The image above was taken of her at four days old. At a weight of 8 lbs, 2.5 oz and 20.5 inches in length, she came into this world kicking and screaming at 7:07pm on September 23rd. I really can’t explain the joy her presence has brought to my wife and I. We’re a unit now — a family — and it’s extremely profound.

The moment she was born, everything turned bright white and hot for me, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I body wept. . .

In truth, having a child is amazing, exhausing, beautiful, tense, inspiring, tiresome, lovely, frustrating, and cute all rolled into one.

For many months, she was just was Mochiko to us — a nickname given to her by my wife’s co-worker Ruby DeLuna, a reporter at KUOW 94.9 Public Radio Seattle (thanks to Serene, Jemma and staff for the cute onesie above!). Now that she’s really here?! Whoa. . . look out!

The image above is her signature ‘one eye open with contemplative fist under chin’ pose. As I attempt to slowly work my sleepy-time magic on her, out of nowhere, she’s pulls this out and is like ‘ha, got you sucker. . . i’m still awake!’ She then dozes back off a second later. . .

We’ve got really amazing support that consists of family and friends, so the transition to parenthood has been rather smooth. Just in the last three weeks, she’s met countless friends, her Great Grandma, Grandma and Grandpa and her Auntie Mags — all on her mom’s side. In a few short days, she meets her other set of Grandparents when my own folks come into Seattle from Bama.

Tala and I thank you for checking out this post. She and I recommend that you check back soon as I’ve got a host of entries in the queue regarding recent projects for Canada’s Globe and Mail, Fortune Magazine, Mental_Floss Magazine and a pretty cool ad campaign for Seattle’s Experience Music Project that’s everywhere around Seattle right now.

More soon,

Pops Clinard

He and his wife, Ha, were visiting Seattle on vacation from Massachusetts back in July of 2008. They were taking the ferry over to Bainbridge with their two kids when I encountered Ron feeding the seagulls pieces of bread from his hand. This seemed kind of Superman-ish to me b/c I’d worry about them nipping at my fingertips, but Ron was unphased by it.

Ha informed me that Ron passed away from cancer last year, and the news absolutely broke me up. Through their blog, I learned so much about the man so many cared about, and the resiliency he and his family showed until his eventual passing.

My best friend died at 19 from leukemia which was was devastating. The first instance really that I — and my friends — realized we were not invincible. A lot of folks, me included, sweat the small things that really don’t matter all that much, and Ha’s message really grounded me back down to the reality of what’s important.

With that, I ask two things of anyone that happens to be reading this:

1) hug your wife/husband/domestic partner/boyfriend/girlfriend. Squeeze your son/daughter/mom/dad/friend today. Tell them how much they mean to you.

2) give blood any time you have the opportunity to as this saves lives.

Ha asked if I had any pictures of him from that day, and I did which brought great satisfaction to me knowing that she had more images of the man she so deeply loved. Better still, I had one piece of footage from that day.

If you get a sec, head to the clip on my server here or here (won’t work on mobile) OR see Ron in all his glory from that day below on Vimeo. . .

1) got married to the most beautiful woman in the world.

2) been making great headway with my photography after my trip to New York.

(above is my first feature! shot for Benjamen Purvis and Seattle Met magazine. . . more on that in a later post.)

3) am to a point in my life where I feel super content and relaxed (sorry, I couldn’t resist using the image below for those who know my freneticism and inclination toward lateral thinking).

I’m very thankful to have a supportive network of friends, loved ones and terribly creative colleagues. I’m excited to see what the new year holds and wish each and everyone the best in 2011.

I’ve been shooting a host of new personal projects and exciting assignments, so stay tuned in the coming weeks for updates.

More soon,
Mike

I got an email a couple hours back saying that the editorial team selected my project from the several hundred that folks post everyday. Pretty neat being that a couple days ago I decided to pull some images together that I’ve shot over the last year or so in anticipation for the new site that’s being developed. Figured I’d give folks a preview of some of the visuals to expect, and here it goes getting some neat attention!

I suspect that project will drop from the front pages after a week or so, but in the meantime, feel free to visit the gallery and let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy looking at them as I had a great time creating them. Big shout of thanks to all the nice folks that sat for me!

More soon,

Mike

It’s been a busy month for me: the website look is finally being hashed out and collateral material printing for the Office of Michael Clinard, General Photography is gearing up.

Outside of the recent happenings, I found some time to steal away and edit through the 1600 or so photos from the recent trip to Ecuador. I’ve gone ahead and put them up on Picasa here.

When you arrive, I encourage you to click the slideshow option to see them larger; from there, you can pause it to click through at your own pace or turn off the captions if you’d prefer.

Above is an image shot inside the monument La Virgin del Panecillo which overlooks Quito–Ecuador’s capital. It’s a large monument of the Virgin Mary constructed of large steel plates, each one welded and screwed together as seen above.

When I finally stopped to appreciate it’s inner construction, I found myself standing in front of plate 79. Specifically important to me given that it was the year of my birth: 1979.

More soon,

Mike

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting pictures, stories and reflections to ye’ olde blog. For now, I present a couple pieces of art from my 100% adorable, 6 year old cousin, Paola.

Literally everything she did was cute, and I found myself just smiling every time she was around. Paola made these for us on the night of our departure, and they read something equivalent to Mike + Jenna = Paola.

So now you want to see her, right? Alright, I just can’t resist. . . here she is enjoying Parque Historico seven feet off the ground with Jenna.

More always,

Mike

Jenna, aka ‘The Boss’ (pictured above), made it happen. She engineered a low-cost, very effective way of making prints from a short list of supplies found at any Value Village, Goodwill or retail store. The list goes a little something like this:

1) Obtain a few frames from said store. These can be picture frames or those wooden frames that pre-stretched canvas comes on. You know, the canvases that you used to paint your high school masterpieces on. . . exactly, the ones that now reside at above-noted Goodwill store.

2) Find some very sheer curtain tulle that someone has discarded. Probably on the back wall, wedged between the quilts with the stains on them and the Saved by the Bell sweatshirts.

3) Rolls of Contact Paper. It’s probably the case the ones you find at Value Village are still tacky enough to affix to your tulle, but if concerned, feel free to go out and pick up a new roll.

Basically, you staple your tulle very taut to your frame as if making a drum. Affix your contact paper with design cut out and you’re good to go. I found a couple nice tutorials on the process here and here that pretty much break things down.

Above is my contribution. It’s the new brand identity I’ve been bringing into existence with the aid of a fantastic designer in NYC named Tim Lahan. I’m super excited to start the process of spreading the word and getting it out on market.

That said, keep your eyes peeled for exciting new updates from the Office of Michael Clinard: General Photography.

Always,

Mike

Shot while home in Athens.

I’ve had a few people egging me on to put this last one up.

As well as this one test, which was shot on the eve of my 30th birthday.

More always,

Mike

I kind of feel excited as if it’s turning into this huge journey.

I’d given myself the assignment of taking at least one photo a day. Having already completed the day’s objective with the image of my mother and I, my brother, Ben, egged me on to break out the gear for just one more assuring me it’d be well worth it. With that, I kicked the recliner back down into ‘useless’ mode and headed off for my bedroom.

Below is the room I grew up in from 6th grade on through my graduation from high school.

If these walls could talk. Seeing as how a lot of interesting things have gone down in there, guess multiple lights firing within its hallowed halls were really nothing out of the ordinary.

After I’d tested to make sure all was firing back in my crypt, I had a ball photographing my brother in all manners of pizza slice revelry.