Category Archives: Outtakes

Richard Tait for Seattle Met Magazine

Written by Michael. Posted on April 24, 2012. No comments.

My countdown to UAE and BVI is now at two days! Before I head out on that project, I wanted to write about my day spent photographing Richard Tait for Seattle Met Magazine.

If the name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because he’s the guy that created Cranium, the board game that has you hum, draw, sculpt and charade your way through.

Now the guy behind Boomboom Brands and an energy drink called Golazo, he’s a clever guy and one of the more exploratory and “willing to go there” portrait subjects I’ve had the good fortune of shooting lately.

The term “golazo” is an expression Spanish-speaking circles use to describe the most amazing goal (think bicycle kick by a unicorn) ever seen/witnessed/made during a soccer match.

The image below is only an approximation of how incredibly passionate Richard is for soccer and it’s culture, and I think his energy drink is aptly named.

This project went so incredibly smooth! It was helped by the fact that I had an amazing crew that day in addition to a super chill and down-to-earth portrait subject.

To give folks an idea of what I mean, thought it be fun to debut a video project my colleague Dylan Priest shot that day. It’s about a minute and a half and shows the crew and Richard hanging out, having fun and taking pictures.

It’s embedded below, so if you don’t see it check it out on Vimeo here.

More always,

Clinard

Marijuana DUI – Seattle Weekly Cover Shoot

Written by Michael. Posted on April 9, 2012. No comments.

On any given day, I’m very lucky to have emails like the one below sitting in my inbox:

It’s been a while since we spent that lovely Saturday with Leroy (Leroy Bell – the X-Factor contestant who I shot some months back)… I wonder if you might be interested in doing another cover shoot? The story is about pot… more specifically driving high… more specifically how high is too high to drive?

There was nothing more to say other than I’m in, so I got started straight away on concepting this project for Jane Sherman of Seattle Weekly.

She was quick to point out that the magazine wasn’t interested in doing something too clinical but more irreverent like someone hitting a bong behind the wheel.

Think the usual expectation might be to see a 20-something in this particular role, but I wanted to turn this one a bit more on its ear.

Like for example, a grandmother character that used marijuana for her glaucoma, and — while enroute to the grocery store to pick up a few ingredients for her weekly dinner with the grandchildren — she crossed the center line and got pulled over by the police. My art director was receptive to the idea but said she would have to be one of the most over-the-top Grandmas in existence.

So when I wrote back to confirm my buddy Adam Schmitt’s 101 year-old grandmother, Evelyn, agreed to be our model, Jane’s mind was put at ease when I shared the images above and below.

I’d never met Evelyn in person, but I was well-versed with her “dramatic range.” On Adam’s Facebook page, I’ve seen her hitting bottles of whiskey and brandishing firearms for the camera, so I knew the potentially taboo topic of driving under the influence of marijuana would be a fun theme for us to explore.

Adam’s sister, Jennifer — who just so happened to be in town from Boston — was a great help with Evelyn’s wardrobe, additional propping and the general production side of things as we shot the project south of Seattle in Steilacoom.

Smoke was added with the aid of a fog machine and dry ice contained in the glass pipe. My sister-in-law’s Chevy Malibu proved to be the perfect stunt car.

Super big thanks to the talented Gretchen Hilmers of G-tou for additional effects and post. Peep it below to get a sense of how it ran on the cover of the magazine.

Additional thanks to my art director, Jane Sherman, Adam Schmitt (who was also my cop), his sister Jennifer, Gregg the assistant, and especially, Evelyn, who took time out of her schedule to make this rad project the best it could be.

SIDENOTE: While in her home, I learned Evelyn was quite the canner as evidenced by the shelves of goods kept in the garage. As thanks, I arranged a portrait sitting showcasing one of her favorite hobbies that’s helped to keep her 101 years young.

Props to Ian of Gigantic Squid for lending the touch to the one above.

This was a super fun project! I look forward to posting more new work and updates in the coming days.

More always,

Clinard

In Case You Are Just Joining Us

Written by Michael. Posted on March 26, 2012. 2 Comments.

About four straight weeks of shooting, and I’m finally coming up for air.

