Category Archives: New Work

Portrait of Ron Miller

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on July 4, 2010. No comments.

With today being America’s Independence Day weekend, figured it appropriate to hit everyone with an armed services-related post.

Couple months back, I had a lull in work travels and made some time to photograph Ron Miller, the former Naval Commanding Officer at Magnuson/Sand Point here in Seattle.

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Before getting in studio, I was lucky enough to hear stories and tour his old offices in what is now ‘Building 30,’ a multi-use complex that hosts a number of community events here in Seattle.

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The ballroom floor above no doubt saw quite a bit of traffic, and as he reminisced about the good ole’ days, Ron revealed a number of old cassettes buried deep in his bomber jacket. Apparently, they contained the daily motivational speeches he was often known to give to his newer recruits.

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One title, “Prescription for Relief from Stress” was a favorite. **(As an aside: some days later, I received a compendium of these speeches in printed form. . .)

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While it’s sad to admit that Building 30 now lays in a state of semi-disrepair, there’s quite a bit of community effort to preserve it by transforming it to artists’ studios and small naval museum. The image above shows an installation undertaken by a number of Magnuson Park artists as a means to draw attention to the building’s state.

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Either way, it’d be great to breathe new life into 30 and get someone else in there besides the ducks.

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As we made our way out, I couldn’t help but notice Ron’s sweet bomber jacket.

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Asked him about picking one up in a large, but was informed that it only came in two sizes, 1) no and 2) just Ron’s.

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Much appreciation to Ron for taking the time to sit for me. Happy Fourth to everyone!

More always,

Mike

Two Months Ago. . .

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on June 26, 2010. No comments.

I was keeping everyone abreast of all manner of news, remember? My apologies but I have indeed been swamped with travels. That said, thought I’d take a second and hit everyone with a quick ‘get ready for a bevvy of blog posts’ post.

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Road Warrior Grip Kit and Wardrobe Bundle. Shot in a hotel right around Billings, Montana.

Now that I’m back in the Emerald City for what I think will be at least a couple weeks, I’ll be bringing everyone up to speed on recent happenings: portfolio updates, recent projects, a NEW new Website look . . .

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A gaggle of geese seen near the tulip fields outside La Conner, Washington.

Stay tuned as I leave you (for the moment) with the sentiment best expressed by the Marlboro Man in the image seen below.

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The Marlboro Man seems to be pretty broken up about the whole thing. General Information board in Seattle, Washington.

More always,

Mike

New Portraits and New Portfolios

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on April 25, 2010. No comments.

Been cranking on new things as of late: portraits and portfolios. I’ll get to the latter, but just tackled another set of portraits for the Bemis Art Community blog. This time around it was John Gascon of Occhio Cafe and Ouch My Eye gallery.

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Image above is the one that ran, but I had the time to do a couple versions on account of John’s relaxed nature and willingness to help a fellow artist experiment. That said, I was quite fond of the two images below.

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Either way, do yourself a favor and head on over to the full post to read more about John and his longtime efforts helping artists and the SODO community.

In other exciting news, I now have prototype/1st round versions of my new portfolios that will be hitting photo editor/creative desks very soon.

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How can I show you and not allow a peek inside?

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The scan above is from inside the editorial book. Then here’s a grab from the portrait book.

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These first round looks comes courtesy of none other than photo consultant extraordinaire Amanda Sosa-Stone. She did an amazing job pairing and juxtaposing themes/subjects/events that had been unobserved to my own eyes.

**A word of advice: get someone to lay your book out for you. If anything, it’s just another set of eyes on the ground suggesting what stays and what goes. I’m not speaking to every photographer, but I know I can oftentimes be a little too close to the work I love creating. It was certainly helpful to get someone else’s take.

More always,

Mike

“Doing Math in Your Head” series

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on March 22, 2010. No comments.

I’ve had an idea knocking around for quite some time about a portrait series showing folks doing simple math in their head. Think I was interested in the idea that no matter how comfortable you are at computing digits in the brain, the simple act can indeed yield some interesting portrait results.*

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Seen above is Muna, a graphic design friend kind enough to sit for me as the first subject of the day. I realized pretty quickly that math was not Muna’s strong suit, and she had no problem telling me about it. Wanted to push it another layer, so I got a few more folks into the studio who do math pretty much the entire day.

