I just got back from teaching a stellar lighting workshop in Philadelphia with David Tejada for the Mentor Series Workshops, sponsored by Nikon. While it was only a three day workshop most everyone felt like they had been there a week or more by the second day. We stuffed in an incredible amount of information on lighting and even digital workflow. And I have to say the participants images were absolutely incredible. I was very impressed by the caliber of photography.
Above is an image I snapped at the very end of the day with one of the participants cameras just to give you an idea of what we were working on. This image of model Lisa Versagli, was shot at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, where Al Capone was once incarcerated. The prison is a ruin that is being preserved. It was originally built in 1827 and opened in 1829. Hence, it is one of the oldest prisons in the United States. It was also used as a location for the film 12 Monkeys and more recently, Law Abiding Citizen.
My thanks to Michelle Cast and PopPhoto for bringing me out. I look forward to teaching with the Mentor Series again here soon at some point.
Disclaimer: I am a diehard U2 fan and have been since the age of nine. My experience may not reflect what you would have felt but I’d be willing to bet even someone who isn’t a U2 fan would have felt the concert was an incredible experience.
The above video clip was shot with an iPhone (believe it or not) and gives you a 45 second taste of the light show...my apologies for the rough audio, though it is pretty amazing considering it was recorded on an iPhone.
While watching U2 perform a few nights ago I was completely awestruck by how they can capture an audience and connect with them on a level few rock bands ever have or ever will again. I was in Phoenix, Arizona, along with about 90,000 fellow U2 fans. Their stage was this lunar lander behemoth that rose pretty much to the top of the partially enclosed University of Phoenix stadium. The air was electric. The sound quality was stunning. The songs were anthems, and we were encouraged to participate in the show. In fact, I hesitate to call it a show, it wasn’t. It was an event. And Bono used every bit of his passion and fervor to include us in the mix. The songs were used to inspire and prod. It was clear that the music was bigger than just the lyrics or the band. By the end of the concert, they managed to create an emotional connection with the audience that left everyone reeling.
As an artist, who uses a camera instead of musical instruments, my mind went to work as they finished out the last encore. How do these guys do it? How do they make such a visceral, intense connection with their audience? The first thing that came to mind was that their songs are firmly connected with their beliefs and passions. It is no secret that three of the band members are Christians and that Bono’s political motivations are to help the poor and needy in Africa and elsewhere. In recent years this has been the outpouring of their faith, and that is reflected in the songs. Hence, every Christian in some way has a connection with the band far beyond the songs. Secondly, passion is infectious. There is no facade with these guys. They come out and play their hearts out for two and half hours and involve the crowd. The passion on display for their causes is real. You can hear it in the songs, in their work. In a sense, the songs serve as anthems because they encourage you to sing along and become an activist in the cause whether it’s about changing your life, coming to God, fighting oppression or poverty or helping to solve the AIDS crisis in Africa. The last part of this connection, that can’t be underestimated is the quality of their work. It is top-notch. And even more to the point, it is consistently top-notch. That can’t be understated. If the work wasn’t good then no one would be there to celebrate it. Put it all together and you have a group that can deliver real and meaningful content, not just entertainment, in a live show.
Obviously it is going to be extremely difficult, nigh impossible, to create such an emotional response with photography. Live music by its nature is a different animal altogether. For a long time now I have been thinking that in this day and age, where the profession of photography is changing at an incredible pace, it might be wise to create a following beyond the clients that hire you for assignments. Of course, the fact that you are reading this article on my blog or in my newsletter goes without saying that I already have a following of some sort and continue to cultivate that audience. Many other pro photographers have done likewise like Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally and Vincent LaForet. They have used their blogs and their work to inspire, teach and inform with incredible success. But is that it? Is it possible to create an emotional connection with a photograph, with a photographer’s work? I’d say yes, it is, but obviously not on par with a U2 concert. For example, look at the incredible images of James Nachtwey, that force one to deal with the atrocities going on around the world. Or look at the images of melting glaciers shot by James Balog and his crew at the Extreme Ice Survey. Those images show us with visual data how fast our climate is changing and hopefully motivate us to change our everyday habits that might be part of the problem.