Here’s a quick tally:

1) two cover/feature projects — one of which involved the 101 year-old Grandma seen above
2) two lookbooks for local clothiers
3) a conceptual still-life project for an inflight magazine
4) making notecards float
5) having fun with the American flag
6) a project that involved a rented 737
7) constructed tableaux scenarios regarding the War of 1812

Look forward to posting more about that stuff soon, but — in the meantime — here are a few updates of note.

My website now showcase more of my conceptual/humorous work. New imagery, improved categories/galleries and a tearsheets section. Check it out here.

In addition, my work can be seen on At-Edge, both on their website and in their Microview Sourcebooks.

You’ll also find more of my work over on FoundFolios.

In other news, Amanda Sosa-Stone did a short Q&A session with me recounting my 2011. It was truly a banner year considering it was my first year shooting since leaving assisting in late 2010.

Keep your eyes peeled for more mention of me in that regard out on the national photo blogosphere sometime later this week.

More soon,

Clinard

 

Starbucks Coffee – Fast Company Magazine

Written by Michael. Posted on February 15, 2012. No comments.

In keeping with the current cover story trend, I was recently tapped to shoot the executive team at Seattle-based Starbucks for Fast Company Magazine’s annual list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2012, where they took #24.

This assignment was shot at Roy Street Coffee, a pretty cool cafe on Capitol Hill offering a wide range of coffees and teas along with baked goods from The Essential Baking Company.

Probably one of the more fun groups I’ve had the pleasure of working with lately, these folks have their hands in all manner of the company’s social media and partner relation channels. The above outtake shows Mr. Arthur Rubinfeld, chief architect of the Roy Street concept, in the right foreground stirring it up with his colleagues.

What’s interesting about the Roy Street location — besides the fact you can grab a beer or vino if you’re not looking to get caffeinated — is its respect for the environment whereby reclaimed wood and repurposed objects are used throughout the cafe as architectural elements and adornments.

On my scout day, I absolutely fell in love with the wall above.

Nine portrait subjects meant establishing a lighting approach that was rather broad in scope. Better stated, I wanted to “pitch” light into a general area and not so much on any one, individual person.

Knew I’d get something amazingly candid by sitting this group of talented gals/guys down and leaving them be. Got about ten minutes in before they realized we were working again.

Really love the scenario above since nothing brings together a group of folks faster than smartphones and good java!

Thanks so much to Fast Company and the team at Starbucks for an amazing shoot!

Destroy 2012,

Clinard

 

Coming up through the ranks

Written by Michael. Posted on January 6, 2012. No comments.

Michael Clinard wishes you and yours a very special. . . oh wait? Did I miss the cutoff for sending out gimmicky, holiday-themed ephemera?!

Oh no, that’s just me and my good friend, Patrick Kehoe, hanging with Santa Claus some months back on a job I shot for Brooks Running Shoes.

Pat’s too modest to admit it, but he’s on a serious tear right now with projects for Fast Company, The Guardian and Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust now under his belt.

You see, Pat and I came up assisting together, and we’ve been in more photo trenches than you can shake a stick at. That said, it’s incredibly satisfying to see someone who understands the technical side of photography so well get his work out and about.

You probably don’t know this, but a handful of those ‘exceptionally great’ photographers that shoot big ad jobs and heavy-duty editorials rely on uber-skilled assistants and lighting technicians — who Pat and I used to be — to do the work they do. In truth, some of them probably couldn’t find their way out of a dark cave if you gave them a Maglite and the four D batteries it takes to turn it on because there’s always been some super-capable assist/tech to hold their hand OR just light the job for them.

I have such great respect and admiration for photographers that come up through the assisting ranks. Additionally, I can get behind a photographer’s work if I know that they’ve practiced the actual craft of photography — under a working photographer OR in some kind of structured curriculum at a university or technical school.

What I’m getting at is that I see a lot of those ‘f/2.8-soft-focus-backlit-joints-made-sexy-with-a-lightroom-filter’ styles, and I die a little inside each time. It makes me wonder if that individual ever loaded, logged and ran film like I did in the old days. Could he actually take a negative and achieve the same effect in a wet lab area if prompted?

