Soon I will reign with abandon once the future horse chariot with metal wings puts his highness in this land they call Dallas.
Category Archives: Shooting
King part 2. Leg 2 of 11 perhaps
Yes. Oh yes. Rocking in Seattle.
Rocking of the most hard and highest perch by which anything can be rocked from.
Is that the proper usage of “perch”?
Poet King tonight.
1122
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.
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.
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.
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.
Xavier from Florida
This is Xavier from Florida.
Had the great pleasure of photographing him for the personal project I’ve been working on about folks from the South living in Seattle. Caught him just as he was about to move out of town for the sunnier (yet arid) locales of in and around the Phoenix, AZ area.
As the post notes, he grew up in Florida, and on top of being a French linguist/translator, he’s a damn good martial artist. Threw this gem out as we were wrapping the shot.
Its some kind of flying-crane-fist or something. Regardless, it looks painful if one happens to be on the wrong side of it. Thanks again, X, but I should also thank Jenna for helping me out.
She was indispensable as prop stylist, ‘going in’ whenever le’ croissant gave us gravitational and wind issues. I’ll have more projects up soon, so stay tuned.
More always,
Mike
Year 2009: first transmission from CLINARD
‘Twas a particularly special holiday season visiting the family and friends due to the fact that yours truly turned 30 years of age on January 2nd. I’m saying “so long” to my twenties. So long 2008, and all the years before you (both in the Common Era and how ever many more there were B.C.E.).
As time continued its march into 2009, I took some time to photograph family and friends.
Above is the one and only Mr. James Fain. Perhaps one of the most knowledgeable guys in my hometown, it was great seeing him and having him sit for these portraits. All the while listening to his remarkable collection of experimental/noise discs and LP’s.
So here’s to a great start to 2009. I’m excited to see how things continue to shake out.
More always,
Mike