Looking over my notes on how U2 was able to connect with their fans at that concert, there are some clear cut correlations that can be adapted for the photographer looking to connect with people through their images. First, and this is no surprise, passion reigns supreme. If you are passionate about your photography and what you photograph that will come through. Usually when people are passionate about something they are deeply committed. And this means they understand that topic extremely well - which will lead to very insightful images. Second, your work has to be top-notch. If you can’t communicate effectively with your chosen media then it is harder for the message to get through. Hence, the better the work, the easier it is for others to get excited about it. It is obvious that U2 works really hard on their craft. They don’t just sit around lazily and throw a few songs - or their tours - together. They work at it incredibly hard. If you expect to really connect with the viewer (especially photo editors who have seen it all) then you are going to have to apply yourself by working harder, smarter and longer than the next guy. This is all part of refining and pushing your craft so it can be top-notch. And it all ties into how passionate and driven you are. If you know me personally then you know I am an extremely passionate person who can’t contain himself. My newsletter alone is proof of that.
The hardest part for a photographer to convey through their images is their message - if there is one. As photographers, our voice is our images. What do they say? Do they convey our beliefs? Our Passion? Is that message one that will connect with others? As an adventure photographer, my images aren’t helping anyone avert the AIDS crisis in Africa. But, on a smaller level, I hope that my images of elite athletes help inspire others to take a few risks and get out of their comfort zone, to expand their world view and have an adventure that gives them a new perspective. During the concert, I was inspired to take my work even further by shooting for some NGOs I have worked with and believe in -- and ones that one can use my images to get others motivated and contributing to positive changes in Burma and Thailand specifically. And all of my adventure skills will be needed to create those images. More to come on that at a later date but the ball is already rolling.
Last week Lowepro put up a special section on their website highlighting the Toploader Pro camera bag series they released earlier this year. I was sent a prototype of the bag to use while covering the 2009 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race in February and put it through some serious abuse. Lowepro asked me to put together a PDF with the full story so folks could hear all about the adventures I had down there and I created a modified version of the article that I wrote for my Spring 2009 Newsletter. On Lowepro's webpage they highlight the PDF which you can download here.
This glimpse of my adventures is also highlighted on the homepage of their website. As always it is an honor to be chosen by a major manufacturer to test their gear and then be promoted by them. Lowepro has consistently impressed me over the course of the last year that I have been working closely with them - they listen to photographers and modify their existing camera bags to work for us. I have spent hours on the phone with many of the bag designers and they have thought through every feature of the bags with amazing clarity. All of their attention to detail makes my job easier and the camera bags a whole lot more durable and dependable.
Those of you that know me know that I don't endorse products unless I use them and recommend them. Before using the Toploader Pro 75 AW I had one of the previous generation Topload Zoom packs which saw occasional use but was certainly not my go to camera bag. Once I started using the new Toploader Pro 75 AW in Patagonia earlier this year I realized just how much more versatile this new incarnation of the top loading bags really is and I find myself using it all the time. It has become the bag I reach for about 90% of the time now when I need to go light and fast or find myself hanging off a huge cliff face.
Check out the PDF file listed above to read more about my adventures covering the 2009 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race and how I used the Toploader Pro 75 AW. I also have to give a shout out to Mark Watson, a good buddy and phenomenal Aussie photographer, who covered the race with me - and who shot the images of me that appear in the PDF, on the website and in a future ad coming to magazines near you this winter. Thanks Mark! And thank you Lowepro.
There are still a few slots available for the October Mentor Series Master Class on Lighting taking place in Philadelphia next month. Check out my previous blog post about this workshop for more details. It is sure to be a lot of fun and will help develop your artificial lighting skills using smaller dedicated flash units and larger battery powered strobes.