Pat can. And he can fly spaceships, too.

Anyways, what do I know? Maybe it doesn’t even matter now in our industry. I just think there’s something to be said for true photo OG’s (if you will) that are now getting to showcase their style in a larger arena. Kudos to Pat and all the other photo bro’s and bro’ettes who are hustlin’ out there and keeping the torch aflame.

More always,

Mike

Blake Trask for Seattle Met

Written by Michael. Posted on December 12, 2011. No comments.

I recently had the great fortune of shooting Blake Trask, Policy Director for the Bicycle Alliance of Washington state, for Andre Mora over at Seattle Met for their Quote Unquote section.

The above is an outtake with this super-attuned gent who wrestles daily with the magnitude of responsibility his job carries. He’s essentially the guy that’s trying to make biking safe for everyone here in our state given the fact that three bicyclists were killed this past summer in automobile collisions.

Andre and I knew that whatever we chose to do photographically with Blake could be construed in any number of ways from a camp of ‘white-knuckled-Audi-I’m-gonna-teach-you-a-lesson’ type drivers OR a faction of ‘plugged-out-on-your-left’ type bicyclists forever immortalized in Portlandia and played so perfectly by Mr. Fred Armisen as seen below.

Our questions back and forth to each other read like so:

What if we put him on a bike next to a car?
What if he’s facing the car? Is this confrontational?
What then if the guy/gal in the car is giving him a cross look?
What if he’s giving the driver of the automobile a cross look?

Andre had this awesome idea of recreating the ET poster, and believe it or not, I even kicked around the idea below but timing just wasn’t on our side:

. . . was thinking another direction would be to construct an old bike thing like the image below but with like one regular car tire in the back and one moster truck tire in the front. . . (from the ALWAYS back and forth concepting emails Andre and I share)


Seen below is the final select, but in a nutshell, we knew whatever we went with could be (and was) construed in any number ways as in the case of this post over on Bikehugger where the blogger claims that we were flippant in our depiction of Blake.

Part of the reason why I write this post now, is to show that both Andre and I DID AND ALWAYS DO wrestle with how best to show a subject. It’s not just Andre and I, but really any photo editor and his/her photographer. After I read the Bikehugger post, I sent an email to Blake, Andre and Matt Halverson. Below is the latter portion of my email explaining my intent behind the imagery.

it’s hard, but the things i focused on in blake’s comments were the fact that he had a 10 month old daughter and that people should exercise empathy for one another. i kind of saw the tricycle as looking at how we get around by taking it all back to jump. getting at the elements and nuts and bolts of things, where it all started and spreading the word again on sensible transportation. look, the guy’s doing work and it just so happens that it involves tires and phones and helmets and xerox copy machines. maybe some folks would have you be mel gibson in braveheart: chain grease for battle paint or something.

my real desire with the image was to have made something that causes one to pause. an image that makes the white knuckled bro/bro’ette in the audi AND the ‘on your left’ portlandia-type bicyclist guy stop and look at their role in this thing. maybe chuckle and not take themselves so seriously. . . everybody should take it easy out there.

on the other hand, if it furthers the conversation and it gets people thinking and talking about the fact that people can die then that works, too.

More always,

Clinard

 

Don Mattrick for Canada’s Report on Business

Written by Michael. Posted on December 10, 2011. No comments.

Back in late July, I was sitting around at a local Les Schwab Tire getting new treads on the chariot when I get a call from “BLOCKED.” Don’t typically answer these calls, but half not thinking and half thinking ‘this call is going to change my day,’ I pick it up.

Clare Jordan (click her name there for a fun bio over on Feature Shoot) of Canada’s The Globe and Mail was on the other end. Besides telling me how much she liked my work (nice!), she launched into one of the more incredibly detailed and informative expositions on an upcoming project I’ve ever heard (double nice!). I’d start to ask a question, and she would chime in as if reading my mind. Seer, prophet? I think yes.

