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

I’ll be away for a little bit working on projects out of the country. To get you over the hump, I went ahead and made you some cake.

Enjoy,

Mike

Got back into the studio tonight after taking the morning and afternoon off to recharge the human AA battery.

I don’t know how you guys relax, but nothing spells chillaxin’ more than digging through my compost pile for my next series involving yard waste.

I must confess, I’ve had this idea bouncing around for quite some time.

More always,

Mike

It wasn’t our usual blood-filled chalice faire or endless rows of tables stacked high with freshly slaughtered fish and game. Today it was Nestle Chocolate Milk, Michael-made Salmon Burgers and an impromptu portrait session that brought dead artists to their knees in heaven/hell/purgatory.

After all the sugar, Bill had a hard time focusing. He kept yelling, “Beam me up, Scotty. . .” apparently mistaking himself for Geordi LaForge after his recent completion of a project for the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum at the Seattle Center here in Seattle.

All in all, it was good fun to hang with Bill. Peep the triptych below.

More always,

Mike

This of course piqued my interest, and we decided it was high time for us to get together and work on a little shoot. He noted that he was oft photographed levitating or making things float, and I asked if he’d be interested in taking a more humorous look at the ins and outs (or dangers in this instance) of being an illusionist.

Given his propensity to spoon and fork bending, I figured it might be downright frustrating at times to sit down for lunch.

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.

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.

Last year, I happened to be driving through during its stop in Fremont, and its completely unreal to witness. All these folks, shuffling along. Hard to explain, but simply put its unsettling. Decided to track down the organizer of this madness and found none other than Cleo Zombie:

Cleo Zombie Dragging Cherie, Victim into Frame

She is the raddest of undead chicks I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. I’d explained that I was looking to photograph some zombie-attired folks, and rather than trying to stage portraits outside during the Zombie Walk in West Seattle on October 26th, she put me in touch with Mr. Geoff Bough of Revenant Magazine and Revenant Film Fest. He and his business partners gave me the go ahead to establish a small photo area and during the night’s festivities, we did some portraits.

Cleo had this great idea to ‘bite’ some folks, they’d become infected (whereby she’d apply a bit of the ole’ zombie makeup treatment) and then infect another and so on, and so on.

I was game to see where it went, and we got as far this gent. This image is about two seconds before Rob (pictured above) witnessed first-hand the raw power of a zombie’s blood lust for fresh human brains.

This guy was great, as was everyone who allowed me to document their attire/makeup as well as their downright love for everything undead and zombie.

Little known fact, but captured here for the first time in recorded history: after 5 or 6 hours of zombie-film, even zombies need a pick me up that bloody brains just can’t satisfy.