The workshop is sponsored by Nikon, Microsoft, Bogen, SanDisk, Mpix, and Photoshelter. I will be teaching the workshop along with David Tejada and we will have gear from Nikon and Bogen onsite at the workshop so don't delay if you want to get in on this intense and exciting workshop. If you have any questions about the workshop please don't hesitate to contact me.
Andy Biggs and I are organizing a photowalk in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 7, 2009. Since I have a workshop with Andy Biggs beginning on October 8, the next day, we figured it would be fun to organize a casual and fun photowalk of Santa Fe the day before our workshop begins.
The photowalk is open to anybody who would like to join us. Just bring along a camera, comfortable shoes, water and whatever else makes sense. We will meet up at 4 PM at the gazebo in the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe, and will go from there. We don't have a pre-determined path to walk, so please don't be late. In fact, just show up early and be ready to go by 4pm. I am confident that we will end up at a restaurant with good food and margaritas at sundown which should be a blast.
You can read the offical photowalk information on the Photowalklist.com web site:
Just a note, the interview I did with the folks at the Bogen Cafe is now available for download from their website. The Webinar gives a lot of insight into how I construct my images, the technical aspects of shooting digitally including a bit of my workflow and what it takes to be a pro. You can find the interview, entitled Adventure Sports Photography: Roundtable with Adventure Photographer Michael Clark on the Bogen Cafe website.
Click on the presentation title to download the complete webinar. The sound quality isn't perfect but we covered a lot of ground in this seminar and I heard from a lot of photographers they they got a lot out of the interview. Be forewarned that the .WMV file is quite large at almost 65 MB. And you will need to have the Windows Media Player software loaded onto your computer to play the presentation. You can download that here.
I do have to say that this interview delves into the nuts and bolts of adventure sports photography more than any other interview I have done in the last few years. If you are interested in gear, adventure sports or remote photography I think you'll find this very interesting. Enjoy!
The Summer 2009 issue of Nikon World Magazine includes an article about the 2009 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race which I photographed earlier this year for the Assignment section. Nikon World is one of those publications that I drooled over early on in my career (and still do) because many of the photographers I admired like Galen Rowell, Joe McNally, Pete Turner and many others were featured in the magazine. It was a dream of mine to be featured in Nikon World - and it came true in the Summer 2006 issue.
Before heading down to cover the race earlier this year I thought Nikon World might be interested in an article about the race - especially since I was going to be putting their gear (and myself) into some rough conditions. They loved the idea and the Assignment article was the result. I do have to say that Nikon takes great care when they print the magazine. My images, and all of the others in the magazine, look phenomenal. The images are nice and crisp and the colors are dead on. There are not many publications out there that can match their production quality. Add to that the great writing from Barry Tanenbaum and you have a class act. Thank you Barry and Nikon for including my work and adventures in the latest issue!
And of course if you missed it, my Spring 2009 Newsletter featured an extended article on covering the race and includes a lot more info on the adventures I had in remote Patagonia.
P.S. - I do have a high res PDF of the article and will post a link to that in the future.
Michael Clark is an internationally published outdoor photographer specializing in adventure sports, travel, and landscape photography. His editorial and corporate clients include National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Outside, Men's Journal, Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro, Climbing, Nike, Nikon, Adobe, Patagonia, Pfizer and DuPont to name just a few. He has risked life and limb on a variety of assignments to bring back stunning images of rock climbers, mountaineers, kayakers, and mountain bikers pushing their sports to the limit in remote locations around the world.
I just got back from teaching a stellar lighting workshop in Philadelphia with David Tejada for the Mentor Series Workshops, sponsored by Nikon. While it was only a three day workshop most everyone felt like they had been there a week or more by the second day. We stuffed in an incredible amount of information on lighting and even digital workflow. And I have to say the participants images were absolutely incredible. I was very impressed by the caliber of photography. 