In a nutshell, she explained that Don Mattrick — Microsoft’s President of Interactive Entertainment Business — is a Canuck and her magazine — Canada’s Report on Business — was going to do a little expose on their native son. We devised a fun method that would have Mr. Mattrick engage with his brainchild, the Kinect for Xbox 360.

That is in fact him playing Tennis for the Kinect in the tears below, but for a whole smattering of info on Mr. Mattrick’s ascension, you must check out the article.

Sidenote: because I had been given 45 minutes with Don (which was later shaved to 15 minutes), I set up a second camera on a relay that would fire when the hero/action angle fired.

The magazine didn’t use any of them, but it’s a pretty good look at what most photographers have to think about when doing a project at Microsoft Headquarters, or really any place of business where time and space can be a premium.

More always,

Clinard

 

Techstars / Giant Thinkwell for Seattle Met

Written by Michael. Posted on December 10, 2011. No comments.

I thought it high time to finally chat about a shoot I did earlier this year with the crew of Techstars / Giant Thinkwell for Seattle Met magazine carried by a great article written by James Ross Gardner.

This project was my final colab with then Design Director Benjamen Purvis who left earlier this year to helm the Creative Director spot at Men’s Journal.

Our collective spitballin’ ultimately led to going toward the direction of re-interpreted business stock photos — those cheesy images of dudes carrying briefcases talking on cellphones mid-gutbusting laugh.

When I read a synopsis of the story and somehow (luckily) mis-read that Kyle Kesterson of Giant Thinkwell had given a presentation in the nude, it set me off on the sketches above. Of course this wasn’t your father’s business, but a super cool startup interested in cultivating a following for their project with the aid of social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, so it held that the images were going to be a little left-of-center.

Above is my favorite image from the series where I re-invented the popular trope of “businessmen talking around water cooler.”

All the companies were super helpful and onboard with doing whatever it took to make the images shine. All of it coming together rather quickly, Kyle quickly became my right hand on the project. He said “you know I’ve got a giant slug that I sculpted” OR “you know, I’ve got this dog if you need one” (I was contemplating putting a big labrador in a suit shaking hands with a “colleague”).

Seen above are the gents from World Blender having a giant cup of coffee and talking shop alongside the impeccable hair of Kareem Amin of The Shared Web as he talks on his wireless keyboard. For me though, the real high point of the project was the boardroom shot above.

Kyle and I had been talking about how best to pull it off, and after some back and forth, we finally decided that adding one of Kyle’s giant nose sculptures was the way to go.

With the generous support of Josh Mullineaux — founder of Highlighter – and his hands, we transformed the scene into a giant talking head (or nose rather) drilling in quarterly sales performance or something of the sort.

Had a great time working on this and look forward to shedding more light on some other fun projects for Seattle Met and their current Design Director, Andre Mora and his right-hand man, Chris Skiles.

The image above was one of many great BTS shots from the Techstars project, but I like it for it’s symbology about the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012. What does the future hold? How will I get there?  How will I turn random thing “X” on it’s ear?

One project I’m very excited about is a colab (kind of a theme with me: collaboration) with the very talented man mentioned above, Mr. Kyle Kesterson and his new venture EW Awesome. Their first offering, called Marc and Marvin, is currently tearing up the startup battle scene. While my involvement in the project is growing, guess I could share with you one sketch that will get your inquisitive minds churning.

2011 has rocked! Going to try and get a few more posts in the tubes here, but stay tuned for what should be a banner 2012 year! More always loyal readership!

Yours in the war,

Clinard

 

Hug someone.

Written by Michael. Posted on September 20, 2011. No comments.

Tweeted over the weekend to having received a very poignant email from the wife of a man named Ron Richmond.

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 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. . .

 

Separated at Birth

Written by Michael. Posted on August 21, 2011. No comments.

Been rather busy with projects, so excuse the lack of posts.

Working on a lookbook today for Jackstraw down on First Avenue here in Seattle and had to post these outtakes.

Should mention that John, the gentleman on the right, was kind enough to ask me for some of my photos to put up in the store. If you’re in the neighborhood, come through and check ‘em out.

I’ll have some rather great updates on recent projects and exciting personal things in the very near future so stay tuned.

More soon,

Clinard