a bigger blog post about that in the coming days.
More always,
Mike
The Heraldry of Triple Step Studios
Either in studio or on location, you might have seen me stepping back and forth in place to some non-existent beat. Should one come within earshot, you might hear me repeating ‘step, step, rock step, step, step, rock step. . .’ and so on.
Sure this scene has caused a few to ask if I might have once been dependent on a walker: some daily exercise performed to keep me up on the all the cutting-edge advances in walking. Perhaps my mother pitched me out into the middle of a busy food court at 1 year old, and its some kind of traumatic flashback as my scampering baby-self desperately fled the clomping feet around me.
No my friends.
I practice the dark and sinful art of Swing Dancing. Some dig human sacrifice, others cast spells and curses. I prefer shaking my tail feathers to a snazzy old tune. In fact, it’ll be a year ago in January that I picked it up.
Here are my teachers: Sara, Maureen and Matt.
This is the super-awesome crew of Triple Step Studios, and I had the great pleasure of photographing them this morning in anticipation for a refresh of their website. After dancing them to death, they were plumb knackered, so I sat them down for a cool down portrait session.
Matt looking fly.
Sara looking rad.
Maureen looking snacky.
Four New Years!
Brothers and Sisters. Sons and Daughters. Moms and Dads. Grandmas and Grandpas. Cats and Dogs. Earthworms and Beetles. Small birds and Eagles. Sharks and Little Fish. Sun and Moon. Wind and Water. Up and Down. This and That. All and None. . .
A new day has dawned. Barack Obama has won the 2008 Presidential Election! Four New Years!
To commemorate this historic event, I created this “Barack Obama wins the Presidential Election 2008 Pizza.”
Here are the ingredients:
*1 frozen Safeway Thin Crust Supreme Pizza
*10 minutes of plucking fresh thyme off the stems as I watched folks crying in joy over Barack’s win
*6 little slices of Yellow Pepper we got from Jenna’s Mom the other night
*3 Green Tomatoes from the Magnuson Pea Patch this lady gave us but sat long enough to turn red
*More Cheese (of course)
*Twenty twists worth of fresh ground pepper
*3 Pinches of Cayenne Pepper
*Some lump crab meat that I felt would be better served on a pizza rather than suffocating in a canister
*Dashes of Hope, Democracy and Change
To all my Southern folks lamenting over McCain’s coming up short. Don’t fret, your native son will be home for the Holidays to serve you a slice of this delicious new creation.
El Lay, The Unending Battle over Arm Rests and My Fifteen Minutes of Fame on the Cutting Room Floor
excerpt from Pumphrey Brothers show on G4 “Human Wrecking Balls” Photoshoot in LA from Michael Clinard on Vimeo.
Some time ago, on a flight back from LA with Keatley after working on the project above, I found myself wedged between Large Important Guy 1 and Large Well-Dressed Gent 6. Because I was the slimmer of the two, was one of the last to board and found myself sitting in the middle seat of our row, I was left without arm rest space.
When it comes to this unspoken bit of territory, the tension is quite palapable. Its the proverbial elephant in the room next to a patchouli wearing guy/gal that’s about to go backpacking through Europe, and he/she is taking your connecting flight to beef up on some zzz’s all the while digging youthful knees into the back of your seat.
Better still, I might liken it to the anxiety one feels when out with a few friends and there are 2 of the 6 best hors d’oeuvres you’ve ever had left on the plate, and you know you’ve already eaten you’re mathematical portion.
I’m pretty non-confrontational, so living in Seattle over the last few years has really honed my passive-aggressive skills to a precision point. That said, in the battle over arm rest rank, I make a strategic seat-back position maneuver to full reclined position as soon as the jet takes off from the runway. This tactic is guaranteed to yield another four inches to any standard arm rest on any arm rest opponent.
Its proven time and again that from this post, you can then take your opponents’ rank incrementally through subtle and well-calculated strategic movements and shifts when he/she goes to take a sip of water or turns the page of their reading material.
Me about to make my Big Debut on Little People Big World Holiday Special on TLC from Michael Clinard on Vimeo.
On another note, the video above is minutes prior to my big debut on Little People Big World. Long story short, I was there to lend location assistance/lighting support again to Mr. Keatley, but there was another photographer there: an Olan Mills portrait photographer to document the 30 odd family members in attendance.
With the filming and production schedule to keep, on top of the fact that these people were genuinely looking to eat dinner, we were all a little pressed for time. The producer informs me that I’m just going to go in and start setting up lights and it might seem that I’m the local Olan Mills photographer’s assistant. Which I expressed would be fine, provided I wouldn’t be cast in some strange completely-out-of-context light whereby a strobe might misfire, the Olan Mills lady would get snappy and then it’d be some extreme close-up on my face with a boing’ing spring sound effect.
Evolution of a Haircut
No secret: I’ve been going bald since high school.
That said, I’ve always had a vision that my ideal haircut would incorporate this particular handicap into my favor. The vision is straight out of Mad Max, and if memory serves, I believe Tina Turner had this kind of doo in Thunderdome.
Below you’ll find the more refined manifestation of my vision. I lived with it for a matter of hours (with newly cropped facial hair design) but alas, I gave it up with the foresight to know that a place like Athens, Alabama isn’t ready for such a revolutionary utterance in hair sculpture.