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This is Kasey, my favorite teller from the local bank where I do most of my financial business. They’re the nicest folks and when I ran the idea by them, they jumped at the idea of sitting for these left-of-center portraits.

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Here’s Cat, manager of the bank. She was always at me about getting that business account. When I came through on that for her, I told her she owed me one. She’s a sport and delivered quite exceptionally on that promise.

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And finally, Sam, the lone guy at the bank. Don’t think he’s smiling because there’s a 5:1 ratio of guys to girls. Oh no, it’s because he was the quickest calculator in the bunch.

Several interesting projects in the works, so stay tuned for new posts over the next couple weeks.

More always,

Mike

*quick note on the project: the left panel image was captured from behind the camera by way of cable release. The right panel image was captured about a half-second to second after by way of ‘capture’ button on a tethered laptop by a completely different DSLR system set up in profile to my subject. Diptychs composed from chronologically symmetrically-sequenced images from either capture system.

Two New Portraits

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on March 18, 2010. No comments.

Some days back, I was asked to photograph a couple of artists for a friend’s new blog that showcases the personalities, artists and small business owners from the Bemis Building here in Seattle.

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There was one minor hitch though: neither of my subjects were all that keen on the typical portrait. In fact, they wanted to see what I might be able to do if I ‘weren’t’ to show their faces.

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I’m all about client services, so I was happy to oblige. In fact, I’m quite liking the results.

More always,

Mike

February in Pictures

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on March 7, 2010. 1 Comment.

So I’ve been rock steady rolling for the last month. Rather than bore you with the particulars, thought I’d show you where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to visually. Hope you enjoy.

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Me shot by friend and colleague, John Keatley in early February.

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That next week of February, I was out on Capitol Hill doing pre-pro for a job and came across this gent looking at an amoebic shape, that or the hole in his chest.

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Around the same time, I photographed Jenna’s father’s law firm: Montgomery, Scarp, MacDougal.

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In the middle part of February, I stabbed myself in the neck in my haste to do something. “The untold dangers of wearing pens in the collars of one’s shirt,” taken by Lionel, Mr. iPhone.

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Also did a two-week truck shoot, and all I managed was this camera phone pic by Lionel, Mr. iPhone in a dimly-lit Pacific Grip and Lighting.

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Straight from the truck shoot, went aboard an Adidas job happening over on the Olympic Peninsula and in Seattle proper.

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Was in Props/Art Dept. on this one.

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Had the great fortune of working with Mr. Dominic Muller of Gus Creative.

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The bare necessities, part 1.

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The bare necessities, part 2.

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My muse.

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A stylist’s handbag.

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Finally got my custom-made specs from dear friend, Scott Urban of Urban Spectacles of Wood.

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Me in Urban Spectacles shot by Tommy Clark.

Confessory

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on January 23, 2010. 3 Comments.

I figure I should post as I’m bound to catch flack from Tom Ridge-ian friends that monitor this blog with the same fervor as those that monitor our National Threat Level. Guess I’m oft-accused of slacking on things from time to time; evidenced by the few drawers I keep that are squarely designated as ‘to be dealt with much later: ‘much later’ meaning 1-1.5 years off perchance’ drawers.

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Yeah, that’s one year of important papers you see above. My buddy and collaborator Ian Goode of Goode Studios was kind enough to make it look fly’er than first envisioned. We’re working on putting the finishing touches on it, but at my rate, you won’t see it for another year anyways. That said, I want to put it out there so as to inform the kind readership of my recent endeavors.

Outside of that, I’ve been dealing with some personal family health stuff that has me a bit out of sorts at present. Grandma and Father unit stuff. Luckily, all’s well at this moment of putting finger to key, but I suspect it’ll all soon flux in the next few days.

Finally got around to shooting an idea that’s been knocking around for quite sometime. Below is one image from the project. Wonder if you can guess what’s going on here?

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More always,
Mike